AP Psych Final Review
Terms
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- pituitary gland
- The endocrine systems most influential gland. Regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands.
- olfactory receptor cells
- Receptor cells located in a cluster of about 500 million at the top of each nasal cavaty instantly alert the brain through their axon fibers about the smell.
- all-or-none response
- A nerve or muscle fiber responds completly or not at all to a stimulus.
- median
- The middle score in a distribution; half are above and half are below.
- methamphetamine
- Stimulates CNS with speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes.
- aphasia
- Impairment of language, usually caused by left hempisphere damage either to Broca's area or to Wernicke's area.
- secondary sex characteristics
- Non reproductive sexual characteristics.
- sleep spindels
- Bursts of rapid, rhythmic brain wave activity.
- Mary Ainsworth
- Psychologist who studied attachment differences by observing mother-infant pairs at home during their first six months.
- placebo effect
- Experimental results caused by expectations alone; any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which is assumed to be an active agent.
- neurotransmitters
- Chemical messengers that traverse the synaptic gaps between neurons.
- cross-sectional study
- A study in which people of different ages are compared with one another.
- somatic nervous system
- The division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body's skeletal muscles.
- thalamus
- A brain's sensory switchboard, located on top of the brainstem; it directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla. Deals with all senses but smell.
- light and shadow
- Nearby objects reflect more light to our eyes. A dimmer object will seem farther away.
- feature detectors
- Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or measure.
- depth perception
- The ability to see objects in 3d although the images that strike the retina are 2d.
- imprinting
- The process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life.
- rods
- Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and grey; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond.
- identity
- One's sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles.
- closure
- The perceptual tendency to fill in gaps to create a complete, whole object.
- social traps
- A situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior.
- gestalt
- An organized whole.
- hindsight bias
- The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have forseen it.
- perceptual set
- A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.
- middle ear
- The chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window.
- depressants
- Drugs that reduce neural activity and slow body functions. (Alcohol, barbituates, opiates)
- intimacy vs. isolation
- Issue experience during Erikson's sixth stage of psychosocial development, young adulthood.
- latent content
- The underlying meaning of a dream.
- pitch
- A tone's experienced highness or lowness; depending on frequency.
- retinal desparity
- By comparing images from the two eyeballs, the brain computers distance-the greater the disparity between the two images, the closer to object.
- hair cells
- Cells with tiny hair like projections lining the basilar membrane.
- Erik Erikson
- The man who said that securely attached children approach life with a sense of basic trust.
- REM sleep
- Recurring sleep stage during which vivid dreams commonly occur. Muscles are relaxed and other systems are active.
- attachment
- An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by seeking closeness to the caregiver and shouting distress on separation.
- sleep apnea
- Sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and repeated mementary awakenings.
- inner ear
- The innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs.
- occipital lobes
- The portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the back of the head; includes the visual ares, which receive visual information from the opposite visual field.
- ingroup
- "Us"- people whom one shares a common identity.
- retina
- The light-sensitive inner surface of the eye containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information.
- sensory interaction
- The principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste.
- sympathetic nervous system
- Division of autonomic that arouses body and mobilizes energy in stressful situation.
- just-world phenomenon
- The tendency of people to believe that the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get.
- vestibular sense
- The sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance.
- limbic system
- A doughnut-shaped system of neural structures at the border of the brainstem and cerebral hemispheres; associated with emotions such as fear and agression and drives such as those for food and sex.
- Harry Harlow
- Psychologist who researched the relationship of body contact and nourishment to attachment, using infant monkeys and artificial mothers.
- neural networks
- Interconnected neural cells. With experience, networks can learn, as feeback strengthens or inhibits connections that produce certain results.
- connectedness
- The perceptual tendency to perceive things that are uniform and linked as a single unit.
- reuptake
- The process in which excess neurotransmitters are reabsorbed by the sending neuron.
- conduction-hearing loss
- Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts soundwaves to the cochlea.
- texture gradient
- A gradual change from a coarse distinct texture to a fine indistinct texture signals increasing distance.
- functionalism
- Stresses the importance of how behavior functions to allow people and animals to adapt to their environment.
- standard deviation
- A computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score.
- psychology
- The science of behavior and mental processes.
- ear canal
- A narrow region leading from the outside of the human ear to the eardrum.
- Elizabeth Kubler Ross
- The woman who created the stages of grief.
- REM rebound
- The tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation.
- random sample
- A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion.
- BF Skinner
- A behaviorist who believed that we could explain language development with familiar learning principles, such as association, imitation, and reinforcement.
- Weber's Law
- The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage.
- linguistic determinism
- Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think.
- social clock
- The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement.
- fMRI
- A technique for revealing blood flow and, therefore, brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans.
- consciousness
- Awareness of ourselves and our environment.
- naturalistic
- Observing and recording behavior in naturally occuring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation.
- integrity vs. despair
- Issue experience during Erikson's eight stage of psychsocial development, late adulthood.
- peripheral nervous system
- The sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system to the rest of the body.
- social psychology
- The scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.
- fluid intelligence
- One's ability to reason speedily and abstractly which tends to decrease during late adulthood.
- temporal lobes
- The portion of the cerebral cortex lying roughly above the ears; includes the auditory areas; each of which receives auditory information from the opposite ear.
- frontal lobe
- The portion of the cerebral cortex lying just behind the forehead, involved in speaking and muscle movements and in making plans and judgments.
- THC
- The major active ingredient in marijuana, triggers a variety of effects, including mild hallucinations.
- sociocultural
- Perspective that focuses on how cultural factors influence patterns of behavior.
- corpus callosum
- The large brand of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them.
- pons
- Sits just above the medulla and helps coordinate movement. Also the dream center.
- maturation
- Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavio, relatively influenced by experience.
- crystallized intelligence
- One's accumulated knowledge which increases with age.
- reflexes
- Simple, autonomic inborn responses to a sensory stimulus.
- axon
- The extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers, through which messages pass to ther neurons or to muscles or glands.
- parapsychology
- The study of paranormal phenomena including ESP and psychokinesis.
- generativity vs. stagnation
- Issue experience during Erikson's seventh stage of psychosocial development, middle adulthood.
- experimental condition
- The condition of an experiment that exposes participants to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable.
- fundamental attribution error
- The tendency for observers, when analyzing another's behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition.
- basilar membrane
- Lined with hair cells. Vibration jostels fluid in the oval window which causes ripples here.
- sensorineural-hearing loss
- Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; also called nerve deafness.
- zygote
- The fertilized egg; it enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo.
- afterimages
- When you stare at a green square for a while and then look at a white sheet of peper, you see red, green's opponent color.
- extrasensory perception
- The controverasial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input.
- scatterplot
- A graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables. The slope of the points suggests the direction of the relationship between the two variables. The amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation.
- embryo
- The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month.
- cerebral cortex
- The intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells that coveres the cerebral hemispheres; the body's ultimate control and information processing center.
- place theory
- In hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated.
- subliminal
- Below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness.
- difference threshold
- The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time.
- double-blind procedure
- An experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo.
- posthypnotic suggestion
- A suggestion, made during a hypnosis session to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized.
- conservation
- The principle that properties such as mass, volume, and amount remain the same despite changes in forms of objects.
- withdrawl
- The discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing the use of an addictive drug.
- grammar
- A system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.
- proximity
- The perceptual tendency to group nearby figures together.
- primary sex characteristics
- The body structures that make sexual reproduction possible.
- selective attention
- The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.
- brainstem
- The oldest part and central core of the brain beginning where the spinal cord swells as it enters the skull; the brainstem is responsible for automatic survival functions.
- perception
- The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.
- population
- All the cases in a group, from which samples may be drawn for a study.
- independent variable
- The experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied.
- groupthink
- The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.
- Stanford Prison Experiment
- An experiment in a simulated prison set up by Philip Zimbardo. He randomly designated some people as guards or prisoners. The simulation became too real after a few days.
- self-concept
- A sense of one's identity and personal worth.
- developmental psychology
- A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change through the life span.
- normative social influence
- Influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval.
- hemisphere specialization
- When a person performs a perceptual task, brain waves, blood flow, and glucose consumption reveal increased activity in the right hemisphere. When a person speaks or calculates, activity increases in the left hemisphere.
- informational social influence
- Influence resulting from one's willingness to accept other's opinions about reality.
- circadian rhythms
- The biological clock; regular bodily rhythms.
- relative size
- If we assume that two objects are similar in size, we perceive the one that casts the smaller retinal image as farther away.
- Broca's area
- Controls language expression- an area of the frontal lob, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech.
- Autism
- A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others states of minds.
- fetal alcohol syndrome
- Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking.
- parasympathetic nervous system
- Part of autonomic that calms body and conserves energy.
- operational definitions
- A statement of the procedures used to define research variables.
- random assignment
- Assigning participants to experimental and control conditions by chance thus minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to different groups.
- habituation
- Decreasing responsiveness with repeated simulation.
- social loafing
- The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal then when individually accountable.
- action potential
- A neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon. Generated by the movement of positively charged atoms in and out of channels in the axon's membrane.
- bottom-up processing
- Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information.
- neuron
- A nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system.
- barbituates
- Drugs that depress the activity of the CNS, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgment.
- competence vs. inferiority
- Issue experience during Erikson's fourth stage of psychosocial development, elementary school.
- control condition
- The condition of an experiment that contrasts with the experimental condition and serves as a comparison for evaluation the effect of the treatment.
- scapegoat theory
- The theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by producing someone to blame.
- cochlear implant
- A signal for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea.
- biological rhythms
- Periodic physiological fluctuations.
- physical dependence
- A physiological need for a drug, marked by unpleasant withdrawl symptoms when the drug is discontinued.
- cones
- Retinal receptors that are connected near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. Detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations.
- menarche
- The first menstrual period.
- resting potential
- The state of an axon after a neuron has fired when positively charged ions are outside the axon and negative ions are inside.
- sensorimotor stage
- Stage during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities. (Birth-2)
- sensation
- The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.
- correlation
- A measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other.
- amygdala
- Two lime bean sized neural clusters that are components of the limbic system and are linked to emotion.
- Solomon Asch
- Psychologist who studied conformity by doing an experiment using comparison lines.
- nerves
- Neural "cables" containing many axons. These bundled axons, which are part of the peripheral nervous system, connect the central nervous system with muscles and glands.
- morpheme
- The smallest unit that carries meaning in a language.
- altruism
- The unselfish regard for the welfare of others.
- deindividuation
- the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occuring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity.
- psychophysics
- The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them.
- fetus
- The developing human organisms from 9 weeks after conception to birth.
- puberty
- The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproduction.
- gate-control theory
- The spinal cord contains are neurological gate that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain. It is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers or by information coming from the brain.
- hypnosis
- A social interaction in which one person suggests to another that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur.
- mere exposure effect
- The phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking them.
- insomnia
- Recurring problems in falling or staying asleep.
- grouping
- The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups.
- Noam Chomsky
- A linguit who viewed language development much like "helping a flower to grow in its own way". He contended that all human languages have universal grammar.
- sweet, sour, salty, bitter
- Four basic taste sensations.
- formal operational stage
- The stage of cognitive development during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.
- self-fulfilling prophecies
- Something that causes itself to be true.
- stranger anxiety
- The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months.
- trichromatic theory
- The theory that the retina contains three different color receptors- which when stimulated in combination can produce the perception of any color.
- prejudice
- An unjustifiable attitude toward a group and its members. Generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action.
- egocentrism
- The preoperational child's difficulty taking anothers point of view.
- absolute threshold
- The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time.
- motor cortex
- An area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements.
- cognitive dissonance theory
- The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent.
- longitudinal studies
- Research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period of time.
- oval window
- Cochlea's membrane.
- gender roles
- A set of expected behaviors for males and for females.
- optic nerve
- The nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain.
- hypothesis
- A testable prediction, often implied by a theory.
- pupil
- The adjustible opening in the center of the eye through which light enters.
- attribution theory
- The theory that suggests how we explain someone's behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition.
- glial cells
- Cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons.
- concrete operational stage
- The stage of cognitive development during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.
- eardrum
- A tight membrane that vibrates with the waves.
- delta waves
- The large, slow brain waves assiciated with deep sleep.
- hallucinogens
- Drugs that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absense of sensory input.
- strange situation
- Ainsworth's method for assessing infant attachment to the mother, based on a series of brief separations and reunions with the mother in a playoom situation.
- fovea
- The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones center.
- frequency
- The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a a given time.
- linear perspective
- Parallel lines appear to converge with distance.
- MRI
- A technique that uses magnetic fields and radiowaves to produce computer-generated images that distinguish among different types of soft tissue; allows us to see structures within the brain.
- opponent-process theory
- Opposing retinal processes enable color vision.
- myelin sheath
- A layer of fatty tissue segmentally encasing the fibers of many neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed of neural impulses as the impulse hops from one node to the next.
- preoperational stage
- The stage during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic. (2-6/7)
- excitatory signals
- Electrical signals that create action.
- theory of mind
- People's ideas about their own and other's mental states- about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts and the behavior these might predict.
- signal detection theory
- A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid background stimulation. Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and level of fatigue.
- antagonists
- Inhibit neurons firing.
- conformity
- Adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.
- transduction
- Conversion of one form of energy to another.
- perceptual adaptation
- In vision, the ability to adjust for an artificially displayed or even inverted visual field.
- figure-ground
- The organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings.
- hormones
- Chemical messengers, mostly those manufactured by the endocrine glands, that are produced in one tissue and affect another.
- night terrors
- A sleep disorder characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified.
- false consensus
- The tendency to over estimate the extent to which others share our believs and behaviors.
- Wilhelm Wundt
- The man credited as being the founder of the new science of psychology. He established the first psychology research lab.
- color blindness
- Color-deficient people are lacking functioning red or green sensitive cones, sometimes both.
- intimacy
- The ability to form close, loving relationships, a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood.
- humanistic
- The psychological perspective that focuses on the motivation of people to grow psychologically, the influence of interpersonal relationships on a person's self concept, and the importance of choice an self-direction in striving to reach one's potential.
- psychological dependence
- A psychological need to use a drug, such as to relieve negative emotions.
- object permanence
- The awareness that things continue to exist when not perceived.
- interneurons
- Central nervous system neurons that internally communicate and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs.
- synapse
- The junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron.
- ecstasy
- A synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen. Produces euphoria and social intimacy but with short term health risks and longer term harm to serotonin-producing neurons and to mood and cognition.
- conventional morality
- In Kohlbergs theory, the level of moral reasoning in which judgments are based on rules or norms of a group to which the person belongs.
- perceptual constancy
- Perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change.
- spinal cord
- An information highway connecting the PNS to the brain; part of the CNS.
- critical period
- An optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development.
- amphetamines
- Drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes.
- experiment
- A research method in which an investigation manipulates one or more factors to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process.
- autonomic nervous system
- The part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs.
- Philip Zimbardo
- The man who set up the Stanford Prison Experiment.
- bystander effect
- The tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present.
- preconventional morality
- In Kohlbergs theory, the level of moral reasoning in which judgments are based on avoiding punishment and gaining rewards.
- endocrine system
- The body's "slow" chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the blood stream.
- evolutionary
- Perspective which uses the principles of evolution to explain psychological processes and phenomena.
- lens
- The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina.
- theory
- An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events.
- telepathy
- Mind-to-mind extrasensory perception.
- cochlea
- A coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger neural impulses.
- alpha waves
- The relatively slow brain waves of a relaxes, awake state.
- postconventional morality
- In Kohlbergs theory, the level of moral reasoning in which judgments are based on an integration of individual rights and the needs of society.
- agonists
- Excite neurons firing.
- outgroup
- "Them"- those perceived as different or apart from one's ingroup.
- phoneme
- The smallest distinctive sound unit in a language.
- Alzheimer's
- A progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and physical functioning.
- dependent variable
- The outcome factor; the variable that may change in response the manipulations of the independent variable
- behavioral
- Focuses on observable behaviors and emphasizes how behavior is modified by environmental consequences.
- amplitude
- Height from peak to trough, determines loudness.
- mean
- The arithmetic average of a distribution adding the scores and dividing by the number of scores.
- relative height
- We perceive objects higher up in our field of vision as father away.
- accomodate
- Adapting one's current schemas to incorporate new information.
- bilingual advantage
- Bilingual children, who learn to inhabitate language while using their other language, are also better able to inhibit their attentionto irrelevant information.
- Lawrence Kohlberg
- Psychologist who studied moral judgments and created the stages.
- ganglion cells
- Axons of which converge to form the optic nerve.
- adolescence
- The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence.
- sensory neurons
- Neurons that carry incoming information from the sense receptors to the central nervous system.
- replicate
- Repeating the essence of a research study usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances.
- sensory adaptation
- Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.
- hidden observer
- The part of consiousness that is not aware of pain during hypnosis.
- language
- Our spoken, written, or signed words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning.
- lesion
- A naturally or experimentally caused destruction of tissue.
- mode
- The most frequently occuring score in a distribution.
- structuralism
- An early school of psychology that concentrated on learning more about the most basic parts of conscious experiences, first major approach.
- trust vs. mistrust
- Issue experience during Erikson's first stage of psychosocial development, infancy.
- basic trust
- A sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriote experiences with responsive care givers.
- biological
- The perspective of studying the physical aspects of behavior and mental processes. Also emphasizes studying the specific systems and genetics.
- minority influence
- The power of one or two individuals to sway majorities.
- hippocampus
- A neural center that is located in the limbic system and helps process explicit memories for storage.
- parietal lobes
- The portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top of the head and toward the rear; received sensory input for touch and body position.
- relative motion
- As we move, obejcts that are actually stable appear to move. For objects closer than the fixation point, the nearer the object is the faster it seems to move. For objects beyond the fixation point, the farther away those objects, the faster they will move.
- cerebellum
- The "little brain" attached to the rear of the brainstem; its functions include processing sensory input and coordinating movement output and balance.
- visual cliff
- A lab device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals.
- phi phenomenon
- An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession.
- stimulants
- Drugs that excite neural activity and speed up body functions.
- dendrites
- The bushy, branching extensions of a neuron that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body.
- clairvoyance
- The ability to perceive remote events.
- psychodynamic
- Concentrates on the importance of unconscious influences, interpersonal relationships, and early life experiences.
- interposition
- If one object partially blocks our view of another, we perceive it as closer.
- medulla
- The base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing.
- stereotype
- A generalized belief about a group of people.
- top-down processing
- Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations.
- James Randi
- The magician who has tested and debunked a variety of psychic phenomena.
- refractory period
- The "recharging phase" when a neuron, after firing, cannot generate another action potential.
- ingroup bias
- The tendency to favor one's own group.
- association areas
- Areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions; rather, they are involved in higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking.
- inhibitory signals
- Electrical signals that prevent action.
- foot-in-the-door phenomenon
- The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.
- terotogens
- Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.
- convergence
- The extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object. The greater in inward strain, the closer the object.
- nervous system
- The body's speedy, electrochemical communication network, consisting of all the nerve cells of the peripheral and central nervous systems.
- autonomy vs. shame and doubt
- Issue experience during Erikson's second stage of psychosocial development, toddlerhood.
- decibel
- Measuring unit for sound energy.
- blind spot
- The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, no receptor cells are located there.
- group polarization
- The enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion withiin a group.
- Stanley Milgram
- A social psychologist who performed an experiment testing how people respond to commands involving electric shocks.
- dissociation
- A split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others.
- opiates
- Drugs that depress neural activity, temporarily lessoning pain and anxiety. (Morphine, heroin, and opium)
- identity vs. role confusion
- Issue experience during Erikson's fifth stage of psychosocial development, adolescence.
- continuity
- The perceptual tendency to perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinous ones.
- chameleon effect
- Unconsciously mimicking others' expressions, postures, and voice tones helps us feel what they're feeling.
- hypothalamus
- A neural structure lying below the thalamus; it directs several maintence activities, helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland, and is linked to emotion.
- central nervous system
- The brain and spinal cord.
- correlation coefficient
- Mathematical expression of the relationship ranging from -1 to 1.
- motor neurons
- Neurons that carry outgoing information from the central nervous system to the muscles and glands.
- narcolepsy
- Sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks.
- Edward B. Titchener
- Wundt's most devoted student. He founded the first major school or approach in psychology, called structuralism.
- cornea
- Protects the eye and bends light to provide focus.
- cognitive
- Perspective which focused on the importance of mental processes in how people process information, develop languages, solve problems, and think.
- menopause
- The time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences and her ability to reproduce declines.
- LSD
- A powerful hallucinogenic drug, emotions vary, perceptual distortions, feel separated from body.
- dreams
- Sequences of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person's mind.
- assimilate
- Interpreting one's new experience in terms of one's existing schemas.
- discrimination
- Unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group or its members.
- iris
- A ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening.
- schemas
- A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
- similarity
- The perceptual tendency to group figures together that are similar to each other.
- attitudes
- Feelings, often based on our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.
- social facilitation
- Stronger responses on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others.
- tolerance
- The diminishing effect with regular use of the same dose of a drug, requiring the user to take larger and larger doses before experiencing the drug's effect.
- illusory correlation
- The perception of a relationship where none exists.
- plasticity
- The brain's capacity for modification, as evident in brain recognition following damage.
- sensory cortex
- The area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch and movement sensations.
- initiative vs. guilt
- Issue experience during Erikson's third stage of psychosocial development, preschooler.
- William James
- Harvard professor who helped establish psychology in the US. Published "Principles of Psychology". His ideas were the basis of functionalism.
- psychokinesis
- The power to move something by thinking about it without the application of physical force.
- manifest content
- The remembered story line of a dream.
- hallucinations
- False sensory experiences, such as seeing something in the absesne of an external visual stimulus.
- EEG
- An amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweep acress the brain's surface. These waves are measured by electrodes placed on the scalp.
- measures of central tendency
- A single score that represents a whole set of scores.
- Wernicke's area
- Controls language reception- a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe.
- threshold
- The level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse.
- reticular formation
- A nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in controlling arousal.
- CT scan
- 3d image of a cross section of the body.
- Jean Piaget
- A developmental psychologist who discovered that a child's mind is not a miniature model of an adults. He created the stages of cognitive development.
- PET scan
- A visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task.
- range
- The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution.
- adrenal glands
- A pair of endocrine glands just above the kidneys. The adrenals secrete the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine, which help to arouse the body in times of stress.
- monocular cues
- Depth cues, avaliable to either eye alone.
- binocular cues
- Depth cues that depend on the use of two eyes.
- kinesthesis
- The system for sensing the postition and movement of individual body parts.
- rooting reflex
- A baby's tendency, when touched on the cheek, to turn toward the touch, open the mouth, and search for the nipple.
- psychoactive drugs
- A chemical substance that alters perceptions and mood.