Psychology Flash Cards

Front 1

correlation

Back 1

a measure of the relationship between two variables

Front 2

positive correlation

Back 2

both variables increase

Front 3

negative correlation

Back 3

both variables decrease

Front 4

dependent variable

Back 4

variable in an experiment that represents the measurable response of behavior of the subjects in the experiment

Front 5

independent variable

Back 5

variable in an experiment that is manipulated by the experimenter

Front 6

confounding variable

Back 6

variables that interfere with each other and their possible effects on some other variable of interest

Front 7

demand characteristics

Back 7

people act how they think they are supposed to act

Front 8

hawthorne effect

Back 8

effect of being singled out or watched by observer/audience and leads to change of behavior. note - hawthorne was an electrical power plant

Front 9

placebo effect

Back 9

needs to have no active ingredients, but the subject does not know it. ex: sugar pills

Front 10

experimenter bias

Back 10

experimenter influences results unintentionally

Front 11

neurons - random facts

Back 11

generated before birth, develop rapidly (at their peak 250, 000 per minute), not all survive (sometimes cell death), classified according to size and shape, people have somewhere between 100-200 billion neurons

Front 12

types of neurons

Back 12

over 200 different kinds in humans, structure determines some of the things the neuron is going to do (for example a brain neuron requires a more complex structure than a muscle neuron), neurons have lots of little branches making trillions of little connections (synaptic) in the brain

Front 13

structure of the neuron

Back 13

dendrite, soma, nucleus, axon, myelin sheath, axon terminals, outer membrane

Front 14

dendrites

Back 14

fibers that receive signals from the axons of other neurons and are responsible for carrying information into the cell body

Front 15

soma

Back 15

(cell body) includes the nucleus, responsible for maintaining the life of the cell

Front 16

nucleus

Back 16

holds all the genetic info like dna etc

Front 17

axon

Back 17

tubelike structure that carries the neural message to other cells

Front 18

myelin sheath

Back 18

goo and fat that insulates the axon, keeps misfires from occurring and signals from jumping out, makes everything happen more quickly

Front 19

axon terminals

Back 19

branches at the end of the axon. the tip of each one has a little knob on it full of synaptic vesicles which contain chemicals

Front 20

outer membrane

Back 20

can open and close as necessary for substances to enter and exit, it gives the neuron energy