PSYC 101-01 Chapter 3,4,5 EXAM Study Guide

central nervous system

brain and spinal cord; nerves and short term stress

peripheral nervous system

communication network of your body; consists of somatic nervous system & autonomic nervous system.

somatic nervous system

voluntary movement; controls upper and lower extremities

autonomic nervous system

involuntary; controls heart rate, breathing, and digestion

sympathetic nervous system

arousal phase; fight-or-flight response; excitatory; energy is used; releases norepinephrine for arousal

parasympathetic nervous system

relaxation phase; energy is stored

endocrine system

influenced by the autonomic system; glands that produce hormones and release them into the blood.; glands, tissues, cells; short and long term stress.

neuron

process and transmit information by conducting electrochemical impulses

cell body

part of the neuron that contains the nucleus of the cell

dendrites

widely branching structures of a neuron that receive input from other neurons

axon

carries action potentials away from the cell body and toward the other neurons, muscles, or glands.

electrical signaling

transmission of electrical impulses in the form of action potential; rapid and involve changes in the membrane potential.

chemical signaling

relies on the release of chemical messengers aka neurotransmitters/hormones. in the extracellular fluid, binds to specific receptors then transmits information chemically.

action potential

excitation that travels along an axon at a constant strength, no matter how far it travels.

all-or-none law

an axon either fires full strength or nothing at all.

acetylcholine

increases brain arousal

dopamine

reward, pleasure, motivation, and motor control; mood regulation and is implicated in conditions such as parkinsons’ disease and schizophrenia

serotonin

modifies many types of motivated and emotional behavior

norepinephrine

body’s fight or flight response; increases alertness, arousal, and HR; contributes to mood regulation

gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)

main inhibitory neurotransmitter; regulate anxiety, stress, and overall neuronal excitability.

glutamate

primary excitatory neurotransmitter; learning, memory, and overall brain function.

endorphins

natural painkillers; responds to stress and pain

oxytocin

“love hormone”; plays a role in social bonding, trust, maternal behavior, and uterine contractions during childbirth.

histamine

regulates sleep-wake cycles, appetite control, and response to allergens; inflammation and allergic reactions.

stimulant

increases activity of the CNS; enhances alertness, wakefulness, and physical or mental energy.

depressant

slows down brain activity, resulting in relaxation, drowsiness, and decrease in physical and mental alertness; calming, anxiety-reducing, and sleep inducing properties.

cerebellum

regulates balance, movement, and body control

medulla oblongata

breathing, HR, and BP

pons

sleep regulation, facial movements and sensory roles

midbrain

nuclei involved in motor functions, eye movements, and sensory processing.

thalamus

long term memory; core to consciousness and alertness

hypothalamus

motivation; regulate homeostasis including hunger, thirst, body temp, and the endocrine system

amygdala

emotions (fear and aggression); emotional memory formation

basal ganglia

large movement; reward-based learning

limbic system

involved in emotions, motivation and memory

corpus callosum

connects two hemispheres of the brain

frontal lobe

controls voluntary movement; personality and executive functions; Broca’s area - language production and speech.

parietal lobe

somatosensory cortex - 5 senses

temporal lobe

interprets sound; wernicke’s area - language comprehension and understanding spoken and written language

left hemisphere

language processing; broca’s area (speech production) and wernicke’s area (language comprehension

right hemisphere

understands spatial relationships, visual perception, and recognizes patterns; artistic abilities

electroencephalograph EEG

measures and amplifies tiny electrical changes on the scalp that reflect brain activity

positron emission tomography PET

records radioactivity of various brain areas emitted from injected chemicals

functional magnetic resonance imaging fMRI

magnetic detectors outside the head to compare the amounts of hemoglobin w/ and w/o oxygen in different brain areas.

sensation

our sense organs receive information from the environment (ex. 5 senses)

perception

people select, organize, and interpret sensation (ex. color, face recognition, speech understanding, depth perception)

transduction

physical energy is converted into sensory neural impulses

sensory threshold

minimum level or intensity of a sensory stimulus that is required for a person to detect or perceive it.

absolute threshold

intensity at which a given individual detects a stimulus 50% of the time; when a stimulus crosses the threshold from being undetectable to detectable by your visual system.

weber’s law

explains how we perceive differences in stimuli, such as weight, brightness, or loudness.

just noticeable difference

the smallest amount of change in a stimulus that can be detected.

electromagnetic spectrum

the continuum of all frequencies of radiated energy; from gamma rays and x-rays with very short wavelengths, through ultraviolet, visible light, and infrared, to radio and TV transmission with very long wavelengths.

stimulus

energy from the world around us that affects us in some way

receptors

specialized cells that convert environmental energies into signals for the nervous system.

lens

focuses on incoming light onto the retina; closer object, lens thicken; far away objects, lens thin

retina

converts incoming light onto electrical signals that can be transmitted to the brain for processing

cones

perceive color and detail in bright light

s-cones

short wavelengths; primarily blue-violet range

m-cones

medium wavelengths; green-yellow range

L-cones

longer wavelengths; red-orange range

rods

adapted for vision in dim light

blind spot

retinal area where the optic nerve exits; no room for receptors because the axons take up all the space.

trichromatic theory

color vision depends on the relative rate of response of three types of cones: red, blue, green

opponent-process theory

we perceive color in terms of paired opposites; red vs. green, yellow vs. blue, white vs. black; how later cells organize color information.

retinex theory

cortex compares color information from various parts of the visual field.

color constancy

tendency of an object to appear nearly the same color under a variety of lighting conditions

bottom up processing

taking raw sensory information that is new to us from the environment and processing it w/o relying on prior knowledge or expectations; data driven.

top down processing

uses your background knowledge such as expectations and prior knowledge to influence interpretation of incoming stimuli; theory driven.

signal detection theory

study of people’s tendencies to make hits (true pos.), correct rejections (true neg.), misses (false neg.), and false alarms (false pos.)

hit

true positive; observer accurately identifies a real signal; ex) a pt w/ a disease actually has the disease.

correct rejection

true negative; observer correctly determines that there is no signal, and there is actually no signal; ex) if a non pregnant person is actually not pregnant.

miss

false negative; observer fails to detect the presence of a signal; ex) when a weapon carried by a passenger goes undetected by the security scanner.

false alarm

false positive; observer incorrectly detects a signal when there is actually none; ex) when a legitimate email is mistakenly classified as spam.

gestalt principle

the whole is different from the sum of its parts

proximity

grouping things that are close to each other as belonging together; ex) you would perceive a row of dots as separate groups if they are spaced apart.

similarity

grouping things that look similar to each other; ex) you would see a pattern of circles as one group and a pattern of squares as one group

continuity

seeing continuous, smooth lines and shapes rather than disjointed jones; ex) when lines intersect, we see them as continuing in the same direction.

closure

completing incomplete shapes; ex) you will mentally “close” the gap and perceive a broken circle as a full circle.

figure-ground perception

the ability of our visual system to organize visual stimuli into two distinct and meaningful components: “figure” and the “ground”

figure

main object or shape that stands out in a visual scene

ground

background or less prominent part of the visual scene against which the figure stands out; backdrop or context for the figure

convergence

degree to which the eyes turn to focus on a close object; cross-eyed

linear perspective

refers to the way objects appear to diminish in size and converge toward a single point as they recede into the distance; ex) converging lines, vanishing point

monocular cues

visual cues to distance that are just as effective with one eye as with both; ex) linear perspective

binocular cues

visual cues that depend on both eyes; ex) convergence

depth perception

perception of distance; ex) driving a car

muller-lyer illusion

our perception of line length is influence by the presence and orientation of the arrowheads or fins.

ponzo illusion

when two objects that are actually the same size appear to be difference sizes because of the way they are placed in a picture with converging lines or perspective.

cross sectional

several groups of subjects of various ages studied at one time; ex) comparing memory abilities of 3,5, and 7 year olds.

longitudinal

a single group of individuals as they develop; ex) studying a group of children from ages 6 to 12.

sequential design

data collection and analysis occur in a step by step or sequential fashion; researchers start with people of different ages and study them again at later times; ex) studying 6 year olds and 8 year olds and then examining them again 2 years later.

selective attrition

tendency for certain kinds of people to drop out of a study for various reasons

cohort

a specific group of people who share a common set of characteristics or experiences because they were born or came of age during the same historical period

retrospective

a study design that involves looking back in time to analyze past events, experiences, or data in order to understand patterns, relationships, or outcomes.

double blind

neither the participants nor the experimenters know which individuals are in the treatment group (receiving the experiment) and which are in the control group (not receiving the treatment.

assimiliate

absorb or take in something new and make it a part of yourself or your culture

habituation

when you get used to something because you’ve experienced it so many times that it no longer feels new or surprising; natural way our brains filter out familiar or unimportant information to focus on what’s new or potential relevant

accommodation

making adjustments or changes to fit or adapt to a specific situation or need; involves modifying or accommodating one’s actions, thoughts, or environment to better suit a particular circumstance or individual.

disinhibition

temporary loss of restrain or inhibition, which can lead someone to behave a more impulsive or uninhibited manner than usual; when a person acts without thinking carefully about the consequences.

equilibrium

the state of balance or stability where things are even and not changing.