AP Psych

• Correlation coefficient


  Ranges from -1 to +1, and gives strength of correlation
• Types of neurons


  • Afferent/sensory neurons: info from senses to brain
  • Interneurons: take info from brain or spinal cord to elsewhere
  • Efferent/motor neurons: take info from brain to rest of the body
• CNS


  Brain, spinal cord, and all nerves housed within the bone
• PNS


  All nerves not encased in bones
• Somatic nervous system


  Voluntary muscle movements
• Autonomic nervous system


  Automatic functions—heart, lungs, glands, etc
• Sympathetic nervous system


  Mobilizes bodies response to stress, carries messages to systems of organ, glands, muscles
• Parasympathetic nervous system


  Carries message to stress response that causes body to slow down after stress, eg. brake pedal vs gas pedal
• Medulla


  Controls blood pressure, breathing, and heart rate
• Pons


  Control of facial expressions, connects the three parts of brain
• Cerebellum


  Coordinates muscle movements
• Thalamus


  Responsible for receiving sensory signals coming up spinal cord, and sending them to areas in rest of forebrain
• Hypothalamus


  Controls metabolic functions: body temperature, sexual arousal, hunger, thirst, endocrine system
• Amygdala


  Vital to experiences of emotion (Fear)
• Hippocampus


  Vital to memory system
• Left hemisphere


  Controls motor function of right half of body, sensory messages
• Right hemisphere


  Controls motor function of left half of body, sensory messages
• Psychoactive drugs


  Chemicals that change chemistry of brain and rest of body, induce an altered state of consciousness
• Agonists


  Mimic neurotransmitter
• Antagonist


  Block neurotransmitter
• Cones


  Activate by color
• Rods


  Activate by black and white
• Vision


  1. Light comes through cornea (protective covering)

  2. Goes through pupil (shutter of camera)

  3. Iris (muscles that control pupil dilate to let more light in)

  4. Accommodation: light that enters pupil is focused by lens (flexible and curved)

  5. Lens image is projected onto retina, which is like a screen on back of eye
• Trichromatic theory


  Three types of cone in retina: cones that detect blue, red and green
• Opponent-process theory


  Sensory receptors come in red/green pairs, yellow/blue pairs, and black/white pairs
• Hearing


  1. Sound waves collected in outer ear (pinna)

  2. Down to the ear canal until eardrum (tympanic membrane). Membrane vibrates as sound hits, connected to three bones (hammer, anvil, stirrup)

  3. Three bones collect vibration from membrane, transmit to oval window

  4. Oval window attached to cochlea, and as it vibrates, the cochlea fluid moves. There are hair cells at bottom of the bottom of the cochlea (basilar membrane) that connect to organ of corti, and when fluid moves, transduction occurs
• Gate control theory


  Some pain messages have higher priority than others
• Vestibular


  How body is oriented in space, thanks to fluid of ears
• Kinesthetic


  Position and orientation of specific body parts
• Absolute threshold


  Smallest amount of stimulus we can detect
• Difference threshold


  Smallest amount of change needed in stimulus before a change is detected
• Signal detection theory


  Investigates the effect of distractions and interference experienced when perceiving the world
• Bottom-up processing


  Allowing the stimulus itself to shape our perception, without any preconceived ideas
• Top-down processing


  Background knowledge and expectations used to interpret what is seen
• Operant Conditioning


  A method of learning that alters the frequency of a behavior by manipulating its consequences through reinforcement or punishment
• Classical conditioning


  Associating stimuli to behaviors to produce a response
• Law of effect


  States that when a stimulus receives a positive response the behavior is more likely to be repeated, and when a stimulus receives a negative response the behavior is more likely to happen less frequently
• Types of reinforcement


  • Positive reinforcement = adding something pleasant
  • Negative reinforcement = removing something unpleasant
  • Positive punishment = adding an aversive stimulus
  • Negative punishment = removing reinforcing stimulus
• Reinforcement schedules


  • Fixed Ratio: Reinforcement is delivered after set number of responses
  • Fixed Interval: reinforces responses after a standardized period of time
  • Variable Ratio: Reinforcement is delivered after a variable number of responses (More random)
  • Variable Interval: Reinforcement is delivered after a behavior is performed following a variable amount of time (More random)
• Types of memory

  • Sensory memory: split second holding take for sensory information
  • Short term/working memory: What is currently being used, stored in the mind for a short period of time
  • Long-term memory: permant storage. Unlimited storage as we know