exam 1 Flashcards
(51 cards)
what are the two parts of the nervous system and what is the difference between them?
brain and spinal cord
what is the difference between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system?
the sympathetic is fight or flight while parasympathetic is rest and digest
what are the three types of neurons?
motor neuron, sensory neuron, and inter neuron
what does the endocrine system do?
contains hormones which are the chemical messengers
what is the difference between hormones and neurotrasnmitters?
hormones are sent through the blood and are much slower while neurotransmitters are in the brain
where are the motor and somatosensory cortexes?
the motor cortex is in the frontal lobe and the somatosensory cortex is in the parietal lobe
what does the motor cortex do?
the motor cortex does movement
what does the somatosensory cortex do?
the somatosensory cortex does sensory
what are association areas, and why are they important?
they are for complex tasks
why is there a myth that we only use ten percent of our brains?
because scientists poked around in the brain and only noticed when poking that it only affected the somatosensory and motor cortexes so they thought we didn’t use the rest of our brain. comes from association areas.
how is the focus of genetics different from the focus of evolutionary psychology?
genetics focuses on what makes us different while evolutionary psychology focuses on what makes us similar
why are twin studies useful?
to understand personality is much more genetic than environmental
what is the importance of the gene-environment interaction?
genes are self regulating, they respond to the environment. they are not always on.
what is the basic idea of natural selection?
survival of the fittest, evolutionary psychology
what is the difference between sensation and perception?
sensation is describing what you’re receiving from the environment while perception is the way we interpret those things
what is the difference between top-down and bottom-up processing?
bottom up is taking in new information to understand the task at hand while top down is using pre-existing knowledge to guide understanding
what do all senses have in common?
receive sensory info
transform sensory info into neural impulses
deliver neural info to the brain
can subliminal messages really influence your behavior?
may produce a fleeting and subtle but not powerful or enduring effects on behaviors
synaptic gap
the space between neurons
dendrites
receive messages from other cells
what type of messenger is a neurotransmitter?
chemical
the peripheral nervous system is
everything else
autonomic nervous system
contains the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system
controls anything that is involuntary
pituitary gland
the master gland
