Biopsychology (How Neutrons worked)

For instance, if you picked up a hot coal, the signal from the
sensory neurons in your fingertips would travel to
interneurons in your spinal cord. Some of these interneurons
would signal to the motor neurons controlling your finger
muscles (causing you to let go), while others would transmit
the signal up the spinal cord to neurons in the brain, where it
would be perceived as pain.

Top down processes use past experience/knowledge to come to a

conclusion. Our brain adds meaning what you perceive based on
what it knows or expects. Example: I see a hot stove and know it will
not be safe to touch it based on knowledge,

Bottom up processes use direct experience through sensory

receptors of our 5 senses. Example: If you turn on the sink and it is
hot. From the sense of touch, you will pull away.

- Procedural memory = Unconscious Skills memory

(Cycling, tie shoe laces)
- Declarative memory = Facts and data (Long term
memory)
o Semantic = ability to recall facts and concepts, often
referred to as common knowledge. (Understand the
difference between dog and cat, Recalling how to
use a phone)
o Episodic = based on specific events, or "episodes"
that are part of your personal history. (Sister’s
wedding, Name of your pet)
Maintenance Rehearsal (Short term) is the process of repeatedly
verbalizing or thinking about a piece of information. Your short term
memory is able to hold information about about 20 seconds.
However, this time can be increased to about 30 seconds by using
Maintenance Rehearsal. Example: Remembering a number from your
friend
Elaborative rehearsal (Long term) is a memory technique that
involves thinking about the meaning of the term to be remembered,
as opposed to simply repeating the word to yourself over and over.
For example, you need to remember the term "neuron." In order to
permanently commit the term to your memory, you look up what it
means (it is a nerve cell), find out its purpose (transmit information
from or to the central nervous system), look at a diagram and study
its parts, and think about how it relates to things that you already
know (like how different it is from other kinds of cells, assuming you
are familiar with other cells). If you do this several times (rehearsal),
then you will be more likely to remember the term.

Mood-Congruent Memory indicates that, when humans store

memories, they not only store the event, but they also store a
memory of the mood they were in at the time. For this reason,
when we feel happy we recall other happy memories. Likewise,
when we feel depressed we remember other unhappy events.
For this reason, it is easier to remember events when a
person is in the same state of mind as when the memory was
stored.

Encoding specificity is a principle that states that human memories

are more easily retrieved if external conditions (emotional cues) at the
time of retrieval are similar to those in existence at the time the
memory was stored. For instance, happy memories are easier to
access when happy, or bad memories are more accessible when in a
depressed mood.

Light bulb memory: The sudden onset of a clear memory of

an emotionally significant moment or event. When you are
trying to remember something and then it "all of a sudden
comes to you", you have experienced a flash bulb memory. It is
like turning on a light.

Context dependent memory refers to the phenomenon of how

much easier it is to retrieve certain memories when the
"context," or circumstances around the memory are same for
both the original encoding and retrieval. Research shows
improved recall of specific episodes or information when the
context present at encoding and retrieval are the same.

Example: You have probably experienced this if you have ever

returned to the home where you grew up, or a school that you
used to attend. When you do this memories of events that
happened there came more readily to mind.
A practical application of this might be in physically reenacting
an event to remember some detail. For example, if you have
misplaced your car keys, try going through the sequence of
actions for the last time you came into your house and you
might find where you left them.

Information that you have to consciously work to remember is

known as explicit memory. Example: Recalling number (declarative
memory is one type of explicit memory)

Information that you remember unconsciously and effortlessly is

known as implicit memory. Example: Swinging a bat (procedural
memory is one type of implicit memory)
Proactive interference (pro=forward) occurs when you cannot learn
a new task because of an old task that had been learnt.  When what we
already know interferes with what we are currently learning – where old
memories disrupt new memories.

Retroactive interference (retro=backward) occurs when you forget a

previously learnt task due to the learning of a new task. In other words,
later learning interferes with earlier learning - where new memories
disrupt old memories.

Recognition is the association of an event or physical object with one

previously experienced or encountered, and involves a process of
comparison of information with memory, e.g. recognizing a known face,
true/false or multiple choice questions, etc.
Recall involves remembering a fact, event or object that is not currently
physically present (in the sense of retrieving a representation, mental
image or concept), and requires the direct uncovering of information
from memory, e.g. remembering the name of a recognized person, fill-in
the blank questions, etc.

Meaningful encoding involves the association of active

information in short term memory with other information
recalled from long term memories. By this process new
information is coded with meaning.
Hippocampus is located within temporal lobe. It consolidate
the information from short-term memory to long-term
memory.

Absolute Threshold
Minimum/Maximum amount of stimulus to be detected for 50% of the time
Eg. Pitch of hearing when you can hear it

Difference Threshold
Minimum amount of change in the intensity of stimulus required to be
detected for 50% of the time
Eg. You will feel hot when it is 30 degrees but when it is 32 degrees, you can
feel the different rather than 30.1 degrees

Proactive Interference
Previously stored information/memory hinders remembering new information
Eg. Calling your new gf your ex’s name

Retroactive Interference
Newly learned information hinders remembering previous stored information
Eg. Writing down last year instead of this year

Temporal Lobe
Anterograde amnesia, the more common of the two, is associated with
injury to the hippocampus. With it, you cannot convert new sensory
information into long-term memories. The medial temporal lobe is one of the
main areas for processing and storage.

Hippocampus is a memory function, particularly the transference from short- to long-

term memory and control of spatial memory and behaviour.  The hippocampus sends
memories out to the appropriate part of the cerebral hemisphere for long-term storage and
retrieves them when necessary. Damage to this area of the brain may result in an inability to
form new memories.

amygdala is responsible for determining which memories are stored and

where the memories are stored in the brain.
hypothalamus is responsible for regulating your hunger, thirst, response to pain,
levels of pleasure, sexual satisfaction, anger and aggressive behavior, and more.

Thalamus: a large, dual lobed mass of gray matter cells that relay sensory
signals to and from the spinal cord and the cerebrum.

Seven Sins of memory

Absent-mindedness – inattention to details leads to encoding failure (our
mind is else where when we do things)
Transience – Storage decay overtime (after we part ways with former
classmates, unused information fades)
Blocking – inaccessibility of stored information (seeing an actor in an old
movie, we feel the name on the tip of the tongue but somehow unable to
retrieve the information)
Misattribution – confusing the source of information (putting words into
someone else mouth wrongly or remembering a dream as an actual
happening)
Suggestibility – tendency to incorporate information provided by others, such
as misleading questions, into one's own recollections (a person sees a crime
being committed by a redheaded man. Subsequently, after reading in the
newspaper that the crime was committed by a brown-haired man, the
witness "remembers" a brown-haired man instead of a redheaded man)
Bias - retrospective distortions produced by current knowledge and beliefs
(people currently displeased with a romantic relationship tend to have a
disproportionately negative take on past states of the relationship)
Persistence – unwanted memories, intrusive memories of post-traumatic
stress disorder (being haunted by the images of sexual assault)

An independent variable is the variable that is changed or controlled in a

scientific experiment to test the effects on the dependent variable.
A dependent variable is the variable being tested and measured in a
scientific experiment.