Psych 111 Fall 2013 Review Sheet for Exam 3 The Brain Brain Stem Midbrain Pons o Part of brain stem involved in basic functions like breathing o Part of brain stem o Connects cerebellum with cortex Medulla Oblongata Forebrain Midbrain o Forward part of brain o Used for intellectual processing auditory stimuli Hindbrain Reticular Activating System Cerebral Cortex o Frontal Lobe o Part of brain stem involved in movement tracking visual stimuli reflexes due to o Region below midbrain containing medulla cerebellum and pons o Part of the brain stem that plays a key role in arousal It is thought to function by increasing the signal to noise ratio in brain neurons o It also conveys its signals from the brain stem to the cerebral cortex Controls thinking planning motor function and language Contains broca s area motor cortex Broca s area Speech production Primary motor cortex Has large portion for fingers small for toes so can t write with o Parietal Lobe feet o Occipital Lobe o Temporal Lobe Upper middle portion of the brain specialized for processing touch and perception Contains primary sensory cortex Lower back of the brain dedicated to the processing of visual info Lower lateral part of the brain Has Wernicke s area Involved in hearing memory language Speech recognition o Limbic System Hypothalamus Maintains a stable internal state Thalamus Psych 111 Fall 2013 Review Sheet for Exam 3 Sensory relay station Amygdala Hippocampus Part of limbic system involved in fear and arousal Part of limbic system specialized for spatial memory Brain Lateralization o Two sides of the brain are split Erik Erikson Identity Development o One of the main challenges of adolescence Stages o Infancy Trust vs Mistrust o Toddlerhood Autonomy vs Shame Doubt Developing sense of independence and self reliance o Early Childhood Initiative vs Guilt o Middle Childhood Industry vs Inferiority Enjoyment and mastery of developmental tasks of childhood o Adolescence o Young adulthood Identity vs Role Confusion Intimacy vs Isolation Ability to maintain intimate personal relationships o Adulthood o Aging Generativity vs Stagnation Ego Integrity vs Despair Adjusting to the prospect of death basically Kohlberg o Moral Development o Three Stages Preconventional Focus on punishment and reward Conventional Focus on societal values Postconventional Focus on internal moral principles Problems understanding development Psych 111 Fall 2013 Review Sheet for Exam 3 o Post Hoc Fallacy caused the other o Bidirectional Influences Development is a two way street o Cohort Effects Intelligence and IQ Testing Lilienfeld Ch 9 False assumption that because one event occurred before another one People who lived in one period different from those who lived in another What are 4 common misunderstandings about heritability Heritability refers to POPULATIONS not individuals Not a fixed attribute Variance within the group not the source of differences between groups No info on environmental effects on traits Wisdom Delicate balance of concerns Application of intelligence toward a common good Consciousness Our subjective experience of the world our bodies and our mental perspectives Circadian Rhythms Changes in your hormones over the course of a day Biological clock o Suprachiasmatic Nucleus o Located in hypothalamus o Feel drowsy at different times Psych 111 Fall 2013 Review Sheet for Exam 3 Nonverbal Expressions of Emotion Body language and gestures Lie Detector o Polygraph test o Pinocchio response o Guilty Knowledge test Theories on Language Learning Nativist account Children are born with some basic knowledge of how language works Social Pragmatics Account Children use the context and social interactions to infer what words and sentences mean General cognitive processing account Children s language learning is a result of developing general cognitive skills Linguistic Relativity A person s thoughts are influenced by the language available to express those thoughts Better supported than linguistic determinism Some aspects of thinking more vulnerable to language than others Linguistic Determinism A person s language affects their understanding of the world Argument for o You do not remember what happened when you were an infant This is because according to linguistic determinism you did not have language to shape your thoughts Thus you did not have thoughts when you were very young But that could be shit because of what we know about memory plus the case of that chick that remembered things prior to learning language Prejudice and Discrimination Cognitive economy Top down processing o Seeing objects as having a fixed familiar function Function Fixedness o Macgyver Psych 111 Fall 2013 Review Sheet for Exam 3 Important concepts in problem solving reasoning Problem representation and how can experience influence it o Selecting appropriate representation very important o Based on Experience Context Mental set Distal Stimulus Proximal Stimulus o Object in the environment event o Stimulus energy radiated by distal stimulus Transduction within neurons How do we get there o Distal stimulus o Proximal stimulus o Transduced into a neural impulse o Mental representation of distal stimulus o Physical features meanings and implications Sensation vs Perception o The process of converting an external energy or substance into electrical activity Study of the relationship between physical characteristics of stimuli and our psychological experience with them o Lowest level of a stimulus we can detect on 50 percent of trails when no other Absolute threshold stimuli of its type present Difference Threshold o Weber s Law Whether we can detect a change in the strength of the stimulus depends on the original stimulus Based on a relative proportion of difference not a fixed amount Exact proportion varies depending on the stimulus Light by 8 weight by 2 o Signal Detection Theory Type of threshold How well we are able to detect weak signals measured by correct vs incorrect responses Influenced by emotional and motivational state Theory that detection depends on a variety of factors besides the stimulus Possible outcomes hit miss false alarm correct rejection Light and the Eye What is the purpose of the visual system What is the stimulus of the visual system Psych 111 Fall 2013 Review Sheet for Exam 3 o Transform light energy into an electro chemical neural response Gestalt principles o Perceptions naturally organized according to certain patterns o Whole greater than