exam 1

Question 1

what are the two parts of the nervous system and what is the difference between them?

Answer 1

brain and spinal cord

Question 2

what is the difference between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system?

Answer 2

the sympathetic is fight or flight while parasympathetic is rest and digest

Question 3

what are the three types of neurons?

Answer 3

motor neuron, sensory neuron, and inter neuron

Question 4

what does the endocrine system do?

Answer 4

contains hormones which are the chemical messengers

Question 5

what is the difference between hormones and neurotrasnmitters?

Answer 5

hormones are sent through the blood and are much slower while neurotransmitters are in the brain

Question 6

where are the motor and somatosensory cortexes?

Answer 6

the motor cortex is in the frontal lobe and the somatosensory cortex is in the parietal lobe

Question 7

what does the motor cortex do?

Answer 7

the motor cortex does movement

Question 8

what does the somatosensory cortex do?

Answer 8

the somatosensory cortex does sensory

Question 9

what are association areas, and why are they important?

Answer 9

they are for complex tasks

Question 10

why is there a myth that we only use ten percent of our brains?

Answer 10

because scientists poked around in the brain and only noticed when poking that it only affected the somatosensory and motor cortexes so they thought we didn’t use the rest of our brain. comes from association areas.

Question 11

how is the focus of genetics different from the focus of evolutionary psychology?

Answer 11

genetics focuses on what makes us different while evolutionary psychology focuses on what makes us similar

Question 12

why are twin studies useful?

Answer 12

to understand personality is much more genetic than environmental

Question 13

what is the importance of the gene-environment interaction?

Answer 13

genes are self regulating, they respond to the environment. they are not always on.

Question 14

what is the basic idea of natural selection?

Answer 14

survival of the fittest, evolutionary psychology

Question 15

what is the difference between sensation and perception?

Answer 15

sensation is describing what you’re receiving from the environment while perception is the way we interpret those things

Question 16

what is the difference between top-down and bottom-up processing?

Answer 16

bottom up is taking in new information to understand the task at hand while top down is using pre-existing knowledge to guide understanding

Question 17

what do all senses have in common?

Answer 17

receive sensory info
transform sensory info into neural impulses
deliver neural info to the brain

Question 18

can subliminal messages really influence your behavior?

Answer 18

may produce a fleeting and subtle but not powerful or enduring effects on behaviors

Question 19

synaptic gap

Answer 19

the space between neurons

Question 20

dendrites

Answer 20

receive messages from other cells

Question 21

what type of messenger is a neurotransmitter?

Answer 21

chemical

Question 22

the peripheral nervous system is

Answer 22

everything else

Question 23

autonomic nervous system

Answer 23

contains the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system
controls anything that is involuntary

Question 24

pituitary gland

Answer 24

the master gland

Question 25

reflex arc

Answer 25

when your body performs an action before the signal gets sent up to your brain

Question 26

what are the three main divisions of the brain?

Answer 26

hindbrain, midbrain, forebrain

Question 27

hindbrain

Answer 27

the first part of the brain that developed in terms of evolution. does the autonomic functions.

Question 28

forebrain

Answer 28

does all of the complicated stuff such as learning, hearing, reading, and complex emotions

Question 29

cerebellum

Answer 29

controls balance and fine motor movements

Question 30

limbic system

Answer 30

controls emotions and drives

Question 31

amygdala

Answer 31

mainly controls fear and anger, apart of the limbic system

Question 32

hippocampus

Answer 32

memory

Question 33

thalamus

Answer 33

transmits information to the brain

Question 34

cerebrum

Answer 34

everything in the forebrain

Question 35

cerebral cortex

Answer 35

the outer wrinkly layer of the cerebrum

Question 36

corpus collosum

Answer 36

connects the two hemispheres

Question 37

frontal lobe

Answer 37

for decision making and following instructions

Question 38

occipital lobe

Answer 38

in the back of the head and controls sight

Question 39

temporal lobe

Answer 39

anything auditory

Question 40

chromosomes

Answer 40

packages of genes we receive from our parents

Question 41

monozygotic vs dizygotic twins

Answer 41

monozygotic comes from the same egg and share 100% of the same DNA.
dizygotic are fraternal and share 50% of their DNA.

Question 42

epigenetics

Answer 42

the study of the interaction of genes and the environment

Question 43

transduction

Answer 43

taking one form of energy and turning it into another. all of your senses perform transduction. turns into electrical impulses.

Question 44

absolute transduction

Answer 44

the point at which you can sense something

Question 45

difference threshold/just noticable difference

Answer 45

how much does the temperature have to change before you notice the change

Question 46

weber’s law

Answer 46

says the just noticeable difference depends on how loud the signal was before

Question 47

subliminal stimulus

Answer 47

a stimulus below the absolute threshold

Question 48

sensory adaptation

Answer 48

senses have adapted to that level of stimuli

Question 49

schema

Answer 49

an organizing unit that helps us process or organize information

Question 50

context effects

Answer 50

how we see things based on context

Question 51

perceptual set

Answer 51

a disposition to perceive things. we’re set in our way of perceiving things