Behavioral Sciences Flashcards
What are sensory neurons also referred to as?
Also known as afferent neurons, bring ingot from receptors to brain.
Motor neurons are efferent neurons and bring info from brain to body.
What is an interneuron?
Neurons which transmits impulses between other neurons especially as part of a reflex arc.
What nervous system components are involved in the initial reflexive response to pain?
Spinal cord, interneuron, and motor neurons. The reflexive withdrawal has already occurred by the time the signal reaches the brain so the cerebral cortex is not a part of it.
What is the cerebral cortex?
Sensory, motor and association.
Often referred to as gray matter
What is the hindbrain responsible for?
Balance and motor coordination
What is the midbrain used for?
Manages sensorimotor reflexes that also promote survival.
What is the forebrain responsible for?
Associated with emotion, memory and higher order cognition
What does the temporal lobe deal with?
Language comprehension, memory, emotion.
Contains Wernickes area which is responsible for language comprehension.
Temporal lobes also function in emotion and memory because contains the amygdala and hippocampus.
Does NOT deal with motor skills.
What part of the brain deals with homeostasis and emotions?
Hypothalamus.
What is the cerebellum responsible for?
Maintaining posture and balance
What is the pons responsible for?
Above medulla and contains sensory and motor tracts between the cortex and the medulla
What is the thalamus responsible for?
Acts as a relay station for sensory information to the cortex. Also responsible for sleep, consciousness and alertness
What is an ability of the non dominant hemisphere?
Sense of direction.
What are some abilities attributed to the dominant hemisphere?
Learning a new language
Reading a book for pleasure
Jumping rope with friends
What does the neural tube become?
The central nervous system (brain and spinal cord)
Neural crest cells migrate to other sites in the body to differentiate into different tissues
Neural tube differentiates from the ectoderm.
What are the catecholamines?
Epinephrine
Norepinephrine
Dopamine
What is acetylcholine?
Chief neurotransmitter of the parasympathetic nervous system the part of the autonomic nervous system (a branch of the peripheral nervous system) that contracts smooth muscles, dilates blood vessels, increases bodily secretions and slows heart rate.
Low levels results in paralysis or weakness of muscles
What do the adrenal glands do?
The adrenal glands promote fight or flight response through epinephrine and norepinephrine.
Produces both hormones and neurotransmitters
Adrenal cortex produces both estrogen and testosterone.
Produces stress response via cortisol
What is the pineal gland responsible for?
Producing melatonin
What neurotransmitter is associated with both schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease?
Dopamine.
Schizophrenia associated with high levels of dopamine that can cause hallucinations.
Parkinson’s is associated with destruction of the dopaminergic neurons in the basal ganglia
What is the babinski reflex?
A primitive reflex that refers to extension of the big toe accompanied by the fanning of the other toes. Normal in infants but should disappear by the time a child can walk.
What is a primitive reflex?
Reflexes exhibited by normal infants but not neurologically intact adults.
How do motor skills tend to develop?
From the core toward the periphery. Following objects with eyes comes before grabbing stuff with hands
What is the primary covalent bond between amino acids?
Peptide bonds
What type of reaction is used to make a peptide bond?
Condensation reaction between the amino group of one aa and the carboxyl group of another
(Specifically a dehydration reaction involving the loss of water)
The peptide bond has a partial double bond character because
The double bond can resonate between C=O and C=N
It has limited rotation because of the double bond
How many distinct tripeptides can be made from one V, one A, and one L molecule?
6
Just multiply the numbers
3x2x1
VAL, VLA, ALV, AVL, LVA, and LAV
What is preserved when a protein is denatured?
Primary structure
What amino acids have a chiral carbon in its side chain?
Threonine and isoleucine.
All amino acids except glycine have a chiral alpha carbon but only threonine and isoleucine also have a chiral carbon in their side chain
What are reasons for conjugating proteins?
To direct their delivery to a particular organelle
To direct their delivery to the cell membrane
To add a cofactor needed for their activity
Conjugated proteins can have a lipid or carbohydrate tag added to them which indicates where they should go or the activity for the protein
How to solve a just noticeable difference problem?
Weber’s law posits that thresholds are proportional. So find out how much the weight is being increased by compared to the original weight. For example a 100 to 125 increase is a 25% increase. So the person would not notice a difference unless the increase was greater than 25%
What is feature detection?
Ability to detect certain types of stimuli like movements, shape and angles. Requires specialized cells in the brain called feature detectors.
What is bottom up processing?
Start with incoming stimulus and works upwards until a representation of the object is formed in our minds
What is top down processing?
Cognitive process that initiates with our thoughts which flow down to lower level functions such as our senses
Example is while reading not noticing misspellings or an extra the because using a larger pattern so you miss the error
What is vestibular sense?
Contributes to our ability to maintain balance and body posture.
What is signal detection?
Means to measure the ability to differentiate between information bearing patterns and random patterns that distract from the information. Such as husband laughing across the room of a party while you are in the middle of a conversation with someone else.
Hits, false alarms, misses and correct rejection
What is sensory adaptation?
A reduction in response to a stimulus over time
What are nociceptors?
Important for pain sensation
What are Chemoreceptors?
Sensors that detect changes in CO2, O2, and pH
What are osmoreceptors?
Found in hypothalamus of most organisms that can detect change is osmotic pressure
What are photoreceptors?
Light sensitive proteins that respond to light
What part of the eye is responsible for gathering and focusing light?
Cornea
What are the iris and pupil used for?
Regulating amount of light coming into the eye but not focusing it.
What does the retina of the eye do?
Transduces the light into electrical signals that are sent to the brain.
Rods and cones are found in the retina
What is the kinesthetic sense?
Ability to know the positions and movements of ones limbs.
Also called propioception
What is somatosensation?
Refers to the various modalities of touch: pressure, vibration, temperature and pain.
What are the five taste modalities?
Sweet, salty, savory (umami), bitter, sour
What is Endolymph?
The potassium rich fluid that bathed the hair cells of the inner ear, all of which are found within the membranous labyrinth.
What is perilymph?
Found in the space between the membranous labyrinth and the bony labyrinth.
Both the bony and membranous labyrinth contribute to the cochlea and vestibule
What is the cochlea?
Spiral cavity of the inner ear containing the organ of Corti which produces nerve impulses in response to sound vibrations.
What is the vestibule?
Central part of the bony labyrinth. Separated from the middle war by the oval window and communicates anterior my with the cochlea and posterior with the semi circular canals
Chemicals that compel behavior after binding to chemoreceptors are known as
Pheromones
What are olfactory receptors?
Also known as odorant receptors. Detect compounds that have an odor which give rise to the sense of smell
What is somatostimuli?
Stimuli that stimulate the somatic nervous system (part of the peripheral nervous system) which includes voluntary movement of the muscles and organs and reflex movements
What are papillae?
Tiny bumps on tongue that hold taste buds
What is parallel processing?
Ability of a brain to simultaneously process incoming stimuli of differing quality.
Part of vision in that the brain divides what it sees into four components, color, motion, shape and depth
What are gestalt principles?
Basis for many optical illusions and include the tendency for people to continuity even when lines are unconnected.
Gate theory
Pain is controlled by large nerve fibers in the spinal cord that act as gates such that pain is not the product of a simple transmission of stimulation from the skin or some internal organ to the brain.
Acquisition
Refers to an early stage of the learning process during which time a response is first established. The subject will begin displaying the behavior when a stimulus is presented
Generalization
Process by which similar stimuli can produce the same conditioned response.
Discrimination
Ability to perceive and respond to differences among stimuli. Considered a more advanced form of learning than generalization
Negative reinforcement
A response or behavior is strengthened by stopping, removing or avoiding a negative outcome or aversive stimulus.
Putting on sunscreen stops you from getting sun burnt which is a negative thing.
Manager stops nagging an employee and employee starts being more productive.
Positive behavior followed by removal of negative consequences
Increases likelihood of behavior being repeated
Positive reinforcement
Positive behavior followed by positive consequences
Manager rewards employee for productivity and employee increases his/ her productivity
Increases likelihood of behavior being repeated
Avoidance learning
Type of negative reinforcement in which a behavior is increases to prevent an unpleasant future consequence
Extinction
Is a decreased response to conditioned stimulus when it is no longer paired with an unconditioned stimulus
Positive punishment
Adding an unpleasant consequence such as writing down what you did wrong a hundred times
Decrease likelihood of behavior being repeated
Negative punishment
Removing something desirable such as taking away a phone.
Decreases likelihood of behavior being repeated
Fixed interval schedule
Desired behavior is rewarded the first time it is exhibited after the fixed interval has elapsed. Both fixed interval and fixed ratio schedules tend to show this: almost no response immediately after the reward is given, but behavior increases as the rate gets close to receiving the reward. Pressing lever slow at first and then fast as end of interval approaches
Controlled processing
Requires active attention to the information being encoded.
Used to create long term memories and with practice can become automatic.
Semantic encoding
Encoding based on the meaning of the information. Strongest method of encoding.
Category of long term memory that refers to recall of facts rather experience or skills.
Visual encoding
Weakest method of encoding
Acoustic encoding
Intermediate between visual and semantic encoding
Iconic memory
Type of sensory memory.
Exact copy of visual info
Less than a second in duration
Echoic memory
Memory from hearing
Duration up to 4 seconds
Self reference effect
Indicates that information that is most meaningful to an individual is the most likely to be memorized
Clustering memorization
Organizing info in memory into related groups.
Method of loci memory
Uses visualization of familiar spatial environments in order to enhance the recall of information
Elaborative rehearsal memory
Thinking about the meaning of information and connecting it to other info already stored in memory
Peg words
Mnemonic device that is used to memorize lists that need to be in order. Use images associated with numbers
State dependent recall effect
Phenomenon where people remember more information if their physical or mental state is the same at time of encoding and time of recall.
Concerned with internal rather than external states of the individual.
What term describes how existing schema are modified to incorporate new information?
Accommodation
Adaptation
Jean piaget hypothesized that new information is processed this way
Includes both assimilation and accommodation
Assimilation
Incorporation of new information into existing schemata, if the new information doesn’t fit then accommodation occurs
Accommodation
Modification of existing schemata to account for new information
Which of the piagets stages of cognitive development occur before adolescence?
Sensorimotor and preoperational along with concrete operational.
Formal operational stage coincides with adolescence
What are the stages of piagets theory of cognitive development?
Sensorimotor 0-2 years
Preoperational 2-7 years
Concrete operational 7-11
Formal operational 11+
Sensorimotor stage
0-2 years
Coordination of senses
Language used for demand and cataloguing
Object permanence is developed
Preoperational stage
2-7
Symbolic thinking, use of proper syntax and grammar
Imagination and intuition are strong.
Abstract thoughts are still difficult
Conservation is developed
Concrete operational
7-11
Concepts attached to concrete situations
Time, space and quantity understood and can be applied but not as independent concepts
Formal operational
11 years old and older
Theoretical, hypothetical and counterfactual thinking
Abstract logic and reasoning
Strategy and planning
Base rate fallacy
Occurs when protypical or stereotypical factors are used for analysis rather than actual data. An experience changed your perception on the actual data.
Working with stroke patients makes you think strokes occur more often
Deductive reasoning
Refers to drawing conclusions by integrating different pieces of evidence
Representativeness heuristic
Involves categorization and classification based on how well an individual example fits its category
Confirmation bias
Occurs when a person only seeks information that reinforces his or her opinions
Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences
Linguistic Logical-mathematical Musical Visual-spatial Bodily-kinesthetic Interpersonal Intrapersonal
Fluid intelligence
Consists of problem solving skills
EEG waveforms during REM sleep most resemble what state of consciousness?
Alertness.
Composed mainly of beta waves which are present during alertness.
Slow wave sleep
Consists mainly of delta waves which are not present during rem sleep
Stage 1 sleep
Consist mainly of theta waves
Meditation
Quieting of the mind, and consists mainly of slow alpha and theta waves
Stage 2 sleep
Theta waves
Sleep spindles and K complexes
Stages 3/4 sleep
Delta waves
Deepest sleep hardest to wake from
REM sleep
Fast and random dreaming
Composed mainly of beta waves
Most like being awake but actually I’m really deep sleep.
What is the normal pattern of sleep stages during a complete sleep cycle early in the night?
1-2-3-4-3-2-REM
What hormone causes sleepiness?
Melatonin secreted by the pineal gland.
What does cortisol do?
Increases throughout early morning resulting in wakefulness
When does growth hormone secretion peak?
During slow wave sleep
What is oxytocin associated with?
Uterine contractions in childbirth, milk letdown and bonding behavior
Cognitive process theory
Wakeful and dreaming state use the same mental systems within the brain, particularly stream of consciousness.
Activation synthesis theory
States that dreams are caused by widespread, random activation of neural circuitry
Problem solving dream model
Indicates that dreams are used to solve problems while sleeping due to untethering of dreams from obstacles perceived while awake
Neurocognitive theory
Seek to unify cognitive and biological perspectives by correlating the subjective dream experience with physiological experience of dreaming
Syntax
Refers to how words are put together to form sentences and create meaning
Phonology
Refers to actual sounds of language
Semantics
Refers to the association of meaning with a word
Pragmatics
Refers to changes in usage, wording, and inflection based on context
A child peaks of at least 3 words but makes lots of errors and misuses past tense. How old is the child?
2-3 years old
Learning theory
Based on work by B.F skinner states that parents reinforce phonemes that sounds most like their language resulting in preferential preservation of these phonemes
Nativist theory
Posits a critical period during which language acquisition occurs.
Children are born with the innate ability to organize laws of language which enable children to easily lean a native language
Social interactionist theory
Indicates that language develops via interaction with parents and caregivers as well as a desire of the child to communicate
Broca’s area
Governs the motor function of language. A stroke of Broca’s area will leave receptive language intact but word formation will be affected
Wernickes area
A stroke affecting this area will make it so the individual can not comprehend speech
Actuate fasciculus
A stroke in this area will result in an inability to repeat words heard but spontaneous language production is intact
Superior temporal gyrus
Where Wernickes area is located
During what stages of sleep does dreaming occur?
About 75 percent occurs in REM
But dream occur in all other stages of sleep as well
Extrinsic motivation
Based on external conditions including perceived reward or fear of punishment. Includes reward of winning a competition
Intrinsic motivation
Act of doing something without any obvious external reward. Do it because you like doing it
Primary drives
Innate drives (thirst, hunger and sex)
Secondary drives
Learned by conditioning (ex. Money)
Drive reduction theory
Primary force behind motivation. Deviations from homeostasis create physiological needs. These needs result in psychological drive states that direct behavior to the meet the need and bring back homeostasis
Clark hull
Instinct approach theory
Inborn pattern of behavior
Biologically determined not learned
Born with pre programmed set of behavior essential for survival
Maslows hierarchy of needs
Physiological needs—-> safety needs —-> love and belonging——> esteem—-> self actualization
Yerkes dodson law
States that there is an optimal level of arousal necessary to perform. If levels of arousal are too high poor performance can result. Such as performing in front of a large crowd after sounding good at home alone
Drive reduction theory
Theory that the body will move to eliminate uncomfortable internal states known as drives. Body pushes toward homeostasis
Arousal theory
Suggests that people are driven to perform actions in order to maintain an optimum level of physiological arousal.
Skydiving
Incentive theory
Sometimes people are motivated by a desire for reinforcement or incentives
People from cultures around the work can identify what emotions?
Happiness, sadness and surprise, contempt, fear, disgust and anger
Experiencing emotions involves what three components?
Physiological, cognitive, and behavioral
Schachter singer theory of emotion
Environmental stimuli elicits physiological response, cognitively label the physical response and associate it with an emotion
We then feel the emotion
(Needs environmental context before emotion is identified)
Two factor theory
Cannon bard theory
Physiological changes and feelings/ emotions occur at the same time and independent of each other
James Lange theory
Experiencing a physiological reaction to a stimulus and then having an emotion
Barking dog—-> physical effects —-> emotion
The biology of emotion involved what regions of the brain?
Amygdala, prefrontal cortex and thalamus.
Doesn’t include the basal ganglia
Basal ganglia
Involved in smooth movement
What is the left frontal lobe associated with?
Positive feelings corresponding with joy and happiness
Right frontal lobe?
Associated with negative feelings such as sadness and disgust
Secondary appraisal of stress
Stage at which ability of the organism to cope with the stressor is evaluated. Based on the harm, threat and challenge of the stressor which are all correlated with its intensity
Primary appraisal of stress
Simply the initial determination whether there is a negative association at all, not its intensity
Eustress
Positive stressor such as working out
Hassle and frustration are both types of
Distress which are negative stressors
What type of conflict is associated with the least amount of stress?
Approach approach conflict
Both results are good choices such as choosing between two desserts
Avoidance avoidance conflict
Making a decision between two equally undesirable choices
Homework or housework
Approach avoidance conflict
One goal or event that has both positive and negative effects or characteristics that make it both appealing and unappealing such as
Marriage
What is the initial reaction to stress?
Activation of the sympathetic nervous system which is the alarm stage
Self concept is defined as
The past self
The future self
And the self schemata
Ought self
Appraisal of how other see us
What is androgyny?
High femininity and high masculinity
Undifferentiated
Low femininity and low masculinity
Low femininity and high masculinity is
Masculine
High femininity and low masculinity is
Feminine
Learned helplessness
Requires a repeated inability to have any effect on a situation over a long period of time and is must more severe, usually leads to depression
Low self efficacy
Feel ineffective when it comes to a task
Oral stage
Fixation is smoking, dependency, aggression
Anal stage
Fixation is obsessiveness, tidiness, meanness, untidiness, generosity
Phallic stage
Fixation is vanity, self obsession, sexual anxiety, inferiority and envy
Latency stage
Doesn’t have a fixation
Genital stage
If all stages were completed person should be normal functioning adult who is mentally and sexually matured
Erik eriksons 1 stage
Infancy 0-1
Basic trust versus mistrust
Erik eriksons stage 2
Early childhood (1-3) Autonomy vs shame
Eriksons third stage
(3-6)play age
Initiative vs guilt
Eriksons fourth stage
School age (6-12) Industry versus inferiority
Eriksons stage 5
Adolescence (12-19)
Identity versus confusion
Eriksons sixth stage
Early adulthood
(20-25)
Intimacy versus isolation
Eriksons seventh stage
Adulthood (26-64)
Generativity vs stagnation
Eriksons eighth stage
Old age (65-death) Integrity versus despair
Kohlbergs phases of moral reasoning
Preconventional
Stage one: desire to avoid punishment (obedience)
Stage two : individualism and exchange
Conventional
Stage 3: good interpersonal relationships
Stage 4: maintaining social order
Post conventional
Stage 5: social contract and individual rights
Stage 6: universal principles
Lev Vygotsky
Zone of proximal development theory which holds that children are often unable to perform tasks by themselves but can complete the task with the help of a more knowledgeable other
Albert bandura
Social learning theory that says human behavior is learned through observation, imitation and modeling.
Bobo dolls
Alfred Adler
Every person has a sense of inferiority. People work toward overcoming this inferiority and this drive is motivating force behind our emotions and behaviors
B.F skinner
Operant conditioning
Behavior is determined by its consequence by they reinforcement or punishments which make it more or less likely for that behavior to occur again
Superego
Is responsible for moral guilt when we do not live up to our ideal
(Angel)
id
Devil
Urge to do bad things
Ego
Mediator between the id and superego
Jungian archetypes
Drive for power and success are typically male traits
Anima=Feminine “inner female”
Animus=masculine “inner man”
Combo=syzygy
This represents your true self
The shadow=dark side of the psyche
The self= regulating center of the psyche and facilitator of individuation
The persona=how we present to the world, usually protects the ego from negative images (acts like a mask)
Social cognitive perspective
People’s behaviors and traits shape their environments which in turn have an effect in their identity
Neuroticism is associated with
High emotional arousal in stressful situations
Conscientiousness
Associated with being hardworking and organized instead of impulsive
Reaction formation
Defense mechanism that converts unwanted feelings into their exact opposite.
Explains stolkholm syndrome
Regression
Reversion of ego to an earlier stage of development as a defense mechanism
Projection
Ego defends itself by denying existence of impulses while attributing them to others
Displacement
When negative feelings are displace into another less threatening subject with the slightest trigger.
“Blowing up on people”
Cardinal traits
Trait that dominates entire personality and hence your life
Fictional finalism
Internal idealistic belief about the future. Like assuming winning a lottery ticket will solve all someone’s problems
Functional autonomy
Behavior continues after the drive behind the behavior has ceased.
Such as buying lottery tickets after you already won
Unconditional positive regard
Used in some forms of humanistic therapy in which the therapist believes in the internal good of the client and does not judge the client negatively for any words or actions
What is a negative symptom?
Absence of a normal or desired behavior
Such as disturbance of affect and avolition.
Personality difference and lack of initiative
What are positive symptoms?
Addition of an abnormal behavior such as hallucinations, disorganized behavior, and delusions
Echolalia
Involuntary repetition of others words and utterances and may be seen in schizophrenia
Echopraxia
Imitation of others actions
Loosening of associations
Is a type of disorders thought in which the patient moves between remotely related ideas
Neologisms
Newly invented words
Obsessive compulsive personality disorder
Focusing on details, moving routine, having a sense that there is only one right way to do things and lack of humor
Major depressive episode
Marked by a period of at least two weeks in which the patient has five of nine cardinal symptoms one of which must be lack of interest (Anhedonia) or depressed mood.
Decreased need for sleep I commonly seen in manic episodes
Schizoid personality disorder
Don’t desire or enjoy close relationships even with family and are often seen as loners. May be emotionally cold and detached
Dissociative fugue
Characterized by sudden travel or change in normal day to day activities and occurs in some cases of dissociative amnesia
Somatic symptom disorder
Extreme focus on physical symptoms such as pain or fatigue that causes emotional distress and problems functioning
To determine is the patient has major depressive disorder or a bipolar disorder, the presence of
Manic episodes should be confirmed. Bipolar episodes contain manic episodes while depressive disorder does not
Panic disorder
Exhibiting signs of panic and irrational fear without any instigating object present indicates panic disorder
Borderline personality disorder
Splitting, the consideration of others as either all good or all bad is characteristic of this disorder
Conversion disorder
Marked by a motor or sensory symptom in the absence of an underlying physical or neurological cause. Associated with an inciting event
Histrionic personality disorder
Self esteem depends on the approval of others. Overwhelming desire to be noticed and often behave dramatically for attention
What is true regarding bipolar disorders?
Highly heritable and are associated with increased levels of norepinephrine and serotonin in the brain.
Bipolar 1: single manic episode and does not require major depressive episode
Bipolar 2: at least one hypomanic episode and one major depressive episode
Cyclothymic disorder: contains at least one hypomanic episode and dysthymia
Prevalence
Total number of cases divided by total population during a period of time
Incidence
Total number of new cases divided by the at risk population during a period of time
Don’t forget to subtract the people who already have it
Morbidity
Refers to burden or degree of disease associated with a given illness
