2011 VN'ers Psychology U3 Questions Thread

[iNerd]

You'll find it fairly straightforward in comparison to Memory IMO.

You seem to have forgotten that SOC/Sleep is only half of AOS1 and the major portion is the Brain and Nervous System.

Personally you'll find 'the Brain' much more confusing than SOC/Sleep.

In fact I'd put SOC/Sleep as the easiest (and perhaps most interesting) part of Unit 3.

[poojas73]

I'm still not quite getting the difference between extraneous and confounding variables

[burbs]

In simplest terms, extraneous variables may or may not affect the DV, but the confounding does, and in a way that makes it impossible to distinguish whether it was the IV or the confounding variable that changed the DV.

[Glockmeister]

Is being paid a breach of voluntary participation? ('coerced', 'under pressure')

If ever you get to go to university campuses, have a look around some of the notice boards around. Some will pay you to participate in the experiment but the amount of money is small, tiny (it's not like you'd get the 'hours' worth of pay that you would if you work at Safeway or something). Also, you get the money regardless of whether you actually choose to do the experiment or not (i.e. the money is only really for showing up).

So it's not a breach of voluntary participation.

I know I'm sort of flogging a dead horse (or question) here, but you might be interested in this.

http://www.monash.edu.au/researchoffice/human/what-is-human-research.html

[Darren]

I'm having trouble understanding/ distinguishing between the core function of the Reticular activating system vs the Thalamus. Can somebody please give me a definition in some detail? It's really hard to understand.. it seems like they both do the exact same thing.. -.-

[Respect]

To organise all the tricky (or not) questions into one organised thread (and reduce clutter throughout the board) please post all your Psych concerns here!

Good luck all, I'm stoked!

EDIT: UNIT 3 ONLY

Respect: -19 lol

[Darren]

Yeah what does that have to do with our questions? :| Somebody, HELP please! ^ above.

[vexx]

I'm having trouble understanding/ distinguishing between the core function of the Reticular activating system vs the Thalamus. Can somebody please give me a definition in some detail? It's really hard to understand.. it seems like they both do the exact same thing.. -.-

i googled it quickly out of boredom haha and found the answer.. google is good you know ^^

The thalamus gives a lot of insight into the importance and direction of various neural signals and also modulates arousal mechanisms, maintains alertness, and directs attention to sensory events.

The reticular activating system plays a role in important functions like sleep and waking, behavioral motivation, breathing, and the beating of the heart.

[Darren]

I guess that helps, thanks mann.. but yeah it says they both filter out sensory information in my textbook.. weird

[iNerd]

I guess that helps, thanks mann.. but yeah it says they both filter out sensory information in my textbook.. weird

I agree - I am thoroughly confused. Will wait it out till we cover it in class.

Q: Aren't procedural memories stored in the cerebellum or in the temporal lobe?

[iNerd]

We know that the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body and vice versa.

So a [funny] kid asked the Q:

"But sir...the male sex organ is in the middle, so which hemisphere controls it?"

The teacher didn't know -.-

Which does?

[Russ]

At a guess, both. It's still (theoretically) perfectly divided in the symmetrical plane, it's just less obvious because it overlaps. The anatomy (which you obviously don't have to know) is symmetrical on both sides of the groin and I assume would be innervated by both halves of the brain.

[Glockmeister]

Well, this is interesting, because the penile tissue is in a sense, a pump. This pump is activated by parasympathetic nerves, but also has innervations from the sensory nerves. Because the penile tissue is a pump, there is no motor nerve that actually connects with the penis itself (there's simply no need). So there's no sense of control as such. The sensory nerve that innervates the penis goes through a section of the spinal cord which is really cords at that point, and thus it might be hard to says that it end up innervating to the left and right hand side.

I would suspect that's it's actually only one side that actually innervates the penis. I'll have a think about this actually 

[iNerd]

Well, this is interesting, because the penile tissue is in a sense, a pump. This pump is activated by parasympathetic nerves, but also has innervations from the sensory nerves. Because the penile tissue is a pump, there is no motor nerve that actually connects with the penis itself (there's simply no need). So there's no sense of control as such. The sensory nerve that innervates the penis goes through a section of the spinal cord which is really cords at that point, and thus it might be hard to says that it end up innervating to the left and right hand side.

I would suspect that's it's actually only one side that actually innervates the penis. I'll have a think about this actually  

Wait...so what nervous system is it controlled by if there is no motor nerve? I assume autonomic.

[Glockmeister]

Well, this is interesting, because the penile tissue is in a sense, a pump. This pump is activated by parasympathetic nerves, but also has innervations from the sensory nerves. Because the penile tissue is a pump, there is no motor nerve that actually connects with the penis itself (there's simply no need). So there's no sense of control as such. The sensory nerve that innervates the penis goes through a section of the spinal cord which is really cords at that point, and thus it might be hard to says that it end up innervating to the left and right hand side.

I would suspect that's it's actually only one side that actually innervates the penis. I'll have a think about this actually 

Wait...so what nervous system is it controlled by if there is no motor nerve? I assume autonomic.

Well it depends on what aspect of the penis you're talking about. If you're talking about the bit that creates the erection, then that's the parasympathetic nervous system. If you're talking about the sensitive bit of the penis (glands penis), then that's sensory nerves.