Vocab words 3/30/23 Flashcards by Abby Barajas

The basic building block of the nervous system

Neuron

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The neuron’s bushy branching extensions the receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell

Dendrites

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The neuron’s extension passes messages through its branches to other neurons or to muscles or to glands

Axon

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a fatty tissue layer segmentally encasing the axons of some neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed as neural impulses hop from one sausage-like node to the next?

Myelin Sheath

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A neural impulse; a brief electric charge that travels down an axon

Action potential

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A period of inactivity after a neuron has fired

Refractory period

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Level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse

Threshold

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Neuron’s reaction of either firing (with a full-strength response) or not firing

All or nothing response

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Junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron

Synapse

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Chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between neurons. Influences whether a neuron will generate a neural impulse or not

Neurotransmitters

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Neurotransmitter’s reabsorption by the sending neuron

Reuptake

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“morphine within” - Natural, opiate-like neurotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure

Endorphins

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A molecule that, by binding to a receptor site, simulates a response

Agonist

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A molecule that, by binding to a receptor site, inhibits or blocks a response

Antagonist

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Neurotransmitter that enables muscle action, learning and memory

Acetylcholine (Ach)

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The neurotransmitter that influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion

Dopamine

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The neurotransmitter that affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal

Serotonin

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Neurotransmitter that helps control alertness and arousal

Norepinephrine

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Major inhibitory neurotransmitter whose undersupply is linked to seizures, tremors and insomnia

GABA

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Major excitatory neurotransmitter that is involved in memory. Oversupply can cause migraines or seizures

Glutamate

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A poison that can form in improperly canned food that causes paralysis by blocking Ach release

Botulin

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A poison some South American Indians have applied to hunting-dart tips which occupy and blocks Ach receptor sites on muscles, producing paralysis in animals struck by the darts

Curare

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Chemicals which are agonists and produce a temporary “high” by amplifying normal sensations of arousal or pleasure

Opiate drugs

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Ancient Greek philosopher who correctly located the mind in the spherical head- his idea of the perfect form

Plato

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The study of the bumps on the skull to reveal the persons' mental abilities and character traits

Phrenology

Early German physician who proposed the study of phrenology

Franz Gall

Scientific study of the links between biological (genetic, neural, hormonal) and psychological processes

Biological psychology

First woman president of the American Psychological Association

Mary Whiton Calkins

The first female to earn a psychology Ph.D. from Cornell

Margaret Floy Washburn

Man who suffered massive brain damage when a large iron rod accidentally pierced his brain

Phineas Gage

Man who proposed a hierarchy of motives from physiological needs to self-actualization

Abraham Maslow

Father of behaviorism

John B Watson

Man who published the Interpretation of Dreams

Sigmund Freud

Name of man who began publishing studies of the conditioning in animals

Ivan Pavlov

Man who outlines "The Nature of Love" his work on attachment in monkeys

Harry Harlow

British philosopher who rejected Descartes' notion of innate ideas

John Locke

Psychologist who reasoned that we are born with an innate language acquisition device

Noam Chomsky

Face blindness

Prosopagnosia

Study of environmental influences on gene expression that occur without a DNA change

Epigenetics

Proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes

Heritability

Study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior

Behavior genetics

Large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them

Corpus callosum

Formation of new neurons

Neurogenesis

Brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing new pathways or by building new pathways based on experience

Plasticity

Areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions; they are involved in higher mental functions

Association areas

cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons

glial cells

A portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the back of the head, and receives information from the visual fields

occipital lobe

Area at the rear of the frontal lobe that controls voluntary movements

motor cortex

a portion of the cerebral cortex lying roughly above the ears; including the auditory areas

temporal lobe

The portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top of the head and towards the rear; receives sensory input for touch and body position

Parietal lobe

The portion of the cerebral cortex lying just behind the forehead; involved in speaking and muscle movements and making plans and judgements

frontal lobe

The intricate fabric or interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres

cerebral cortex

The "little brain"

Cerebellum

The neural system located below the vertebral hemispheres; associated with emotions and drives

limbic system

The part of the brain at the base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing

medulla

Body's "slow" chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream

Endocrine system

A simple, automatic response to a sensory stimulus

Reflex

Division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body

Sympathetic nervous system

The division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body

Parasympathetic nervous system

The statistical index of the relationship between two variables (from -1.0 to +1.0)

Correlation coeicient

Graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables

Scatterplot

The perception of a relationship where none exists

illusory correlation

Assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance

random assignment

The experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied

independent variable

The outcome factor the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the IV

Dependent variable

factor other than the IV that might produce an effect in an experiment

Confounding variable

The extent to which a test or experiment measures or predicts what it is supposed to

Validity

The tendency to believe, after learning the outcome, that one would have foreseen it

Hindsight bias

The thinking that not blinding accept arguments and conclusions

Critical thinking

The tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation

REM rebound

A sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person's mind

Dreams

Recurring problems in falling and staying asleep

Insomnia

Sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks

Narcolepsy

characterized by temporary cessation of breathing during sleep and repeated momentary awakenings

Sleep apnea

Our awareness of ourselves and our environment

Consciousness

A split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others

Dissociation

The biological clock; regular bodily rhythms

Circadian rhythm

The periodic, natural loss of consciousness as distinct from unconsciousness resulting from a coma, anesthesia, or hibernation

Sleep

perceiving object as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change

Perceptual constancy

The ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance

Depth perception

The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

Grouping

The theory is that the retina contains three different color receptors, which produce the perception of any color

Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory

The theory that opposing retinal processes enable color vision

Opponent-process theory

Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement

Feature detectors

The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster

Fovea

The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina

Accommodation

Amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the wave's amplitude

Intensity

The body's resting rate of energy expenditure

Basal metabolic rate

The form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues

Glucose

A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior

Motivation

The idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state that motivate an organism to satisfy the need

Drive reduction theory

A tendency to maintain a balance or constant internal state

Homeostasis

Another name for a fertilized egg

Zygote

Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, can reach the embryo or fetus and cause harm

Teratogens

People's ideas about their own and others' mental states-feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors they might predict

Theory of mind

The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived

Object permanence

concept or framework that organizes and interprets inforation

Schema

Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas

Assimilation

Adapting our current understanding to incorporate new information

Accommodation

The optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development

Critical period

A person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

Temperament

The sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy

Basic trust

The concept that all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the questions, "Who am I?"

Self-concept

socially constructed roles and characteristics by which a culture defins male and females

Gender

A set of expected behaviors for males and females

Gender roles

Our sense of being male or female

Gender identity

The first menstrual period

Menarche

A study in which people of different ages are compared with one another

Cross-sectional study

Research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period

Longitudnal study

The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement

Social clock

The theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers physiological response and subjective experience of emotion

Cannon-bard theory

The schachter-singer theory that to experience emotion one must be physically aroused and cognitively label the arousal

Two-factor theory

Learning by observing others

Observational learning

An event that tends to decrease the behavior that it follows

Punishment

A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher

Operant conditioning

A type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

Classical conditioning

Vocab words 3/30/23 Flashcards

(116 cards)