Psych Exam 1

Front 1

major explanatory focus is how the brainm nervous system, and other physiological mechanisms produce behavior and mental proceses.

Back 1

Biological Perspective

Front 2

Major explanatory focus is how mental processes, such as perception, memory and problem sovling, work and impact behavior.

Back 2

Cognitive perspective

Front 3

major explanatory focus is how external environmental events condition observable behavior.

Back 3

Behavioral Perspective

Front 4

major explanatory focus is how other people and the cultural context impact on behavior.

Back 4

Socialculture perspective

Front 5

The tendency, after learning aobut an outcome, to be overconfident in ones ability to have predicted it.

Back 5

Hindsight Bias

Front 6

the behavior of interest is observed in its natural setting, and the researcher does not intervere.

Back 6

Naturalistic observation

Front 7

An observer becomes part of the group being observed.

Back 7

particular observation

Front 8

researcher studies an individual in depth over an extended period of time.

Back 8

case study

Front 9

researchers use questionaires and interviews to collect information about the behavior, beliefs, and attitudes of particular groups of people.

Back 9

survey research

Front 10

g-force induced loss of consciousness

Back 10

G-LOC

Front 11

cells that transmit information within the nervous system

Back 11

neurons

Front 12

cells in the nervous system that comprise the support system for the neurons

Back 12

glial cell

Front 13

fibers projecting out of the cell body of a neuron whose function is to receive info from other neurons

Back 13

dendrites

Front 14

part of the neuron that contains its nucleus and other biological machinery to keep the cell alive and to decide whether or not to pass on incoming info to other neruons

Back 14

cell body

Front 15

conducts the neural impulse from the cell body to the axon terminals triggering chemical communication with other neurons

Back 15

axon

Front 16

an insulationg layer covering an axon that allows for faster neural impulse

Back 16

myelin sheath

Front 17

chemical in nervous system that specializes in thransmitting info between neurons

Back 17

neurotransmitter

Front 18

microscopic gap between the neurons that neurotansmitters travel to carry their messages

Back 18

synapse

Front 19

visual display of the activity levels in various areas in the brain generated by detecting the positron emission created by the metabolization of radioactive glucose in each area

Back 19

position emision tomography (PET)

Front 20

drug or poison that increase the activity of one or more neurotransmitters

Back 20

agonist

Front 21

drug or poison that decreases the activity of one or more neurotransmitters

Back 21

antagonist

Front 22

neurotransmitter ivolved in memory and muscle movement

Back 22

Acetycholine(ACH)

Front 23

neurotransmitter involved in attention, thought processes, reward centers, and movement

Back 23

dopamine

Front 24

scarcity of dopamine in the basal ganglia cause muscle tremors, difficulty initiation movements, and rigidity of movement.

Back 24

parkinson's disease

Front 25

A protective mechanism by which the blood capilarries supplying the brain create a barrier that prevents dangerous substances access to the brain

Back 25

blood-brain barrier

Front 26

a drug for parkinsons that contains the precursors to dopamine so that once it is in the brain, it is converted to dopamine.

Back 26

L-dopa

Front 27

neurotransmitters involved in levels of arousal and mood.

Back 27

Serotonin and Norepinephrine

Front 28

main inhibitory neurontransmitter in the nervouse system. It is involved in lowering arousal and anxiety and regulating movement.

Back 28

GABA

Front 29

neurotransmitters that are involved in pain perception and relief

Back 29

endorphins

Front 30

The brain and spinal cord

Back 30

Central Nervous System(CNS)

Front 31

links the CNS with the body's sensory receptors, muscles and glands

Back 31

Peripheral Nervous System(PNS)

Front 32

intergrate info within the CNS through their communication with each other an between sensory and motor neurons in the spinal cord

Back 32

interneurons

Front 33

neurons in the PNS that carry info to the CNS from sensory receptors, muscles and glands

Back 33

sensory neurons

Front 34

neurons in the PNS that carry movement commands from the CNS out to the rest of the body

Back 34

motor meurons

Front 35

the conduit between the brain and the PNS for incoming sensory data and outgoing movements commands to the muscles

Back 35

spinal cord

Front 36

Simple automatic action of the spinal cord not requiring the brain (knee jerk)

Back 36

Spinal reflex

Front 37

part of the PNS that carries sensory input from receptors to the CNS and relays commands from CNS to skeletal muscles to control their muscles

Back 37

somatic nervous system

Front 38

part of the PNS that regulates the functioning of our internal environment

Back 38

Autonomic Nervous System

Front 39

The part of the autonomic nervous system that is in control when we are highly aroused.

Back 39

sympathetic nervous system

Front 40

the part of the autonomic nervous system that reurns the body to its natural resting state after being highly aroused

Back 40

parasympathetic nervous system

Front 41

commnication is achieved through hormones that are secreted by the endocrine glands and travel through the bloodstream to target their sites

Back 41

Endocrine Glandular System

Front 42

a chemical messanger that is produced by and endocrine gland and carried through the bloodstream to target tissues throughout the body

Back 42

Hormone

Front 43

releases hormones for human growth and hormones that direct other endocrine glands to release their hormones

Back 43

pituitary gland

Front 44

bottom part of brain stem that is used in many essential body functions( heartbeat, breathing, blood pressure, digestion)

Back 44

Medula

Front 45

a network of neurons running up the center of the brain stem that is responsible for different levels of arousal and consciosness

Back 45

reticular formation

Front 46

involved in the coordination of our movements, sense of balance and motor learning

Back 46

cerebellum

Front 47

serves as a relay station for incoming sensory info

Back 47

Thalamus

Front 48

involved in initiation and execution of movements

Back 48

Basal Ganglia

Front 49

made up of the hypothalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala; plays an important role in our survival, memory, and emotions

Back 49

limbic system

Front 50

involved in critical motivated behaviors such as eating, drinking, and sex

Back 50

hypothalamus

Front 51

involved in the formation of memories

Back 51

hippocampus

Front 52

involved in emotions by influencing aggression, anger and fear. allows us to interpret others emotions too.

Back 52

amygdala

Front 53

drugs that achieve their agonistic effect on serotonin by selectively blocking its uptake

Back 53

SSRI's

Front 54

control and info-processing center for the nervous system(perception, memory, language, decision making)

Back 54

cerebral cortex

Front 55

bridge of neurons connecting the two hemispheres

Back 55

corpus callosum

Front 56

allows us to move different parts of our body

Back 56

motor cortex

Front 57

allows us to sense pressure, temp., and pain

Back 57

somatosensory cortex

Front 58

70% of cortex, higher level cognitive processing such as perception and language

Back 58

association cortex

Front 59

speech area

Back 59

broca's area

Front 60

comprehension of speech and text area

Back 60

wernickle's area

Front 61

an individual's subjective awareness of their inner thinking and feeling and their external environment

Back 61

consciousness

Front 62

brain wave patterns that resemble those for an awake state while sleeping. most dreams occur during this

Back 62

REM

Front 63

inability to recognize familiar obejcts

Back 63

visual agnosia

Front 64

inability to recognize familiar faces

Back 64

prosopagnoisa

Front 65

inability to recognize familiars animals

Back 65

zooagnosia

Front 66

the minimum amount of energy in a sensory stimulus detected 50% of the time

Back 66

abosolute threshold

Front 67

minimum difference between 2 sensory stimuli detected 50% of the time

Back 67

difference threshold

Front 68

our sensitivity to unchanging and repetitious stimuli disappears over time

Back 68

sensory adaption

Front 69

conversion of physical energy into neural signals that the brain can understand

Back 69

transduction

Front 70

the focusing of light waves from objects of different distances directly on the retina

Back 70

accommodation

Front 71

light-sensitive layer of the eye which is composed of 3 layers of celss

Back 71

retina

Front 72

receptor cells in the retina that are resposible for bright light and color vision

Back 72

cones

Front 73

receptor cells in the retina that are prinicpally responsible for dim light and peripheral vision

Back 73

rods

Front 74

tiny pit in retina fill with cones

Back 74

foves

Front 75

process rods and cones go through that makes them sensitive to light in dim light conditions

Back 75

dark adaptation

Front 76

stats that the brain organizes sensory info into figures( center of attention) and ground(less distinct background)

Back 76

figure-ground principle

Front 77

initial info gathering and recoding by the sensory structures

Back 77

sensation

Front 78

interpretation by the brain of sensory information

Back 78

perception

Front 79

incoming sensory info as it travels up from the sensory structures to the brain

Back 79

bottom-up processing

Front 80

the brain's use of knowledge, beliefs, and expectations to interpret sensory info

Back 80

top-down processing

Front 81

interpretation of ambiguous sensory info in terms of how our past experiences have set us up to perceive it

Back 81

perceptual set

Front 82

the use of the present context of sensory info to determine its meaning

Back 82

contextual effect

Front 83

principle that the brain completes incomplete figures to form meaningful objects

Back 83

closure

Front 84

a line or shape that is perceived to be present bit does not really exist

Back 84

subjective contour

Front 85

the perceptual stability of size, shape, brightness, and color from different distances, angles, and lighting conditions

Back 85

perceptaul constancy

Front 86

our ability to perceive the distance of objects

Back 86

depth perception

Front 87

if the difference between the 2 retinal images of an objecct increases, the distance of an object from us decreases

Back 87

retinal disparity

Front 88

as parallel lines reced away from us, the appear to converge

Back 88

linear perspective

Front 89

if one object partially blocks another we perceive it as closer to us

Back 89

interposition