Gen Psych Part 2 (Test 1) -- Mel

Front 1

Sensory neurons

Back 1

Carry information received fromt he body to the spinal cord

Front 2

Motor neurons

Back 2

Transmit messages from the central nervous system to muscles and glands

Front 3

Reflex

Back 3

A rapid, automatic response to a stimulus. The spinal cord organizes these responses

Front 4

Voluntary response

Back 4

Originates in the brain and travels through the spinal cord to the muscles to carry out the movements

Front 5

Autonomic nervous system

Back 5

A division of the peripheral nervous system that is closely associated with the spinal cord (little voluntary control)

Front 6

Sympathetic nervous system

Back 6

The crisis management center, increases heart and respiration rate and prepares the body for fight or flight

Front 7

Parasympathetic nervous system

Back 7

In charge of energy storage, it decreases heart rate, increases digestive activities, promotes rest

Front 8

Endocrine system

Back 8

A system that contains glands that release hormones into the blood stream

Front 9

Hormones are chemicals that affect what?

Back 9

Mood, behavior, and even anatomy

Front 10

Adrenaline

Back 10

An example of a hormone (neurotransmitter)

Front 11

Medulla and the pons

Back 11

Part of the brain stem, part of the hindbrain, contain axons that control breathing and heart rate, also relay information from head and face and send messages back to them

Front 12

Cerebellum

Back 12

Is important for coordination and timing of movement

Front 13

Reticular activating system (reticular formation)

Back 13

Contained within the medulla, pons, and midbrain, regulates levels of arousal in the brain

Front 14

Limbic system

Back 14

Compromised of three main structures: hippocampus, hypothalamus, and amygdala

Front 15

Hippocampus

Back 15

Crucial for memory consolidation

Front 16

Hypothalamus

Back 16

Controls endocrine system, autonomic nervous system, hunger, thirst, and sexual desire

Front 17

Amygdala

Back 17

Important for generating emotional and motivated behaviors (like fear)

Front 18

Forebrain

Back 18

Two separate hemispheres (L and R), each controls sensation and motor functioning on the opposite side of the body, communicate with each other through axon bundles

Front 19

Corpus callosum

Back 19

Axon bundles between the two hemispheres of the brain

Front 20

Cerebral cortex

Back 20

The outer covering of the forebrain

Front 21

Grey matter

Back 21

The cerebral cortex is made of this, the cell bodies of cortical neurons

Front 22

White matter

Back 22

The interior of the forebrain is made of this, white because of the myelin coating axons

Front 23

Four lobes of the brain:

Back 23

1) Frontal
2) Temporal
3) Parietal
4) Occipital

Front 24

Occipital lobe

Back 24

Located at back of forebrain, responsible for vision

Front 25

Parietal lobe

Back 25

In front of occipital, contains primary somatosensory cortex, language

Front 26

Primary somatosensory cortex

Back 26

The area of the brian that is specialized for body senses and awareness of the location of body parts

Front 27

Temporal lobe

Back 27

Located on the side, near the ears, main processing center for hearing and vision, the hippocampus and the amygdala are here

Front 28

Frontal lobe

Back 28

At the front of the brain, contains the primary motor cortex, important for fine movement control, responsible for organization and planning of action

Front 29

Neurons

Back 29

Cells that make up the nervous system

Front 30

Glia

Back 30

Support the neurons, provide insulation, remove waste, about 1/10th the size of neurons, 10x numerous

Front 31

Stem cells

Back 31

Undifferentiated cells growing in some brain areas that are capable of growing into neurons in adults

Front 32

Sensory neurons

Back 32

Carry information from sense organs to the central nervous system

Front 33

Motor neurons

Back 33

Send commands to muscles, glands, and organs

Front 34

Cell body

Back 34

Contains the nucleus and most of the organelles

Front 35

Dendrites

Back 35

Widely branching structures that receive transmissions from other neurons

Front 36

Axon

Back 36

A single, long, thin fiber with branches near its tip

Front 37

Myelin

Back 37

A coating on axons that speeds up transmission

Front 38

Excitatory

Back 38

Messages that increase the probability that the next cell will "fire" its own action potential

Front 39

Inhibitory

Back 39

Messages that decrease the likelihood that the next cell will "fire", most controls are inhibatory

Front 40

Action potential

Back 40

An excitation that travels along the axon without losing strength regardless of the distance it must travel

Front 41

Resting potential

Back 41

An electrical polarization across the membrane covering the axon, generated by potassium flow out of the neuron

Front 42

Sodium-potassium pump

Back 42

Maintains high sodium inside

Front 43

Synapse

Back 43

A contact between two neurons where chemical messages cross from one to another

Front 44

A bulge at the end of each axon

Back 44

The "terminal"

Front 45

Neurotransmitter

Back 45

A chemical that is stored in the neuron, it activates specific receptors

Front 46

Otto Loewi's heart experiment

Back 46

Slowing a heart via one chemical into another

Front 47

Postsynaptic neuron

Back 47

The neuron receiving the neurotransmitter

Front 48

Reuptake

Back 48

The recycling of neurotransmitter molecules

Front 49

Nucleus accumbens

Back 49

The area of the brain responsible for motivation and habit formation

Front 50

Endorphines

Back 50

Released in case of stress or pain, stimulate an opiate like reaction

Front 51

Sensation

Back 51

The conversion of energy from the environment into a pattern of response by the nervous system

Front 52

Perception

Back 52

The interpretation of that information

Front 53

Stimuli

Back 53

Energies in the environment that affect our receptors

Front 54

Receptors

Back 54

The specialized cells in our bodies that convert environmental energies into signals for the nervous system

Front 55

Pupil

Back 55

Adjustable opening in the eye through which light enters

Front 56

Retina

Back 56

The back of the eye, the structure containing visual receptors

Front 57

Rods and cones

Back 57

Two types of specialized neurons, rods outnumber cones 10 to 1 though

Front 58

Cones

Back 58

Used for daytime vision, color vision, and detail vision, only one cone for each bipolar cell

Front 59

Rods

Back 59

Adapted for vision in dim light (night vision), multiple rods to one bipolar cell

Front 60

Fovea

Back 60

The center of the human retina, and the location of the highest proportion of cones, greatest acuity

Front 61

Dark adaptation

Back 61

One or two minutes needed to gradually improve vision in the dark

Front 62

Retinaldehyde

Back 62

Chemical molecules in the eyes that are altered chemically when light stimulates visual receptors

Front 63

______ regenerates retinaldehyde faster than _______.

Back 63

Cones, rods

Front 64

Visual pathway:

Back 64

1) Receptors
2) Bipolar cells
3) Ganglion cells

Front 65

Optic nerve

Back 65

The axons of the ganglion cells collecting together

Front 66

Optic chiasm

Back 66

Where half of each optic nerve crosses to go to the opposite side of the brain

Front 67

Thalamus

Back 67

The way that axons project over the occipital lobe

Front 68

Frequency

Back 68

The period of time between the peaks of sound waves

Front 69

Amplitude

Back 69

The vertical range of a wave which determines a sound's intensity and loudness

Front 70

Pitch

Back 70

The perception of frequency

Front 71

Cochlea

Back 71

Location of the hearing receptors, spiral shaped organ with canals containing fluid

Front 72

Basilar membrane

Back 72

Within the cochlea, sound waves displace along hair cells in it

Front 73

Auditory nerve

Back 73

Hair cells in the basilar membrane are connected to neurons of this, transmits impulses from the cochlea to cerebral cortex

Front 74

Frequency principle

Back 74

Applies to sounds of low frequency, hair cells to vibrate, producing action potentials that are synchronized with the sound waves

Front 75

Volley principle

Back 75

Multiple stimuli along the cochlear nerve within a volley in order to encode high frequency auditory stimuli

Front 76

Place principle

Back 76

The location of the hair cells on the basilar membrane determines the sounds wave frequency to which they respond

Front 77

Vestibular apparatus

Back 77

A structure in the inner ear on each side, its receptors send signals to the brain about the position and movement of the head, plays a crucial role in eye movement and balance and posture

Front 78

Semicircular canals

Back 78

There are three of these in the vestibular apparatus, they contain a jellylike fluid and are lined with hair cells, acceleration causes the fluid to move the hair cells, stimulating them

Front 79

Touch is considered to the result of several independent senses

Back 79

Pressure, warmth and cold, pain, vibration, movement and stretch of skin, each of these depends on a different receptor

Front 80

Receptors in internal organs and muscles and joints allow us to feel

Back 80

Internal pain, pressure, or temperature changes, sense of position and motion, comprising the "somatosensory system"

Front 81

Pain receptors

Back 81

Simple nerve endings of axons that travel to the spinal cord, perception of pain is a complex mixture of sensation and perception that is in part mediated by emotion

Front 82

The Gate Theory of Pain

Back 82

Just seeking treatment or believing that one has been treated can result in reduction of pain and symptoms, Metzack and Wall, pain messages must pass through a "gate" to get to the spinal cord, gate can block messages

Front 83

Substance P

Back 83

A neurotransmitter that the nervous system releases for intense pains

Front 84

Taste

Back 84

A detection of chemicals on the tongue, its major function is to control and motivate our eating and drinking

Front 85

Taste buds

Back 85

Located in the folds on the surface of the tongue, they contain the vast majority of human taste receptors

Front 86

Olfaction

Back 86

The term for sense of smell, located in the mucous membranes in the rear air passages of the nose

Front 87

Pheromones

Back 87

Chemicals that animals release into the environment

Front 88

Sensory threshold

Back 88

The intensity at which a given individual can detect a stimulus 50% of the time

Front 89

Feature detectors

Back 89

Specialized neurons that respond to the presence of certain simple features, such as angles and lines, Hubel and Wiesel (response for movement, response for vertical and horizontal, face)

Front 90

Gestalt

Back 90

A branch of psychology explaning how we integrate whole images and make meaningful interpretations of the visual world, overall pattern perceptions

Front 91

Figure and ground

Back 91

We make a distinction between these when looking at an image

Front 92

Principle of proximity

Back 92

Humans tend to perceive objects close together as belonging to a group

Front 93

Principle of similarity

Back 93

Humans perceive objects that resemble each other as forming a group

Front 94

Continuation

Back 94

Fill in gaps in lines

Front 95

Closure

Back 95

We close familiar figures

Front 96

Good figure

Back 96

A figure that is simple and symmetrical

Front 97

Visual constancy

Back 97

The tendency to perceive objects as keeping their size, shape, and color even though the image that strikes our retina changes from moment to moment

Front 98

Motion blindness

Back 98

Can result from damage to a small area of the temporal lobe

Front 99

Induced movement

Back 99

A visual illusion in which a person incorrectly perceives a stationary object in front of a moving background as moving

Front 100

Stroboscopic movement

Back 100

An illusion of movement created by a rapid succession of stationary images

Front 101

Phi effect

Back 101

The brain creates motion from rows of adjacent lights blinking on and off sequentially

Front 102

Binocular cues

Back 102

Cues depending on both eyes

Front 103

Monocular cues

Back 103

Cues needing only one eye

Front 104

Retinal disparity

Back 104

The difference in the way each retina sees the apparent position of an object against the background

Front 105

Convergence

Back 105

The degree to which our eyes must turn in to allow us to focus on a very close object

Front 106

Motion parallax

Back 106

The principle that close objects will pass faster than distant objects

Front 107

Moon illusion

Back 107

The moon appears to be about 30% larger when it is close to the horizon

Front 108

Monozygotic twins

Back 108

Identical twins, develop from a single fertilized egg and have identical genes

Front 109

Dyzygotic twins

Back 109

Fraternal twins, develop from two eggs and share only half their genes

Front 110

Genes

Back 110

Sections of chromosomes that control protein production in order to produce specific characteristics

Front 111

Humans have ____ chromosomes ___ pairs in every body cell, except in egg and sperm cells which have 23 unpaired chromosomes

Back 111

46, 23

Front 112

DNA

Back 112

What genes are composed of, chemicals that control the production of RNA

Front 113

Dominant gene

Back 113

A gene that exert its effects even if that individual's other gene is recessive (ex. wavy hair)

Front 114

Recessive gene

Back 114

A gene that will show its effects only if both genes are recessive (ex. blue eye color)

Front 115

Sex chromosomes

Back 115

The 23rd pair that determine whether an individual will be male or female, XX (female) and XY (male)

Front 116

Sex-linked genes

Back 116

Genes on the X-chromosome of the 23rd pair, influence seen more often in men than in women

Front 117

Sex-limited genes

Back 117

Genes for secondary sex characteristics that are present in both sexes, but are activated by the presence of sex hormones (ex facial hair in men and breast development in women)

Front 118

Heritability

Back 118

Does a difference in behavior depend more on differences in genetic make-up than on differences in environment?

Front 119

Genetics: A 0 means

Back 119

None of the variance in the trait is due to heredity

Front 120

Mutations

Back 120

Random changes in the structure of genes which occasionally cause offspring to differ from parents

Front 121

Artificial selection

Back 121

Principles to create new strains through selective breeding

Front 122

Natural selection

Back 122

In nature, survival of the fittest

Front 123

Developmental psychology

Back 123

From "womb" to "tomb" development

Front 124

Newborns look more at _____ than anything else

Back 124

faces

Front 125

Infants will _____ more vigorously when they hear a sound they find stimulating

Back 125

suck

Front 126

Cross-sectional study

Back 126

Compares groups of individuals of different age simultaneously

Front 127

Longitudinal study

Back 127

Follows a single group of individuals as they develop

Front 128

Selective attrition

Back 128

Differential survival, the increased probability of some kinds of subjects dropping out

Front 129

Cohort effects

Back 129

Bias created because contemporaries of a group all have the same experience, knowledge, or behaviors which may differ from those of another group

Front 130

Object permanence

Back 130

The concept that objects exist even when one cannot see them or sense them, developed by Piaget, infants lack this ability until about 8-9 months

Front 131

Piaget's Four Stages of Intellectual Development

Back 131

1) Sensorimotor (birth-1 yr)
2) Preoperational (1 - 7 yrs)
3) Concrete Operations (7-11 yrs)
4) Formal Operations (11 and above)

Front 132

Sensorimotor stage

Back 132

Behavior consists primarily of simple motor responses to sensory stimuli

Front 133

Preoperational stage

Back 133

The second stage of cognitive development, called this because the child lacks operations

Front 134

Operations

Back 134

Reversible mental processes

Front 135

Egocentric thinking

Back 135

Child thinks the world revolves around them

Front 136

Conservation

Back 136

Failure to recognize that changes in shape and arrangement do not necessarily signify changes in amount or number

Front 137

Concrete operations

Back 137

From about 7, children begin to exhibit reversible operations and understand the conservation of physical properties, can perform mental operations on concrete objects, trouble with abstract or hypothetical ideas

Front 138

Formal operations

Back 138

The mental processing stage where one can deal with abstract, hypothetical situations, stage reached around adolesence, some people take longer to reach this stage and some people never do

Front 139

Erikson's Eight Ages of Human Development

Back 139

1) Ages 0-1
2) Ages 1-3
3) Ages 3-6
4) Ages 6-12
5) Adolescence
6) Young Adulthood (late teens-early 20s)
7) Middle Adulthood (late 20s - retirement)
8) Old Age

Front 140

Ages 0-1 Development

Back 140

Main conflict involves trust, parents' support leads to attachment

Front 141

Ages 1-3 Development

Back 141

Main conflict is autonomy versus doubt, "Can I do it myself?"

Front 142

Ages 3-6 Development

Back 142

Main conflict is guilt, "Am I good or bad?"

Front 143

Ages 6-12 Development

Back 143

Main conflict is inferiority, "Am I competent or inferior?", competes with peers to answer this question

Front 144

Adolescence Development

Back 144

Main conflict is creating a distinct identity, "Who am I?"

Front 145

Young Adulthood Development

Back 145

Main conflict is intimacy vs. isolation, "Should I share my life with another person or live alone?"

Front 146

Middle Adulthood Development

Back 146

Main conflict is productivity and the desire to succeed with family and work, "Am I productive or stagnant?"

Front 147

Old Age Development

Back 147

Main conflict is ego integrity vs. failure, "Have I lived a meaningful life, or have I squandered my time?"

Front 148

Attachment Theory

Back 148

A long-term feeling of closeness between a child and a caregiver, before mid-twentieth century, psychologists believed that feeding was the cause of attachment, Harlow's studies showed that warmth and touch are more important

Front 149

Contact comfort

Back 149

The essential close physical interaction need of young children that creates a sense of attachment