Psychology Midterm
Coherent
Psychology: the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context.
How is psychology a science? It is based on the scientific method. In other words we use research and empirical data to answer theories, make predictions and try to explain a phenomena. In Psychology, you observe human behavior.
The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to mind. The availability heuristic operates on the notion that if something can be recalled, it must be important.
Research process:
Chapter 4
Sensation: the detection of physical energy by our sense organs, which send that info to the brain
Perception: the brains interpretation of raw sensory data
Difference = sensation is the result of your body's senses sensing something while perception is what you see and fail to see in it
Transduction: converting an external energy/stimulus into electrical activity within neurons (done through sense receptors)
Sensory receptors: specialized forms of neurons
Sensory adaptation example: the cold lake we jump into for a summer swim feels freezing at first, but soon feels only refreshingly cool
Absolute threshold: the lowest level of a stimulus we can detect 50% of the time
> Perfume: 1 drop in 3-room apartment
>Sight: a candle at 30 miles on a clear night.
>detecting heat after putting hand over stove burner just noticeable difference: is the smallest amount of stimulus change we can detect 50% of the time
>webers law: the stronger the stimulus the greater the change needed for detection of a difference
Selective attention: allows us to choose whch sensory inputs to focus on and what to ignore
Chapter 7
Sensory memory: where encoding starts; is the shortest-term element of memory. It is the ability to retain impressions of sensory information after the original stimuli have ended.
>capacity: not very much / duration: brief; no more than a few seconds Iconicvisual .5
Psychology: the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context.
How is psychology a science? It is based on the scientific method. In other words we use research and empirical data to answer theories, make predictions and try to explain a phenomena. In Psychology, you observe human behavior.
The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to mind. The availability heuristic operates on the notion that if something can be recalled, it must be important.
Research process:
Chapter 4
Sensation: the detection of physical energy by our sense organs, which send that info to the brain
Perception: the brains interpretation of raw sensory data
Difference = sensation is the result of your body's senses sensing something while perception is what you see and fail to see in it
Transduction: converting an external energy/stimulus into electrical activity within neurons (done through sense receptors)
Sensory receptors: specialized forms of neurons
Sensory adaptation example: the cold lake we jump into for a summer swim feels freezing at first, but soon feels only refreshingly cool
Absolute threshold: the lowest level of a stimulus we can detect 50% of the time
> Perfume: 1 drop in 3-room apartment
>Sight: a candle at 30 miles on a clear night.
>detecting heat after putting hand over stove burner just noticeable difference: is the smallest amount of stimulus change we can detect 50% of the time
>webers law: the stronger the stimulus the greater the change needed for detection of a difference
Selective attention: allows us to choose whch sensory inputs to focus on and what to ignore
Chapter 7
Sensory memory: where encoding starts; is the shortest-term element of memory. It is the ability to retain impressions of sensory information after the original stimuli have ended.
>capacity: not very much / duration: brief; no more than a few seconds Iconicvisual .5