1. Establish a research question

2. Develop (or use a pre-existing) a theory to answer your question.

3. Develop a hypothesis

4. Design the research method

5. Collect the data

6. Evaluate the data

7. Interpret data with repect to theory

8. Loop! Replicate process

They narrowly define the variables.

EX: in the research question it says reads a lot, the operational definition would be like completes more than three books per year.

Individual (gender, age, personality type, reaction)

Situational (peer pressure, number of people around)

Robber's Cave Experiment.

Sherif researched the effects of being in a group vs. being alone.

He took two separate groups of boys (Rattlers and Eagles) at a camp and had them live in two separate caves. Then he put them in competitive situations against the other group.

Collection of data from a sample of a well-defined population

Used to examine a phenomenon

What can be two methods of a survey?

Questionaires

Interviews

-Altering the phrasing of questions can affect the answers

-Ambiguity or uncertainty

-Question order

It's when everyone has an equal chance of being selected

Freud diagnosed "Dora" with hysteria.

She had difficulty breathing, depression, avoidance of social contact, fainting spells.

What was the "H.M" case study?

H.M. had brain surgery to stop his epileptic seizures. His hippocampus was destroyed. He was not able to form new long-term memories.

This is similar to Lucy in 50 First Dates.

Correlation is a single number that describes the degree of a naturally occurring relationship between two variables.

positive-as one variable increases, so does the other

negative-as one variable increases, the other decreases

Variable being measured.

depends on the manipulation.

IRB (Institutional Review Board)

risks are minimized, risks are reasonable in relation to benefits, informed consent

it surrounds the neuron

it's composed of lipids and proteins

(phospholipid bilayer)

With neurons, how do you find the resting potential?

RP = electrical charge across membrane - membrane potential

RP (cell not firing) - 70mV between insde and out

Because ions are concentrated on different sides of the membrane.

Sodium ions are transported with the sodium-potassium pumb through the membrane to maintain resting potential

the inside of the cell becomes depolarized (less negative)

action potential is more likely

The inside becomes hyperpolarized (more negative)

action potential is less likely

A method of achieving or inhibiting action potential in a neuron.

(postsynaptic potentials are small)

begins at axon hillock and passes along axon

Depolarization: sodium ion channels open,

sodium ions rush in,

membrane potential becomes less negative

When potassium ion channels open,

potassium ions rush out,

membrane potential returns to normal

- "all-or-one"

- triggered completely or none at all

- same size always

- takes time before it can fire again

-action potential causes neurotransmitter release from neuron

-diffuse across synaptic cleft/gap

-bind to receptors on next neuron, affecting action potential

A neurotransmitter that effects brain processes that control movements and emotional response/attention.

Neurotransmitters that are natural opiates that deal with pain and stress effects.

the oldest and most central core of the brain.

responsible for automatic functions (autonomic system)

contains the medula, reticular formation, thalamus

What is the reticular formation?

-the nerve network in the brainstem

-regulates impulses between spinal cord and the thalamus

-essential for regulation of arousal

- "sensory switchboard"

-directs incoming information from the brainstem

- "little brain" attatched to the rear of the brainstem

-coordinates voluntary movement and balance (alcohol)

-Cerebral Palsy and shaken baby syndrome

-donut shaped neural system between the brain's "older parts" and the cerebral hemispheres

-responsible in emotions (anger and fear) and motives (food and sex)

-contains 4 parts (4 F's: fighting, fear, food, fun)

-Almond shaped clusters that influence emotions (anger and fear)

-did an experiment with charging bulls

-fighting and fear

-maintenance (hunger, thirst)

-influential with pleasure centers of the brain

-experiment with rats and stimulation

-mind

-linked to formation and retrieval of memories

-stress and glucorticoids

-something just snapped in him, he was happy but all of a sudden got feelings of anger 

-June 24, 1941 - August 1, 1966

-student at UT

-killed 14 and wounded 31

-autopsy showed tumor on hypothalamus

-Interconnected neural cells that cover the cerebral hemispheres

-control and info processing center

-1920's

-electrodes placed on scalp

-detects post-synaptic potentials (neurons doing what?) (such as epilepsy, responses to auditory stimuli, retrival of true vs. false memories)

-1970's

-x-ray

-cross sections, multiple angles

-detects tumors, strokes, brain aneurysms

-1980's

-fluorodeoxyglucose - radioactive glucose analog

-metabolism and blood flow

-detects and monitors tumors, strokes, and neuron-damaging diseases

-1980's

-uses magnets that can be tens of thousands of times more powerful than the Earth's gravitational field

-3D images (doesn't require radiation or radioactive tracers)

-more detailed and precise

-late 80's and early 90's

-diagnostic and non-diagnostic

-demonstrates physical changes (blood flow) in the brain and mental functioning (tasks) over time

-combines MRI with ability to see changes in the blood flow

Right: spacial abilities, visual imagery, music, face recognition

Left: calculations, math and logical abilities, language and speech

-Kayla, physically a female, believes she should have been a male

-now known as Kaden

-importance of nature and nurture in shaping gender identity

Identical: single egg splits, two genetically identical, monozygotic; in studies, identical twins show that genetics are more important than with fraternal

Fraternal: separate eggs, no closer than brother and sister but share the fetal environment, dizygotic

-80 pairs of identical twins raised apart

-measured personality and many traits

-discovered that identical twins raised in different environments are similar; not the case with fraternal

-experience affects brain development

-blame parents (other environments play a bigger role)

-peers

-culture

-Understanding how we perceive the world tells us a lot about how we function in it

-learn about what gets in

-how we keep things out

-our brain's creating of a conscious experience

What gets in (sensation processing)?

-we receive 11 million bits of info per second

-we only process about 40

-smalles detectable level of a stimulus

-ex: candle flame, levels of volume, electric burner on a stove

-just noticeable difference

-smallest detectable change of a stimulus

-proportion of size of original stimulus (Weber's Law)

-Ex: sand, candle flame (add 1 flame to ten and it looks brighter, add 1 flame to 1000 and no change is detected)

-ignore flood of information entering our senses

-judge what's important

-diminished sensitivity to routine stimuli

-helps focus on informative changes

-ex: ticking clock, light, temperature

What is selective attention?

(hint: gorilla video)

-Focus conscious awareness on particular stimulus

-inattentional blindness: don't notice objects when attention is focused elsewhere

-part of the eye

-light enters, is bent

-part of the eye

-adjusts light intake

-part of the eye

-focuses image onto receptor cell (rods and cones)

-part of the eye

-relays info to optic nerve

What is the optic nerve?

-part of the eye

-carries message to brain

-touch

-receives info from skin senses and body movement

-map of body parts

-proportional to areas that require control

-felt by sensors in our skin

-only way we can know something is wrong with the body

-differs from each person (biological, psychological, social)

-a property of the senses, but also an aspect of the brain

-Ex: phantom limbs and perception of pain

-figure = objects in visual field

-ground = surroundings of the visual field

-proximity

-similarity

-continuity

-connectedness

-closure

the given stimulus can trigger radically different perceptions due to context it exists in

(ex: monster image)

Lab device designed to test depth perception in infants and animals.

ex: baby video

What are binocular cues?

-depth cues that depend on both eyes

 -retinal disparity

-convergence

Dealing with depth perception, what is a linear perspective?

Also discuss the affects of light and shadow.

-Parallel lines appear to converge

-the brighter the object, the closer it seems