ap psych unit 1 Flashcards
genetics & inheritance
genetics play a role in basic makeup. e.g, temperament, tendency of fear, certain patterns
genotype vs. phenotype
genotype: organism’s genetic makeup (blueprint)phenotype: organism’s physical characteristics (wiring of the brain)
what are the 2 ways to study nature-nurture interactions?
twin studies (identical/fraternal twins)adoption studies
what is the largest twin study called and what did we learn from it?
bouchard studygenetic influence plays a major role
peripheral nervous system
peripheral nervous systemconnects the cns to limbs and organs, all nerves not encased in bone
divided into somatic & autonomic
somatic nervous system
controls voluntary movement
skeletal muscles
uses motor neurons
autonomic nervous system?
controls autonomic functions
internal organs/glands
divided into parasympathetic & sympathetic
sympathetic nervous system?
stimulates the fight or flight response
automatically accelerates heart rate, breathing, dilates pupils, slows down digestion
parasympathetic nervous system?
slows down the body after stressful eventssalivation, urination, digestion, defecation, lacrimation
heart rate slows down, pupils constrict, digestion speeds up
the endocrine system…
communication system of glands
secretes hormones into blood stream
regulates metabolism, sexual functions, sleep, mood, growth
neurons functions?
neural cells that transmit information
glial cells?
provide structure, communication, insulation, and waste transport
most abundant
does not assist in processing infoe.g, schwann cell
what are the building blocks of all behaviour and mental processes and also form the basis of the nervous system?
glial cells and neurons
what does the flex arc demonstrate in the spinal cord?
neurons in the central and peripheral nervous systems work together to respond to stimuli
3 types of neurons that create the flex arc?
motor neurons
sensory neurons
interneurons
what is neural transmission/firing
an orderly/systematic way involving the all or nothing principle
involves depolarization, refractory period, resting potential, reuptake, and threshold
the space between 2 neurons is called?
synaptic cleft or synapse
what does a schwann cell do?
produces myelin sheath
multiple sclerosis resulted when myelin is destructed
node of ranvier?
the gaps between myelin sheath
action potentials conducted along nodes
motor neurons..
take info from brain to body
sensory neurons..
take info from senses to brain
interneurons..
take msgs from sensory neurons to brain or motor neurons
resting potential is?
state where more + ions exist outside of the neuron
how does a neuron fire?
resting potential (slightly polarized/negative when neuron is not firing)reaches absolute threshold goes into action potential, neuron firesall-or-none response!! (fires or does not fires)re-uptakerefractory period: brief resting phase that happens after firing
what are neurotransmitters?
chemical msgs used in neural communication
list the types of neurotransmitters (8)
acetylcholine, dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, GABA, glutamate, endorphins, substance P
antagonist vs agonist
antagonist: inhibits/blocks neurotransmitters action
agonist: increases neurotransmitters action
what are psychoactive drugs?
chemical substance that alters the brain, affects mood/perceptionsmall enough to pass through the brain
withdrawal vs. tolerance
tolerance: requiring increasingly larger amounts of a drug for its effectswithdrawal: discomfort/distress following up discontinuation of a drug
what are the 3 categories of psychoactive drugs?
depressants
stimulants
hallucinogens
neuroplasticity is?
the brain’s ability to change, especially during childhood
ways to study the brain?
case studies (accidents, injury) e.g, phineas gageEEG, MRI, CT scan, MEG, PET, functional MRI
what is the hindbrain/brain stem’s function?
essential for survival
structures inside the hindbrain/brain stem?
medulla
pons
reticular formation
cerebellum
medulla function?
breathing, heartbeat, blood pressure, reflexes
what are the 3 main divisions of the brain called?
hindbrain
midbrain
forebrain
limbic system structure? function? location?
mostly in the forebrain
emotional control center
controls urges
thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, pituitary gland
thalamus function?
sensory control center, switchboard
everything but smell
hypothalamus function?
homeostasis (balance) hormones
amygdala function?
basic emotions
enables aggression, rage, fear
hippocampus function?
processing explicit memories for storage
what makes up the 4 lobes + cerebral cortex?
forebrain
cerebrum?
all voluntary motor activity
olfaction, movement, sensory processing
what does the cerebral cortex do?
responsible for higher level functioning divided into 8 lobes with 4 in each hemisphere
where are the lobes located?
cerebral cortex
parietal lobes?
receives sensory info (touch and body position)
occipital lobes?
receives info from visual field
frontal lobes?
broca’s area
enables language processing
higher order thinking
muscle movement
executive functions
temporal lobes?
wernicke’s are
aauditory areas,
enables language processing
what do you call areas that do not deal with senses or muscle movements?
association areas
broca’s area?
in frontal lobe
produces speech
what contains the motor cortex?
frontal lobes
what contains the sensory cortex?
parietal lobes
wernicke’s area?
in temporal lobe
interprets written/spoken speech
what does cerebral dominance mean?
each hemisphere of the cerebral cortex has specific functions
left hemisphere is in charge of?
language
right hemisphere is in charge of?
spatial awareness
corpus callosum..
divides the brain into 2 hemispheresallows for communication between them
what does contralateral control mean?
right controls leftleft controls right
what happened to a split brain patient?
corpus callosum was removed
how do you treat patients with severe epilepsy?
cutting the corpus callosum
mere exposure effect means?
developing a preference for familiar things
guy famous for hypnosis
franz mesmer
what is a posthypnotic suggestion?
suggestion made under hypnosis so when individual emerges they act that way
what is posthypnotic amnesia?
inability of the patient to recall what happened during hypnosis
role theory in hypnosis?
hypnosis is not an altered state if consciousness
works better on people with richer fantasies
people have different stages of hypnotic swaying
social phenomenon where people want to believe
what is the condition where a person can respond to a visual stimuli without consciously experiencing it?
blind sight
what is the main biological rhythm?
circadian rhythm: occur once during a 24 hour periode.g, sleep-wake cycle
stages of sleep called?
N1N2N3REM
NREM vs. REM?
NREM sleep: non rapid eye movement sleep, everything except REM sleepREM sleep: rapid eye movement sleep, dreams occur here —> muscles are relaxed but the brain is active
NREM gets short or longer throughout the night?
shorter
REM gets longer or shorter throughout the night?
longer
what machine measures the stages of sleep?
EEG machine
what stage shows sleep spindles?
N2are short bursts of rapid brain waves
what is the control centre for our 24 hour rhythm of sleep?
hypothalamus
what exactly does the hypothalamus do during sleep?
senses changes in light and dark, sends neurological messages to brain to put you to sleep
whats a neurological transmitter (hormone) that builds up when we sleep?
melatonin
sleep theories?
protects, restores, aids memory, creative thinking, supports growth, conserves energy
what’s the hormone that increases due to lack of sleep?
ghrelin
sleep disorder examples? (7)
insomnia: problems falling/staying asleep
dysomnia: disturbance in normal pattern of sleep
somnambulism (sleepwalking): repeated motor behaviour
parasomnia: abnormal sleep disturbances
REM sleep behaviour disorder: acting out dreams (paralysis does not occur)
narcolepsy: falling asleep randomly throughout the day
sleep apnea: temporary stopping of breathing
what is the psychological theory with dream theories? (freudian)
originated with freud
roadway to our unconscious
has both manifest/latent content
manifest: storyline
latent: underlying meaning
dream-current theories?
brain’s attempt to make sense of random neural activity e.g, information processing/consolidation, physiological function, activation synthesis, cognitive development
transduction?
transforming sensory information (stimulus) into neural impulses the brain can interpret
all senses receive sensory stimulus using specialized receptors
senses -> thalamus -> brain
what is the study of the relationship between stimuli and psychological experiences of them?
psychophysics
who made the absolute threshold theory?
gustav fechner
what is the absolute threshold theory?
minimum stimulus energy required to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time
what is the signal detection theory about?
when/how we detect the presence of a faint stimulus in the middle of background stimulus
assumes we don’t have an absolute threshold
how do we experience the difference threshold?
JND (just noticeable difference)
weber’s law?
the principle that two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage to be perceived as different
a constant proportion, not set amounte.g, lifting weights, price changes, taste
what is sensory adaptation?
decreased sensitivity resulted by constant stimulation
what is sensory reduction?
filtering and analyzing incoming sensations before sending neural messages to the cortex
e.g, someone calling your name
what happens in the retina?
transduction
what is the most dominant sense?
vision
what are the 2 types of photoreceptors in the eye? give their functions
rods: sensitive to dim lightcones: sensitive to color
the fovea is…
area of sharpest vision
has the highest concentration of cones
optic nerve?
bundle of neurons that carry visual info from retina to the brain
what did david hubel & torsten wiesel discover?
feature detector cells in visual cortex
does visual deprivation affect long-term vision?
yes
what are the functions of feature detectors? where are they located in?
sees the lines, motion, curves, and other features from our visual fieldlocated in the visual cortex
responds to specific features of the stimulus (shape, angle, movement)
specialized cells
frequency theory?
all hairs vibrate but at different speeds
place theory?
different hairs vibrate at different pitches
sound localization theory?
refers to the ability of the brain to determine the origin or location of a sound source based on difference in arrival time and intensity of the sound between the two ears
intensity difference
allows us to pinpoint where a sound is coming from“binaural cues,” meaning they rely on information from both ears
ITD & IID
what is the gate control theory of pain?
the gatekeeper in the spinal cord can block and send pain signals to the brain“gate” opens to activity of pain signals by small nerve fibers“gate”closes to activity of pain signals by large nerve fibers
binocular vs. monocular cues
“binocular cues” refer to depth perception cues that require information from both eyes working together
”monocular cues” are depth perception cues that can be perceived with just one eye
Binocular cues: rely on both eyes to perceive depth.e.g, Retinal disparity: Differences between the images seen by each eyeConvergence: the closer the object, the more the eye converges or goes inwardMonocular cues:Can be perceived with only one eye.e.g, Linear perspective: Parallel lines appearing to converge in the distance
selective attention/cocktail party phenomenon
the ability to focus on a specific auditory stimulus (like a single conversation) while filtering out other background noises, essentially allowing you to “tune in” to one conversation amidst a crowded room, similar to being at a party and focusing on one conversation while ignoring others around you.focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus
what is habituation?
habituation is the process of becoming accustomed to a stimulus or situation after repeated exposure.
explain the trichromatic theory
trichromatic theory refers to the idea that color vision is based on three types of cone cells in the retina, each sensitive to a primary color (red, green, and blue)which combine to create all other colors we perceivethe brain interprets different combinations of signals from these cones to produce our perception of color.
what exactly is retinal disparity?
retinal disparity is a binocular cue that helps people perceive depth and distance. slight difference in the images that each eye sees when looking at an object. each eye sees a slightly different image because they are positioned differently on the facecombines the two images to create a 3D perception of the world. closer the object, the greater the difference between the images. The farther away the object, the more similar the images appears
visual cliff experiment?
used to test depth perception in infants and young animalsis it innate or learned?
opponent process theory explains that?
inside the retina they come as pairs, red-green, yellow-blue, black-white, and only one cone in each pairing can signal the brain at a time
