Bio-psychology

• Absolute threshold is the lowest intensity stimulus that can be detected by us
• Difference threshold is the smallest difference between two stimuli intensities that is needed for us to recognize a change 50% of the time
• Sensory adaptation is when we become less sensitive to stimulus through constant exposure
• Weber's law states that the change required to meet the difference threshold is constant fraction of the original stimulus and the equation is k = change in intensity / original background intensity
• Selective attention refers to focusing on solely one stimulus at a time
• Divided attention refers to splitting attention amongst multiple resources at one time
• False alarm in signal recognition is the same as type 1 error
• Miss in signal recognition is the same as type 2 error
• This is early selection theory

  A) filter

  B) perceptual meaning

  
• This is late selection theory

  A) perceptual meaning

  B) filter

  
• This is attenuation theory

  A) attenuator

  
• Inattentional or perceptual blindness occurs when attention is directed elsewhere in a visual field and we are not aware of certain objects in other areas of our visual field
• Change blindness is a failure to notice changes in immediate visual environment if something in their visual field was quickly chnged when they gazed away
• Distal stimulus is the stimulus in the real world, some object
• Proximal stimulus is the stimulus that occurs when sensory receptors are activated, its the activity within the brain
• Bottom-up processing involves assembling individual pieces of information to construct an idea
• Top-down processing involves using an existing framework of knowledge to decide which sensation is useful
• Gestalt principles describe how we distinguish stable objects from their background and from other objects using top-down processing to group sensory information into distinct regions called forms
• Depth, motion and constancy are all governed by top-down processing
• If object is far from us, we usually use monocular depth cues
• If object is close to us, we usually use binocular depth cues
• Mnemonic for brain waves is BAT-D, which is beta, alpha, theta and delta waves
• Beta waves are of the highest frequency and are associated with alertness and awareness
• Alpha waves are of medium frequency and associated with deep relaxation, about to fall asleep
• Theta waves are of low frequency and associated with light sleep
• Delta waves are of the lowest frequency and are associated with deep sleep
• NREM stage 1 of sleep is the stage between beta and alpha waves, you are transitioning from wakefulness to sleep
• NREM stage 2 is when muscle activity decreases, consciousness awareness disappears and you get sleep spindles and K-complexes on EEG
• NREM stage 3 and 4 are when you have delta waves
• During REM stage of sleep, yur body is paralyzed, there is rapid eye movement, you are consolidating memories and dream!!
• During the dat, light enters the eye activating suprachiasmatic nucleus, which then inhibits pineal gland from producing melatonin and you are awake
• Sleep terrors is when you have severe nightmares but that happens during NREM sleep
• Deep sleep happens in the beginning of your sleep and REM later
• Declarative memory involves remembering facts
• Non-declarative or procedural memory is unconscious memory of how to do things
• Working memory is the form of short term memory which can only hold 7 +/- 2 bits of information at one time
• Dual coding effect states that humans can have multiple representation of the same idea and we can remember better (like an example with wet dog)
• Neural plasticity is the ability of the brain's networks of neurons and synapses to change
• Long-term potentiation is the molecular process involved in the strengthening synapses were postsynaptic neuron becomes increasingly likely to fire in response to repeated stimulation of the presynaptic neuron
• Retrieval is the activation of long-term memories to help with specific problem-solving