exam 1 Flashcards
what are the two parts of the nervous system and what is the difference between them?
brain and spinal cord
what is the difference between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system?
the sympathetic is fight or flight while parasympathetic is rest and digest
what are the three types of neurons?
motor neuron, sensory neuron, and inter neuron
what does the endocrine system do?
contains hormones which are the chemical messengers
what is the difference between hormones and neurotrasnmitters?
hormones are sent through the blood and are much slower while neurotransmitters are in the brain
where are the motor and somatosensory cortexes?
the motor cortex is in the frontal lobe and the somatosensory cortex is in the parietal lobe
what does the motor cortex do?
the motor cortex does movement
what does the somatosensory cortex do?
the somatosensory cortex does sensory
what are association areas, and why are they important?
they are for complex tasks
why is there a myth that we only use ten percent of our brains?
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.
how is the focus of genetics different from the focus of evolutionary psychology?
genetics focuses on what makes us different while evolutionary psychology focuses on what makes us similar
why are twin studies useful?
to understand personality is much more genetic than environmental
what is the importance of the gene-environment interaction?
genes are self regulating, they respond to the environment. they are not always on.
what is the basic idea of natural selection?
survival of the fittest, evolutionary psychology
what is the difference between sensation and perception?
sensation is describing what you’re receiving from the environment while perception is the way we interpret those things
what is the difference between top-down and bottom-up processing?
bottom up is taking in new information to understand the task at hand while top down is using pre-existing knowledge to guide understanding
what do all senses have in common?
receive sensory info
transform sensory info into neural impulses
deliver neural info to the brain
can subliminal messages really influence your behavior?
may produce a fleeting and subtle but not powerful or enduring effects on behaviors
synaptic gap
the space between neurons
dendrites
receive messages from other cells
what type of messenger is a neurotransmitter?
chemical
the peripheral nervous system is
everything else
autonomic nervous system
contains the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system
controls anything that is involuntary
pituitary gland
the master gland
reflex arc
when your body performs an action before the signal gets sent up to your brain
what are the three main divisions of the brain?
hindbrain, midbrain, forebrain
hindbrain
the first part of the brain that developed in terms of evolution. does the autonomic functions.
forebrain
does all of the complicated stuff such as learning, hearing, reading, and complex emotions
cerebellum
controls balance and fine motor movements
limbic system
controls emotions and drives
amygdala
mainly controls fear and anger, apart of the limbic system
hippocampus
memory
thalamus
transmits information to the brain
cerebrum
everything in the forebrain
cerebral cortex
the outer wrinkly layer of the cerebrum
corpus collosum
connects the two hemispheres
frontal lobe
for decision making and following instructions
occipital lobe
in the back of the head and controls sight
temporal lobe
anything auditory
chromosomes
packages of genes we receive from our parents
monozygotic vs dizygotic twins
monozygotic comes from the same egg and share 100% of the same DNA.
dizygotic are fraternal and share 50% of their DNA.
epigenetics
the study of the interaction of genes and the environment
transduction
taking one form of energy and turning it into another. all of your senses perform transduction. turns into electrical impulses.
absolute transduction
the point at which you can sense something
difference threshold/just noticable difference
how much does the temperature have to change before you notice the change
weber’s law
says the just noticeable difference depends on how loud the signal was before
subliminal stimulus
a stimulus below the absolute threshold
sensory adaptation
senses have adapted to that level of stimuli
schema
an organizing unit that helps us process or organize information
context effects
how we see things based on context
perceptual set
a disposition to perceive things. we’re set in our way of perceiving things
