Chapter 15 (p. 525-539, 543-552, 558-566)

Question 1

Psychological construct

Answer 1

Idea or set of impressions that some mental ability exists as an entity; examples include memory, language, and emotion

Question 2

Cognition

Answer 2

Act or process of knowing or coming to know; in psychology, refers to thought processes; in behavioral neuroscience, refers to identification and planned response to stimuli

Question 3

Syntax

Answer 3

Set of rules for putting together words; proposed to be unique to human language

Question 4

Cell assembly

Answer 4

Hypothetical group of neurons that become functionally connected via common sensory inputs; proposed by Hebb to be the basis of perception, memory, and thought

Question 5

Association cortex

Answer 5

Neocortex outside primary sensory and motor cortices functions to produce cognition

Question 6

Binding problem

Answer 6

Philosophical question focused on how the brain ties single and varied sensory and motor events together into a unified perception or behavior

Question 7

Attention

Answer 7

Narrowing or focusing awareness to a part of the sensory environment or to a class of stimuli

Question 8

Contralateral neglect

Answer 8

Ignoring a part of the body or world on the side opposite (contralateral to) that of a brain injury

Question 9

Extinction

Answer 9

In neurology, neglect of information on the side of the body when presented simultaneously with similar information on the other side of the body

Question 10

Executive function

Answer 10

Cognitive processes such as attentional control, planning, reasoning, working memory, problem solving, abstract thinking, and self-monitoring; associated primarily with the frontal lobe, but also involves other cortical regions such as posterior parietal cortex

Question 11

Perseveration

Answer 11

Tendency to emit repeatedly the same verbal or motor response to varied stimuli

Question 12

Mirror neuron

Answer 12

Cell in the primate premotor and parietal cortex that fires when an individual observes an action taken by another individual

Question 13

Social neuroscience

Answer 13

Interdisciplinary field that seeks to understand how the brain mediates social interactions

Question 14

Theory of mind (ToM)

Answer 14

Ability to attribute mental states to others

Question 15

Neuroeconomics

Answer 15

Interdisciplinary field that seeks to understand how the brain makes decisions

Question 16

Dichotic listening

Answer 16

Experimental procedure for simultaneously presenting a different auditory input to each ear through stereophonic earphones

Question 17

Synesthesia

Answer 17

Ability to perceive a stimulus of one sense as the sensation of a different sense, as when sound produces a sensation of color; literally, feeling together

Question 18

Convergent thinking

Answer 18

Form of thinking that searches for a single answer to a question (such as 2+2=?); contrasts with divergent thinking

Question 19

Divergent thinking

Answer 19

Form of thinking that searches for multiple solutions to a problem (how many ways can a pen be used?); contrasts with convergent thinking

Question 20

Intelligence A

Answer 20

Hebb’s term for innate intellectual potential, which is highly heritable and cannot be measured directly

Question 21

Intelligence B

Answer 21

Hebb’s term for observed intelligence, which is influenced by experience and other factors in the course of development; measured by intelligence tests

Question 22

Consciousness

Answer 22

The mind’s level of responsiveness to impressions made by the senses