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PSY 101 Straighterline Final
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psychology ✔✔the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
science ✔✔psychology uses systematic methods to observe human behavior and draw conclusions
behavior ✔✔everything we do that can be directly observed
mental process ✔✔The thoughts, feelings, and motives that each of us experiences privately but that cannot be observed directly
critical thinking ✔✔thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions.
empirical method ✔✔gaining knowledge through the observation of events, the collection of data, and logical reasoning
structuralism ✔✔focus on identifying the elemental parts or structures of the human mind; William Wundt
functionalism ✔✔A school of psychology that focused on how our mental and behavioral processes function - how they enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish; William James
natural selection ✔✔A process in which individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than other individuals because of those traits; Charles Darwin
neurons ✔✔a nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system
glial cells ✔✔cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons
cell body ✔✔Largest part of a typical neuron; contains the nucleus and much of the cytoplasm
dendrites ✔✔Branchlike parts of a neuron that are specialized to receive information.
Acetylcholine (ACh) ✔✔stimulates the firing of neurons and is involved in the action of muscles, learning, and memory
Alzheimer's disease ✔✔degenerative brain disorder that involves a decline in memory, have an acetylcholine deficiency
GABA ✔✔a major inhibitory neurotransmitter
decreased GABA levels ✔✔lead to anxiety
glutamate ✔✔exciting many neurons to fire and is especially involved in learning and memory
norepinephrine ✔✔inhibits the firing of neurons in the central nervous system, but it excites the heart muscle, intestines, and urogenital tract
dopamine ✔✔control voluntary movement and affects sleep, mood, attention, learning, and the ability to recognize rewards in the environment
seratonin ✔✔involved in the regulation of sleep, mood, attention, and learning
endorphins ✔✔natural opiates that mainly stimulate the firing of neurons; block pain & increase pleasure
oxytocin ✔✔hormone and neurotransmitter that plays an important role in the experience of love and social bonding
agonist ✔✔A chemical that mimics the action of a neurotransmitter.
antagonist ✔✔drug that blocks a neurotransmitter's effects
brain lesioning ✔✔abnormal disruption in the tissue of the brain resulting from injury or disease
Electroencephalogram (EEG) ✔✔records the brain's electrical activity
hindbrain ✔✔medulla, pons, cerebellum; located at skull's rear
brain stem ✔✔Connects the brain and spinal cord
midbrain ✔✔A small part of the brain above the pons that integrates sensory information and relays it upward.
forebrain ✔✔The largest and most complicated region of the brain, including the thalamus, hypothalamus, limbic system, and cerebrum.
limbic system ✔✔neural system (including the hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus) located below the cerebral hemispheres; associated with emotions and drives.
basal ganglia ✔✔structures in the forebrain that help to control movement
cerebral cortex ✔✔The intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres; the body's ultimate control and information-processing center.
neocortex ✔✔The outermost part of the cerebral cortex, making up 80 percent of the cortex in the human brain; responsible for high level thinking
occipital lobe ✔✔respond to visual stimuli
temporal lobes ✔✔involved in hearing, language processing, and memory
frontal lobes ✔✔involved in personality, intelligence, and the control of voluntary muscles
prefrontal cortex ✔✔part of frontal lobe responsible for thinking, planning, and language
parietal lobe ✔✔part of brain involved in registering spatial location, attention, and motor control
somatosensory cortex ✔✔area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch and movement sensations
motor cortex ✔✔an area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements
association cortex ✔✔regions of the cerebral cortex that integrate sensory and motor information
pancreas ✔✔located under the stomach, is a dual-purpose gland that performs both digestive and endocrine functions
genes ✔✔units of hereditary information
molecular genetics ✔✔involves the manipulation of genes using technology to determine their effect on behavior
selective breeding ✔✔genetic method in which organisms are chosen for reproduction based on how much of a particular trait they display
linkage analysis ✔✔analysis may help identify the location of certain genes by referring to those genes whose position is already known
behavior genetics ✔✔study of the degree and nature of heredity's influence on behavior.
genotype ✔✔genetic makeup of an organism
phenotype ✔✔An organism's physical appearance, or visible traits
gene x environment (G x E) interaction ✔✔interaction of a specific measured variation in DNA and a specific measured aspect of the environment
Thermoreceptors ✔✔respond to changes in temperature
pain ✔✔sensation that warns of danger to body
fast pathway ✔✔fibers connect directly with the thalamus and then to the motor and sensory areas of the cerebral cortex
slow pathway ✔✔pain information travels through the limbic system, a detour that delays the arrival of information at the cerebral cortex by seconds
papillae ✔✔taste buds
open monitoring ✔✔refers to the capacity to observe one's thoughts as they happen without getting preoccupied by them
hypnagogic reverie ✔✔an overwhelming feeling of wellness right before you fall asleep, the sense that everything is going to work out
Stage W ✔✔"wake"', beta and alpha waves; concentration, relaxation
Stage N1 (Non-REM1) Sleep ✔✔drowsy sleep; myoclonic jerks; theta waves
Stage N2 (Non-REM2) Sleep ✔✔decreased muscle activity; no longer conscious of environment; theta waves; sleep spindles
Stage N3 (Non-REM3) Sleep ✔✔delta waves; deepest sleep; slow-wave sleep; bedwetting, sleep walk/talk
Stage R (REM) Sleep ✔✔active stage of deep sleep w/vivid dreams
instinctive drift ✔✔tendency of animals to revert to instinctive behavior that interferes with learning
preparedness ✔✔species-specific biological predisposition to learn in certain ways but not others
fixed mindset ✔✔they believe that their qualities are carved in stone and cannot change
growth mindset ✔✔they believe their qualities can change and improve through their effort
amnesia ✔✔loss of memory
anterograde amnesia ✔✔an inability to form new memories
Atkinson-Shiffrin theory ✔✔Theory stating that memory storage involves three separate systems: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
autobiographical memory ✔✔the memory for events and facts related to one's personal life story
flashbulb memory ✔✔A clear and vivid long-term memory of an especially meaningful and emotional event.
interference theory ✔✔the theory that people forget not because memories are lost from storage but because other information gets in the way of what they want to remember
levels of processing ✔✔a continuum of memory processing from shallow to intermediate to deep, with deeper processing producing better memory
motivated forgetting ✔✔forgetting that occurs when something is so painful or anxiety-laden that remembering it is intolerable
priming ✔✔the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response
prospective memory ✔✔remembering to do things in the future
retrieval ✔✔the process of getting information out of memory storage
retroactive interference ✔✔the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information
retrograde amnesia ✔✔an inability to retrieve information from one's past
retrospective memory ✔✔remembering information from the past
schema ✔✔a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
script ✔✔schema for an event, often containing information about physical features, people, and typical occurrences.
semantic memory ✔✔a network of associated facts and concepts that make up our general knowledge of the world
sensory memory ✔✔the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system
serial position effect ✔✔our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list
deductive reasoning ✔✔reasoning in which a conclusion is reached by stating a general principle and then applying that principle to a specific case (The sun rises every morning; therefore, the sun will rise on Tuesday morning.)
divergent thinking ✔✔expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions)
fixation ✔✔according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved
functional fixedness ✔✔the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving
inductive reasoning ✔✔A type of logic in which generalizations are based on a large number of specific observations.
infinite generativity ✔✔the ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules
loss aversion ✔✔we emphasize losses more than gains
morphology ✔✔structure of words
mental age ✔✔a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance
normal distribution ✔✔A function that represents the distribution of variables as a symmetrical bell-shaped graph.
phonology ✔✔the study of speech sounds in language
pragmatic ✔✔practical, as opposed to idealistic
prototype model ✔✔A model emphasizing that when people evaluate whether a given item reflects a certain concept, they compare the item with the most typical item(s) in that category and look for a "family resemblance" with that item's properties.
