AP PSYCH TEST REVIEW

Terms in this set (34)

2.15- Identify the four lobes of the cerebral cortex
Each cerebral cortex has four geographic ares. The frontal lobe, just behind the forehead, is involved in speaking, muscle movements, and planning and judgement. The parietal lobes, at the top of the head and towards the rear, receive sensory input for touch and body position. The occipital lobes, at the back of the head, include visual areas. The temporal lobes, just above the ears, include auditory areas. Each lobe performs many functions and interacts with other areas of the cortex.
2.16- Summarize some of the findings in the functions of the motor cortex and the sensory cortex, and discuss the importance of the association areas.
Some areas of the brain serve specific functions. One such area is the motor cortex, and arch-shaped region at the rear if the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movement,. Another is the sensory cortex, a region at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body sensations. In these regions, body parts requiring precise control (in the motor cortex) or those that are especially sensitive (in the sensory cortex) occupy the greatest amount of space. Most of the brain's cortex is devoted to uncommitted association areas, which integrate information involved in learning, remembering,, thinking, and other higher-level functions.
2.17- Describe the 5 brain areas that would be involved if you read this sentence aloud.
Language results fro the integration of many specific neural networks performing specialized subtasks. When you read aloud ,your brain´s visual cortex registers words as visual stimuli, the angular gyrus transforms those visual representations into auditory code. Wernicke's area interprets those codes and sends the message to Broca's area, which controls the motor cortex as it creates the pronounced words
2.18- Discuss the brain's plasticity following injury or illness.
If one hemisphere is damaged early in life, the other will pick up many of its functions. This plasticity diminishes later in life, although nearby neurons may partially compensate for damaged ones after a stroke or other brain injury.
2.19- Describe split-brain research, and explain how it helps us understand the functions of our left and right hemispheres.
Clinical observations long ago revealed that the left cerebral hemisphere id crucial for language. Split-brain research (experiments on people with severed corpus callosum) has confirmed that in most people the left hemisphere is the more verbal. and that the right hemisphere excels in visual perception and the recognition of emotion. Studies of healthy people with intact brains confirm that each hemisphere makes unique contributions to the integrated functioning of the brain.
2.20- Discuss the relationships among brain organization, handedness, and mortality.
About 10% of us are left-handed. Almost all right-handers process speech in the left hemisphere, as do more than half of all left-handers. The remainder of left-handers split about evenly in processing language in the right hemisphere or in both hemispheres. The percentage of lefties decreases sharply with age, from about 15% at age 10 to less than 1% at age 80. This decline may reflect a higher risk of accidents.
9.1- Define memory, and explain hwo flashbulb memories differ from other memories.
Memory is the persistence of learning over time, through the storage and retrieval of information. Flashbulb memories, which are attached to emotionally significant moments or events, differ from most other memories in striking clarity
9.2- Describe Atkinson-Shriffin's classic three-stage processing model of memory, and explain how the contemporary model of working memory differs.
The Atkinson-Shriffin's classic three-stage model of memory suggests that we (1) register fleeting sensory memories, some of which are (2) processed into an on-screen short-term memories, a tiny fraction of which are (3) encoded for long-term memory and, possibly, later retrieval. In pointing out the limits of this model, contemporary memory researchers note that we register some information automatically, bypassing the first two stages. And they prefer the term working memory (rather than short-term memory) because ut emphasizes a more active role in this second processing stage, where we rehearse and manipulate information, associating new stimuli with older stored memories. The working-memory model includes visual-spatial and auditory subsystems, coordinated by a central executive processir that focuses attention where needed.
9.3- Describe the types of information we encode automatically.
Space, time, and frequency. Also we register well-learned information, such as words in our native language, by this form of processing.
9.4- Contrast effortful processing with automatic processing, and discuss the next-in-line-effect, the spacing effect, and the serial position effect.
Effortful processing- needs rehearsal
Automatic processing- hard to stop, occurs unconsciously, effortless.
Next-in-Line-Effect- tendency to forget what the person ahead of us in line has said because we are focusing on what we will say in our upcoming turn
Spacing Effect- our tendency to retain information more easily when it is repeatedly practiced over time rather than in one long session
Serial Position Effect- tendency to recall the first and lat items on a list
9.5- Compare the benefits of visual, acoustic, and semantic encoding in remembering verbal information and describe a memory-enhancing strategy related to the self-reference effect.
Visual encoding (images) and acoustic encoding (sounds) are both shallower forms of processing than semantic encoding (meaning). We process verbal information best when we encode it semantically, especially if we apply the self-reference effect, making information "relevant to me"
9.6- Explain how encoding imagery aids effortful processing, and describe some memory-enhancing strategies that use visual encoding.
Encoding imagery aids effortful processing bc vivid images are very memorable. We tend to remember concrete nouns better then abstract nouns. Mnemonic devices help us encode bc they involve imagery. Others trap items in memory by combining visual encoding (imagining a series of vivid images) and acoustic encoding ( a memorable rhyme)
9.7- Discuss the use for chunking and hierarchies in effortful processing.
We remember organized information better than random data and chunking and hierarchies are two ways to organize information in chunking, we cluster information into manageable units. In hierarchies, we process information by diving it into logical levels, beginning with the most broad and moving to the most specific.
9.8- Contrast two types of sensory memory
Iconic-vision
Echoic-hearing
9.9- Describe the duration and working capacity of short-term memory.
Duration- 30 seconds maximum
Capacity- 7+/- rule
9.10- Describe the capacity and duration of long-term memory
Capacity- limitless
Duration- forever
9.11- Discuss the synaptic changes that accompany memory formation and storage-.
Contemporary researches are focusing on memory-related changes within and between single neurons. As experience strengthens the pathways between neurons, synapse transmit signals more efficiently. In a process known as long-term potentiation (LTP), sending neurons in these pathways release neurotransmitters more quickly, and receiving neurons may develop additional receptors, increasing their ability to detect the incoming neurotransmitters. LTP appears to be the neural basis for learning and memory.
9.12- Discuss some ways stress hormones can affect memory.
Enabled increase in glucose production- stress hormones alert the body to important events
Strong emotions = strong memories
Amygdala arouses brain areas that process emotion and may produce indelible (permanent) memories
9.13- Distinguish between implicit and explicit memory, and identify the main brain structure associated with each.
Implicit- procedural memory (skills); cerebellum
Explicit- declarative memory (general knowledge, specific facts, personally experienced events); hippocampus
9.14- Contrast recall, recognition, and relearning measure of the memory.
Recall- retrieve previously learned information (fill in the blank)
Recognition- identify previously learned items (multiple choice)
Relearning- time saved when learning material the second time
9.15- Explain how retrieval cues help us access stored memories, and describe the process of priming.
Retrieval cues are bits of related information we encode while processing a target piece of information. These bits are linked in some way to the context of the target, and they become a part of a web of stored associations, retrieving the target information into our conscious awareness. This process of activating associations (often unconsciously) is priming
9.16- Cite some ways that context can effect retrieval.
The context in which we originally experienced an event ir encoded a thought can flood our memories with retrieval cues, leading us to the target memory. If we are in a different context that is very similar to the original one, we may experience déjá vu as many of these cues return and trick us into unconsciously retrieving the target memory
9.17- Describe the effects of internal states.
Specific states or emotions can prime us to recall events associated with those states or emotions. While in a good mood, we tend to retrieve memories consistent-or congruent-with that happy state. When depressed, we more easily recall negative memories. Moods also prime us to interpret others; behavior in ways consistent with our emotions.
9.18- Explain why we should value our ability to forget, and distinguish three general ways our memory fails us.
Without an ability to forget, we would be overwhelmed by out-of-date and irrelevant information. Our memory can fail us through forgetting (absent-mindedness, transience, and blocking) and through distortion (misattribution, suggestibility, and bias) and through intrusion ( persistence of unwanted memories)
9.19- Discuss the role of encoding failure in forgetting.
What we encode (whether automatically or through effortful processing) is only a very limited portion of the sensory stimuli around us. And as we age, our encoding grows slower and less efficient. Without encoding, information does not enter our long-term memory store and cannot be retrieved.
9.20- Discuss the concept of storage decay, and describe Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve.
Encoded memories may fade after storage. From his research on learning and retention, Ebbinghaus determined that the course of forgetting is initially rapid, then levels off with time; this principle became known as the forgetting curve
9.21- Contrast proactive and retroactive interference, and explain how they can cause retrieval failure.
One way retrieval failure can happen is whe old and new information compete for retrieval. In proactive interference, something we learned in the past (a friend's old phone number)interferes with our ability to recall something we have recently learned. In retroactive interference, something we have recently learned, (vocabulary in this semester's Spanish course) interferes with something from the past ( vocabulary frim last year's french course.
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