psychological science ch. 1-5
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
-
4 stages of sleep +2
-
- alert wakefulness, beta waves
- just before sleep, alpha waves
- theta waves, can be easily aroused, fantastical images or falling sensation
- regular breathing, less sensitive to stimulation, sleep spind
-
absolute threshold
-
minimum intensity of stimulation that must occur before one can experience a sensation
- accommodation
-
a process by which muscles change the shape of the lens by flattening it to focus on distant objects or by thickening it to focus on closer objects
- accuracy
-
the extent to which an experiment is free from error
-
action potential
- neural impulse that passes along the axon and causes the release of chemicals from the terminal buttons
-
activation-synthesis hypothesis
- theory of dreaming that proposes that neural stimulation from the pons activates mechanisms that normally interpret visual input
- adaptations
- the physical characteristics, skills, or abilities that increase the chances of reproduction or survival and are therefore more likely to be passed along to future generations
-
additive color mixing
-
different wavelengths of light are mixed, determined by the interaction of those wavelengths with receptors in the eyes -- psychological process
- agonist
- drug that enhances the actions of a specific neurotransmitter
-
all-or-none principle
- a neuron fires with the same potency each time, although frequency can vary -- it either fires or not
- amygdala
- brain structure that serves a vital role in our learning to associate things with emotional responses and for processing emotional information
- antagonist
-
drug that inhibits the action of a specific neurotransmitter
- are all behaviors adaptive?
- no. most of our behavior does not reflect our evolutionary heritage -- such behaviors are by-products of of adaptative solutions
-
autonomic nervous system (ANS)
- part of the PNS, regulates the body's internal environment by stimulating glands and by maintaining internal organs such as the heart, gall bladder, stomach
- autoreceptors
- neuron's own neurotransmitter receptors which regulate the release of the neurotransmitters
- axon
- long narrow outgrowth of a neuron by which information/electrical impulses is transmitted to other neurons
- basal ganglia
-
system of subcortical structures that are important for the initiation of planned movement
- behaviorism
-
emphasizes the role that environmental forces have on producing behavior
-
binocular depth cues
- cues of depth perception that occur because people have two eyes
-
binocular disparity
-
cue of depth perception caused because of the distance between a person's eyes
- blindsight
-
condition in which people who are blind have some spared visual capacities in the absence of any visual awareness
-
bottom-up processing
-
data are relayed from one processing level to the next, always moving to a higher level of processing
- brainstem
-
section of the bottom of the brain that houses the most basic programs of survival (breathing, swallowing, vomiting, urination, orgasm)
-
Broca's area
-
left frontal region of the brain that is crucial to the production of language
-
can we override pain
- some people are born who cannot feel pain, but it is dangerous because pain teaches us to avoid bad situations. drugs can subdue (or intensify...) pain
-
can we perceive something without attending to it?
- yes -- even if something is not at the forefront of your attention you still perceive it. attention will not be called unless it personally affects you (coctail party phenomenon)
-
case study
-
intensive examination of one person
-
cell body
-
where information from thousands of other neurons is collected and processed
-
central nervous system (CNS)
- brain and spinal cord -- seperated from the body by the blood-brain barrier, referring to the selectively permeable nature of blood vessels that prevent certain toxins and poisons from entering the brain/spinal cord
-
central tendency
- measure that represents the typical behavior of the group as a whole
- cerebellum
-
large convulated protuberance at the back of the brainstem that is essential for coordinated movement and balance
- cerebral cortex
-
the outer layer of brain tissue that forms the convoluted surface of the brain
- chromosomes
-
structures within the cell body that are made up of genes
- circadian rhythm
- regulation of biological cycles into regular pattern -- keeps animals quiet and inactive during the time when there is the greatest danger
- cone
- vision under high illumination, color and detail, densely packed in fovea
- confound
-
anything that affects a dependent variable that may unintentionally vary between the different experimental conditions of a study
- cornea
-
thick, transparent layer which focuses incoming light in a process called refraction
-
corpus callosum
-
fiber of axoms that transmits information between the two cerebral hemispheres of the brain
- correlation
- statistical procedure that provides a numerical value between +1 and -1 indicating the strength and direction of the relationship b/t variables
-
correlational study
- research method that examines how variables are naturally related in the real world without any attempt by the researcher to alter them
-
critical period
-
time in which certain experiences must occur for normal brain development, such as exposure to visual information during infancy for normal development of the brain's visual pathways
-
critical thinking
- systematic way of evaluating information in order to reach reasonable conclusions -- think skeptically
- culture
- belief, values, rules and customs that exist within a group of people who share a common language and environment and that are transmitted through learning from one generation to the next
- data
-
objective observations or measurements
- dendrites
-
branchlike extensions of the neuron that detect information from other neurons
- dependent variable
-
the measure that is affected by the manipulation of the independent variable
-
descriptive study
-
involves observing and noting the behavior of people or other animals in order to provide a systematic and objective analysis of behavior
-
difference threshold
-
the minimum amount of change required in order to detect a difference between intensities of stimuli
-
dizygotic twins
-
twins who result from two separately fertilized eggs -- fraternal
-
does the brain rewire itself during learning, aging and repair?
- yes -- all the maps in the cerebral cortex shift in response to their activity. following a brain injury, surrounding gray matter assumes the function of the damaged area
- dreams
-
product of an altered state of consciousness in which images and fantasies are confused with reality
- dualism
-
philosophical idea that the mind exists seperately from the physical body - rene descartes idea
-
early selection theory
-
we can choose the stimuli to which we will attend before we process the basic features
- electrophysiology
- method of data collection that measures electrical activity in the brain
-
endocrine system
-
communication system that uses hormones to influence thoughts, behaviors, and actions
-
enzyme deactivation
-
process whereby the neurotransmitter is destroyed by an enzyme
- evolutionary theory
-
a theory that emphasizes the inherited, adaptive value of behavior and mental activity through the entire history of a species
- experiment
- study that tests casual hypotheses by measuring and manipulating variables
-
experimenter expectancy effect
-
actual change in the behavior of people or animals due to the observer bias
-
filter thoery
- limited capacity for sensory information and thus screen incoming info, only letting in the most importan
-
frontal lobes
-
region at the front of the cerebral cortex concerned with planning and movement
-
functional MRI
- imaging technique used to examine changes in the activity of the working brain
- functionalism
-
concerned with adaptive purpose, or function, of mind and behavior
-
GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)
- primary inhibitory transmitter in the nervous system, works throughout the brain to hyperpolarize postsynaptic membranes
-
gate-control theory of pain
- in order to experience pain, receptors must be activated and a neural gate in the spinal cord must allow these signals into the brain
- gene
- unit of heredity that determines a particular characterist in an organism
-
Gestalt school of perceptual psychology
- perceptions are different from the sum of the constituent sensations -- brains use innate organizing principles to organize sensory information
-
gestalt theory
- the whole of personal experience is different from the sum of its constituent elements -- perception of objects subjective and dependent on context
- gonads
-
primary endocrine glands involved in sexual behavior
- good continuation
-
tendency to interpret intersecting lines as continuous
- gray matter
-
segment of the spinal cord that is dominated by the cell bodies of neurons
-
haptic sense
-
sense of touch
- heritability
-
statistical estimate of the fraction of observed measure of the overall amount of difference amog people in a population that is caused by differences in heredity
- hippocampus
- brain structure important for the formation of certain types of memory
- hormones
- chemical substances typically released from endocrine glands that travel through the bloodstream to target tissues
- how are genes expressed?
-
environment decides which option is taken -- cells specialized for different tasks
-
how are qualitative factors coded?
-
different sensory receptors respond to different qualities of a stimulus
-
how are quantitative factors coded?
- indexed by neural firing frequency
- how can the same problem be studied at different levels?
-
different categories of analysis:
- social (how cultural and social context affect the way people interact)
- individual (individual differences in personality and mental processes)
- biological (how the physical body contributes
-
how can we study mental activity?
-
careful scientific observation, experimentation
-
how do drugs alter neural activity?
-
alter the actions of neurotransmitters -- how it is synthesized, can raise or lower amount of neurotransmitter released, change the way the neurotransmitter is deactivated by blocking reuptake or preventing enzyme deactivation
-
how do ethical issues constrain psychological research?
-
participants must be fully aware of the requirements of the study -- risk of emotional/physical harm -- privacy concerns
- how do expectations affect perception?
- can help determine what you are perceiving, but can also affect what you perceive if you expect to perceive something else
-
how do nerve cells operate?
-
all neurons have resting potential -- negative
AP opens cell membranes, allows sodium in
depolarization, spreads down axon
inside of cell becomes more positive than outside
-
how do studies of twins help us understand genetics?
- good way to test contributions of genes and environment -- nature vs. nurture
-
how do we disentangle nature and nurture?
- understand both the genetic basis of human nature and the environment that shapes it
- how do we ensure that our measurements are accurate?
-
validity, reliability, accuracy
-
how do we hear
- a sound wave stimulates hair cells located in the ear, oscillations prompt hair cells to generate action potentials
- how do we know where sound is coming from?
-
brain integrates the different sensory information coming from each of the ears
-
how do we smell?
-
odorous particles pass into the nose, come into contact with thin layer of tissue embedded with smell receptors, convey information to olfactory bulb
-
how do we taste?
- taste buds stimulated by chemical substances from food dissolved in saliva, send electrical signals to medulla (in brainstem)
-
how does an experiment differ from a descriptive study?
- descriptive studies usually are just trying to see if a phenomenon exists -- from there, scientists can proceed to experiments
- how does culture shape how we interact with the world?
- culture shapes beliefs and values, norms, symbols, ethnicity
- how does hormone transmission differ from neurotransmission?
-
released into bloodstream until they reach their target destination, where they bind to receptors and influence tissue
-
how does the brain communicate with the body?
- through the spinal cord
-
how does the brain enable the mind?
- coordinatd action in a number of different brain regions contributes not only to consciousness but also to variations in conscious experience
-
how does the brain give rise to awareness?
-
reports that information is perceived
- how is causation between two variables established?
- creating control, allowing the researcher to rule out alternative explanations for the observed data. the more confounds that can be eliminated, the more certain the relationship can be
-
how is energy converted into sensation
-
sensory coding -- coded by different patterns of neural impulses
-
how is info from stimuli in the world transformed into neural activity in the brain?
-
sensory organs convert forms of physicalenergy into signals that the brain can understand
-
how might a computer analogy be useful for thinking about the mind?
-
brain takes in information as a code, processes it, stores relevant sections, retrieves stored information
-
how might culture influence observer bias?
-
if cultural norms prohibit inhibiting/expressing certain behaviors
- how might environment affect brain development in young children?
-
not exposed to conditions that are necessary to pave brain pathways, necessary neurons aren't born
- hypothalamus
- small brain structure that is vital for temperature regulation, emotion, sex, motivation
-
hypothesis
-
specific prediction of what should be observed in the world if a theory is correct
- ideas from Darwin's On The Origin of Species
- natural selection, survival of the fittest, that inheritable individual differences provide the basis of evolutionary development
-
independent variable
- the condition that is manipulated by the experimenter to examine its impact on the dependent variable
-
inferential statistics
- set of procedures used to make judgments about whether differences actually exist between sets of numbers
-
informed consent
- people are given full information about a study, allowing them to make a knowledgeable decision about whether to participate
- insomnia
-
disorder characterized by an inability to sleep
-
institutional review boards
-
groups of people responsible for reviewing proposed research to ensure that it meets the accepted standards of science and provides for the physical and emotional well-being of research participants
- interneurons
-
communicate only with other neurons, typically within a specific brain region
- introspection
-
systematic examination of subjective mental experiences that require people to inspect and report on the content of their thoughts
-
late selection theory
-
people take in sensory information, process it, then select which aspects should be attended
-
latent content
- what a dream symbolizes, material disguised in a dream to protect the dreamer -- Freud
-
lateral inhibition
- visual process in which adjacent photoreceptors inhibit one another
- left brain
- dominant for language, will attempt to explain behavior of right brain
-
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
-
method of brain imaging that produces high-quality images of the brain
-
manifest content
- plot of a dream, the way a dream is remembered -- Freud
- materialism
- the belief that the brain and mind are inseparable
- microsleeps
-
brief, unintended episodes, ranging from a few seconds to a minute caused by chronic sleep deprivation
-
mind-body problem
- whether mind and body are seperate and distinct or whether the mind is simply the subjective experience of the physical brain
- monoamines
-
group of neurotransmitters synthesized from a single amino acid that are involved in a variety of psychological activities
-
monocular depth cues
- cues of depth perception that are available to each eye alone
-
monozygotic twins
-
twins who result from one zygote splitting in two and share the same genes -- identical
-
motor neurons
- direct muscles to contract/relax, producing movement
-
myelin sheath
- fatty material made of glial cells that insulates the axon and allows for the rapid movement of electrical impulses along the axon
-
natural selection
- darwin's theory that those who inherit characteristics that help them adapt to their particular environment have a selective advantage over those who don't
- naturalistic observation
- passive descriptive study in which observers do not change or alter ongoing behavior
-
nature-nurture debate
-
arguments concerning whether psychological characteristics are biologically innate or acquired through education, experience and culture
- neuron
- basic unit of the nervous system that operates through electrical impulses, which communicate with other neurons through chemical signals.
-
neuronal workspace model
-
consciousness arises as a function of which brain regions are active
- neurotransmitter
- chemical substance that carries signals from one neuron to another
-
nodes of Ranvier
-
small gaps of exposed axon between the segments of myelin sheath, where action potentials are transmitted
-
observational technique
-
careful and systematic assessment and coding of overt behavior
-
observer bias
- systematic errors in observation that occur due to an observer's expectations
-
occipital lobes
- region of the cerebral cortex at the back of the brain that is important for vision
-
olfactory bulb
-
brain center for smell, located below the frontal lobes
-
operational definition
-
quantification of a variable that allows it to be measured
-
parasympathetic division of ANS
-
division of the automatic nervous system that returns the body to its resting state
-
parietal lobes
- region of the cerebral cortex lying in front of the occipital lobes and behind the frontal lobes that is important for the sense of touch and the spatial layout of an environment
-
participant observation
-
type of descriptive study in which the researcher is actively involved in the situation
- peptides
-
chains of two or more amino acids found in the brain and the body; act like classic neurotransmitters or modify the quality of the neurotransmitter they are erleased with
- perception
- processing, organization, interpretation of sensory signals that result in an internal representation of the stimulus
-
perceptual constancy
- people correctly perceive objects as constant in their shape, size, color and lightness despite raw sensory data that could mislead perception
-
peripheral nervous system (PNS)
- all nerve cells in the body that are not part of the central nervous system
- pheromones
-
chemicals released by animals and humans that trigger physiological or behavioral reactions in other members of the same species
- phrenology
- early method of assessing personality traits and mental abilities by measuring bumps on the skull
-
pituitary gland
- at the base of the hypothalamus, send hormonla signals that control the release of hormones from endocrine glands
-
place coding
-
mechanism for encoding high-frequency auditory stimuli in which the frequency of the sound wave is encoded by the location of the hair cells along the basilar membrane
- plasticity
-
property of the brain that allows it to change as a result of experience, drugs or injury
-
positron emission tomography (PET)
-
method of brain imaging that assesses metabolic activity by using a radioactive substance injected into the bloodstream
-
prefrontal cortex
- region of the frontal lobes especially prominent in humans important for attention, working memory, decision making, appropriate social behavior and personality
- primary auditory cortex (A1)
-
region of the temporal lobe -- neurons in A1 code the frequency of auditory stimuli. neurons at the rear respond best to lower frequencies, at the front responds to higher
-
primary somatosensory cortex (S1)
- in the parietal lobe, body mapped out according to physical proximity, sensitive body parts have larger amounts of S1 devoted to them
- primary visual cortex (V1)
-
largest area in occipital lobe, where the thalamus projects the image
- proximity
-
closer two figures are, the more likely we are to group them together
- psychoanalysis
-
attempts to bring the contents of the unconscious into conscious awareness so that conflicts can be revealed
-
psychological practitioners
-
those who apply findings from psychological science in order to assist people in their daily lives
-
psychological scientist
-
one who uses the methods of science to study the interplay between brain, mind and behavior and how the social environment affects these processes
-
psychophysiological assessment
-
research method that examines how changes in bodily functions are associated with behavior or mental state
- qualia
- properties of our subjectiv, phenomenological awareness (color theory)
-
random assignment
-
each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any level of the independent variable
-
reaction time
- quantification of performance behavior that measures the speed of a response
- reactivity
- effect that occurs when the knowledge that one si being observed alters the behavior being observed
-
receptive field
-
region of visual space to which neurons in the primary visual cortex are sensitive
- receptors
- specialized protein molecules on the postsynaptic membrane that neurotransmitters bind to after passing across the synaptic cleft
- reliability
-
extent to which a measure is stable and consistent over time in similar conditions
-
REM sleep
-
stage of sleep marked by rapid eye movements, dreaming, paralysis of motor systems
- replication
- repetition of an experiment in order to confirm the results
- research
-
scientific process that involves the systematic and careful collection of data
- response performance
-
researchers quantify perceptual or cognitive process in response to a specific stimulus
-
resting membrane potential
-
electrical charge of a neuron when it is not active
- restoration theory of sleep
-
brain and body need to rest, sleep lets the body repair itself
-
reticular formation
-
large network of neural tissue within the brainstem involved in behavioral arousal and sleep-wake cycles
- retina
-
thin inner surface of the back of the eyeball. contains the photoreceptors that transduce light into neural signals
-
retinotopic organization
- systematic ordering of the neuronal pathway from the retina to the occipital lobe; preserves spatial relationships, so adjacent areas of the retinal correspond to adjacent areas in the visual cortex
- reuptake
-
process where the neurotransmitter is taken back into the presynaptic terminal buttons, thereby stopping its activity
-
reuptake
-
process whereby the neurotransmitter taken back into the presynaptic terminal buttons, thereby stopping its activity
-
right brain
-
good for spatial relationships
- rod
-
respond at low levels of light, night vision, located all over the retina, movement
-
self-report method
-
people are asked to provide information about themselves through questionnaires or surveys
- sensation
-
how sense organs respond to external stimuli and transmit the responses to the brain
-
sensory adaptation
-
when an observer's sensitivity to stimuli decreases over time
-
sensory neurons
-
detect information from the physical world and pass that information to the brain
-
Sigmund Freud beliefs
- level of the unconscious, psychoanalysis
-
socially desirable responding
- when people respond to a question in a way that is most socially acceptable or that makes them look good
-
somatic nervous ssytem
-
part of the PNS, transmits sensory signals to the CNS via nerves
-
spinal cord
- part of the central nervous system, rope of neural tissue that runs inside the hollows of the vertebrae from just above the pelvis and into the base of the skull
-
split brain
-
condition in which the corpus callosum is surgically cut and the two hemispheres of the brain do not receive information directly from each other
-
stream of consciousness
-
continuous series of ever-changing thoughts
- structuralism
-
approach to psychology based on the idea that conscious experience can be broken down into its basic underlying components or elements
- subtractive color mixing
- a way to produce a given spectral pattern in which the mixture occurs within the stimulus itself and is actually a physical process
-
sympathetic division of ANS
-
division of the autonomic nervous system that prepares the body for action
- synapse
-
site for chemical communication between neurons
-
synaptic cleft
-
small space between neurons that contains extracellular fluid
-
temporal coding
- mechanism for encoding low-frequency auditory stimuli in which the frequency of the sound wave is encoded by the frequency of firing of the hair cells
-
temporal lobes
- lower region of the cerebral cortex that is important for processing auditory information and memory
- terminal buttons
-
small nodules at the end of axons which receive the electrical impulses and release chemical signals from the neuron to the synapse
- thalamus
- gateway to the brain that receives almost all incoming sensory information before it reaches the cortex
- theory
-
a model of interconnected ideas and concepts that explain what is observed and makes predictions about future events
-
third-variable problem
- when the experimenter cannot directly manipulate the independent variableand therfore cannot be confident that another, unmeasured variable is not the actual cause of differences in the dependent variable.
- threat-rehearsal strategies
- dreams allow you to rehearse coping strategies
-
three basic ideas of consciousness
-
- subjectivity (unique perspective each of us has on our own conscious experience)
- acces to information (knowledge of the contents of our consciousness)
- a unitary experience (fruits of our sensory systems into a unified phenomenal ex
-
three basic types of neurons
-
- sensory neurons
- motor neurons
- interneurons
-
three functions of neurons
-
- take in information from neighboring neurons (reception)
- integrate those signals (conduction)
- pass signals to other neurons (transmission)
- top-down processing
- information at higher leves of processing can also influence lower, earlier levels in the processing hierarchy
- transduction
-
process by which sensory receptors produce neural impulses when they receive physical or chemical stimulation
-
transplantation of stem cells
-
stm cells are master cells that can regenerate themselves, become any type of tissue -- ethical debate
- unconscious
-
identifies mental processes that operate below the level of conscious awareness
- validity
- the extent to which the data collected addresses the research hypothesis in the way intended
- variable
- something in the world that can be measured and can vary
-
visual hierarchical processing
- processing is in stages, first analyzes retinal image by extracting elementary feature
- what are some of the problems with correlational studies?
-
third-variable problem, directionality problem
- what are some problems with the method of introspection
-
experience is subjective -- difficult to determine whether subjects are using the criteria in a similar way
-
what defines an empirical question?
- can be tested and either confirmed oor shown to be false
-
what is a good theory?
- one that produces a wide amount of hypotheses
- what is critical thinking?
-
making good decisions based on reasonable and logical conclusions abotu evidence
- what is mind?
-
mental activity, such as thoughts and feelings
- what role does genetics play in mind and behavior?
-
the actions of multiple genes affect psychological and biological activity
-
white matter
- segment of the spinal cord that consists mostly of axons and the fatty sheaths that surround them
-
why are anecdotal reports limited in what they can tell us?
- people introduce biases into their answers
-
why does crossing levels of analysis provide better insights about the mind?
- provides more insights than just one level -- breakthroughs in psychological understanding
- why is evolutionary theory important to understanding mental activity?
-
helpful for thinking about adaptive problems that have the potential to affect whether one survives and reproduces
-
why is heritability lower when the population is more diverse?
- the increased variability that comes from diversity and the estimates of genetic variation do not consider such diversity
-
why is it important to use operational definitions?
- help other researchers know precisely what is being measured, allowing them to replicate the research