PSYC 230 UIUC FINAL PAPER 2025 QUESTIONS WITH
ANSWERS GUARANTEE A+
✔✔d' - ✔✔In SDT d' is a measure of how discriminable two distributions are.
- the distance between the distribution means...
- large when two distributions are very discriminable.
Small when not
✔✔Doctrine of specific nerve energies - ✔✔- Handbook of Physiology
A doctrine formulated by Johannes Müller (1801-1858) stating that the nature of a
sensation depends on which sensory fibers are stimulated, not on how the fibers are
stimulated
- central idea: we cannot be directly aware of the world itself, we are only aware of the
activity in our nerves.
Ex: We experience vision because the optic nerve is stimulated, but it does not matter
whether light, or something else, stimulates the nerve.
✔✔Cranial nerves - ✔✔Twelve pairs of nerves (one for each side of the body) that
originate in the brain stem and reach sense organs and muscles through openings in
the skull
Sensory information
Olfactory (I) nerves
Optic (II) nerves
Auditory (VIII) nerves
• Muscles that move the eyes Oculomotor (III)
Trochlear (IV) nerves
Abducens (VI) nerves
✔✔Hermann von Helmholtz (1821- 1894) - ✔✔- Invented the ophthalmoscope to look
inside of people's eyes!
- Helmholtz argued that all behavior could be explained by only physical forces
- First to measure the speed of neural transmission. He proved that neurons obey the
laws of physics and chemistry
✔✔Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934) - ✔✔- Created incredibly detailed drawings of
neurons
and neural structures
- Was the first person to discover the synapse
,✔✔Otto Loewi - ✔✔- German pharmacologist who received a Nobel Prize for
demonstrating that neurons communicate with one another by releasing chemicals
called neurotransmitters.
- essentially demonstrated the "chemical nature" of synaptic communication (1920)
✔✔Synapse - ✔✔The junction between neurons that permits information transfer
✔✔Neurotransmitter - ✔✔A chemical substance used in neuronal communication at
synapses
✔✔action potential - ✔✔An ___________________ is created when the membrane of a
neuron permits sodium ions to rush into the cell, thus increasing the voltage
Neurons fire in an all or none fashion for each spike, and the number of spikes per
second indicates how excited the neuron is
• Each _____________ starts near the cell body of a neuron and propagates down the
axon towards the axon terminal
Electrochemical process involving Na+ and K+ ions moving in and out of the neuron
• Entire populations of neurons work in concert to process information
✔✔Electroencephalography (EEG): - ✔✔A technique that, using many electrodes on
the scalp, measures electrical activity from populations of many neurons in the brain
- great precision in timing but not brain location
✔✔Event-related potential (ERP): - ✔✔A measure of electrical activity from a
subpopulation of neurons in response to particular stimuli that requires averaging many
EEG recordings
✔✔Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): - ✔✔- measure metabolic changes
to precisely localize the activity of many neurons in the brain, but with little precision in
timing.
- Activated neurons provoke increased blood flow, which can be quantified by
measuring changes of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood to strong magnetic fields
✔✔Blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal - ✔✔The ratio of oxygenated to
deoxygenated hemoglobin that permits the localization of brain neurons that are most
involved in a task
✔✔Light - ✔✔A narrow band of electromagnetic radiation that can be conceptualized as
a wave or a stream of photons
, ✔✔Absorbed - ✔✔Energy (e.g., light) that is taken up, and not transmitted at all
✔✔Scattered - ✔✔Energy that is dispersed in an irregular fashion
✔✔Reflected - ✔✔Energy that is redirected when it strikes a surface, usually back to its
point of origin
✔✔Transmitted - ✔✔Energy that is passed on through a surface (when it is neither
reflected nor absorbed by the surface)
✔✔Refracted - ✔✔Energy that is altered as it passes into another medium, (e.g., light
entering water from the air)
✔✔Cornea - ✔✔The transparent "window" into the eyeball
✔✔Aqueous humor - ✔✔The watery fluid in the anterior chamber
✔✔Crystalline lens - ✔✔The lens inside the eye, which allows changing focus
✔✔Pupil - ✔✔The dark circular opening at the center of the iris in the eye, where light
enters the eye
✔✔Iris - ✔✔The colored part of the eye, consisting of a muscular diaphragm
surrounding the pupil and regulating the light entering the eye by expanding and
contracting the pupil
✔✔Vitreous humor - ✔✔The transparent fluid that fills the large chamber in the posterior
part of the eye
✔✔Retina - ✔✔A light-sensitive membrane in the back of the eye that contains rods and
cones, which receive an image from the lens and send it to the brain through the optic
nerve
✔✔The tapetum lucidum - ✔✔(Latin: "bright tapestry", plural tapeta lucida) is a layer of
tissue in the eye of many vertebrates.
✔✔Lens - ✔✔Refraction is necessary to focus light rays onto the retina and this is
accomplished by the lens
✔✔Accommodation - ✔✔The process in which the lens changes its shape, thus altering
its refractive power
✔✔Emmetropia - ✔✔The happy condition of no refractive error
ANSWERS GUARANTEE A+
✔✔d' - ✔✔In SDT d' is a measure of how discriminable two distributions are.
- the distance between the distribution means...
- large when two distributions are very discriminable.
Small when not
✔✔Doctrine of specific nerve energies - ✔✔- Handbook of Physiology
A doctrine formulated by Johannes Müller (1801-1858) stating that the nature of a
sensation depends on which sensory fibers are stimulated, not on how the fibers are
stimulated
- central idea: we cannot be directly aware of the world itself, we are only aware of the
activity in our nerves.
Ex: We experience vision because the optic nerve is stimulated, but it does not matter
whether light, or something else, stimulates the nerve.
✔✔Cranial nerves - ✔✔Twelve pairs of nerves (one for each side of the body) that
originate in the brain stem and reach sense organs and muscles through openings in
the skull
Sensory information
Olfactory (I) nerves
Optic (II) nerves
Auditory (VIII) nerves
• Muscles that move the eyes Oculomotor (III)
Trochlear (IV) nerves
Abducens (VI) nerves
✔✔Hermann von Helmholtz (1821- 1894) - ✔✔- Invented the ophthalmoscope to look
inside of people's eyes!
- Helmholtz argued that all behavior could be explained by only physical forces
- First to measure the speed of neural transmission. He proved that neurons obey the
laws of physics and chemistry
✔✔Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934) - ✔✔- Created incredibly detailed drawings of
neurons
and neural structures
- Was the first person to discover the synapse
,✔✔Otto Loewi - ✔✔- German pharmacologist who received a Nobel Prize for
demonstrating that neurons communicate with one another by releasing chemicals
called neurotransmitters.
- essentially demonstrated the "chemical nature" of synaptic communication (1920)
✔✔Synapse - ✔✔The junction between neurons that permits information transfer
✔✔Neurotransmitter - ✔✔A chemical substance used in neuronal communication at
synapses
✔✔action potential - ✔✔An ___________________ is created when the membrane of a
neuron permits sodium ions to rush into the cell, thus increasing the voltage
Neurons fire in an all or none fashion for each spike, and the number of spikes per
second indicates how excited the neuron is
• Each _____________ starts near the cell body of a neuron and propagates down the
axon towards the axon terminal
Electrochemical process involving Na+ and K+ ions moving in and out of the neuron
• Entire populations of neurons work in concert to process information
✔✔Electroencephalography (EEG): - ✔✔A technique that, using many electrodes on
the scalp, measures electrical activity from populations of many neurons in the brain
- great precision in timing but not brain location
✔✔Event-related potential (ERP): - ✔✔A measure of electrical activity from a
subpopulation of neurons in response to particular stimuli that requires averaging many
EEG recordings
✔✔Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): - ✔✔- measure metabolic changes
to precisely localize the activity of many neurons in the brain, but with little precision in
timing.
- Activated neurons provoke increased blood flow, which can be quantified by
measuring changes of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood to strong magnetic fields
✔✔Blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal - ✔✔The ratio of oxygenated to
deoxygenated hemoglobin that permits the localization of brain neurons that are most
involved in a task
✔✔Light - ✔✔A narrow band of electromagnetic radiation that can be conceptualized as
a wave or a stream of photons
, ✔✔Absorbed - ✔✔Energy (e.g., light) that is taken up, and not transmitted at all
✔✔Scattered - ✔✔Energy that is dispersed in an irregular fashion
✔✔Reflected - ✔✔Energy that is redirected when it strikes a surface, usually back to its
point of origin
✔✔Transmitted - ✔✔Energy that is passed on through a surface (when it is neither
reflected nor absorbed by the surface)
✔✔Refracted - ✔✔Energy that is altered as it passes into another medium, (e.g., light
entering water from the air)
✔✔Cornea - ✔✔The transparent "window" into the eyeball
✔✔Aqueous humor - ✔✔The watery fluid in the anterior chamber
✔✔Crystalline lens - ✔✔The lens inside the eye, which allows changing focus
✔✔Pupil - ✔✔The dark circular opening at the center of the iris in the eye, where light
enters the eye
✔✔Iris - ✔✔The colored part of the eye, consisting of a muscular diaphragm
surrounding the pupil and regulating the light entering the eye by expanding and
contracting the pupil
✔✔Vitreous humor - ✔✔The transparent fluid that fills the large chamber in the posterior
part of the eye
✔✔Retina - ✔✔A light-sensitive membrane in the back of the eye that contains rods and
cones, which receive an image from the lens and send it to the brain through the optic
nerve
✔✔The tapetum lucidum - ✔✔(Latin: "bright tapestry", plural tapeta lucida) is a layer of
tissue in the eye of many vertebrates.
✔✔Lens - ✔✔Refraction is necessary to focus light rays onto the retina and this is
accomplished by the lens
✔✔Accommodation - ✔✔The process in which the lens changes its shape, thus altering
its refractive power
✔✔Emmetropia - ✔✔The happy condition of no refractive error
