Cognition & College Lecture Study Guide

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards reviewing attention contagion, decision neuroscience, delay of gratification, Alzheimer's disease pathology, sleep neurobiology, and neurodevelopmental ADHD concepts.

Social contagion

The spread of behaviors, attitudes, and emotions through crowds (also called group contagion).

Attention contagion

The spread of attentive or inattentive states across members of a group.

Social Appraisal Theory

A theory proposing that people's evaluations of an event or phenomenon are shaped by other people through observing others, judging their appraisals, and taking those judgments into account.

Goal Contagion Theory

A theory stating that an individual adopts a goal after perceiving another person's goal-directed behavior via the process: observe behavior → infer the person's goal → adopt the goal.

Cognitive Load Theory

A framework stating that working memory has a limited capacity, and cognitive load represents the mental resources needed to complete a task.

Intrinsic load

The mental effort associated with the task or material itself.

Extraneous load

The mental effort caused by the way information is presented.

Germane load

The mental effort used to process and understand information.

Levels-of-processing model

Craik & Lockhart's model connecting attention with memory, positing that deeper processing and elaboration enhance encoding and retrieval, whereas inattention reduces elaboration.

Neuroeconomics

A multidisciplinary field studying brain mechanisms at work during decision-making (often used interchangeably with decision neuroscience).

Framing effect

A decision-making bias in which individuals are influenced to select a particular option depending on whether an outcome is presented in terms of gains or losses.

Endowment effect

The phenomenon wherein people demand a higher price to sell an object they own than they would pay to acquire it, increasing perceived value due to ownership.

Valuation system

A neural decision-making network (including orbitofrontal cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and the dopamine reward system) that ranks choices by perceived worth and potential reward.

Choice system

A neural decision-making network (including dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and parietal regions) that compares valued alternatives and executes decisions, with the prefrontal cortex inhibiting impulsive actions.

Delay discounting

The process by which the value of a reward decreases relative to the time until it is received, measured by the degree to which later rewards are preferred to sooner ones.

Delay of gratification

Choosing to wait for a larger or more desirable reward instead of taking an immediate one, typically measured by the time spent waiting for the larger reward.

Frontostriatal network

Neural pathways connecting the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia; implicated in delay of gratification, executive functions, and ADHD.

Ventral tegmental area (VTA)

A midbrain structure with dopamine-using neurons involved in reward, reinforcement, and learning that show increased activity during waiting periods.

Compensation (neural aging)

The recruitment of additional brain regions by older adults to successfully complete problem-solving or memory tasks.

Neurocognitive disorders (NCDs)

Disorders in which the primary clinical deficit is acquired cognitive functioning representing a decline from a prior level of functioning.

Mild NCD / MCI

A neurocognitive disorder featuring modest decline in one or more cognitive domains that does not interfere with everyday independence.

Major NCD / dementia

A neurocognitive disorder featuring significant decline in one or more cognitive domains that interferes with independence in everyday activities.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD)

A chronic, progressive neurocognitive disorder characterized by subtle onset, gradual progression, memory loss, disorientation, and synapse degeneration.

Amyloid plaques

Pathological protein aggregates that build up extracellularly between neurons in Alzheimer's disease.

Neurofibrillary tangles

Pathological protein inclusions composed of tau that form intracellularly inside neurons in Alzheimer's disease.

Biological rhythms

Regular behavioral, physiological, or biochemical fluctuations in living processes.

Circadian rhythm

A biological cycle recurring approximately every $24\text{ hours}$, such as the sleep-wake cycle.

Ultradian rhythm

A biological rhythm with a period shorter than a day that repeats more than once per day, such as hunger cycles

Infradian rhythm

A biological rhythm with a period longer than $24\text{ hours}$ that repeats less than once per day, such as the menstrual cycle.

Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)

A nucleus situated in the hypothalamus that functions as the body's primary internal biological clock generating circadian rhythms using light signals from the eyes.

Michel Siffre isolation study

A natural experiment where a researcher spent seven months in a Texas cave without external light cues; his sleep-wake cycle settled at an average of $25\text{--}26\text{ hours}$ with impaired time estimation.

Non 24 hr sleep wake disorder

A circadian rhythm disorder characterized by progressive daily delays in sleep-wake cycles, commonly seen in totally blind individuals as well as some sighted persons.

NREM 3 (Slow-wave sleep)

A deep sleep stage characterized electroencephalographically by cortical synchronization.

REM sleep (Paradoxical sleep)

A sleep stage defined by rapid eye movements, irregular breathing and pulse, and temporary loss of core muscle tone (muscle paralysis).

Chronotype

An individual's innate physical and behavioral preference for earlier or later sleep timing (morningness versus eveningness).

Flip-flop circuit

A reciprocal neural arrangement wherein sleep-promoting and wakefulness-promoting centers inhibit one another to generate distinct states of sleep or wakefulness.

Ventrolateral preoptic nucleus (VLPO)

A group of neurons in the anterior hypothalamus that plays an essential role in promoting sleep.

Reticular formation

A neural network extending through the brainstem into the hypothalamus that mediates wakefulness, alertness, and arousal.

Neurogenesis

The first stage of neurodevelopment in which new neurons are generated.

Cell migration

The second neurodevelopmental stage where newly formed cells travel to their designated locations in the nervous system.

Cell differentiation

The neurodevelopmental stage during which cells mature into specialized types of neurons or glia.

Synaptogenesis

The stage of neurodevelopment where neurons extend axons and dendrites to form synapses.

Neuronal cell death

A developmental process of programmed elimination of surplus neurons.

Synapse rearrangement

The neurodevelopmental stage wherein synapses are formed, lost, or reorganized, resulting in net synapse elimination and cortical gray-matter thinning from late childhood through adolescence.

Neuroplasticity

The brain's lifelong capacity to alter and reorganize its connections; highest during early development and declining over time without disappearing entirely.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

A neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent, impairing symptoms of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity originating during childhood.

Kofler et al. (2019)

A study reporting that $89\%$ of children diagnosed with ADHD exhibited measurable impairment in at least one executive function.