Psyc100 Master Study Guide

Synapses

• space where chemical messages are exchanged

Neurotransmitter

• chemical substance carrying a signal in synapse

Agonist

anything that increases the effect of the neurotransmitter

Antagonist

anything that decreases the effect of the neurotransmitter

Glutamate

increases nervous system activity (Alcohol is an example of a glutamate antagonist)

GABA

• depresses central nervous system activity (Alcohol is a GABA agonist)

Dopamine

• known for “reward” pathway

Myelin sheath

• fatty coating that speeds up messages/impulses. Multiple Sclerosis is a degradation with the myelin sheath

Soma

cell body

Dendrites

 receiving the messages from the cell before it

Terminal Branches

• forms a junction with other cells

Axon

 passes on messages once dendrites receive it

Action Potentials

• electro-chemical signal transmission, these can be excitatory or inhibitory

Synergistic Effects

  a synergistic effect occurs when two or more agents (such as drugs or chemicals) interact to produce a combined result that is greater than the sum of their individual, separate effects

Self Awareness

 to understand that you exist as a separate entity from the rest of the world, the Mark Test (½ of children able to past test by the age of 2), all great apes and elephants can also past this test 

Theory of the Mind

the ability to understand others have their own mental states (belief, desires, intentions, and emotions) that differ from our own), a higher level of self awareness

Basic Emotions

 (SSCADFJ) sadness, surprise, contempt, disgust, fear, joy. An emotion is basic if they are expressed the same way and universally understood by facial expressions and communication mechanisms that evolved to help others understand our own emotions (Paul Ekman) 

Two Factor Theory of Emotion

arousal and a cognitive component (depends on context) occur when we experience emotion

Stress

fight or flight response (Adrenaline gives you more energy, cortisol slows non essential functions) people who perceived stress as unharmful were at lower risk of dying, 

Oxytocin

 protective stress hormone that strengthens heart during stress and helps you be more social 

Supprachiasmatic Nucleus

  triggered by light, decreasing things like melatonin in the morning and increases it in the evening

Circadian Rhythm

cycle of biological processes of living beings

Zeitgebers

environmental cues that help to set your biological clock

Beta

• 15-30 Hz, awake, normal, alert) 

Alpha

  9-14 Hz, relaxed, calm, meditation

Theta

•   4-8 Hz, deep relaxation, Abstract thinking, deep meditation

Delta

• 1-3 HZ, deep, dreamless sleep

Stage 1 sleep

• Light sleep, theta waves

Stage 2 sleep

•  Breathing and HR slows down, theta waves

Stage 3 sleep

Deep sleep begins, slow wave sleep, delta waves

Sleep 4

• very deep sleep, limited muscle activity, delta waves

Stage 5 sleep

REM sleep, beta waves

Monophasic sleep

 sleeping in one singular period

Polyphasic

sleeping smaller chunks of time

REM paralysis

a temporary inability to move or speak that occurs when waking up from or falling asleep during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage, brain wakes up from REM sleep, but the body remains in a paralyzed state designed to prevent acting out dreams 

REM Rebound

the body’s compensatory increase in the frequency, depth, and intensity of REM (dream) sleep follows periods of sleep deprivation, stress, etc., sleep deprived rates experiences a regression of instincts

Revonsuo’s Dream Theory

dreams serve to protect us, teach us how to respond to threats, and prepare us. Stickhold - the ability to sleep allows us to integrate and consolidate knowledge.

Lucid Dreaming

the act of knowing you are dreaming while you are dreaming, you can try to tell yourself to remember you are dreaming before you sleep

Insomnia

trouble falling and staying asleep

Narcolepsy

• inability to stay awake, rapidly shift into REM sleep

Sleep Apnea

 Breathing repeatedly stops and starts, preventing proper oxygen flow

Sleep walking/talking

REM sleep without paralysis

Night Terror

• nightmare involving intense fear, screaming, and thrashing while partially waking from deep sleep 

Wish Fulfillment

(Freud) the primary function of dreams is to protect sleep by acting as a guardian, preventing repressed, unconscious desires and anxieties from waking the dreamer, also a change to live out things that one may desire to do in real life

Activation Synthesis Theory

posits that dreams are the brain’s attempt to make sense of random neural activity (activations) during REM sleep

Evolutionary Theory

avoid predators, sleeping in trees vs ground, advantage of sleeping at night, conservation of energy

Threat simulation theory

• evolved mechanisms for the brain to prepare for the future, or social skills (training the brain) 

Hyponsis

when one person can suggest things to another

• Myths -  you lose control and can made to say or do whatever, people forget or may not be able to come out of hypnosis, only affects weak-willed people, enhances accuracy of memory, enables people to re-experience a past life 

• Suggestions - you can say yes or no, some people are more suggestible than others

Depressants

decrease central nervous system (CNS)arousal and excitability levels, feeling sedated (ex. Alcohol, benzodiazepine, barbiturates, ketamine)

 Alcohol - increases effects of GABA

Stimulants

increase CNS activity and prevent certain chemicals from being reabsorbed, synaptic space become overloaded with neurotransmitters (ex. Cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, ephedrine) 

Cocaine - amplifies dopamine

Hallucinogens

 effects of these drugs can range from visual or auditory hallucinations, euphoric or dissociative sensations (Ex. LSD, MDMA/Ecstasy, PCP)

LSD - binds to serotonin and chemically elicits its effects

Opiods/Narcotics

highly addictive drugs that work on the dopaminergic system, giving strong pleasure response (Ex. opium, heroin, methadone) 

Heroin - affects inhibitory neurotransmitters, inhibit dopamine from being released

Cannaboids

marijuana, hashish, and other cannabis derivatives (inhibitory and inhibit dopamine)

Stimuli

environment event that we hear, see, feel, smell, or taste

Response

something we do after detecting stimulus

Mesmer

change in behavior

Habituation

simply getting used to something, presenting constant stimuli (flooding)

Classical Conditioning

learning that a stimulus that would otherwise have no biological meaning is associated with some that does (Pavlov’s dogs, dogs get used to associating food with a noise) NS + UCR= UCR, CS - CR

Neutral Stimulus

• no relation to the response you want

Unconditioned Stimulus

• what is paired with the neutral stimulus to elicit response

Unconditioned Response

• natural and automatic response to US

Conditioned Stimulus

• after repeatedly pairing NS with UCS, NS turns into CS

Conditioned Response

• UCR turns into CR in the presence of CS

Behaviorism

 a movement that is interested in behavior in a stimulus response perspective, wanted to view things in a more objective way (John Watson - didn’t think about cognition or emotion, just behavior), B.F. Skinner and Radical Behaviorism, environment determines all behavior, just rewards and punishments

Baby Albert

triggering fear as a response to white rabbit and loud noise 

Types of Conditioning

Simultaneous (S and R occur at the same time), Forward long delay (S then R a little later ), Backwards

Systematic Desnsitization

starting with an easy stimulus and working way up to real one

Counter Conditioning

changing the association by replacing undesired response, associating stimulus with something positive to reduce fear

Garcia Effect

 tendency to blame food for illness, even if food had nothing to do with the illness, UCS is the feeling of disgust or nausea

Thorndike’s Law of Effect

cats in a puzzle box and recorded practice behavior cats used to escape and get food - if an action brings a reward, this behavior is more likely to occur

Reinforcer

some stimulus that an animal wants to receive

Punisher

  stimulus that the animal wants to avoid 

Primary

  things that have a natural effect without any learning necessary 

Secondary

stimuli that we have learners to desirable or aversive via classical conditioning

Positive Reinforcement

presenting a desired stimulus after desired behavior has occurred  I.e. mom grants kid 10 minutes of TV time for cleaning room, cleaning room has been encouraged.

Negative Reinforcement

  Removing aversive stimulus after desired behavior has occurred  I.e., a father nags with annoying voices until his child cleans her room. 

Positive Punishment

Presenting an aversive stimulus after an undesired behavior I.e. Mom makes her child hold a bar of soap in his mouth after cursing.

Negative Punishment

Removing a desired stimulus after an undesired behavior has occurred  I.e., a father takes away his daughter’s cell phone for a week after she curses, swearing discouraged

Continuous

you are reinforced or punished every single time the behavior occurs

Fixed Ratio

• reinforcement after fixed quantity of responses regardless of time, post reinforcement pause

Variable Ratio

• reinforcement at unpredictable quantity of responses regardless of time, high and steady response rates

Fixed Interval

waiting a specific amount of time before earning the reward, scalloped response

Variable Interval

• reinforcement or unpredictable intervals regardless of performance, steady response rates

Extinction

when a conditioned stimulus no longer leads to the conditioned response

Shaping

technique of reinforcement where you use small increments to get to a target behavior

Generalization

 conditioned response to one object is exhibited in the presence of a similar stimuli 

Social/Observational Learning

- Bobo the clown experiment by Bandura at Stanford, demonstrated that children learn and imitate behaviors (specifically aggression) that they observed in adults

Prepared Learning

evolutionary theory that animals and humans are predisposed to learn certain behaviors or fears

Learned Helplessness

uncontrollable pleasant event = perceived lack of control = generalized helpless behavior 

Cognition

thinking

Metacognition

•  thinking about the thought process itself 

Motivated Cognition

motivation to associate with or from something subconsciously biased what we think is honest, objective, and rational judgements

Comparative Cognition

• a scientific study of thought and intelligence in non-human species, specific cognitive capacities evolved because they provided the particular species with some advantage when it comes to staying alive and procreating

controlled cognition

cognitive tasks and mental activities that require our full, active, conscious attention and effort to perform

Automatic Cognition

•   does not require any mental resources

Cognitive Load

• the more load we have at the moment, the less we are capable of thinking about

Stoop Effect

attention filter is unable to dampen brain’s instinct, automatic functions interfere with controlled process

Heuristics

 mental shortcuts that help us make decisions quickly and with minimal cognitive effort 

Availibity Heuristics

• the easier it is to think of instances of the something, the more often that thing occurs 

Anchoring Heuristic

shortcut we use when we need to estimate a number