Psych Cram

3rd variable problem

Different variable is responsible for relationship (ice cream and murder)

Absolute Threshold

Detection of signal 50% of time

Accommodation

Lens changes curvature to focus images on retina

Acetylcholine (ACh)

Memory and movement

Activation Synthesis

Brain produces random bursts of energy

Addiction

Must have it to avoid withdrawal symptoms

Adrenaline

Fight/flight

Advantage of Correlation

Useful when experiments are unethical

Agonist

Drug that mimics a NT

All or nothing principle

Stimulus must trigger the AP past its threshold, but does not increase the intensity or speed of the response

Alpha Waves

High amp., drowsy

Altruism

Unselfish interest in helping other people.

Alzheimer's

Destruction of acetylcholine in hippocampus

Amplitude

Height of wave

Amygdala

Emotions, fear

Antagonist

Drug that blocks a NT

Belief perseverance

Stick to your original belief even when given evidence to disprove it.

Beta Waves

Awake

Blind spot

Occurs where the optic nerve leaves the eye

Blindsight

Caused by lesions to primary visual cortex

Brain Plasticity

Brain changes via damage and through experience

Brainstem / Medulla

Vital organs (HR, BP, breathing)

Broca's aphasia

Damage to Broca's area

Broca's Area

Inability to produce speech

Bystander effect

The more people around, the less likely we are to help someone in need.

Case Study

Studies ONE person (usually) in great detail

Central route to persuasion

Change people's attitudes through logical arguments and explanations.

Cerebellum

Movement, balance, coordination, procedural memory

Cerebral Cortex

Outer portion of the brain

Circadian Rhythms

24ish hour biological clock of Body temp & sleep

Cognitive bias

Bias in thinking/judgment

Cognitive dissonance

Two opposing thoughts conflict with each other, causing discomfort.

Color deficiency

Damage to, or missing

Conduction deafness

Damage to bones of ear and ear drum cause hearing loss

Cones

Color, bright light (red, green, blue) (only in the fovea)

Confidentiality

Names kept secret

Conformity

Change in a person's behavior to more closely match the group.

Confound

Error/flaw in study that is accidentally introduced

Consciousness

Awareness of cognitive processes

Consolidation dream theory

Brain is combining and processing memories for storage

Control Group

Placebo, baseline (part of the IV); can only have 1

Convenience Sample

Select participants on availability

Corpus Callosum

Bundle of nerves that connects the 2 hemispheres

Correlation

Identify relationship between two variables

Debriefing

Must be told the true purpose of the study

Deindividuation

Loss of self

Dependent Variable

Measured variable (is DEPENDENT on the independent variable)

Depressants

Decrease NS activity (alcohol)

Descriptive stats

Show shape of the data

Dichromatism

Missing 1 cone

Directionality problem

Which direction does the correlation go?

Disadvantage of Correlation

CORRELATION DOES NOT EQUAL CAUSATION

Discrimination

Different treatment of a person/group than how you would treat others.

Door in the face phenomenon

A large request is turned down, leading to increased likelihood of complying with a smaller request.

Dopamine

Reward (short term) & fine movement

Double

Blind

EEG

Shows broad brain activity

Elaboration likelihood model

Two ways to persuade: central route and peripheral route.

Endorphins

Decrease pain

Epilepsy

Seizures

Ethnocentrism

Tendency to see your own group as more important than others.

Experimental Group

Received the treatment (part of the IV); can have multiple exp. groups

Extrinsic motivation

Motivation to obtain a reward.

False

consensus effect

Farsightedness

Better vision far

fMRI

Show brain activity in specific regions, measures oxygen

Foot in the door phenomenon

Complying with a small request leads to compliance with a larger request.

Fovea

Area of best vision (cones here)

Frequency theory

Rate at which action potentials are sent determines sound (low pitches)

GABA

Major inhibitory NT

Ganglion cells

Create optic nerve (opponent process theory happens here)

Gate

control theory

Ghrelin

Makes you hungry (turns you into a gremlin)

Glutamate

Major excitatory NT

Group polarization

The more time spent with a group, the stronger their thoughts/opinions become.

Groupthink

Desire for harmony within a group leads to everyone going along with the same thinking.

Hallucinogens

Hallucinations and altered perceptions (Marijuana)

Halo effect

Overall impression of a person/thing is influenced by a single positive trait.

Hawthorne effect

People change behavior when watched

Hippocampus

Episodic and semantic memory

Hypothalamus

Reward/pleasure center, eating behaviors

Hypothesis

Tentative explanation

Implicit attitudes

Unconscious bias that leads to certain behaviors.

Independent Variable

Purposefully altered by researcher to look for effect

Inferential statistics

Establishes significance (meaningfulness)

Informational social influence

We conform to others because we think their opinions must be right.

Informed Consent

Must agree to be part of study

Ingroup bias

Tendency to favor our own group.

Insomnia

Inability to fall / stay asleep

Intrinsic motivation

Inner motivation to do something because you like it.

Just noticeable difference

Can tell the difference b/w a stronger and weaker stimulus

Just

world phenomenon

Kinesthetic sense

Sense of body position & movement without looking

Lens

Focuses light on retina

Leptin

Makes you full (stops hunger)

Lesion

Destruction of brain tissue

Mean

Average (use in normal distribution)

Median

Middle # (use in skewed distribution)

Melatonin

Sleep

META

ANALYSIS