Psychology questions

[ecvkcuf]

Is visual information in the left visual field processed in both the right and left occipital lobes or just the right?

This is most confusing part for me.

What is the difference between the episodic buffer and phonological loop.. I know that the episodic buffer is involved in transfering info between LTM and working memory but doesn't the phonological loop already do that? So what's the point of this new component.

What is the difference between RAS and the Thalamus and how are they involved in sleep and consciousness?

STM does it last for 12-18 seconds or up to 30 seconds.. which would be considered right? Because I know in the Atkinson-Shiffron Model they used 30 seconds duration for short-term store component..

What association areas do we need to know for the different lobes?

[Limista]

Visual info in the left visual field is processed in the right occipital lobe only (registered in right primary visual cortex)

The phonological loop is a storage component of the central executive; it is our verbal (words/numbers) or auditory working memory. It stores (through sub-vocal maintenance rehearsal) and processes a limited number of verbally produced words and sounds for up to 2s. The episodic buffer transfers info between LTM and working memory - the phonological loop does not have this same purpose.

The RAS is responsible for sustaining consciousness, mediating various levels of wakefulness and alertness and general arousal mechanisms (regulates sleep/wake cycle or transition period from being awake to being asleep). It is also responsible for directing attention to sensory events - filtering out irrelevant info from the mass of signals entering the brain. It is the initial switching station for sensory input. The thalamus regulates levels of wakefulness and alertness due to receiving info about state of arousal from the RAS, and acts as the final switching station for sensory info before it is transmitted to primary cortex relevant lobe for processing. RAS and thalamus do not work independently of each other - RAS influences arousal and attention through thalamus due to ascending nerve tracts which connect to central areas of thalamus. Role of thalamus in sleep: many people think that because we are asleep, we are essentially cut off from our senses. This is not true - any stimulus has the capacity to wake us up if above sensory threshold, as is regulated by thalamus.

Duration STM = 12-30s

need to know functions of association areas for all 4 cortical lobes

[ecvkcuf]

Hey sorry I made a typo.. I didn't mean what is the difference between phonological loop and episodic buffer.. I meant the difference between central executive and episodic buffer..

However, that was a brilliant explanation of phonological loop.

[ecvkcuf]

What are the main association areas for the four lobes?

For temporal it's memory right.. what about for frontal, occipital and parietal lobe?

[Genericname2365]

Hey sorry I made a typo.. I didn't mean what is the difference between phonological loop and episodic buffer.. I meant the difference between central executive and episodic buffer..

However, that was a brilliant explanation of phonological loop.

Holy crap while I was reading you answers I realised I worded my question wrong.

What I meant was Episodic Buffer not Phonological loop.

Sorry guys

Haha... 

[ecvkcuf]

Wait what? I'm confused bahaha
WTF

edit: ah I see what happened there! LOL

[brenden]

STM starts to decline at 12 seconds but if I were asked about the duration of STM my answer would be 18-20 seconds. Atkinson described STM as having a duration of 30 seconds however.

Association areas:
Frontal; complex mental functions, personality, attention, control of emotions and expression.
Parietal; determine the position of our body and objects in space
Temporal; memory, linking emotion with memory (emotional connections are controlled by the amygdala), face recognition and object identification
Occipital; vision lol. The association areas in this lobe interact with the others a fair amount to integrate information, e.g. you see something, goes to occipital, association areas to temporal, memory activated.

[ecvkcuf]

Cheers, man!

- Which type of sleep deprivation involves having difficulty in simple tasks but in complex tasks.. is it partial or total sleep deprivation? And why?

- Does p<0.05 mean that there is a 5% chance that the results obtained were due to chance therefore leading to significant results?

[ecvkcuf]

- Does galvanic skin response measure electrical conductivity of the skin or level of sweat? How does galvanic skin response help us understand what state of consciousness a person is in?

- What does aphasia mean? And what is the different between fluent and non-fluent Aphasia.. I'm assuming fluent is when you are dealing with a language disorder in which the person is able to speak fluently but still has damage to his brain (Wernicke's area)

[brenden]

- Does galvanic skin response measure electrical conductivity of the skin or level of sweat? How does galvanic skin response help us understand what state of consciousness a person is in?
 It is definitely the electrical conductivity of the skin. However, the electrical conductivity increases as sweat increases. Various ASC's are associated with different levels of arousal. For example, in a meditative state heart rate and everything else goes down, so one would assume they would be sweating less (unless they're in a crazy-ass position).

- Which type of sleep deprivation involves having difficulty in simple tasks but in complex tasks.. is it partial or total sleep deprivation? And why?
 I know that partial sleep deprivation will certainly lead to a reduction in simple-task performance however I am unsure if this is replicated for total sleep deprivation. I would assume so; I don't see someone improving on simple tasks running on no sleep. And I'm not 100 percent sure I'm correct but I think the reason why this happens is there is a lack of focus and concentration for simple stimuli, whereas if you were abseiling down a steep cliff you'd be sure as hell you were focusing on everything you were doing, and with the focus there would be less mistakes.

- Does p<0.05 mean that there is a 5% chance that the results obtained were due to chance therefore leading to significant results?
 Yep you're dead on. A p-value of <0.05 means that 5 in 100 repetitions of a study are probably due to chance. Probably being the key word.

NB: I'm answering this from my own knowledge so I very well could be wrong.

[ecvkcuf]

Thank you!

For..
Because I remember for a multiple choice in the Checkpoints book the answer was that after 3 days without sleep the person would have difficulty performing simple tasks, but his performance on complex tasks would not be effected.. do you know why this is the case?

[brenden]

You're welcome
My guess would be because of the focus devoted to the task. If you were colour coding clothes for example, you could do it in NWC and probably daydreaming lol. The level of attention you're giving that task is small. Whereas for something more complex you're devoting your full awareness and attention to that task, thus no decline. However, merely a guess.

[ecvkcuf]

- What do we need to know in terms of what the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems do in terms of their effects on the various organs, glands, and physiological activity (breathing, etc.)?

- What is the difference between the medial temporal lobe and the hippocampus?

- Is the hippocampus involved only in the formation of declarative memories and not procedural memories? Also is it true that it doesn't actually store the formed memories but sends them to other cortical areas for storage - is this because H.M when he had his hippocampus removed could still retrieve old memories however couldn't form new ones.

- What is the difference between proactive and retroactive interference? I always get confused between the two is there any way to remember it.

- What is a good way to remember the difference between anterograde and retrograde amnesia? I just look at antero which means forward.. so I assume that it effects memories which occured after the damage occured? How do you remember it.

- The corpus collosum is the band of nerve fibres which connects the two hemispheres right? Would you have to say that it transfers information between the two hemispheres, or that isn't necessary?

- Can spatial neglect occur on the right side of the body and thus the left parietal lobe being affected or is it just the left side which is effected?

- Would mnenmonics techniques such as acronyms, method of loci, narrative chaining, rhymes, etc. all be examples of elaborative rehearsal?

- What is the difference between deep processing and elaborative rehearsal?

Thanks. More coming up!

[ecvkcuf]

Would the serial position effect occur if the person tries to rehearse the material say 5 minutes after? Wouldn't it mean that only primacy effect would occur since the last few items will not stay in the STM because STM only lasts up to 30 secs.. is this right? And the first few items will be remember because they would be transferred to LTM since they are rehearsed?

When you define amnesia.. would you say that it is just a 'loss of memory' or would you also include 'loss of memory partial or complete, temporary or permanent

[Genericname2365]

- Can spatial neglect occur on the right side of the body and thus the left parietal lobe being affected or is it just the left side which is effected?

It occurs most commonly to the right parietal lobe and thus the left side of the body, but it has been found to occur to the right side of the body with damage to the left parietal lobe, albeit less frequently and with milder symptoms.

- What is the difference between proactive and retroactive interference? I always get confused between the two is there any way to remember it.

Well I just thought of an example of proactive interference that had occurred frequently to me (i.e. someone kept calling me a different but similar name because they had met that person before me) and since then the two have stuck with me.

Would the serial position effect occur if the person tries to rehearse the material say 5 minutes after? Wouldn't it mean that only primacy effect would occur since the last few items will not stay in the STM because STM only lasts up to 30 secs.. is this right?

I'm pretty sure, yes. I think I messed up a practice question this way because I didn't read how much time had passed and so answered primacy and recency, instead of primacy.

- Would mnenmonics techniques such as acronyms, method of loci, narrative chaining, rhymes, etc. all be examples of elaborative rehearsal?

They're considered elaboration in the Grivas book; whether that's the same as elaborative rehearsal I'm not entirely sure.

- What is a good way to remember the difference between anterograde and retrograde amnesia? I just look at antero which means forward.. so I assume that it effects memories which occured after the damage occured? How do you remember it.

Yeah I basically do the same way, I think of retro -> past.

The corpus collosum is the band of nerve fibres which connects the two hemispheres right? Would you have to say that it transfers information between the two hemispheres, or that isn't necessary?

It's probably important to talk about its function, but just remember that there are other nerve fibres that connect the two hemispheres.

What is the difference between the medial temporal lobe and the hippocampus?

The medial temporal lobe is the inner surface area towards the middle ('medial') of the temporal lobe that includes the hippocampus, amygdala and other cortical tissue. The hippocampus is a tubular curved structure found in the medial temporal lobe of each hemisphere; believed to have an important role in memory, responsible for the formation of new long-term memories, especially of declarative explicit memories (semantic and episodic.) The Grivas book seems to class them together in terms of their functions.

- Is the hippocampus involved only in the formation of declarative memories and not procedural memories? Also is it true that it doesn't actually store the formed memories but sends them to other cortical areas for storage - is this because H.M when he had his hippocampus removed could still retrieve old memories however couldn't form new ones.

The hippocampal area of the temporal lobe has an important role in formation or encoding of new declarative explicit memories (semantic and episodic), but not in the formation or retrieval of implicit procedural memories.
And yep that's right.

- What is the difference between deep processing and elaborative rehearsal?

Deep processing according to Craik and Lockhart involves processing meaning during learning, and so elaborative rehearsal involves adeep level of processing because there is a focus on assigning meaning to the information.