04/22/14 Language and Thought

• Language- Our spoken written or gestured words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning.
• Phonemes- In a spoken language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.
• Morphemes- In a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning. (Prefix or Suffix)
• Grammar- A system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate and understand others.
• Semantics- The set of rules bu which we derive meaning in a language.
• Adding ed at the end of words means past tense.
• Syntax- The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences. 
• Language Development
1. Babbling Stage- Starting at 3-4 Months. Infant makes spontaneous sounds.
2. One Word Stage- 1-2 years old. Uses one word to communicate big meanings.
3. Two word Stage- at age 2, uses two words to communicate meanings- called telegraphic speech.
• Skinner
• Thought we can explain language development through social learning theory.
• Chomsky inborn universal Grammar
• We acquire language too quickly for it to be learned.
• "Learning Box" inside our heads that enable us to learn any human language.
• Whorf's Linguistic Relativity
• The idea that language determines the way we think.
• Thinking without language
• We can think in words, but more often we think in mental pictures.
• Kohler's Chimpanzees
• Kohler's exhibited that chimps can problem solve. 

04/22/14 Thinking

• Concepts- Mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
• Concepts are similar to Piaget's idea of schemas.
• Prototypes- Mental image or best example of a category.
• Algorithms- A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.
• Heuristics- A rule of thumb strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently. 
• Insight- A sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem.
• No real strategy involved.
• Confirmation Bias- A tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions.
• Fixation- The inability to see a problem from a new perspective.
• Mental Set- A tendency to approach a problem in a particular way especially if it has worked in the past.
• May or may not be a good thing.
• Functional Fixedness- The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions. 
• Types of Heuristics  (Often lead to errors)
1. Representativeness Heuristic
• Rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they match our prototype. 
• Can cause us to ignore important information.
2. Availability Heuristic
• Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in our memory.
• If it comes to wind easily we presume it is common.
• Overconfidence- The tendency to be more confident that correct.
• To overestimate the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments.
• Belief Bias- The tendency for one's preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning.
• Sometimes making invalid conclusions valid or vice versa.
• Belief Perseverance
• Clinging to your initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited. 

04/22/14 Perception

• Monocular Cues
• Interposition- If something is blocking our view, we perceive it as closer.
• Relative Size- If we know that two objects are similar size, the one that looks smaller is smaller away.
• Relative Clarity- We assume hazy objects are farther away.
• Texture Gradient- The coarser it looks the closer it is,
• Relative Height- Things higher in our field of vision look farther away.
• Liner Perspective- Dimmer objects appear farther away because they reflect less light,
• Phi Phenomenon- An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in succession.
• Perceptual Consistency- Perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images changes.

04/10/14 Touch

• Touch- Receptors located in our skin.
• Gate Control Theory of Pain
• Where the spinal cord contains a neurological gate that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass onto the brain.

• Vestibular Sense
• Tells us where our body is orientated in space.
• Our sense of balance.
• Kinesthetic Sense
• Tells us where our body parts are.
• Receptors located in our muscles and joints.
• Perception
• The process if organizing and interpreting information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.
• Gestalt Philosophy
• The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
• Figure- Ground Relationship
• The organization of the visual field into objects (figures) that stand out from their surroundings (ground)
• Grouping
• The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into groups that we understand.

• Depth Perception
• The ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two dimensional.
• Allows us to judge distance.
• Binocular Cues
• Retinal Disparity- A binocular cue for seeing depth.
• The closer an object comes to you the greater the disparity is between the two images. 

04/10/14 Hearing and Taste

• Parallel Processing
• Young- Heimholtz Trichromatic Theory
• Three types of cones:
1. Red 
2. Blue 
3. Green
• These three types of cones can make millions of combinations of colors.
• Most colorblind people simply lack cone receptors for one or more of these primary colors. 

• Opponennt- Process Theory
• The sensory receptors come in pairs.
• Red/ Green
• Yellow/ Blue
• Black/ White
• If one color is stimulated, the other is inhibited.
• Hearing- Out Auditory Sense
• The height of the wave gives us the amplitude of the sounds.
• The frequency of the waves gives is the pitch of the sound.
• Transduction in the Ear
• Sound waves hit the eardrum then anvil then hammer then stirrup then oval window. 
• Everything vibrates, then the cochlea vibrates.
• Membrane
• In basilar membrane there are hair cells.
• When hair cells vibrate they turn vibrations into neural impulses which are called organ of Corti. 
• Sent then to thalamus up auditory nerve.
• Place Theory
• Different hairs vibrate in the cochlea when there are different pitches. 
• SO Some hairs vibrate when they hear higher pitches and other vibrate when they hear low pitches. 
• Frequency Theory
• All the hairs vibrate but at different speeds.
• Deafness
1. Conduction Deafness- Something goes wrong with the sound and the vibration on the way up to the cochlea. 
• You can replace the bones or get a hearing aid to help.
• Nerve (Sensorineural) Deafness
• The hair cells in the cochlea gets damaged
• Loud noises can cause this type of deafness.
• No way to replace the hairs.
• Cochlea implant if possible.

• Smell and Taste
• We study both together because of sensory interaction the principle that one sense may influence another.
• Taste
• We have bumps on our tongue called papillae. 
• Taste buds are located on the papillae (they are actually all over the mouth)
• Sweet, salty, bitter, and sour.
• Umami- Flavor, meaty, savory taste.

04/09/14 Unit V

• Sensation and Perception
• Sensation- Your window to the world.
• Perception- Interpreting what comes into your window.
• Sensations
• The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive stimulus from the environment.
• Bottom- Up V. Top- Down Processing
• Begins with recess receptors and works up to the brains integration of sensory information. 
• Information processing guided bu higher level mental process. 

• Absolute Threshold
• The minimum stimulation needed o detect a stimulus 50% of the time.
• Difference Threshold
• The minimum difference that a person can detect between stimuli.
• Also known as just noticeable difference.
• Weber's Law
• The idea that to perceive a difference between two stimuli; they must differ by a constant percentage, not a constant amount.
• Signal Detection Theory
• Predicts how we detect a stimulus amid other stimuli.
• Assumes that we do not have an absolute threshold.
• Sensory Adaptation
• Decreased responsiveness to stimuli due to constant stimulation.
• Selective Attention
• The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimuli.
• Cocktail- Party Phenomenon
• The cocktail party effect describes the ability to focus one's listening attention on a single talker among a mixture of conversations and background noises, ignoring other conversations.
• Form selective attention.

• Vision
• Our most dominating sense
• Visual Capture
• Phase 1: Gathering Light
• Short Wavelength: High frequency (bluish colors, high pitched sounds.)
• Long Wavelength: low frequency (reddish colors, low pitched sounds.)
• The height of a wavelength gives us it's intensity (brightness)
• The length of the wave gives us it's hue (color)
• The longer the wave the more red
• The shorter the wavelength
• Transduction
• Transmitting signals into neutral impulses 
• Information goes from the senses to the thalamus, then to the various areas in the brain.
• Transduction- Conversion of the form of energy to another.
• How is this important when studying sensation?
• Stimulus energies to review impulses
• Ex: Light energy to vision.

04/01/14 Developmental Psychology Ctd.

• Reflexes- inborn automatic responses.
• Rooting reflex- babies tendency when touched on the cheek to open the mouth and search for the nipple. I.e: sucking.
• Grasping- Trying to reach whats near them.
• Maturatuon
• Physical growth, regardless of the environment.
• Puberty
• The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing.
• Primary Sexual Characteristics 
• Body structures that make reproduction possible,
• Secondary and Sexual Characteristics.
• Non- reproductive sexual characteristics.
• Landmarks of Puberty
• Menarche for girls.
• First ejaculation for boys (Spermarche)
• Physical Milestones
• Menopause
• Death (5 Stages of death/ grief)
1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression 
5. Acceptance
• Social Development
• Up until a year, infants do nor mind strange people.
• Stranger Anxiety- Infant encounters a stranger and they exhibit anxiety.
• Separation Anxiety- Whenever a child is separated from their parents. Ex: Putting kids in a day care.
• Harry Harlow and his monkeys
• When you are separated from someone, you tend to be close to someone or something similar to them. 
• Critical Periods- The optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produce proper development
• Those who are deprived of touch have trouble forming  attachment when they are older. 
• Types of Attachment
1. Secure- When parents go to work and you are comfortable with who you are left with.
2. Avoidant
3. Anxious/ Ambivalent- Excited to see them come in, then give them the cold shoulder.
• Parenting Styles
• Authoritarian parents- Parents are in charge.
• Permissive Parents- Kids are in charge.
• Authoritative Parents- Parents and kids compromise.
• Erik- Erikson- Social Development
• A neo- freudian.
• Worked with Anna Freud.
• Thought our personality was influenced by our experiences with others.
• Trust vs. Mistrust- From 0-2 years of age.
• They trust or mistrust they develop can carry on with the child for the rest of their lives.
• Autonory v. Shame and Doubt
• Toddlers begin to control their bodies.
• Control temper tantrums
• Big word is No.
• Inflative v. Guilt- Age 3-6 years of age.
• Words turns from no to why
• Want to understand the world and ask questions.
• Industry v. Inferiority- Age 6-12 years of age.
• School begins
• We are for the first time evaluated bu a formal system and our peers.
• Can lead to us feeling bad about ourselves for the rest of their lives... inferiority complex.
• Identity V. Role Confusion- Early teens 13-15 years
• Who am I?
• In our teenage years we try out different roles.
• Intimacy v. Isolation
• Have to balance work and relationships
• What are my priorities?
• Generativity v. Stagnation- Middle adult (40's- 50's)
• Is everything going as planned? 
• Mid- Life crisis
• Integrity v. Despair- Older adults, senior citizens
• Look back on life
• Was my life meaningful or do I have regret?
• Cognitive Development
• It was thought that kids were just stupid versions of adults.
• Came along Jean Piaget.
• Kids learn differently than adults.
• Schemas
• Children view the world through schemas.
• Understanding the world around us.
• Schemas are ways we interpret the world around us.
• Basically what you picture in your head when you think of anything.
• Assimilation
• Incorporating new experiences into existing schemas.
• Accommodation
• Changing an existing schema to adopt a new information
• Stages of Cognitive Development- Jean Piaget
1. Sensorimotor Stage
• Experience the world through our senses.
• Do not have object permanence
• 0-2 years of age.
2. Preoperational Stage
• 2-7 Years of age
• Have object permanence
• Begin to use language to represent objects and ideas.
• Egocentric: Cannot look at the world through anyone's eyes but their own,
• Conservation: refers to the idea that a quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance and is part of logical thinking.
3. Concrete Operational Stage
• Can demonstrate concept of conservation.
• Learn to think logically. 
4. Formal Operational Stage
• Abstract Reasoning
• Manipulate objects in our minds without seeing them.
• Hypothesis Testing
• Trial and Error
• Metacognition.
• Nor every adult gets to this stage.
• Types of Intelligence.
• Crystalized Intelligence
• Accumulated knowledge.
• Increases with age.
• Fluid Intelligence
• Ability to solve problems quickly and think abstractly. 
• Peaks in the 20's and then decreases over time.
• Moral Development- Three stages by Lawrence Kohlbergh
1. Pre- Conventional Morality
• Morality based on rewards and punishments.
• IF you are rewarded then it is ok.
• If you are punished, the act must be wrong.
2. Conventional Morality
• Look at morality based on how others see you.
• If your peers, or society, thinks it is wrong, then so do you.
3. Post- Conventional Morality
• Based on self- defined ethical principles.
• Your own personal set of ethics. 

03/31/14 Developmental Psychology

• Developmental Psychology- The study of you from womb to tomb. How we change physically, socially, cognitively.
• Nature v. Nurture
• Nature is the way you were born.
• Nurture is the way you were raised.
• Prenatal Development
• Conception begins with the drop of and the release of about 200 million sperm.
• The sperm seeks out the egg and attempts to penetrate the eggs surface.
• Once the sperm penetrate the egg- we have a fertilized egg called the zygote. 
• Zygotes- less than half of all zygotes survive first two weeks.
• About 10 days after conception, the zygote will attach itself to the  uterine wall.
• The outer part of the zygote becomes the placenta (which filters nutrients)
• After two weeks, the zygote develops into an embryo.
• Lasts about 6 weeks.
• Heart begins to beat and the organs begin to develop.
• Fetus
• By nine weeks we have a fetus.
• THe fetus by about the 6th month, the stomach and other organs have formed enough to survive outside of the mother.
• At this time the baby can hear (and recognize) sounds and respond to light.

• Teratogens
• Chemical agents that can harm the prenatal environment.
• Alcohol (FAS)
• Other STD's can harm the baby.
• HIV
• Herpes
• Healthy Newborns
• Turn head toward voices,
• See 8 to 12 inches from their faces.
• Gaze longer at human like objects right from birth.

03/17/14 Parts of the Brain

• Midbrain
• Coordinates simple movements with sensory information
• Contains the reticular formation: Arousal and ability to focus attention.
• Thalamus
• In forbrain
• Receives sensory information and sends them to appropriate areas of brain.
• Like a switchboard.
• Covers everything but smell.
• Limbic System
• Emotional control center of brain.
• Made up of hypothalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus.
• Hypothalamus
• Pea sized in brain, but plays a not so pea sized role. 
• Body Temperate
• Hunger 
• Thirst
• Sexual Arousal (Libido)
• Hippocampus & Amygdala
• Hippocampus is involved in memory processing.
• Amygdala is vital for our basic emotions
• Cerebral Cortex
• Top layer of our brain.
• Contains wrinkles called fissures.
• The fissures increase surface area of out brain.
• Laid out it would be about the size of a large pizza.
• Hemispheres
• Divided into a left and right hemisphere.
• Contralateral controlled- Left controls right side of body and vice-versa. 
• Brain laterization
• Lefties are better at spatial and creative tasks. 
• Righties are better at logic. 
• Split- Brain Patients
• Corpus collosum attaches the two hemispheres of cerebral cortex. 
• When removed you have a split- brain patient.
• The cerebral cortex is made up of four lobes:
• Frontal Lobe
• Parietal Lobe
• Occipital Lobe
• Temporal Lobe
• Frontal Lobe
• Abstract thought and emotional control
• Contains Motor Cortex: Sends signals to our body controlling muscle movements.
• Contains Broca's Area: Responsible for controlling muscles- that produce speech.
• Damage to Broca's Area is called Broca's Aphasia: Unable to make movements to talk. 
• Motor and Sensory Cortexes
• Output: Motor Cortex- Left hemispheres controls opposite side of the body.
• Parietal Lobes
• Contain sensory cortex, receives incoming touch sensations from rest of the body.
• Most of the Parietal Lobes are made up of Association Areas.
• Association Areas
• Any area not associated with receiving sensory information or coordinating muscle movements.
• Occipital Lobes
• Deals with vision
• Contains Visual Cortex: Interprets messages from our eyes into images we can understand.
• Temporal Lobe
• Process sound sensed by our ears.
• Contains Wernike's Area: Interprets written and spoke speech.
• Interpreted in auditory cortex.
• Not lateralized
• Wernike's Aphasia- Unable to understand language: the syntax and grammar jumbled.

• The Endocrine System
• A system of glands that secrete hormones.
• Similar to nervous system, except hormones were a lot slower than neurotransmitters.
• Major Endocrine Glands
• Thyroid Glands- Affect metabolism, among other things.
• Pituitary Glands- Secretes many different hormones, some of which affect other glands.
• Adrenal Glands- Inner part, called the medulla, helps trigger the "fight or flight" response.
• Pancreas- Regulates the level of sugar in the blood.
• Ovary- Secretes female sex hormones.
• Testis- Secretes male sex hormones.

03/07/14 Biological School ctd.

• Reflexes
• Normally, sensory (afferent) neurons take info up through spine to the brain.
• Some reactions occur when sensory neurons reach just the spinal cord.
• Lesions
• Cutting into the brain and looking for change.
• Less invasive ways to study the brain.
• Brain structures
• Some scientists divide the brain into three parts
• Hindbrain
• Forebrain
• Midbrain
• 3 Parts of the Hindbrain
• Medulla Oblongata
• Heart Rate
• Breathing
• Blood Pressure
• Pons
• Connects hindbrain, midbrain, and forebrain together.
• Involved in facial expressions.
• Cerebellum
• Located in the back of our head- means little brain.
• Coordinates muscle movements
• Like tracking a target.

03/16/14 Biological School

• The Nervous System- Starts with an individual nerve cell called a neuron.
• Parts of  a Neuron
• Cell body- the cell's life- support center.
• Neurotransmitters- Chemicals held in terminal buttons that travel through synapse gap.
• Terminal branches of axon- Form junctions with other cells.
• Synapse- A structure that permits a neuron to pass a chemical or electrical signal to another cell.
• Dendrites- Receive messages from other cells.
• Axon- Passes messages away from the cell body to other neurons, muscles, or glands.
• Neural impulse electrical signal traveling down the axon. 
• Myelin Sheath- Covers the axon of some neurons and helps speed neural impulses.

• How does a neuron fire?
• Resting potential: slightly negative charge.
• Reach the threshold when enough neurotransmitters reach dendrites.
• It is an electrochemical process
• Electrical inside the neuron. 
• Chemical outside the neuron (in the synapse in the form of a neurotransmitter)
• This action is called the Action Potential
• The All- or None Response
• The idea that either the neuron fires or it does not- no part way firing
• Like a gun
• Neurotransmitters
• Chemical messengers released by terminal buttons through the synapse.
• 4 types of neurotransmitters.
1. Acetylcholine (ACH)
• Deals with motor movement and memory.
• Lack of ACH has been linked to Alzheimer's Disease.
2. Dopamine
• Deals with motor movement and alertness
• Lack of dopamine has been linked to Parkinson's Disease. 
• Too much has been linked to schizophrenia.
3. Seratonin
• Involved in mood control
• Lack of seratonin has been linked to clinical depression.
4. Endorphins
• Involved in pain control.
• Many of our most addictive drugs deal with endorphins.
• Drugs can be
• Agonists- Make neuron fire.
• Antagonists- Stop neuron firing.
• Types of Neurons
• Sensory Neurons (Afferent Neurons)
• Take information from the senses to the brain.
• Inter Neurons
• Takes messages from sensory neurons to other parts of the brain or to motor neurons.
• Motor Neurons (Efferent Neurons)
• Take information from brain to the rest of the body.
• Central Nervous System (CNS)
• The brain and spinal cord.
• Peripheral Nervous System
• All nerves that are not encased in boned.
• Everything but the brain and spinal cord.
• Is divided into two categories.  Somatic and autonomic.

• Somatic Nervous System
• Controls voluntary muscle movement. 
• Uses motor (efferent) neurons.
• Autonomic Nervous System
• Controls the automatic functions at the body.
• Divided into two categories. The sympathetic and the parasympathetic.
• Sympathetic Nervous System
• Fight or flight response
• Automatically accelerates heart rate, breathing, dilates pupils, slows down digestion. 
• Parasympathetic Nervous System
• Automatically slows the body down after a stressful event.
• Heart rate and breathing slow down, pupils constrict and digestion begins.