Exam 1 Flashcards
Cognitive neuroscience
Study the relationships between thought process and brain function
Culture
Enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and handed down from one generation to another
Nature/nurture
A less stable environment can exacerbate a mental disorder. In most cases, nurture works on what nature endows.
Dual processing
Principal that, at the same time, our mind processes information on separate conscious and unconscious tracks
Positive psychology
Scientific study of human functioning, with the goals of discovering and promoting strengths and virtues that help individuals and communities to thrive
Overconfidence
We think we know more than we do
Hindsight bias
Believing you already knew something.
Tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that we could have predicted it
Hypothesis
Testable prediction
Case study
Research an individual or group in great depth
Positive correlation
Indicates a direct relationship, meaning that two things increase together or decrease together
Negative correlation
Indicates an inverse relationship: as one thing increases, the other decreases
Correlation coefficient
Provides a statistical measure of how closely two things vary together and how well one predicts the other
Correlation
Measure of the extent to which two events vary
Experimental
Manipulate one factor to observe its effects/outcome
Blind study
You’re not sure as a participant if you’re getting treatment
Neuron, dendrites and axons
Dendrites receive information – Hairy cells
Axons send information
Ways to study the living brain
Computerized axial tomography (CAT)
Magnetic residence imaging (MRI)
Electroencephalogram (EEG)
Functional magnetic residence imaging (FMRI)
Poron emission tomography (PET)
CAT
Using x-rays, a scanner creates multiple cross-sectional images of the brain
MRI
A computer analyzes the electromagnetic response – using powerful magnet – creating higher detailed images than CAT
EEG
Electrodes placed on the scalp record electrical activity from the area directly below
fMRI
One of the most specific ways to get your brain studied
Uses powerful magnets to track changes in blood, oxygen levels. Like PET, this produces measurements of activity throughout the brain.
PET
A radioactively labeled substance called the tracer is injected into the bloodstream and track while the participant performs a task. A computer creates 3-D imaging showing degrees of brain activity areas with the most activity appear in red.
Neurotransmitter
Chemical messengers sent by axons to be received by dendrites
Everything you do – your neurons have to send and receive those messages telling you about to do so – without us having to think about it, i.e. writing, walking, talking
All or none response
When our neurons communicate with each other, they either fire at full strength or not at all
Central nervous system (CNS)
Our brain and spinal cord – specific portion of our nervous system
Peripheral nervous system (PNS)
Sensory and motor neurons – connects CNS to the rest of the body
Combined with CNS to make up our bodies nervous system
Sympathetic
Aroused body/fight or flight
Hormones
Chemical messengers of the endocrine system. Hormones take 30 minutes to get out of your system they regulate emotions like happy, mad, sad, hungry.
This is why we have delayed response for feeling full while we’re eating
Pituitary gland
Master gland of the endocrine system
Medulla
Controls heartbeat and breathing
Pons
Coordinate movement
The bodies cross wiring
Nerves from one side of the brain are mostly linked to the bodies opposite side
Hypothalamus
Regulates thirst and body temperature
Thalamus
Receives all sensory input, except for one – smell
Occipital lobe
Vision lobe
Plasticity
Our brain can come back from some injuries, more plasticity the younger you are
Parts of our brain will take over from damage parts of the brain
Corpus callosum
Band of nerve fibers – connects left and right hemispheres of the brain
In the past, we’ve severed this connection to help prevent seizures and some people – called split brain
The left side of the brain talks, the right side is silent
Developmental psychologist
Focus on physical, cognitive and social development throughout the lifespan
Teratogen
Agent, such as a chemical or virus, they can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm
Newborn preference for faces
Newborns prefer human faces over non-human faces
Piaget
Influential in shaping our understanding of cognitive development
Schemas
Framework for understanding an experience
Sensorimotor
Happens in the first two years – we understand the world through grasping and sucking | object permanence
Conservation
The liquid task in the Piage video
Harlow’s monkeys
The baby monkeys used the cloth mother as a basis to explore – children look back to their homebase for approval quite a bit
Insecure attachment
Not reassured or comforted by their mother
Secure attachment
When they are reassured, they use their mother as a base to explore
Marshmallow experiment
They used the marshmallow experiment to study delayed gratification in children
Frontal lobes/teens
Not fully formed and we’re unable to make good decisions
Kohlberg
Research was on moral reasoning
Emerging adulthood
Between adolescence and adulthood
Marriage
The longer you live with someone pre-marriage the more likely you are to get a divorce
