AP Psychology Unit 1A Vocabulary

Heredity (nature)

Genetic or predisposed characteristics that influence physical, behavioral, and mental traits and processes.

Environmental Factors (nurture)

The external factors that one experiences, such as family interactions and education.

Evolutionary Perspective

The study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural selection.

Natural Selection

The principle that the inherited traits enabling an organism to survive and reproduce in a particular environment will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations.

Eugenics

The study of how to arrange reproduction within a human population to increase the occurrence of heritable characteristics regarded as desirable.

Central Nervous System

The brain and spinal cord.

Peripheral Nervous System

The sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system and the rest of the body.

Sensory Neurons

Neurons that carry incoming information from the body's tissues and sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord.

Motor Neurons

Neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands.

Interneurons

Neurons within the brain and spinal cord; they communicate internally and process information between the sensory inputs and motor outputs.

Autonomic Nervous System

The part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs. Its sympathetic division arouses; its parasympathetic division calms.

Somatic Nervous System

The division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body's skeletal muscles. Also called the skeletal nervous system.

Sympathetic Nervous System

The division if the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

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

Reflex Arc

Reflexes or simple automatic responses are also controlled by the spinal cord pathway, called a reflex arc.

Neuron

A nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system.

Multiple Sclerosis

A neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative disease related to Deterioration of the myelin sheath that can lead to physical and mental symptoms including motor impairments, anxiety, depression, stress, fatigue, and pain.

Glial Cells

Cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons; they may also play a role in learning, thinking, and memory.

Action Potential

A neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon.

All-or-Nothing Principle

A neuron's reaction of either firing (with a full-strength response) or not firing.

Threshold

The level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse.

Refractory Period

In neural processing, a brief resting pause that occurs after a neuron has fired; subsequent action potentials cannot occur until the axon returns to its resting state.

Excitatory Neurotransmitter

Triggers action and makes the next action potential more likely.

Inhibitory Neurotransmitter

Depresses action and makes the next action potential less likely.

Resting Potential

The electrical charge across a neuron's membrane when it is not sending signals.

Depolarization

When the gated ion channels of the axon are open to allow for the exchange of ions.

Synapse

The junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron.

Neurotransmitter

Chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between neurons. When released by the sending neuron, they travel across the synapse and bind to receptor sites on the receiving neuron, thereby influencing whether that neuron will generate a neural impulse.

Reuptake

A neurotransmitter's reabsorption by a sending neuron.

Acetylcholine

A neurotransmitter associated with muscle movement, learning, and memory.

Dopamine

A "feel good" neurotransmitter associated with movement, learning, attention, and emotion.

Serotonin

A neurotransmitter associated with mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal.

Norepinephrine

A neurotransmitter associated with alertness and arousal.

Glutamate

A major excitatory neurotransmitter.

GABA

A major inhibitory neurotransmitter.

Endorphins

"Morphine within"—natural, opioid like neurotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure.

Substance p

A neurotransmitter associated with pain perception and immune response.

Myasthenia Gravis

A neuromuscular disease where the muscles cannot contract, leading to weakness, difficulties with muscle control or paralysis.

Agonist

A molecule that increases a neurotransmitter's actions.

Antagonist

A molecule that inhibits or blocks a neurotransmitter's action.

Endocrine System

The body's "slow" chemical communication system; a set of glands and fat tissue that secrete hormones into the bloodstream.

Hormones

Chemical messengers that are manufactured by the endocrine glands, travel through the bloodstream, and affect other tissues.

Adrenaline

Hormone that increases heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar, providing a surge of energy to power our fight-or-flight response.

Leptin

A hunger-suppressing hormone.

Ghrelin

A hunger-arousing hormone.

Melatonin

A sleep-inducing hormone.

Oxytocin

A hormone enabling uterine labor contractions and milk flow while nursing.

Psychoactive Drug

A chemical substance that alters the brain, causing changes in perceptions and moods.

Tolerance

The diminishing effect with regular use of the same dose of a drug, requiring the user to take larger and larger doses before experiencing the drug's effect.

Addiction

An everyday term for compulsive substance use.

Withdrawal

The discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing an addictive drug or behavior.

Depressants

Drugs that reduce neural activity and slow body functions.

Alcohol

A commonly used depressant that can cause slowed reaction times, slurred speech, and lowered inhibition.

Stimulants

Drugs that excite neural activity and speed up body functions.

Caffeine

A commonly used stimulant that can arouse the body and brain.

Cocaine

A highly addictive substance that is smoked, snorted, or injected, causing a rush of euphoria and depleting neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine.

Hallucinogens

Psychedelic drugs that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input.

Marijuana

A hallucinogen that contains THC and produces hallucinations, depressant-like effects, and pain reduction.

Opioids

Opium and its derivatives; they depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety.

Heroin

An opioid that creates a sense of euphoria and lethargy.

EEG

An amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity sweeping across the brain's surface. These waves are measured by electrodes placed on the scalp.

fMRI

A technique for revealing blood flow and, therefore, brain activity, by comparing successive MRI scans.

Lesioning

Tissue destruction that may occur naturally, during surgery, or experimentally.

Brain Plasticity

The brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience.

Brain Stem

The central core of the brain, beginning where the spinal cord swells as it enters the skull; responsible for automatic survival functions.

Medulla

The hindbrain structure that is the brainstem's base; controls heartbeat and breathing.

Reticular Activating System

Brainstem region that regulates wakefulness and sleep-wake transitions, turns on and off the processing of sensory stimuli, maintains consciousness, and regulates levels of alertness and arousal.

Thalamus

The forebrain's sensory control center, located on the top of the brainstem; it directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla.

Cerebellum

The hindbrain's "little brain" at the rear of the brainstem; its functions include processing sensory input, coordinating movement output and balance, and enabling nonverbal learning and memory.

Limbic System

A neural system located mostly in the forebrain—below the cerebral hemispheres—that includes the amygdala, hypothalamus, hippocampus, thalamus, and pituitary gland; associated with emotions and drives.

Hypothalamus

A limbic system neural structure lying below the thalamus; it directs several maintenance activities (eating, drinking, body temp), helps govern the endocrine system, and is linked to emotion and reward.

Pituitary Gland

Known as the master gland, sends signals to all other glands.

Hippocampus

Helps process explicit (conscious) memories—of facts and events— for storage.

Amygdala

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

Cerebral Cortex

The intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the forebrain's cerebral hemispheres; the body's ultimate control and information processing center.

Frontal Lobes

The portion of the cerebral cortex lying just behind the forehead. They enable linguistic processing, muscle movements, higher-order thinking, and executive functioning.

Parietal Lobes

The portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top of the head and toward the rear; it receives sensory input for touch and body positions.

Occipital Lobes

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

Temporal Lobes

The portion of the cerebral cortex lying roughly above the ears; it includes the auditory areas, each of which receives information primarily from the opposite ear. They also enable language processing.

Association Areas

Areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions; rather, they are involved in higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking.

Prefrontal Cortex

Controls executive functioning, such as decision-making, problem-solving, reasoning, and planning for the future.

Motor Cortex

A cerebral cortex area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movement.

Somatosensory Cortex

A cerebral cortex area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch and movement sensations.

Corpus Callosum

The large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them.

Hemispheric Specialization

The idea that the left and right hemispheres of the brain have different roles in processing specific functions.

Contralateral Hemispheric Organization

The property of the two brain hemispheres controlling the function of the opposite side of the body.

Broca's Area

The frontal lobe brain area, usually in the left hemisphere, that helps control language expression by directing the muscle movements involved in speech.

Wernicke's Area

A brain area, usually in the left temporal lobe, involved in language comprehension and expression.

Aphasia

Impairment of language, usually caused by damage to Broca's or Wernicke's areas.

Consciousness

Our subjective awareness of ourselves and our environment.

Sleep

A periodic, natural loss of consciousness — as distinct from unconsciousness resulting from a coma, general anesthesia, or hibernation.

Circadian Rhythm

Our biological clock; regular bodily rhythms (for example, of temperature and wakefulness) that occur on a 24-hour cycle.

NREM 1-3 Sleep Stages

Non-rapid eye movement sleep; encompasses all sleep stages except for REM sleep.

Hypnagogic Sensations

Jerking or a feeling of falling or floating weightlessly, while transitioning to sleep.

REM Sleep

Rapid Eye Movement sleep; a recurring sleep stage during which dreams commonly occur. Also known as paradoxical sleep, because the muscles are relaxed (except for minor twitches) but other body systems are active.

Memory Consolidation

The theory that sleep is useful for organizing and consolidating memories.

Restoration

The theory that sleep is useful for restoring depleted resources used throughout a given day.

REM Rebound

The tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation.

Insomnia

Recurring problems in falling and staying asleep.

Narcolepsy

A sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks. The affected person may lapse directly into REM sleep, often at inopportune times.