Exam 2 Study Guide: Lifespan Development, Sensation & Perception, Learning, and Memory

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the key terms, mechanisms, anatomical regions, and theories from Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7.

Germinal Period

Zygote. From conception to 2 weeks. Zygote implants in uterine wall and placenta forms.

Embryonic Period

Embryo. From 3 weeks to 8 weeks.

a. All major organs form. (brain, spinal cord, and all internal organs: heart, lungs, liver, kidneys)

b. Folic acid consumption important for normal brain and spinal cord formation. Prevents spinda bifida.

Fetal Period

Fetus. From 2 months until birth. No new organs are formed – but the organs continue to develop.

a. During the last 3 months, the brain matures and the fetus develops fat under its skin; hearing mother's voice.

b. Most babies are born at approximately 40 weeks.

Teratogens

Prenatal exposure to substances, infections, and environment may cause birth defects. Alcohol, nicotine, drugs, infections (German measles), radiation (x-rays), chemicals

Neural development (2 important changes)

1) Many synaptic connections form. Burst of synaptic connections from birth to age 3 and up to age 5. Myelinated axons rapidly form synapses with other neurons through increased branching of dendrites. Engagement with the environment and particularly caregivers in social interaction is required for this process, which represents a sensitive period in brain development. (2) The synaptic connections change over time, with experience. Unused connections will disappear

hearing

Newborns can hear well and can recognize the sound of their mother’s voice

vision

Newborns have poor, blurry vision. At birth can only see short range and cannot distinguish between colors. Newborns can see high contrast blocks of black and white.

social and emotional development

Infants begin to show fear of strangers between 6 to 12 months. They sepmay become upset when being left with a babysitter at 10 - 12 months. Parents do not need to be concerned about this.

separation anxiety

the infant has successfully formed a strong emotional attachment to the parents/caregivers due to the parents' responsiveness to them.

theory of mind

The ability for an infant to be self-aware enough to understand that their thoughts are different from those of other people, and to understand that other people have their own minds and intentions. Develops throughout the first year of life. By 13 -15 months, children become good at reading intentions of others.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's cognitive stage ($7$ to $12$ years) where children think logically about concrete operations, achieve conservation, classify by multiple features, and create cognitive maps.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's final cognitive stage ($12$ years and up) characterized by logical thinking about abstract ideas, testing hypotheses, and thinking hypothetically about future identity and ideological issues.

Sensation

The detection of external physical stimuli (light, sound waves, temperature, pressure) by body sense organs and the transmission of information about these stimuli to the brain.

Perception

The brain's processing, organization, and interpretation of sensory electrical signals to create an internal neural representation of a physical stimulus.

Sensory Receptors

Specialized neuron cells located in body sense organs that detect physical stimulation from the external world.

Transduction

The biological process by which sensory receptors convert physical stimuli (e.g., light waves, sound waves) into electrical neural signals sent to the brain.

Rods

Sensory receptor cells in the retina (approximately $120\text{ million}$) specialized for night vision that respond best to low levels of light.

Cones

Sensory receptor cells in the retina (approximately $6\text{ million}$) specialized for color and fine detail (acuity) that respond to higher light levels.

Optic Nerve

A large bundle gathered from the axons of ganglion neuron cells that carries visual neural signals from the eye to the brain.

Auditory Nerve

A nerve consisting of many neurons located next to the cochlea in the inner ear that transmits action potentials generated by hair cells to the brain.

Olfactory Membrane

A thin layer of tissue deep within the nasal cavity containing sensory receptors that send transduced smell information directly to the olfactory bulb without first passing through the thalamus.

Fast Fibers

Myelinated nerve fibers that conduct neural signals rapidly for the perception of sharp, immediate pain to trigger quick withdrawal from a stimulus.

Slow Fibers

Unmyelinated nerve fibers responsible for slow, throbbing pain perception, which deters activity on an injured limb.

Learning

A change in behavior resulting from experience.

Habituation

A type of non-associative learning characterized by a decrease in behavioral response after lengthy or repeated exposure to a stimulus.

Sensitization

A type of non-associative learning characterized by an increase in behavioral response after lengthy or repeated exposure to a stimulus.

Classical Conditioning

A form of associative learning discovered by Pavlov involving involuntary paired associations where a neutral stimulus (NS) becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus (US) to elicit a conditioned response (CR).

Conditioned Emotional Response (CER)

A learned emotional reaction, such as fear, established through classical conditioning as demonstrated by Watson's experiments with Little Albert.

Acquisition

The basic principle of classical conditioning where a neutral stimulus is consistently paired with an unconditioned stimulus until the NS becomes a conditioned stimulus that elicits a conditioned response.

Extinction (Classical Conditioning)

The gradual weakening of a conditioned response that occurs when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous Recovery

The sudden reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response after a period without presentation.

Operant Learning

A learning process in which the consequences of an action determine how likely that action will be performed again in the future.

Thorndike’s Law of Effect

The behavioral principle stating that rewarded behavior is more likely to recur.

Positive Reinforcement

Any procedure that strengthens or increases a desired behavior by adding stimuli.

Negative Reinforcement

Any procedure that strengthens or increases a desired behavior by removing stimuli.

Positive Punishment

Any procedure that weakens or decreases an undesirable response by adding stimuli.

Negative Punishment

Any procedure that weakens or decreases an undesirable response by removing stimuli.

Memory

The nervous system’s processes to acquire, retain, and retrieve information and skills.

Encoding

The initial phase of memory where the brain converts external information into a meaningful neural code that it can use.

Storage (Memory)

The memory phase of retaining information by maintaining the coded representation within a network of neurons in the brain.

Retrieval

The memory process of re-accessing and recalling previously encoded and stored information or skills when needed.

Filter Theory

A selective attention model proposing that attention acts like a filter, screening through only important information such as faces, emotional situations, and threats.

Change Blindness

The failure to notice large visual changes in the environment, demonstrating that humans can selectively attend to only a limited amount of information.

Sensory Storage

A memory storage stage with vast capacity and a brief duration lasting only up to a few seconds depending on the sense.

Short-Term Storage

A memory system with a duration of about $20\text{ seconds}$ and a capacity span of $7 \pm 2$ items.

Chunking

Organizing individual pieces of information into meaningful groups to expand the working capacity of short-term storage.

Working Memory

An active mechanism within short-term storage that allows manipulation and maintenance of information for as long as a person continues to actively process it.

Spreading Activation Model

A memory model proposing that activating one node in an association network increases the likelihood that closely associated nodes in the same category are also activated.

Primacy Effect

Enhanced retrieval for items presented at the beginning of a list, caused by multiple rehearsals moving the information into long-term memory.

Recency Effect

Enhanced retrieval for items at the end of a list, caused by the information remaining immediately accessible in short-term working memory.

Levels of Processing Model

A memory theory stating that the more deeply an item is processed during encoding and the more meaning it has, the better it will be remembered.

Maintenance Rehearsal

A shallow encoding method involving repeating items on a list over and over without attaching meaning or context.

Elaborative Rehearsal

A deep encoding method based on semantic meaning, connecting new information to existing concepts and memories already in long-term storage.

Schema (Memory)

Long-term memory structures that organize new information to form new memories.

Explicit Memory

Consciously recalled facts, knowledge, or personal experiences that require intentional cognitive effort and can usually be verbally described.

Episodic Memory

A subdivision of explicit memory that enables individuals to recall and describe personally experienced past events, including details about the time, place, and people involved.

Semantic Memory

A subdivision of explicit memory that stores general facts, theories, and knowledge independent of personal experience.

Implicit Memory

Automatic, non-conscious memories that do not require intentional effort and typically cannot be verbally articulated.

Procedural Memory

A type of implicit memory responsible for coordinated movements and performing actions (such as riding a bicycle, playing piano, or typing).

Hippocampus

The brain region responsible for the consolidation of long-term memories.

Cerebellum

The brain structure responsible for implicit memory of procedural tasks and motor actions.

Amygdala

The brain structure that plays a critical role in implicit memory for classical conditioning, emotional memories, and fear learning.

Prefrontal Cortex

The brain region associated with working memory, including rehearsing information to extend the span of short-term storage.

Temporal Lobes

The cortical lobes important for connecting the parts of the brain that store explicit memories.