Psychology 101 Final

Psychology

The scientific study of mental activity and behavior, which are based on brain processes.

6 strategies psychology helps you study better with.

Improving, Monitoring, Practicing, Attending, Connecting, Thinking Deeply.

5 domains of modern psychology and their psychological topics.

Biological, Cognitive, Developmental, Social & personality, Mental & physical health.

Five steps used in the Scientific Method

Formulate a theory, Develop a testable hypothesis, Test with a research method, analyze the data, share the results and conduct more research.

Difference between a theory and a hypothesis.

A theory is scientifically tested, a hypothesis is an educated guess.

Case Study

Intensive examination of one person or organization or a few individuals or organizations.

Self-Reports

Asking questions of research patients.

Observational

Observing and classifying behavior.

Correlational research methods

Examine how variables are naturally related in real world without altering the variables.

Experimental methods

Research method that can reveal causality by manipulation independent variables and measuring the effects on dependent variables.

Dependent variable

Variable that is measured to determine how it was affected by the manipulation of the independent variable.

Independent variable

Variable that is manipulated by the experimented to examine it's impact on the dependent variable.

Random assignment

Placing participants into the conditions of an experiment where each participant has an equal change of being assigned to any level of the independent variable.

Experimental group

Group of participants that receives treatment.

Control group

Group of participants that receives no treatment.

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

A committee at each institution where research is conducted to review every experiment for ethics and methodology.

Axon

Long, narrow outgrowth of a neuron's cell body that lets the neuron transmit information to other neurons.

Cell Body

Part of the neuron where information from thousands of other neurons is collected and integrated.

Dendrite

branchlike extensions of the neuron that detect information from other neurons.

Terminal buttons

Parts of the neuron at the end of axons that release chemical signals from the neuron into the synapse.

Synapse

The gap between the terminal buttons of a sending neuron and the dendrites of a receiving neuron.

Neurotransmitters

Chemicals that carry signals from one neuron to another.

Peripheral nervous system

Nervous system of all nerve cells except spinal and brain.

Central nervous system

Brain and spinal cord nervous system.

Agonists

Enhance the actions of neurotransmitters.

Antagonists

Inhibits actions of neurotransmitters.

EEG (electroencephalogram)

Shows brain's electrical activity by positioning electrodes over the scalp.

fMRI (functional MRI)

Neuroimaging procedure using MRI technology that measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow.

TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation)

The use of strong magnets to briefly interrupt normal brain activity as a way to study brain regions

Hindbrain

Survival functions and movement.

Midbrain

Movement.

Forebrain

Motivation, emotion, complex thought.

Hypothalamus

Involved in regulating bodily functions.

Hippocampus

Forms new memories and spatial navigation.

Amygdala

Detects and responds to threats.

Occipital

Important for vision, at the back of the skull.

Parietal

In front of occipital and behind frontal lobes, important for sense of touch and picturing layouts.

Frontal

Important for moving, planning, and complex processes.

Temporal lobes

Important for hearing and recognizing objects, such as faces.

Prefrontal cortex

Part of frontal lobe responsible for thinking, planning, and language

Sympathetic nervous system

Fight or flight response.

Parasympathetic nervous system

Nerves that help body return to a resting state.

Endocrine system

Body communication system that uses hormones to influence mental activity, behavior, and the body.

Plasticity

Property of the brain that causes it to change as the result of an injury.

Nature/Nuture debate

the debate over whether intelligence (or another trait) is primarily the result of heredity (nature) or the environment (nurture).

Learning

Change in behavior resulting from experience.

Habituation

Decrease in behavioral response after repeated exposure to a stimulus

Sensitization

Increase in behavioral response after exposure to a stimulus.

Classical conditioning

Learned response where neutral object elicits a response when associated with a response producing stimulus.

Unconditioned stimulus

Stimulus that elicits an innate response and doesn't require prior learning.

Unconditioned response

Response that doesn't have to be learned, such as reflexes.

Conditioned stimulus

Stimulus that elicits a response only after learning has taken place.

Conditioned response

Response that has been learned.

Extinction

Conditioned response is weakened when conditioned stimulus is repeated without the unconditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous recovery

Process where a previously extinguished response emerges after the conditioned stimulus is presented again.

Generalization

Responding similarly to a range of similar stimuli.

Discrimination

Inappropriate treatment of people based on the groups they belong to.

Operant

Action that is performed on an environment and has consequences.

Reinforcer

Consequence of an action that affects the probability of the action being repeated in the future.

Thorndike's law of effect

Responses that lead to satisfying consequences are more likely to be repeated.

Operant conditioning

A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher.

Positive reinforcement

Reinforcement of a response by the addition or experiencing of a pleasurable stimulus.

Negative reinforcement

Increasing the strength of a given response by removing or preventing a painful stimulus when the response occurs.

Positive punishment

Adding an undesirable stimulus to stop or decrease a behavior.

Negative punishment

Taking away a pleasant stimulus to decrease or stop a behavior.

Fixed interval

Reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed.

Variable interval

Reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals.

Fixed ratio

Reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses.

Variable ratio

Reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses.

Behavior modification

The use of operant conditioning techniques to bring about desired changes in behavior.

Observational learning

Learning by observing others.

Modeling

Learning by imitating others; copying behavior.

Vicarious conditioning

Classical conditioning of a reflex response or emotion by watching the reaction of another person.

Memory

Nervous system's ability to obtain and retain information.

Encoding

The processing of information into the memory system.

Storage

The retention of encoded information over time.

Retrieval

The process of getting information out of memory storage.

Selective attention

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.

Sensory storage

Memory store that briefly holds information from the five senses.

Short-Term storage

Memory storage system that briefly holds a limited amount of information in awareness.

Long-term storage

A type of storage that holds information for hours, days, weeks, or years.

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units.

Maintenance rehearsal

Repeating stimuli in their original form to retain them in short-term memory.

Elaborative rehearsal

The linking of new information to material that is already known.

Primacy effect

Tendency to remember words at the beginning of a list especially well.

Recency effect

Tendency to remember words at the end of a list especially well.

Retrograde amnesia

Loss of memories from our past.

Anterograde amnesia

Inability to form new memories.

Explicit memory

The act of consciously or intentionally retrieving past experiences.

Episodic memory

Memory for one's personal past experiences.

Semantic memory

Memory for knowledge about the world.

Implicit memory

Retention independent of conscious recollection.

Consolidation

The process by which memories become stable in the brain.

Reconsolidation

Process where previously stored memories, when retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again.

Context-dependent memory effect

The tendency for information to be better recalled in the same context in which it was originally learned.

State-dependent memory effect

Tendency to recall information better when in the same internal state as when the information was encoded.

Blocking

The temporary inability to remember something.

Absentmindedness

Lapse in attention that results in memory failure.

Memory bias

The changing of memories over time so that they become consistent with current beliefs or attitudes.

Misattribution

Mistakenly attributing a behavior to the wrong source.