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 100 1/16
Terms through first midterm
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Psychology | The scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior. |
| Levels of Analysis | In psychology, levels of analysis stretch from molecules to brain function son the low rungs of thought, feelings and emotions, and to social and cultural influences at the high rungs. i.e. Molecular level, neurochemical level, behavioral level, social |
| Multiply Determined | Human behavior is difficult to predict because it is produced by many factors. |
| Single Variable Explanations | Be skeptical of single variable explanations of behavior. There is usually not a single causal factor (like genes, poverty, etc) due to behavior being multiply determined. |
| Individual differences | People differ from each other in thinking, emotion, personality, and behavior. Explains why we respond in different ways to the same objective situation. |
| Reciprocal Determinism | We mutually influence each others' behavior. An extrovert in a group will make everyone else more extroverted. This makes it difficult to know whats causing what. |
| Emic approach | Investigators study to behavior of a culture from the perspective of a native or insider. Will know unique characteristics of culture but may not know similarities to other cultures. |
| Etic Approach | Investigators study the behavior of a culture from the perspective of an outsider. May view this culture within the broader perspective of other cultures, but may impose perspectives from their own culture onto others. |
| Naive Realism | The belief that we see the world precisely as it is. |
| Empiricism | Knowledge should initially be acquired through observation. |
| Scientific Theory | An explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world. It ties multiple findings together into one thing. |
| Hypothesis | A testable prediction. |
| Confirmation Bias | The tendency to seek out evidence that supports our beliefs and deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that contradicts them. Seek and ye shall find. Wason selection task. |
| Belief Perseverance | The tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them. |
| Metaphysical Claims | Assertions about the world that we can't test. The existence of God, the soul, and the afterlife. |
| Scientific Skepticism | Evaluates all claims with an open mind but insists on persuasive evidence before accepting them. |
| Critical Thinking | A set of skills for evaluating all claims in an open minded and careful fashion. A form of thinking that allows us to evaluate scientific claims in lab and everyday life. |
| Correlation-Causation Fallacy | Correlation is not causation. Just because they are correlated doesn't mean that one causes the other. |
| Third Variable Problem | When a third variable, C, causes both A and B. |
| Falsifiable | For a claim to be meaningful, it must be capable of being disproved. |
| Replicability | A study's findings can be duplicated consistently. |
| Occam's Razor | The simplest explanation is best when there are multiple explanations. |
| Heuristics | Mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that help us to streamline out thinking and make sense of our world. Which way to get to San Diego from Reno? |
| Representativeness Heuristics | We judge the probability of an event by its superficial similarity to a prototype. Like goes with like. Truck driver or professor. |
| Base Rate | How common a behavior or characteristic is. |
| Availability Heuristic | We estimate the likelihood of an occurrence based on the ease with which it comes to our minds. Murders in Michigan vs Detroit. |
| Cognitive Bias | Systematic errors in thinking. |
| Hindsight Bias | Our tendency to overestimate how well we could have successfully forecasted known outcomes. |
| Overconfidence | Our tendency to overestimate our ability to make correct predictions. |
| Naturalistic Observation | Watching behavior in real-world settings without trying to manipulate people's behavior. High external validity, low in internal validity. |
| External Validity | The extent to which we can generalize our findings to real world settings. |
| Internal Validity | The extent to which we can draw cause-and-effect inferences. |
| Case Study | When researchers examine one person or a small number of people, often over an extended period of time. |
| Existence Proofs | Demonstrations that a given psychological phenomenon can occur. |
| Random Selection | Procedure that ensures every person in a population has an equal chance of being chosen to participate. Crucial if we want to generalize our results to the broader population. |
| Reliability | Consistency of measurement. Reliability is necessary for validity (need to measure something consistently before we can measure it well.) |
| Validity | The extent to which a measure assess what it claims to measure. Truth in advertising. |
| Response Sets | Tendencies to distort their answers to items, often in a socially desirable direction. |
| Positive Impression Management | The tendency to make ourselves look better than we are. |
| Malingering | The Tendency to make ourselves appear psychologically disturbed with the aim of achieving a clear cut goal. |
| Halo Effect | The tendency of ratings of one positive characteristic to spill over to influence the ratings of other positive characteristics. |
| Correlation Design | When psychologists examine the extent to which two variables are associated. |
| Scatterplot | Grouping of points on a two dimensional graph |
| Illusory Correlation | The perception of a statistical association between two variables where none exists. Full moon and strange occurrences. |
| Random Assignment | The experimenter randomly sorts participants into one of two groups. |
| Experimental Group | The group that receives the manipulation. |
| Control Group | This group doesn't receive the manipulation. |
| Independent Variable | The variable that is changed |
| Dependent Variable | The variable that is measured to see whether the manipulation had an effect. |
| Operational Definition | A working definition of what a psychologist is measuring. |
| Placebo Effect | Improvement resulting from the mere expectation of improvement. |
| Blind (Experiment) | Unaware of whether one is in the experimental or control group. Helps avoid placebo effect. |
| Experimenter Expectancy Effect | When researchers hypotheses lead them to unintentionally bias the outcome of a study. |
| Double-Blind | Neither researchers nor participants know who's in the experimental or control group. |
| Demand Characteristics | Research participants can pick up cues from an experiment that allow them to generate guesses regarding the experimenter's hypotheses. |
| Informed Consent | Researchers must tell subjects what they're getting into before asking them to participate. |
| Descriptive Statistics | Describe Data. Mean, Median, Mode, Range, Standard Deviation, etc. |
| Inferential Statistics | Mathematical methods that allow us to determine whether we can generalize findings from our sample to the full population. |
| Statistical Significance | Result is believable, a real difference in our sample. |
| Practical Significance | Of real-world importance. |
| Neurons | Nerve cells exquisitely specialized for communication with each other. Cell body, dendrites, axon, etc. |
| Cell Body | Soma, the central region of the neuron. |
| Dendrites | Branchlike extensions for receiving information from other neurons. Spread out and listen in on information from neighboring neurons and pass it on to the cell body. |
| Axons | Long extensions protruding from the cell body that send messages to other neurons. |
| Neurotransmitters | Chemical messengers that neurons use to communicate with each other. |
| Synaptic Vesicles | Tiny spheres that contain neurotransmitters. |
| Synapse | A small fluid-filled space between neurons through which neurotransmitters travel. |
| Synaptic Cleft | A gap into which neurotransmitters are released from the axon terminal. |
| Glial Cells | Cell that plays a role in formation of myelin, responds to injury, removes debris, and enhances learning and memory. |
| Myelin Sheath | Insulating wrapper around axons, speeds up transmission. |
| Resting Potential | When no neurotransmitters are acting on the neuron (about -70 mV). Not being stimulated or inhibited. |
| Threshold | Membrane potential necessary to trigger an action potential. |
| Action Potential | Electrical impulse that travels down the axon triggering the release of neurotransmitters. Triggered by a change in charge inside the axon. Firing. |
| Absolute Refractory Period | A brief interval during which another action potential can't occur. Limits the maximal firing rate. |
| Receptor Sites | Sites neurotransmitters bind to along the dendrites of neighboring neurons after being released into the synapse. |
| Reuptake | When synaptic vesicle reabsorbs the neurotransmitters, a means of recycling them. |
| Endorphins | Play a role in pain reduction. |
| Plasticity | The nervous system's ability to change. |
| Stem cells | A cell having the capacity to differentiate into a more specialized cell, often originating in embryos. |
| Neurogenesis | Creation of new neurons in the adult brain. |
| Central Nervous System | Composed of the brain and spinal cord, controls the mind and behavior. |
| Peripheral Nervous System | Nerves in the body that extend outside the central nervous system. Divided into somatic nervous system and autonomic nervous system. |
| Somatic Nervous System | Controls voluntary behavior. Carries messages from the central nervous system to muscles throughout the body, controlling movement. |
| Autonomic Nervous System | Controls nonvoluntary, automatic functions of the body. Controls involuntary actions of internal organs and glands which participates in emotion regulation. |
| Cerebral Ventricles | Fluid-filled pockets that extend throughout the entire brain and spinal cord. Filled with fluid that provides nutrients and cushioning. |
| Forebrain (Cerebrum) | Forward part of the brain that allows advanced intellectual abilities. |
| Corpus Callosum | Large bad of fibers connecting the two cerebral hemispheres. |
| Cerebral Hemispheres | Two halves of the cerebral Cortex, each of which serve distinct yet highly integrated functions. |
| Cerebral Cortex | Outermost part of forebrain, responsible for analyzing sensory processing and higher brain functions. |
| Frontal Lobes | Assist in motor function, language, and memory. Oversee and organize other brain function. Forward part of cerebral cortex. |
| Motor Cortex | Responsible for body movement. |
| Prefrontal Cortex | Responsible for thinking, planning, and language. |
| Broca's Area | Region of prefrontal cortex that plays a key role in language production. Trouble producing speech is a result if this area is damaged. |
| Parietal Lobe | Specialized for touch and perception. |
| Temporal Lobe | The prime site of hearing, understanding language, and storing memories. |
| Wernicke's Area | Part of the temporal lobe involved in understanding speech. Damage results in difficulty understanding speech. |
| Occipital Lobe | At the very back of the brain, it contains the visual cortex which is dedicated to seeing. |
| Primary Sensory Cortex | Regions of the cerebral cortex that initially process information from the senses. When information from the outside world is transmitted by a particular sense, it reaches the PSC specific to that sense. |
| Association Cortex | Information transmitted to primary sensory cortex is passed here. It integrates information to perform more complex functions. |
| Basal Ganglia | Structures in the forebrain that help to control movement. It transmits the information it receives from the association cortex to the motor cortex. |
| Limbic System | Emotional center of brain that also plays roles in smell, motivation, and memory. It also processes information about other internal states like blood pressure and heart rate. |
| Thalamus | The gateway from the sense organs to the primary sensory cortex. Part of limbic system. |
| Hypothalamus | Regulates and maintains constant internal bodily states. Part of limbic system. |
| Amygdala | Plays role in fear, excitement, and arousal. Part of limbic system. |
| Hippocampus | Plays a role in spatial memory (physical layout of things in our environment). Damages causes problems in forming new memories, but doesn't destroy old ones. |
| Brain Stem | Lies between the spinal cord and cerebral cortex that contains the midbrain, pons, and medulla. A relay station between the cortex and rest of nervous system. |
| Midbrain | Contribues to movement, tracking of visual stimuli, and reflexes triggered by sound. Part of brain stem. |
| Reticular Activating System | Plays a key role in arousal. |
| Hindbrain | Region below midbrain that contains cerebellum, pons, and medulla. |
| Cerebellum | Responsible for our sense of balance and enables us to coordinate movement and learn motor skills. |
| Pons | Connects cortex with the cerebellum |
| Medulla | Regulates breathing, heartbeat, and other vital functions. |
| Spinal Cord | Extends from the brain stem down the middle of the back. It conveys information between the brain and the rest of the body. |
| Interneurons | Neurons that send messages to other neurons located nearby. Connect sensory nerves with motor nerves withing the spinal cord. |
| Reflexes | Automatic motor responses to sensory stimuli. |
| Sympathetic Nervous System | Active during emotional arousal, especially during crises. Mobilizes fight or flight response. Division of autonomic nervous system. |
| Parasympathetic Nervous System | Controls rest and digestion. Division of autonomic nervous system. |
| Electroencephalograph (EEG) | Recording of brain's electrical activity at the surface of the skull. Multiple electrodes are placed on the scalp's surface. Not very good at locating exactly where activity in brain occurs. |
| Computer Tomography (CT) | A scanning technique using multiple x-rays to construct three dimensional images. Allows us to visualize brain structure. |
| Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) | Technique that uses magnetic fields to indirectly visualize brain structure. Superior to CT scans for detecting soft tissues. |
| Positron Emission Tomography (PET) | Imaging technique that measures consumption of glucose-like molecules, yielding a picture of neural activity in different regions of the brain. Measures changes in brains activity in response to stimuli. |
| Functional MRI (fMRI) | Techique that uses magnetic fields to visualize brain activity using the BOLD response. Measures blood oxygen level, an indirect correlate to neural activity. |
| Magnetoencephalography (MEG) | Technique that measures brain activity by detecting tiny magnetic fields generated by the brain. Can easily track brain changes over a small period of time. |
| Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) | Applies strong and quickly changing magnetic fields to the surface of the skull that can either enhance or interrupt brain function. ie interrupt function of temporal lobe and language impairment results, then temporal lobe is important for language. |
| Illusion | Perception in which the way we perceive a stimulus doesn't match its physical reality. |
| Sensation | Detection of physical energy by sense organs, which then send information to the brain. Detected by sense organs including eyes, ears, skin, tongue, and nose. |
| Perception | The brain's interpretation of the raw sensory inputs. |
| Transduction | The process by which the nervous system converts an external stimulus, like light or sound, into electrical signals within neurons. |
| Sense Receptor | Specialized cell responsible for converting external stimuli into neural activity for a specific sensory system. It transduces a specific stimulus. |
| Sensory Adaptation | Activation is greatest when a stimulus is first detected. After that, our response declines in strength. Smelling a bad smell-->get used to it after a while. |
| Psychophysics | The study of how we perceive sensory stimuli based on their physical characteristics. |
| Absolute Threshold | The lowest level of a stimulus needed for the nervous system to detect a change 50% of the time. |
| Just Noticeable Difference | Smallest change in the intensity of a stimulus that we can detect. Depends on original conditions (Weber's Law) |
| Weber's Law | There's a constant proportional relationship between the just noticeable difference and the original stimulus intensity. A candle in a dark room or bright room. |
| Signal Detection Theory | Theory regarding how stimuli are detected under different conditions such as noise during a phone call. |
| Synesthesia | A condition in which people experience cross-modal sensations. Tasting color, Color for each letter and number. |
| Parallel Processing | The ability to attend to many sense modalities simultaneously. |
| Bottom-Up Processing | Processing in which a whole is constructed from parts. ie Perceiving an object based on its edges. |
| Top-Down Processing | Conceptually driven processing influenced by beliefs and expectancies. A 5 or a S. |
| Perceptual Set | Set formed when expectations influence perceptions. An example of top-down processing. Misshapen H as an A or H |
| Perceptual Constancy | The process by which we perceive stimuli consistently across varied conditions. Shape constancy (door open or closed). Size constancy (Small faraway, big closeup). Color constancy (Cherry in low light vs white light). |
| Selective Attention | Allows us to select one sensory channel and turn off/tune down the others. |
| Inattentional Blindness | Failure to detect stimuli that are in plain sight when our attention is focused elsewhere. |
| The Binding Problem | Different regions of our brain process different aspects of an object yet it can combine these diverse parts into a whole. |
| Subliminal Perception | The processing of sensory information that occurs the level of conscious awareness. |
| Pupil | Black part of eye which light enters through. |
| Cornea | Part of eye containing transparent cells that focus light on the retina. Bends light slightly. |
| Lens | Part of the eye that changes curvature to keep images in focus. |
| Accommodation | Changing the shape of the lens to focus on objects near or far. |
| Retina | Membrane at the back of the eye responsible for converting light into neural activity. |
| Fovea | Central portion of the retina. Responsible for sharpness of vision. |
| Acuity | Sharpness of vision. |
| Rods | Receptor cells in the retina allowing us to see in low levels of light. |
| Dark Adaptation | Time in the dark before rods regain maximum light sensitivity |
| Cones | Receptor cells in the retina allowing us to see in color. |
| Optic Nerve | Nerve that travels from the retina to the brain. Contains axons of ganglion cells. |
| Ganglion Cells | Cells in the retinal circuit that contain axons that depart to the brain. |
| Blind Spot | A part of the visual field that we can't see. |
| Feature Detector Cell | Cell that detects lines and edges. |
| Gestalt Principles | Rules governing how we perceive objects as wholes within their overall context. Proximity, similarity, continuity, closure, symmetry, figure-grounded. |
| Bistable Image | Image can be perceived in two ways. ie Vase of two faces. |
| Trichromatic Theory | We base our color vision on three primary colors; blue, green, and red. |
| Opponent Process Theory | We perceive colors in terms of three pairs of opponent colors; red or green, blue or yellow, black or white. |
| Depth Perception | Ability to see spatial relations in 3D |
| Monocular Depth Cues and Binocular Depth Cues | To gauge depth, use one eye (monocular) or both eyes (Binocular) |
| Audition | Our sense of hearing |
| Timbre | Complexity or quality of sound that makes musical instruments, human voices, or other sources sound unique |
| Cochlea | Bony, spiral-shaped sense organ used for hearing |
| Organ of Corti | Tissue containing the hair cells necessary for hearing |
| Basilar Membrane | Membrane supporting the organ of Corti and hair cells in the cochlea. |
| Place Theory | Specific place along the basilar membrane matches a tone with a specific pitch. |
| Frequency Theory | Rate at which neurons fire the action potential reproduces the pitch. |
| Olfaction | Our sense of smell |
| Gustation | Our sense of taste |
| Taste Bud | Sense receptor in the tongue that responds to sweet, salty, sour, umami, and maybe fat. |
| Pheromone | Odorless chemical that serves as a social signal to members of one's species. |
| Somatosensory | Our sense of touch, temperature, and pain. |
| Gate Control Model | Idea that pain is blocked or gated from consciousness by neural mechanisms in the spinal cord. |
| Phantom Pain | Pain or discomfort felt in an amputated limb. |
| Proprioception | Our sense of bodily position |
| Vestibular Sense | Our sense of equilibrium or balance |
| Semicircular Canals | Three fluid-filled canals in the inner ear responsible for our sense of balance. |
| List of Monocular Cues | -Relative Size -Texture Gradient -Interposition -Linear Perspective -Height in Plane -Light & Shadow -Motion Parallax |
| Blindness | Inability to see |
| Motion Blindness | Can't string images by the brain into perception of ongoing motion. |
| Visual Agnosia | Deficit in perceiving objects. Can tell shape, color, etc but can't name or recognize it. |
| Blindsight | Blind people who've experienced damage can still make correct guesses about the visual appearance of things around them |
Created by:
pesa.5
Popular Psychology sets