Intro to Psychology: Rebecca Milner - Test I

What is the Peripheral Nervous System?

the network of nerves that connects the brain and spinal cord to other parts of the body

What are the two divisions of the PNS?

somatic and autonomic

What is the Somatic Nervous System?

the sensory nerves that convey information from the skin and muscles to the central nervous system.

what is the autonomic nervous system ?

takes messages from the body's internal organs and monitors body processes.

what are the two parts of the autonomic nervous system?

sympathetic and parasympathetic

sympathetic nervous system

arouses the body to mobilize it for action and thus involved in the expereince of stress

parasympathetic nervous system

calms the body and aids in digestion

what is an axon

it carries information away from the cell body toward other cells

what is the myelin sheath

a layer of fat cells that encases and insulated most axons. speeds ip transmission of nerve impulses. Degeneration = Multiple Sclerosis

what is the resting potential caused by?

this potential difference is due to the separation of positive and negative charges along the membrane.

what is action potential?

the brief wave of electrical charge that sweeps down the axon

what is the all or nothing principle?

electrical impulse reached a certain level of intensity (threshold)

how do synapses and neurotransmitters work?

The axon of the presynaptic (sending) neuron meets dendrites of the postsynaptic (receiving) neuron.(B) This is an enlargement of one synapse, showing the synaptic gap between the two neurons, theterminal button, and the synaptic vesicles containing a neurotransmitter. (C) This is an enlargement ofthe receptor site. Note how the neurotransmitter opens the channel on the receptor site, triggering the neuron to fire.

drugs that block the repute of serotonin will _____

thereby increase the concentration of serotonin molecules in the synaptic gaps

agonist:

a drug that mimics or increases neurotransmitters effects. ie. endorphins, opiates, morphine

antagonist:

a drug that blocks neurotransmitter effects - ie. for schizoohrenia blocking dopamine

genes:

units of heredetary information - a section of DNA capable of synthesizing a specific protein.

what does psych research on sensation and perception involve understanding?

the physical structures and functions of the sense organs and the brains conversion of the information from these organs into experiences

sensation

receiving stimulus energies from the external environment and transforming those energies into neural energy

perception

organizing and interpreting sensory information so that it makes sense

how does the brain give meaning to sensation?

through perception

true or false? most scientests consider sensation and perception a unified info processing system?

true

what is sensation and perception in an evolutionary perspective?

adaptation to improve chance for survival

sensory receptors:

specialized cells that detect stimulus info and transmit it to nerves in the brain

Human Senses:

receptor cells for each sense are specialized to recieve aprticular types of energy stimuli

flow of info -

energy stimulus - sensory receptor - neuron - sensation and perception

photoreception

light, percieved as sight

mechanorecaption

pressure vibration movement - percieved as touch or hearing and equilibrium

chemoreception

chemical stimuli - perceived as smell and taste

absolute threshold

minimum about of stimulus energy that a person can detect

does our environment give us ideal conditions to detect stimuli?

no

difference threshold

the degree of differnce that must exist between two stimuli before the difference is detected

difference thresholds _______ and stimulus becomes stronger

increase

webers law

two stimulu must differ by a constant minumum percentage to be percieved as different

subliminal perception

the detection of information below the level of concious awareness

signal detection theory

an approach to perception that focuses on decision making about stimuli in the presence of uncertaint

what two factors are important in perceiving sensory stimuli?

attention and perceptual set

what is sensory adaptation?

a change in the responsiveness of the sensory system based on the average level of surrounding stimulation

how is perception produced?

through an intimate connection between the brain and our sense organs

where is the visual cortex located?

in the occipital lobe

feature detectors:

neurons in the brains visual system that respond to particular features of a stimulus

parallel processing:

the simultaneous distribution of information across different neural pathways

binding:

the bringing together and integration of what is processesd by different neural pathways or cells

figure-ground relationship

the principle by which we organize the perceptual field into stimuli that stand out )figure) and those that are left over (ground)

gestalt psychology:

a school of though interested in how people naturally organize their perceptions according to certain patterns.

what do sounds allow us to do?

tells us about a variety of actions and events around us - allow us to communicate

auditory info moves up the auditry pathway via ________

electrochemical transmission

where do the auditory pathways go?

across the midline between the hemispheres of the cerebral cortex

most auditory info from the left ear goes to the _______ side of the brain.

right

what are the additional sensory systems?

skin, chemical (smell and taste), kinesthetic and vestibular (allow us to stay upright and coordinate our movements)

kinesthetic senses

provide info about movement posture and orientation

vestibular sense

provides info about balance and movement

kinesthetic and vestibular senses work together to coordinate our _______

proprioceptive feedback - info about the position of our limbs and body parts in relation to other body parts

stream of conciousness

term used by william james for the mind as a continuous flow of changing sensations images thoughts and feelings

metacognition

the process by which we think about thinking

conciousness

awareness of external events and internal sensation under a contition of arousal

awareness

thoughts about ones experiences

arousal:

involves being engaged with ones environment

where does awareness occur

the global brain owrkspace - prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate assosiation areas

what regulates arousal?

the reticular activating system - brain stem, medulla, thalmus

theory of mind:

indivituals understanding that they and others think, feel, perceive, and have private experiences

higher level conciousness

controlled processes and executive function

controlled processes:

the most alert states of humanconsciousness, during which individuals actively focustheir efforts toward a goal.

selective attention

concentrating on specific aspect of expereince while ignoring others

executive function

higher-order, complex cognitiveprocesses, including thinking, planning, and problemsolving.7

Lower level conciousness

automatic processes, daydreaming

automatic processes

staates of conciousness that require little atention and dont interfere with ongoing activities

daydreaming

between active conciousness and dreaming while asleep

altered conciousness

can range from losing one's sense of self conciousness to hallucination

waking subconcious awareness

incubation - subconcious processing on parallel tracks

subconcious awarenedd during sleep and dreams

some awarenedd of external stimuli remains

no awareness

unconcious thought - a resovoir of unacceptable wishes feelings and thoughts that are beyond concious awareness

sleep

a natural state of rest for the body and mind thar involved the reversible loss of conciousness

biological rhythms

periodic physiological fluctuations that can influence behavior

rise and fall of homones

accellerate and decelerated cycles of brain activity

circadian rhythms

daily behavioral orphysiological cycles that involve the sleep/wakecycle, body temperature, blood pressure, andblood sugar level

suprachiasmatic nucleus

The SCN is located in the hypothalamus. It receives information from the retina about light, which isthe external stimulus that synchronizes the SCN.

biological clocks can become ____

desynchronized

sleep may be ____

restorative.

Many of the body's cells show increased production andreduced breakdown of proteins during deep sleep.Sleep is vital to the consolidation of memory.

chronic sleep deprivation results in____

decreased brain activity in the thalmus, the prefrontal cortex, and the brains reward centers

Four stages of sleep

W REM, NREM-1, NREM-2, NREM-3

REM

rapid eye movement

three important neurotransmitters involved in sleep and the brain

serotonin, norepinephrine, acetylcholine

sleeplessness is associated with ___

obesity, diabetesm psychological disorders, and heart disease

sleep problems afflict most people who have _______

psychological disorders and many other disorders as well

major sleep problems

insomnia, sleepwalking and sleeptaking, nightmares and night terrors

manifest content:

according to Freud, the remembered story line of a dream

latent content:

according to Freud, the underlying meaning of a dream

dreams are often very similar to ____

waking life

learning:

a systematic, relatively permanentchange in behavior that occurs through experience.

Behaviorism

The theory that psychology should only study observable behaviors, not mental processes.

associative learning

when an organism makes a connection or association between two elements

observational learning:

learning through observing and imitation another's behavior

classical conditioning

stimulus one leads to stimulus 2

operant conditioning

behavior leads to consequence

classical conditioning

learning processin which a neutral stimulus becomes associated withan innately meaningful stimulus and acquires thecapacity to elicit a similar response.5

unconditioned stimulus

produces a response without prior learnign

unconditioned respone

an unlearned reaction that is automatically elicited by the unconditioned stimulus

conditioned stimulus

A previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response.

conditioned response

the learned response to the conditioned stimulus

aquisition

the initial learning of the connectionbetween the unconditioned stimulus and theconditioned stimulus when these two stimuli are paired