Quiz 1 PSY 200

cognitive process

perception, attention, recognition, recall

earliest theories surrounding cognition date back to whom?

Plato and Aristotle

empiricism

nurture; growth over time (John Locke)

nativism

nature; fixed at birth

structuralism

science of mind similar to chemistry; the structure of the mental experience (Wilhelm Wundt)

functionalism

the function of the mind and behavior through studying in the real world and not a lab (William James)

Wilhelm Wundt

the pioneer of structuralism; founded the first experimental psych lab; introduced the technique of introspection

behaviorism

Freudian psychoanalysis; saw human behavior as primarily irrational and driven by subconscious alone

cognitive revolution

events in the 50s and 60s that made it acceptable to study the mind (paradigm shift)

ecological validity

how well a study environment, tasks, and stimuli reflect real-life situations

internal validity

whether the independent variable truly caused changed in the dependent variable

what is the evolutionary psychologist primarily interested in?

natural selection; variation in heritable traits with reproductive advantages

frontal lobe

higher functioning; motor cortex, premotor cortex, prefrontal cortex

motor cortex

fine motor movements

premotor cortex

planning movement, preparing movement, complex voluntary movements

prefrontal cortex

executive functions, most evolved part, very important for cognition, decision making, planning, etc. doesn’t fully develop until age 25

parietal lobe

processing sensory imput, soatial awareness, and body positioning

occipital lobe

visual info decoding from retinas; turns light into shapes, angles motion, colors, depth, distance, etc.

temporal lobe

auditory info, recognition of faces, memory, language (Wernickes Area), emotional processing

phrenology

(now discredited) idea that psychological strengths and weaknesses could be precisely correlated to the relative size of different brain areas

corpus callosum

connects left and right hemispheres of the brain

hindbrain

life sustaining functions; medulla, pons, cerebellum

medulla

regulates life support: respiration, blood pressure, breathing, etc.

pons

“bridge” between right and left side of brain; balance, sleep, arousal

cerebellum

coordinates muscle activity, important for developing procedural memory

midbrain

relay center: sensory neurons relay info to sensory cortex; perception, holistic awareness

forebrain

complex cognitive activities; thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala

thalamus

relay structure to cerebral cortex, sensory and motor signals

hypothalamus

pituitary gland (controls other glands); sleep, temperature control, eating and drinking (when to stop)

hippocampus

consolidation of memory for long-term retention

amygdala

emotional learning and memory (the impact of emotion in memory)

computerized axial tomography (CAT) scan

takes many different pictures from different angles to create detailed, slice-by-slice 3D images of inside the body. structure; cheap, not great quality

magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan

uses a giant magnet and radio waves to take clear pictures of inside the body. structure; no radiation, clearer images, cheap

positron emission tomography (PET) scan

uses injection of a mild radioactive substance (radio tracer) that gets absorbed by cells to measure how tissue and organs work on a cellular level. functional; blurrier images, pricey

functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan

measures brain through detecting tiny magnetic changes in blood flow (no radiation). functional; cheaper than PET, clearer results; still pricey

dendrite

branching extensions of a neuron that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the body

axon

extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers, through which messages are sent to other neurons or to muscle glands

synapse

junction where neuron passes electrical or chemical signals; tiny gap between axon tip and dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron (gap called synaptic gap/cleft)