ap psych midterm

motor neurons

take information from the brain to the rest of the body; brain and spinal cord send signals to the muscles and glands

sensory neurons

carry incoming info from sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord

hindsight bias

tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that you “knew it all along”

overconfidence

The tendency to be more confident than correct

false consensus effect

The tendency to overestimate how much others share our beliefs and behaviors

contemporary psychology

scientific study of behavior and mental processes

neuroscience psychology

how the brain, nervous system, and hormones affect behavior; Santiago Ramon y Cajal

Psychodynamic/ psychoanalysis

personality relates thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; Freud

Behavioral

study of observable behavior; B.F. Skinner and John B. Watson

cognitive

study of mental processes; perceive, learn, remember, think, communicate; Jean Piaget

Evolutionary

how behavior is shaped by natural selection; Leda Cosmides and John Tooby

Social-Cultural

study of how situations and cultures affect our behavior and thinking

humanism

emphasizes free will, personal growth, and self-fulfillment; Maslow and Rogers

What are the 3 parts of the neuron?

Dendrites, cell body (soma), axon

Dendrites

receive information

cell body (soma)

processes information

axon

transmits impulse away from cell body

Synapse

gap between neurons where neurotransmitters travelN

negative correlations

as 1 variable increases, the other decreases

endocrine glands secrete hormones into

bloodstream

proactive interference

old info interferes with learning new information

retroactive interference

new info interferes with remembering old info

spacing effect

Information is better remembered when study is spread out over time

serial position effect

Tendency to remember the first and last items in a list best

as sleep increases

REM sleep increases

why spread out studying?

it improves memory due to spacing effect

substituting synonyms when trying to recall a list we memorized

semantic encoding

hormones

chemical messengers of the endocrine system

posthypnotic suggestion

suggestion given during hypnosis that is carried out later

synesthesia

condition where senses mix

plasticity

brain’s ability to change and adapt

nervous system is split into

Central Nervous System and Peripheral Nervous System

CNS deals with the

spinal cord and brain

PNS splits into

Somatic Nervous System and Autonomic Nervous System

Autonomic NS is split into

Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous System

small standard deviation on test means

scores are close to mean or average

naturalistic observation

Observing behavior in a natural setting

survey

method that uses questions to collect datac

case study

in-depth study of 1 person or group

experimentation

method that tests cause and effect relationships between variables (independent and dependent)

placebos

an inactive substance that produces an effect due to belief

double blind procedure

Neither participants nor researchers know who receives treatment

first psychology lab

Wilhelm Wundt

Introspection

self-reflective observation; looking “into” yourself

Structuralism

what the mind is-Wundt

functionalism

how the mind works-James

hypotheses

testable predictions

Beta waves

awake state

Alpha

Stage 1- half awake half asleep

Theta

stage 2- light sleep

Delta

stage 3- deep sleep

REM

stage 4- dream state

population

entire group being studiedr

random assignment

Assigning participants to groups by chance

random sampling

Selecting participants randomly from population

phrenology

study of head bumpsa

action potential

brief electrical charge traveling down the axon

neurotransmitters travel across

synapse

thalamus

relay center of the brain

frontal lobe

decision-making, personality, voluntary movement (front of the brain)

Parietal lobe

sensory processing and spatial awareness (behind frontal)

Temporal lobe

hearing and language (by the ear)

occipital lobe

vision (back of the brain)

corpus callosum

connects the left and right hemispheres

why do people sever the corpus callosum?

to prevent severe seizures

how do left and right brain communicate?

through corpus callosumcla

classical conditioning

learning by association

operant conditioning

learning based on consequences

observational learning

learning by watching others

modeling

imitating others’ behavior

cognition in classical conditioning

thoughts and expectations influence learning

sensory adaptation

decreased sensitivity to constant stimuli

unconditioned stimulus

a stimulus that naturally triggers a response

neutral stimulus

a stimulus that initially has no effect

unconditioned response

a natural, unlearned response

conditioned stimulus

a learned stimulus

conditioned response

a learned response

discrimination

ability to distinguish between stimuli

generalization

the tendency to respond similarly to similar stimuli

syntax

rules for arranging words in a sentence

semantics

meaning of words

grammar

system of language rules

algorithm

a step-by-step procedure that guarantees a solution

heuristic

a quick mental shortcut

opponent process theory

opposite color thingy

framing

how information is presented affects decisions and judgements

semantic encoding

process by which info is encoded by meaning

linguistic determinism

idea that language shapes thought

chunking

organizing info into meaningful units

retrieval cues

words, events, places, and emotions that trigger our memory of the past