Chapter 1 & 2: Psychology as a Science/Neuroscience Flashcards
A review panel established by a publicly funded research institution to evaluate all proposed research by that institution.
Institutional Review Board (IRB)
- Obtained informed consent
- Minimize harm to participants
- Avoid deception when possible
- Voluntary withdrawal from research
- Protect the confidentiality of participants
Ethical considerations evaluated by the IRB (Insitutional Review Board)
When researchers observe and describe behaviors without investigating the relationship between specific variables
- can include observation in natural habitat or a laboratory, case studies or conducting surveys
- can have a narrow or broad focus
Descriptive study
Study of one individual or a few individuals in depth.
-Use real-life observations, interviews or tests to obtain information. (i.e. brain damage-not possible or ethical to obtain any other way).
Case Study
A study that allows researchers to measure the degree to which two variables are related.
- Includes a Variable or characteristic that can vary, such as age, weight, or height.
- variables are not manipulated
- observes whether a relationship exists between the variables
Correlational design
A study that enables researchers to determine causality by manipulation of one or more independent variables and observing the effect on some outcome.
- Includes an independent variable (manipulated or changes) and a dependent variable (the variable being measured).
- random assignment (experimental group=independent variable; control group=no treatment/no effect)
- single blind-participants don’t know which group they have been assigned
- double blind-neither participants or experimenters know who is in which group.
Experimental Design (or study)
A variable that is manipulated or changed in an experiment
Independent Variable
A variable that is being measured to determine the impact of changes in the other variable;
Dependent Variable
A variable other than the independent variable that could have an impact on the dependent variable; variables the researcher failed to control, or eliminate, damanging the internal validity of an experiment; aka third-degree variable.
Confounding Variable
provide participants with a verbal description of the true nature and purpose of a study after the study occurs.
Debriefing
The consistency of a measure.
Reliability
Accuracy of a measure; meaning that the test is accurately measuring the construct it is designed to measure.
Validity
Explanations and interpretations of the facts; a principle that has been formed as an attempt to explain things that have already been substantiated by data.
Theory
A testable prediction about new facts, based on existing theories; an assumption, something proposed for the sake of argument so that it can be tested to see if it might be true.
Hypothesis
The research participants do not know whether they have been assigned to the experimental or control group. When they don’t know, their expectations can no longer bias the results.
Single-blind experiments
Both the participants and the researchers do not know which participants are receiving the actual treatment and which are receiving a placebo treatment. Most effective in reducing bias from the participant or the researcher.
Double-blind experiment
The process by which participants in an experiment are randomly placed into experimental and control groups.
Random assignment
A technique in which the participants in a survey are chosen randomly in an attempt to get an accurate representation of a population.
Random Sampling
To be truly random, every member of the population of interest has to have an equal chance of being included in the study; and so that a sample is representative of the general population.
Relationship between a population and a random sampling. Why use random sampling?
Includes the brain and spinal cord
Central Nervous System
Branch of the nervous system that is external to the CNS, or external to the brain and spinal cord.
Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
Divided into the somatic nervous system and autonomic nervous system.
Two main divisions of the peripheral nervous system (PNS)
Receives stimuli from the outside world, coordinates our movements, and performs other tasks that we control consciously; part of the peripheral nervous system.
Somatic Nervous System
Responsible for the involuntary functions of the internal organs of our bodies and consists of the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system; is part of the peripheral nervous system.
Autonomic nervous system
Sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.
Parts of the Autonomic System
Responsible for the involuntary functions of the body’s internal organs; particularly active during times of stress; part of the autonomic nervous system.
Sympathetic nervous system
Responsible for returning the body to its natural resting state; part of the autonomic nervous system
Parasympathetic nervous system
Which part of the nervous system is responsible for “fight or flight”?
The Sympathetic nervous system
Which part of the nervous system is responsible for “rest and digest”?
The Parasympathetic nervous system
Rapid and automatic neuromuscular actions generated in resonse to a specific stimulus; Organized by the spinal cord without the conscious participation of the brain.
Reflexes
A sensory neuron must carry the stimulus to the spinal cord, where an interneuron enables connection to a motor neuron that produces a specific motor pattern.
How a reflex is produced
The gyrus or folds are what give the brain that wrinkled appearance. They increase the cortex’s total surface area and increase its processing power.
The benefits of the many folds in the cerebral cortex
Severing the fibers of the corpus callosum in an effort to control seizures of patients with severe epilepsy.
Callosotomy (aka split-brain procedure)
An excitatory neurotransmitter who’s primary functions are feelings of pleasure, learning and memory, movement.
Low levels: parkinson’s disease, depression
High levels: schizophrenia
Dopamine
Both an excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitter responsible for arousal, attention and memory; muscle contractions.
Low levels: Alzheimer’s disease
Acetylcholine (ACh)
Both an excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitter responsible for arousal and sleep, mood, appetite
Low levels: Depression, anxiety (OCD)
High levels: A syndrome who’s symptoms include agitation, rapid heart rate/high blood pressure, muscle rigidity, sweating, high fever, seizures; can be life threatening.
Seratonin
An inhibitory neurotransmitter responsible for sleep, inhibits movement.
Low levels: Insomnia, seizures, tremors, depression, anxiety
Gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA)
An excitatory neurotransmitter responsible for learning and memory, synaptic plasticity
High levels: Migraines (often from MSG) seizures, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease
Glutamate
Responsible for processing visual stimuli by receiving input from the eyes and is then able to translate that input into things we see; it’s association cortex integrates the color, size, and movement of our visual perceptions so that visual stimuli become recognizable to us.
Occipital lobes
Involved primarily in auditory processing, including understanding language; located in front of the occipital lobes and above the ears
The Temporal lobes
“little man” is a distorted body map of the sematosensory cortex, with each part of the body sized according to how much space the brain gives to processing information about that body part; because so many neurons process information from the hands and lips, the hands and lips are remarkably oversized.
Homunculus
A region in the frontal lobe that initiates the movements needed to produce speech. Individuals who suffer an injury to this area of their brain have a very difficult time speaking or making the words come out correctly. Their comprehension is typically intact, but they have great difficulty expressing themselves.
Broca’s Area
An area in the left hemisphere of the temporal lobe; associated with receptive language deficits. Patients with brain damage to this area have difficulty understanding what was said to them. They can typically respond with lengthy sentences; however, the sentences themselves often don’t make sense.
Wernicke’s area
Part of the limbic system; a structure essential for creating and consolidating information to make new memories; Individuals with damage to this area are able to hold new information for a short time but are unable to make enduring memories.
Hippocampus
Located at the rearmost part of the skull and known for their visual processing abilities; Damage may result in loss of visual capability, an inability to identify colors, and hallucinations. At times, severe vision loss or total blindness
Occipital Lobes
Part of the brain that lies behind the forehead that performs a variety of integration and management functions. If damaged there can be a loss of voluntary movement, including difficulties with gross motor skills (like moving the arms and legs) and fine motor skills (like moving the fingers). It can affect short term memory, lead to personality changes, difficulty concentrating or palnning, and impulsivity.
The Frontal Lobe
provided evidence that the frontal lobes play a critical role in personality and behavior; railroad worker who had an iron rod go through his left cheek and up through his skull;
Case of Phineas Gage
Helped researchers understand the biological connection between memory, memory loss and the brain; how the brain works, how memory is formed and retained over time.
Case of H.M. (Henry Molaison)
Study that helped support Donald Hebb’s ideas that the more cells “talk” to one another, the more plentiful their synaptic connections become or the idea of synaptic plasticity which is the ability of the brain to adapt and change over time; helps understand how individuals recover from damager to areas of the brain.
London taxicab drivers vs London bus drivers study
“Finger type” branches or bushy end of a neuron that have the important job of catching the signal, or information, from the previous neuron. They stretch out over a large area to increase their chances of “grabbing onto” the incoming signal.
Dendrites
The cell body containing the cells nucleus, which houses the cell’s genetic information.
Soma
A long, thin fiber responsible for carrying information down to the end of the neuron; like our spine
Axon
A layer of fatty tissue that covers the axon; speeds up the transmission of information down the axon (think of a slip and slide)
Myelin Sheath
Swollen part at the end of the branches located at the end of the axon; contains vesicles holding the neurotransmitter, which is released into the synapse during an action potential;
Terminal button or axon terminal
small, fluid-filled sacs located in the terminal buttons; typically hold the neurotransmitter
Vesicles
a brief electrical charge that travels down the neuron. At first, the neural impulse is an electrical event. When it reaches the end of the neuron, it becomes a chemical event in order to “pass on” the information to the next neuron.
Action potential
State of tension between the negative charge inside the cell relative to the outside of the cell; prepares the neuron for an action potential; when a neuron is at rest, the inside of the neuron is more negatively charged compared to the outside of the neuron
Resting potential
space between the presynaptic neuron and the postsynaptic neuron; filled with the neurotransmitter after an action potential; a very small space between the neuron’s terminal buttons and the next neuron’s dendrites
Synapses or Synapses Cleft
A process that moves many of the released neurotransmitters back into the presynaptic neuron
Reuptake
- Identify the problem
- Conduct background research
- Formulate a hypothesis
- Test the hypothesis
- Analyze your results
- Report your result
Scientific Method
A methodology used to solve a specific, practical issue affecting an individual or group. This scientific method of study and research is used in business, medicine, and education in order to find solutions that may improve health, solve scientific problems or develop new technology.
Applied Research
A study that strictly adheres to a scientific research design. It includes a hypothesis, a variable that can be manipulated by the researcher, and variables that can be measured, calculated and compared. Most importantly it is completed in a controlled environment. It involves testing or attempting to prove a hypothesis by way of experimentation.
Experimental Research
It can never be proven; A basic principle in science is that any law, theory, or otherwise can be disproven if new facts or evidence are presented.
Can a theory be proven? Disproven?
Tongues, Lips and Fingertips
Which areas of the body are most densely saturated with nerve endings?
