Midterm Study Flashcards
Plasticity
The Brain’s capacity for change
Afferent Nerves
Also known as sensory nerves, carry info to the brain and spinal cord. (Think “A” for “Arrival”)
Efferent Nerves
Also known as motor nerves, carry information out of the brain and spinal cord, the nervous system’s output. (Think “E” for “Exit”)
Neural Networks
Interconnected group of nerve cells that integrate sensory input and motor output.
Central Nervous System (CNS)
The Brain and Spinal Cord
Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
Network of nerves that connects the brain and spinal cord to other parts of the body.
Brings information to and from the brain and spinal cord and carries out the commands of the CNS to execute various muscular and glandular activities.
What are the two systems of the PNS?
Somatic and the Autonomic
Somatic Nervous System
Sensory Nerves (Afferent) conveys info from skin and muscles to the CNS, such as pain and temperature, and motor nerves (Efferent) whose function is to tell those muscles what to do.
Autonomic Nervous System
Takes messages to and from the body’s internal organs, monitors breathing, heartrate, digestion.
What are the two parts of the Autonomic Nervous System?
Sympathetic and Parasympathetic
Sympathetic Nervous System
Arouses the body to mobilize for action and is involved in times of stress
Parasympathetic Nervous System
Calms the body.
Stress
The body’s response to stressors.
Stressors
The circumstances and events that threaten individuals and tax their coping abilities.
Neurons
Nerve cells that handle the information processing function.
Glial Cells (Glia)
Provide support, nutritional benefits, and other functions in the nervous system.
Cell Body
Part of the neuron that contains the nucleus, which directs the manufacture of substances that the neuron needs for growth and maintenance.
Dendrites
Treelike fibers projecting from a neuron, which receive info and orient it towards the neuron’s cell body.
Axon
Part of the neuron that carries information away from the cell body toward other cells.
Myelin Sheath
A layer of fat cells that encases and insulates most axons. This speeds up the transmission of nerve impulses.
Resting Potential
The stable, negative charge of an inactive neuron.
Action Potential
Brief wave of positive electrical charge that sweeps down the axon.
All-or-nothing principle
Once the electrical impulse reaches a certain level of intensity (its threshold) it fires and moves all the way down the axon without losing any intensity.
Synapses
Tiny spaces between neurons; the gaps between neurons are referred to as synaptic gaps
Neurotransmitters
Chemical substances that are stored in very tiny sacs within the neuron’s terminal buttons and involved in transmitting info across a synaptic gap to the next neuron.
Acetycholine
Stimulates the firing of neurons and is involved in the action of muscles, learning, and memory.
(Individuals with Alzheimer’s have an Acetycholine deficiency)
GABA (Gamma aminobutyric acid)
A neurotransmitter found throughout the CNS, controls the precision of the signal being carried from one neuron to the next.
(Low levels of GABA are linked to Anxiety)
Glutamate
Excites neurons to fire and is especially involved in learning and memory.
(too much can cause migraines, headaches, and seizures. Also a factor in anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.)
Norepinephrine
Inhibits firing of neurons in the CNS, but excites the heart muscle, intestines, and urogenital tract. Stress stimulates this transmitter’s release. Also helps control alertness.
(too little=depression
too much=agitation)
What neurotransmitters work together to regulate sleep and wakefulness?
Acetylcholine and Norepinethrine along with Serotonin
Dopamine
Controls voluntary movement and affects sleep, mood, attention, learning, and the ability to recognize rewards in the environment.
(related to personality trait extraversion, being outgoing)
Serotonin
Regulation of sleep, mood, attention, and learning.
(Also key to maintaining the brain’s neuroplasticity,
low levels are associated with depression)
Endorphins
Natural Opiates, shield the body from pain and elevate feelings of pleasure.
Oxytocin
Plays an important role in love and social bonding.
(Surges in mothers who have just given birth, related to the onset of lactation and breast feeding.
This transmitter is also released during orgasms, and plays a role in forming emotional bonds with romantic partners)
Agonist
A drug that mimics or increases a neurotransmitter’s effects
Antagonist
A drug that blocks a neurotransmitter’s effects
Brain Lesioning
Abnormal disruption in the tissue of the brain resulting from injury or disease.
Electroencephalograph (EEG)
Records the brain’s electrical activity, via electrodes placed on the scalp.
Prefrontal Asymmetry
More left prefrontal activity than right.
(People with this report higher measures of well-being, self acceptance, positive relations with others, purpose in life, and life satisfaction)
Single-unit recording
Probe inserted into an individual neuron, to observe that single neuron’s electrical activity.
Phenotype
An Individual’s Observable Characteristics
Broca’s Region
Speech
Wernicke’s Region
Language
Collateral Sprouting
Process by which axons of healthy neurons adjacent to damaged neurons grow new branches to make up for damage
Skinner’s Rats
Perform a new behavior to receive food
Shaping
The technique of rewarding successful approximations of a desired behavior
Hermann Ebbinghaus
First to conduct scientific research on forgetting
Action
Brief wave of positive electrical charge sweeping down the axon
Sodium and Potassium ions move in and out of the axon when the membrane is ______
Depolarized
Correlation Coefficient
statistic that tells the strength and direction of association between two variables
Validity
Soundness of conclusions
Neuroscience Studies are based on _________ to psychology
Biological Approaches
Longitudinal Design
Systematic observation, used by correlational researchers, that involves obtaining measures of variables of interest in multiple waves over time.
Behavioral Approach
Observable actions and/or responses and their environmental determinants (or forces).
First step in the scientific method
observing some phenomenon in the world
Empirical Method best fulfills which goal of science?
Objectivity
Placebo Effect
When participant’s expectations, rather than the experimental treatment, produce an experimental outcome
What attitudes are central to the scientific approach to psychology?
Critical thinking, curiosity, skepticism, and objectivity.
Potential problem of correlational studies in psychological research?
They fail to establish a clear causal relationship between variables.
Theory
Broad idea or closely related set of ideas that attempts to explain observations and to make predictions about future observations.
A psychologist who adopted the structuralism approach would be interested in the___________
structures of the mind using introspection as their primary research method
Cognitive approach
views the mind as an active and aware problem solving system
Double-blind experiment
designed to eliminate biased results, in which the identity of those receiving a test treatment is concealed from both administrators and subjects until after the study is completed.
What do humanistic psychologists believe?
That people have the ability to control their lives (free will) and are not simply controlled by their environment
What part of the nervous system is responsible for calming and relaxation?
Parasympathetic
What part of the nervous system is responsible for flight or fight response?
Sympathetic
Limbic System
set of subcortical brain structures central to emotion, memory, and reward processing
What part of the nervous system regulates breathing and heartrate?
the medulla
Decline in memory during Alzheimer’s is due to deficiency of what?
Acetylcholine
What is the function of the myelin sheath?
Speeds up transmission of nerve impulses
Synapses
chemical substances stored in very tiny sacs within the neurons terminal buttons, transmit information across the synaptic gap to the next neuron
Oxytocin
Produces bonding response in new mothers
Genotype
a person’s genetic heritage, actual genetic material
Cerebellum
Balance and muscle coordination
Serotonin
Mood and Attention
Somatic and Autonomic nervous system are components of the
peripheral nervous system
One of Gestalt psychology’s main principles is_____?
The whole is different from the sum of its parts
Visual information is mainly processed in the
Occipital lobes
Top down processing starts with
cognitive processing in the brain
Pavlovs dog salivated at the sound of the bell because_______
It had become associated with the food
Operant conditioning relies on the idea that
a behavior is likely to be repeated if it is followed by a reward
Acquisition
initial learning of the connection between the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus when these two stimuli are paired
Discrimination
process of learning to respond to certain stimuli and not others
short term memory is improved by
chunking and rehearsal techniques
Retrograde amnesia
lose past memories and the ability to acquire new memories will be unaffected
Anterograde amnesia
remembering past memories but being unable to form new ones
Attkinson-Shiffren Theory
Memory storage involves three systems; sensory, short term, and long term.
Endel Tulving (Canadian cognitive psychologist)
believed that episodic memory is the retention of information about the where, when, and what of life’s happenings
Working memory
holds information temporarily while cognitive tasks are being performed
Explicit memory is subdivided into
episodic and semantic memory
critical thinkers
grasp deeper meaning
phonology
language’s sound system
Inductive Reasoning
involves forming opinions based on previous experiences
Noam Chomsky
children learn language without awareness to its underlying logic
concepts provide clues about how to
react to a particular object or experience
fixation
using prior strategy to solve problems rather than looking at them from a fresh, new perspective
Heuristics are
shortcut strategies
first step of the problem solving process
finding and framing problems
semantics
meaning of words and sentences of a language
syntax
sentence structure/word order
pragmatics
manner, place, time, utterance, taking turns in conversation
