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MCAT behavioral sciences questions
and answers already passed
just noticeable difference jnd ✔✔minimum difference in magnitude between two stimuli before one can perceive this difference
Weber's law ✔✔there is a constant ratio between the change in stimulus magnitude needed to produce a jnd (higher stimulus will need a larger difference to produce a jnd)
Signal detection theory ✔✔changes in out perception of the sam stimuli depending on both internal and external context (how loud would someone need to yell your name in a crowd for you to hear their name?)
response bias ✔✔subjects respond in a certain way due to non sensory factors
duplexity (duplicity theory of vision) ✔✔retina contain two kinds of photoreceptores: those specialized for light and dark detection and those specialized for color section
cones ✔✔used for color vision and sense fine details- most effective in bright light and comes in 3 forms (blue, red, green)
rods ✔✔more functional and only allow sensation of light and dark because they all contain a single pigment (rhodopsin)- low sensitivity but allow night vision (more rods than cones)
fovea ✔✔center most part of the eye and only contains cones
optic chiasm ✔✔fiber from the nasal half of each rating cross paths
parallel processing ✔✔ability to simultaneously analyze and combine information regarding color, shape, and motion
two point threshold ✔✔minimum distance necessary between two points of stimulation on the skin such that the points will be felt as two distinct stimuli
gate theory of pain ✔✔proposes that there is a special gating mechanism that can turn pain signals on or off, affecting whether or not we perceive pain
Kinesthetic sensation (proprioception) ✔✔ability to tell where one's body is in space
Bottom up processing ✔✔refers to object recognition by parallel processing and feature detection- brain takes individual sensory stimuli and combines them together to create a cohesive image before determining what the object is
associative learning ✔✔creation of pairing, or association, wither between two stimuli or between a behavior or response
classical conditioning ✔✔type of associative learning that takes advantage of biological instinctual responses to create associations between two unrelated stimuli (dog starts to salivate when he hears a bell ring due to the fact that when the bell rings he is given a treat)
acquisition ✔✔training of a conditioned stimulus
extinction ✔✔loss of conditioned stimulus
spontaneous recovery ✔✔weak response is exhibited
generalization ✔✔broadening effect of a conditions stimulus (little Albert exhibits fear of rat and generalizes it to a rabbit)
discrimination ✔✔organism learns to distinguish between two similar stimuli
operant conditioning ✔✔links voluntary behaviors with consequences in an effort to alter the frequency of those behaviors
B.F. skinner ✔✔father of behaviorism
reinforcement ✔✔process of increasing the likelihood that an individual will perform a behavior
positive reinforcement ✔✔increase a behavior by adding a positive consequence or incentive
negative reinforcement ✔✔increase behavior by removing something unpleasant
punishment ✔✔used to reduce a behavior
positive punishment ✔✔adds unpleasant consequences in response to a behavior to reduce behavior
negative punishment ✔✔reduction of a behavior when a stimulus is removed (taking phone away to punish the child)
latent learning ✔✔occurs without a reward but this is spontaneously demonstrated once a reward is introduced
self reference effect ✔✔learn the best when put the information into context of our own lives
shaping ✔✔rewarding increasingly specific behaviors
controlled (effortful) processing ✔✔active memorization/studying
types of encoding ✔✔visual encoding acoustic encoding semantic encoding (put in meaningful context: strongest method)
method of loci ✔✔associating each item in the list with a location along a route through a building that has already been memorized
peg word ✔✔associates numbers with items that rhyme with or resemble the numbers
chunking ✔✔taking individual elements of a large list and grouping them together into groups of elements with related meaning
sensory memory ✔✔iconic (visual) and echoic (auditory), lasts for a short period of time
whole report ✔✔asked to repeat a whole list but by the time the first couple items are spoken the rest of the list is forgotten
partial report ✔✔asked to repeat a line of a list and does so with 100% accuracy
short term memory ✔✔about 30 sec
7+- 2 rule ✔✔capacity of the short term memory
working memory ✔✔enables us to keep pieces from the short term memory
long term memory ✔✔from short term to long term with rehearsal
elaborative rehearsal ✔✔association of information to knowledge already sorted in the long term memory
implicit memory ✔✔consists of our skills and conditioned responses
explicit memory ✔✔memories required conscious recall
semantic memory ✔✔the facts we know
episodic memory ✔✔our experiences
retrieval ✔✔response demonstrated that something that has been learned is retained
recall ✔✔retrieval and statement of previously learned information
serial position effect ✔✔retrieval cue that appears while learning lists, more likely to remember the first and last items (the permit and recency effect)
Alzheimer's disease ✔✔loss of acetlycholine in neurons hat link to the hippocampus, amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles
dementia ✔✔atrophy of the brain
sundowning ✔✔a decrease in function in late afternoon or evening
Korsakoff's syndrome ✔✔memory loss caused by a thiamine deficiency in the brain
retrograde amnesia ✔✔loss of previous memory (ex: The Vow)
anterograde amnesia ✔✔inability to form new memories
confabulation ✔✔process of creating vivid but fabricated memories to fill gaps
agnosia ✔✔loss of the ability to recognize objects, people, or sounds (usually only one of the three)
curve of forgetting ✔✔for a day or two learning a list will decrease rapidly and then level off
interference ✔✔a retrieval error caused by the existence of other information
proactive interference ✔✔old information is interfering with new learning
retroactive interference ✔✔new information causes forgetting of old information
prospective memory ✔✔remembering to perform a task at some point in the future
false memories ✔✔brain changes the memories to fill gaps and can also change depending on the mood while making the memory and rehearsing the memory
misinformation effect ✔✔experiment: people saw picture and included car stopped at a yield sign, next day they are given descriptions and most agreed with the false description that the car was stopped at a stop sign
source amnesia ✔✔confusion between semantic and episodic memory: person hears story and confuses that is happened to themselves
neuroplasticity ✔✔neural connections form rapidly in response to stimuli
John Dewey ✔✔study of the organism as a whole as it functioned to adapt to the environment
Paul Broca ✔✔behavioral deficits of people with brain damage (Broca's area: if damaged unable to talk)
Hermann Von Helmholtz ✔✔measure the speed of nerve impulses
Sir Charles Sherrinton ✔✔existence of synapses
reflex arc ✔✔interneurons are connected to the brain and spinal cord and result in reflexive behaviors
Acetylcholine ✔✔parasympathetic neurotransmitter in the body
rooting relex ✔✔automatic turning of the head when cheek touched
moro relex ✔✔infants react to abrupt movements - disappears after 4 months
Babinski reflex ✔✔causes toes to spread apart automatically when the sole of the foot is stimulated
grasping reflex ✔✔infant closes fingers around an object placed in hand
gross motor skills ✔✔movement from large muscle groups
fine motor skills ✔✔movement from smaller muscles of the fingers, toes, and eyes
parallel play ✔✔at 2 years, children play alongside each other without influencing each other's behaviors
Jean Piaget ✔✔there are qualitative differences between the way that children and adults think
- sensorimotor
- preoperational
- concrete operational
- formal operational -learning is from instinctual interaction with the environment
assimilation ✔✔process of classifying new information into existing information
accommodation ✔✔process by which existing schemata are modified to encompass this new information
sensorimotor ✔✔- birth to 2
- manipulate the environment to meet physical needs
formal operational stage ✔✔- 11
- think logically with abstract ideas
Pendulum expriment ✔✔- children in formal operational stage were able to hold all variable constant expect one and determine the what influences the frequency while children in concrete stage varied more then one constant at random and changed the data to fit the projected hypothesis
Lev Vygotsky ✔✔driving cognitive development is the child's internalization of their culture
Fluid intelligence ✔✔consist of problem solving skills, peaks in early adulthood
crystallized intelligence ✔✔related to use of learned skills (experiences) and knowledge, peaks in mid adulthood
mental set ✔✔tendency to approach problems in the same way
functional fixedness ✔✔the inability to consider how to use an object in a nontraditional manner
Heuristics ✔✔simplified principles used to make decisions
availability heuristics ✔✔try and decide the how likely something is
representativeness heuristics ✔✔involves categorizing items on the basis of whether they fit the prototypical, stereotypical, or representative image of the category
base rate fallacy ✔✔using prototypical or stereotypical factors while ignoring actual numerical information
confirmation bais ✔✔the tendency to focus on information that
intuition ✔✔ability to act on perceptions that may not be supported by available evidence
recognition primed decision model ✔✔sorting through a wide variety of information to match a pattern
multiple intelligence ✔✔Howard Gardner's theory have seven defined typed of intelligence: linguistic, logical-mathatical, musical, visual-spatial, bodily- kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal
IQ test equation ✔✔(mental age/chronological age) x 100
alertness ✔✔awake and able to think, cortisol levels are higher, maintained by prefrontal circuits and interact with reticular formation located in the brain stem to stay awake- disruptions in these connections result in a coma
circadian rhythms ✔✔daily cycle or awake and sleep, attributed to melatonin from the pineal gland results from light changes
cortisol ✔✔produced in the adrenal cortex, slowly increases in the morning because light cases the release of CRF to release ACTH from the anterior pituitary
dream ✔✔occurs in REM
activation synthesis theory ✔✔dreams are caused by widespread random activation of neural circuitry and mimics incoming sensory information
problem solving dream theory ✔✔dreams are a way to solve problems while you are sleeping
cognitive process dream theory ✔✔dreams are merely the sleeping counterpart of stream of consciousness
dyssomnias ✔✔disorder that make it difficult to fall asleep, stay asleep, or avoid sleep (insomnia, narcolepsy, and sleep apnea)
Parasomnias ✔✔abnormal movements or behaviors during sleep, including night terrors and sleepwalking
cataplexy ✔✔sudden loss of muscle control and intrusion of REM sleep in waking hours
REM rebound ✔✔earlier onset and greater duration of REM than normal when sleep deprivation has occurred
alcohol ✔✔increase GABA, and Cl channel to cause hyper polarization of the membrane
- diminished arousal
- increases dopamine levels
- wernicke korsakoff syndorme- thiamine deficiency
barbiturates and benzodiazepines ✔✔increase GABA to relax
amphetamines ✔✔increase dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin and decrease reuptake
- stimulant- increase arousal, decrease appetite and sleep
cocaine ✔✔stimulant
ecstasy ✔✔stimulant
opiates ✔✔morphine, codeine
