Psychology Notes

PSY 200 ● The minimum amount of stimulation energy needed to detect a stimulus 50% of the time is referred to as absolute threshold. ● smelling cookies in the oven exemplifies olfaction ● Binocular disparity refers to the slightly different view of the world that each eye receives. ● Sariah enters a room with several chirping crickets in it. Upon first entering the room, Sariah can hear the chirping; however, as she begins to talk to her friends, she is no longer aware of the chirping even though it is still there. The fact that Sariah no longer perceives the chirping sound demonstrates sensory adaptation. ● Two lines appear to be a different length, though in reality they are the same length. This is known as the Müller-Lyer illusion. ● stimuli required to detect a difference between the stimuli is just noticeable. ● Inattentional blindness is a concept in which participants were instructed to focus on either white or black objects, disregarding the other color. When a red cross passed across the screen, about one third of the subjects did not notice it ● A binaural cue is two-eared cue to localize sound ● Proprioception allows a girl to run without watching her feet and hit a baseball without focusing on the bat. ● Our vestibular sense contributes to our ability to maintain balance and body posture. ● In addition to sweet, salty, sour, and bitter, we possess Gestalt ● Detasting freshly caught salmon finition is an example of gustation. ● Cones is responsible for color vision ● Ravon was born deaf, so he is diagnosed with congenital deafness. ● Felicia smacks her thumb with a hammer while building a doghouse. The sense of definociceptionnition provides her brain with information about the pain she feels. ● Hammer is another term for malleus. ● Consciousness is defined as an awareness of one's self and one's surroundings. ● Consciousness exists on a continuum. ● Automatic processes require minimal attention such as walking, talking on a cell phone. ● Mental activities that require focused attention are called controlled processes ● Circadian rhythms are biological changes that occur on a 24-hour cycle. ● You are generally less productive and more accident-prone than other workers. It is MOST likely that you are a rotating shift worker. ● Melatonin influences disruption of circadian rhythms ● Researchers have documented increased irritability, reduced motor skills, and reduced concentration and motivation. ● We typically experience 4-5 distinct sleep stages during a normal night's sleep. ● Scientists study sleep in sleep labs using EEG recordings. ● The sleep stage marked by irregular breathing, eye movements, high-frequency brain waves, and dreaming is called REM sleep. ● REM sleep is also called paradoxical sleep because the brain is aroused and active while the person remains nonresponsive and asleep. ● A mixture of theta and delta waves has nothing to do with REM sleep. ● The evolutionary/circadian theory of sleep says that sleep conserves energy and protects us from predators. ● The theory of sleep that explains why bears hibernate all winter is the evolutionary theory. ● The repair/restoration theory of sleep says that sleep serves a recuperative function, following depletion of key brain and body resources ● Freud's wish-fulfillment theory is a method of dream interpretation that emphasizes the roles of manifest and latent dream content. ● The latent content of a dream is the true, unconscious meaning of the dream. ● Activation-synthesis theory states that dreams are by-products of random stimulation of brain cells, whereas the cognitive view suggests dreams serve an information processing function and help us sift through our everyday experiences and thoughts. ● The persistent inability to fall or stay asleep, or awakening too early is a symptom of insomnia.