Psychology Exam 2 (1/3)

For Exam 2 and Final Exam

The Biology of Behavior

Frontal Lobes & Motor Cortex

The frontal lobes contain personality, creative thinking, and planning. The motor cortex is voluntary movement

Broca's Area

Controls language expression - an area of the frontal lobe, directs the muscle movements involved in speech.

Broca's apasia

Difficulty producing speech, they understand language just fine.

Wernicke’s area

Language comprehension (understanding what they’re saying)

Wernicke’s Aphasia

Difficulty understanding what people say. Difficulty producing words in a meaningful way.

Mirror neurons

Fire when observing another person. You see an action and do it.

Parietal lobes & somatosensory cortex

The parietal lobes process your sensory input. The somatosensory cortex receives information about touch sensation

Occipital lobes & Visual Cortex

The occipital lobes are the visual processing center (recognizing familiar places, storing memories). The visual cortex processes the visual signals

Temporal Lobes & Auditory Cortex

The temporal lobes manage hearing, memory and language comprehension. The auditory cortex processes sound

Plasticity

Flexcibility of brain structures. Able to shift functions from damaged to undamaged brain areas.

Neurogenesis

Growth of new neurons

Consciousness and Sleep

Selective Attention

Focusing on specific information while ignoring other information

Inattentional blindness

Failing to detect available stimuli due to selective attention/focusing on something else.

Change blindness

failing to notice changes in the environment

Circadian Rhythm

Your body 24-hour biological clock

suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)

area of the hypothalamus in which the body's biological clock is located. It's sensitive to change in light and controls the pineal gland. In darkness, SCN directs pineal gland to secrete melatonin. In light, SCN directs pineal gland to stop secreting melatonin.

Types of Sleep - N1 (light sleep )

Light sleep, hypnagogic jerk (sudden muscle twitch when falling asleep), Hypnagogic hallucinations (breif hallucinations that happen as you're falling asleep

Types of Sleep - N2 (Deep Sleep)

Brain activity slows. Reductions in heart rate and muscle tension

N3 - deep sleep

Further slowing of Brain Activity , hard to awaken, disoriented when awakened, growth hormones released from pituitary gland

Rapid Eye Movement (REM)

Brain waves resemble wakefulness. Eyes move back and forth. Heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing become rapid or irregular. Sleep paralysis and dreams

Theories of Sleep - Evolutionary/Adaptive

Sleep for protection, not out and vulnerable to predators in the dark

Theories of Sleep - Restorative

Sleep supports growth and healing. Production of growth hormone & supports immune functioning. Sleep deprivation causes slower healing & reduced immune system activity

Theories of Sleep - Information Processing

Sleep supports cognitive Processes. It can support learning, restoring and rebuilding memories, and creative thinking. Sleep deprivation causes the impairment of memory formation.

Theories of Dreaming - Freud

Dreams stem from unconscious thoughts.

Manifest Content (Freud)

the remembered story line of a dream

Latent Content (Freud)

The unciouses thoughts, feelings, and wishes behind the dream.

Theories of Dreaming: Activation-Synthesis

Brain's internally generated signals form dreams

Theories of Dreaming - Information Processing

Memories of events form dreams

Theories of Dreaming - Preserving Neural pathways

Purpose of dreaming is to provide brain stimulation