Psych 101B: Professor Osterhout

1. Psych 101B: Professor Osterhout Exam 2 Review

2. Subjects Covered Sensation & Perception (Ch. 6 p. 216-243) Consciousness (Ch. 3 p. 86-109) Learning (Ch. 7 p. 266-288) Language (Ch. 9 p. 349-359)

3. Sensation & Perception • Sensation: the passive process by which stimuli are received by the sensory systems • Perception: the active process by which the brain interprets the sensory information • Properties: 8 different senses • vision, hearing, taste, smell, touch, temperature, pain, balance

4. Sensation Receptors • Types of receptor cells for transduction • Photoreceptor – sensitive to photons • Vision • Chemoreceptor – sensitive to molecules • Smell • Taste • Mechanoreceptor – sensitive to pressure • Touch • Hearing • Balance • Thermoreceptors – sensitive to heat • Temperature • Nociceptors – sensitive to painful stimuli • Pain (fast & slow)

5. Sensation & Perception

6. Fovea: Center of visual field Pupil: hole in middle of iris Neurons in Retina: • Cones • Day vision • Sensitive to wavelength, color • Rods • Night vision • Sensitive to amplitude, brightness • Detecting motion Vision: The ability to perceive a very limited spectrum of one form of electromagnetic energy

7. Perception • Requires experience in the world • Depth Perception • Binocular cues • Retinal disparity – eyes are set apart • Convergence – inward turn when viewing a near object • Perceptual organization: Gestalt psychologists • Figure-ground discrimination • Grouping • Close objects/similar objects together/”fill in” missing pieces • Context: Prior expectations strongly influence perceptions

8. Sleep: You Need it to Live! • Sleep deprivation in rats: died after ~4 weeks • In humans: Sleep reduction study • Subjects slept 2 or 5 ½ hours per night • Noticeable cognitive impairments within 1st week • Results: Sleep Deprivation is bad! • After 2 weeks, compared to being legally drunk • Circadian Rhythms • ~24 hours(ish) independent of day/night cues • Artificial light, shift work & jet lag disrupts rhythms • Suprachiasmatic nucleus as “biological timekeeper”

9. Sleep: How is it Measured? EEG: Measures brain’s electrical activity (Frequency & Amplitude) 4 stages of sleep(+REM), with a transition of “sleep steps”

10. REM Sleep • REM • EEG resembles awake, increase in heart rate, respiration • Rapid eye movements • Vivid dreams • Duration: 10-40 minutes • Paralysis of voluntary muscles • VERY difficult to wake up • Also known as “Paradoxical” sleep

11. Sleep Disorders • Sleep Disorders to Review • Insomnia • Chronic inability to get sufficient sleep • Narcolepsy • Irresistible sleep attacks during the day • Sleep apnea • Cessation of breathing while sleeping • SIDS • Infant ceases breathing and dies in night- cause unknown • Sleep walking/talking etc • Stages 3 and 4 • Night terrors • Stage 4 sleep • REM-Behavior Disorder • No paralysis

12. Simpsons & Night Terrors

13. Dreams • Freud’s Theory of dreams • Remember theory of personality: Id, Ego and Superego • Hobson’s Theory of dreams • Brain activates itself via the: • “Reticular Activating System”

14. Learning • Classical Conditioning: a neutral stimulus, through association, takes on some of the psychological properties of a second stimulus • UCS, UCR, CS, CR • Food (UCS)Slobber (UCR) • Bell or light (CS) & food (UCS)  Slobber (UCR) • Eventually bell (CS)  Slobber (CR) • Acquisition • Extinction • Generalization • Discrimination

15. Learning • Operant Conditioning: learning occurs as a result of the consequences of behavior • Reinforcement: any consequence that makes prior behavior more likely to occur • Positive and negative • Schedules • Continuous • Partial (pg. 278-79) • Interval, ratio • Punishment: any consequence that makes prior behavior less likely to occur

16. Learning • Long Term Potentiation: • a long lasting enhancement in signal transmission between two neurons • Improves the postsynaptic cells sensitivity to signals received from the presynaptic cell

17. Language • Human Language: • 1. Compositional • A. Phonemes- units of sound (English- 45) • Ex. K ae t = cat • B. words- units of meaning • C. sentences- units of structure • 2. Three-level system • Sounds (phonemes, words) sentences meaning • Syntax: rules that govern how words can be combined to form sentences • 3. infinite # of possible sentences • Results from RECURSIVE nature of syntactic rules

18. Language • Language Acquisition and stages of development • Babbling (5-12 mths) • Non-syllabic babbling (5-7 mths)- baby begins to play with sounds “clicks, hums, smacks” • Syllabic babbling (7-8 mths)- baby begins to produce real syllables “deedeedee” “babababa” • Gibberish babbling (8-12 mths)- baby mixes syllables, really cute ‘speech’ results “da-dee” • One-word utterance stage (12-18 mths) • Initially, the child learns about 50 important words • Food: juice, cookie • Body parts: eye nose • Toys: doll, block • People: mama, dada, baby • Action words: up, down, eat, go • Modifiers: hot, allgone, more, dirty • Social interaction: hi, bye-bye, yes, no

19. Language • Language Acquisition and stages of development, continued • Two-word state (18-24 mths) • Learning 10-20 words/day • Words in mostly correct order • Grammatical competence (24+ mths) • Explosion of linguistic competence • Rule overgeneralization

20. Language • Washoe – signing chimp • Kanzi – bonobo understanding English • How is their language learning different from ours? • They are limited in their ability to produce creative sentences

21. Language • Aphasia – acquired problem in producing and/or comprehending speech • Broca’s aphasia: • Non-fluent speech – halted, very difficult to produce • Comprehension (of both listening and producing) okay • Can curse, repeat memorized rhymes – can’t use language creatively • Wernicke’s aphasia: • Fluent speech, but does not make sense • Problems comprehending language – both what others are saying and in their own responses • Not always aware of their problems