BASIC PSYCHOLOGY — HIGH-YIELD TABLES

SECTION 1: FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNING THEORY

1. Core Learning Concepts

2. Major Forms of Learning

3. Habituation, Sensitisation & Differentials

4. Classical Conditioning Components & Sequences

• Components:
  • NS: Neutral Stimulus (no baseline target response; e.g., tone/elevator before trauma).
  • UCS: Unconditioned Stimulus (naturally triggers response; e.g., food/elevator crash).
  • UCR: Unconditioned Response (innate reaction to UCS; e.g., salivation/trauma fear).
  • CS: Conditioned Stimulus (former NS triggering learned response; e.g., bell/elevator cues).
  • CR: Conditioned Response (learned reaction to CS; e.g., salivation to bell/elevator anxiety).
• Sequence: Before: UCS → UCR, NS → ∅ | During: NS + UCS → UCR | After: CS → CR.
• Little Albert: UCS = Loud noise; UCR = Fear; NS = Mouse; CS = Mouse; CR = Fear.

5. Acquisition Parameters

• Acquisition: Initial CS–UCS bond formation; follows an asymptote (levels off, does not rise infinitely).
• Determinants: Number of pairings, temporal contiguity, CS predictive reliability, stimulus salience, preparedness.

6. Classical Conditioning Timing

• Trap: Backward conditioning (UCS → CS) ≠ Higher-Order conditioning (CS₁ → CS₂).

7. Classical Conditioning Phenomena

• Extinction: New inhibitory/safety learning competing with original trace (not erasure); explains spontaneous recovery, renewal, and reinstatement.
• Higher-Order Conditioning: An established CS₁ pairs with a new NS to turn it into CS₂ (without UCS).
• Preparedness: Evolutionary predisposition to condition to survival threats (spiders, snakes, heights).

8. Operant Conditioning Fundamentals

• Principle: Behaviour frequency changes based on its consequences (Response → Consequence).
• Thorndike: Law of Effect (satisfying outcomes strengthen behaviour; unpleasant outcomes weaken it).
• Skinner: Operant chambers, shaping, schedules, reinforcement/punishment.

9. Reinforcement and Punishment Matrix

• Rule: Added = Positive; Removed/Prevented = Negative | Rate ↑ = Reinforcement; Rate ↓ = Punishment.
• Omission Training / Time-out: Forms of negative punishment (withholding/removing reward).
• Negative Reinforcement ≠ Punishment: Negative reinforcement increases behaviour via relief/escape/avoidance.
• Reward vs Reinforcer: Reinforcers are strictly defined by their objective effect (must ↑ behaviour).

10. Avoidance vs Escape Learning

11. Reinforcement Schedules

12. Social Learning Theory (Bandura)

• Core: Learning by observing models without direct reinforcement of the observer.
• Bobo Doll: Direct reward unnecessary for acquisition; model consequences altered spontaneous reproduction (vicarious reinforcement/punishment).
• 4 Stages: Attention → Retention → Reproduction → Motivation.
• Identification: Stronger when the model is high-status, admired, similar, or emotionally significant.

13. Cognitive Learning from Verbal Information

• Modifying schemas, beliefs, intentions, or actions purely via language, instruction, and logic without direct rewards, punishment, or model observation.

14. Learned Helplessness (Seligman)

• Triad: Inescapable adversity → perceived uncontrollability → passivity/apathy/depression.
• Attributional Reformulation: Depressive style = Internal, Stable, Global attributions for failure.
• Forced Swim Test: Immobility traditionally interpreted as behavioural despair; sensitive to antidepressants; limited construct validity.

15. Imprinting vs Attachment & Latent Learning

• Imprinting (Lorenz): Rigid, rapid, critical-period following response in precocial birds; no conventional reward required.
• Latent Learning (Tolman): Cognitive maps acquired during unrewarded exploration; performance emerges when incentive is introduced.

16. Clinical Integration of Learning Theory

• Addiction Therapies:
  • Cue Exposure: Repeated CS presentation without consumption → Extinction.
  • Contingency Management: Tangible rewards (+R) for verified biological abstinence.
  • Aversion Therapy: Counterconditioning CS with noxious stimulus.

17. Learning Theory Figures Key Summary

• Pavlov: Classical conditioning | Watson: Behaviourism; Little Albert | Thorndike: Law of Effect | Skinner: Operant conditioning | Bandura: Observational/Social learning | Seligman: Learned helplessness | Tolman: Latent learning / Cognitive maps | Lorenz: Imprinting / Instinctive aggression | Wolpe: Systematic desensitisation / Reciprocal inhibition.

SECTION 2: PERCEPTION, ATTENTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS

18–21. Sensation, Perception & Perceptual Distortions

• Sensation vs Perception: Sensation = receptor detection/transduction; Perception = cortical selection, organisation, and interpretation.
• Distinctions:
  • Illusion: Misinterpreted real external stimulus (coat = person).
  • Hallucination: Perception-like experience with no external stimulus.
  • Delusion: Fixed false belief (cognitive, not sensory).
• Distortions: Macropsia (↑ size), Micropsia (↓ size), Dysmegalopsia (size/shape distorted), Metamorphopsia (lines/shapes warped).
• Processing:
  • Bottom-up (Data-driven): Sensory features → cortex (lines, edges, colour).
  • Top-down (Concept-driven): Knowledge/expectations/context guide interpretation.
  • Gregory’s Constructivism: Perception is active, indirect top-down hypothesis testing.
  • Gibson's Ecological Theory: Perception is direct extraction of environmental invariants.

22–23. Constancies & Gestalt Principles

• Perceptual Constancies: Intrinsic object properties perceived as stable despite changing retinal inputs:
  • Shape Constancy: Rectangular door perceived as rectangular despite opening to a trapezoidal retinal image.
  • Size Constancy: Perceived size remains constant as distance shifts retinal size.
  • Brightness Constancy: Perceived reflectance remains stable under changing illumination.
• Gestalt Laws: Figure-ground, Proximity (nearby grouped), Similarity (shared traits grouped), Good continuation (smooth paths), Closure (incomplete shapes filled in), Common fate (elements moving together grouped), Prägnanz (simplest form preferred).
  • Distractor: Approximation is NOT a Gestalt law.

24–27. Attention & Models

• Types: Focused (single discrete stimulus), Selective (one channel attended, distractors suppressed), Sustained/Vigilance (monitoring over time/rare signals), Divided (concurrent tasks), Alternating (task switching).
• Selective Attention Models:
  • Broadbent: Early all-or-none filter based purely on physical characteristics.
  • Treisman: Flexible attenuation model; unattended channel is turned down, not blocked; salient signals (own name, threat) exceed activation threshold (Cocktail-Party Effect).
  • Deutsch–Norman: Late filter; all inputs receive semantic analysis before selection.
• Attentional Phenomena:
  • Inattentional Blindness: Visible unexpected item missed due to focus elsewhere (Invisible Gorilla).
  • Change Blindness: Failure to spot difference between successive scenes.
  • Attentional Blink: Deficit detecting a 2nd target 200–500 ms after a 1st target.

28. Mental Imagery

• Analogue Theory (Kosslyn): Images retain spatial/metric properties; scanning time ∝ distance on mental map.
• Propositional Theory (Pylyshyn): Representations stored as abstract language-like propositions.
• Action Cycle Theory: Enactive system involving 6 reciprocal components: Objects, Schemata, Actions, Affect, Goals, Others' Behaviour.

29–31. Chronobiology & Sleep

• Rhythms: Circadian (~24 h), Ultradian (< 24 h), Infradian (> 24 h).
• Pacemaker: Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in anterior hypothalamus; entrained by light (primary zeitgeber) via the retinohypothalamic tract.
• Sleep Architecture:
  • N1: Light transitional sleep; θ waves replace α.
  • N2: Sleep spindles + K-complexes.
  • N3: Slow-wave sleep (SWS); prominent δ activity; concentrated early in night.
  • REM: Wake-like desynchronised EEG, muscle atonia, rapid eye movements, vivid dreams; lengthens toward morning; deprivation causes REM rebound.

32–34. Dreaming, Cataplexy & Hypnosis

• Activation-Synthesis (Hobson & McCarley): Brainstem/pons generates chaotic cholinergic activation; cortex synthesises narrative; DLPFC deactivated (explains lack of logic/metacognition).
• Cataplexy: Sudden, emotion-triggered (laughter, anger) bilateral skeletal muscle tone loss; consciousness preserved; hallmark of Narcolepsy type 1.
• Hypnosis: Narrowed, focused attention, reduced peripheral awareness, ↑ suggestibility, diminished reality testing. Attention is NOT diffusely distributed.

SECTION 3: MEMORY SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES

35–37. Memory Stores & Working Memory

• Baddeley & Hitch WM Model:
  • Central Executive: Attentional control, task switching, strategy, inhibition.
  • Phonological Loop: Phonological store ("inner ear") + Articulatory loop ("inner voice").
  • Visuospatial Sketchpad: Visual/spatial manipulation (mental rotation).
  • Episodic Buffer: Multimodal integration binding WM and LTM into temporary episodes.
• Digit Span: Forward = STM/attention; Backward/Sequencing = Working Memory manipulation.

38–41. Long-Term Memory Systems & Differentials

• Schizophrenia Profile: Marked deficits in Working, Episodic, Context/Source, and Prospective memory; Procedural/Implicit memory is robustly preserved.

42–43. ADHD & Ageing Memory Trajectories

• ADHD: Core cognitive endophenotypes = Working Memory impairment and reduced attention accuracy.
• Healthy Ageing Gradient: Free Recall declines most → Cued Recall intermediate → Simple Recognition is least affected (environmental support). Procedural memory remains intact.

44–47. Processes, Retrieval & Interference

• Levels of Processing (Craik & Tulving): Deep semantic processing → superior durability compared to shallow acoustic/physical processing.
• Serial-Position Effect:
  • Primacy: First items → transferred to LTM via rehearsal (unaffected by brief filled delays).
  • Recency: Last items → retained in STM (wiped out by filled delay before recall).
• Interference:
  • Proactive: Old learning disrupts New learning (old password keeps intruding).
  • Retroactive: New learning disrupts Old learning (new phone number makes old one forgotten).

48–52. Amnesia, Distortion & Prospective Memory

• Ribot's Law: Temporally graded retrograde amnesia; recent pre-insult memories are far more vulnerable than remote consolidated memories.
• Memory Distortions:
  • Flashbulb Memory: Vivid, confident autobiographical recall of shocking news; accuracy declines despite high confidence.
  • Cryptomnesia: Unintentional plagiarism (source forgotten; idea felt as original).
  • Retrospective Falsification / Schema Reconstruction: Memory warped over time to align with current beliefs/schemas.
  • Confabulation: Honest lying without intent to deceive; diencephalic/frontal dysfunction.
• Amnesic Syndromes:
  • Organic Amnesia (Korsakoff / Bilateral MTL): Dense anterograde amnesia, variable retrograde amnesia, ± confabulation, with spared immediate digit span and preserved procedural learning.
  • Dissociative Amnesia: Stress/trauma-linked autobiographical loss; no organic deficit.
  • Dissociative Fugue: Dissociative amnesia + purposeful wandering / identity loss.
• Prospective Memory: Remembering intended future actions ("remembering to remember"); time-based is harder than event-based; dependent on prefrontal networks.

SECTION 4: INTELLIGENCE, PERSONALITY, AND SOCIAL COGNITION

53–56. Intelligence Frameworks & Flynn Effect

• Fluid (G_f) vs Crystallised (G_c):
  • Fluid (G_f): Novel, abstract problem-solving; culture-reduced; declines with early ageing (Raven Matrices).
  • Crystallised (G_c): Acquired verbal/factual knowledge; resilient to early ageing/insult (Vocabulary, NART).
• Theories: Spearman (g + s positive manifold); Cattell–Horn (G_f / G_c); Sternberg Triarchic (Analytical, Creative, Practical).
• Flynn Effect: Generational rise in raw IQ scores over time; greatest for fluid/abstract reasoning; driven by environmental/educational changes (not genetics).

57–61. Intelligence & Neuropsychological Assessment

• IQ Metrics: Mean = 100, SD = 15. IQ 70 = -2 SD (intellectual disability threshold; requires adaptive deficits).
• WAIS Scales: Digit Symbol–Coding = Processing Speed / Performance (not verbal).
• NART: National Adult Reading Test (pronunciation of irregular words like yacht, aisle) → estimates premorbid crystallised IQ.

62–66. Frontal Syndromes & Executive Neuropsychology

• Neuropsychological Tests:
  • Stroop: Selective attention, inhibitory control, interference suppression.
  • WCST (Wisconsin Card Sort): Concept formation, set-shifting, rule-switching; failure → perseveration.
  • Hayling Test: Suppression of prepotent verbal responses (executive inhibition).
  • Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure: Visuospatial construction (copy) and visual memory (recall).
  • Constructional Praxis: Assessed via drawing/assembling; impaired in right hemisphere/parietal stroke.

67–74. Personality Theories

• Trait Approaches:
  • Allport: Cardinal (dominant, rare), Central (core traits), Secondary (situational).
  • Nomothetic vs Idiographic: Nomothetic = universal laws, group comparisons, standardised scales; Idiographic = unique individual configuration.
• Models:
  • Big Five (OCEAN): Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism. (Honesty-Humility, Carefulness, and Psychoticism are NOT Big Five traits).
  • Eysenck PEN: Psychoticism, Extraversion, Neuroticism (strongly biological/genetic, cortical/autonomic arousal).
  • Cloninger: Temperament (Novelty Seeking [DA], Harm Avoidance [5-HT], Reward Dependence [NE], Persistence); Character (Self-Directedness, Cooperativeness, Self-Transcendence).
  • Type A vs Type B: Type A = time-urgent, hostile (cardiovascular risk factor); Type B = relaxed under time pressure.
  • Authoritarian: Rigid conventionalism, submission to authority, hostility to norm-violators.

75–79. Assessment, Biases & Clinical Personality

• Personality Assessment:
  • Objective: MMPI, EPQ, NEO (standardised; susceptible to social desirability/literacy limitations).
  • Projective: TAT (ambiguous scene stories), Rorschach (10 inkblots; useful when illiterate).
• Horn Effect: Negative halo; one perceived negative feature causes globally negative assumptions.
• Psychopathy vs Dissocial PD: Psychopathy = callous, manipulative, shallow affect, lack of empathy; Dissocial PD = behavioural rule-breaking/antisocial conduct. Persistent fear of abandonment is absent in Dissocial PD (indicates BPD).
• Childhood Conduct Disorder: Strong predictor of adult Antisocial Personality Disorder.
• BPD vs Complex PTSD:
  • BPD: Rapidly shifting, unstable identity/self-image, splitting, impulsivity, self-harm.
  • Complex PTSD: Persistently negative, stable self-concept following chronic trauma.
• Mahler Object Relations: BPD linked to failure during the Rapprochement subphase (15–24 months).

80–86. Language, Development & Social Cognition

• Linguistics: Lexical Semantics = word meanings and relationships; Syntax = grammar/sentence structure; Phonology = speech sounds; Morphology = word building.
• Developmental Language Milestone: Spontaneous two-word phrases ("more milk") emerge at ~2 years.
• Piaget Schema Dynamics:
  • Assimilation: Fitting new data into existing schema unchanged (calling a zebra a "horse").
  • Accommodation: Modifying existing schema to fit new data (differentiating zebra from horse).
• Bayesian Reasoning: Prior × Likelihood → Posterior. Positive test in rare disease requires base-rate consideration.
• Theory of Mind: Representing others' mental states; tested via Sally–Anne task (mastered around 4 years).
• Mirror-Neuron Network: Frontal node = Inferior Frontal Gyrus (IFG); Parietal node = Inferior Parietal Lobule (IPL).
• Self-Serving Bias: Success attributed internally; failure attributed externally.

SECTION 5: MOTIVATION, EMOTION, STRESS AND REWARD

87–89. Motivation & Maslow

• Maslow’s Classic Hierarchy:
  1. Physiological (survival/food/water)
  2. Safety (security/protection)
  3. Love/Belonging (social connection)
  4. Esteem (accomplishment/status)
  5. Self-Actualisation (potential)
• Rule: Once belonging is satisfied → Esteem becomes the next salient tier. Severe starvation/hypoxia places Physiological first.

90–94. Theories of Emotion & Affective Neuroscience

• Emotion Models:
  • James–Lange: Stimulus → Body arousal → Conscious emotion ("I tremble, therefore I am afraid").
  • Cannon–Bard: Stimulus → Body arousal + Emotion simultaneously via thalamus.
  • Schachter–Singer (Two-Factor): Stimulus → Undifferentiated arousal → Contextual cognitive appraisal → Emotion.
• Universal Facial Expressions (Ekman): 6 classic emotions: Anger, Disgust, Fear, Happiness, Sadness, Surprise.
• Primary Affective Systems (Panksepp): 7 subcortical mammalian systems: SEEKING, FEAR, RAGE, LUST, CARE, PANIC/GRIEF, PLAY. (SHAME is NOT one of Panksepp's 7 systems).

95–99. Stress, Reward & Pain

• Yerkes–Dodson Law: Inverted U-shaped curve; performance is poorest at very low and very high arousal; optimal at moderate arousal. Complex tasks have a lower optimal arousal threshold than simple tasks.
• Reward Prediction Error (RPE): RPE = Received Reward - Expected Reward. Phasic dopamine bursts signal positive RPE; pause signals negative RPE.
• Incentive Salience: Motivational "wanting" value; in grief, manifests as yearning/proximity-seeking toward reminders of the deceased.
• Altruistic Analgesia: Altruism ↓ subjective pain via decreased activation in bilateral insula and dACC (vmPFC reflects meaningfulness).

SECTION 6: PSYCHOLOGICAL THERAPIES AND CLINICAL APPLICATIONS

100–102. Transtheoretical Model, MI & Placebo

• Cycle of Change (Prochaska & DiClemente):
  • Precontemplation: Problem denied; no intent to change.
  • Contemplation: Ambivalence; aware of problem, no concrete plan.
  • Preparation: Decision made + concrete action plan arranged (contacting clinic, setting date).
  • Action: Active modification of behaviour.
  • Maintenance: Sustained change; relapse prevention.
• Motivational Interviewing (Miller & Rollnick): Person-centred, directive; develops discrepancy between behaviour and core values; non-confrontational; supports autonomy.
• Placebo Mechanics: Driven by conditioning and expectation; triggers endogenous opioids/dopamine; partially reversed by naloxone; does not require deception or a fixed personality type.

103–106. Behavioural Therapies & Mowrer's Model

• Systematic Desensitisation (Wolpe): Relaxation training + Anxiety hierarchy + Graded exposure. Theoretical basis = Reciprocal Inhibition (relaxation inhibits anxiety).
• Exposure Modalities:
  • Graded Exposure: Stepwise real-life exposure without relaxation training.
  • Flooding: Immediate, prolonged, high-intensity in vivo exposure without hierarchy.
  • Implosion: Immediate, prolonged, high-intensity imaginal exposure (often exaggerated).
  • ERP: Exposure to trigger + prevention of compulsion (breaks negative reinforcement cycle).
• Mowrer's Two-Factor Model:
  1. Acquisition: Classical conditioning (UCS + CS).
  2. Maintenance: Operant conditioning via Negative Reinforcement (avoidance brings immediate anxiety relief).

107–110. DBT, PTSD Interventions & IPT

• DBT (Linehan): Core dialectic = Acceptance + Change; target hierarchy = 1. Life-threatening → 2. Therapy-interfering → 3. Quality-of-life. 4 Skills: Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation, Interpersonal Effectiveness.
• PTSD Treatments: TF-CBT, EMDR, Prolonged Exposure. Psychological First Aid is early supportive care. Routine single-session Psychological Debriefing is NOT recommended (can worsen trauma).
• IPT (Sullivan, Klerman, Weissman): Structured, time-limited (12–16 sessions). 4 Problem Areas: Grief (death only), Role Dispute (interpersonal conflict), Role Transition (retirement, migration, divorce, parenthood), Interpersonal Deficits (chronic isolation).

111–115. Group Therapy, Systems & CBT

• Group Therapy: Best suited for social skills deficits; contraindicated in florid mania/psychosis. Mirroring = seeing one's own traits reflected in another group member.
• Therapeutic Alliance: Goals, tasks, emotional bond; Patient rating is the strongest predictor of outcome.
• Therapeutic Community Principles: Democratisation (flattened hierarchy/shared decisions), Communalism (shared work), Permissiveness, Reality Confrontation.
• Family Systems: Circular causality (reciprocal feedback loop: A ↔ B); Camberwell Family Interview assesses Expressed Emotion (Criticism, Hostility, Emotional Over-Involvement).
• CBT: Collaborative empiricism, guided discovery, behavioural experiments. Unconscious symbolic interpretation is NOT part of CBT.

116–119. Grief, Delay Discounting & OCD Biology

• Kübler-Ross Grief: DABDA (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance). (Rejection is NOT a stage). Non-linear.
• Delay Discounting: Steep discounting = steep loss of subjective value with delay → high impulsivity.
• OCD Superstition Theory: Compulsions arise via accidental reinforcement and are maintained by negative reinforcement.
• PANDAS: Abrupt onset of OCD/tics in children linked to Group A β-haemolytic Streptococcus pyogenes.

SECTION 7: RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

120–124. Research Methodology & Core Clinical Links

• Designs:
  • Cross-Sectional: Different age groups compared simultaneously; fast/cheap; confounded by Cohort Effects.
  • Longitudinal: Same individuals tracked over time; reveals true trajectories; confounded by Attrition and practice effects.
  • Period Effect: Historical event impacting all age cohorts at that time.
• Guanfacine: Selective α_2A-adrenergic agonist; non-stimulant treatment for ADHD; enhances prefrontal networks.
• DAMP (Deficits in Attention, Motor control, Perception): Strongly associated with prenatal Alcohol exposure.

FINAL RAPID DISCRIMINATION TABLE