Chapter One: Scientific Thinking

Four ways of knowing:

 Rationalism: Forming a narrative that makes sense. Philosophers think this way.
 Tradition/Authority: Beliefs about human behavior that are handed down, usually by culture or society.
 Intuition: Knowing something by unexplained means.
 Empiricism: The premise that knowledge should be acquired through observation. PSYCHOLOGY!

Data Land: Observable Behaviors

 Behavior
 Material Objects
 Measurement
 Date

Theory Land: How to explain Behavior

 Ideas
 Concepts
 Hypothesis
 Theories

Construct: Variables in theories. Also is an inferred cause of measurable events or processes. Should have effects
logically related to it where the effects are logically related to each other. Is also a way to think about cause-effect
relationships when we cannot see causes.
Operational Definition: Taking a psychological construct and finding someway to measure it.
Hypothesis: A tentative statement about the relationship between 2 or more variables
Theories: A system of interrelated ideas that is used to explain observations based on research. Purpose is to organize
observations; understand the nature of phenomena; explain relationships; and make predictions

Three Traditions of Psychology:

 Experimental Psychology: Experimental methods
 Individual Differences: Correlation methods.
 Clinical Approaches: Case Studies

Experimental Psychology:
 Behavioral Psychology: Behavior is a result of experiences
 Cognitive Psychology: Behavior is a function of internal mental processes.
 Neuroscience: Behavior is a result of mental processes.

Wilhelm Wundt: Founding father of psychology. Found things out by experimentation and focused on structuralism,
which analyzes conscious experience into its basic elements.
William James: Founding father of psychology. Found out the “why” in psychology. Investigated the purposes and
meanings behind consciousness.
JB Watson:
B.F. Skinner: Behaviorist who believed that behavior is a function of the environment or experience
Jean Piaget: Cognitive and Neuroscience psychologist who believe that behavior is a functional of internal mental
processes.
Sigmund Freud: Believed behavior results from unconscious desires. Non-academic and not research based. Focuses on
curing mentally ill
Critical Thinking: Set of cognitive skills and strategies for evaluating all claims in an open minded and clear fashion.
Increase the probability of a desired outcome.
Six Principles of Scientific Thinking:
 Ruling out rival hypotheses: Figure out if you’ve explored all possibilities
 Correlation vs. causation: Correlation designs don’t permit causation
 Falsifiability: Is the evidence capable of being disproved?
 Reliability: Findings can be repeated
 Extraordinary Claims: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
 Occam’s Razor: Simplest explanation is usually right

Chapter Two

Goals of Science:
 Description: Accurate measurements are important
 Prediction: Based on our descriptions
 Control: Using our descriptions and ability to predict to create better environments

Descriptive Approach: Describing the world as it is.

 Identifying key variables
 Correlation methods: Use statistics to explore connections between characteristics and events

Descriptive Methods:
 Naturalistic Observation: Watching behavior unfold in the real world
 Surveys: Using questionnaires and other means to determine attitudes
 Case Studies: Finding out things about an individual helps us understand some issue or characteristic.

Positives and Negatives of Descriptive Methods:

+ Surveys can provide lots of information
+ Case studies allow us to study rare or unusual phenomenon
- Case studies take a long time and don’t allow us to infer causation

Correlations: Use statistics to explore connections between characteristics and events.

 Utilizes the correlation coefficient to show a relationship between variables
 The stronger the correlation is, the greater the correlation coefficient is AWAY from zero
 1.0 = strong positive correlation
 -1.0 = strong negative correlation
 The problem of a 3rd variable, confounding variable, is that it makes the correlation unclear. The third or second
independent variables could have caused the change/correlation.
 Illusory Correlation: Seeing a correlation where none exists. Is an illusion.

Experimental Method: Manipulating events to determine cause and effect relationships

Four Features of Experiments:

 Manipulates a variable(cause) to determine the results (effect)
 Done under controlled conditions
 Determine cause  effect relationships
 Likely to occur after we have gathered information via the other research methods

Central Tendency: Measure of the “central” scores in a data set, or where a group tends to cluster. Measures
of central tendency are:
 Mean: Average
 Median: Middle score of data
 Mode: Where group tends to cluster
Standard Deviation: Measure of dispersion that takes into account how far each data point if from the mean. Is a bell
curve

Normal Curve
34% 34%
14% 14%
>2% >2%

Descriptive Statistics: Numbers that describe data. There are two major sets:
 Central Tendency
 Variability: A sense of how loosely or tightly bunched the scores are. Involves range.

Inferential Statistics: Mathematical methods that allow us to determine whether we can generalize findings
from our sample to the full population.
* A finding can be statistically significant with no real world importance. Practical significance questions if material is
useful.

Measurement: The process of quantifying observations on psychological variables for applied or research purposes.
Reliability: Consistency of measurement. Reliability is necessary for validity because we need to measure something
consistently before we can measure it well. i.e. Test-retest reliability
Validity: Extent to which a measure assesses what it purports to measure.

Lessons from Statistics:

 Sample size matters (avoid anecdotal)
 Theory and measurement matter
 Be careful making inferences about individuals based on group membership
 Exceptions don’t falsify a relationship (no correlations are 100%)

Ethical Principles in Psychology:

 Informed consent
 Protection from harm and discomfort
 Deception and debriefing

Heuristic: Mental shortcut that helps us to streamline our thinking and make sense of our world. Humans use heuristics
to have a shortcut in thinking.
 Availability Heuristic: Heuristic that involved estimating the likelihood of an event based on the ease which it
comes to our minds. i.e. asking about number of murders in Detroit vs. Michigan
 Representative Heuristic: Heuristic that involves judging the probability of an event by its superficial similarity to
an event.

Confirmation Bias: The tendency to seek out evidence that supports our beliefs and deny, dismiss, or distort evidence
that contradicts them.
Base Rates: How common a characteristic or behavior is in the general population

Cognitive Biases: Systematic errors in thinking

 Hindsight Bias: Tendency to overestimate how well we could have successfully forecasted known outcomes
 Overconfidence: Tendency to overestimate our ability to make correct predictions

Chapter Three
Biological Psychology: Study of the relationship between the brain and behavior/mental processes. Includes perception,
memory, emotions/feelings, language, & thought
* Fundamental assumption of biological psychology is that human brains and the brains of other animals are
homologous (similar), producing some similarities in behavioral patterns.

* We use animals for research because it’s better than performing experiments on our own and animal brains are similar
to human brains so they help us understand ourselves without invasive operations performed on humans. Animals
provide a model but not a replica!

Parts of a Neuron:
 Neuron: Nerve cell specialized for communication.
Functioning of brain depends on cross talk of neurons.
Neurons contain about 100 billion neurons and 160
trillion connections.
 Dendrites: Extensions on neurons. Spread out to
“listen” in on inform from neighboring neurons and
pass it on to the cell body.
 Soma: Cell body that contains the nucleus.
 Axons: Very thin, long, tail-like extensions protruding
from the cell body. Sends signals and creates trigger
zone. Incased in myelin sheath.
 Terminal Fields: Information is conveyed into other
cells form here.
 Myelin Sheath: Protective covering of axons.

Steps Involved in Neural Impulse (Action Potential):

1. Electrical impulse triggers the release of neurotransmitters. When this occurs, the neuron is either firing or not
firing.
2. Originate in trigger cells of cell body and continue down axon to axon terminal Positive charged particles flow
rapidly into axon and quickly out causing a spike in positive charge and sudden decrease in charge. Inside charge
ends up slightly negative to original resting value.
3. When electrical charge reaches axon terminal, it triggers the release of neurotransmitters -- chemical messages
-- into a synapse
Resting Potential: Electrical charge difference (-60 millivolts) across the neuronal membrane, when the neuron is not
being stimulated or inhibited. More negative particles inside than outside the neuron.

Excitatory Signal:
Inhibitory:
Hyperpolarization:
Depolarization:

Similarities & Differences Between Neurons and other Cells

Simple Reflex Pathway:

Sense Organ

Sensory Neuron

Motor Neuron
Interneurons
Muscle

Lobes on Brain & Functions:

 Occipital: Back part of cerebral cortex responsible for vision
 Temporal: Object recognition as well as hearing, understanding, language, and memory. Is separated from the
rest of the cortex by lateral fissure.
- Auditory Cortex: Part of cortex devoted to hearing
- Wernicke’s Area: Language area of temporal responsible for understanding speech.
- Agnosia: Defect in the ability to recognize objects
- Prospagnosia: Disability in detecting faces.
 Parietal: Spatial attention specializing in touch and perception.
- Somatosensory Cortex: Sensitive to touch, including pressure, pain, and temperature.
- Phantom Limb Syndrome: Capability to feel lost limb.
- Neglect Syndrome: Neglect of half of space following injury to parietal cortex on one side of brain.
 Frontal: “Executive Function”
- Broca’s Area: Language area in prefrontal cortex responsible for speech production.
- Motor Cortex: Responsible for body movement
 Limbic System: Emotional center of brain that processes internal states. SMELL!
- Amygdala: Key roles in fear, excitement, and arousal
- Thalamus: Gateway from the sense organs to the primary sensory cortex. Main door to limbic system
organs.
 Hindbrain: Region below the Midbrain that contains the organs of the brain stem
 - Cerebellum: Responsible for our sense of balance and enables us to coordinate movement and learn
about motor skills. Contributes to executive, spatial, and linguistic abilities
- Pons: Connects the cortex with the cerebellum. Dreams
- Medulla: Involved in heartbeat and breathing.
 Corpus Collosum: Large band of fibers connecting the 2 cerebral hemispheres. Allows communication between
both lobes of brain.
 Basil Ganglia: Helps control movement. Allows us to perform movements to obtain rewards.
 Adrenal Gland: Manufactures adrenaline and cortisol, emergency glands. Cortisol regulates blood pressure and
cardiovascular functions.

Spatial Attention: Rapid, unconscious processing of visual information in the peripheral visual field.
 Draws conscious attention to things that my be important
 Allows for rapid response
 Can help animals detect prey before they come

Plasticity: The brain’s capacity to change aspects of its structure or function based on experience, or in response to
injury. Four processes involved in plasticity:


Stroop Test: Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, Black test. Demonstrates that the frontal lobe is able to control certain words and
things we want to say.
 Brain does not fully develop until people are 25 years old. This is why car insurance rates are higher for teens
than adults.

Six Steps that Summarize Neural Communication at the Synapse:

 Nerve impulses arrives at synapse
 Neurotransmitter molecules released
 Neurotransmitter molecules bind to receptor molecules
 Channel molecules open up to let in positively or negatively charged ions
 This generates a small positive or negative current in postsynaptic cell
 Neurotransmitter molecules degraded, or recaptured by presynaptic cell

Synaptic Integration: How very small synaptic currents translate into a new nerve impulse in the postsynaptic
cell. If the sum of a synaptic current exceeds a certain threshold, a nerve impulse will be generated.
 Spatial Summation: How many positive and negative currents are reaching a particular point in the postsynaptic
cell
 Temporal Summation: The frequency of the currents

Neurotransmitters: Are released from presynaptic cell into the postsynaptic cell.
 Each neurotransmitter acts on multiple receptors, and has different effects depending on which receptor is
activated. Drugs work by increasing or decreasing the effectiveness of neurotransmitters.
 Increase neurotransmitter release (MAOIs)
 Block neurotransmitter clearance (Cocaine, Tricyclics, SSRI’s)
 Active agonist , mimics the neurotransmitter molecule (heroine)
 Decrease neurotransmitter
 Block receptor, antagonist
 Block channel

Neurotransmitters & Association with Drugs:

 Depression: Related neurotransmitters are serotonin & noepinephrine. Block reuptake of neurotransmitter
molecules. Prozac keeps more serotonin around.
 Schizophrenia:
  Pain Reduction:
 Parkinson’s Disease:
 Brain Arousal:
 Muscle Contractions:

Hebb’s Rule: Cells that fire together, wire together.

Long Term Potentiation (LTP): A cellular phenomenon with high frequency stimulation increasing the ability of cell A to
fire cell B. There are two stages, induction and maintenance:
 Placing high frequency stimulation in Cell A, also called tetanus, induces LTP
 Biological changes involved in long term maintenance of LTP are growth of new dendrites, enlargement of
dendritic “spines,” and an increase in the number of excitatory receptors.
 The relationship between LTP and long term memory are that enhancing LTP enhances long term memories
while blocking LTP will prevent the formation of new memories.

Henry Molaison: Showed how difficult it was to remember episodic memories with a disorder called Amnesia.
 Declarative Memory: A type of long term memory that is the conscious memory for information and facts.
There are two forms: Semantic and episodic memory.
 Hippocampus: The hippocampus helps develop and form new memories. Helps us learn by looking at cues to
remember where something is. Evidence to support this is the Morris Water Maze which proved that an animal
eventually learned how to find a submerged platform over time with spatial memory.
 Place Cells: Cells that produce high frequency of nerve impulses when an animal is situated in a particular place.

Split-Brain Effect: When the corpus collosum is severed and the one side of the working brain learns and acquires the
functions of the unusable brain if procedure is done at a young age; is usually done with patients suffering from seizures.
When you see something in your right side you won’t see it if that part of the brain is unusable.

Chapter Four

Five Senses:
 Vision: Eye
 Audition: Ear
 Taste: Tongue All parts go into the brain
 Touch: Body
 Olfactory: Nose

Sensation: Receiving (sensing) physical signals

Transduction: Receptors that convert physical energy to
electrical signals

Parts of the Eye:

Cornea: Part of the eye containing transparent cells that bends light to go to the retina.
Pupil: Circular hole through which light enters the eye. Pupils dilate when we try to process complex info.
Lens: Changes curvature to keep image in focus. Bends light and is completely transparent, allowing light to pass
through.
Retina: Responsible for converting light into neural activity
Fovea: Central portion of the retina and is responsible for acuity, sharpness of vision.
Optic Nerve: Nerve that travels from the retina to the brain. Contains axons of ganglion cells.
Blind Spots: Parts of the visual field we can’t see because of the absence of rods and cones.
Rods: Photoreceptor cells in the retina allowing us to see low levels of light. Long and narrow allowing us to see basic
shapes and forms. Located in receptor cells in retina. Sensitive to movement and vision in dim light.
Cones: Photoreceptor cells in the retina allowing us to see in color. Less numerous than rods. Used in daylight vision and
not as sensitive to light. Good for spatial vision
Absolute Threshold: Lowest level of a stimulus needed for the nervous system to detect a change 50% of the time.
Just Noticeable Difference (JND): The smallest change in the intensity of a stimulus that we can detect. i.e. when you
can start hearing music on iPod.
Weber’s Laws: There is a constant proportional relationship between the JND and original stimulus.

Signal Detection Theory: Theory regarding how stimuli are detected under different condition.
Dark Adaptation: Time in dark before rods regain max light sensitivity

Processing Information:
 Parallel Processing: The ability to attend to many senses at the same time.
 Top-Down Processing: Conceptually driven processing influenced by beliefs and expectancies. Starts with
association cortex to visual cortex.
 Bottom-Up Processing: A whole is constructed by many parts. Starts with primary visual cortex to association
cortex.

Attention:
 Selective Attention: Process of selecting one sensory channel and ignoring others. Biases and personalities
contribute to false alarms or misses, response bias or observer bias. A liberal response bias would produce many
false alarms.
 Intentional Blindness: Failure to detect stimuli that are in plain sight when our attention is focused elsewhere.
 Perceptual Set: Sets formed when expectations influence perceptions.

Perception: The brain’s interpretation of raw sensory inputs

 Orientation occurs in the receptive field. Neurons only respond to
preferred signals, then firing when it is signaled.
 Location occurs
 Color is represented by hue, saturation, and lightness. Certain
neurons respond to different colors
 Motion Is seen by a front end receptor sensing g light and excites ,
delays, and then fires if both neurons are firing.
Bi-Stable Figures: A figure can produce multiple illusions. Brain tries to figure
out what the image is exactly.

Features of Light & Color:

 Trichromatic Theory: Idea that color vision is based on our sensitivity to 3 primary colors. Coincides with theory
regarding 3 kinds of cones, each maximally sensitive to different wavelengths of light.
 Opponent Color Theory: Theory that we perceive colors in terms of 3 pairs of opponent colors; red & green,
blue & yellow, or black & white. After images arise from the visual cortex’s processing of information from our
rods and cones.

Perceptual Constancy: The process by which we perceive stimuli consistently across varied conditions. Several forms:
Size, shape, and color.

Gestalt Principles: Rules governing how we perceive objects as wholes within their overall context. Provide roadmap for
how we make sense of our perceptual worlds.
 Proximity
 Similarity
 Continuity
 Closure
 Symmetry
  Figure-Ground

Depth Cues:
 Monocular Depth Cues: Stimuli that enable us to judge depth using only one eye.
 Binocular Depth Cues: Stimuli that enables us to judge depth using both eyes

Illusions:
 Moon Illusion: When the moon looks like its closer to the Earth, when it really is all in the current position in the
moon.
 Ames Room: Room is shaped oddly like picture.

Subliminal Perception: is the processing of sensory information that

occurs below the level of conscious. 
Subliminal Persuasion: Sub-threshold influences over our votes, product
choices and life decisions. i.e. weight loss books.