SAC 6

Question 1

what is the difference between an IV and a DV?

Answer 1

the dependant variable is the property that is being measured. its value depends on the IV. the independent variable is deliberately manipulated or varied in some way by the experimenter

Question 2

what is an EV?

Answer 2

an extraneous variable that can effect the experiment in some way that would end in results that aren’t able to be used. they need to be considered because they can negatively affect the study

Question 3

a good hypothesis

Answer 3

‘it is predicted that’, includes IV and DV and population

Question 4

types of sampling

Answer 4

random: taking a random group of the population
stratified: splitting population in groups (male/female) and picking from there
convenience: group who is most accessible

Question 5

research design groups

Answer 5

independent groups: each participant is randomly allocated to one of the groups (most common one), drop out are unlikely and the procedure can be done all at once but does use a lot of participants and has participant variables.
repeated measures: same participants are in both experimental and control group, eliminated P variables and required fewer P’s but order effects can come into to play and will be more dropouts
matched participants: each participant is matched with another in the other situation based on one or more participant variable, the P variables will then not influence results but it is time consuming and expensive to match and if one drops out boths data is lost

Question 6

CNS breakdown

Answer 6

it processes and responds to information from the PNS. Made up of brain and spinal cord. brain is the forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain and the spinal cord is encased in the spinal column

Question 7

PNS breakdown

Answer 7

network of nerves that transmits info from muscles, glands and organs to CNS and visa versa. made up of somatic and autonomic systems. somatic controls voluntary actions and is made up on the sensory and motor divisions (SAME) and the autonomic is involuntary actions of internal organs and is made up of the sympathetic and parasympathetic system

Question 8

role of autonomic nervous system

Answer 8

mostly responsible for communication of information between the CNS and the bodys non skeletal muscles as well as the organs and glands that carry out the basic bodily functions necessary for survival such as heartbeat. sympathetic = activates in stress, FFF, increases everything, parasympathetic = parachute, homeostasis

Question 9

role of somatic nervous system

Answer 9

responsible for the voluntary movement of skeletal muscles. made up of the sensory and motor division, sensory is sensations from the environment and motor is actions and movements. SAME: sensory = afferent = to the brain / motor = efferent = away from the brain.

Question 10

neurons

Answer 10

receive information from other neurons, process this information and then communicate it to other neurons. they are comprised of 3 elements: dendrites, soma and the axon

Question 11

dendrites

Answer 11

look tree-like and they receive information from other neurons or sensory receptors via synapses and deliver this to the cell body or soma

Question 12

soma

Answer 12

the cell body, the largest part of the neuron and controls the metabolism and maintenance of the cell

Question 13

axon

Answer 13

the nerve fibre that carries information away from the soma to their ends. the information that is carried is called the ‘action potential’ and is an electrical impulse. at the end of each axon are terminal buttons which secrete a chemical called a neurotransmitter

Question 14

glial cells

Answer 14

are not part of the neuron but hold the neurons together but surrounding them and holding them in place, supply nourishment and oxygen to them, remove dead neurons and insulate them to make the message faster (they produce myelin which does this)

Question 15

what is a neural pathway?

Answer 15

bundles of neurons which provide connections between one part of the nervous system and the other

Question 16

synapse

Answer 16

the connection between to neurons. when an action potential travels down a neuron and gets to the terminal buttons it is turned into a chemical message and is then transported across the synapse by neurotransmitters from the pre-synaptic neuron to the post synaptic neuron

Question 17

hindbrain details

Answer 17

supports bodily functions and is the link between the spinal cord and the brain, is important for movement and balance and includes brainstem, medulla, pons and cerebellum.

medulla: continuation of the spine, controls breathing, heartbeat and digestion
pons: above the medulla and receives information sent from visual areas to control eye and body actions
cerebellum: walnut shaped area that receives info from the pons and it coordinates the sequence of body movement

Question 18

midbrain details

Answer 18

responsible for regulation of sleep, motor movement and arousal and includes the reticular formation.
reticular formation: mostly situated in the midbrain it is a network of neurons that is part of both mid and hind and connects mid and fore. is important in the control of arousal and in the sleeping and waking cycle

Question 19

forebrain details

Answer 19

at the front, higher thinking and includes the cerebrum, hypothalamus and thalamus.

cerebrum: biggest part, covered by the cerebral cortex (higher thinking, mental processes and complex behaviour) and is divided into the left and right hemispheres which is separated by the longitudinal fissure and joined in the middle by the corpus collosum
hypothalamus: small structure, regulates basic survival actions such as sleep, regulation of body temp, expression of emotions and the 4 F’s
thalamus: communications centre, separated into two egg shapes that sit in either hemisphere, receives info from ears, eyes, skin and other sensory organs (not nose), it enables an organism to process sensory stimuli in the environment and it sorts that info into most important to pay attention to

Question 20

limbic system

Answer 20

made up of hippocampus and amygdala. hippocampus is responsible for long term memory and spatial orientation and the amygdala is responsible for aggression and fear; emotional memory

Question 21

lobes

Answer 21

Frontal
Parietal
Occipital
Temporal

Question 22

cortices

Answer 22

motor cortex
somatosensory cortex
visual cortex
auditory cortex

Question 23

frontal lobe

Answer 23

largest of the lobes and has several functions including initiating movement, language, planning, judgement, problem-solving, aspects of personality and regulation of emotions. much of the frontal lobe is the association area which is responsible for cognitive processes such as attention, planning and problem-solving. people with damaged frontal lobes may be unable to learn from experience, lack foresight and the ability to problem-solve effectively

Question 24

primary motor cortex

Answer 24

situated at the rear of each frontal lobe next to the central fissure. it is responsible for the movement of the skeletal muscles of the body. contralateral organisation means that the left side is responsible for the right side of the body and visa versa. the primary motor cortex is also flipped, so the top part controls the toes and the bottom controls lips. the lips and hands take up more space on the cortex because there is a lot office motor skills required to move them and therefore more neurons are required

Question 25

parietal lobe + somatosensory cortex

Answer 25

much of this lobe is taken up by the somatosensory cortex which is situated at the front of the lobe just behind the central fissure and receives sensations such as touch, pressure, temperature and pain. functions in contralateral organisation and is flipped like the motor cortex toes at top, lips at bottom. amount of cortex devoted to each part is in proportion to the number of neurons in the anatomical parts

Question 26

temporal lobe + auditory cortex

Answer 26

processes auditory information and performs complex auditory analysis that is necessary for understanding human speech and parts of the lobe are specialised in sensitivity to certain types of sounds. the auditory cortex is in the upper part of the temporal lobe, people with a damaged auditory cortex are likely to experience forms of deafness

Question 27

occipital lobe

Answer 27

is entirely concerned with vision, info from the left side of each retina is processed in the left occipital lobe and info from the right side of each retina is processed in the right occipital lobe (left from birds eye)

Question 28

brocas area/brocas aphasia

Answer 28

brocas area is located near the primary cortex in the left frontal lobe, this close proximity allows fast communication. involved in production of articulate speech and grammar, moves muscles required to speak. Brocas aphasia (expressive aphasia)
speech non fluent, many pauses, very short and simple sentences, anomia

Question 29

left hemisphere vs right

Answer 29

left: right side of body, maths, language, science and writing
right: left side, music appreciation, art and music appreciation, dance, perception and fantasy

Question 30

developmental plasticity

Answer 30

occurs during growth and development, from birth till late childhood, predetermined and influenced by genetics and environment, experience determines which experiences will be kept and which will be pruned “use it or lose it” P M CF CP M

Question 31

adaptive plasticity

Answer 31

changes to the brains neural structure as an adjustment to learning or to compensate for brain damage, can occur at any stage, although typically quicker and more substantial during childhood. involves
sprouting: buffer dendrites + additional branches
re-routing: undamaged neuron that has lost its connection will try an establish a new one

Question 32

P M CF SP M

Answer 32

proliferation: unborn baby cells that will be neurons multiply, up to 250,000 per minute
migration: newly formed neurons move to their destined location. neuron role is determined by its location when formed
circuit formation: axons of new neurons grow out of target cells and form synapses
synaptic pruning: elimination of excess neurons and synapses neurons that don’t ‘fire’ together get pruned
myelination: axons in the Childs brain get covered in myelin this speeds up rate of signals

Question 33

during adolescence

Answer 33

there is development in structures in the brain such as:
cerebellum: increase in the number of synapses and neurons here in parts responsible for balance & muscles
amygdala: becomes very active
corpus callosum: thickens and increase in the number of connections between hemispheres
frontal lobe: motor movement and higher thinking

Question 34

aphasia

Answer 34

the impairment of language caused by damage to the brain (usually by a stroke) it effects writing, reading, speaking and comprehension but not intelligence

Question 35

Wernickes area/wernickes aphasia

Answer 35

left temporal lobe, interpretation of speech, referred to as language comprehension centre
Wernickes aphasia
speech is fluent but nonsense, difficulty understanding/producing written and spoken language, anomia

Question 36

spatial neglect

Answer 36

damage to the right parietal lobe, nothing wrong with eye site just about attention, completely ignore left side of their world

Question 37

parkinsons

Answer 37

a neurodegenerative disorder, characterised by the degeneration of dopamine producing neurons in the basal ganglia in the midbrain. symptoms include, slowness of movement, rigidity, and involuntary tremors, depression and dementia. treatments include deep brain stimulation and medication (L-DOPA) to increase dopamine. potential causes are genetics, drugs and diet