Help
Options
Didn't know it?
click below
click below
Knew it?
click below
click below
Don't Know
Remaining cards (0)
Know
retry
shuffle
restart
0:00
Embed Code - If you would like this activity on your web page, copy the script below and paste it into your web page.
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Psych 1
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Ablation | Surgical removal of brain tissue. |
| Accommodation | Changing one’s beliefs about the world and how it works in light of new experience. |
| Action potential | A transient all-or-nothing electrical current that is conducted down the axon when the membrane potential reaches the threshold of excitation. |
| Adaptations | Evolved solutions to problems that historically contributed to reproductive success. |
| Adoption study | A behavior genetic research method that involves comparison of adopted children to their adoptive and biological parents. |
| Afferent nerves | Nerves that carry messages to the brain or spinal cord. |
| Aggression | A form of social interaction that includes threat, attack, and fighting. |
| Agnosias | Due to damage of Wernicke’s area. An inability to recognize objects, words, or faces. |
| Agonists | A drug that increases or enhances a neurotransmitter’s effect. |
| Ambulatory assessment | An overarching term to describe methodologies that assess the behavior, physiology, experience, and environments of humans in naturalistic settings. |
| Anecdotal evidence | A piece of biased evidence, usually drawn from personal experience, used to support a conclusion that may or may not be correct. |
| Antagonist | A drug that blocks a neurotransmitter’s effect. |
| Aphasia | Due to damage of the Broca’s area. An inability to produce or understand words. |
| Appraisal structure | The set of appraisals that bring about an emotion. |
| Appraisal theories | Evaluations that relate what is happening in the environment2 peoples values/goals/beliefs. Appraisal theories of emotion contend that emotions are caused by patterns of appraisals, like whether event furthers/hinders a goal&whether event can be coped w/. |
| Arcuate fasciculus | A fiber tract that connects Wernicke’s and Broca’s speech areas. |
| Aromatase | An enzyme that converts androgens into estrogens. |
| Autonomic nervous system | A part of the peripheral nervous system that connects to glands and smooth muscles. Consists of sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions. |
| Awe | An emotion associated with profound, moving experiences. Awe comes about when people encounter an event that is vast (far from normal experience) but that can be accommodated in existing knowledge. |
| Axial plane | See “horizontal plane.” |
| Axon | Part of the neuron that extends off the soma, splitting several times to connect with other neurons; main output of the neuron. |
| Basal ganglia | Subcortical structures of the cerebral hemispheres involved in voluntary movement. |
| Behavioral genetics | The empirical science of how genes and environments combine to generate behavior. |
| Behaviorism | The study of behavior. |
| Blocking | In classical conditioning, the finding that no conditioning occurs to a stimulus if it is combined w/ a previously conditioned stimulus during conditioning trials. Suggests that information, surprise value, or prediction error is important in conditioning |
| Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) | The signal typically measured in fMRI that results from changes in the ratio of oxygenated hemoglobin to deoxygenated hemoglobin in the blood. |
| Brain stem | The “trunk” of the brain comprised of the medulla, pons, midbrain, and diencephalon. |
| Broca’s area | An area in the frontal lobe of the left hemisphere. Implicated in language production. |
| Callosotomy | Surgical procedure in which the corpus callosum is severed (used to control severe epilepsy). |
| Case study | A thorough study of a patient (or a few patients) with naturally occurring lesions. |
| Categorize | To sort or arrange different items into classes or categories. |
| Causality | In research, the determination that one variable causes—is responsible for—an effect. |
| Cause-and-effect | Related to whether we say one variable is causing changes in the other variable, versus other variables that may be related to these two variables. |
| Cell membrane | A bi-lipid layer of molecules that separates the cell from the surrounding extracellular fluid. |
| Central nervous system | The part of the nervous system that consists of the brain and spinal cord. |
| Central sulcus | The major fissure that divides the frontal and the parietal lobes. |
| Cerebellum | A nervous system structure behind and below the cerebrum. Controls motor movement coordination, balance, equilibrium, and muscle tone. |
| Cerebellum | The distinctive structure at the back of the brain, Latin for “small brain.” |
| Cerebral cortex | The outermost gray matter of the cerebrum; the distinctive convolutions characteristic of the mammalian brain. |
| Cerebral hemispheres | The cerebral cortex, underlying white matter, and subcortical structures. |
| Cerebrum | Consists of left and right hemispheres that sit at the top of the nervous system and engages in a variety of higher-order functions. |
| Cerebrum | Usually refers to the cerebral cortex and associated white matter, but in some texts includes the subcortical structures. |
| Chills | A feeling of goosebumps, usually on the arms, scalp, and neck, that is often experienced during moments of awe. |
| Chromosomal sex | The sex of an individual as determined by the sex chromosomes (typically XX or XY) received at the time of fertilization. |
| Chunk | The process of grouping information together using our knowledge. |
| Cingulate gyrus | A medial cortical portion of the nervous tissue that is a part of the limbic system. |
| Classical conditioning | Describes stimulus-stimulus associative learning. |
| Classical conditioning | procedure where neutral stimulus (CS) paired w/ US. result is cs begins elicit conditioned response (CR). Classical conditioning now considered important as behavioral phenomenon & simple associative learning study method. Same as Pavlovian conditioning. |
| Cognitive psychology | The study of mental processes. |
| Computerized axial tomography | A noninvasive brain-scanning procedure that uses X-ray absorption around the head. |
| Conditioned compensatory response | In classical conditioning, a CR that opposes, rather than is the same as, the unconditioned response. It functions 2 reduce the strength of the unconditioned response. Often seen in conditioning when drugs are used as unconditioned stimuli. |
| Conditioned response (CR) | The response that is elicited by the conditioned stimulus after classical conditioning has taken place. |
| Conditioned stimulus (CS) | An initially neutral stimulus (like a bell, light, or tone) that elicits a conditioned response after it has been associated with an unconditioned stimulus. |
| Confidence interval | An interval of plausible values for a population parameter; the interval of values within the margin of error of a statistic. |
| Confounds | Factors that undermine the ability to draw causal inferences from an experiment. |
| Confusion | An emotion associated with conflicting and contrary information, such as when people appraise an event as unfamiliar and as hard to understand. Confusion motivates people to work through the perplexing information and thus fosters deeper learning. |
| Consciousness | Awareness of ourselves and our environment. |
| Context | Stimuli in the background when learning occurs. However, “context” can be provided by internal stimuli, like drugs sensory effects & mood states. can be provided by pecific period in time—passage of time is sometimes said 2 change the “temporal context.” |
| Contralateral | Literally “opposite side”; used to refer to the fact that the two hemispheres of the brain process sensory information and motor commands for the opposite side of the body (e.g., the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body). |
| Converging evidence | Similar findings reported from multiple studies using different methods. |
| Coping potential | People’s beliefs about their ability to handle challenges. |
| Coronal plane | A slice that runs from head to foot; brain slices in this plane are similar to slices of a loaf of bread, with the eyes being the front of the loaf. |
| Correlation | In statistics, the measure of relatedness of two or more variables. |
| Correlation | Measures the association between two variables, or how they go together. |
| Daily Diary method | A methodology where participants complete a questionnaire about their thoughts, feelings, and behavior of the day at the end of the day. |
| Data (also called observations) | In research, information systematically collected for analysis and interpretation. |
| Day reconstruction method (DRM) | A methodology where participants describe their experiences and behavior of a given day retrospectively upon a systematic reconstruction on the following day. |
| Deductive reasoning | A form of reasoning in which a given premise determines the interpretation of specific observations (e.g., All birds have feathers; since a duck is a bird, it has feathers). |
| Defeminization | The removal of the potential for female traits. |
| Demasculinization | The removal of the potential for male traits. |
| Dendrite | Part of a neuron that extends away from the cell body and is the main input to the neuron. |
| Deoxygenated hemoglobin | Hemoglobin not carrying oxygen. |
| Dependent variable | The variable the researcher measures but does not manipulate in an experiment. |
| Depolarization | A change in a cell’s membrane potential, making the inside of the cell more positive and increasing the chance of an action potential. |
| Diffuse optical imaging (DOI) | A neuroimaging technique that infers brain activity by measuring changes in light as it is passed through the skull and surface of the brain. |
| Diffusion | The force on molecules to move from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration. |
| Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) | A primary androgen that is an androgenic steroid product of testosterone and binds strongly to androgen receptors. |
| Discriminative stimulus | In operant conditioning, a stimulus that signals whether the response will be reinforced. It is said to “set the occasion” for the operant response. |
| Distribution | In statistics, the relative frequency that a particular value occurs for each possible value of a given variable. |
| Distribution | The pattern of variation in data. |
| DNA methylation | Covalent modifications of mammalian DNA occurring via the methylation of cytosine, typically in the context of the CpG dinucleotide. |
| DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) | Enzymes that establish and maintain DNA methylation using methyl-group donor compounds or cofactors. The main mammalian DNMTs are DNMT1, which maintains methylation state across DNA replication, and DNMT3a and DNMT3b, which perform de novo methylation. |
| Ecological momentary assessment | An overarching term to describe methodologies that repeatedly sample participants’ real-world experiences, behavior, and physiology in real time. |
| Ecological validity | The degree to which a study finding has been obtained under conditions that are typical for what happens in everyday life. |
| Ectoderm | The outermost layer of a developing fetus. |
| Efferent nerves | Nerves that carry messages from the brain to glands and organs in the periphery. |
| Electroencephalography | A technique that is used to measure gross electrical activity of the brain by placing electrodes on the scalp. |
| Electroencephalography (EEG) | A neuroimaging technique that measures electrical brain activity via multiple electrodes on the scalp. |
| Electronically activated recorder, or EAR | A methodology where participants wear a small, portable audio recorder that intermittently records snippets of ambient sounds around them. |
| Electrostatic pressure | The force on two ions with similar charge to repel each other; the force of two ions with opposite charge to attract to one another. |
| Empirical | Concerned with observation and/or the ability to verify a claim. |
| Empirical methods | Approaches to inquiry that are tied to actual measurement and observation. |
| Empiricism | The belief that knowledge comes from experience. |
| Encoding | The pact of putting information into memory. |
| Endocrine gland | A ductless gland from which hormones are released into the blood system in response to specific biological signals. |
| Enzyme | A protein produced by a living organism that allows or helps a chemical reaction to occur. |
| Enzyme induction | Process through which a drug can enhance the production of an enzyme. |
| Epigenetics | The study of heritable changes in gene expression or cellular phenotype caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence. Epigenetic marks include covalent DNA modifications and posttranslational histone modifications. |
| Epigenome | The genome-wide distribution of epigenetic marks. |
| Error management theory (EMT) | A theory of selection under conditions of uncertainty in which recurrent cost asymmetries of judgment or inference favor the evolution of adaptive cognitive biases that function to minimize the more costly errors. |
| Estrogen | Any of the C18 class of steroid hormones, so named because of the estrus-generating properties in females. Biologically important estrogens include estradiol and estriol. |
| Ethics | Professional guidelines offering researchers a template for decision making. protect research participants from potential harm &help steer scientists away from conflicts of interest/other situations that might compromise the integrity of their research. |
| Eugenics | The practice of selective breeding to promote desired traits. |
| Event-related potentials | A physiological measure of large electrical change in the brain produced by sensory stimulation or motor responses. |
| Evolution | Change over time. Is the definition changing? |
| Excitatory postsynaptic potentials | A depolarizing postsynaptic current that causes the membrane potential to become more positive and move towards the threshold of excitation. |
| Experience-sampling method | A methodology where participants report on their momentary thoughts, feelings, and behaviors at different points in time over the course of a day. |
| Experimenter expectations | When the experimenter’s expectations influence the outcome of a study. |
| External validity | The degree to which a finding generalizes from the specific sample and context of a study to some larger population and broader settings. |
| Extinction | Drop in learned behavior's strength.when CS presented w/o US(cc)/when behavior isn't reinforced(ic).describes procedure(US/reinforcer no longer presented)&result(learned response declines).Behaviors reduced in strength via extinction r “extinguished.” |
| Functionalist theories of emotion | Theories of emotion that emphasize the adaptive role of an emotion in handling common problems throughout evolutionary history. |
| Facial expressions | Part of the expressive component of emotions, facial expressions of emotion communicate inner feelings to others. |
| Fact | Objective information about the world. |
| Falsify | In science, the ability of a claim to be tested and—possibly—refuted; a defining feature of science. |
| Fear conditioning | A type of classical conditioning where the CS is associated with an aversive US, such as a foot shock. As a consequence of learning, the CS comes to evoke fear. The phenomenon is thought to be involved in the development of anxiety disorders in humans. |
| Feminization | The induction of female traits. |
| Flashbulb memory | A highly detailed and vivid memory of an emotionally significant event. |
| Forebrain | A part of the nervous system that contains the cerebral hemispheres, thalamus, and hypothalamus. |
| Fornix | (plural form, fornices) A nerve fiber tract that connects the hippocampus to mammillary bodies. |
| Frontal lobe | The most forward region (close to forehead) of the cerebral hemispheres. |
| Frontal lobe | The front most (anterior) part of the cerebrum; anterior to the central sulcus and responsible for motor output and planning, language, judgment, and decision-making. |
| Full-cycle psychology | scientific approach where researchers start w/ observational field study 2 identify effect in real world, follow up w/ lab experimentation 2 verify effect &isolate the causal mechanisms, &return 2 field research to corroborate their experimental findings. |
| Functional magnetic resonance imaging | (or fMRI) A noninvasive brain-imaging technique that registers changes in blood flow in the brain during a given task (also see magnetic resonance imaging). |
| Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) | Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): A neuroimaging technique that infers brain activity by measuring changes in oxygen levels in the blood. |
| Functionalism | A school of American psychology that focused on the utility of consciousness. |
| Gene | A specific deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequence that codes for a specific polypeptide or protein or an observable inherited trait. |
| Gene Selection Theory | The modern theory of evolution by selection by which differential gene replication is the defining process of evolutionary change. |
| Generalizability | Related to whether the results from the sample can be generalized to a larger population. |
| Generalize | In research, the degree to which one can extend conclusions drawn from the findings of a study to other groups or situations not included in the study. |
| Generalize | Generalizing, in science, refers to the ability to arrive at broad conclusions based on a smaller sample of observations. For these conclusions to be true the sample should accurately represent the larger population from which it is drawn. |
| Genome-wide association study (GWAS) | A study that maps DNA polymorphisms in affected individuals and controls matched for age, sex, and ethnic background with the aim of identifying causal genetic variants. |
| Genotype | The DNA content of a cell’s nucleus, whether a trait is externally observable or not. |
| Gestalt psychology | An attempt to study the unity of experience. |
| Globus pallidus | A nucleus of the basal ganglia. |
| Goal-directed behavior | Instrumental behavior that is influenced by the animal’s knowledge of the association between the behavior and its consequence and the current value of the consequence. Sensitive to the reinforcer devaluation effect. |
| Gonadal sex | The sex of an individual as determined by the possession of either ovaries or testes. Females have ovaries, whereas males have testes. |
| Gray matter | Composes the bark or the cortex of the cerebrum and consists of the cell bodies of the neurons (see also white matter). |
| Gray matter | The outer grayish regions of the brain comprised of the neurons’ cell bodies. |
| Gyri | (plural) Folds between sulci in the cortex. |
| Gyrus | (plural form, gyri) A bulge that is raised between or among fissures of the convoluted brain. |
| Gyrus | A fold between sulci in the cortex. |
| Habit | Instrumental behavior that occurs automatically in the presence of a stimulus and is no longer influenced by the animal’s knowledge of the value of the reinforcer. Insensitive to the reinforcer devaluation effect. |
| Habituation | Occurs when the response to a stimulus decreases with exposure. |
| Hemoglobin | The oxygen-carrying portion of a red blood cell. |
| Heritability coefficient | An easily misinterpreted statistical construct that purports to measure the role of genetics in the explanation of differences among individuals. |
| Hippocampus | (plural form, hippocampi) A nucleus inside (medial) the temporal lobe implicated in learning and memory. |
| Histone acetyltransferases (HATs) and histone deacetylases (HDACs) | HATs are enzymes that transfer acetyl groups 2 specific positions on histone tails, promoting “open” chromatin state and transcriptional activation. HDACs remove these acetyl groups, resulting in a “closed” chromatin state and transcriptional repression. |
| Histone modifications | Posttranslational modifications of the N-terminal “tails” of histone proteins that serve as a major mode of epigenetic regulation. These modifications include acetylation, phosphorylation, methylation, sumoylation, ubiquitination, and ADP-ribosylation. |
| Homo habilis | A human ancestor, handy man, that lived two million years ago. |
| Homo sapiens | Modern man, the only surviving form of the genus Homo. |
| Horizontal plane | A slice that runs horizontally through a standing person (i.e., parallel to the floor); slices of brain in this plane divide the top and bottom parts of the brain; this plane is similar to slicing a hamburger bun. |
| Hormone | An organic chemical messenger released from endocrine cells that travels through the blood to interact with target cells at some distance to cause a biological response. |
| Hyperpolarization | A change in a cell’s membrane potential, making the inside of the cell more negative and decreasing the chance of an action potential. |
| Hypothalamus | Part of the diencephalon. Regulates biological drives with pituitary gland. |
| Hypotheses | A logical idea that can be tested. |
| Hypothesis | A tentative explanation that is subject to testing. |
| Identical twins | 2 individual organisms that originated from same zygote &are genetically identical/similar. epigenetic profiling of identical twins discordant for disease is unique experimental design, eliminates the DNA sequence/age/sex-differences from consideration. |
| Immunocytochemistry | A method of staining tissue including the brain, using antibodies. |
| Impasse-driven learning | An approach to instruction that motivates active learning by having learners work through perplexing barriers. |
| Implicit learning | Occurs when we acquire information without intent that we cannot easily express. |
| Implicit memory | A type of long-term memory that does not require conscious thought to encode. It’s the type of memory one makes without intent. |
| Incidental learning | Any type of learning that happens without the intention to learn. |
| Independent variable | The variable the researcher manipulates and controls in an experiment. |
| Individual differences | Ways in which people differ in terms of their behavior, emotion, cognition, and development. |
| Induction | To draw general conclusions from specific observations. |
| Inductive reasoning | A form of reasoning where general conclusion inferred from set of observations |
| Inhibitory postsynaptic potentials | A hyperpolarizing postsynaptic current that causes the membrane potential to become more negative and move away from the threshold of excitation. |
| Instrumental conditioning | Process in which animals learn about the relationship between their behaviors and their consequences. Also known as operant conditioning. |
| Intentional learning | Any type of learning that happens when motivated by intention. |
| Interest | An emotion associated with curiosity and intrigue, interest motivates engaging with new things and learning more about them. It is one of the earliest emotions to develop and a resource for intrinsically motivated learning across the life span. |
| Internal validity | The degree to which a cause-effect relationship between two variables has been unambiguously established. |
| Intersexual selection | A process of sexual selection by which evolution (change) occurs as a consequences of the mate preferences of one sex exerting selection pressure on members of the opposite sex. |
| Intrasexual competition | A process of sexual selection by which members of one sex compete with each other, and the victors gain preferential mating access to members of the opposite sex. |
| Intrinsically motivated learning | Learning that is “for its own sake”—such as learning motivated by curiosity and wonder—instead of learning to gain rewards or social approval. |
| Introspection | A method of focusing on internal processes. |
| Invasive Procedure | A procedure that involves the skin being broken or an instrument or chemical being introduced into a body cavity. |
| Ion channels | Proteins that span the cell membrane, forming channels that specific ions can flow through between the intracellular and extracellular space. |
| Ionotropic receptor | Ion channel that opens to allow ions to permeate the cell membrane under specific conditions, such as the presence of a neurotransmitter or a specific membrane potential. |
| Knowledge emotions | family of emotions associated w/ learning, reflecting, &exploring. These come about when unexpected/unfamiliar events happen in environment. they motivate people 2 explore unfamiliar things, which builds knowledge &expertise over long run. |
| Lateral geniculate nucleus | (or LGN) A nucleus in the thalamus that is innervated by the optic nerves and sends signals to the visual cortex in the occipital lobe. |
| Lateral sulcus | The major fissure that delineates the temporal lobe below the frontal and the parietal lobes. |
| Lateralized | To the side; used to refer to the fact that specific functions may reside primarily in one hemisphere or the other (e.g., for the majority individuals, the left hemisphere is most responsible for language). |
| Law of effect | instrumental/operant responses are influenced by effects.Responses followed by pleasant state of affairs strengthened &those followed by discomfort weakened. also refers to the idea that operant/instrumental behaviors lawfully controlled by consequences. |
| Lesion | A region in the brain that suffered damage through injury, disease, or medical intervention. |
| Lesion studies | A surgical method in which a part of the animal brain is removed to study its effects on behavior or function. |
| Lesions | Abnormalities in the tissue of an organism usually caused by disease or trauma. |
| Levels of analysis | In science, there are complementary understandings and explanations of phenomena. |
| Limbic system | A loosely defined network of nuclei in the brain involved with learning and emotion. |
| Limbic system | Includes the subcortical structures of the amygdala and hippocampal formation as well as some cortical structures; responsible for aversion and gratification. |
| Linguistic inquiry and word count | A quantitative text analysis methodology that automatically extracts grammatical and psychological information from a text by counting word frequencies. |
| Lived day analysis | A methodology where a research team follows an individual around with a video camera to objectively document a person’s daily life as it is lived. |
| Longitudinal study | A study that follows the same group of individuals over time. |
| Magnetic resonance imaging | Or MRI is a brain imaging noninvasive technique that uses magnetic energy to generate brain images (also see fMRI). |
| Magnification factor | Cortical space projected by an area of sensory input (e.g., mm of cortex per degree of visual field). |
| Margin of error | The expected amount of random variation in a statistic; often defined for 95% confidence level. |
| Masculinization | The induction of male traits. |
| Maternal behavior | Parental behavior performed by the mother or other female. |
| Medulla oblongata | An area just above the spinal cord that processes breathing, digestion, heart and blood vessel function, swallowing, and sneezing. |
| Metabolism | Breakdown of substances. |
| Metabolite | A substance necessary for a living organism to maintain life. |
| Metacognition | Describes the knowledge and skills people have in monitoring and controlling their own learning and memory. |
| Motor cortex | Region of the frontal lobe responsible for voluntary movement; the motor cortex has a contralateral representation of the human body. |
| Myelin | Fatty tissue, produced by glial cells (see module, “Neurons”) that insulates the axons of the neurons; myelin is necessary for normal conduction of electrical impulses among neurons. |
| Myelin sheath | Substance around the axon of a neuron that serves as insulation to allow the action potential to conduct rapidly toward the terminal buttons. |
| Natural selection | Differential reproductive success as a consequence of differences in heritable attributes. |
| Neural crest | A set of primordial neurons that migrate outside the neural tube and give rise to sensory and autonomic neurons in the peripheral nervous system. |
| Neural impulse | An electro-chemical signal that enables neurons to communicate. |
| Neural induction | A process that causes the formation of the neural tube. |
| Neural plasticity | The ability of synapses and neural pathways to change over time and adapt to changes in neural process, behavior, or environment. |
| Neuroblasts | Brain progenitor cells that asymmetrically divide into other neuroblasts or nerve cells. |
| Neuroepithelium | The lining of the neural tube. |
| Neuroscience methods | A research method that deals with the structure or function of the nervous system and brain. |
| Neurotransmitter | A chemical messenger that travels between neurons to provide communication. Some neurotransmitters, such as norepinephrine, can leak into the blood system and act as hormones. |
| Neurotransmitter | A chemical substance produced by a neuron that is used for communication between neurons. |
| Neurotransmitters | Chemical substance released by the presynaptic terminal button that acts on the postsynaptic cell. |
| Nomenclature | Naming conventions. |
| Nonassociative learning | Occurs when a single repeated exposure leads to a change in behavior. |
| Noninvasive procedure | A procedure that does not require the insertion of an instrument or chemical through the skin or into a body cavity. |
| Nucleus | Collection of nerve cells found in the brain which typically serve a specific function. |
| Null-hypothesis significance testing (NHST) | In statistics, a test created to determine the chances that an alternative hypothesis would produce a result as extreme as the one observed if the null hypothesis were actually true. |
| Openness to experience | One of the five major factors of personality, this trait is associated with higher curiosity, creativity, emotional breadth, and open-mindedness. People high in openness to experience are more likely to experience interest and awe. |
| Objective | Being free of personal bias. |
| Observational learning | Learning by observing the behavior of others. |
| Occipital lobe | The back part of the cerebrum, which houses the visual areas. |
| Occipital lobe | The back most (posterior) part of the cerebrum; involved in vision. |
| Operant | A behavior that is controlled by its consequences. The simplest example is the rat’s lever-pressing, which is controlled by the presentation of the reinforcer. |
| Operant conditioning | Describes stimulus-response associative learning. |
| Operant conditioning | See instrumental conditioning. |
| Operational definitions | How researchers specifically measure a concept. |
| Oxygenated hemoglobin | Hemoglobin carrying oxygen. |
| Oxytocin | A peptide hormone secreted by the pituitary gland to trigger lactation, as well as social bonding. |
| Parameter | A numerical result summarizing a population (e.g., mean, proportion). |
| Parasympathetic nervous system | A division of the autonomic nervous system that is slower than its counterpart—that is, the sympathetic nervous system—and works in opposition to it. Generally engaged in “rest and digest” functions. |
| Parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) | One of the two major divisions of the autonomic nervous system, responsible for stimulation of “rest and digest” activities. |
| Parental behavior | Behaviors performed in relation to one’s offspring that contributes directly to the survival of those offspring |
| Parietal lobe | An area of the cerebrum just behind the central sulcus that is engaged with somatosensory and gustatory sensation. |
| Parietal lobe | The part of the cerebrum between the frontal and occipital lobes; involved in bodily sensations, visual attention, and integrating the senses. |
| Participant demand | When participants behave in a way that they think the experimenter wants them to behave. |
| Paternal behavior | Parental behavior performed by the father or other male. |
| Pavlovian conditioning | See classical conditioning. |
| Perceptual learning | Occurs when aspects of our perception changes as a function of experience. |
| Peripheral nervous system | The part of the nervous system that is outside the brain and spinal cord. |
| Pharmacokinetics | The action of a drug through the body, including absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion. |
| Phenotype | The pattern of expression of the genotype or the magnitude or extent to which it is observably expressed—an observable characteristic or trait of an organism, such as its morphology, development, biochemical or physiological properties, or behavior. |
| Phrenology | A now-discredited field of brain study, popular in the first half of the 19th century that correlated bumps and indentations of the skull with specific functions of the brain. |
| Placebo effect | When receiving special treatment or something new affects human behavior. |
| Polypharmacy | The use of many medications. |
| Pons | A bridge that connects the cerebral cortex with the medulla, and reciprocally transfers information back and forth between the brain and the spinal cord. |
| Population | In research, all the people belonging to a particular group (e.g., the population of left handed people). |
| Population | A larger collection of individuals that we would like to generalize our results to. |
| Positron | A particle having the same mass and numerically equal but positive charge as an electron. |
| Positron Emission Tomography | (or PET) An invasive procedure that captures brain images with positron emissions from the brain after the individual has been injected with radio-labeled isotopes. |
| Positron emission tomography (PET) | A neuroimaging technique that measures brain activity by detecting the presence of a radioactive substance in the brain that is initially injected into the bloodstream and then pulled in by active brain tissue. |
| Practitioner-Scholar Model | A model of training of professional psychologists that emphasizes clinical practice. |
| Prediction error | conditioning trial outcome different from predicted by cs present on trial. y 2 create Pavlovian conditioning (&associative learning generally). As learning occurs over repeated conditioning trials, cs increasingly predicts us, prediction error declines. |
| Preparedness | The idea that an organism’s evolutionary history can make it easy to learn a particular association. Because of preparedness, you are more likely to associate the taste of tequila, and not the circumstances surrounding drinking it, with getting sick. Simi |
| Primary Motor Cortex | A strip of cortex just in front of the central sulcus that is involved with motor control. |
| Primary Somatosensory Cortex | A strip of cerebral tissue just behind the central sulcus engaged in sensory reception of bodily sensations. |
| Probability | A measure of the degree of certainty of the occurrence of an event. |
| Probability values | In statistics, the established threshold for determining whether a given value occurs by chance. |
| Progesterone | A primary progestin that is involved in pregnancy and mating behaviors. |
| Progestin | A class of C21 steroid hormones named for their progestational (pregnancy-supporting) effects. Progesterone is a common progestin. |
| Prohormone | A molecule that can act as a hormone itself or be converted into another hormone with different properties. For example, testosterone can serve as a hormone or as a prohormone for either dihydrotestosterone or estradiol. |
| Prolactin | A protein hormone that is highly conserved throughout the animal kingdom. It has many biological functions associated with reproduction and synergistic actions with steroid hormones. |
| Pseudoscience | Beliefs or practices that are presented as being scientific, or which are mistaken for being scientific, but which are not scientific (e.g., astrology, the use of celestial bodies to make predictions about human behaviors, and which presents itself as fou |
| Psychoactive drugs | A drug that changes mood or the way someone feels. |
| Psychological adaptations | Mechanisms of the mind that evolved to solve specific problems of survival or reproduction; conceptualized as information processing devices. |
| Psychophysics | Study of the relationships between physical stimuli and the perception of those stimuli. |
| Psychophysiological methods | Any research method in which the dependent variable is a physiological measure and the independent variable is behavioral or mental (such as memory). |
| Psychotropic drug | A drug that changes mood or emotion, usually used when talking about drugs prescribed for various mental conditions (depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, etc.). |
| Punisher | A stimulus that decreases the strength of an operant behavior when it is made a consequence of the behavior. |
| P-value | The probability of observing a particular outcome in a sample, or more extreme, under a conjecture about the larger population or process. |
| Q | |
| Quantitative genetics | Scientific and mathematical methods for inferring genetic and environmental processes based on the degree of genetic and environmental similarity among organisms. |
| Quantitative law of effect | A mathematical rule that states that the effectiveness of a reinforcer at strengthening an operant response depends on the amount of reinforcement earned for all alternative behaviors. A reinforcer is less effective if there is a lot of reinforcement in t |
| Quasi-experimental design | An experiment that does not require random assignment to conditions. |
| R | |
| Random assignment | Using a probability-based method to divide a sample into treatment groups. |
| Random assignment | Assigning participants to receive different conditions of an experiment by chance. |
| Random sampling | Using a probability-based method to select a subset of individuals for the sample from the population. |
| Realism | A point of view that emphasizes the importance of the senses in providing knowledge of the external world. |
| Receptor | A chemical structure on the cell surface or inside of a cell that has an affinity for a specific chemical configuration of a hormone, neurotransmitter, or other compound. |
| Reinforcer | Any consequence of a behavior that strengthens the behavior or increases the likelihood that it will be performed it again. |
| Reinforcer devaluation effect | The finding that an animal will stop performing an instrumental response that once led to a reinforcer if the reinforcer is separately made aversive or undesirable. |
| Reliability | The consistency of a measure. |
| Renewal effect | Recovery of an extinguished response that occurs when the context is changed after extinction. Especially strong when the change of context involves return to the context in which conditioning originally occurred. Can occur after extinction in either clas |
| Representative | In research, the degree to which a sample is a typical example of the population from which it is drawn. |
| Resting membrane potential | The voltage inside the cell relative to the voltage outside the cell while the cell is at rest (approximately -70 mV). |
| Rostrocaudal | A front-back plane used to identify anatomical structures in the body and the brain. |
| S | |
| Sagittal plane | A slice that runs vertically from front to back; slices of brain in this plane divide the left and right side of the brain; this plane is similar to slicing a baked potato lengthwise. |
| Sample | In research, a number of people selected from a population to serve as an example of that population. |
| Sample | The collection of individuals on which we collect data. |
| Scientific theory | An explanation for observed phenomena that is empirically well-supported, consistent, and fruitful (predictive). |
| Scientist-practitioner model | A model of training of professional psychologists that emphasizes the development of both research and clinical skills. |
| Sensitization | Occurs when the response to a stimulus increases with exposure |
| Sex determination | The point at which an individual begins to develop as either a male or a female. In animals that have sex chromosomes, this occurs at fertilization. Females are XX and males are XY. All eggs bear X chromosomes, whereas sperm can either bear X or Y chromos |
| Sex differentiation | The process by which individuals develop the characteristics associated with being male or female. Differential exposure to gonadal steroids during early development causes sexual differentiation of several structures including the brain. |
| Sexual selection | The evolution of characteristics because of the mating advantage they give organisms. |
| Sexual strategies theory | A comprehensive evolutionary theory of human mating that defines the menu of mating strategies humans pursue (e.g., short-term casual sex, long-term committed mating), the adaptive problems women and men face when pursuing these strategies, and the evolve |
| Social Learning Theory | The theory that people can learn new responses and behaviors by observing the behavior of others. |
| Social models | Authorities that are the targets for observation and who model behaviors. |
| Sodium-potassium pump | An ion channel that uses the neuron’s energy (adenosine triphosphate, ATP) to pump three Na+ ions outside the cell in exchange for bringing two K+ ions inside the cell. |
| Soma | Cell body of a neuron that contains the nucleus and genetic information, and directs protein synthesis. |
| Somatic nervous system | A part of the peripheral nervous system that uses cranial and spinal nerves in volitional actions. |
| Somatosensory (body sensations) cortex | The region of the parietal lobe responsible for bodily sensations; the somatosensory cortex has a contralateral representation of the human body. |
| Spatial resolution | A term that refers to how small the elements of an image are; high spatial resolution means the device or technique can resolve very small elements; in neuroscience it describes how small of a structure in the brain can be imaged. |
| Spatial resolution | The degree to which one can separate a single object in space from another. |
| Spina bifida | A developmental disease of the spinal cord, where the neural tube does not close caudally. |
| Spines | Protrusions on the dendrite of a neuron that form synapses with terminal buttons of the presynaptic axon. |
| Split-brain patient | A patient who has had most or all of his or her corpus callosum severed. |
| Spontaneous recovery | Recovery of an extinguished response that occurs with the passage of time after extinction. Can occur after extinction in either classical or instrumental conditioning. |
| Statistic | A numerical result computed from a sample (e.g., mean, proportion). |
| Statistical significance | A result is statistically significant if it is unlikely to arise by chance alone. |
| Stimulus control | When an operant behavior is controlled by a stimulus that precedes it. |
| Structuralism | A school of American psychology that sought to describe the elements of conscious experience. |
| Subcortical | Structures that lie beneath the cerebral cortex, but above the brain stem. |
| Sulci | (plural) Grooves separating folds of the cortex. |
| Sulcus | (plural form, sulci) The crevices or fissures formed by convolutions in the brain. |
| Sulcus | A groove separating folds of the cortex. |
| Surprise | An emotion rooted in expectancy violation that orients people toward the unexpected event. |
| Sympathetic nervous system | A division of the autonomic nervous system, that is faster than its counterpart that is the parasympathetic nervous system and works in opposition to it. Generally engaged in “fight or flight” functions. |
| Sympathetic nervous system (SNS) | One of the two major divisions of the autonomic nervous system, responsible for stimulation of “fight or flight” activities. |
| Synapse | Junction between the presynaptic terminal button of one neuron and the dendrite, axon, or soma of another postsynaptic neuron. |
| Synapse | The tiny space separating neurons. |
| Synaptic gap | Also known as the synaptic cleft; the small space between the presynaptic terminal button and the postsynaptic dendritic spine, axon, or soma. |
| Synaptic vesicles | Groups of neurotransmitters packaged together and located within the terminal button. |
| Systematic observation | The careful observation of the natural world with the aim of better understanding it. Observations provide the basic data that allow scientists to track, tally, or otherwise organize information about the natural world. |
| T | |
| Target cell | A cell that has receptors for a specific chemical messenger (hormone or neurotransmitter). |
| Taste aversion learning | The phenomenon in which a taste is paired with sickness, and this causes the organism to reject—and dislike—that taste in the future. |
| Temporal lobe | An area of the cerebrum that lies below the lateral sulcus; it contains auditory and olfactory (smell) projection regions. |
| Temporal lobe | The part of the cerebrum in front of (anterior to) the occipital lobe and below the lateral fissure; involved in vision, auditory processing, memory, and integrating vision and audition. |
| Temporal resolution | A term that refers to how small a unit of time can be measured; high temporal resolution means capable of resolving very small units of time; in neuroscience it describes how precisely in time a process can be measured in the brain. |
| Temporal resolution | The degree to which one can separate a single point in time from another. |
| Terminal button | The part of the end of the axon that form synapses with postsynaptic dendrite, axon, or soma. |
| Testosterone | The primary androgen secreted by the testes of most vertebrate animals, including men. |
| Thalamus | A part of the diencephalon that works as a gateway for incoming and outgoing information. |
| Theories | Groups of closely related phenomena or observations. |
| Threshold of excitation | Specific membrane potential that the neuron must reach to initiate an action potential. |
| Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon | The inability to pull a word from memory even though there is the sensation that that word is available. |
| Trait curiosity | Stable individual-differences in how easily and how often people become curious. |
| Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) | A neuroscience technique that passes mild electrical current directly through a brain area by placing small electrodes on the skull. |
| Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) | A neuroscience technique whereby a brief magnetic pulse is applied to the head that temporarily induces a weak electrical current that interferes with ongoing activity. |
| Transduction | A process in which physical energy converts into neural energy. |
| Transfer-appropriate processing | A principle that states that memory performance is superior when a test taps the same cognitive processes as the original encoding activity. |
| Transverse plane | See “horizontal plane.” |
| Twin studies | A behavior genetic research method that involves comparison of the similarity of identical (monozygotic; MZ) and fraternal (dizygotic; DZ) twins. |
| Type I error | In statistics, the error of rejecting the null hypothesis when it is true. |
| Type II error | In statistics, the error of failing to reject the null hypothesis when it is false. |
| U | |
| Unconditioned response (UR) | In classical conditioning, an innate response that is elicited by a stimulus before (or in the absence of) conditioning. |
| Unconditioned stimulus (US) | In classical conditioning, the stimulus that elicits the response before conditioning occurs. |
| V | |
| Validity | The degree to which a measure is assessing what it is intended to measure. |
| Value | Belief about the way things should be. |
| Vicarious reinforcement | Learning that occurs by observing the reinforcement or punishment of another person. |
| Visual hemifield | The half of visual space (what we see) on one side of fixation (where we are looking); the left hemisphere is responsible for the right visual hemifield, and the right hemisphere is responsible for the left visual hemifield. |
| Voltage | The difference in electric charge between two points. |
| W | |
| Wernicke’s area | A language area in the temporal lobe where linguistic information is comprehended (Also see Broca’s area). |
| White coat hypertension | A phenomenon in which patients exhibit elevated blood pressure in the hospital or doctor’s office but not in their everyday lives. |
| White matter | Regions of the nervous system that represent the axons of the nerve cells; whitish in color because of myelination of the nerve cells. |
| White matter | The inner whitish regions of the cerebrum comprised of the myelinated axons of neurons in the cerebral cortex. |
| Working memory | The form of memory we use to hold onto information temporarily, usually for the purposes of manipulation. |
| Working memory | Short transitory memory processed in the hippocampus |
| X | |
| Y | |
| Z | |
| 5a-reductase | An enzyme required to convert testosterone to 5a-dihydrotestosterone. |
Created by:
MooshroomsRCool
Popular Psychology sets