Quantitative Psychology Midterm Study Guide

Neurons

Specialized cells of the nervous system that receive and pass messages.

Neurotransmitters

Chemical substances involved in the transmission of neural impulses from one neuron to another.

Central Nervous System

Consists of the brain and spinal cord, responsible for processing information.

Peripheral Nervous System

Divided into the somatic and autonomic systems, regulating bodily functions.

Afferent Neurons

Neurons that transmit messages from sensory receptors to the spinal cord and brain.

Efferent Neurons

Neurons that transmit messages from the brain or spinal cord to muscles or glands.

Neural Impulse

Electrochemical messages that travel within neurons.

Resting Potential

Electrical potential across the neural membrane when a neuron does not respond to other neurons.

Action Potential

The basis for conduction of a neural impulse along an axon.

Endocrine System

Comprises ductless glands that release hormones into the bloodstream.

Hindbrain

Part of the brain that includes structures like the medulla, pons, and cerebellum.

Forebrain

Part of the brain that includes the thalamus and hypothalamus, responsible for higher functions.

Cerebral Cortex

The outer layer of the cerebrum involved in sensation, perception, and cognitive functions.

Broca's Area

Language area in the frontal lobe that influences speech production. (condition known as difficulty communicating is called Broca’s Aphasia)

Wernicke's Area

Language area in the temporal lobe that influences comprehension of speech.

Sympathetic Nervous System

Part of the autonomic nervous system that prepares the body for stress-related activities.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

Part of the autonomic nervous system that conserves energy and restores the body to a resting state.

Kinship Studies

Research designs that assess the genetic influence on traits by comparing relatives.

Corpus Callosum

The large band of neural fibers that connects the two brain hemispheres and allows communication between them.

Contralateral Control

The concept that each hemisphere of the brain controls the opposite side of the body.

Right Hemisphere

This side of the brain is dominant for visual-motor tasks and nonverbal responses.

Left Hemisphere

This hemisphere of the brain is dominant for language and speech.

Split-Brain Surgery

A procedure that severs the corpus callosum to relieve severe epilepsy, leading to distinctive cognitive effects.

Commissures

Neuronal bridges that connect the two hemispheres, allowing communication between them; the corpus callosum is the largest.

Attentional Resources

The capacity to focus cognitive resources on tasks, with the implication that doing so depletes available attention.

Interpreter Mechanism

A term to describe the left hemisphere's tendency to create narratives to explain behaviors it does not understand due to lack of information.

False Memories

Memories that a person recalls incorrectly, which are associated with activity in the left hemisphere.

Lateralization

The specialization of function in one hemisphere of the brain compared to the other.

Visual Search Tasks

Cognitive tasks involving locating a target within a visual array, in which split-brain patients have shown superior performance.

Modular Model

The hypothesis that the brain consists of discrete modules that carry out specific functions, rather than a single unifying system.

Plasticity

The brain's ability to reorganize and adapt, particularly following injury or changes in its structure.

Neuroscience

The scientific study of the nervous system, encompassing the brain's structure and function.

Cognitive Neuroscience

A branch of neuroscience that focuses on the interrelation of cognitive processes and the brain, often studied through methods like split-brain research.

Evolutionary Perspective

A viewpoint suggesting that certain brain functions developed through natural selection, leading to lateralization as a beneficial adaptation.

Split-brain

A condition in which the corpus callosum is severed to alleviate medically intractable epilepsy, leading to potential divisions in cognitive functioning.

Corpus callosum

A band of neural fibers connecting the left and right hemispheres of the brain, facilitating communication between them.

Callosotomy

A surgical procedure involving the cutting of the corpus callosum.

Consciousness

The state of being aware of and able to think about one's own existence, thoughts, and surroundings.

Subject unity

A state in which all experiences generated in a system belong to one subject; defining consciousness based on a single first-person perspective.

Lateralization

The tendency for some neural functions or cognitive processes to be specialized to one hemisphere of the brain.

Integrated Information Theory

A theory suggesting that consciousness correlates with the amount of integrated information within a system.

Global Neuronal Workspace Theory

A cognitive architecture that posits consciousness arises when information is accessible for a wide range of cognitive processes throughout the brain.

Alien hand phenomenon

A condition often associated with split-brain patients where one hand acts seemingly without the control of the individual.

Cross-cueing

A proposed mechanism by which separate brain hemispheres communicate using subtle behavioral cues, despite lack of direct communication.

Attentional Bias

The tendency to allocate attention preferentially to certain spatial locations or stimuli, often observed in patients with brain lesions.

Corpus Callosum

A bundle of neural fibers connecting the left and right cerebral hemispheres, facilitating interhemispheric communication.

Hemineglect

A condition where individuals fail to notice or respond to stimuli on one side of space, typically caused by damage to the right hemisphere.

Spatial Attention

The process of selectively focusing on specific locations in the environment for perception and action.

Split Brain

A condition resulting from surgical severance of the corpus callosum, leading to a lack of communication between the two hemispheres.

Greyscales Task

A task that involves judging the darker or brighter of two mirror-reversed luminance gradients, used to quantify attentional biases.

Pseudoneglect

A behavioral phenomenon where neurologically healthy individuals show a slight leftward bias in spatial attention, often assessed through line bisection tasks.

Line Bisection

A neuropsychological task where participants judge the midpoint of horizontal lines, revealing biases related to hemispheric dominance.

Callosotomy

A surgical procedure that involves cutting the corpus callosum to alleviate severe epilepsy, which can lead to split-brain effects.

Hemispheric Asymmetry

Differences in function and processing between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, often reflected in attentional biases.

Efferent Neurons

Specialized cells that are responsible for carrying information from the brain or spinal cord to the muscles and glands.

Refractory Period

The period during which a neuron is insensitive to messages from other neurons.

Receptor Site

Specifically tailored harbor on the receiving cell for neurotransmitters.

Central Nervous System

The division of the nervous system that includes the brain and spinal cord.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

Part of the nervous system that helps the body recover and return to its usual, non-aroused state.

Spinal Reflex

An automatic response, such as a knee jerk, that does not require conscious thought.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

A technique that relies on subtle shifts in blood flow to render a visual representation of brain activity.

Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

A technique that creates an image of brain activity by tracing glucose usage.

Medulla

The area in the brain where the regulation of heartbeat, blood pressure, movement, and respiration, takes place.

Thalamus

Responsible for the relay of sensory information to the cortex and in the functions of sleep and attention.

Reticular Formation

Area of the brain that may be injured if someone is in a coma.

Temporal Lobe

Area of the brain where sound is processed.

Broca's Aphasia

A condition where a person has trouble communicating; comprehension is intact, but responses are slow and sentences are incomplete.

Corpus Callosum

Structure severed in a split-brain operation for severe cases of epilepsy.

Cerebellum

Area of the brain that relies heavily on the ability to walk along a tight rope.

Oxytocin

Hormone that stimulates labor and is connected with maternal behavior in some mammals.

Thyroid Gland

Gland whose function is checked with blood work if someone feels tired and sluggish and has been gaining weight.

Testosterone

Hormone required for the development of male sex organs.

Evolutionary Psychologists

The field that studies how adaptation and natural selection are connected with mental processes and behavior.

Phrase to differentiate afferent from efferent neurons:

Afferent arrives, Efferent exits (CNS - Central Nervous System)

Mnemonic to remember Broca’s Area

“If Broca is broken, nothing is spoken”

Left brain

Think of the “L’s” - Language, logic

androgen

male hormones, including testosterone

To remember Wernicke’s Area:

If Wernicke is learnin,’ everything’s working

Concepts

Mental categories used to group objects, relations, events, abstractions, or qualities that have common properties.

Prototypes

Types of good examples of mental categories.

Exemplars

Simple prototypes that can be positive and/or negative.

Overextension

Inclusion of instances in a different category when thinking.

Thinking

Paying attention to information and using mental representation, reasoning, and making judgments and decisions with regard to the information.

Cognition

Mental activity involved in understanding, processing, and communicating information.

Algorithms

A systematic procedure for solving a problem that works when it is correctly applied.

Systematic random search

An algorithm for solving problems in which each possible solution is tested according to a particular set of rules.

Heuristics

Rules of thumb that help us simplify and solve problems.

Means-end analysis

A heuristic device in which we try to solve a problem by evaluating the difference between the current situation and the goal.

Analogy

A comparison between two things that appear to be similar, as in thinking that what would work in one situation may work in a similar situation.

Mental Set

Tendency to use an approach that was previously successful with a similar problem.

Insight

Sudden perception regarding the solution to a problem.

Incubation

Standing back from a problem briefly, and the solution may come in a flash of insight.

Functional Fixedness

Tendency to think of an object in terms of its familiar function.

Representative heuristic

People make judgements about samples according to the populations they appear to represent.

Availability heuristic

Our estimates of frequency or probability of events are based on how easy it is to find examples.

Anchoring and adjustment heuristic

A presumption or first estimate serves as a cognitive anchor. As we receive additional information, we make adjustments, but remain in the proximity of the anchor.

Framing effect

Wording or the context in which information is presented affects decision making.

Motivated reasoning

Making decisions and judgements on the basis of emotion rather than evaluation of all evidence.

Semanticity

Quality of language in which words are used as symbols for objects, events or ideas; includes relational concepts.

Infinite creativity

The capacity to combine words into original sentences.