Ch.7

1. Discuss working memory, how it is used, and what its limitations are.

Working memory is an active processing system that information available for current use. Working memory allows us to hold information in our mind, allows you to process, it allows you to devoting your attention to that specific thought. Chunking is used in working memory, which is organizing information into meaningful units to make it easier to remember. The limitations of working memory are that you can only remember up to seven items at a time of information that is given to you.

2. What different forms of long-term memory have been demonstrated, and how are they different from each other?

The different forms of long-term memory are implicit memory which is a change in behavior and your unconscious memory. Explicit memory is when you recall something consciously. There is semantic memory which memory of knowledge about the world, just your general knowledge and nothing personal. Declarative is the cognitive information retrieved from explicit memory; knowledge that can be declared. Episodic memory is the memory for a person’s personal past experiences. Procedural memory is a type of implicit memory that involves motor skills and behavioral habits. It Is things that you do often, in your everyday routine. The last form of long-term memory is prospective memory which is remembering to do something at some time in the future.

3. Discuss the evidence that long-term memory is organized according to meaning

Events important enough to be remembered permanently need to be stored in a way that allows for later retrieval. Imagine if a video store put each video or DVD wherever there was empty space on a shelf. How would you find a certain movie? Memory is a process of storing new information so that the information is available when the rememberer needs it. Our perceptual experiences are transformed into representations, or codes, which are then stored. When your visual system senses a shaggy, four legged animal and your auditory system senses barking, you perceive a dog.

4. How do we retrieve information from long-term memory

A retrieval cue can be anything that helps a person sort through the data in long-term memory to access the right information. For example you remember the name of your spanish teacher in your senior year of high school. The activation of this memory node makes it more likely that you will remember the name of the person who sat next to you in your spanish class than if you cannot recall your teacher’s name. In this case your spanish teacher’s name serves as a retrieval cue for your classmate’s name.

5. Discuss the evidence that the medial temporal lobes, including the hippocampus, pay a special role in declarative memory.

The brain area repeatedly identified as important for declarative memory is the middle section called the medial section of the temporal lobes. The medial temporal lobes consist of numerous structures relevant to memory, including the amygdale and the hippocampus. Described in H.M.’s brain surgery made him unable to form new memories. Immediate memories become lasting memories through consolidation. All learning leaves a biological train in the brain. This process results from changes in the strength of neural connections that support memory and form construction of new synapse. For example reading this chapter should be making some of your neural connections stronger and creating new ones, especially in your hippocampus.

1. Partial report in visual sensory memory and how it shows the fading of this memory

Sensory memory is a temporary memory system, lasting only a fraction of a second and closely tied to the sensory system. It is not what we usually think of when we think about memory, because it is so short and, under most circumstances, we are not aware that it is operating.

2. The serial position effect and its explanation

Serial position effect is the ability to recall items from a list depends on order of presentation, with items presented early or late in the list remembered better than those in the middle. Primary effect is when people have a good memory for items at the beginning of a list. Recency effect is when people also have good memory for items at the end of a list.

3. Forms of interference in memory

Forms of interference in memory are that you can only remember up to seven numbers letters or things of information at one time. When you look back to long years ago you have to put yourself at that time to help you recall that time and place you are thinking of.

4. Two mnemonic strategies

Verbal mnemonics, how many days are in September? In the eastern world at least, most people can readily answer this question thanks to the old saying that begins, “Thirty days has September.” Children also learn “I before e except after c” and “weird is weird”. By memorizing such phrases, we can more easily remember things that are difficult to remember. Visual imagery, creating a mental image of material is an especially good way to remember. When you use visual imagery, you engage both systems of working memory and creating a more lasting memory.

5. Two causes of false memories

Two causes of false memories are source amnesia which is a type of amnesia that occurs when a person shows memory for an event but cannot remember where he or she encountered the information. And confabulation which is the false recollection of episodic memory. A memory research had described confabulating as “honest lying,” because the person does not intend to deceive and is unaware that his or her story is not true.

Ch.6

1. Evidence that extinction does not eliminate an association

Extinction is a process in which the conditioned response is weakened when the conditioned stimulus is repeated without the unconditioned stimulus. The evidence is the conditioned response is gone when the conditioned stimulus no longer predicts the unconditioned stimulus. But suppose the plant blooms only during a certain time of year. The adaptive response is to check back one in a while to see if the plant blooms that time of the year.

2. How drug administration is a classical conditioning trial

Classical conditioning plays a role in drug addiction. Conditioned drug effects are common and demonstrate conditioning’s power. For example, the smell of coffee can become a conditioned stimulus, one that leads coffee drinkers to feel activated and aroused as though they have actually had caffeine.

3. Who Edward L. Thorndike was and what he studied

Edward L. Thorndike had been influenced by Darwin and was studying where animals showed signs of intelligence. As part of his research, Thorndike built a puzzle box, a small cage with a trapdoor. The trapdoor would open if the animal inside performed a specific action, such as pulling a string. Thorndike placed the food deprived animals, initially chickens; inside the puzzle box to see if they could figure out how to escape.

4. How to get an animal to display a behavior that doesn’t show on its own.

Through shaping which is a process of operant conditioning; it involves reinforcing behaviors that are increasingly similar to the desired behavior, which is a way that you can get an animal to display behavior own its own.

5. The difference between positive and negative reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement is the increase in the probability of a behavior’s being repeated following the administration of a stimulus, something the animal desires=reward. Negative reinforcement is the increase the probability of a behavior’s being repeated through the removal of a stimulus, getting rid of the undesirable stimulus (the removal of a negative stimulus).

1. Discuss how classical conditioning produces brain changes in drug addicted people and how these changes perpetuate the addiction.

Brain imaging studies have found that such cues with drug addicted people lead to activation of the prefrontal cortex and various regions of the limbic system, areas of the brain involved in the experience of reward. Seeing a tantalizing food item when you are hungry activates these same brain regions, as you anticipate enjoying your tasty meal. In the same way, the sight of drug cues produces and expectation that the drug high will follow.

2. What are conditioned food aversions, how do they arise and what is unusual about them?

Conditioned food aversions are when a person can recall a time when they ate a particular food and then became ill with nausea or an upset stomach. Whether or not the food caused the illness, even if the illness clearly was caused by a virus or some other condition, most people respond to this sequence of events with a conditioned food aversion, especially if the food was not part of the person’s diet. Conditioned food aversions are easy to produce with smell or taste, but they are very difficult to produce with light or sound. This difference makes sense, since smell and taste are the main cues that guide animals’ eating behaviors. Food aversions are not easily learned, you know its okay but your mind tells you it’s not.

3. Discuss how expectations are involved in classical conditioning. What information does the CS provide to the participant in the experiment?

Classical conditioning is a relatively passive process in which a person or animal associates events that occur together in time, regardless of what the person or animal does beyond that. This form of conditioning does not account for the many times that one of the events occurs because the person has taken some action. Our behaviors often represent means to particular ends. We buy food to eat it, we study to get good grades, we work to receive money. Thus many of our actions are done for a purpose. We learn that behaving in certain ways lead to rewards.

4. Discus FI,FR, VI, and VR schedules of reinforcement and what patterns of behavior they produce

FI (Fixed Interval) is a schedule in which reinforcement is consistently provided upon each occurrence. FR (Fixed Ratio) is a schedule in which reinforcement is based on the number of times the behavior occurs. VI (Variable Interval) a schedule in which reinforcement is applied at different rates or at different times. VR (Variable Ratio) a schedule in which reinforcement is based on the number of times the behavior occurs.

5. What are cognitive maps and what evidence indicates the laboratory rats learn them rather than particular behaviors?

Cognitive maps are a visual or spatial mental representation of an environment. The third group, critically, started receiving reinforcement only after the first 10 trials , at which point it showed an amazingly fast learning curve and immediately caught up to the group that had been continuously reinforced. This result implies that the rats had learned a cognitive map of the maze and used it when the reinforcement began.

Ch.5

The process of transduction

Transduction is a process by which sensory receptors produce neural impulse s when they receive physical or chemical stimulation. Receptors specialized neurons in the sense organs, pass impulses to connecting neurons when the receptors receive physical or chemical stimulation. Connecting neurons then transmit information to the brain in the form of neural impulses.

The concept of difference threshold

Difference threshold is the just noticeable difference between two stimuli- the minimum amount of change required for a person to detect a difference. Difference threshold increases as the stimulus becomes more intense. Weber’s law states that the just noticeable difference between two stimuli is based on a proportion of the original stimulus rather than on a fixed amount of difference.

The receptors for sound and how they are activated

Changes in air pressure produce sound waves that arrive at the outer ear and travel down the auditory canal to the eardrum, a membrane stretched tightly across the canal and marking the beginning of the middle ear. The sound waves make the eardrum vibrate. Vibrations are transferred to ossicles, three tine bones. The ossicles transfer the eardrum’s vibrations to the oval window, a membrane of the cochlea, the cochlea is the thins basilar membrane. The oval window’s vibrations create pressure waves in the inner ear’s fluid; these waves prompt the hair cells to bend and cause neurons on the basilar membrane to fire.

The three psychological dimensions of color

The psychological dimensions of color are through the addictive and subtractive color. The evidence of this is through the rods and cones in our occipital lobe of our brain. These different colors are all linked.

The concept of opposite colors

Opposite colors are involved in the McCollough effect. Celeste McCollough was named for the vision research. A type of ganglion cell may receive excitatory input form L cones. These create the perception that red and green are “opposite”.

What are hits and false alarms, and how are they used in signal detection theory to spate the experiment participant’s sensitity to a signal from the response bias of that participant?

If the signal is presented and the observer detects it, the outcome is known as a hit. If the participant fails to detect the signal, the outcome is a miss. If the participant “detects” a signal that was not presented, the outcome is a false alarm. Response bias refers to a participant’s tendency to report detecting the signal in an unclear trial. The participant might be strongly biased against responding and need a great deal of evidence that the signal is present. Under other conditions, that same participant might need only a small amount of evidence.

Where is light transformed into neural signals and how do these neural signals reach the primary visual cortex?

Light is transformed into neural signals in our occipital cortex. These neural signals reach the primary visual cortex through the rods and cones. Rods are retinal cells that respond to low levels of illumination and result in black and white perception. The cones are retinal cells that respond to higher levels of illumination and result in color perception.

What evidence indicates that our ability to see colors is based upon three underlying components?

The evidence that indicates our ability to see colors is through subtractive color mixing and addictive color mixing. In subtractive color mixing when the colors red, yellow, and blue are mixed together, in the middle of those three colors when a light is shined on that spot it shows black, which shows that the mixing pigments are black. In addictive color mixing when those same three colors are mixed and a light shined on them the color shown is white, which means that the mixing color is white.

What evidence indicates that our ability to perceive the identity of an abject is somewhat separate from our perception of the location? What areas of the brain are involved in these perceptions?

Addictive coloring mixing is a way to produce a given spectral pattern in which different wavelengths of lights are mixed. The precept is determined by the interaction of these wavelengths with receptors in the eye and is a psychological process. Addictive is a mixing of light (white). Subtractive color mixing is a way to produce a given spectral pattern in which the mixture occurs within the stimulus itself and is actually a physical, not psychological, process. Subtractive color mixing is the mixing of pigments (black).

How are we able to perceive objects or even pictures, as three-dimensional that is, as having depth?

We are able to perceive objects because of our depth perception through binocular cues, and monocular cues. Binocular disparity which is our views are different up close to our eyes. Our binocular disparity gets goes down as objects get farther away, and when the greater disparity the closer the object is. The other part of depth perception is monocular cues. In monocular cues you see an object with just one eye. An example is familiar size, we know how large familiar objects , so we can tell how far away they are by the size of their retinal images.

Ch.4

1. What are we conscious of? What different degrees of consciousness are there?

We has humans are conscious of things that we do, see, hear, and touch. There is the conscience state of mind, where one thinks about doing, seeing, hearing and touching things. An example of conscience state of mind is choosing to wear one outfit in the morning over another. Then there is also unconscious mind where things happen automatically, as in a reflex than an action. An example of unconsciousness is scratching an itch when needed. The degrees of consciousness are coma, sleep, and wakefulness.

2. What is a “split brain”? What evidence indicates that splitting the brain also splits the mind and consciousness?

Split brain is a condition in which the corpus callosum is surgically cut and the two hemispheres of the brain do not receive information directly from each other.

In a normal whole brain the left half of the brain is known as the interpreter because it interprets every move the right side of the brain makes. In split brain cases this interpretation doesn’t happen. Such interpretations do not always happen instantly. Sometimes it takes the patient’s left hemisphere as long to figure out why the left hand is acting as it would take an outside observer. Split brain is a rare condition, and nearly all people have two hemispheres that communicate and cooperate on the tasks of daily living.

3. What changes in brain activity occur as a person goes to sleep, and how do we measure these changes?

During sleep, the brain is still active. The conscious experience of the outside world is largely turned off, but to some extent people remain aware of their surroundings, as when sleeping parents sense their baby rustling in the crib. When you’re sleeping your mind is at work, analyzing potential dangers, controlling your body movements, and shifting body part to maximize comfort.

The change in brain activity while you sleep is measured with an EEG machine (electroencephalogram). It reveals that a lot goes on in the brain during sleep.

4. What is hypnosis, and what evidence supports the claim that is an altered state of consciousness?

Hypnosis is a social interaction during which a person, responding to suggestions, experiences changes in memory, perception and/ or voluntary action. It seems unlikely that a person could alter his or her Brain activity to please a hypnotist, even if they hypnotist is a psychological researcher, and numerous brain imaging studies have supported the dissociation theory of hypnosis. Another study which involves naming the color in which a color’s name is printed it takes longer to name the color of the word red when that word is printed in the blue ink than when it is printed in red ink.

5. What is addiction, and what brain processes play a central role in it?

Addiction is the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma. Physical dependence is associated with tolerance, so that a person needs to consume more of the substance to achieve the same subjective effect. Physical dependence, psychological dependence refers to habitual and compulsive substance use despite the consequences. People can be psychologically dependent without showing tolerance or withdrawal.

Topics:

1. How the study of brain activity in consciousness might help people who are paralyzed. The study of brain activity in consciousness might help people who are paralyzed through the things that were conscious of like moving our arms without thought. In the book an example is through a monkey and the study of brain motor command signals to be able to move the parts of your body that you can’t move by yourself.

2. Blind sight and its implications.

Blind sight is a condition in which people who are blind have some spared visual capacities in the absence of any visual awareness.

Typically in a blind sighted patient loses vision in only, a portion of the visual field. For example when looking forward the person might not be able to see anything on his or her left. When the blind physician was shown a series of faces and was asked to guess their emotional expression, he had no sense of having seen anything but was able to identify the expression at a level much better than chance.

3. REM sleep.

REM sleep is the stage of sleep marked by rapid eye movements, dreaming and paralysis of motor systems. It sometimes is called paradoxical sleep because of the paradox of a sleeping body with an active brain.

4. The concept of flow.

The concept of flow s particular kind of experience that is so engrossing and enjoyable that is worth doing for its own sake even though it may have no consequence outside itself.

5. How expectations modify alcohol effects. Expectations that modify alcohol effects are through a study that was put on placebo design which allowed for a comparison of those who thought they were drinking tonic water but were actually drinking alcohol with those who thought they were drinking alcohol but were actually drinking tonic water. Separating drug effects from beliefs, the researchers demonstration showed that alcohol impairs motor processes, information processing, and mood, independent of whether the person thinks he or she has consumed it.