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118 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
cognition |
looks at how our brains process and react to information |
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information processing model |
states that the brain encodes, stores, and retrieves information much like a computer |
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cognitive development |
development of one's ability to think and solve problems across the lifespan |
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Piaget's stages of cognitive development |
four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational |
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sensorimotor stage |
birth to two years; child learns to manipulate his or her environment in order to meet physical needs; circular reactions; object permanence; representational thought |
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preoperational stage |
two to seven years; symbolic thinking; egocentrism; centration; conservation |
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concrete operational state |
seven to eleven years; understand conservation and consider the perspectives of others; able to engage in logical thought as long as they are working with concrete objects or information that is directly available; not yet developed the ability to think abstractly |
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formal operational state |
eleven years; ability to think logically about abstract ideas; problem-solving |
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schema |
can include a concept, a behavior, or a sequence of events; new information has to be placed into the different schemata (processed via adaptation) |
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assimilation |
process of classifying new information into existing schemata |
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accommodation |
process by which existing schemata are modified to encompass new information |
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primary circular reactions |
repetition of a body movement that originally occurred by chance; repeated because the child finds it soothing |
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secondary circular reactions |
manipulation is focused on something outside the body; repeated because the child gets a response from the environment |
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object permanence |
understanding that objects continue to exist even when out of view |
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representational thought |
creating mental representations of external objects and events
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symbolic thinking |
ability to pretend, play make-believe, and have an imagination |
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egocentrism |
inability to imagine what another person may think or feel |
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centration |
tendency to focus on only one aspect of a phenomenon |
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conservation |
child in the preoperational stage will focus mainly on number rather than actual quantity |
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fluid intelligence |
problem-solving skills; peaks in early adulthood; declines with age |
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crystallized intelligence |
use of learned skills and knowledge; peaks in middle adulthood; declines with age |
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activities of daily living |
eating, bathing, toileting, dressing, and ambulation |
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dementia |
begins with impaired memory, but later progresses to impaired judgment and confusion; personality changes; most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer's disease |
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delirium |
rapid fluctuation in cognitive function that is reversible and caused by medical (nonpsychological) causes |
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mental set |
tendency to approach problems in the same way |
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functional fixedness |
demonstrated by Duncker's candle problem; inability to consider how to use an object in a nontraditional manner |
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trial and error |
various solutions are tried until one is found that seems to work; only effective when there are relatively few possible solutions |
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algorithms |
formula or procedure for solving a certain type of problem |
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deductive (top-down) reasoning |
starts from a set of general rules and draws conclusions from the information given |
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inductive (bottom-up) reasoning |
seeks to create a theory via generalizations; starts with specific instances, and then draws a conclusion from them |
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heuristics |
simplified principles used to make decisions; rules of thumb |
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availability heuristic |
used when we try to decide how likely something is; we make our decisions based on how easily similar instances can be imagined |
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representativeness heuristic |
involves categorizing items on the basis of whether they fit the prototypical, stereotypical, or representative image of the category |
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base rate fallacy |
using prototypical or stereotypical factors while ignoring actual numerical information |
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disconfirmation principle |
when a potential solution to a problem fails during testing, this solution should be discarded |
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confirmation bias |
tendency to focus on information that fits an individual's beliefs, while rejecting information that goes against them |
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overconfidence |
tendency to erroneously interpret one's decisions, knowledge, and beliefs as infallible |
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intuition |
ability to act on perceptions that may not be supported by evidence |
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recognition-primed decision model |
brain is actually sorting through a wide variety of information to match a pattern |
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emotion |
subjective experience of a person in a certain situation |
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multiple intelligences |
seven defined types of intelligence: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal |
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intelligence quotient (IQ) |
intelligence is often measured with standardized tests that generate an intelligence quotient for the test-taker |
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Stanford-Binet IQ test |
IQ = ((mental age)/(chronological age))*100% |
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consciousness |
one's level of awareness of both the world and one's own existence within the world |
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states of consciousness |
alertness, sleep, dreaming, and altered states of consciousness |
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altertness |
state of consciousness in which we are awake and able to think; maintained by neurological circuits in the prefrontal cortex, which communicate with the reticular formation (located in the brainstem) to keep the cortex awake and alert; damage results in a coma |
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four characteristic EEG patterns correlated with different stages of waking and sleeping |
beta, alpha, theta, and delta waves |
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beta waves |
high frequency and occur when the person is alert or attending to a mental task that requires concentration; neurons are randomly firing |
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alpha waves |
occur when we are awake but relaxing with our eyes closed; somewhat slower than beta waves; more synchronized than beta waves |
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theta waves |
as soon as you doze off, you enter Stage 1, which is detected by the appearance of theta waves; irregular waveforms with slower frequencies and higher voltages |
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sleep spindles and K complexes |
as you fall more deeply asleep, you enter Stage 2 |
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delta waves |
as you fall even more deeply asleep, you enter Stages 3 and 4, also known as slow-wave sleep (SWS); low-frequency, high-voltage waves; difficult to rouse someone from sleep; SWS associated with cognitive recovery and memory consolidation, as well as increased growth hormone release |
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non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep |
Stages 1 through 4 |
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rapid eye movement (REM) sleep |
interspersed between cycles of the NREM sleep stages; arousal levels reach that of wakefulness, but the muscles are paralyzed; also known as paradoxical sleep because one's heart rate, breathing patterns, and EEG mimic wakefulness, but the individual is still asleep; dreaming is most likely to occur; associated with memory consolidation |
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sleep cycle |
single complete progression through the sleep stages; SWS predominates early in the night as the brain falls into deep sleep and then into more wakeful states; later in the night REM sleep predominates |
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over the lifespan, the length of the sleep cycle |
increases from approximately 50 minutes in children to 90 minutes in adults; children spend more time in SWS than adults |
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circadian rhythms |
our daily cycle of waking and sleeping is regulated by internally generated rhythms or circadian rhythms |
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cortisol |
steroid hormone produced in the adrenal cortex; levels slowly increase during early morning because increasing light causes the release of corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) from the hypothalamus; CRF causes release of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) from the anterior pituitary, which stimulates cortisol release; contributes to wakefulness |
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most dreaming occurs during |
REM; however, soon after we enter Stage 2 sleep, our mental experience starts to shift to a dreamlike state |
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activation-synthesis theory |
dreams are caused by widespread, random activation of neural circuitry; cortex then tries to stitch it together |
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problem-solving dream theory |
dreams are a way to solve problems while you are sleeping |
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cognitive process dream theory |
dreams are merely the sleeping counterpart of stream-of-consciousness |
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neurocognitive models of dreaming |
seek the unify biological and psychological perspectives on dreaming by correlating the subjective cognitive experience of dreaming with measurable physiological changes |
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dyssomnias |
disorders that make it difficult to fall asleep, stay asleep, or avoid sleep; include insomnia, narcolepsy, and sleep apnea |
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parasomnias |
abnormal movements or behaviors during sleep; include night terrors and sleep walking |
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insomnia |
difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep; most common sleep disorder |
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narcolepsy |
lack of voluntary control over the onset of sleep; symptoms include cataplexy, a loss of muscle control and sudden intrusion of REM sleep during waking hours, usually caused by an emotional trigger; sleep paralysis, a sensation of being unable to move despite being awake; and hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations, which are hallucinations when going to sleep or awakening |
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sleep apnea |
inability to breathe during sleep; obstructive sleep apnea occurs when a physical blockage in the pharynx or trachea prevents airflow; central sleep apnea occurs when the brain fails to send signals to the diaphragm to breathe |
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sleepwalking |
also known as somnambulism; usually occurs during SWS |
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sleep depravation |
can result from as little as one night without sleep, or from multiple nights with poor-quality, short-duration sleep |
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REM rebound |
an earlier onset and greater duration of REM sleep compared to normal |
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hypnosis |
state in which a person appears to be in control of his or her normal functions, but is in a highly suggestible state |
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hypnotic induction |
hypnotist seeks to relax the subject and increase the subject's level of concentration |
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meditation |
on EEG, meditation resembles Stage 1 sleep with theta and slow alpha waves |
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depressants |
alcohol, barbiturates, and benzodiazepines; reduce nervous system activity, resulting in a sense of relaxation and reduced anxiety |
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stimulants |
amphetamines, cocaine, ecstasy; increase arousal in the nervous system; each drug increases the frequency of action potentials |
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opiates and opioids |
ex. heroin; naturally occurring forms are called opiates; synthetic derivatives are called opioids; bind to opioid receptors in the peripheral and central nervous system, causing a decreased reaction to pain and sense of euphoria |
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hallucinogens |
ex. lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD); complex interaction between various neurotransmitters, especially serotonin; cause distortions of reality, enhancement of sensory experience, and introspection |
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marijuana |
active chemical in marijuana is known as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC); THC acts on cannabinoid receptors, glycine receptors, and opioid receptors; increases GABA activity (causing neural inhibition) and dopamine activity (causing pleasure) |
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alcohol |
increases activity of the GABA receptor, which causes hyperpolarization of the membrane; generalized brain inhibition; diminished arousal; centers of the brain that prevent inappropriate behavior are depressed; increases dopamine levels, causing a sense of mild euphoria |
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alcohol myopia |
one of the main effects of alcohol on logical reasoning is the inability to recognize consequences of actions, creating a short-sided view of the world |
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Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome |
caused by a deficiency of thiamine (vitamin B1) and characterized by severe memory impairment with changes in mental status and loss of motor skills |
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barbiturates and benzodiazepines |
used as anxiety-reducing (anxiolytic) and sleep medications; increase GABA activity, causing a sense of relaxation; both of these drugs can be highly addictive |
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amphetamines |
increase release of dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin at the synapse and decrease reuptake; increases arousal and causes a reduction in appetite and decreased need for sleep |
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cocaine |
decreases reuptake of dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin |
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ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine, MDMA) |
acts as a hallucinogen combined with an amphetamine |
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mesolimbic reward pathway |
includes the nucleus accumbens (NAc), the ventral tegmental area (VTA), and the connection between them called the medial forebrain bundle (MFB); its activation accounts for the positive reinforcement of substance use |
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attention |
concentrating on one aspect of the sensory environment, or sensorium |
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selective attention |
focusing on one part of the sensorium while ignoring other stimuli |
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cocktail party phenomenon |
you are at a party, talking to a friend; your ears perk up when you hear your name spoken halfway across the room |
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divided attention |
ability to perform multiple tasks at hte same time |
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automatic processing |
permits the brain to focus on other tasks with divided attention |
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phonology |
actual sound of language; about 40 speech sounds of phonemes in English |
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categorical perception |
ability to make a distinctions between different speech sounds and their meanings |
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morphology |
structure of words; many words are composed of multiple building blocks called morphemes, each of which connotes a particular meaning |
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semantics |
association of meaning with a word |
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syntax |
how words are put together to form sentences |
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pragmatics |
dependence of language on context and pre-existing knowledge; the manner in which we speak may differ depending on the audience and our relationship to that audience |
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prosody |
rhythm, cadence, and inflection of our voices |
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babbling |
children, including deaf children, spontaneously begin to babble during their first year |
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9 to 12 months |
babbling |
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12 to 18 months |
about one word per month |
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18 to 20 months |
explosion of language and combing words |
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2 to 3 years |
longer sentences (3 words or more) |
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5 years |
language rules largely mastered |
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errors of growth |
a child applies a grammatical rule in a situation where it does not apply |
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nativist (biology) theory |
advocates for existence of some innate capacity for language |
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transformational grammar |
syntactic transformations, or changes in word order that retain the same meaning; children make transformations effortlessly at a young age; thus, the ability must be innate |
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language acquisition device (LAD) |
in the nativist (biological) theory, the innate ability of language |
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critical period |
between two years and puberty; if no language exposure occurs during this time, later training is largely ineffective |
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sensitive period |
time when environmental input has maximal effect on the development of an ability; before the onset of puberty for language |
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learning (behaviorist) theory |
language acquisition by operant conditioning; language acquisition by reinforcement; that is, parents and caregivers repeat and reinforce sounds that sound most like the language spoken by their parents |
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social interactionist theory |
interplay between biological and social processes; language acquisition is driven by the child's desire to communicate and behave in a social manner |
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Whorfian hypothesis (linguistic relativity hypothesis) |
our perception of reality is determined by the content of language; language affects the way we think rather than the other way around |
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Broca's area |
located in the inferior frontal gyrus of the frontal lobe; controls the motor function of speech via connections with the motor cortex; if damaged, speech comprehension is intact, but the patient will have a reduced or absent ability to produce spoken language (known as Broca's or expressive aphasia) |
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Wernicke's area |
located in the superior temporal gyrus of the temporal lobe; responsible for language comprehension; if damaged, motor production and fluency of speech is retained but comprehension of speech is lost; known as Wernicke's receptive aphasia |
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aphasia |
deficit of language production or comprehension |
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arcuate fasciculus |
connects Broca's and Wernicke's areas; if damaged, patient is unable to repeat something that has been said; known as conduction aphasia |