AP Psychology Midterm Review Vocab

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Infantile amnesia

the inability to remember events from early childhood

Operational definitions

a statement of the procedures used to define research variables

Sensory adaptation

diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

Sensory interaction

the principle that one sense may influence another

Experiment

a research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process

Independent variable

variable that is manipulated

Confounding variable

a factor other than the independent variable that might produce an effect in an experiment

Sampling bias

a flawed sampling process that produces an unrepresentative sample

Random assignment

assigning participants to experimental and control conditions by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups

Experimental group

the group in an experiment that receives the variable being tested

Control group

the group that does not receive the experimental treatment.

Case study

a descriptive technique in which one individual or group is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles

Medulla

the base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing

Reticular formation

a nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in controlling arousal

Limbic system

neural system (including the hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus) located below the cerebral hemispheres; associated with emotions and drives

Amygdala

two lima bean-sized neural clusters in the limbic system; linked to emotion.

Hypothalamus

brain region controlling the pituitary gland

Pituitary gland

regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands, master gland

Hippocampus

a neural center located in the limbic system; helps process explicit memories for storage

Corpus callosum

a broad band of nerve fibers joining the two hemispheres of the brain.

Occipital lobes

portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the back of the head; includes areas that receive information from the visual fields

Parietal lobes

portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top of the head and toward the rear; receives sensory input for touch and body position

Temporal lobes

portion of the cerebral cortex lying roughly above the ears; includes the auditory areas, each receiving information primarily from the opposite ear

Introspection

examination of one's own thoughts and feelings

Agonist

a molecule that increases a neurotransmitter's action

Antagonist

a molecule that inhibits or blocks a neurotransmitter's action

Depressants

drugs that reduce neural activity and slow body functions

Stimulants

drugs that excite neural activity and speed up body functions

Monocular cues

depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone

Linear perspective

the tendency for parallel lines to appear to converge on each other

Binocular cues

depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the use of two eyes

Retinal disparity

the differences between the images stimulating each eye

Convergence

A binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object

Scatter plot

A graph with points plotted to show a possible relationship between two sets of data.

Afferent neurons

Nerve cells that carry impulses towards the central nervous system

PET scan (positron emission tomography)

a visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task

EEG scan (electroencephalogram)

an amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweep across the brain's surface

Action potential

the change in electrical potential associated with the passage of an impulse along the membrane of a muscle cell or nerve cell.

Resting state

All gated Na+ and K+ channels are closed

Refractory phase

a period during and immediately after a nerve impulse when a neuron cannot produce another action potential

Sympathetic nervous system

the division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations

Parasympathetic nervous system

the division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy

Priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory

Motion parallax

a depth cue in which the relative movement of elements in a scene gives depth information when the observer moves relative to the scene

Selective attention

the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Absolute threshold

the weakest amount of a stimulus that a person can detect half the time

Signal detection theory

theory regarding how stimuli are detected under different conditions

Correlation (strength)

A measure of the relationship between two variables

Positive correlation (direct)

a relationship between two variables in which both variables either increase or decrease together

Negative correlation (inverse)

as one variable increases, the other decreases

Visual neural pathway

optic nerve-->optic chiasm-->lateral geniculate nucleus-->striate cortex (primary visual cortex/part of cerebral cortex)

Auditory neural pathway

hair cell receptors-->medulla oblongata-->thalamus--> primary auditory area (in temporal lobe)

Nature-nuture issue

the longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors

Gestalt principles

Principles that describe the brain's organization of sensory information into meaningful units and patterns.

Similarity

the tendency to perceive things that look similar to each other as being part of the same group

Closure

the tendency to complete figures that are incomplete

Continuity

we perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones

Stage 2 (sleep spindles)

still lower pulse, blood pressure, body temperature; hard to awaken; unresponsive to stimuli

REM (dreams)

more dreams, emotional, illogical, prone to plot shifts, biologically crucial

Circadian rhythm

the biological clock; regular bodily rhythms that occur on a 24-hour cycle

Top-down processing

the use of preexisting knowledge to organize individual features into a unified whole

Bottom-up processing

analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information

Shaping

The reinforcement of closer and closer approximations of a desired response.

Kinesthesia

the system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts

Vestibular sense

the sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance

Semicircular canals

three canals within the inner ear that contain specialized receptor cells that generate nerve impulses with body movement

Gate control theory

the theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain

Rods and cones

in the retina, receives images that have passed through the lens of the eye

Aphasia

loss of speech

Lateralization

cognitive function that relies more on one side of the brain than the other

Opponent-process theory

the theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision

Afterimages

Sensations that linger after the stimulus is removed

Belief perseverance

tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them

Conditioned stimulus

a stimulus that elicits a response only after learning has taken place

Unconditioned stimulus

A stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning

Conditioned response

a learned response to a previously neutral stimulus

Unconditioned response

a reflexive reaction that is reliably produced by an unconditioned stimulus

Extinction

the diminishing of a conditioned response

Acquisition

the phase of classical conditioning when the CS and the US are presented together

Discrimination

in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus

Generalization

responding similarly to a range of similar stimuli

Fixed/variable-ratio

based on amount of times a behavior occurs

Fixed/variable-interval

based on amount of time that passes between consequences of behavior

Latent learning

learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it

Mirror neurons

frontal lobe neurons that some scientists believe fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so

Negative reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli, such as shock, any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response

Secondary reinforcer

neutral object that becomes associated with a primary reinforcer

Sleep apnea

a disorder in which the person stops breathing for brief periods while asleep

Observational learning

learning by observing others

Mean, median, mode

average, middle, most

Inattentional blindness

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Change blindness

failing to notice changes in the environment

Perceptual set

a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Dendrites

branchlike parts of a neuron that are specialized to receive information.

Reuptake

a neurotransmitter's reabsorption by the sending neuron