Mid term Vocab part 2 Flashcards
(145 cards)
1
Q
phrenology
A
• studying bumps on the skull
2
Q
biological psychology
A
links between biological and psychological processes
3
Q
neuron
A
o nerve cells, or building blocks of our bodys nueral information system
4
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dendrites
A
recieve information and conduct it toward the cell body
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axon
A
o pass the message through its terminal branches to other nuerons or to muscles or glands
6
Q
myelin
A
• layer of fatty tissue that insulates axons and speeds their impulses (insulation)
7
Q
action potential
A
• brief electrical charge that travels down its axon
8
Q
refractory period
A
• period of inactivity after a nueron has fired
9
Q
threshold
A
• the level of stimulation required to trigger a nueral impulse
10
Q
all or none response
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• a nuerons reaction of either firing ( with a full strength response ) or not firing
11
Q
synapse
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o meeting point of to nuerons (synaptic gap or synaptic cleft
12
Q
neurotransmitters
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o chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between nuerons
13
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reuptake
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o a nuerotransmitter’s reabsorption by the sending nueron
14
Q
endorphins
A
natural opiate like neurotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure
15
Q
agonist
A
a molecule that, by binding to a receptor site, stimulates a response
16
Q
antagonist
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o a molecule that, by binding to a recptor site, inhibits or blocks a response
17
Q
Acetylcholine
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o enables muscle action, learning, and memory
18
Q
dopamine
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o influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion
19
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serotonin
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o affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal
20
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norepinephrine
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o helps control alertness and arousal
21
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GABA
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o a major inhibitory nuerotransmitter
22
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glutamate
A
o a major excittory nuerotransmitter; involved in memory
23
Q
endorphins
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o “morphine within” natural, opiate like - nuerotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure
• explain runners high, ainkilling effects of acupuncture
24
Q
nervous system
A
BODY’S SPEEDY, ELECTROCHEMICAL COMMUNICATION NETWORK, CONSISTING OF ALL THE NERVE CELLS OF THE PERIPHERAL AND CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEMS
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central nervous system
• brain and spinal chord
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peripheral nervous system
• responsible for gathering information and for transmitting CNS (central nervous systems) decisions to other body parts
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nerves
• electrical cables formed of bundles of axons, link the central nervous system with the body’s sensory receptors, muscs, and glands.
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sensory neurons
• nuerons that carry incoming informtion from the sensory recetors to the brain and spinal cord
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motor neurons
• nuerons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands
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interneurons
• nuerons within the brain and spinal cord that communicate internally and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs
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somatic nervous system
• enables voluntary control of our skeletal muscles. or skeletal nervous system,
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automatic nervous system
• controls our glands and the muscles of our internal organs, influencing such functions as glandular activity, heartbeat, and digestion (like automatic pilot) can be overridden but usually works in its own
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sympathetic nervous system
• arouses and exoands energy if you get startled, this sytem will accelerate your heartbeat, raise your blood pressure, slow your digestion, raise your blood sugar, and coll you with persperation maing you alert and ready for action
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parasympathetic nervous sytem
• produce opposite effects as sypathetic nervous system. division of the autonomic nervous sytem that calms the body, conserving its energy
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reflex
• a simple, utomatic reponse to a sensory stimulus such as a knee-jerk reaction
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endocrine system
• the body’s “slow” chemical communiction system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream
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hormones
• chemical messengers that are manufactured by the endorcine glands travel through the bloodstrem and affect other tissues
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adrenal glands
• a pair of endocrine glands that sit just above the kidney and secrete hormones (epinephrine and norepinephrine) that help arouse the body in times of stress
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pituitary glands
the endocrine system’s most influential gland. Under the influence of the hyothalamus, the pituitary gland regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands
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lesion
tissue destruction
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EEG
• An amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity sweeping across the brain’s surface. These waves are measure by electrodes placed on the scalp
Shower cap like hat that is filled with electrodes covered with a conductive gel
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CT
• Examines the brain by taking x-ray photographs that can reveal bran damage
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PET
• Depicts brain activity by showing each brain area’s consumption of its chemical fuel, the sugar glucose
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MRI
• Person’s head is put in a strong magnetic field, which aligns the spinning atoms of brain molecules
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fMRI
• can reveal the brain’s functioning as well as its structure e
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brainstem
• Oldest and innermost region of the brain
| Begins where the spinal cord swells slightly after entering the skull
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medulla
base of the brain stem; o Here lie the control fro your heartbeat and breathing
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thalamus
o Sits atop the brainstem
• A pair of egg-shaped structures that act as the brain’s sensory control center
• Receives information from all the senses except smell and routes it to the higher brain regions that deal with seeing, hearing, tasting, and touching
• Also receives some the higher brain’s replies, which it then directs to the medulla and to the cerebellum
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reticular reformation
o Inside your brainstem in-between your ears
• A neuron network that extends form the spinal cord with up through the thalamus
• Filters incoming stimuli and relays important information to other brain areas
• Enables arousal
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cerebellum
o Extending form the rear of the brainstem; baseball sized
• Means little brain
Which is what its two wrinkled halves resemble
Enables nonverbal leaning and memory. Helps us judge time, modulate our emotions, and discriminate sounds and textures
Coordinates voluntary movement
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limbic system
o Newest and highest regions
• Cerebral hemispheres (the two halves of the brain)
Contains the amygdala, the hypothalamus, and the hippocampus
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amygdala
o Two lima bean sizes neural clusters, to aggression and fear
• Linked to emotion
Perceptions of these emotions
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hypothalamus
o Just below the thalamus
• An important link in the command chain governing bodily maintenance
Some clusters influence hunger; others regulate thirst, body temperature, and sexual behavior
• All together, they help maintain a steady internal state
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cerebral cortex
Thin surface layer of interconnected neural cells
| • It is your brain’s thinking crown
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glial cells
• Cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons; they may also play a role in leaning and thinking
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frontal lobe
portion of the cerebral cortex lying just behind the forehead; involved in speaking and muscle movements and in making plans and judgements
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parietal lobes
lying atop the head and toward the rear; receives sensory input for touch and body position
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occipital lobe
lying at the back of the head; includes areas that receive information from the visual fields
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temporal lobes
roughly above the ears; includes the auditory areas, each revving information primarily from the opposite ear
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motor cortex
an are at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements
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evolutionary psychology
focus mostly on what makes us so much alike, evolutionary psychology is the study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural selection
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natural selection
the principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely bypassed on to succeeding generations
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mutation
random error in gene replication that leads to a change
| - genetic leash that makes cats pounce or dogs retrieve is looser in humans
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cognition
• mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating information
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concept
mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, and people
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prototype
• mental image or best example of a category
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creativity
• the ability to produce ideas that are both novel and valuable
o scoring 120 or higher on a standard intelligence test supports creativity
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convergent thinking
• narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution
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divergent thinking
• expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative Thinking that diverges in different directions)
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algorithm
step by step procedures that guarantee a solution
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heuristics
• simpler thinking strategies
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insight
• a sudden realization of a problems solution; contrasts with strategy based solutions
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confirmation bias
• a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence
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mental set
• our tendency to approach a problem with the mind-set of what has worked for us previously
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intuition
• our fast, automatic, unreasoned feelings and thoughts
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representative heuristics
judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information
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availabillty heuristics
• operates when we estimate the likelihood of events based on how mentally available they are
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overconfidence
• the tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our knowledge and judgments
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belief perseverance
• - often fuels social conflict, as it did in a classic study of people with opposing views of capital punishment
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framing
• the way we present an issue, sways our decisions and judgment.
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language
our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning
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phoneme
the smallest distinctive sounds units in a language, when saying chat you have the ch, a, and the t.
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morpheme
the smallest units that carry meaning in a given language, such as prefixes and suffixs
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grammar
the system of rules that enables us to communicate with one another
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babbling stage
beginning at about 4 months, thestage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language
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one word stage
the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly single words
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two word stage
beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements
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telegraphic speech
early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram “go car” using mostly nouns and verbs
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aphasia
impairment of language, usually caused by left-hemisphere damage either to the Broca’s Area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke’s area (impairing understanding)
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broca's area
impairing speaking
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wernicks area
impairing understanding
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linguistic determinism
whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think
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learning
the process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors
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habituation
o An organism’s decreasing response to a stimulus with repeated exposure to it
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associative learning
o Learning that certain events occur together
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stimulus
any event or situation that evokes a response
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cognitive learning
o The acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language
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classical conditioning
o A type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimulated and anticipate events
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behaviorism
o The view that psychology should
• Be an objective science that
• Studies behavior with out reference to mental processes
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neutral stimulus
stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning (classical)
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unconditioned response
o In classical conditioning, an unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus
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unconditioned stimulus
• In classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally, naturally and automatically
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conditioned response
• In classical conditioning, a learned response to a previously neutral (but not conditioned) stimulus
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conditioned stimulus
• An originally irrelevant stimulus that, other association with an unconditioned stimulus comes to trigger a conditioned response
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acquisition
o In classical condition: the initial stage of learning a response (when you link a neural stimulus to an conditioned stimulus)
o In operant conditioning
• The strengthening of a reinforced response
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higher order conditioning
o A procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neural stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus
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extinction
o The diminished responding that occurs when the conditioned stimulus no longer signals an impending unconditioned stimulus
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spontaneous recovery
o The reappearance of a (weakened) conditioned response after a pause(?)
• Extinction suppresses the conditioned response but doesn’t eliminate it
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generalization
o The tendency to respond likewise to stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus
• Can be adaptive
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discrimination
o The learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other irrelevant stimuli
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operant conditioning
o Organisms associate their own actions with consequences
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law of effect
• Principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequence become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely
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operant chamber
o A chamber containing a bar of key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcers; attached devices record the animal’s rate of bar pressing or key pecking
• Also known as skinner box
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reinforcement
o In operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior that it follows
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shaping
o Which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desire behavior
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discriminative stimulus
stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement (in contrast to related stimuli not associated with reinforcement
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positive reinforcement
o Increasing behaviors by presenting positive reinforcers. A positive reinforcers is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response
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negative reinforcement
o Strengthens a response by reducing or removing something negative
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primary reinforcer
o An innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need
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conditioned reinforcer
o A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer
• Also known as secondary reinforcer
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reinforcement schedule
o A pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced
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continuous reinforcement
o Reinforcing the desired response every time that it occurs
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partial reinforcement
o Reinforcing a response only part of the time
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fixed ration schedule
o A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses
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variable ratio schedule
o A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses
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fixed interval schedule
o A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed
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variable interval schedule
o a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals
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punishment
o an event that tends to decrease the behavior that it follows
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respondent behavior
behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus
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operant behavior
behavior that operates on the environment producing consequences
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cognitive map
o Mental representation of the layout of ones environment
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latent learning
o Learning that occurs but isn’t apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it
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insight
o A sudden realization of a problem’s solution
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intristic motivation
o A desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake
• Excessive rewards can destroy this
If I have to be bribed into this, it must not be worth doing for its own sake
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coping
o Alleviating stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods
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problem focused coping
o Attempting to alleviate stress directly
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emotion focused coping
o Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotion needs related to one’s stress reaction
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learned helplessness
o The hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events
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external locus of control
o The perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate
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internal locus of control
o The perception that you control your own fate
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self control
o The ability to control impulses and delay short term gratification for greater long term rewards
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observational learning
• Learning by observing others
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modeling
o The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior
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mirror neurons
o frontal lobe neurons that some scientists believe fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so
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prosocial behavior
o positive, constructive, helpful behavior
