Ap Psychology Unit 1

Genetic Predisposition

Refers to the increased chance of developing a specific trait or condition due to our genetic code.

Evolutionary Perspective

Explores how natural selection affects the expression of behavior and mental processes to increase survival and reproductive success.

Heredity (Nature)

Refers to genetic or predisposed characteristics that influence physical, behavioral, and mental traits and processes.

Nurture

Refers to the external factors that one experiences, such as family interactions or education.

Neural Transmission

When a neuron transmits a message.

Resting Potential

The neuron is not firing, it has a negative charge.

Threshold

The minimum stimulation needed to trigger a neural impulse.

Action Potential

When a neuron is fired (sent).

All-or-nothing Principle

A neuron fires completely or does not fire.

Depolarization

When there's a shift in a neuron's electrical charge (negative → positive) that allows an action potential (nerve impulse) to occur.

Excitatory

Neurotransmitters that excite the next cell into firing.

Inhibitory

Neurotransmitters that inhibit the next cell from firing.

Dopamine

Neurotransmitter that controls motor movement and alertness. A lack of this neurotransmitter is associated with parkinson’s disease, and abundance is associated with schizophrenia.

Serotonin

Neurotransmitter that controls mood. A lack of this neurotransmitter is associated with clinical depression.

Norepinephrine

Neurotransmitter that controls alertness and arousal. A lack of this neurotransmitter is associated with depression.

Glutamate

Excitatory neurotransmitter, involved in memory. Triggers migraines and seizures.

GABA

Inhibitory neurotransmitter. Internalizes when having seizures and can cause sleep problems.

Endorphins

Body’s natural pain killers, neurotransmitter.

Substance P

Neurotransmitter that deals with pain perception.

Acetylcholine

Neurotransmitter that deals with motor movement and memory. Lack of this neurotransmitter is associated with Alzheimer’s disease, an abundance causes Myasthenia gravis (weak muscles).

Sensory Neurons

Take information from the sense to the brain.

Interneurons

Take the messages and send them elsewhere in the brain or to a motor neuron.

Motor Neurons

Take information from the brain to the rest of the body.

Central Nervous System (CNS)

Consists of the brain and spinal cord and interacts with all processes in the body.

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

Relays messages from the central nervous system to the rest of the body and includes the autonomic and somatic nervous systems.

Somatic Nervous System

Controls voluntary muscle movements.

Autonomic Nervous System

Governs processes that are involuntary (breathing, heartbeat, etc.) and includes the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems

Sympathetic Nervous System

Mobilizes our body to respond to stress. Accelerates body functions (heart rate, blood pressure, respiration etc.), fight-or-flight response.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

Slows down body systems and returns the body to homeostasis after a stress response.

Endocrine System

Secrets hormones that affect many biological processes in our bodies.

Adrenaline

Hormone that activated during the fight-or-flight response in stressful situations; speeds up bodily processes.

Leptin

Hormone involved in weight regulation; suppresses hunger.

Ghrelin

Hormone that motivates eating/increases hunger

Melatonin

Hormone that triggers sleep and wakefulness responses in the brain.

Oxytocin

Hormone that promotes good feelings such as trust and bonding.

Lesioning

The removal or destruction of part of the brain.

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

Detects brain waves, used to identify the different stages of sleep and dreaming.

Functional MRI (fMRI)

Shows details of brain structure.

Medulla

Controls basic functioning; heart rate and breathing.

Cerebellum

Coordinates muscle movements, balance, and some forms of procedural learning.

Reticular Formation

Controls arousal and the ability to focus our attention.

Thalamus

Sensory relay station; all senses go here first (except smell)

Hypothalamus

Controls metabolic functions; temperature, sexual arousal, hunger, thirst, and the endocrine system.

Amygdala

Responsible for emotions, especially fear and aggression.

Hippocampus

Responsible for forming long-term memories regarding facts and events.

Cerebral Cortex

Wrinkly top layer. Language, complex thinking, and voluntary movements are controlled here.

Left Hemisphere

• Controls the motor functions of the right half of the body; specializes in logic and sequential tasks.

• Area’s that affect language are located in the left hemisphere; damage to these parts cause aphasia.

Right Hemisphere

Controls the motor functions of the left half of the body; specializes in spatial and creative tasks.

Corpus Callosum

Nerve bundle that connects the two hemispheres.

Split-brain Patients

• Patients whose corpus callous are severed (treatment for epilepsy).

• Reveals that the left and right hemisphere specialize in different activities.

Frontal Lobes

• Control linguistic processing, higher-order thinking (abstract thought, planning, decision making), and executive functioning (especially in the prefrontal cortex).

• Located behind the forehead.

Broca’s Area

• Responsible for controlling muscles involved in producing speech.

• Located in the frontal lobe

Wernicke’s Area

• Responsible for language comprehension

• Located in the temporal lobe

Motor Cortex

• Controls our voluntary movements

• Located in the frontal lobe

Parietal Lobes

• Receives sensory input for touch sensations; contains the somatosensory cortex

• Located at the top of the head

Somatosensory Cortex

Processes touch sensitivity

Occipital Lobes

• Controls visual information processing

• Located in the rear of the brain

Temporal Lobe

Controls auditory and linguistic processing; contains Wernickes Area

Brain Plasticity

The ability of the brain to rewrite itself or create new connections throughout development, and allows or the function of a damaged part of the brain to be continued by a different part of the brain.

Consciousness

Has varying levels of awareness of thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Sleep and wakefulness are two types.

Psychoactive Drugs

Change the chemistry of the brain (and the rest of the body) and induce an altered state of consciousness.

Agonists

Mimic naturally occurring neurotransmitters; encourages neural firing.

Antagonists

Discourage’s neural firing

Reuptake Inhibitors

Prevent natural neurotransmitters from being reabsorbed back into a neuron.

Tolerance

A physiological change that produces a need for more of the same drug in order to achieve the same effect.

Withdrawal

The discomfort and distress that follow after discontinuing the use of an addictive drug.

Stimulants

Increase neural activity; includes caffeine and cocaine.

Depressants

Decreases neural activity; alcohol.

Hallucinogens

Cause distortions in perception and cognition; marijuana

Opiates

Act as pain killers and mood elevators; heroin.

Circadian Rhythm

24-hour sleep/wake cycle; jet lag and shift work are caused by disruptions of this cycle.

NREM Sleep (Non-rapid eye movement sleep)

Occurs in stage 1 through 3, and decreases in duration throughout the cycle.

REM Sleep (Rapid eye movement Sleep)

• Paradoxical sleep. Produces waves similar to wakefulness, but the body is at its most relaxed (resting).

• Dreams frequently occur at this stage.

• Increases in duration throughout the cycle.

REM Rebound

When deprived of REM Sleep, people experience more and longer periods of REM the next time they sleep.

Insomnia

Difficulty getting to sleep/staying asleep.

Narcolepsy

Suffering from periods of intense sleepiness; may fall asleep at unpredictable and inappropriate times.

Sleep Apnea

Difficulty breathing for short periods of time during the night.

Somnambulism

Sleepwalking

Activation-synthesis Theory

Suggests dreams are the brain’s attempt to make sense of neural activity.

Consolidation Theory

Suggests that the function of sleep might be to help us encode events and information in our short-term memory into our long-term memory.

Memory Restoration

Suggests that sleep occurs to restore depleted resources used throughout the day.

Sensation

The process of detecting information from the environment that meets a certain threshold and transducing stimuli into neurochemical messages for perception in the brain.

Transduction

Signals are transformed into neural impulses.

Synesthesia

A phenomenon in which the activation of one sense activates another sense (seeing a color when listening to music).

Prosopagnosia

Inability to recognize faces

Retina

Photosensitive surface at the back of the eye. Captures visual information that is transduced to the brain for processing.

Lens

Focuses light onto the retina through accommodation; changes its shape to focus visual stimuli. When it can not adapt enough to focus the light properly, nearsightedness or farsightedness can result.

Rods

Photoreceptor cells in the retina that are responsible for vision in low light conditions and detecting motion. They do not detect color. Play a role in light and dark adaptation.

Trichromatic Theory

The theory that color perception is based on the activity of three types of cone photoreceptors in the retina, each sensitive to different wavelengths of light (red, green, and blue).

Opponent-process Theory

A color theory that suggests color perception is controlled by the activity of opposing pairs of colors: red-green, blue-yellow, and black-white. If one sensor is stimulated, its pair is inhibited from firing.

Afterimage

Caused when certain cells in the retina are activated while others are not.

Ex. If you stare at the color red for a while, you fatigue the sensors for red. Then when you switch your gaze and look at a white page, the red sensors won't be able to fire as much as the green ones so you will see a green afterimage.

Color Vision Deficiency (Color Blindness)

Involves damage to the cones in the retina that results in difficulties distinguishing certain colors, commonly red and green or blue and yellow. Dichromatism and monochromatism are two types.

Dichromatism

Difficulty seeing red/green shades or blue/yellow shades.

Monochromatism

Seeing only gray shades.

Blindsight

Condition in which a person can respond to visual stimuli without consciously experiencing them.

Ex. People without sight can sense objects in their environment.

Hearing

Occurs through the movement of air molecules at different wavelengths (pitch) and amplitudes (loudness).

Sound Localization

Noting whether the sound was louder in one ear or another allows use to locate the origin of the sound.

Place Theory

The pitch of a sound we hear is due to the hair cells in the cochlea responding to different frequencies of sound based on where they are located.

Frequency Theory

We sense pitch because the air cells fire at different rates (frequencies) in the cochlea.

Volley Theory

States that groups of neurons of the auditory system respond to a sound by firing action potentials slightly out of phase with one another so that when combined, a greater frequency of sound can be encoded and sent to the brain to be analyzed.