1
Study-guide II
Lillian McMaster, Ph.D.
For PY 101 on Chapters 3-5
Chapter 3 Sensation and Perception
I.
Sensation
a. Sensation
b. Sensory receptors – .
c. Sense organs
1. eyes
2. ears
3. nose
4. skin
5. taste buds
d. Sensory Thresholds
1. Just noticeable difference (jnd or the difference threshold) –
2. Absolute threshold –
3. Subliminal stimuli a. Limin b. Sublimin II. Habituation and Sensory Adaptation
a. Habituation
b. Sensory adaptation –
c. Microsaccades
III. Psychological Aspects to Light
2
a.Brightness –
b. Color
c. Saturation –
IV. Structure of the Eye
a. Cornea –
b. Radial kerototomy –
c. Aqueous humor –
d. Pupil
e. Iris –
f. Lens –
g. Visual accommodation –
h. Vitreous humor –
i. Retina –
j. Ganglion cells
k. Bipolar cells
l. Rods –
m. Cones
n. Blind spot –
V. How the Eyes Work
a. Dark adaptation –
b. Night blindness
c. Light adaptation –
d. Color Vision
e. Trichromatic theory –
f. Afterimages
3
g. Opponent-process theory –
h. Monochrome colorblindess –
i. Red-green colorblindess j. Sex-linked inheritance.
VI. Sound
a. Wavelength –
b. Amplitude –
c. Purity –
d. hertz (Hz) VII. Structure of the Ear
1. Auditory canal 2. Eardrum –
3. Hammer
4. Anvil
5. Stirrup
6. Cochlea –
7. Organ of Corti –
8. Auditory nerve –
VIII. Theories of Pitch
a. Pitch
b. Place theory –
c. Frequency theory –
d. Volley principle IX. Types of Hearing Impairments
a. Conduction hearing impairment
4
i. damaged eardrum (
ii. damage to the bones of the middle ear
b. Nerve hearing impairment –
c. Surgery to Help Restore Hearing
i. Cochlear Implant –
X. Taste
a. Taste buds –
b. Gustation –
c. Five Basic Tastes:
1. Sweet
2. Sour
3. Salty
4. Bitter
5. “Brothy”
XI. Smell
a. Olfaction (olfactory sense) –
b. Olfactory bulbs –
c. Somesthetic Senses
d. Skin senses
1. Gate-control theory –
2.. Kinesthetic sense –
e. Proprioceptive receptors (proprioceptor)
f. Vestibular senses –
g. Perception –
5
h. Size constancy –
i. Shape constancy –
j. Brightness constancy –
k. Gestalt Principles
1. Figure–ground 2. Reversible figures –
3. Similarity –
4. Proximity –
5. Closure 6. Continuity –
7. Contiguity
j. Development of Perception
1. Depth perception –
2. Studies of depth perception
3. Visual cliff experiment
4. Monocular Cues
a. Linear perspective –
b. Relative size –
c. Interposition (overlap)
5. Aerial perspective –
6. Texture gradient
7. Motion parallax
8. Accommodation –
k. Binocular Cues-seeing in stereo
1. Convergence –
6
2. Binocular disparity
3. Perceptual Illusions-look on blackboard for more illusions on external links page
a. Müller-Lyer illusion –
b. Moon illusion –
4. Illusions of Motion:
a. autokinetic effect –
b. stroboscopic motion
c. phi phenomenon –
l. Factors that Influence Perception
1. Perceptual set (perceptual expectancy) –
2. Top-down processing –
3. Bottom-up processing –
m. Applying Psychology
1. Extrasensory Perception (ESP) –
2. Telepathy –
3. Clairvoyance
4. Precognition –
5. Parapsychology –
Chapter 4.
Consciousness: Sleep, Dreams, Hypnosis, and Drugs
I. What is consciousness
a. Consciousness –
b. Waking consciousness c. Altered state of consciousness -.
II. How important is sleep?
7
a. Circadian rhythm -.
i. “circa” – about
ii.“diem” – day
b.Hypothalamus –
c. suprachiasmatic nucleus – Tells pineal gland to secrete melatonin, which makes a
person feel sleepy.
d. Microsleeps e.Sleep deprivation d. Adaptive theory -.
e. Restorative theory -.
III. Brain Wave patterns during sleep
a. Electroencephalograph (EEG) - allows scientists to see the brain wave activity as a
person passes through the various stages of sleep and to determine what type of sleep the
person has entered.
b. Alpha waves - brain waves that indicate a state of relaxation or light sleep.
c. Theta waves - brain waves indicating the early stages of sleep.
d. Delta waves - long, slow waves that indicate the deepest stage of sleep.
IV. Stages of Sleep
a. Rapid eye movement (REM) –
b. NREM (non-REM) sleep c. Stages of Sleep in detail
i. Non-REM Stage One –:
1. hypnagogic images –
2. hypnic jerk –
ii. Non-REM Stage Two –
iii. Non-REM Stages Three and Four –
8
iv.Deep sleep – when 50%+ of waves are delta waves.
d. REM Sleep and Dreaming
i.REM sleep is paradoxical sleep (high level of brain activity), If wakened during
REM sleep, almost always report a dream.
ii. REM rebound –
iii. REM behavior disorder –
V. Stage Four Sleep Disorders
a. Sleepwalking (somnambulism) –
b. Night terrors –
c. Nightmares - bad
VI. Can Sleepwalking be a Crime Defense?
a. Steven Steinberg case
b. Kenneth Parks case
c. Scott Falater case
VI. Problems During Sleep
a. Insomnia b. Sleep apnea –
i. Continuous positive airway pressure device.
c. Narcolepsy -.
d. Cataplexy –
VII. Dreams
a. Freud –.
i. Manifest content –
ii.Latent content – the true, hidden meaning of a dream.
b. Activation-synthesis hypothesis –
9
c. Activation-information-mode model (AIM) –
VIII. Hypnosis
a. Hypnosis –
b. Four Elements of Hypnosis:
1. The hypnotist tells the person to focus on what is being said.
2. The person is told to relax and feel tired.
3. The hypnotist tells the person to “let go” and accept suggestions easily.
4. The person is told to use vivid imagination.
c. Theories of Hypnosis
i. Hypnosis as dissociation –.
ii. Social-cognitive theory of hypnosis - Psychoactive Drugs
IX. Psychoactive drugs
a. Psychoactive drugs-.
b. Physical Dependence
c. Tolerance –
d. Withdrawal -.
e. Psychological dependence –
f. Stimulants - drugs
i. Amphetamines –
ii. Cocaine –
iii. Nicotine iv. Caffeine –
g. Depressants
i. Depressants ii. Barbituates –.
10
iii. Benzodiazepines –
h. Alcohol
i. Alcohol –
i. Narcotics
i. Opium –
ii. Morphine -.
iii. Heroin j. Hallucinogens
i. Psychogenic drugs ii. hallucinogens –
iii. LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) iv. PCP –
v. MDMA (Ecstasy or X) –
vi. Stimulatory hallucinogenics –
vii. Mescaline –
viii. Psilocybin - natural hallucinogen found in certain mushrooms.
k. Marijuana
i. Marijuana (pot or weed) –
ii. describe why marijuana is a different type of drug than the others listed
above, and answer whether you think it should be legalized and why? This is a very important
debate that you should research before determining your answer.
Chapter 5 Learning
I. What is Learning?
a. Learning –
•
Any kind of change in the way an organism behaves is learning.
11
•
When does instant learning occur, in other words when you are not trying to remember
of learn?
b. Pavlov and Classical Conditioning
c. Classical conditioning –
* Classical conditioning is learning through association, what do you associate
with spiders, clowns, or cats?
d. Classical Conditioning Concepts
i. Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
ii. Unconditioned means “unlearned” or “naturally occurring.”
iii. Unconditioned response (UCR) –
Iv. Conditioned stimulus (CS) -.

For example, in Pavlov’s experiment the Food becomes associated with the bell
v. Conditioned means “learned.”
* . A neutral stimulus can become a conditioned stimulus when paired with an
unconditioned stimulus.
vi. Conditioned response (CR) – This is sometimes called a conditioned reflex.
For example the Bell now causes drooling
vii. Although classical conditioning happens quite easily, there are a few basic
principles that researchers have discovered:
1. The CS must come before the UCS.
2. The CS and UCS must come very close together in time—ideally, only several seconds apart.
3. The neutral stimulus must be paired with the UCS several times, often many times, before
conditioning can take place.
4. The CS is usually some stimulus that is distinctive or stands out from other competing stimuli.
ix. Stimulus generalization -.
x. Stimulus discrimination –
xi. Extinction - Classical Conditioning Concepts
12
xii. Reinforcer –
xiii. Spontaneous recovery –
Remember Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior.
xiv. Higher-order conditioning –
xv. Conditioned Emotional Response
xvi. Conditioned emotional response (CER) –
CERs may lead to phobias – irrational fear responses.
xvii. Taste Aversion
xviii.Vicarious conditioning –
xix. Conditioned taste aversion –
1. Biological preparedness –
e. Other Classical Conditioning Concepts
i. Extinction – occurs if the behavior (response) is not reinforced.
ii. Operantly conditioned responses also can be generalized to stimuli that are
only similar to the original stimulus.
iii. Spotaneous recovery (reoccurrence of a once extinguished response)
f. Why Classical Conditioning Works
i. Stimulus substitution –
ii. Cognitive perspective –
iii. Where do we see Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life? This question is
very important!!!
1. Advertising?
2. Politics?
3. Education?
4. Phobias?
5. Teaching of Prejudice?
13
II. Operant Conditioning
a. Operant conditioning –
b. Thorndike’s Law of Effect –
c. Skinner’s Contribution
i. Behaviorist; wanted to study only observable, measurable behavior.
ii. Gave “operant conditioning” its name.
iii. Operant -.
iv. What are some voluntary behaviors?
•
Learning depends on what happens after the response — the consequence.
•
When do you see this the most?
d. Reinforcement
i. Reinforcement –
ii. Primary reinforcer –
iii. Secondary reinforcer –
iv.Positive reinforcement –
v. Negative reinforcement
vi. Shaping
1. Successive approximations - small steps in behavior, one after the
other, that lead to a particular goal behavior.
•
e. Punishment
•
f. Punishment by application –
•
g. Punishment by removal
•
h. .How to Make Punishment More Effective
Punishment should immediately follow the behavior it is meant to punish.
Punishment should be consistent.
14
Punishment of the wrong behavior should be paired, whenever possible, with
reinforcement of the right behavior.
•
i. Schedules of Reinforcement
i. Partial reinforcement effect –
ii. Continuous reinforcement –
iii. Fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement -.
•
* Think of examples-any time in your life when you were reinforced after a certain number of
correct responses.
iv. Variable interval schedule of reinforcement –
•
Think of examples-this is harder than fixed ratio, when does this happen in everyday life?
v. Fixed interval schedule -.
* Think of examples-this one is the easiest to understand-why?
vi. Variable ratio schedule of reinforcement –

This is used to create many addictive or attractive behaviors? Why?
j. Operant Stimuli and Stimulus Control
i. Discriminative stimulus –
k. Behavior Resistant to Conditioning
i. Instinctive drift - tendency for an animal’s behavior to revert to genetically
controlled patterns.
Each animal comes into the world (and the laboratory) with certain genetically
determined instinctive patterns of behavior already in place.
These instincts differ from species to species.
There are some responses that simply cannot be trained into an animal
regardless of conditioning.
In one study they tried to get chickens to run the bases after hitting a baseball
but they were unsuccessful because chicken have an instinct to chase moving
objects. As a result, the chickens always chased the ball and wouldn’t run the
bases.
15
l. Behavior modification –
n. Time-out –
* Essentially, the organism is being “removed” from any possibility of positive reinforcement in
the form of attention.
o. Applied behavior analysis (ABA) –used with autistic children mostly.
p. Biofeedbackq. Neurofeedback -.
III. Cognitive Learning Theory- Early days of learning – focus was on behavior.

In the 1950s and more intensely in the 1960s, many psychologists were becoming aware
that cognition, the mental events that take place inside a person’s mind while behaving,
could no longer be ignored.
a. Edward Tolman – early cognitive scientist.
b. Latent Learning
•
Edward Tolman’s best-known experiments in learning involved teaching three groups of rats the
same maze, one at a time (Tolman & Honzik, 1930). These experiments showed what latent
learning is.
•
Group 1 – rewarded each time at end of maze.
•
•
Group 2 – in maze every day; only rewarded on 10th day.
•
•
Learned maze quickly.
Demonstrated learning of maze almost immediately after receiving reward.
Group 3 – never rewarded.
•
Did not learn maze well..
c. Insight – this is like an “Aha” moment.
d. Learned Helplessness
i. Domestic Violence
ii. Child abuse
16
IV. Observational Learning-Who are your role models?
a. Observational learning –
b. Learning/performance distinction –
c. Four Elements of Observational Learning-this is part of your assignment on Chapter 5
1. ATTENTION
To learn anything through observation, the learner must first pay attention to the
model.
2. MEMORY
The learner must also be able to retain the memory of what was done, such as
remembering the steps in preparing a dish that was first seen on a cooking show.
3. IMITATION
The learner must be capable of reproducing, or imitating, the actions of the model.
4. MOTIVATION
Finally, the learner must have the desire to perform the action.
(An easy way to remember the four elements of modeling is to remember the letters
AMIM, which stands for the first letters of each of the four elements).
d. Real World Example
i. Training a cat to use the toilet will involve:
ii. Shaping.
iii. Preparing “the training arena.”
iv. Positive reinforcement on a variable schedule.