PSYC-1110-06 Study Questions
- What is consciousness? What does it mean to be conscious?
Mental awareness of sensations and perceptions of external events as well as self-awareness of
internal events, including thoughts, memories, and feelings about experiences and the self.
=> To be conscious means to be aware.
- Describe the Integrated Information Theory of consciousness?
The Information Integration Theory suggests that the sharing of information among parts of the
brain is, itself, consciousness, and is determined by the level of complexity.
- Describe the Global Workspace Theory of consciousness?
1. uses contrastive analysis to identify some general differences between conscious and unconscious
processing
2. builds a theory of consciousness fitting the constraints set by these differences
- What are the features of altered states of consciousness?
+ Sensory overload
+ Monotonous stimulation
+ Physical conditions
+ Restricted sensory input
- Who originally proposed the idea of hypnosis?
Franz Mesmer
- What is Hilgard’s hidden observer?
Hilgard's term describing a hypnotized subject's awareness of experiences, such as pain, that go
unreported during hypnosis
- What do nonstate theorists say about hypnosis?
Hypnosis is not a distinct state at all, but as a blend of conformity, relaxation, imagination,
obedience, and role-playing.
- What are the fundamental principles of hypnosis?
●You must cooperate to be hypnotized
○Focus attention on what is being said
○Relax and feel tired
○Let go, accept suggestion
○Use vivid imagination
●Most individuals can be hypnotized
○Susceptibility linked to traits of openness and imaginative
○Often quantified using the Standard Hypnotic Suggestibility Scale
- What are the effects of hypnosis?
1. Strength - No effect
2. Memory
a. Increased false memories
b. Increased confidence in false memories
3. Amnesia - Brief and not robust
4. Pain relief - Effective in minimizing pain
- What is the difference between meditation and mindfulness?
+ Meditation: A mental exercise for producing relaxation or heightened awareness. Meditation takes
two major forms: concentrative meditation (mental exercise based on attending to a single object or
thought) and mindfulness meditation (mental exercise based on widening attention to become aware
of everything experienced at any given moment).
+ Mindfulness: A state of open, nonjudgmental awareness of current experience.
- What are the effects of sleep deprivation?
Slower reflexes, hand tremors, droopy eyelids, difficulty focusing eyes, heightened sensitivity to pain,
headaches, and lower energy levels.
- Is sleep necessary?
Sleep is fundamental to functioning (and survival)
- How do patterns of sleep vary throughout the day? Across the lifespan?
+ Majority of people “need” 7-9 hours of sleep
+ Developmental changes in regular cycles
○ 2-4 cycles upto 20 hours of sleep in infants
○ Mid-afternoon sleepiness establishes napping patterns
○ Over 50 years, average of 6 hours sleep/day
- What types of brain activity relate to the different sleep stages?
Changes in tiny electrical signals (brain waves) the brain generates can be amplified and recorded
with an electroencephalograph (EEG). Immediately before sleep, the pattern shifts to larger and
slower waves called alpha waves. (Alpha waves also occur when you are relaxed and allow your
thoughts to drift.) As the eyes close, breathing becomes slow and regular, the pulse rate slows, and
body temperature drops. Soon after, we descend into slow-wave sleep through four distinct sleep
stages.
- Describe the dual process theory of sleep.
The two most basic states of sleep, then, are non-REM (NREM) sleep, which occurs during Stages
1, 2, 3, and 4, and REM sleep, with its associated dreaming
+ Non-Rapid Eye Movement Sleep (NREM) reduces overall level of brain activity
+ REM Sleep would enhance memory consolidation (filtering, problem solving)
○Physical/physiological - Tolerance and withdrawal
○Psychological - Belief that drug is necessary to maintain comfort/well-being
- What are the various theories of dream interpretation?
● Psychodynamic dream theory: Focus on symbols, manifest content, and latent content
● Activation-synthesis hypothesis: Activity from lower brain is synthesized to “make sense” of
dream content
● Neurocognitive dream theory: Dreams reflect continuation of waking thoughts and emotions
- How does drug tolerance relate to the dose-response curve?
Characterized by a shift in the dose-response curve
- How can we remedy sleep disturbances?
Stimulus control, restricting sleep, paradoxical intention, relaxation and exercise, food intake. And
avoiding stimulants
- Describe central and obstructive sleep apnea.
+ Central sleep apnea: Brain stops sending signals to diaphragm
+ Obstructive sleep apnea: Blockage of upper air passages
- What makes a drug psychoactive?
It is capable of altering attention, memory, judgment, time sense, self-control, mood, or perception.
- What are the various routes of drug administration?
●Oral ingestion: Stomach (alcohol), intestines
●Injection: Several parenteral routes
●Inhalation: Capillaries in lungs
●Absorption: Mucous membranes
●Transdermal
●Implantation
- What is functional drug tolerance?
The changes in the post-synaptic synapses of the central nervous system (CNS) that are caused by
abnormal exposure to endogenous (internal) and exogenous (external) chemicals, particularly
hormones and illegal drugs.
- What are the different mechanisms of drug action?
+ Inhibition of bacterial protein synthesis
+ inhibition of cell wall synthesis
+ Inhibition of enzymatic activity
+ Alteration of cell membrane permeability
+ Blockade of specific biochemical pathways.
- Define antagonist and agonist drug action.
+ An agonist: A drug that binds to the receptor, producing a similar response to the intended
chemical and receptor.
+ An antagonist: A drug that binds to the receptor either on the primary site, or on another site,
which all together stops the receptor from producing a response.
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of the routes of drug administration?
ROUTE
ADVANTAGE(S)
DISADVANTAGE(S)
Oral ingestion
Easy to take, relatively safe
Effects are less predictable
Injection
Potent, fast, predictable
Difficult to counteract
Inhalation
Easy to take
Absorption
Multiple routes
Dosage hard to predict, lung
damage
Membrane damage
- What are the different types of drug dependency?
- What is metabolic drug tolerance?
The changes in efficiency or capacity to metabolize ethanol resulting in a decrease in the blood
alcohol concentration following a given dose of alcohol
- What receptor types does nicotine stimulate? Cocaine? Alcohol? Marijuana?
+ Nicotine: Binds to acetylcholine receptors => Stimulates post-synaptic potentials
+ Cocaine: Act on dopaminergic system
○ D1 receptors (drug reward signals)
○ D2 receptors (conditioned reward signals)
+ Alcohol: Physiological effects on GABAergic system
○ Hyperpolarization
○ Widespread inhibition of neural activity
+ Marijuana: Endocannabinoid system
○ CB1
○ CB2 (immune system)
- What is learning and what are the different types?
+ Learning: A relatively permanent change in behaviour due to experience
+ Forms of learning:
○ Associative (stimulus-response)
○ Cognitive (understanding, anticipating)
- What is classical conditioning? What is operant conditioning?
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
+ First described by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian
+ First described by B. F. Skinner, an American
physiologist
psychologist
+ Focuses on involuntary, automatic behaviors + Involves applying reinforcement or
+ Involves placing a neutral signal before a
punishment after a behavior
reflex
+ Focuses on strengthening or weakening
voluntary behaviors
- What is latent learning?
A type of learning that has occurred but has not yet been demonstrated through observable
behaviors.
- What are cognitive maps and how are they useful?
Cognitive maps are mental representations of physical locations used them to help find their way
and to help recall important features of the environment.
- What is cognitive learning and why is feedback important?
+ Cognitive learning: mental process such as thinking, knowing, problem solving, and forming
mental representations
+ Feedback is the currency of learning, as improvement is contingent getting feedback
- What is observational learning and what does it require?
● Watching and imitating the actions of another, noting the consequences of actions
○ Incredible valuable for complex and abstract behavior
● Requires a model to serve as an example
○ Learn new responses
○ Carry out or avoid previous responses
○ Learn general rules that can be applied to multiple situations
● Requires…
○ Attention
○ Reproduction
○ Success/reward
○ Reinforcement/feedback
- Compare and contrast brain activity to feedback in observational and active learning.
In active learners FRN amplitude for negative feedback decreased and ERN amplitude in response
to erroneous actions increased with learning, whereas observational ERN and FRN in observational
learners did not exhibit learning-related changes. Learning performance, assessed in test trials
without feedback, was comparable between groups, as was the ERN following actively performed
errors during test trials. In summary, the results show that action—outcome associations can be
learned similarly well actively and by observation. The mechanisms involved appear to differ, with
the FRN in active learning reflecting the integration of information about own actions and the
accompanying outcomes.
- How can classical conditioning be used to treat maladaptive behaviors?
Classical conditioning involves helping a patient 'unlearn' their maladaptive behaviors and learn
more adaptive, healthy behaviors.
- What are the fundamentals of classical conditioning?
● Acquisition requires repeated pairing to establish and strengthen the conditioned response
○ Timing of the paring is critical
● Once strengthened, the CS can be used as an UCS to establish further conditioning
● Contemporary perspectives consider cognitive expectancies
○ Learning produces changes in behaviour based on expectations
● Extinction requires the “un-pairing” of CS
○ Repetition, much the same as original conditioning
○ Spontaneous recovery can occur before extinction is established
- What is higher-order conditioning?
A procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new
neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus.
- What are conditioned emotional responses? Why are they important?
● An emotional response that has been linked to a previously nonemotionally stimulus by classical
conditioning.
● CERs facilitates learned fears
● CERs and learned fears form the basis of phobias => Persistent fear in the absence of threat
● Systematic desensitization to treat phobias => Gradual exposure, safe outcomes
- What is shaping and extinction?
+ Shaping: Gradually moulding responses to a final desired pattern.
+ Operant Extinction: The weakening or disappearance of a nonreinforced operant response.
- What is positive reinforcement? Negative reinforcement? Positive punishment? Negative
punishment?
+ Positive reinforcement: Occurs when a response is followed by a reward or other positive event.
+ Negative reinforcement: Occurs when a response is followed by an end to discomfort or by the
removal of an unpleasant event.
+ Positive punishment: Any event that follows a response and decreases its likelihood of occurring
again; the process of suppressing a response.
+ Negative punishment: Removal of a positive reinforcer after a response is made.
- What is stimulus control?
Stimuli present when an operant response is acquired tend to control when and where the response
is made.
- What is generalization? What is discrimination?
+ Generalization: The tendency to respond to stimuli similar to those that preceded operant
reinforcement.
+ Discrimination: The tendency to make an operant response when stimuli previously associated
with reward are present and to withhold the response when stimuli associated with nonreward are
present.
- What are primary and secondary reinforcers?
+ Primary: Nonlearned reinforcers; usually those that satisfy physiological needs.
+ Secondary: A learned reinforcer; often one that gains reinforcing properties by association with a
primary reinforcer.
- What are token reinforcers?
A tangible secondary reinforcer such as money, gold stars, poker chips, and the like.
- What is partial reinforcement? Why is it effective for maintaining behavior?
+ Partial reinforcement: A pattern in which only a portion of all responses are reinforced.
+ Partial reinforcement produces greater resistance to extinction than continuous reinforcement.
Behavior that has been reinforced on a variable-ratio or variable-interval schedule is often very
difficult to extinguish.
- How does partial reinforcement relate to gambling behavior?
● Near wins/misses engage reward circuitry in the brain => Motivating future behavior
● More severe gambling behavior is linked to greater activity in reward circuitry when experiencing a
near miss.
- What are the schedules of partial reinforcement?
● Fixed ratio
○ Reinforcement at predictable intervals of correct responses
○ Produces very high response rates
● Variable ratio
○ Varied number of correct responses (“on average”)
○ Also produces high response rates
● Fixed interval
○ Reinforcement at predictable intervals of time
○ Produces moderate response rates
● Variable interval
○ Varied amount of time (“on average”)
○ Extremely resistant to extinction
- What are the consequences of punishment?
● Punishment lowers probability of behavior
○ Positive → addition of unpleasant event
○ Negative → removal of something pleasant
● Timing, consistency, and intensity
○ Severe punishment can permanently suppress responding
○ Mild punishment only temporarily suppresses a response
● Several drawbacks when not used effectively
○ Avoidance
○ Aggression
- How are punishment, avoidance, and anxiety related?
● Avoidance - making a response/decision to prevent or delay discomfort
○ Implications for anxiety and risk-aversion
○ Particularly important during childhood and adolescence
● Punishment can increase aggression
○ Natural defense response
○ Creates frustration, hostility, embarrassment
○ Release of aggression can be rewarding
- How can punishment be used effectively?
● Avoid harsh punishment
● Use minimum required to suppress behavior
● Apply during or immediately after misbehavior
● Be consistent
● Use counterconditioning
● Expect anger and frustration
● Be kind and respectful
- What is the Atkinson-Shiffrin model of memory?
The Atkinson-Shiffrin model. Successful long-term remembering involves three stages of memory.
Sensory memory encodes and stores sensory information for a second or two. Selectively attending
to that information encodes small amounts in short-term memory, where it may be processed. Any
resulting meaningful information may be encoded in long-term memory, where it may be stored
until it is needed, at which time it may be retrieved as needed. The preceding is a useful, but highly
simplified, model of memory; it may not be literally true regarding what happens in the brain.
- What are sensory memories?
The first, normally unconscious, stage of memory, which holds an exact record of incoming
information for a few seconds or less.
- What is short term memory? How “big” is it? How long can we hold info? How can we
retain more info?
● Memory system that holds small amounts of information in our conscious awareness
○ What you are thinking about right now
○ Working memory is used as a “mental scratchpad” to actively work on information
■ Typically linked to problem solving
■ Critical for retrieval of information
- What is long term memory?
● Memory system that used for (relatively) permanent storage of meaningful information
○ Contains everything you know…
○ Appears to be limitless: Greater memory capacity linked to better ability learning new
information
● Coordinated with short-term memory for storage and subsequent retrieval
■ Priming to facilitate retrieval of “hidden” memories
- How do we measure memory?
We can measure memory by looking at recall, recognition, and implicit memory vs. explicit memory
- What is recall memory? What is recognition memory?
+ Recall:
● Recall or supply information without external cues
○ This is knowledge you are accessing directly (“Who wrote your textbook?”)
○ Fill in the blank, short answer, essay questions
● The order in which info was memorized impacts recall
+ Recognition:
● Identifying previously learned information
○ Typically superior than recall (remember a face, but not a name)
○ Impacted by distractors
■ Interfere due to similarity
■ False positives due to distinctness
○Major implications for eyewitness testimony
- What is the Ebbinghaus curve of forgetting?
This graph shows the amount remembered (measured by relearning) after varying lengths of time.
Notice how rapidly forgetting occurs. The material learned was nonsense syllables. Forgetting curves
for meaningful information also show early losses followed by a long gradual decline, but overall,
forgetting occurs much more slowly.
- What are false memories?
Memories that people have that do not correspond to events as they actually happened.
- What is source confusion?
Also know as source misattribution or unconscious transference, is a type of memory error. It
occurs when someone does not remember where certain memories come from.
- What are implicit and explicit memories? What are the different types in each category?
● Explicit memories are consciously brought to mind
● Implicit memories lie outside of consciousness awareness
○ Influence behavior without being aware or remembering
■ Repeated exposure, procedural learning (e.g., case of H.M.)
After Ebbinghaus, 1885
- What is encoding failure? Storage failure?
+ Encoding failure: Failure to store sufficient information to form a useful memory.
+ Storage failure:
● Memory traces decay, fade, and weaken over time
○ Especially for sensory and STM
○ Infrequent retrieval can lead to decay
● LTM can also decay over time due to disuse, however it cannot explain...
○ Recovery of forgotten memories, redintegration, relearning, priming
○ Vivid recall in pathological states
- What is retroactive and proactive interference?
+ Retroactive: The tendency for new memories to interfere with the retrieval of old memories.
+ Proactive: The tendency for old memories to interfere with the retrieval of newer memories.
- What is positive/negative transfer?
+ Positive: Mastery of one task aids learning or performing another.
+ Negative: Mastery of one task conflicts with learning or performing another.
- What is retrograde amnesia? Anterograde amnesia?
+ Retrograde amnesia: Loss of memory for events that preceded a head injury or other amnesiacausing event.
+ Anterograde amnesia: Loss of the ability to form or retrieve memories for events that occur after
an injury or trauma.
- What are flashbulb memories?
A special kind of emotional memory, which refers to vivid and detailed memories of highly
emotional events that appear to be recorded in the brain as a picture taken by camera.
- What is Episodic memory? Semantic memory? Procedural memory?
+ Episodic memory: Remembering specific personal experiences and the contexts in which they
occurred
+ Semantic memory: Knowledge which is not tied to a specific personal experiences
+ Procedual memory: Houses memory for actions, skills, condition response, and emotional
memories
- What does it mean to have a photographic memory?
Photographic memory, or Eidetic imagery, is the ability to retain a “projected” mental image long
enough to use it as a source of information.
- What are the different types of encoding strategies?
● Elaborative processing: Actively think about information and look for connections
● Selectivity: Reduce and condense
● Organize: Chunking, structure, and summary
● Partitioning learning: Progressive - part method
● Serial positioning
● Retrieval cues
● Spaced practice
- What are the different types of recognition strategies?
● Use retrieval practice and feedback
● Strategic recall aids
● Extend testing time window
● Sleep and eat
- What are mental representations and what are their qualities?
● Mental representation of image, or picture like qualities
○ Richer quality, image often associated with other features (e.g., smell)
○ Used constantly to solve problems, make decisions, improve skill, enhance memory
● Images are malleable, can be adjusted, viewed in 3 dimensions
○ “Reverse vision”
○ Generation of novel images
○ Kinesthetic imagery
- What are concepts and how do they work?
● Concept: Idea that represents a category of objects or events
● Forming concepts requires classification of information
○ Focus on details of differentiation
○ Experience shapes and refines concepts
○ Rules as an efficient way to learn concepts
- What are conjunctive concepts? Disjunctive? Relational?
● Conjunctive concepts (“and concepts”): Object must have 2 or more features (car has 4 wheels
and steering wheels)
● Disjunctive (“either/or”): Has the presence of at least one of several possible features (people
with black
● Relational concepts or brown hair): Defined by relationship between objects, or between object
and environment (brother, sister)
- What are the different features of the structure of language?
● Must have symbols that can stand for objects or ideas
○ Phonemes - symbols use to build words, basic speech sounds
○ Morphemes - speech sounds collected into meaningful units
○ Grammar - sets of rules for making sounds into words, and words into sentences
■ Syntax - rules for word order
○ Transformation rules - applied to actively produce new sentences, change declarative to
other voices of forms
■ These rules define a true language -- it’s productive, can generate new thoughts or
ideas
- What is the evidence for language in non-human animals?
● Symbols for lexigram, including some abstract concepts
● Evidence of rule application (correct word order)
- What are examples of common intelligence tests?
● Ability to act purposefully, think rationally, and adapt
○ More precise definition of intelligence varies and are debated
○ Unitary, general mental ability, or distinct forms?
- How do you calculate someone’s Intelligence Quotient (IQ)?
𝑀𝐴 (𝑀𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑔𝑒)
× 100 = 𝐼𝑄
𝐶𝐴 (𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑔𝑒)
- What are the features of IQ tests? What types of IQ do they measure?
+ The distribution (or scattering) of IQ scores approximates a bell-shaped or normal curve—that is,
most scores fall close to the average and few are found at the extremes.
+ IQ test measures overall, performance (non verbal), and verbal intelligence.
- What does it mean for a test to be culture fair?
Culture-fair tests attempt to minimize emphasis on skills that may be culturally specific
- What is the link between genetics and intelligence?
+ It is difficult to separate the specific contribution between nature and nurture.
+ Heritability estimates assume there is no correlation or interaction between genetic and
environmental factors.
- What is System 1 and System 2 in the context of decision making?
● System 1: Operates automatically
● System 2
○ Deliberative and controlled
○ Requires use of information in environment
○ Resource and capacity limited
● Systems can be in conflict and introduce errors in thinking (e.g., Stroop test)
- What are some of the errors we make in decision making?
● Representative heuristic
○ Selecting wrong answers because they appear to align with pre-existing mental categories
○ Disregard for probability of two events occurring together
● Base rate
○ Probability of an event
○ Exception to the rule
● Framing: How the problem is stated/structured influences decisions
● Anchoring: Relying heavily on first piece of information that is presented
- What are some of the ways in which we solve problems?
● Mechanical solutions: Trial and error, guided by algorithm
● Understanding
○ Deeper comprehension of the problem
■ General solution - requirements for success
■ Functional solutions - workable and practical
● Heuristics
● Insight
- How are heuristics useful? How are they problematic?
● Heuristics
○ Identify and evaluate to reduce possible alternatives
○ Raise odds of success but do not guarantee solution
- What is insight?
● Insight
○ Often due to reorganizing problem
■ Selective encoding
■ Selective combination
■ Selective comparison
- What are the barriers to problem solving?
● Fixations
○ Repeating wrong answers, becoming blind to alternatives
○ Functional fixedness
■ “This is...” versus “This could be”
● Emotional
● Cultural
● Learned
● Perceptual