FUN FACTS 

You Forget 90% of Your Dreams

 Everybody Dreams

Every human being dreams (except in cases of extreme psychological disorder). If you think you are not dreaming – you just forget your dreams.

Dreams are Symbolic

If you dream about some particular subject it is not often that the dream is about that. Dreams speak in a deeply symbolic language. Whatever symbol your dream picks on it is most unlikely to be a symbol for itself.

Sleeping Disorders

Insomnia

 

• Persistent problems falling asleep

• Affects 10% of the population 

Narcolepsy

• Suffers from sleeplessness and may fall asleep at unpredictable or inappropriate times
• Directly into REM sleep
• Less than .001% of population

Sleep Apnea

• A person stops breathing during their sleep
• Wake up momentarily, gasps for air, then falls back to sleep
• Very common especially in heavy males.

Night Terrors

• A sleep disorder characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified
• Occurs in stage A, not REM, and are not often remembered

Sleepwalking

• sleepwalking is a sleep disorder affecting an estimated 10% of all humans at least once in their lives
• sleepwalking most often occurs during deep non-REM sleep (stages 3 or 4 sleep) early in the night

Dreams

• A sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person's mind.
• Manifest Content : the remembered story-line of a dream
• Latent Content : the underlying meaning of a dream

Why do we dream?

• Freud's wish-fulfillment Theory
• Dreams are the key to understanding our inner conflicts
• Ideas and thoughts that are hidden in our unconscious
• Manifest and latent content

Information-Processing Theory

• Dreams act to sort out and understand the memories that you experience that day
• REM sleep does increase after stressful events

Activation-Synthesis Theory

• during the night our brainstem releases random neural activity, dreams may be a way to make sense of that activity.

Learning

Most learning is associative learning

• Learning that certain events occur together

There  are 3 main  types of Learning

• Classical Conditioning (Ivan Pavlov)
• Observational Conditioning
• Operant Conditioning

Unconditional Stimulus (UCS) : a stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response

Unconditional Response : the unearned, naturally occurring response to the UCS

Conditioned Stimulus (CS) : an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with the UCS, comes to trigger a response.

Conditioned Response : the learned response to a previously neutral stimulus

Acquisition

• The initial stage of learning
• The phase when the neutral stimulus is associated with  the UCS so that the neutral stimulus comes to elicit the Conditioned Response (thus becoming the CS)

Extinction 

• The diminishing of a conditioned response.

Spontaneous Recovery

• The reappearance after a rest period, of an extinguished conditional response.

Generalization

• The tendency once response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the CS to elicit similar  responses.

Discrimination

• The learned ability to distinguish between a CS  and another stimuli that does not signal the UCS.

Operant Conditioning

• A type of learning in  which behavior is strengthened if followed by reinforcement or diminished if followed punishment.

Classical vs. Operant

• They both use acquisition, discrimination, SR, generalization and extinction.
• Classical conditioning is automatic
• Operant conditioning involves behavior where one can influence their environment with the behaviors which have consequences

The Law of Effect (Edward Thorndike)

• Edward Thorndike
• Rewarded behavior is  likely to recur

B.F Skinner

• Shaping - A procedure in Operant Conditioning in which reinforces guide behavior closer and closer towards a goal

Reinforce

• Any event that strengthens the behavior it follows
• Positive Reinforcement - strengths  a response by presenting a stimulus after a response
• Negative Reinforcement - strengthens a response by reducing or removing an aversive stimulus

Punishment

• Any event that decreases the behavior that follows it
• Positive Punishment - something bad is added in order to decrease an unwanted behavior
• Negative Punishment - Something good is removed to  cause an unwanted behavior to  decrease

Types of reinforces

Primary Reinforce

• An innately reinforcing stimulus

Conditioned (Secondary) Reinforce

• A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer

Partial Reinforce

• Reinforcing a response only part of the time
• The Acquisition process is slower
• Greater resistance to extinction

Fixed -ratio Schedules

• A schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses

Variable-ratio Schedule

• A schedule of reinforcement that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses

Fixed-Interval Schedule

• requires a set amount of time to elapse before the reinforcement is given

Variable-interval Schedule

• A schedule of reinforcement that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals

Token Economy

• Every time a desired behavior is performed, a token is given they can trade tokens in for a variety of prizes (reinforces) 
• Used in homes, prisons, mental institutions an school

Observational Learning

• Albert Bandura and his bobo doll
• We learn through modeling behavior from others

Latent Learning

• Edward Toleman 
• Latent means hidden
• Sometimes learning is not immediately evident

Insight Learning

• Wolfgang Kohler
• Sometimes animals learn through the "ah-ha" experience.

 States of Consciousness

• Sleep
• Hypnosis
• Drugs

Sleep

• A state of consciousness
• We are less aware of our surroundings

Why do we daydream?

• The can help us prepare for future events
• They can nourish our social development
• Can substitute for impulsive behavior

Fantasy Prone Personality

• Someone who imagines and recalls experiences with lifelike vividness and who spends considerable time fantasizing

Biological Rhythms

• Annual Cycle : Seasonal variation
• 28 day cycles : menstrual cycle
• 24 hour cycle : Our circadian rhythm
• 90 minute cycle : sleep cycles

Circadian Rhythm

• Our 24 hour biological clock
• Our body temp and awareness changes throughout the day

Sleep Stages

• 5 identified stages of sleep 
• Takes 90-100 minutes to pass through all 5 stages
• The brains waves will change according to the sleep stage you are in
• The first four stages are known as NREM
• the 5th is called REM sleep

Stage 1

• Kind of awake, kind of asleep
• Only lasts a few minutes, and you usually only experience it once a night
• Eyes begin to roll slightly
• Your brain produces theta waves ( high amplitude, low frequency (slow)

Stage 2 

• This follow stage 1 sleep and is the "Baseline" of sleep
• This stage is part of the 90 minute cycle and occupies approximately 45-60& of sleep
• More Theta waves that get progressively slower
• Begin to show sleep spindles. short bursts of rapid brain waves

Stages 3 and 4

• Slow wave sleep
• you produce Delta waves
• If awaken you will be very groggy
• Vital for restoring body's growth hormones and good overall health
• May last 15-30 minutes
• It is called "slow wave" sleep because brain activity slows down dramatically from the "theta" rhythm of stage 2 to a much slower rhythm called "delta" and the height or amplitude of the waves increases dramatically

REM sleep (Stage 5)

• Rapid eye-movement
• Brain is very active
• Dreams usually occur in REM
• Body is essentially paralyzed
• composes 20-25% of a normal night sleep
• Breathing, heart rate and brain wave activity quicken vivid dreams can occur
• From REM, you can go back to stage 2

MEMORY

 

 

 

• The persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information.

Encoding

 

• The processing of information into the memory system .

storage

• The retention of encoded  material over time.

Retrieval 

 

• The process of getting the information out of memory storage.

Recall v. Recognition

 

•  you must retrieve the information from your memory (fill-in-the blank tests.)
•  you must identify the target from possible targets (multiple choice test.)

Flashbulb Memory

 

 

• A clear moment of an emotionally significant moment or event

Types of Memory

 

 

• Sensory Memory
• The immediate, initial recording of sensory information in  the memory system
• Stored just for an instant, and most gets unprocessed 
•       Short-term Memory
• memory that holds a few item briefly.
• seven digits (plus of minus two
• the info will be store into long term or forgotten

•  Working Memory (Modern day STM)
• Another way of describing the use of short-term memory is called working memory
• Working Memory has three parts

1. Audio
2. Visual
3. Integration of audio and  visual (controls where your attention lies.)

•      Long-term Memory
• The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system.

• Two ways to encode
• Automatic processing
• unconscious encoding of incidental information.
• you encode space, time and words meaning without effort thing can become automatic with practice.
• Effortful processing
• encoding that requires attention and conscious effort rehearsal is the most common effortful professing technique through enough rehearsal, what was effortful become automatic.
• THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT ENCODING
• The next in line effect
• we seldom remember that the person has just said or done if we are next.
• Spacing effect
• we encode better when we study or practice over time
• DO NOT CRAM.
• Serial positioning effect 
• our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list.
• semantic encoding
• The encoding of sound, especially the sound of words.
• A Caustic encoding
• The encoding of sound, especially the sound of words
• Visual Encoding
• The encoding of picture images
• Tricks to encode
• use imagery mental picture
• Mnemonic devices use imagery like "peg work" system.
• Chunking
• organizing items into familiar, manageable unit often it will occur automatically.

 Types of Long-term memories

 

Explicit (declarative): with conscious recall

• Facts (General Knowledge "Semantic Memory")
• Personally experienced events

Implicit (non-declarative): without conscious recall

• Skills - motor and cognitive
• Classical and operant conditioning effects

Types of retrieval failure

 

Proactive Interference

• The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information 

Retroactive Interference

• The disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information

Misinformation Effect

• Incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event.

• Vision
• our most dominating sense
• the height of a wave gives us it's intensity (brightness) 
• the length of the wave give us it's true (color)
• the longer the wave the more red
• the shorter of the wavelength the more violet

• Transduction 
• transforming signals into neural impulses.
• information goes from the sense to the thalamus, then in the various areas in the brain
• light energy to vision 
• chemical energy to smell and taste

• Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic ( three colors) Theory
• types of cones
• red
• blue, green
• these types of cones can make millions of combination of colors

• Opponent-process Theory
• the sensory receptor come in pairs 
• red/ Green, yellow/blue, black and white
• if one color is stimulated the other is in hibited

• Hearing
• we hear sound waves 
• the height of the wave gives us the amplitude of the sound
• the frequency pf the waves give us the pitch of the sound
• the longer the wave length the low the pitch
• the shorter the wave length the higher of the pitch.

•   Transduction in the ear
• sound waves hit the eardrum then anvil then hammer then stirrup then oval window
• everything just vibrating
• then the cochlea vibrates 
• the cochlea is lines with mucus called basilar membrane 
• In the basilar membrane there are hair cell
• when the hair cells vibrate they turn vibration into neural impulses which called organ of corti sent them to thalamus up auditory nerve.

• Pitch theory
• place: theory different hairs vibrate in the cochlea when there are different pitches.
• so some hairs vibrate when they hear high pitches and other vibrate when they hear low pitches

• Frequency Theory
• all of the hair vibrate but at different speeds.

• deafness 
• conduction 
• something goes wrong with the sound and the vibration on the way to the cochlea
• you can place the bones or get a hearing aid to help
• Nerve (sensorineural ) deafness the hair cells in the cochlea get damaged 
• loud noises can cause this type of deafness,
• No way to replace the hairs
• cochlea implant is possible.

• Smell and Taste
• 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 area actually all over our mouth)

• Touch 
• receptors located in our skin
• Gate control Theory of pain
• cora contain a neurological gate that blocks the pain signals or allows to pass onto the brain

• Vestibular sense
• tell us where our body in oriented in space our sense of balance 

• Kinesthetic
• tell us where our body part are
• receptors located in our muscle and joints

• Perception
•  the process of organizing and interpreting information enabling us to recognize meaningful object or events 

• Gestalt philosophy
• the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts

• Figure ground relationship
• the organization of the visual field into objects(figure) 
• that stand out from their surrounding (ground)

• grouping
• the perceptual tendency to organized stimuli into groups that we understand
• proximity, similarity,

• depth perception
• the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the reting are two dimensional allows us to judge distance

• Binocular Cues
• the closer an object comes to you the greater the disparity is between the two image
• retinal disparity an binocular cue for seeing depth 

Sensation and perception

sensation: your window to the world

perception:interpreting what comes in your window

• sensation
• the process by which our sensory receptor and nervous system receive stimulus from the environment.

• Bottom-up vs. Top-down processing
• bottom began with the sense receptor work up into 
• Top-down information processing got it by higher leave metal process.

• Absolute Threhold
• the minimum stimulation needed to detect a stimulus 50% on the time 

• Difference Threhold
• The minimum difference that a person can detect between two stimuli. Also 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
• predict how we detect stimulus amid other stimuli.

•  Sensory Adaption
• Decreased responsiveness to stimuli due to constant stimulation.

• Selective attention
• The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular single

• Cocktail party effect 
• describes the ability to focus one's listening attention on a single talker among a mixture of conversation and background noises, ignoring other conversation form of selective attention.

perception

Biological school

The nervous system 

it start with an individual nerve cell called the Neuron.

how does the neuron fire?
resting potential 
slightly negative charge.
reach the threshold when enough neurotransmitter reach dendritesit's an electrochemical process. 
electrical inside the neuron 
chemical outside of the neuron ( in the synapse in the form of a neurotransmitter )
the firing is call action potential
The all of none response
the idea that either the Neuron fires or it does not no part way firing like a gun
Neurons communicate 
tiny junction
NEUROTRANSMITTERS
chemical messenger released by terminal button through the synapse
- 4 types of neurotransmitters

•  Acetylcholine  
• deal with motor movement and memory
• lack of dopamine has been linked to Parkinson's disease
• too much has been linked to schizophrenia

• serotonin
• involved in the mood control
• lack of serotonin has been linked to clinical depression.

• Endorphins
• involve in pain control
• many of our most addictive drugs deal with endorphins
• drug can be...
• agonist-make neuron fire
• antagonists-stop neural firing.

• Sensory Neurons (afferent Neurons)
• take information from the sense to the brain.

• Inter Neurons
• take message from sensory neutrons to other part of the brain or to motor Neutrons

• Motor Neurons (efferent Neurons)
• Take information from the brain to the rest of the body.

• Central Nervous system
• the brain and the spinal cord.
• Peripheral Nervous system.
• all nerves that are not encased in the bone.
• everything but the brain and spinal cord
• divided into two categories somatic and autonomic

• Somatic Nervous System
• control voluntary muscle movement 
• uses motor (efferent ) neurons.

• Autonomic Nervous system
• control the automatic function of the body

• divide into two categories the sympathetic and parasympathetic 

• Sympathetic Nervous system.
• fight or plight response.
• Automatically accelerates heart rate. breathing, dilates pupils slow down digestion.

 

"A Child Called "It" is a real life story about a boy who was brutally beaten and starved by his mentally disturbed and alcoholic mother. At first, David Pelzer lived a healthy and normal life with his parents and brothers. His mother, however, unexpectedly transformed into a monster, venting her anger on her helpless child. David was submerged in freezing cold water, forced to eat his own vomit, slept in the basement under the stairs, stabbed, and forced to sit on a burning stove. These are just a few of the torturous games that his mother used to play. She treated him not like her son, but like an "it". David suffered both mental and physical abuse. In order to survive from his mother's sick games, David used willpower. Through all of her torturous games, David's inner strength began to emerge."

Descriptive research seeks to depict what already exists in a group or population.

A variable is something that can be changed, such as a characteristic or value.

Cross-sectional research takes place at a single point in time.

 Longitudinal research is a study that takes place over a period of time.

causation One of the most important distinctions to make when discussing the relationship between variables is the meaning.

A correlation is the measurement of the relationship between two variables. 

Vocabulary

1.hindsight bias
2.operational definition
3.case study
4.survey
5.false consensus effect
6.random sample
7.naturalistic observation
8.illusory correlation
9.experiment/single and double blind
10.placebo effect
11.independent and dependent variable
12. mean median mode range
13.standard deviation
14. experimental v. control group