Key definitions Flashcards
Somatic Nervous System:
The subsection of the peripheral nervous system that is connected to the skeletal muscles and sense organs
Autonomic Nervous System:
The subsection of the peripheral nervous system that is connected to internal organs
Sympathetic Nervous System:
The subsection of the autonomic nervous system that is active during states of stress or strenuous activity, responsible for the fight or flight response
Parasympathetic Nervous System:
The subsection of the autonomic nervous system that is active during states of relaxation, responsible for rest and digest processes
Nerve:
Bundles of axons extending from many neurons.
Neuron:
Nervous system cells that communicate via electrochemical signals.
Neurotransmitter:
Chemicals which allow the transmission from one neuron to the next across synapses
Action Potential:
A short-lived change in electric charge inside a neuron which results in the transmission of an electrical impulse
Resting Potential:
The slight negative charge inside an inactive neuron.
Threshold:
The level of depolarisation before an action potential will fire.
Dopamine:
A neurotransmitter involved in conscious movement, learning, memory, and emotion.
Serotonin:
A neurotransmitter involved in sleep, wakefulness, appetite and mood.
Adrenaline:
A hormone created in response to stress and/or fear which acts to instigate the fight or flight response.
Learning:
A relatively permanent change, often of behaviour, that occurs as a result of experience
Classical Conditioning:
a learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired: a response which is at first elicited by the first stimulus is eventually elicited by the second stimulus alone (Pavlov,
Operant Conditioning:
Learning that occurs as a result of rewards or punishments as a consequences of behaviours.
Observational learning:
New behaviour or modification of a current behaviour which occurs as a result of watching others and copying them
Modelling:
To exhibit a behaviour in such a way as to promote similar behaviours in others.
Attention:
The extent to which the subject is focused on the behaviour and/or interested by it
Retention:
The extent to which a subject remembers the behaviour
Reproduction:
The ability of the subject to reproduce the behaviour
Motivation:
The extent to which the subject is willing to perform the behaviour
Token Economies:
A type of psychotherapy in which people are rewarded for good behaviour with tokens that can be exchanged for privileges or tangible rewards
Saturation:
The overexposure of one type of reinforcement or punishment