Psychology Lectures: Evolution, Methods, Neuroscience, Sensation & Perception

Vocabulary practice cards created from introductory psychology notes covering foundational thinkers, research design, neural anatomy and firing, brain structures, and sensory systems.

Plato: Nativism

The theory that certain skills, abilities, or knowledge are hard-wired into the mind from birth.

Aristotle: Empiricism

The theory that all knowledge comes from sensory experience and observation.

Franz Joseph Gall: Phrenology

A theoretical approach developed by Franz Joseph Gall stating that specific mental abilities and characteristics are linked to distinct regions of the brain.

Broca's Area

A brain region where damage causes impairment in speech production while leaving language comprehension intact.

Wlheim Wundt: Consciousness

A person's subjective experience of the world and the mind.

Wlheim Wundt: Structuralism

An approach to psychology aimed at understanding human culture, language, and behavior through the underlying systems that organize them.

Wlheim Wundt: Introspection

The subjective observation and reporting of one's own conscious experience.

William James: Functionalism

A psychological perspective advocated by William James that focuses on the purpose and adaptive function of human behavior rather than static mental structure.

Freud: Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud's therapeutic strategy aimed at relieving conscious symptoms by bringing unconscious thoughts and childhood traumas into conscious awareness.

Abraham Maslow: Humanistic Psychology

A perspective in psychology emphasizing that individuals possess the power to make choices that shape their own lives, advocating equal footing between client and therapist.

John Watson: Behaviorism

A branch of psychology that focuses entirely on observable, objective actions and treats mental states as secondary.

Gestalt Psychology

A psychological approach emphasizing that the mind processes entire patterns rather than individual components separately.

Cognitive Psychology

The scientific study of internal mental processes, including how people think, remember, perceive, and solve problems.

Evolutionary Psychology

A field that explains mind and behavior in terms of the adaptive value of abilities preserved over time by natural selection.

Social Psychology

The scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.

Cultural Psychology

The study of how cultures reflect and shape the psychological processes of their members.

Case Study

An in-depth examination of a single person, group, or event using multiple measurement tools like clinical interviews and psychological testing.

Naturalistic Observation

A research method where psychologists study subjects unobtrusively in their natural, unchanged environment.

Reliability

The property of a research test or measurement to produce consistent results across time, place, and scorer.

Validity

The extent to which a research instrument or test accurately measures the specific trait or concept it intends to measure.

Power

The ability of a test or assessment to detect an anomaly or true effect.

Debriefing

A verbal description provided to research participants after a study explaining its true nature, purpose, and procedures.

Structure of a Neuron

The basic cellular unit of the nervous system responsible for processing and transmitting information, consisting of a cell body, dendrites, axon, myelin sheath, and synaptic end bulbs.

Action Potential

An electric signal conducted along an axon to a synapse when the stimulation threshold (approx. $-55\,\text{mV}$) is reached, peaking at $+40\,\text{mV}$.

Resting Potential

The stable electric charge across a neuron's membrane when at rest, maintained at $-70\,\text{mV}$ by sodium-potassium pumps pumping $3\,\text{Na}^+$ out for every $2\,\text{K}^+$ in.

Acetylcholine

A neurotransmitter that regulates voluntary motor control, memory, and learning; tied to Alzheimer's disease.

Dopamine

A neurotransmitter that regulates motor behavior, pleasure, and emotional arousal; linked to Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, and addiction.

Serotonin

A neurotransmitter regulating sleep, dreaming, mood, aggression, appetite, and sexual behavior; deficits are linked to depression, anxiety, and OCD.

Organization of the Nervous System

The hierarchical division separating the nervous system into Central (brain and spinal cord) and Peripheral branches, which further divides into Somatic and Autonomic systems.

Sympathetic Nervous System

A branch of the autonomic nervous system that prepares the body for action during threatening situations.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

A branch of the autonomic nervous system that helps the body return to a normal resting state.

Brain Divisions (Forebrain, Midbrain, Hindbrain)

The structural layout of the brain consisting of the hindbrain (basic life functions), midbrain (orientation/movement), and forebrain (complex cognitive, emotional, and motor tasks).

Subcortical Structures

Deep forebrain structures beneath the cerebral cortex including the thalamus, hypothalamus, pituitary gland, amygdala, and hippocampus.

Lobes of the Cerebral Cortex

The distinct regions of the cerebral outer layer comprising the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, and temporal lobe.

Corpus Callosum

A thick band of nerve fibers connecting the right and left cerebral hemispheres, facilitating interhemispheric communication.

Sensation

The process by which sensory receptors detect raw physical energy from the environment and convert it into neural signals.

Perception

The active process by which the brain selects, organizes, and interprets sensory signals to give them meaning.

Transduction

process where sensory systems convert physical energy from the environment into electrical signals that the brain can understand

Dimensions of Light Waves

Physical properties of light waves mapped to visual perception: length determines hue, amplitude determines brightness, and wavelength count determines purity/saturation.

Anatomy of the Eye

The visual organ featuring structures like the cornea, pupil, iris, lens, retina, fovea, optic disk, and optic nerve.

Retinal Neural Pathway

The sequence of signal transmission in visual transduction: Photoreceptors (rods/cones) -> Bipolar neurons -> Ganglion cells -> Optic disk -> Optic nerve -> Brain.

Visual Pathway to the Brain

The neural route of visual fields crossing at the optic chiasm, passing through the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) in the thalamus, and terminating in Area V1 of the occipital lobe.

McGurk Effect

A perceptual illusion where visual lip-movement cues clash with spoken sound, causing the brain to hear an entirely new auditory signal.

Anatomy of the Ear

The auditory structure divided into outer (pinna, auditory canal, eardrum), middle (ossicles: hammer, anvil, stirrup), and inner ear (cochlea, basilar membrane, cilia, semicircular canals).

A-delta Fibers

Sensory nerve fibers that transmit fast, acute, sharp, and localized pain sensations.

C-fibers

Sensory nerve fibers that transmit slow, dull, aching, burning, or lingering pain sensations.

Gate-Control Theory

A theory asserting that pain signals from body receptors can be gated or blocked by spinal interneurons via feedback from skin receptors or signals from the brain.

Anatomy of Gustation (Taste)

The visual and cellular arrangement of the tongue, including papillae, taste buds, taste pores, microvilli taste receptor cells, and underlying nerve fibers.

Charles Darwin: Natural Selection

the features of an organism that help it survive and reproduce are more likely than other features to be passed on to subsequent generations

Freud: Unconscious

a world of mental pocesses that are outside of our concous awareness that still influence us

Pavlov’s Dogs

dogs in an experiment would produce saliva dueing actions related to food and not at the food itself

Advent of computers

model for human mind (both register, store, and retrieve information).

information processing systems

Cognitive psychology

the scientific study of internal mental processes, including how people think, remember, perceive, and solve problems

Behavioral Neuroscience

study of how the brain + nervous system shape actions, thoughts, and emotions

Cognitive Neuroscience

the scientific field that studies how physical brain activity creates human thought, emotion, and behavior

laboratory observation

psychologists study subjects in a controlled, artificial environment

Test-retest reliability

people tend to do better the second time

Alternative forms reliable

multiple choice vs true/false

Construct validity

items broadly represent the trait in question

Predictive validity

ability to predict other measures of the trait in question, related traits

Surveys

questionnaires/interviews that gather info by asking people directly about their experiences, attitudes, and opinions

Correlational study

a descriptive study that looks for a consistent relationship between two phenomena

experiment

a controlled test of a hypothesis in which a researcher manipulates one variable to discover its effect on another

Experimenter effects

experimenters can influence the results of a study (body language or inherent traits

cell body

coordinates information-processing tasks and keeps the cell alive

dendrites

receives information from other neurons and relays it to the cell body

axon

transmits information to other neurons, muscles, or glands

myelin sheath

insulating layer of fatty material

nodes of Ranvier

increase efficiency of signal transmission

synapse

the junction/region between axon of one neuron and the dendrites or cell body of another

Sensory neurons

to brain

receive information from the external world travel through spinal cord convey to brain

Motor neurons

to body

spinal cord to the muscles induce movement

Interneurons

neurons that connect sensory neurons, motor neurons, or other interneurons

Refractory period

the time after an action potential during which a new action potential cannot be initiated

Endorphins

chemicals that act within pain and pleasure pathways and emotion centers of the brain

Runner’s high

Norepinephrine (NE):

influences mood and arousal

Depression (low norepinephrine)

L-Dopa

Parkinson’s disease

Precursor to dopamine

Prozac

Depression

SSRI: selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors

Nervous system

interacting network of neurons that convery electrochemical information thru the body

central nervous system (CNS)

Brain and spinal cord

peripheral nervous system (PNS)

Connects the central nervous system to the body’s organs an muscles

somatic + autonomic nervous system

Somatic nervous system

a set of nerves that conveys information into and out of the CNS. Communicates with sense organs (eyes) and voluntary muscles

Sensory nervous system

a set of nerves transmitting sensory input from body to brain

Motor nervous system

a set of nerves for motor output from brain to body

autonomic nervous system (ANS):

a set of nerves that carries involuntary and automatic commands that control blood vessels, body organs, and glands

Hindbrain (brain stem):

an area of the brain that coordinates information coming into and out of the spinal cord, and controls the basic functions of life

pons

relays information from the cerebellum to the rest of the brain. Sleep and dream

cerebellum

fine motor skills, coordination, balance

medulla

coordinates heart rate, circulation, and respiration

reticular formation

regulates sleep, wakefulness, and arousal level

Midbrain

small, midsection of the brain that is important for orientation and movement (vision, hearing, voluntary motor control)

Forebrain

critical for complex cognitive, emotional, sensory, and motor function

cerebral cortex

outermost layer of the brain, visible to the naked eye + divided into 2 hemispheres

Thalamus

relays and filters information from the senses and transmits the information to the cerebral cortex

Hypothalamus

regulates body temperature, hunger, thirst, and s*xual behavior

Pituitary gland

“master-gland”, releases hormones that direct the functions of many other glands

Hippocampus

critical for creating new memories

occipital lobe

processes visual information

parietal lobe

processes information about touch. Somatosensory Cortex

temporal lobe

responsible for hearing and language