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Chapters 1-4 and syllabus

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The Scientific study of thought and behavior   Psychology  
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Psychology is best defined as the study of   Human thought and behavior  
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As a field psychology is   The practice of diagnosing and treating mental illness, a social science, and a biological science.  
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The study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak and solve problems   Cognitive psychology  
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The study of how thought and behavior change and remain stable across the life span   Developmental psychology  
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The study of the links among the brain, mind, and behavior   Behavioral neuroscience  
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The study of the relationship between bodily systems and chemicals and how they influence behavior and thought   Biological psychology  
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The study of the treatment of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders and the promotion of psychological health   Clinical psychology  
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The study of what makes people unique and the consistencies in people's behavior across time and situations   Personality psychology  
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The study of how living among others influences thought, feeling, and behavior   Social psychology  
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The study of how the role that psychological factors play in regard to physical health and illness   Health psychology  
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The study of how students learn, the effectiveness of particular teaching techniques, the social psychology of schools, and the psychology of teaching   School psychology  
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The study of psychological factors in sports and exercise   Sports psychology  
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Application of psychological concepts and questions to work setings   Industrial/organizational psychology  
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Field that blends psychology, law, and criminal justice   Forensic psychology  
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Medicine men or women who treat people with mental problems by driving out their demons with elaborate rituals, such as exorcisms, incantations, and prayers   Shamans  
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Facilities for treating the mentally ill in Europe during the Middle Ages and into the 19th century   Asylums  
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Sigmund Freud developed this form of therapy   Psychoanalysis  
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A clinically based approach to understanding and treating psychological disorders; assumes that the unconscious mind is the most powerful force behind thought and behavior   Psychoanalysis  
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The view that all knowledge and thoughts come from experience   Empiricism  
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The first scientific form of psychology; laboratory studies of the subjective experience of physical sensations   Psychophysics  
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Wundt   In 1879 he set up a psychology laboratory in Germany. The birthplace of experimental psychology  
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Argued that breaking down experience into its elemental parts offers the best way to understand thoughts and behavior   Structuralism  
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The main method of investigation for structuralists; involves looking into one's own mind for information about the nature of conscious experience   Introspection  
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Argued that it is better to look at why the mind works the way it does than to describe its parts. Influenced by Natural selection   Functionalism  
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Proposed that psychology can be a true science only if it examines observable behavior, not ideas, thoughts, feelings, or motives   Behaviorism  
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Focuses on personal growth and meaning as a way of reaching one's highest potential   Humanistic psychology  
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Shares humanistic beliefs. Studying, understanding, and promoting healthy and positive psychological functioning   Positive psychology  
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Maintains that we perceive things as wholes rather than as a compilation of parts   Gestalt psychology  
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The change over time in the frequency with which specific genes occur within a breeding species   Evolution  
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Inherited solutions to ancestral problems that have been selected for because they contribute to reproductive success   Adaptations  
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Studies human behavior by asking what adaptive problems it may have solved for our early ancestors   Evolutionary psychology  
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Things that evolve because they solved one problem and they happen to solve another to   Exaptations  
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What science is   Cumulative, a process more than a product, and an attitude  
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The procedures by which scientists conduct research, consisting of five basic processes: observation, prediction, testing, interpretation, and communication   Scientific method  
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A specific, informed, and testable prediction of the outcome of a particular set of conditions in a research design   Hypothesis  
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A set of related assumptions from which scientists can make testable predictions   Theory  
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The repetition of a study to confirm the results; essential to the scientific process   Replication  
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Claims presented as scientific that are not supported by evidence obtained with the scientific method   Pseudoscience  
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Plans of action for how to conduct a scientific study   Research design  
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A characteristic that changes. Such as age, gender, weight, intelligence, anxiety, and extraversion   Variable  
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The entire group a researcher is interested in. A humans, all boys, all girls, all college students   Population  
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Subsets of the population studied in a research project   Samples  
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The tendency toward favorable self-presentation that could lead to inaccurate self reports   Social desirability bias  
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Study designs in which the researcher defines a problem and variable of interest but makes no prediction and does not control or manipulate anything   Descriptive designs  
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A study design in which a psychologist, often a therapist, observes one person over a long period of time   Case study  
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Examines in detail the lives of historically important people and provides an example of the richness and value of case studies and studying individual lives over time   Psychobiography  
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A study in which the researcher unobtrusively observes and records behavior in the real world   Naturalistic observation  
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A research sample that accurately reflects the population of people one is studying   Representative sample  
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Studies that measure two or more variables and their relationship to one another; not designed to show causation   Correlational designs  
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A statistic that ranges from -1.0 to 1.0 and assesses the strength and direction of association between two variables   Correlation coefficient  
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A research design that includes independent and dependent variables and random assignment of participants to control and experimental groups or condition   Experiment  
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A property that is manipulated by the experimenter under controlled conditions to determine whether it causes the predicted outcome of an experiment   Independent variable  
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In an experiment, the outcome or response to the experimental manipulation   Dependent variable  
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The method used to assign participants to different research conditions so that all participants have the same chance of being in any specific group   Random assignment  
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A group of research participants who are treated in exactly the same manner as the experimental group, except that they do not receive the independent variable or treatment   Control group  
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A substance or treatment that appears identical to the actual treatment but lacks the active substance   Placebo  
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A group consisting of those participants who will receive the treatment or whatever is predicted to change behavior   Experimental group  
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Variable whose influence on the dependent variable cannot be separated from the independent variable being examined   Confounding variable  
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Studies in which participants do not know the experimental condition to which they have been assigned   Single-blind studies  
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Studies in which neither the participants nor the researchers administering the treatment know who has been assigned to the experimental or control group   Double-blind studies  
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Result that occurs when the behavior of the participants is influenced by the experimenter's knowledge of who is in the control group and who is in the experimental group   Experimenter expectancy effects  
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A statement that affects events to cause the prediction to become true   Self-fulfilling prophecy  
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A research and statistical technique for combining all research results on one question and drawing a conclusion   Meta-analysis  
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A measure of the strength of the relationship between two variables or the magnitude of an experimental effect   Effect size  
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Experimental design must have   Random assignment of participants to conditions and manipulation of an independent variable  
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Written or oral accounts of a person's thoughts, feelings, or actions   Self-reports  
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Measures based on systematic observation of people's actions either in their normal environment or in a laboratory setting   Behavioral measures  
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Measures of bodily responses, such as blood pressure or heart rate, used to determine changes in psychological state   Physiological measures  
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The use of several measures to acquire data on one aspect of behavior   Multiple measurement  
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Collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of numerical data   Statistics  
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Measures used to describe, organize, and summarize research data   Descriptive statistics  
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The arithmetic average of a series of numbers   Mean  
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The score that separates the lower half of scores from the upper half   Median  
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A statistic that represents the most commonly occurring score or value   Mode  
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A statistical measure of how much scores in a sample vary around the mean   Standard deviation  
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The rules governing the conduct of a person or group in general or in a specific situation. Standards of right and wrong   Ethics  
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Guidelines for ethical research   Informend consent, respect for persons, beneficence, privacy and confidentiality, and justice  
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The explanation of the purposes of a study following data collection   Debriefing  
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Organizations that evaluate research proposals to make sure research involving humans does not cause undue harm or distress   Institutional review boards  
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Research method similar to an experimental design except that it makes use of naturally occurring groups rather than randomly assigning subjects to groups   Quasi-experimental design  
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The most rigorous study design that can be used to study the effects of enrichment on brain development in humans   Quasi-experimental design  
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A living situation that provides ample opportunity for play and activity   Enriched environment  
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A large molecule that contains genes   DNA  
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Small segments of DNA that contain information for producing proteins   Genes  
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All the genetic information in DNA   Genome  
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Different forms of a gene   Alleles  
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Genes that show their effects even if there is only one allele for that trait in the pair   Dominant gene  
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The scientific study of the role of heredity in behavior   Behavioral genetics  
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the hereditary passing on of traits determined by a single gene   Monogenic transmission  
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The process by which many genes interact to create a single characteristic   Polygenic transmission  
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The extent to which a characteristic is influenced by genetics   Heritability  
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Twins that develop from two different eggs fertilized by two different sperm   Fraternal twins  
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Twins that develop from a single fertilized egg that splits into two independent cells   Identical twins  
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Research into hereditary influence comparing pairs of fraternal and identical twins   Twin studies  
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Research into hereditary influence in which adopted people are compared to their biological and adoptive parents   Adoption studies  
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Research into hereditary influence on twins, both identical and fraternal, who were raised apart and who were raised together   Twin-adoption studies  
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A method of studying heritability by comparing genetic markers that allow researchers to assess how genetic differences interact with environment to produce certain behaviors in some people but not in others   Gene-by-environment interaction research  
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Concerns changes in the way genes are turned on or off without a change in the sequence of DNA   Epigenetics  
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The part of the nervous system that comprises the brain and spinal cord   Central nervous system  
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The part of the nervous system that comprises all the nerve cells in the body outside the central nervous system   Peripheral nervous system  
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Transmits sensory information to the CNS and from there to the skeletal muscles   Somatic nervous system  
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Controls all actions and automatic processes of the body   Nervous system  
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Serves the involuntary systems of the body, such as internal organs and glands   Autonomic nervous system  
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The branch of the autonomic nervous system that activates bodily systems in times of emergency   Sympathetic nervous system  
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The branch of the autonomic nervous system that usually relaxes or returns the body to a less active, restful state.   Parasympathetic nervous system  
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CNS cells that provide structural support, promote efficient communication between neurons, and serve as scavengers, removing cellular debris. Glue that holds the CNS together   Glial cells  
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The cells that process and transmit information in the nervous system   Neurons  
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Chemicals that transmit information between neurons   Neuro-transmitters  
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The cell body of the neuron   Soma  
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Long thing that transmits electrical impulses toward the adjacent neuron and stimulates the release of neurotransmitters   Axon  
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Fingerlike projections from a neuron's soma that receive incoming messages from other neurons (looks like crab claws)   Dendrites  
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Fatty substance wrapped around axons which insulate them making the impulse travel quicker   Myelin sheath  
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The junction between the axon and the adjacent neuron where information is transmitted from one neuron to another   Synapse  
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Little knobs at the end of the axon that contain tiny sacs of neurotransmitters   Terminal buttons  
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Nerve cells that receive incoming information from the sense organs   Sensory Neurons  
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Nerve cells that carry commands for movement from the brain to the muscles of the body   Motor neurons  
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Nerve cells that are active when we observe others performing an action as well as when we are performing the same action   Mirror neurons  
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Neurons that communicate only with other neurons. The most common kind of neuron in the brain   Interneurons  
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The impulse of positive charge that runs down an axon   Action potential  
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Chemically charged particles that predominate in bodily fluids; found both inside and outside cells   Ions  
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The difference in electrical charge between the inside and outside of the axon when the neuron is at rest   Resting potential  
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The span of time after an action potential has been generated when the neuron is returning to its resting state and the neuron cannot generate an action potential   Refractory period  
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The idea that once the threshold has been crossed, an action potential either fires or it does not; there is no halfway   All-or-none principle  
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Point of no return; once the charge inside the neuron exceeds this, the action potential fires and it is always fired with the same intensity.   Threshold  
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Tiny sacs in the terminal buttons that contain neurotransmitters   Synaptic vesicles  
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A way of removing excess neurotransmitters from the synapse and sending them to the presynaptic neuron for storage in vesicles and future use   Reuptake  
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A way of removing excess neurotransmitters from the synapse, in which enzymes specific for the neurotransmitter bind with it and destroy it   Enzymatic degradation  
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Small changes in membrane potential that by themselves are insufficient to trigger an action potential   Graded potential  
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A neurotransmitter that controls muscle movement and plays a role in mental processes such as learning, memory, attention, sleeping, and dreaming   Acetylcholine  
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A neurotransmitter released in response to behaviors that feel good or are rewarding to the person   Dopamine  
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Also known as adrenaline, a neurotransmitter that arouses bodily systems (such as increasing heart rate)   Epinephrine  
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A neurotransmitter that plays an important role in the sympathetic nervous system, energizing bodily systems and increasing mental arousal and alertness   Norepinephrine  
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A major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain that tells postsynaptic neurons not to fire   GABA  
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A major excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain that increass the likelihood that a postsynaptic neuron will fire; important in learning, memory, neural processing, and brain development   Glutamate  
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Part of the brain that regulates breathing, heart rate, arousal, and other basic functions for survival   Hindbrain  
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A hindbrain structure that serves as a bridge between lowerbrain regions and higher midbrain and forebrain activity   Pons  
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A hindbrain structure that extends directly from the spinal cord; regulates breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure   Medulla  
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A hindbrain structure involved in body movement, balance, coordination, fine-tuning motor skills, and cognitive activities such as learning and language   Cerebellum  
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Inborn and involuntary behaviors-- such as coughing, swallowing, sneezing, or vomiting-- that are elicited by very specific stimuli   Reflexes  
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The midbrain, the medulla, and the pons   Brain stem  
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Controls the eye muscles, process auditory and visual information, and initiate voluntary movement of the body   Midbrain  
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A network of nerve fibers that runs up through both the hindbrain and the midbrain; it is crucial to waking up and falling asleep   Reticular formation  
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Controls cognitive, sensory, and motor function and regulate temperature, reproductive functions, eating, sleeping, and the display of emotions   Forebrain  
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A forebrain structure that receives information from the senses and relays it to the cerebral cortex for processing   Thalamus  
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Important to emotion and motivation. Contains the hypothalamus, the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the cingulate gyrus   Limbic system  
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A limbic structure; the master regulator of almost all major drives and motives we have, such as hunger, thirst, temperature, and sexual behavior; also controls the pituitary gland   Hypothalamus  
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A limbic structure that wraps itself around the thalamus; plays a vital role in learning and memory   Hippocampus  
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A small, almond shaped structure located directly in front of the hippocampus; has connections with many important brain regions and is important for processing emotional information, especially that related to fear   Amygdala  
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A beltlike structure in the middle of the brain that plays an important role in attention and cognitive control   Cingulate gyrus  
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A collection of structures surrounding the thalamus involved in voluntary motor control   Basal ganglia  
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Each of the large halves of the brain that are covered with convolutions or folds   Cereburm  
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The thin outer layer of the cerebrum, in which much of human thought, planning, perception, and consciousness takes place   Cerebral cortex  
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The fact that one side of the brain controls movement on the opposite side   Contralaterality  
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Lobe that holds attention, holds things in the mind while we solve problems, abstract thinking, control of impulses, creativity, and social awareness   Frontal lobe  
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Top and rear sections of the brain. Play a role in the sensation and perception of touch   Parietal lobes  
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Directly below the frontal and parietal loves and right behind the ears. Main function is hearing   Temporal lobes  
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In the rear of the brain. The optic nerve travels from the eye to the thalamus and then to these. Visual information is processed in the visual cortex.   Occipital lobes  
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A small structure inside the cerebrum that plays an important role in the perception of bodily sensations, emotional states, empathy, and addictive behavior   Insula  
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The nerve fibers that connect the two hemispheres of the brain   Corpus callosum  
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Deficit in the ability to speak or comprehend language   Aphasia  
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An area in the left frontal lobe responsible for the ability to produce speech   Broca's area  
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An area deep in the left temporal lobe responsible for the ability to speak in meaningful sentences and to comprehend the meaning of speech   Wernicke's area  
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The brain's ability to adopt new functions, reorganize itself, or make new neural connections throughout life,as a function of experience   Neuroplasticity  
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The development of new neurons   Neurogenesis  
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The growth and formation of new dendrites   Arborization  
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The formation of entirely new synapses or connections with other neurons   synaptogenesis  
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A method for measuring brain activity in which the electrical activity of the brain is recorded from electrodes placed on a person's scalp   Electroencephalography  
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A special technique that extracts electrical activity from raw EEG data to measure cognitive processes   Event-related potential  
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Brain imaging technique that uses magnetic fields to produce detailed images of the structure of the brain and other soft tissues   Magnetic resonance imaging  
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Brain imaging technique that uses magnetic fields to produce detailed images of activity in areas of the brain and other soft tissues   Functional magnetic resonance imaging  
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Brain imaging technique that measures blood flow to active areas in the brain   Positron emission tomography  
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System of glands that secrete and regulate hormones in the body   The endocrine system  
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Chemicals secreted by glands that travel in the bloodstream and carry messages to tissues and organs all over the body   Hormones  
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The master endocrine gland that controls the release of hormones from glands throughout the body   Pituitary gland  
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Endocrine structures that release hormones important in regulating the stress response and emotions   Adrenal glands  
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Chemicals released from the adrenal glands that function as hormones and as neurotransmitters to control ANS activation   Catecholamines  
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A hormone released by the adrenal glands; responsible for maintaining the activation of bodily systems during prolonged stress   Cortisol  
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The process by which our sensitivity diminishes when an object constantly stimulates our senses   Sensory adaptation  
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The conversion of physical into neural information   Transduction  
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The study of how people psychologically perceive physical stimuli such as light, sound waves, and touch   Psychophysics  
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The lowest intensity level of a stimulus a person can detect half of the time   Absolute threshold  
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The viewpoint that both stimulus intensity and decision-making processes are involved in the detection of a stimulus   Signal detection theory  
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The smallest amount of change between two stimuli that a person can detect half of the time   Difference threshold  
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The finding that the size of a just noticeable difference is a constant fraction of the intensity of the stimulus   Weber's law  
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The effect of frame of mind on perception; a tendency to perceive stimuli in a certain manner   Perceptual set  
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The opening in the iris through which light enters the eye   Pupil  
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The clear hard covering that protects the lens of the eye   Cornea  
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The muscle that forms the colored part of the eye; it adjusts the pupil to regulate the amount of light that enters the eye   Iris  
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The structure that sits behind the pupil; it bends the light rays that enter the eye to focus images on the retina   Lens  
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The process by which the muscles control the shape of the lens to adjust to viewing objects at different distances   Accommodation  
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The thin layer of nerve tissue that lines the back of the eye   Retina  
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Cells in the retina (called rods and cones) that convert light energy into nerve energy; they are transducers   Photoreceptors  
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Photoreceptors that function in low illumination and play a key role in night vision; responsive to dark and light contrast   Rods  
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Photoreceptors that are responsible for color vision and are most functional in conditions of bright light   Cones  
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Process of adjustment to seeing in the dark   Dark adaptation  
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The ability to see clearly   Visual acuity  
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Spot on the back of the retina that contains the highest concentration of cones in the retina; place of clearest vision   Fovea  
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Structure composed of the axons of ganglion cells from th retina that carry visual information from the eye to the brain   Optic nerve  
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The point at which strands of the optic nerve from half of each eye cross over to the opposite side of the brain   Optic chiasm  
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Neurons in the visual cortex that analyze the retinal image and respond to specific aspects of shapes, such as angles and movements   Feature detectors  
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The ability to see things in three dimensions and to discriminate what is near from what is far   Depth perception  
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Aids to depth perception that rely on input from both eyes   Binocular depth cues  
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A binocular depth cue: the way in which the eyes move inward as an object moves closer to you   Convergence  
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Aids to depth perception that do not require two eyes   Monocular depth cues  
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The ability of the brain to preserve perception of objects in spite of changes in retinal image when an object changes in position or distance from the viewer   Perceptual constancy  
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The Gestalt tendency to group like objects together in visual perception   Similarity  
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The Gestalt tendency to see points or lines in such a way that they follow a continuous path   Continuity  
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The Gestalt tendency to group objects together that are near one another   Proximity  
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The Gestalt tendency to see a whole object even when complete information isn't available   Closure  
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Assembling a perceptual experience   Bottom-up processing  
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Perception of the whole based on our experience and expectations, which guide our perception of smaller elemental features of a stimulus   Top-down processing  
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The theory that all color that we experience results from a mixing of three colors of light   Trichromatic color theory  
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Visual images that remain after removal of or looking away from the stimulus   Afterimages  
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The theory that color vision results from cones linked together in three opposing pairs of colors so that activation of one member of the pair inhibits activity in the other   Opponent-process theory  
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The eardrum   Tympanic membrane  
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Structure of the inner ear involved in maintaining balance   Semicircular canals  
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A bony tube of the inner ear, which is curled like a snail's shell and filled with fluid   Cochlea  
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A membrane that runs through the cochlea; contains the hair cells   Basilar membrane  
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Inner ear sensory receptors that transduce sound vibrations into neural impulses   Hair cells  
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The nerve that receives action potentials from the hair cells and transmits auditory information to the brain   Auditory nerve  
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