Mid term Vocab part 2 Flashcards
phrenology
• studying bumps on the skull
biological psychology
links between biological and psychological processes
neuron
o nerve cells, or building blocks of our bodys nueral information system
dendrites
recieve information and conduct it toward the cell body
axon
o pass the message through its terminal branches to other nuerons or to muscles or glands
myelin
• layer of fatty tissue that insulates axons and speeds their impulses (insulation)
action potential
• brief electrical charge that travels down its axon
refractory period
• period of inactivity after a nueron has fired
threshold
• the level of stimulation required to trigger a nueral impulse
all or none response
• a nuerons reaction of either firing ( with a full strength response ) or not firing
synapse
o meeting point of to nuerons (synaptic gap or synaptic cleft
neurotransmitters
o chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between nuerons
reuptake
o a nuerotransmitter’s reabsorption by the sending nueron
endorphins
natural opiate like neurotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure
agonist
a molecule that, by binding to a receptor site, stimulates a response
antagonist
o a molecule that, by binding to a recptor site, inhibits or blocks a response
Acetylcholine
o enables muscle action, learning, and memory
dopamine
o influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion
serotonin
o affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal
norepinephrine
o helps control alertness and arousal
GABA
o a major inhibitory nuerotransmitter
glutamate
o a major excittory nuerotransmitter; involved in memory
endorphins
o “morphine within” natural, opiate like - nuerotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure
• explain runners high, ainkilling effects of acupuncture
nervous system
BODY’S SPEEDY, ELECTROCHEMICAL COMMUNICATION NETWORK, CONSISTING OF ALL THE NERVE CELLS OF THE PERIPHERAL AND CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEMS
central nervous system
• brain and spinal chord
peripheral nervous system
• responsible for gathering information and for transmitting CNS (central nervous systems) decisions to other body parts
nerves
• electrical cables formed of bundles of axons, link the central nervous system with the body’s sensory receptors, muscs, and glands.
sensory neurons
• nuerons that carry incoming informtion from the sensory recetors to the brain and spinal cord
motor neurons
• nuerons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands
interneurons
• nuerons within the brain and spinal cord that communicate internally and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs
somatic nervous system
• enables voluntary control of our skeletal muscles. or skeletal nervous system,
automatic nervous system
• controls our glands and the muscles of our internal organs, influencing such functions as glandular activity, heartbeat, and digestion (like automatic pilot) can be overridden but usually works in its own
sympathetic nervous system
• arouses and exoands energy if you get startled, this sytem will accelerate your heartbeat, raise your blood pressure, slow your digestion, raise your blood sugar, and coll you with persperation maing you alert and ready for action
parasympathetic nervous sytem
• produce opposite effects as sypathetic nervous system. division of the autonomic nervous sytem that calms the body, conserving its energy
reflex
• a simple, utomatic reponse to a sensory stimulus such as a knee-jerk reaction
endocrine system
• the body’s “slow” chemical communiction system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream
hormones
• chemical messengers that are manufactured by the endorcine glands travel through the bloodstrem and affect other tissues
adrenal glands
• a pair of endocrine glands that sit just above the kidney and secrete hormones (epinephrine and norepinephrine) that help arouse the body in times of stress
pituitary glands
the endocrine system’s most influential gland. Under the influence of the hyothalamus, the pituitary gland regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands
lesion
tissue destruction
EEG
• An amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity sweeping across the brain’s surface. These waves are measure by electrodes placed on the scalp
Shower cap like hat that is filled with electrodes covered with a conductive gel
CT
• Examines the brain by taking x-ray photographs that can reveal bran damage
PET
• Depicts brain activity by showing each brain area’s consumption of its chemical fuel, the sugar glucose
MRI
• Person’s head is put in a strong magnetic field, which aligns the spinning atoms of brain molecules
fMRI
• can reveal the brain’s functioning as well as its structure e
brainstem
• Oldest and innermost region of the brain
Begins where the spinal cord swells slightly after entering the skull
medulla
base of the brain stem; o Here lie the control fro your heartbeat and breathing
thalamus
o Sits atop the brainstem
• A pair of egg-shaped structures that act as the brain’s sensory control center
• Receives information from all the senses except smell and routes it to the higher brain regions that deal with seeing, hearing, tasting, and touching
• Also receives some the higher brain’s replies, which it then directs to the medulla and to the cerebellum
reticular reformation
o Inside your brainstem in-between your ears
• A neuron network that extends form the spinal cord with up through the thalamus
• Filters incoming stimuli and relays important information to other brain areas
• Enables arousal
cerebellum
o Extending form the rear of the brainstem; baseball sized
• Means little brain
Which is what its two wrinkled halves resemble
Enables nonverbal leaning and memory. Helps us judge time, modulate our emotions, and discriminate sounds and textures
Coordinates voluntary movement
limbic system
o Newest and highest regions
• Cerebral hemispheres (the two halves of the brain)
Contains the amygdala, the hypothalamus, and the hippocampus
amygdala
o Two lima bean sizes neural clusters, to aggression and fear
• Linked to emotion
Perceptions of these emotions
hypothalamus
o Just below the thalamus
• An important link in the command chain governing bodily maintenance
Some clusters influence hunger; others regulate thirst, body temperature, and sexual behavior
• All together, they help maintain a steady internal state
cerebral cortex
Thin surface layer of interconnected neural cells
• It is your brain’s thinking crown
glial cells
• Cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons; they may also play a role in leaning and thinking
frontal lobe
portion of the cerebral cortex lying just behind the forehead; involved in speaking and muscle movements and in making plans and judgements
parietal lobes
lying atop the head and toward the rear; receives sensory input for touch and body position
occipital lobe
lying at the back of the head; includes areas that receive information from the visual fields
temporal lobes
roughly above the ears; includes the auditory areas, each revving information primarily from the opposite ear
motor cortex
an are at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements
evolutionary psychology
focus mostly on what makes us so much alike, evolutionary psychology is the study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural selection
natural selection
the principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely bypassed on to succeeding generations
mutation
random error in gene replication that leads to a change
- genetic leash that makes cats pounce or dogs retrieve is looser in humans
cognition
• mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating information
concept
mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, and people
prototype
• mental image or best example of a category
creativity
• the ability to produce ideas that are both novel and valuable
o scoring 120 or higher on a standard intelligence test supports creativity
convergent thinking
• narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution
divergent thinking
• expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative Thinking that diverges in different directions)
algorithm
step by step procedures that guarantee a solution
heuristics
• simpler thinking strategies
insight
• a sudden realization of a problems solution; contrasts with strategy based solutions
confirmation bias
• a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence
mental set
• our tendency to approach a problem with the mind-set of what has worked for us previously
intuition
• our fast, automatic, unreasoned feelings and thoughts
representative heuristics
judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information
availabillty heuristics
• operates when we estimate the likelihood of events based on how mentally available they are
overconfidence
• the tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our knowledge and judgments
belief perseverance
• - often fuels social conflict, as it did in a classic study of people with opposing views of capital punishment
framing
• the way we present an issue, sways our decisions and judgment.
language
our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning
phoneme
the smallest distinctive sounds units in a language, when saying chat you have the ch, a, and the t.
morpheme
the smallest units that carry meaning in a given language, such as prefixes and suffixs
grammar
the system of rules that enables us to communicate with one another
babbling stage
beginning at about 4 months, thestage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language
one word stage
the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly single words
two word stage
beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements
telegraphic speech
early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram “go car” using mostly nouns and verbs
aphasia
impairment of language, usually caused by left-hemisphere damage either to the Broca’s Area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke’s area (impairing understanding)
broca’s area
impairing speaking
wernicks area
impairing understanding
linguistic determinism
whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think
learning
the process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors
habituation
o An organism’s decreasing response to a stimulus with repeated exposure to it
associative learning
o Learning that certain events occur together
stimulus
any event or situation that evokes a response
cognitive learning
o The acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language
classical conditioning
o A type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimulated and anticipate events
behaviorism
o The view that psychology should
• Be an objective science that
• Studies behavior with out reference to mental processes
neutral stimulus
stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning (classical)
unconditioned response
o In classical conditioning, an unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus
unconditioned stimulus
• In classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally, naturally and automatically
conditioned response
• In classical conditioning, a learned response to a previously neutral (but not conditioned) stimulus
conditioned stimulus
• An originally irrelevant stimulus that, other association with an unconditioned stimulus comes to trigger a conditioned response
acquisition
o In classical condition: the initial stage of learning a response (when you link a neural stimulus to an conditioned stimulus)
o In operant conditioning
• The strengthening of a reinforced response
higher order conditioning
o A procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neural stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus
extinction
o The diminished responding that occurs when the conditioned stimulus no longer signals an impending unconditioned stimulus
spontaneous recovery
o The reappearance of a (weakened) conditioned response after a pause(?)
• Extinction suppresses the conditioned response but doesn’t eliminate it
generalization
o The tendency to respond likewise to stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus
• Can be adaptive
discrimination
o The learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other irrelevant stimuli
operant conditioning
o Organisms associate their own actions with consequences
law of effect
• Principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequence become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely
operant chamber
o A chamber containing a bar of key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcers; attached devices record the animal’s rate of bar pressing or key pecking
• Also known as skinner box
reinforcement
o In operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior that it follows
shaping
o Which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desire behavior
discriminative stimulus
stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement (in contrast to related stimuli not associated with reinforcement
positive reinforcement
o Increasing behaviors by presenting positive reinforcers. A positive reinforcers is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response
negative reinforcement
o Strengthens a response by reducing or removing something negative
primary reinforcer
o An innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need
conditioned reinforcer
o A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer
• Also known as secondary reinforcer
reinforcement schedule
o A pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced
continuous reinforcement
o Reinforcing the desired response every time that it occurs
partial reinforcement
o Reinforcing a response only part of the time
fixed ration schedule
o A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses
variable ratio schedule
o A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses
fixed interval schedule
o A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed
variable interval schedule
o a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals
punishment
o an event that tends to decrease the behavior that it follows
respondent behavior
behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus
operant behavior
behavior that operates on the environment producing consequences
cognitive map
o Mental representation of the layout of ones environment
latent learning
o Learning that occurs but isn’t apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it
insight
o A sudden realization of a problem’s solution
intristic motivation
o A desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake
• Excessive rewards can destroy this
If I have to be bribed into this, it must not be worth doing for its own sake
coping
o Alleviating stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods
problem focused coping
o Attempting to alleviate stress directly
emotion focused coping
o Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotion needs related to one’s stress reaction
learned helplessness
o The hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events
external locus of control
o The perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate
internal locus of control
o The perception that you control your own fate
self control
o The ability to control impulses and delay short term gratification for greater long term rewards
observational learning
• Learning by observing others
modeling
o The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior
mirror neurons
o frontal lobe neurons that some scientists believe fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so
prosocial behavior
o positive, constructive, helpful behavior
