PSYCH-UA 1 Exam Review: Research Methods, Brain, Learning, Memory and Social Psychology

Terms in this set (30)

1. Independent variable vs dependent variableThe independent variable is what the experimenter manipulates; the dependent variable is the outcome that is measured to see whether it changed as a result.
2. Why does random assignment matter in an experiment?It spreads participant differences evenly across conditions on average, so differences in the outcome can be attributed to the manipulation rather than to preexisting group differences.
3. Correlation vs causation: what are the two classic problems with inferring cause from a correlation?The directionality problem (A could cause B or B could cause A) and the third-variable problem (some other factor C could cause both).
4. What does a correlation coefficient of r = -0.80 tell you?A strong negative linear relationship: as one variable increases, the other tends to decrease. The sign gives direction and the magnitude (0 to 1) gives strength.
5. Placebo effect and double-blind designA placebo effect is improvement caused by expectations rather than the treatment itself. In a double-blind study neither participants nor experimenters know who gets the real treatment, controlling for expectancy and experimenter bias.
6. Neuron basics: dendrites, axon, myelin, terminal buttonsDendrites receive signals, the axon carries the action potential away from the cell body, myelin insulates the axon to speed conduction, and terminal buttons release neurotransmitters into the synapse.
7. What is the all-or-none principle of the action potential?A neuron either fires a full-strength action potential once its threshold is reached or does not fire at all; stimulus intensity is coded by firing rate, not by spike size.
8. Sympathetic vs parasympathetic nervous systemSympathetic arouses the body for fight or flight (raises heart rate, dilates pupils); parasympathetic calms the body and supports rest and digest functions.
9. Functions of the frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital lobesFrontal: planning, decision making and motor control. Parietal: touch and spatial processing. Temporal: hearing and language comprehension. Occipital: vision.
10. Broca's area vs Wernicke's areaBroca's area (left frontal lobe) supports speech production; damage gives halting, effortful speech. Wernicke's area (left temporal lobe) supports comprehension; damage gives fluent but meaningless speech.
11. Role of the hippocampus and amygdalaThe hippocampus is crucial for forming new explicit (declarative) memories; the amygdala processes emotion, especially fear, and emotional memory.
12. Sensation vs perceptionSensation is the detection of physical energy by sense receptors; perception is the brain's organization and interpretation of that input into meaningful experience.
13. Classical conditioning: define UCS, UCR, CS and CR using Pavlov's dogsFood is the UCS, salivating to food is the UCR, the bell (after pairing) is the CS, and salivating to the bell alone is the CR.
14. Extinction vs spontaneous recovery in classical conditioningExtinction is the weakening of the CR when the CS is repeatedly presented without the UCS. Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of the extinguished CR after a rest period.
15. Positive vs negative reinforcementBoth increase a behavior. Positive reinforcement adds a pleasant stimulus; negative reinforcement removes an unpleasant one (for example, taking aspirin removes a headache).
16. Negative reinforcement vs punishment: common pitfallNegative reinforcement increases a behavior by removing something aversive. Punishment decreases a behavior, either by adding something aversive or removing something pleasant.
17. Which reinforcement schedule produces behavior most resistant to extinction?Variable-ratio schedules (reward after an unpredictable number of responses, like a slot machine) produce high, steady responding that is very resistant to extinction.
18. Bandura's Bobo doll study demonstrated what?Observational learning: children who watched an adult behave aggressively toward a doll were more likely to imitate that aggression, showing learning without direct reinforcement.
19. Three stages of the Atkinson-Shiffrin memory modelSensory memory (very brief, large capacity), short-term or working memory (about 7 plus or minus 2 items, roughly 20 seconds without rehearsal), and long-term memory (relatively permanent, vast capacity).
20. Explicit vs implicit memoryExplicit (declarative) memory is consciously recalled facts and events (semantic and episodic). Implicit memory shows up without awareness, such as skills (procedural memory) and priming.
21. Proactive vs retroactive interferenceProactive: old learning interferes with recalling new information. Retroactive: new learning interferes with recalling old information.
22. Serial position effectItems at the start (primacy effect) and end (recency effect) of a list are recalled better than items in the middle.
23. Piaget's four stages of cognitive development in orderSensorimotor (birth to 2, object permanence), preoperational (2 to 7, egocentrism), concrete operational (7 to 11, conservation), and formal operational (12 and up, abstract reasoning).
24. Assimilation vs accommodation (Piaget)Assimilation fits new information into an existing schema; accommodation changes the schema to fit new information.
25. Big Five personality traitsOpenness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism (OCEAN).
26. Fundamental attribution errorThe tendency to overestimate personality or disposition and underestimate the situation when explaining other people's behavior.
27. What did Milgram's obedience studies find?A large share of ordinary participants (about 65 percent in the classic version) continued to deliver what they believed were the maximum shocks when instructed by an authority figure.
28. Asch conformity studiesParticipants often went along with a clearly wrong group answer on a simple line-length judgment, showing the power of normative social pressure to conform.
29. Cognitive dissonanceThe discomfort felt when holding conflicting beliefs or when behavior conflicts with attitudes; people often reduce it by changing their attitudes to match their behavior.
30. Bystander effectPeople are less likely to help in an emergency when other people are present, partly due to diffusion of responsibility.