PSYCH 10 flash cards
43 cards for Introductory Psychology, laid out week by week and timed around your exams. Free on iPhone and the web.
Exam dates
Unblank times your reviews around these. You can always set your own dates in the app.
- FinalFri, Mar 19, 2027A sample date until the Registrar posts the real one
The first 20 cards
Read the question, think of your answer, then open the card.
Week 1 · Research methodsWhy can't a correlation alone show that one variable causes another?Show the answerHide the answer
A third variable could drive both, or the cause could run the other way.
Week 1 · Research methodsWhat is an independent variable?Show the answerHide the answer
The variable the experimenter manipulates to see its effect.
The dependent variable is the outcome that gets measured.
Week 1 · Research methodsWhy do experiments use random assignment?Show the answerHide the answer
It spreads participant differences evenly across groups, so a difference in outcome can be credited to the manipulation.
Week 1 · Research methodsWhat is a double-blind study?Show the answerHide the answer
One where neither the participants nor the researchers working with them know who is in which condition.
Week 1 · Research methodsWhich shows the stronger relationship, a correlation of -0.80 or one of +0.30?Show the answerHide the answer
-0.80. Strength is the size of r regardless of sign; the sign only gives direction.
Week 2 · Neurons and neurotransmittersWhat starts an action potential?Show the answerHide the answer
Depolarization past threshold at the axon hillock opens voltage-gated sodium channels, and Na⁺ rushes into the axon.
Week 2 · Neurons and neurotransmittersWhat does the all-or-none law say?Show the answerHide the answer
A neuron either fires a full-size action potential or doesn't fire. A stronger stimulus raises the firing rate, not the spike's size.
Week 2 · Neurons and neurotransmittersWhat is reuptake?Show the answerHide the answer
The sending neuron reabsorbing neurotransmitter from the synapse, which ends its signal.
SSRIs, a common class of antidepressants, block the reuptake of serotonin.
Week 2 · Neurons and neurotransmittersWhich neurotransmitter is lost in Parkinson's disease?Show the answerHide the answer
Dopamine, as the dopamine-making neurons of the substantia nigra die, which impairs movement.
Week 2 · The brainWhat does damage to Broca's area typically cause?Show the answerHide the answer
Trouble producing fluent speech, while understanding language stays relatively intact.
Damage to Wernicke's area is the reverse: fluent speech that makes little sense, with poor comprehension.
Week 2 · The brainWhat role does the hippocampus play in memory?Show the answerHide the answer
It is critical for forming new explicit (declarative) memories.
After surgery removed both of his hippocampi, patient H.M. could no longer form new long-term explicit memories.
Week 2 · The brainWhy can't a split-brain patient name an object flashed only to the left visual field?Show the answerHide the answer
The image goes to the right hemisphere, but speech is usually in the left, and the corpus callosum linking them is cut.
Week 3 · Sensation and perceptionWhat is transduction?Show the answerHide the answer
Converting physical energy, such as light or sound waves, into neural signals.
Week 3 · Sensation and perceptionWhat are rods and cones each for?Show the answerHide the answer
Rods work in dim light and give no color; cones work in brighter light and give color and fine detail.
Week 3 · Sensation and perceptionWhat does Weber's law say?Show the answerHide the answer
The just noticeable difference is a constant proportion of the original stimulus, not a fixed amount.
Week 3 · Sensation and perceptionWhat is the difference between bottom-up and top-down processing?Show the answerHide the answer
Bottom-up builds a perception from sensory input; top-down uses expectations and knowledge to interpret that input.
Week 4 · Classical conditioningIn Pavlov's experiments, what was the bell once conditioning had taken place?Show the answerHide the answer
The conditioned stimulus: originally neutral, it came to trigger salivation after being paired with food.
Week 4 · Classical conditioningWhat is extinction in classical conditioning?Show the answerHide the answer
The fading of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus keeps appearing without the unconditioned stimulus.
Week 4 · Classical conditioningWhat is spontaneous recovery?Show the answerHide the answer
The return of an extinguished conditioned response after a rest period.
Week 4 · Operant conditioningWhich reinforcement schedule produces high, steady responding that is hardest to extinguish?Show the answerHide the answer
Variable ratio: reward comes after an unpredictable number of responses, as with a slot machine.
Week by week
The whole deck: 43 cards over 10 weeks. Every week is open from day one.
- 1Research methods5 cards
- Research methods 5
- 2Biology of behavior7 cards
- Neurons and neurotransmitters 4
- The brain 3
- 3Sensation and perception4 cards
- Sensation and perception 4
- 4Learning6 cards
- Classical conditioning 3
- Operant conditioning 3
- 5Memory4 cards
- Memory 4
- 6Thinking and intelligence3 cards
- Thinking and intelligence 3
- 7Development4 cards
- Development 4
- 8Emotion and motivation3 cards
- Emotion and motivation 3
- 9Social psychology4 cards
- Social psychology 4
- 10Personality and disorders3 cards
- Personality 1
- Psychological disorders 2