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Psychology 200-305
Modules 12, 3, 4, 5, and 6
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Transduction | The process by which a sense organ changes, or transforms, physical energy into electrical signals that become neural impulses, which may be sent to the brain for processing. |
| Adaptation | A feature of a species that provides it with improved function, such as a behavior that helps an organism better escape a predator or a physical characteristic that provides an organism with an advantage. |
| Adaptation (cont.) | organism with an advantage. Also, the decreasing response of the sensory organs as Also, the decreasing response of the sensory organs as they are exposed to a continuous level of stimulation. |
| Perception | The experience of a meaningful pattern or image that the brain assembles from thousands of individual meaningless sensations; a perception is normally changed, biased, colored, or distorted by a person’s unique set of experiences. |
| Rods | Photoreceptors containing the chemical rhodopsin, which is activated by small amounts of light. Because rods are extremely light sensitive, they allow us to see in dim light but to see only black, white, and shades of gray. |
| Cones | Photoreceptors that contain three chemicals called opsins, which are activated in bright light and allow us to See color. Unlike rods, cones are wired individually to neighboring |
| Cones (cont.) | cells; this one-on-one system of relaying information allows us to See fine details. |
| Monochromats | Individuals who have total color blindness; their world looks like a black-and-white movie. This kind of color blindness is rare and results from individuals having only rods or only one kind of functioning cone instead of three. |
| Pitch | Our subjective experience of how low or high a sound is. The brain calculates pitch from the speed (frequency) of the sound waves. The frequency of sound waves is measured in cycles, which refers to how many sound waves occur in 1 second. |
| Cochlea | A coiled, fluid-filled structure in the inner ear that contains the receptors for hearing. Its function is transduction—transforming vibrations into nerve impulses that are sent to the brain for processing into auditory information. |
| Flavor | What we experience when we combine the sensations of taste and smell. |
| Olfactory cells | The receptors for smell, located in the uppermost part of the nasal passages. As volatile molecules dissolve in the mucus covering the cells, they stimulate the receptors, which send nerve impulses to the brain. |
| Loudness | Our subjective experience of a sound’s intensity, which is determined by the height (amplitude) of the sound wave. The brain calculates loudness from the rate of nerve impulses that arrive in the auditory nerve. |
| Retina | A thin film, located at the very back of the eyeball, that contains cells, called photoreceptors, that are extremely sensitive to light. The retina consists of three layers, the third and deepest of which contains two kinds of photoreceptors, rods |
| Retina (cont.) | and cones, that perform transduction; that is, they change light waves into nerve impulses. |
| Image position | all objects appear upside down at the back of the eye, and even though they are focused upside down the brain turns them right side up so we see the world as it really is. |
| Just noticeable difference (JND) | The smallest increase or decrease in the intensity of a stimulus that a person can manage to detect. |
| Illusion | Perception of an image so distorted that, in reality, it cannot and does not exist. An illusion is created when space, size, and depth cues are manipulated so that our brains can no longer correctly interpret them. |
| Linear perspective | In three-dimensional vision, a monocular depth cue associated with the convergence of parallel lines in the far distance. |
| Proximity rule | A perceptual rule stating that, in organizing stimuli, objects that are physically close to one another will be grouped together. |
| Closure rule | A perceptual rule stating that, in organizing stimuli, we tend to fill in any missing parts of a figure and see the figure as complete. |
| Precognition | The ability to foretell events. |
| Retinal disparity | A binocular depth cue that depends on the distance between the two eyes. Because of their different positions, the two eyes receive slightly different images. The difference between these images is the retinal disparity. The brain interprets large |
| Retinal disparity (cont.) | retinal disparity to mean a close object and small retinal disparity to mean a distant object. |
| Threshold | A point above which a stimulus is perceived and below which it is not perceived. See also absolute threshold. |
| Structuralists | believed that you add together hundreds of basic elements to form complex perceptions. They also believed that you can work backward to break down perceptions into smaller and smaller units, or elements. |
| Gestalt psychologists | believe that your brains follow a set of rules that specify how individual elements are to be organized into a meaningful pattern, or perception. |
| Adaptation | A feature of a species that provides it with improved function, such as a behavior that helps an organism better escape a predator or a physical characteristic that provides an organism with an advantage. |
| Adaptation (cont.) | Also, the decreasing response of the sensory organs as they are exposed to a continuous level of stimulation. |
| Central nervous system | Neurons located in the brain and spinal cord. From the bottom of the brain emerges the spinal cord, which is made up of neurons and bundles of axons and dendrites that carry information back and forth between the brain |
| Central nervous system (cont.) | and the body. Neurons in the central nervous system normally have almost no capacity to regrow or regenerate if damaged or diseased. |
| Anterior pituitary | The front part of the pituitary gland, a key component of the endocrine system. It regulates growth through the secretion of growth hormone and produces hormones that control the adrenal cortex, pancreas, thyroid, and gonads. |
| Dominant gene | A type of polymorphic gene that determines the development of a specific trait even if it is paired with a recessive gene. |
| Recessive gene | A type of polymorphic gene that determines the development of a specific trait only when it is inherited from both parents. |
| Medulla | An area in the hindbrain, located at the top of the spinal cord, that includes a group of cells that control vital reflexes, such as respiration, heart rate, and blood pressure. |
| Cerebellum | A region of the hindbrain that is involved in coordinating movements but not in initiating voluntary movements. It is also involved in cognitive functions, such as short-term memory, following rules, and carrying out |
| Cerebellum (cont.) | plans. Surprising new evidence suggests that the cerebellum is also involved in learning to perform timed motor responses, such as those required in playing games or sports. |
| Frontal lobe | An area in the front part of the brain that includes a huge area of cortex. The frontal lobe is involved in many functions: performing voluntary motor movements, interpreting and performing emotional |
| Frontal lobe (cont.) | behaviors, behaving normally in social situations, maintaining a healthy personality, paying attention to things in the environment, making decisions, and carrying out plans. |
| Parietal lobe | An area of the cortex located directly behind the frontal lobe. Its functions include processing sensory information from body parts, which includes touching, locating |
| Parietal lobe (cont.) | positions of limbs, and feeling temperature and pain; and carrying out several cognitive functions, such as attending to and perceiving objects. |
| Primary auditory cortex | An area at the top edge of the temporal lobe that transforms nerve impulses (electrical signals) into basic auditory sensations, such as meaningless sounds and tones of varying |
| Primary auditory cortex (cont.) | pitch and loudness. Next, it sends impulses (sensations) to the auditory association areas. |
| Auditory association area | An area directly below the primary auditory cortex that receives and transforms meaningless auditory sensations into perceptions or meaningful sounds, such as melodies or words. |
| Broca’s aphasia | An inability to speak in fluent sentences while retaining the ability to understand written or spoken words. It is caused by damage to Broca’s area. |
| Wernicke’s aphasia | Difficulty in understanding spoken or written words and in putting words into meaningful sentences, as a result of injury to Wernicke’s area in the brain. |
| neglect syndrome | The failure of a patient to see objects or parts of the body on the side opposite the brain damage when the damage is to an association area, usually in occipital and parietal lobes, and usually in the right hemisphere. |
| hypothalamus | A structure of the limbic system that is located near the bottom middle of the brain and regulates many motivational and emotional behaviors. It controls much of the endocrine system by regulating the pituitary gland. |
| homeostasis | The tendency of the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions of the autonomic nervous system to work together to maintain the body’s level of arousal in balance for optimum functioning. |
| parasympathetic division | The subdivision of the autonomic nervous system that decreases physiological arousal and helps return the body to a calmer, more relaxed state. It also stimulates digestion during eating. |
| sympathetic division | The subdivision of the autonomic nervous system that is triggered by threatening or challenging physical or psychological stimuli, increasing the body’s physiological arousal and preparing the body for action. |
| pancreas | An organ that regulates the level of sugar in the bloodstream by secreting insulin. It forms part of the endocrine system. |
| Alzheimer’s disease | A disorder that usually begins after people reach age 50 and is always fatal; it results from widespread damage to the brain, including the hippocampus, and produces deterioration in personality, emotions, cognitive processes, and memory. |
| Axon | A single threadlike structure within the neuron. It extends from, and carries signals away from, the cell body to neighboring neurons, organs, or muscles. |
| Synapse | An infinitely small space (20–30 billionths of a meter) between an end bulb and its adjacent body organ, muscle, or cell body; it is a space over which chemical messages are transmitted. |
| Peripheral nervous system | All the nerves that extend from the spinal cord and carry messages to and from various muscles, glands, and sense organs located throughout the body. It has two divisions: the somatic nervous system and the autonomic nervous system. |
| Action potential | A tiny electric current that is generated when positive sodium ions rush inside the axon. The enormous increase of sodium ions inside the axon causes the inside of the axon to reverse its charge: |
| Action potential (cont.) | The inside becomes positive, while the outside becomes negative. |
| Transmitter | A chemical messenger that transmits information between nerves and body organs, such as muscles and heart. See also neurotransmitters. |
| Parkinson’s disease | A condition caused by the destruction of neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine. Symptoms include tremors and shakes in the limbs, a slowing of voluntary movements, and feelings of depression. As the disease progresses, |
| Parkinson’s disease (cont.) | patients develop a peculiar shuffling walk and may suddenly freeze in space for minutes or hours at a time. |
| Phantom limb | The experience of sensations and feelings coming from a limb that has been amputated. The sensations and feelings are extremely vivid, as if the amputated limb were still present. |
| Afferent neurons | Neurons that carry information from the senses to the spinal cord; also called sensory neurons. |
| Endorphins | Chemicals produced by the brain and secreted in response to injury or severe physical or psychological stress. Their powerful pain-reducing properties are similar to those of morphine. |
| Amnesia | Memory loss that may occur after damage to the brain (temporary or permanent), following drug use, or after severe psychological stress. |
| Mnemonic methods | Effective ways to improve encoding and create better retrieval cues by forming vivid associations or images that facilitate recall and decrease forgetting. |
| Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon | The situation in which, despite making a great effort, we are temporarily unable to recall information that we absolutely know is in our memory. |
| Recall | Retrieval of previously learned information without the aid of or with very few external cues. |
| Recognition | The identification of previously learned information with the help of external cues. |
| Repression | According to Freud, a mental process that automatically hides emotionally threatening or anxiety-producing information in the unconscious. Repressed information cannot be retrieved voluntarily, but something may |
| Repression (cont.) | cause it to be released and to reenter the person’s consciousness at a later time. |
| Retrieval cues | Mental reminders that we create by forming vivid mental images of information or associating new information with information that we already know. Forgetting can result from not taking the time to create effective retrieval cues. |
| Proactive interference | A forgetting process in which information that we learned earlier blocks or disrupts the retrieval of related information that was learned later. |
| Interference | The forgetting process in which the recall of some particular memory is blocked or prevented by new information that overwrites or interferes with it. See also proactive interference and retroactive interference. |
| Retroactive interference | A forgetting process in which information that we learned later blocks or disrupts the retrieval of related information that we learned earlier. |
| Amygdala | A structure in the limbic system that is located in the tip of the temporal lobe and is involved in forming, recognizing, and remembering emotionally intense experiences and facial expressions-fearful or threatening. Wide range- post. and neg. emotions. |
| Cortex | A thin layer of brain cells that covers the surface of the forebrain. If damaged, people have trouble storing in long-term and short-term memory |
| Hippocampus | Retrieving memories. Storage and retrieval of memory actually involve activation of the same neurons located in the hippocampus. |
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