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137 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
psychology |
the scientific study of the mind bran and behavior |
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confirmation bias |
tendency to seek out evidence that supports the hypothesis and neglect or distort contradicting evidence |
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belief perseverance |
tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them |
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pseudoscience |
set of claims that seem scientific, but aren't; testable beliefs that aren't supported by the evidence |
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ad hoc immunizing hypothesis |
escape hatches to protect against falsification usually a loophole or exception for negative findings |
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over reliance on anecdotes |
anecdotes are often not representative but can't tell us about cause and effect and are often difficult to verify |
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structuralism |
aimed to identify the most basic elements of psychological experience |
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functionalism |
hoped to understand the adaptive purposes of thought and behavior |
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behaviorism |
focuses on the mental processes involved in different aspects of thinking |
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cognitivism |
focuses on the mental process involved in different aspects of thinking |
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psychoanalysis |
focused on internal psychological processes of which we are unaware |
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cognitive psychologist |
study how we perceive and process info |
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personality psychologist |
study how individual traits develop |
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social psychologist |
study how others impact our thoughts and behaviors |
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clinical psychologist |
work with people who have mental disorders |
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school psychologist |
assess and develop intervention programs |
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health psychologist |
psychological factors in health and illness |
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developmental psychologist |
study why and how people change over time; most work with children and infants |
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biological psychologist |
examine psychological bases of behavior |
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forensic psychologist |
assess, diagnose, and assist with rehab and treatment of prison inmates; others on eyewitness or juries |
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industrial organization psychologist |
personnel psychology; real world applications |
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sports psychologist |
psychological effect on performance in sports |
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prefrontal lobotomy |
neural fibers connecting frontal lobe to the thalamus are severed |
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facilitated communication |
technique used by some caregivers where they point to the letters on a keyboard |
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heuristics |
mental shortcuts or rules of thumb |
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representative heuristics |
type of heuristic when data is actually represented |
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availability heuristics |
type of heuristic when you think something is going to happen based on past events |
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descriptive studies |
describe observations about behavior |
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naturalistic observation |
record behavior in naturally occurring situations |
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case study |
observing a single person for an extended period of time |
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survey |
collect self-reported info from people to prove a testable hypothesis right or wrong |
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experimental group |
group of subjects that under study to determine the effects of some factor/drug
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control group |
subjects that serve as a standard or baseline for comparison with experimental group |
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independent variable |
the variable that is manipulated by the experimenter |
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dependent variable |
the variable that represents the measurable response or behavior of the subjects in the experiment |
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operational definition |
definition of a variable that allows it to be precisely measured and that's replicable |
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confounds |
any difference between the experimental and control group |
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demand characteristics |
cues that participants pick up allowing them to guess at the researcher's hypothesis |
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central tendency |
when a group tends to cluster |
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inferential statistics |
allows us to determine whether we can generalize findings from our sample to the population |
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cell body (soma) |
cell's life support center |
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dendrites |
receive messages from other cells |
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axon |
passes msgs away from the cell body to other neurons, muscles or glands |
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myelin sheath |
covers the axon of some neurons and helps speed the neural impulses |
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terminal buttons |
form junctions with other cells |
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neural impulse |
electrical signal traveling down the axon |
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sensory neurons |
type of neuron that carries msgs to the brain |
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motor neurons |
type of neuron that carries msgs to muscles |
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interneurons |
neuron that connects cells |
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neuroglia |
"glue"-provide physical support, control nutrient flow, and are involved in phagocytosis |
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synapse |
physical gap between pre and post synaptic membrane and is typically an axon |
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synaptic vesicles |
tiny sacs in terminal buttons that contain neurotransmitters |
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agonist |
drugs or compounds that bind to a receptor and activate it |
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antagonist |
drugs or compounds that bind to a receptor and prevent a reaction from occurring |
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acetylcholine |
slows ANS activity (eating and drinking) and is involved in learning, memory, sleeping and dreaming |
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dopamine |
involved in voluntarily controlling your muscles and is released during pleasure or reward |
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norepinephrine |
energizing and arousing properties |
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serotonin |
plays role in mood; under supply can lead to depression |
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glutamate |
most common neurotransmitter; involved in learning and memory; associated with schizophrenia, anxiety and intoxication |
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GABA |
major inhibitory neurotransmitter; slows CNS function; one of the most common neurotransmitter in the central nervous system |
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neural plasticity |
includes 4 ways our brains change over time |
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synaptogenesis |
the formation of entirely new synapses of connections with other neurons |
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pruning |
reducing the number of neurons, synapses and axons in the brain and nervous system |
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myelination |
process of forming a myelin sheath |
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cerebrospinal fluid |
the liquid the brain floats in; is produced by the choroid plexus of each brain ventricle |
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cerebral cortex |
forms the outer surface of the cerebral hemospheres; appears grey because it's made up of 6 layers of cells |
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sulci |
small grooves in the brain |
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fissures |
large grooves in the brain |
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gyri |
bulges in the cortex |
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frontal lobe |
lobe responsible for recent memory, planning of movement, and some aspects of emotion |
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parietal lobe |
lobe responsible for body sensation |
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temporal lobe |
lobe responsible for hearing and advanced visual processing |
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occipital lobe |
lobe responsible for vision |
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broca's area |
area of the frontal lobe responsible for speech production |
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wernicke's area |
area of the temporal lobe responsible for speech comprehension |
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limbic system |
set of structures around the thalamus |
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hippocampus |
part of the limbic system responsible for learning and memory |
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amygdala |
part of the limbic system responsible for processing emotional info, especially that related to fear |
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mammilary bodies |
part of the limbic system responsible for recollective memory |
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thalamus |
part of the limbic system that contains nuclei that receive sensory info and transmit it to the cortex |
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hypothalamus |
part of the limbic system that contains nuclei involved in integration of species' typical behaviors, control of autonomic nervous system, and pituitary; controls body temp, hunger, thirst, fatigue and circadian rhythms |
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somatic nervous system |
conveys info between the CNS and the body, controlling and coordination voluntary movement |
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autonomic nervous system |
controls the involuntary actions, internal organs and glands; split into 2 divisions: the sympathetic and parasympathetic |
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cerebellum |
part of the hindbrain that plays a key role in balance |
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pons |
part of the hindbrain that connects the cortex to the cerebellum and triggers dreams |
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medulla |
part of the hindbrain that regulates breathing, heartbeat, and other vital functions |
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pituitary gland |
gland that controls all glands and releases hormones |
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adrenal gland |
gland that releases adrenaline and cortisol during states of emotional arousal |
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sensation |
stimulation of our sense organs by features of the outer world |
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perception |
how our brain organizes and interprets sensory info in a meaningful way |
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sensory receptors |
eyes, ears, nose, taste buds, skin |
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bottom up processing |
sensations transduce a physical signal directly to a neural impulse the brain later interprets for meaning |
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top down processing |
the interpretation on sensations to organize individual features into a personally meaningful whole |
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transduction |
conversion of environmental energy to neural impulses the brain can understand |
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absolute threshold |
the lowest intensity level of a stimulus we can detect |
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difference threshold |
(JND) smallest amount of change between two stimuli a person can detect |
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weber's law |
our perception of a "just noticeable" change in a stimulus is a constant ratio of the original stimulus |
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light |
the vision stimulus; brightness (wave amplitude) |
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hue |
color (wave length) red=long and blue=short |
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cornea |
clear membrane on eye's surface thats for protection |
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lens |
behind the pupil; bends light rays |
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iris |
colored muscle around the pupil; adjusts pupil to regulate the amount of light that enters the eye |
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pupil |
hole that admits light into the eye |
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retina |
light-sensitive surface on the back of the eye where light is focused |
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rods |
photoreceptors that are responsive to dark and light contrast; night vision |
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cones |
photoreceptors responsible for color vision; bright light |
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fovea |
very back of the retina; highest concentration of cones |
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optic nerve |
bundle of retinal cell axons that carries the neural impulses from the retina to the visual cortex in the brain |
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color blindness |
occurs when monochromats either have no cones, cones that don't work, or damage to neural paths for color processing |
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wavelength |
measured in Hz-waves per second |
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amplitude |
measured in decibles (units of loudness) |
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pinna |
outer ear |
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auditory ear canal |
the tube that goes from the pinna to the eardrum |
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tympanic membrane |
fancy word for eardrum |
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ossicles |
3 bones in the middle ear: malleus, incus, and stapes |
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cochlea |
snail shaped structure that's filled with fluid |
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organ of corti |
part of the ear in the basilar membrane and contains receptor cells |
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auditory nerve |
nerve that receives msgs from the organ or court and carrie them to the brain |
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taste buds |
receptors on the tongue |
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papillae |
these house the receptors (taste buds) on your tongue |
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kinesthetic sense |
"activity sense" tells you the location of your individual body parts in relation to the ground and each other |
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proprioceptors |
sensors that provide info about joint able, muscle length, and muscle tension |
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vestibular sense |
"whole body" sensations of motion, balance and position |
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sensory conflict theory |
when visual info conflicts with vestibular info; can cause nausea and dizziness |
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habituation |
brain stops paying attention to consistently present/repeated stimuli example: perfume |
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perceptual constance |
the tendency to perceive objects as unchanging even when they actually change at the sensational level (ex: doors open part of the way and barely cracked) |
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purkinje shift |
maximum retinal sensitivity shifts to blue at dusk |
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ponzo illusion |
capitalizes on the brain's use of distance cues to distort size perception |
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relative size |
close up objects appear bigger than objects that are far away |
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interposition |
when objects close to us may block part of our view |
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arial perspective |
more distance=more haziness ex: mountains in the distance look grey |
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texture gradient |
texture of objects appear finer as distance increases |
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motion parallax |
close objects appear to move faster than far objects |
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monocular cues |
cues for perceiving depth based on one eye only |
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binocular cues |
cues for perceiving depth based on both eyes |
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retinal disparity |
images from the 2 eyes differ; the closer the object, the larger the disparity |
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convergence |
neuromuscular cue; your eyes turn inward (converge) to view a closer object ex: moving your finger from out in front to right on your nose |