Cog Neuro Book Ch 1 Vocabulary

Question 1

aggregate field theory (p. 7)

Answer 1

The theory that all individual mental functions are performed by the brain as a whole, not by discrete parts.

Question 2

associationism (p. 12)

Answer 2

The theory that the aggregate of a person’s experience determines the course of mental development.

Question 3

behaviorism (p. 12)

Answer 3

The theory that environment and learning are the primary factors in mental development, and that people should be studied by outside observation.

Question 4

cognitive neuroscience (p. 4)

Answer 4

The study of how the brain enables the mind.

Question 5

cytoarchitectonics (p. 9)

Answer 5

Also cellular architecture.

The study of the cellular composition of structures in the body.

Question 6

empiricism (p. 11)

Answer 6

The idea that all knowledge comes from sensory experience. Compare rationalism.

Question 7

Montreal procedure (p. 13)

Answer 7

A surgical procedure to treat epilepsy, originally developed by Wilder Penfield and Herbert Jasper, in which the neurons that produced seizures were surgically destroyed.

Question 8

neuron doctrine (p. 10)

Answer 8

The concept, proposed by Santiago Ramón y Cajal in the 19th century, that the neuron is the fundamental unit of the nervous system, and that the nervous system is composed of billions of these units (neurons) connected to process information.

Question 9

phrenology (p. 6)

Answer 9

The study of the physical shape of the human head, based on the belief that variations in the skull’s surface can reveal specific intellectual and personality traits. Today phrenology is understood to lack validity.

Question 10

rationalism (p. 11)

Answer 10

The idea that, through right thinking and rejection of unsupportable or superstitious beliefs, true beliefs can be determined. Compare empiricism.

Question 11

syncytium (p. 10)

Answer 11

A continuous mass of tissue that shares a common cytoplasm.