PSYC 101 Exam 1 Review — Key Concepts

A comprehensive set of flashcards covering neurotransmitters, neuron structure, brain anatomy, critical thinking, ethics in research, areas of psychology, brain-imaging methods, and basic neural communication.

What is Acetylcholine (ACh) involved in?

Muscle contraction, learning, memory, and attention.

What does dopamine regulate?

Movement, motivation, reward, and pleasure.

What does serotonin affect?

Mood, sleep, appetite, and emotional regulation.

What is norepinephrine linked to?

Alertness, arousal, and the fight-or-flight response.

What is GABA?

The main inhibitory neurotransmitter; reduces neural activity and promotes calmness.

What is glutamate?

The main excitatory neurotransmitter; crucial for learning and memory.

What are endorphins?

Natural painkillers; produce feelings of pleasure and euphoria.

What role does histamine play?

Wakefulness, attention, and immune response.

What are the main research approaches introduced?

Experimental, correlational, and descriptive research.

What is an independent variable?

The variable deliberately manipulated by the experimenter.

What is a dependent variable?

The variable measured to assess the effect of the independent variable.

What is a control group?

A baseline group used for comparison to isolate effects of the independent variable.

What is random assignment?

Randomly assigning participants to conditions to control for preexisting differences.

What are agonists?

Drugs that enhance the actions of neurotransmitters.

What are antagonists?

Drugs that inhibit the actions of neurotransmitters.

What are dendrites?

Branch-like extensions with receptors that detect information from other neurons.

What is the cell body?

The part of the neuron where information from thousands of other neurons is collected and integrated.

What is the axon?

Long, narrow outgrowth of a neuron that enables it to transmit information to other neurons.

What are terminal buttons?

Parts of the neuron at the end of the axon that release chemical signals into the synapses.

What is a synapse?

The site of communication between neurons through neurotransmitters.

What are neurotransmitters?

Chemical substances that carry signals from one neuron to another.

What is the myelin sheath?

A fatty layer that insulates the axon and speeds neural transmission.

What is the forebrain responsible for?

Motivation, emotion, and complex thought.

What is the midbrain responsible for?

Movement.

What is the hindbrain responsible for?

Survival functions and movement.

What are the functions of the frontal lobe?

Complex thought, planning, movement; attention and social processes.

What is the parietal lobe involved in?

Touch and spatial relations; sense of touch and picturing space.

What is the occipital lobe responsible for?

Vision.

What is the temporal lobe responsible for?

Hearing and memory; processing auditory information and perceiving objects/faces.

What are the three steps in critical thinking?

1) Is the source believable? 2) Is there strong evidence for the claim? 3) Do others agree that the claim is supported?

What is an Institutional Review Board (IRB)?

A group that reviews proposed research to ensure ethical standards and participant welfare.

What does privacy entail in research ethics?

Researchers must respect participants' privacy.

What is confidentiality in research ethics?

Keeping participants' information secret.

What is informed consent?

Participants must be told about the research and can choose whether to participate.

What is protection from harm in research ethics?

Researchers cannot ask participants to endure unreasonable pain or discomfort; assess risk-benefit ratio.

What does the biological perspective study?

How brain and body activity give rise to thoughts, feelings, and actions.

What does the mental and physical health area examine?

What affects mental and physical health and how to develop healthy behaviors.

What does the social and personality area study?

How social factors and personal characteristics influence thoughts, feelings, and actions.

What does developmental psychology study?

How people change from birth to old age in terms of thoughts, feelings, and actions.

What is EEG used for?

Measuring brain activity; different behavioral states produce different EEG patterns.

What is functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) used for?

Measuring brain activity by detecting blood oxygen level dependent signals.

What is Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)?

Uses a fast, powerful magnetic field to momentarily disrupt activity in a specific brain region.

What are the CNS and PNS?

The central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system (nerves outside the CNS) involved in neural communication.

What are Glial Cells?

Cells that support, nourish, and insulate neurons; they also remove waste products.

What is the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)?

A division of the PNS that regulates involuntary body functions like heart rate, digestion, and breathing.

What is the Somatic Nervous System?

A division of the PNS that transmits sensory information to the CNS and carries motor commands to skeletal muscles.

What is the Sympathetic Nervous System?

A subdivision of the ANS that prepares the body for stressful situations (fight-or-flight response).

What is the Parasympathetic Nervous System?

A subdivision of the ANS that calms the body and conserves energy (rest-and-digest response).