Psychology and Neuroplasticity Review Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from lecture notes on neuroplasticity, consciousness, memory, learning, motivation, development, stress, and clinical psychology.

Roger Behm's Neuroplasticity Method

A sensory substitution approach where stimulus from a video camera is transformed into a $1 \times 1$ inch sensor that draws images onto the user's tongue.

Cheryl Schultz

A patient who lost her sense of balance and used a device that sends signals through the tongue to reactive the balance part of the brain.

Barbara Arrowsmith Young

A creator of incremental learning exercises designed to build new connections in processing areas of the brain for those with learning disabilities.

Michael Bernstein

An eye surgeon and stroke patient who used constraint induced therapy to improve motor function in his partially paralyzed side.

Constraint Induced Therapy

A method pioneered by Edward Taub where a fully functioning limb is constrained while the affected limb is given rudimentary tasks.

Mirror Neurons

Neurons described as dissolving the barrier between human beings, characterized by a doctor as "empathy to the extreme."

Consciousness

A changing focus of awareness characterized by William James as an unbroken "stream of consciousness."

Inattentional Blindness

The failure to notice something significant that is in the field of vision because focus is directed toward one specific thing.

Change Blindness

A phenomenon where an individual fails to notice a change in their environment.

Circadian Rhythms

A $24$ hour cycle of biological and psychological fluctuations controlled by the hypothalamus and modulated by melatonin.

REM Sleep

Sleep characterized by rapid eye movement, dreaming, and the suppression of muscular movement.

NREM Sleep

Non-rapid eye movement sleep where rapid eye movements do not occur and sleep is often dreamless.

Hypnagogic Hallucinations

Vividly realistic sensations that occur during the pre-sleep phase as alpha brain waves begin.

Sleep Spindles

Short bursts of brain activity that occur during the onset of true sleep alongside K complexes.

Microsleeps

Sleep episodes lasting for a few seconds that occur throughout the day in individuals suffering from sleep deprivation.

Activation-Synthesis Model

A theory of dreaming where images created by brain activation are turned into stories through synthesis.

Neurocognitive Model of Dreaming

William Domhoff's model suggesting dreams reflect the personality, interests, and waking concerns of the dreamer.

Sleep Apnea

A disorder where a person repeatedly stops breathing during sleep because the airway becomes blocked or narrowed.

Narcolepsy

A condition characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and brief, uncontrollable lapses into sleep episodes.

Parasomnias

A category of sleep disorders involving undesirable physical arousal, behaviors, or events such as sleepwalking or sleep terrors.

Posthypnotic Suggestion

An instruction given during hypnosis asking a person to carry out a specific behavior once their hypnotic state has ended.

Conditioning

The process of learning associations between environmental events and behavioral responses.

Classical Conditioning

A basic learning process involving the repeated pairing of a neutral stimulus with a response-producing stimulus.

Stimulus Generalization

The occurrence of a learned response to a specific stimulus as well as other similar stimuli.

Higher Order Conditioning

A procedure where a conditioned stimulus from one trial functions as an unconditioned stimulus in a new conditioning trial.

Behaviorism

A school of psychology emphasizing the study of observable behaviors as they pertain to the learning process.

Law of Effect

Edward Thorndike's principle that responses followed by preferred effects are strengthened, while others are weakened.

Operant

B.F. Skinner's term for an organism's behavior that operates upon the environment to generate consequences.

Encoding

Transforming information into a form that can be entered and retained by the memory system.

Sensory Memory

The stage of memory that registers environmental information for a brief period, lasting between $\frac{1}{4}$ and $3$ seconds.

Maintenance Rehearsal

The process of repeating information over and over to store it, though it is often considered ineffective for long-term retention.

Elaborative Rehearsal

A technique focusing on the meanings of information to effectively encode it into long-term memory.

Procedural Memory

A category of long-term memory including memories of actions, skills, and operations.

Semantic Memory

A category of long-term memory for factual information, names, concepts, and general knowledge.

Semantic Network Model

A model describing long-term memory units as being organized in a complex network of associations.

Encoding Specificity Principle

The principle that retrieval is more successful when the conditions of retrieval match the conditions of original encoding.

Mood Congruence

A phenomenon where a specific mood tends to evoke memories that are consistent with that mood.

Decay Theory

The view that forgetting is caused by normal metabolic processes of the brain that erode the memory trace over time.

Misinformation Effect

A memory distortion where existing memories are altered after exposure to misleading information.

Long-Term Potentiation

A long-lasting increase in synaptic strength between two neurons following learning.

Anterograde Amnesia

The loss of memory caused by an inability to store new memories, as seen in the case of Henry Molaison (HM).

Prototype

The most typical instance of a particular concept.

Heuristic

A problem-solving strategy involving a general "rule of thumb" used to reduce the number of possible solutions.

Functional Fixedness

The tendency to view objects as functioning only in their usual or customary way.

Mental Age

Alfred Binet's measurement where an individual's mental level is expressed in terms of the average abilities of a specific age group.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

A measure of general intelligence derived by comparing an individual's score with the scores of others in the same age group.

Homeostasis

Internal mechanisms that monitor and maintain the body's internal states at constant levels.

Self-Actualization

The full use and exploitation of talents and potential, representing the top tier of Maslow's hierarchy.

Self-Determination Theory

Deci and Ryan's theory stating that optimal functioning requires satisfying the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Epigenetics

The study of cellular mechanisms that control gene expression and how that expression impacts health and behavior.

Teratogens

Substances or environmental factors that can harm a developing fetus physically or mentally.

Temperament

Inborn predispositions to consistently react and behave in a certain way.

Emerging Adulthood

The lifespan stage from late teens through the twenties characterized by exploration in social roles and vocational choices.

Self-Concept

Carl Rogers's term for the set of perceptions and beliefs that an individual holds about themselves.

Unconditional Positive Regard

The sense that an individual is valued and loved even if they do not conform to the standards of others.

Reciprocal Determinism

Albert Bandura's model detailing how personality is caused by the interaction of behavior, cognitive, and environmental factors.

Biopsychosocial Model

The belief that physical health is determined by the complex interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors.

General Adaptation Syndrome

Hans Selye's three-stage physical progression in response to stress: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

Telomeres

Duplicate DNA sequences at the tips of chromosomes that protect genetic data but shorten with age and stress.

Psychoneuroimmunology

The scientific study of the connections between psychological processes, the nervous system, and the immune system.

DSM-5-TR

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision, used to classify and diagnose psychological disorders.

Ataque de Nervios

A phenomenon in Latin American cultures similar to panic disorder that includes symptoms of hysteria.

Social Anxiety Disorder

An irrational fear of being scrutinized, judged, or embarrassed by others in social situations.

Borderline Personality Disorder

A disorder characterized by instability of self-image, emotions, and interpersonal relationships, often marked by impulsivity.

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

A disorder involving extensive memory disruptions along with the presence of two or more distinct identities within a single person.

Client-Centered Therapy

A humanistic therapy where the therapist is nondirective and reflective, allowing the client to direct the focus.

Systematic Desensitization

A behavior therapy for phobias that involves learning a relaxation response that is incompatible with fear.

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

A biomedical therapy primarily for major depressive disorder that involves inducing a brief brain seizure electrically.