EXAM 1 (60 items, 30 points)
Classes 1-5 and Chapter 1 (pages 1-31)
Topic: PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Questions: 20
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The Mind-Body problem: Socrates and Plato said that mind is separate
from body and that knowledge is preexisting, and that there is a soul that
survives death. But the data-driven Aristotle came along and said
otherwise w.r.t. both issues. Then Descartes came along and said he
agrees with Socrates and Plato—there are innate ideas floating around in
the form of soul, and mind is separate from body. He thought the fluid in
animals’ brain cavities contained “animal spirits” which flowed out in to the
nerves and provoked muscle. to move. He thought memories that we have
through experience opened pores in the brain in to which these same
“animal spirits” flowed. He somewhat hit on the idea of the nervous system
in so doing.
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Francis Bacon: One of the founders of modern science, fascinated by the
failings of the human mind. Good quotes to remember from him:
“The human understanding, from its peculiar nature, easily supposes a
greater degree of order and equality in things than it really finds."
“All superstition is much the same whether it be that of astrology, dreams,
omen, retributive judgments, or the like, in all of which the deluded
believers observe events which are fulfilled, but neglect and pass over
their failure, though it be much more common.”

Women in psychology: Mary Calkins (student of William James) and
Margaret Floy Washburn (student of Edward Titchener, the “introspection”
guy)
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Different psychological perspectives and examples (e.g., How would a
neuroscientist think? An evolutionary psychologist? A social psychologist?
Etc.)
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The difference between psychologists (scientist or practitioner?) and
psychiatrists
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What is the “hindsight bias”? What is the “overconfidence bias”?
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What are the different ways of “knowing”? TAPES
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What is the “Barnum effect” or “My aunt Fanny” effect?

How is a science different from a pseudoscience? What a “double blind”
procedure is and how it helps reduce experimenter bias and demand
characteristics.

What is “critical thinking”? Understand the definitions of related concepts
like “theory”, “hypothesis”, “replication”, “operationalization”, and
“generalization”.

How psychological science describes phenomena: by using case studies
(what they are, good things about them, bad things about them),
observation (details such as “ecological validity”), and surveys (details
such as “representativeness” and “double-barreled items”). How it predicts
phenomena: by using correlations (positive, negative, strength, problems).
How it explains (cause-and-effect) phenomena: experimentation (What is
an IV? What is a DV? What is random sampling? Random assignment?
Measurement of variables: types of scales (NOIR) and measures of
central tendency. Know the difference between a correlational study and
an experimental study.

What are illusory correlations? Do we perceive order in random events?

Animal research (why we study animals, ethical issues)
Class 6 and Chapter 3 (pages 75-85, 90-93)
Topic: NATURE OR NURTURE?
Questions: 10

What is nature and what is nurture?

What is behavior genetics?
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Example of genotypes, phenotypes, traits.
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What is heritability?
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What is a gene-environment interaction?

There are many examples of how scientists have debated the naturenurture question of various phenomena, both in the lecture and scattered
all over this chapter of the text book. Give them a read.
Class 7 and Chapter 4 (pages 104-114, 117-123, 129-132, 134-135)
Topic: DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Questions: 10

Piaget’s idea of schemas—assimilation and accomodation

Piaget’s stages: Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Flowers! What is
object permanence? Theory of Mind? Conservation? Egocentrism? What
phases are they connected to?

What Harry Harlow’s monkeys showed us about body contact.

What is imprinting?

Types of child-rearing

Attachment

Erikson’s stages of identity formation

Intimacy (text) and love (lecture)

Kohlberg’s idea of morality

Major issues in development

Omit language development—I did not explain it to you well enough
Class 8-9 and Chapter 2 (pages 38-62)
Topic: NEUROSCIENCE
Questions: 20

What is phrenology?

Physiology of a nerve cell (neuron)
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Dendrites receive messages and send them to the cell body
The axon is what takes the message from the cell body to the
terminal fibers which synapse on to other dendrites or cell bodies
A myelin sheath, a layer of fatty tissue that speeds transmission,
interrupted by the Nodes of Ranvier, covers some axons (it is
affected in multiple sclerosis)

The concept of a threshold and the all-or-none response:
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A threshold is the minimum level of stimulation needed to trigger a
neuron to fire
All-or-none refers to the fact that either a neuron fires or it does not;
the strength of an impulse thus has everything to do with how many
neurons fire as opposed to how hard they fire. That is because they
all fire at the same threshold or strength; i.e., at a depolarized level
compared to the resting potential of -70mV.

Synapse: junction between the axon
tip of sending neuron and dendrites or
cell body of receiving neuron. The gap
is called the synaptic cleft and at first
the vescicles fuse with the pre-synaptic
membrane and then burst to release the
neurotransmitters they carry. All this is
kicked off by the arrival of the action
potential. The neurotransmitters then
bind to post-synaptic receptors.
Electrical atoms have now passed from
one neuron to the other. To prevent the
synapse from being active for too long,
mechanisms like reuptake of the
neurotransmitter (by the terminal fiber)
kick in, and the resting potential is restored.
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The action of some neurotransmitters:
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-

Acetylcholine enables muscular action, learning and memory. In
Alzhemier’s disease, what happens is that Ach-producing neurons
deteriorate. What Botox does is block ACh release, which results in
a superficial facial paralysis accompanying the wrinkle reduction.
Serotonin affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal. It may be
deficient in those with clinical depression, which is the reason that
SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) like Prozac, Zoloft,
and Paxil seem to work.
Endorphins (endogenous morphine) are natural opiates released in
response to pain and vigorous exercise.
The nervous system is divided in to the Central NS (brain and spinal cord)
and the Peripheral NS (somatic NS and autonomous NS). The Somatic
NS involves the skin and skeletal muscles. The Autonomous NS involves
inner organs like the heart, eyes, stomach, liver, kidney, and bladder. The
Autonomous NS has two sub-divisions: the Sympathetic NS (arousal:
dilates pupil, accelerates heart, inhibits digestion, relaxes the bladder) and
the Parasympathetic NS does exactly the opposite (calming: constricts
pupil, decelerates heart, stimulates digestion, contracts the bladder).
Which one (sympathetic or parasympathetic) is involved in the fight-orflight response?

Simple CNS Reflex: Put your hand
above a lit candle. A neuron from the
skin (sensory/afferent) will carry the
impulse to the spinal cord where it will
synapse on an interneuron (in the
spinal cord) which in turn synapses
on another neuron (motor/efferent)
which then carries the message to
your hand. You feel the pain (sensory)
and do the action of retracting your
hand (motor) reflexively.

Spinal cord: explain using the difference between paraplegia and
hemiplegia

Tools of discovery: EEG, PET, MRI

Lower-level brain structures:
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Brainstem (automatic survival functions)
Thalamus (relays sensory input—all except smell—from the body to
upper brain)
Cerebellum (coordinated voluntary motion and balance)
Limbic system (amygdala influences aggression and fear;
hypothalamus regulates functions like hunger, thirst, body
temperature, it is the master gland that helps govern the endocrine
system via the pituitary, and is linked to emotion)

Cerebral cortex: 4 lobes, features/location of the motor and sensory
cortex, association areas (Broca’s and Wernicke’s), related aphasias
(BMWs).
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Plasticity: re-organization of pre-wiring to compensate for lost function

Split-brain patients reveal a lot about hemispheric specialization (Mike
Gazzaniga’s research)
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Left brain is “logical and sequential” (speech, numbers, and logic);
right brain is about the “big picture” (intuition, faces,
expressiveness)
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When a split-brain patient sees a painting that is a composite face
made out of vegetable, if you present it to the left visual field, the
response will be “face” and if you present it to the right visual field,
the response will be “vegetables”
Read the HE*ART example from the text book too