Textbook Terms

Question 1

Androgen insensitivity syndrome

Answer 1

When an individual is biologically male but is resistant to male hormones (androgens). This can affect the development of male sex characteristics

Question 2

Crystallized intelligence

Answer 2

An individual’s accumulated knowledge. May increase with age.

Question 3

Experience-dependent

Answer 3

A neural system that only develops typically if it receives the appropriate input. A variation in input can lead to a variation in function

Question 4

Experience-expectant

Answer 4

A neural system whose development is critically dependent on inputs that are stable across sources

Question 5

Neural Plate

Answer 5

A key developmental component of the nervous system. It is composed of primitive neural tissue and eventually develops into the neural tube

Question 6

Ocular Dominance Columns

Answer 6

Columns of neurons in the visual cortex that respond preferentially to information from one eye or the other

Question 7

Synaptic Pruning

Answer 7

Changes in neural structures that results in a reduction in the number of synapses

Question 8

Cuckoldry

Answer 8

A mate is led to believe that another person’s child is their own

Question 9

Diminishing marginal gains

Answer 9

A decline in the gain a person derives from the consumption of each additional unit of a product

Question 10

Eusocial

Answer 10

Species with radical reproductive division of labour; a single female or caste produces the offspring and sterile individuals cooperate in caring for the young

Question 11

Parasympathetic nervous system

Answer 11

Part of the autonomic nervous system; Helps to return the body to normal function after the activation of the sympathetic nervous system.

Question 12

Temporal summation

Answer 12

A high frequency of EPSPs by a single neuron elicit postsynaptic potentials that overlap and summate with each other to create an action potential

Question 13

Ablation Studies

Answer 13

Studies that remove part of the brain in order to study the results.

Question 14

Cerebrospinal Fluid

Answer 14

Clear watery fluid in which the brain floats; fills the space between the arachnoid membrane and the pia mate

Question 15

Extracelluar Recording

Answer 15

Recording taken from outside the cell to measure the electrical activity adjacent to the electrode tip

Question 16

Metencephalon

Answer 16

Subdivision of the brain consisting of the cerebellum and the pons

Question 17

Myelencephalon

Answer 17

Subdivision of the brain consisting of the medulla oblongata

Question 18

Phrenology

Answer 18

Determining character and mental abilities based on the shape and size of the cranium.

Question 19

Fovea

Answer 19

Section near the center of the retina where most cones are present and visual acuity is greatest

Question 20

Interposition

Answer 20

A pictorial depth cue whereby one object overlaps, and thus occludes, another object

Question 21

Monochromacy

Answer 21

Individuals with monochromacy cannot see colour. This can be due to having only one functional cone or in the case of achromatopsia, no functional cones.

Question 22

Optic chiasm

Answer 22

Point in the brain where the optic nerve from the nasal part of each retina crosses

Question 23

Carpentered world hypothesis

Answer 23

Our experience of living in a world of human made objects with right angles helps drive the Müller-Lyer illusio

Question 24

Recognition-by-components

Answer 24

Proposes that all objects can be made through combining 36 geons

Question 25

Olfactory Bulb

Answer 25

The part of the brain that receives information from the olfactory receptor cells which synapses with the glomeruli contained in the olfactory bulb

Question 26

Intellectualization

Answer 26

defense mechanism where you deal with emotional or stressful situations by focusing on facts and logic, detaching from emotional aspects

Question 27

Psychodynamic approaches

Answer 27

Current day applications of psychoanalytic therapy, which are modified to be feasible and appropriate for a modern understanding and context of therapy.