Introduction To Psychology Clep

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Communicate with other neurons.

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Interneurons (associative neurons)

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Short, bushy fibers that take information in from outside the cell.

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Dendrites

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Long fibers that pass info. along to other nerve cells, to glands, or to muscles.

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Axons

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A fatty tissue that surrounds the axon and accelerates tranmission of info.

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Myelin sheath.

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Electrically charged atoms.

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Ions

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The neuron pumps out the sodium ions and can then fire again.

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Refractory Period

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Junction where the end of one neuron meets the beginning of another.

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Synapse

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Helps control arousal and sleep.

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Serotonin

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Drugs that mimic a particular neurotransmitter or make more of it available by blocking its reuptake.

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Agonists

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Drugs that block.

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Antagonists

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Includes the sensory and motor neurons.

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Peripheral nervous system.

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System that carries info. from muscles, sense organs, and skin to the central nervous system and messages from the system to the skeletal muscles.

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Somatic nervous system

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Regulates the body's internal environment.

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Autonomic nervous system

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Prepares you for action

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Symphathetic nervous system.

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Deactivates the systems mobilized.

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Parasympathetic nervous system.

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Controls breathing and heartbeat.

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Brainstem

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Receives info. about touch, taste, sight, and hearing

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Thalamus

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Controls arousal and sleep

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Reticular formation

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Coordination of voluntary movement

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Cerebellum

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Processes memory

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Hippocampus

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Influences fear and anger

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Amygdala

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Influences hunger, thirst, and sexual behavior

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Hypothalamus

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Influences the release of hormones from other glands

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Pituitary gland

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Motor, cognitive, and sensory processes.

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Cerebral cortex

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Play a part in coordinating movement and in higher level thinking

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Frontal lobes

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Where is the Broca's area and what does it affect?

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Frontal lobe, speech speed.

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Where is the Wernicke's area and what does it affect?

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Frontal lobe, understanding.

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Sensor of touch.

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Pariental Lobes

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Involved in hearing

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Temporal lobes

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Areas involved in vision.

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Occipital lobes.

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Area of psychology that addresses the topic of sensation.

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Psychophysics.

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Minimum stimulation needed for a given person to detect a given stimulus.

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Absolute threshold.

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Smallest difference a person can detect.

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Just noticeable difference (difference threshold)

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Threshold increases in proportion to the intensity or magnitude of the stimuli.

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Weber's Law

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Predisposes us to attend to stimuli that matter to us and not attend to stimuli that don't.

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Sensory Adaptation

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Illustrates that our ideas about reality have to be chosen, organized, and interpreted, not simply detected.

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Selective attention

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Shows that the mind fills in the gaps in our sensations.

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Gestalt psychologists

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Require both eyes.

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Binocular cues

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One cue to distance.

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Retinal disparity.

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Influence judgments of depth.

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Texture gradients

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Predispositions to perceive one thing and not another.

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Perceptual sets

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From simple sensory receptors to more complex neural networks.

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Bottom-up fashion

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From expectations, motives, and contextual cues to raw sensory data.

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Top-down fashion.

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State of being aware

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Consciousness

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Predictability stems from their being synchronized with the parts of the day.

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Circadian rhythm

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Brain waves cycle through a series of ___ stages every ___ minutes or so.

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Five, 90

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Introspection

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a method of self-observation in which participants report their thoughts and feelings

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Structuralists

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Believed that consciousness was made up of basic elements that were combined to produce diffferent perceptions

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Wilhelm Wundt

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german physiologist who founded psychology as a formal science; opened first psychology research laboratory in 1879

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Edward Titchener

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Student of Wilhelm Wundt; founder of Structuralist school of psychology; set up first psychology lab in U.S.

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Functionalists

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studied the function of consciousness

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William James

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1842-1910; Field: functionalism; Contributions: studied how humans use perception to function in our environment; Studies: Pragmatism, The Meaning of Truth

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Biological Approach

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A psychological perspective that examines behavior and mental processes through a focus on the body, especially the brain and nervous system.

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Psychodynamic Approach

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Approach that states that behavior reflects unconscious internal conflict between inherited instincts and society's behavioral rules. **Sigmund Freud

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Behaviorist Approach

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A theoretical perspective that focuses only on objective, observable reactions. Behaviorism emphasizes the environmental stimuli that determines behavior.

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Classical Conditioning

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a learning procedure in which associations are made between a natural stimulus and a learned, neutral stimulus

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Operant Conditioning

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a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher

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Cognitive Approach

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According to this approach, behavior is a result of information processing, such as perception, memory, thought, judgment, and decision making

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Humanistic Approach

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approach to psychology that sees humans as basically good and striving to reach their ideal self

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Self-actualization

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self fulfillment the realization of all ones potential and desire to become creative in the full sense if the world.

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Experiments

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a means for researchers to assess cause-and-effect relationships between at least two variables.

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Independent Variable

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The experimental factor, "cause", that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied.

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Dependent Variable

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the "effect" of an experiment; will usually involve measuring how subjects behave.

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Random Subject Assignment

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Is done to ensure that the average behavior of the two groups would be the same PRIOR to manipulation

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Double-blind study

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Research method in which both the subjects and the experimenter are unaware to the anticipated results.

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Correlational Studies

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research method that examines relationships between variables in order to analyze trends in data, test predictions, etc. (they do NOT discern cause and effect relationships)

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Positive Relationship

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A relationship in which the values of one variable increase (or decrease) as the values of another variable increase (or decrease)

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Negative Relationship

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when an increase in one variable is associated with a decrease in the other variable

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Correlation Coefficient

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A numerical index of the degree of relationship between two variables, a positive number near 1.0 indicates two variables are positively related; a negative number indicates a negative relationship; zero indicates no relationship

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Case Study

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In-depth study analysis of only one person

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Naturalistic Observation

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observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation

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Inter-rater Reliability

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the degree of agreement between co-observers watching the same set of events

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Behavioral Neuroscience

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an approach to psychology that links psychological processes to activities in the nervous system and other bodily processes

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Nervous System

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The body system of nervous tissues--organized into the brain,spinal courd, and nerves--that send and receive messages and integreate the body's activities.

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Sense Receptors

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Detect heat, light, or touch and then pass information about those stimuli on to the brain, thereby triggering thoughts about those things and/or causing behavioral responses to occur

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Neurons

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individual cells that are the smallest units of the nervous system; the long, thin cells of nerve tissue along which messages travel to and from the brain

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Sensory (or afferent) Neurons

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neurons that carry incoming information from the sense receptors to the central nervous system

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Motor (or efferent) Neurons

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neurons that carry outgoing information from the central nervous system to the muscles and glands

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Interneurons (or association neurons)

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Central nervous system neurons that internally communicate and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs

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Cell Body

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contains the nucleus, where most of the molecules the neuron needs to survive and function is manufactured

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Action Potential

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a neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon

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Resting Potential

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when a neuron is in polarization; more negative ions are inside the neuron cell membrane with a positive ions on the outside, causing a small electrical charge; release of this charge generates a neuron's impulse (signal/message)

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Synaptic Gap

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The tiny gap at the junction between the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron

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Vesicles

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mall membrane sacs that specialize in moving products into, out of, and within a cell

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Axon Terminal

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the endpoint of a neuron where neurotransmitters are stored

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Central Nervous System

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consists of the brain and spinal cord

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Neural Networks

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interconnected neural cells. With experience, networks can learn, as feedback strengthens or inhibits connections that produce certain results. Computer simulations of neural networks show analogous learning

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Limbic System

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a doughnut-shaped system of neural structures at the border of the brainstem and cerebral hemispheres; associated with emotions such as fear and aggression and drives such as those for food and sex. Includes the hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus.

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Hormones

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chemical messengers, mostly those manufactured by the endocrine glands, that are produced in one tissue and affect another

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Endoctrine System

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system in the body that sends messages to the bodily organs via hormones

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Signal Detection Theory

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a theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus ("signal") amid background stimulation ("noise"). Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and level of fatigue. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 199)

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Feature Detectors

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nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement

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Gestalt

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an organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes

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Convergence

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a binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object

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Monocular Cues

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depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone

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Linear Perspective

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a monocular cue for perceiving depth; the more parallel lines converge, the greater their perceived distance

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Motion Parallax

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cue to depth that involves images of objects at different distances moving across the retina at different rates

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Interposition Monocular

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visual cue in which two objects are in the same line of vision and one patially conceals the other, indicating that the first object concealed is further away

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Sensory Restriction

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includes loss of a sense such as sight, resulting in increase perception in other senses

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Critical Period

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an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development

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Perceptual Sets

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Demonstrates our readiness to percieve in a particular manner; Based on experience and expectation

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Alpha Waves

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the relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake state

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Stage 1

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Disappearance of alpha waves, appearance of theta waves

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Hypnogogic

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the state of intermediate consciousness preceding sleep (during first 5 minutes of stage 1)

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Stage 2

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Lasts about 20 minutes and involves deeper relaxation and occasional bursts of rhythmic brainwaves called sleep spindles and K-complexes

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Stage 3

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Delta Waves appear. Heart rate, breathing, blood pressure and temperature continue to lower. Very difficult to wake.

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Stage 4

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stage of sleep in which Delta waves predominate

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Slow-wave Sleep

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consists of sleep stages 3 and 4, during which high amplitude, low frequency delta waves become prominent in EEG recordings

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REM

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describes sleep in which vivid dreams typically occur; this type of sleep increases as the night progresses while stage 4 sleep decreases

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Paradoxical Sleep

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REM when muscles are deeply relaxed but there are high levels of brain activity

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Manifest Content

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according to Freud, the remembered story line of a dream

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Latent Content

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according to Freud, the underlying meaning of a dream

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Activation-syntheses

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theory the theory that dreams result from the brain's attempt to make sense of random neural signals that fire during sleep

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Psychoactive Drugs

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Chemicals that affect the nervous system and result in altered consciousness

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Barbiturates

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drugs that depress the activity of the central nervous system, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgment

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Behaviorists

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a psychologist who analyzes how organisms learn or modify their behavior based on their response to events in the environment

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Cognitive Factors

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what we think which influences how we behave and our environment

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Non-associative Learning

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occurs when the repeated presentation of a single stimulus produces an enduring change in behavior.

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Habituation

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decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation

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Sensitization

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the process of becoming highly sensitive to specific events or situations (especially emotional events or situations)

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Associative Learning

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learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning).

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Instrumental conditioning

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A form of learning in which the participant receives a reinforcer only after performing the desired response, and thereby learns a relationship between the response and the reinforcer. Also called operant conditioning.

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Reinforcement

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a stimulus that strengthens or weakens the behavior that produced it

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Positive Reinforcement

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increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli, such as food. A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response.

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Negative Reinforcement

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increasing the strength of a given response by removing or preventing a painful stimulus when the response occurs

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Reinforcer

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is any consequence that causes the preceding behavior to increase.

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Mean

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the arithmetic average of a set of scores

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Mode

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The most frequently occurring score in a data set

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Median

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The middle score in a set of scores that have been ranked in numerical order

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Overextension

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occurs when a categorical term (a word used to describe a group of things) is used in language to represent more categories than it actually does

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Serial-Position Effect

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is the tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a series best, and the middle items worst.

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Retroactive Interference (RI)

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is a phenomenon that occurs when newly learned information interferes with and impedes the recall of previously learned information.

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Proactive Interference

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is when you memorize a list of information, and when remembering a later part of the list, an earlier memorized part of the list gets in the way.

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Latent Learning

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is a form of learning that is not immediately expressed in an overt response; it occurs without any obvious reinforcement of the behavior or associations that are learned.

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Rooting Reflex

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A reflex that is seen in normal newborn babies, who automatically turn the face toward the stimulus and make sucking motions with the mouth when the cheek or lip is touched.

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Longitudinal Design

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is a research study where a sample of the population is studied at intervals to examine the effects of development. This means a group of participants is studied at regular intervals to determine how time has affected the studied variable.

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Withdrawal Reflex

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is a spinal reflex intended to protect the body from damaging stimuli

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Thyroid

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Regulates the bodies metabolism