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What are the two major parts of the Nervous System?: Central Nervous System and Peripheral
What comprises the central nervous system?: Brain and spinal chord
What is the peripheral nervous system?: all of the nerves that radiate from the CNS to the rest of the body
What are the parts of the Peripheral nervous system?: Autonomic NS and Somatic NS
What is the Autonomic NS?: part of the peripheral nervous system, it connects the CNS to all of the smooth invouluntary muscles and organs (this includes hormones)
What is the Somatic NS?: part of the peripheral NS, it transmits signals from sensory organs and skin to the CNS
it takes sensory info in and motor information out (vouluntary)
What are the components of the autonomic NS?: Sympathetic and Parasympathetic systems
What is the sympathetic system? Under what branch of the NS does it belong?: The energizing system, it heightens arousal and energizes body for action, raises heartrate, respiration etc..
responsible for fight or flight
Part of the Autonomic NS, which is part of the peripheral NS.
What is the parasympathetic system?: it is the calming system, reduces arousal
responsible for rest and digest
How do the two components of the autonomic system interact with each other?: keep the body in homeostasis
What is the endocrine system?: ductless glans that regulate growth, mood, behavior... using hormones that are secreted into the bloodstream
How is the endocrine system conected to the CNS?: through the hypothalamous and pituary gland

the hypothalamous is a part of the brain that leads the actions of the endoctrine system through a master gland called the pituary gland
What system (Central or endocrine) is faster?: central
What does the pituary gland do?: it responds to the hypothalamous and other hormones by either producing hormones that raise or lower the production levels of hormones in other glands
What are the three types of neurons?: sensory neurons, motor neurons, and interneurons
What are sensory neurons?: nerons that send signals from senses, skin, etc... to CNS
What are motor neurons?: neurons that send signals from CNS to muscles, glands, etc...
What are interneurons?: connectors within the CNS
How are neurons distributed?: NOT randomly, they are connected to each other in networks
What are glial cells (or neuroglia): smaller and more numerous than neurons, they suport neurons structuraly, provide insulation and nutrients
What part of a neuron recieves impulses?: the dendrites
What is another name for the cell body of a neuron?: soma
What is the long extended part a neuron called?: axon
What is the sturcture that insulates a neuron and speeds up "nformation" transfer down the axon?: mylean sheath
What part of a nerons sends "info" out?: axon terminals or terminal buttons
What charge a neuron at rest?: negative on inside compared to a positivly charged exterior
What happends when a neuron recieves a signal?: The membrane breaks down and allows positively charged sodium cations inside causing a change in charge which triggers an electrical signal.
What happendes after a signal has passed through a neuron?: The sodium cations are pumped back out and the neuron returns back to a negativle charged state
Under what conditions does a neuron fire?: The sum of the signal has to exceed a threshold.
What is gap in between neurons called: the synaptic gap
What are hormones?: Chemical messengers secreted from endoctrine glands, into the blood stream, to various organs throughout the body
What is an inborn automatic reposns to a stimuli?: a reflex
What is action potential?: An electrical impulse that surges alsong an axon, caused by an influx of positive ions into a neuron
What are neurotransmitters?: chemical messengers in the nervous system that transmit infotmation by crossinf the synapse from one neuron to another.
What is Acetylcholine (ACh)?: The neurotransmitter responsible for linking moror neurons and muscles. It also facilitates learning. (Alzheimer's patience have an undersupply of ACh)
What is Dopamine?: The neurotransmitter that is liked to mucdle activity. It is concentrated in the brain. (A shortage may cause parkinson's, an exess dopamine ACCEPTORS is linked with schizophrenia)
What are endorphins?: Neurotransmitters that are found throughout the CNS and act as natural opiates that relieve pain
What is epinephrine?: A neurotransmitter that increases arousal. (too much may cause a manic state, too little may cause depression)
What is serotonin?: a neruotransmitter produced in the brain that lowers activity and causes sleep. (Too little is linked with depression)
What is GABA?: A neurotransmitter produced in the brain that lowers arousal and reduces anxiety. It is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the NS.
What are receptors? How do they work?: Specialized neural cells that recieve transmitters. They are specialized, only certain type of receptors work with certain neurotransmitters.
Do neurotransmitters excite of inhibit action potential?: Either, depends on the neurotransmitter
What do neurotransmitters have to do with threshold?: If enough neurotransmitters bind with the receptrors in the dendrite of the recieving neuron, then the threshold is reached (in the case of excitatory neurotransmitters)
What is a case study? What are the benefits and drawbacks?: A case study looks at one instance (person) where some damage has occured (to the brain for example) in order to see effects.
When studying the brain, the drawbacks include,
(1) the brain compensates for damage by forming new connections
(2) Damage is seldom localized
(3) it is difficult to establish cause and effect (ie was einstein smarter becasue his brain was bigger or did it grow because he used it more?)
What is experimental intervention?: This is an invasive technique where part of the brain is actually altered and effects are measured.
It can be sone through surgery, chemicals, or electrodes
What is an EEG (electroencephalograph)?: An instrument used to measure electrical activity in the brain through electrodes placed on the scalp.
What are the limits of an EEG?: it mearly summerizes ALL electrical activity taking place in the brain at the same time.
What is a CT (computerized tomogrphy) scan?: A series of X rays taken from different angles and converted by computer into an image that depicts a horizontal slice of the brain.
What are CT scans mainly used for?: diagnosing tumors and strokes and for identifying brain abnormalities in people who suffer fron scizophrenia and oteh rpsych disorders.
What is a PET (positron emission tomography) scan?: A visual display of brain activity, ms measured by the amount of glucose being used.
What does a PET scan tell a scientist?: What regions of the brain become active (Light up) under certain conditions (what are you thinking of) in REAL TIME
What is an MRI (magnetic reonance imaging): A brain-scanning technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce clear 3-D images of the brain.
What are the three major regions of the brain?: Brainstem, limbic system, and cerebral cortex
What is the brainstem?: One of the three major regions of the brain, it is the inner core of the brain that connects to the spinal chord and contains the medulla, pons and reticular formation.
What sub-regions does the brainstem contain?: The medulla, pons, and reticular formation
What is the medulla?: A sub-region of the brainstem that controls basic and vital invouluntatry functions
What are the pons?: A part of the brainstem, above the medulla, pons play a role in sleep and arousal. also help connect lower and higher regions of the brain.
What is the reticular formation?: Part of the brainstem, it is a group of nerves that help control sleep, arousal, and attention
Filter for sensory info in and out of conciousness.
What is the cerebellum?: It is attached to the prainstem and is a primitive structure that controls balence and coordination of complex voluntary movements.
What is the basal ganglia?: masses of gray matter in the brain that help initiate and coordinate delibrate movements.
What is the limbic system?: One of the three major structures of the brain it is a set of loosly connected structures above the brainstem that help regulate motivation, emotion, and memory
What is the thalamus?: A part of the limbic system it is a structure that acts as a sensory relay. It recives info from the senses and sends it to different parts of the cerebral cortex.
***Smell bipasses the thalamus***
What is the amygdala?: A part of the limbic system it primary controls for agression, fear, and anger.
What is the hipocampus?: The largest structure in the limbic system that plays a role in encoding and transfering new info into long term memory.
Formation of new memories
What is the hypothalamus?: A very tiny part of the limbic system it controls the homeostasis of the body: temp, autonomic NS, endocrine system (through the pituary gland)
It also helps regulate basic emotions: fear, rage
basic drives: hunger, thirst, sleep, sex
It is also associated with pleasure.
What is the cerebrall cortex?: The outermost covering of the brain, largly responsible for higher-order mental processes.
What are the 4 PHYSICAL distinctions of the cerebral cortex? Where are they located?: The frontal lobe is in the forhead region, the temporal lobe is behind each ear, the parietal lobe is at the top of the head, and the occipital lobe is in the back of the head
Where is the visual cortex located?: In the occipital lobe
Where is the auditory(sound) cortex located?: In the temporal lobe
What is the region of the brain associated with reciving sensory information?: The somatosensory cortex in the cerebral cortex
What is the part of the brain that sends impulses to voluntary muscles?: mortor cortex in the cerebral cortex
What is the region of the cortex that is involved with the production of speech?: Broca's area
Where is Broca's area located?: In the left hemishpere of the frontal lobe in the cerebral cortex.
What is the region of the cortex involved with the comprehension of speech?: Wernicke's area
Where is Werinicke's area located?: In the left hemisphere of the Temporal lobe in the cerebral cortex.
What is the corpus callosum?: A bundle of nerve fibers that connects the left and right hemispheres
What is "split-Brain"?: A surgically produced conditon in which the corpus callosum is severed, thus cutting the link between the left and right hemispheres of the brain
If an image is in your right visual field, where is it processed?: The left hemisphere
Which hemisphere controls speech?: left hemisphere
Which hemishphere controls visual spacial tasks?: the right hemisphere
What is the definition of learning?: A relatively permanent change in knowledge or behavior that results from experience.
What is habituation?: The tendency of an organism to become familiar with a stimulus as a result of repeated experience.
What is the type of learning in which an organism comes to associate one stimulus with another?: Classical conditioning
Who is the father of classical conditioning?: Pavlov
What is an unconditioned response?: An unlearned response (salvation) to an unconditioned stimulus (food)
What is an unconditioned stimulus?: A stimulus (food) that triggeres an unconditioned and natural response (salvation)
What is a conditioned stimulus?: A previously neutral stimulus (bell)that through classical conditioning envokes a conditioned response (salvation)
What is a conditioned response?: A learned response (salvation) to a previouly neutral but now classically conditioned stimulus (bell).
What is acquisition?: The formation of a learned response to a stimulus through the presentation of an unconditioned stimulus (classical conditioning) or reinfocement (operant conditioning)
What is extinction?: The elimination of a learned response by removal of the unconditioned stimulus (the food in classical conditioning) or reinforcement (also the food in operant condtioning)
What is the reemergance of an extinguished conditioned response after a rest period?: spontanious recovery
What is the tendancy to respond to a stimulus that is similar to the conditioned stimulus?: Stimulus generalization
What is the ability to distinguish between stimuli called?: discrimination
What is higher order conditioning?: The ability of one conditioned stimulus to create another conditioned stimuls that also elicits a conditioned response
What do behaviorists believe/study?: Behaviorists study responses. They do not try to speculate as to the feelings, thoughts, and drives of the organism. They insist that a science of human behavior must focus on external, quanifiable, objective events
Who was John Watson: American behaviorist/phychologist who's goal was to predict and change behavior. (He was the one to scare Little Albert)He was all nurture
Who was Thorndike?: The person to set up the cat puzzle box. First person to study how NON REFLEXIVE behavior can be modified as a result of experience
What is the law of effect?: A law stating that responses followed by positive outcones are repeated, where as those followed by a negative outcome are not.
What is operant conditioning?: The process by which organisms learn to behave in ways that produce desirable ourcomed. These behaviors were NOT instinctual.
What is reimforcement?: In operant conditioning and stimulus that INCREASES the likelihood of a prior response.
What is positive reinforcement?: a stimulus that increases a prior response becuase it was added.
What is negaive reinforcement?: A stimulus that increases a prior response because it was taken away.
What is punishment?: In operant conditioning, any stimus that DECREASES the likelihood of a prior response
What is positive punishment: Any stimulus that decreases the likelihood of a prior response because it is added.
What is negaive punishment: Any stimulus that decreases the likelihood of a prior response because it was taken away
What is the process by which reinforcements are used to GRADUALLY guide an organism towards a specific behavior: shaping
Who was B.F. Skinner: strict behaviorist, inventor of the Skinner box (rats with levers) and main proponant of operant conditioning with reinforcement
What does a fixed interval of reinforcement entail? What does it look like on a graph?: Fixed interval reinforcement presents a stimulus every fixed amount of time (5 min). It produces a scalloped reponse graph because an organism will respond more rapidly as the time of reinforcement approaches.
What does a variable interval of reinforcement entail?: Variable interval reinforcement presents a stimulus at around an average time (sometimes 30 sec, sometimes 10)This elicits a steady rate of response
What does a fixed ratio of reinforcement entail?: A reinforcer is presented after a fixed number of RESPONSES
What does a variable ratio of reinforcement entail?: The presentation of a reinforcer after an average (or random) amount of RESPONSES
What is recovery?: following the habituation to one stimulus, the tendancy for a second stimulus to arouse new interest (often used to test if infants can discriminate between stimuli)
What is the grasping refex?: In infants, the automatic tendancy to grasp an onject that stimulates the palm.
What is the rooting reflex?: In response to contact with the cheek, an infant will turn towards the stimulus and open its mouth
What are two measurements used in infant research?: looking (which is the most robus nonverbal response) and looking time (earliest dependant measure)
What is the method of study in which people of different ages are tested and compared?: cross-sectional study
What is the method of study in which the same people are tested at different times to track changes related to age: longitudinal study
Who was Piaget: Cognitive development guy
Person who asserted that there are 4 DISTINCT stages of development, schemas, accommodation etc
What is a schema?: a mental representation of the world that guid the processes of assimilation and accommodation

set patterns or rules about events
What are the 5 stages by which schemas are aquired and changed?: equilibrium- familiar w/birds, all flying things are birds
assimilation- see a plane and call it a bird
disequilibrium-planes don't have feathers or flap wings
accommodation-planes are not birds, but planes
organization- form higherarche of schemas
What s assimilation?: according to Piaget, the process of incorperating and, if necessary, changing new information to fit exsisting cognitive structures
What is accommodation?: The process of modifing exsisting cognitive structures in response to new information
What are the 4 stages of development according to Piaget?: (1) sensorimotor stage (age 0-2)
(2) preoperational stage (age 2-6)
(3) concrete operational stage (age 7-12)
(4) formal opperational stage
What does the sensorimotor stage of Piaget's development entail?: the stage when infants come to know the world around them through senses.

During this time they attain:

object permanence: That things exist even if they are out of sight

speration anxiety from primary care taker
What is object permanence? When does it develop according to Piaget?: The ability ot recognize that object exsist even if they are out of sight.

this develops in the sensorimpotor stage according to piaget
What is seperation anxiety?: Among infants with onject permanence, a fear reaction to the absence of their primary caretaker
What does the preoperational stage of Piaget's development entail?: This is the second stage of development according to Paiget, when 2-6 year olds become capable of reasoning ina and intuitive, prelogical manner

The child uses symbols to represent objects but cannot reason logivally.

The child is egocentric and does not undertand conservation

cannot distinguish reality from apperance
What does it mean to be egocentric?: Self centered, unable to adopt the perspective if another person
What is conservation?: The concept that physical properties of an object remain the same despite superficial changes in apperance
What does the concrete operational stage of Piaget's development entail?: This is Piaget's third stage of development when children become capable of logical reasoning

children can group opjects and items

however, they cannot think on an abstract level
Why are conservation tasks difficult for preoperational children?: They find it difficult to see that actions are reversible

They focus on the end state rather than transformational state

They focus only on one dimension
What are the characteristics of Piaget's formal operational stage?: The last stage characterized by the ability to reason at the hypothetical level, make complez deductions, and can analyze the validity of different ways of reasoning
What is the critical period?: A period of time during which an orgainsm must be exposed to a cetain stimulus for propper development to occur.
What is the deep emotional bond that an infant develops with its primary caretaker?: attachment
Who was Harry Harlow: guy with monkeys

tested terry cloth as opposed to unfriendly surrugate mothers

found mokeys prefered to comfort and softness of terry cloth even over food
What was Mary Ainsworth: tested styles of attachement

invented the starge situation test
What are the styles of attachment?: secure attachment

insecure attachment which can then be seperated into aviodant and anxious styles
What is the starge situation test?: A parent-infant "seperation and reunion" procedure that is staged in a lab in order to test the security of a child's attachement.

created by Mary ainsworth
What constitutes secure attachement?: A parent-infant relationship in which the baby is secure when the parent is present, distressed by seperation, and delighted by reunion
What constitutes insecure attachement?: A parent-infant relationship in which the baby clings to a parent, cries at seperation, and reacts with anger or apathy at reunion
If a child reacts with apathy at the reunion with a parent what type of attachement style does he have?: he is insecure and aviodant
When a child react with anger at the reunion of a parent what kind of attachment style does he have?: insecure anxious
Who was Kohlberg?: moral reasoning guy

"steal drug for sick wife?"

Three levels of moral reasoning
What are Kohlbergs three levels of moral reasoning? What do they entail?: Preconventional (age 7-10) moral dilemas are resolved in ways that are self serving

Conventional (13-16) moral dilemas are solved according to social rules and laws

post conventional- (very few ppl) moral dilemas are solved with abstact principles in mind (justice, fairness etc..)
What constitutes Kohlbergs post conventional stage?: (very few ppl) moral dilemas are solved with abstact principles in mind (justice, fairness etc..)
What constitutes Kohlbergs Conventional stage?: (13-16) moral dilemas are solved according to social rules and laws
What constitutes Kohlbergs Preconventional stage?: (age 7-10) moral dilemas are resolved in ways that are self serving
Who was Erik Erikson?: extended freudian theory to deal with social development

found 8 stages each with a dilema to be resolved
What are Eriksons 8 stages of social development?: (1) Trust vs. mistrust-infancy (0-1)
(2) Autonomy vs. shame and doubt- Toddler (1-2)
(3) Initiative vs. guilt- preschooler (3-5)
(4) Industry vs inferiority- elementary school (6-12)
(5) identity vs role confusion- adolescents (13-19)
(6) Intimacy vs. isolation -young adulthood
(7) generativity vs stagnation- middle adulthood
(8) integrity vs despair -late adulthood
What is the conflict to be resolved in adolescence (Erikson's 5th stage): Identity vs. role confusion

Adolescence strugle to break drom parents and form an identity, or self-concept
What is the conflict to be resolved in young adulthood (Erikson's 6th stage): Intimacy vs. isolation

Having resolved the identity crisis, young adults seek intimacy in meaningful relationships and marriage
What is the conflict to be resolved in middle adulthood (Erikson's 7th stage): generativity vs. stagnation

having achieved intimacy, middle aged adults seek to mentor a new generation at work, at home, and in the community
What is the conflict to be resolved in late adulthood (Erikson's 8th stage): Integrity vs despain

Reflecting on life, older adults seek integrity, a sense that their lives were worthwhile
What is reciprocal determinism?: The theory that certain thing affect EACH OTHER

a person will be affected by and will also affect the enviroment
the enviroment will affect and be affected by behavior
bhavior will affect and be affected by a person
Who was John Bowlby: belived in contact comfort

if babies are not held they fail to develop
What are the three parenting styles?: AuthoritARIAN- parents impose rules and expect obedience
Permissive- parents submit to childs desires, make few demands, use little punishment
AuthoritATIVE- set rules and give reasons
What is a stlye of parenting in which the parents impose rules and expect obedience: authoritARIAN (not good) anxious attachment
What is a stlye of parenting in which parents submit to childs desires, make few demands, use little punishment: permissive (not good)
What is a stlye of parenting in which parents set rules and give reasons: AuthoritaTIVE

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