psych

Gestalt

an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts.

Mil gram experiment

studied conformity

test the lengths to which ordinary people would follow orders from a legitimate authority

inductive method

observation to theory

deductive method

theory to observation

Joy Milne

Smell parkinsons

John Gottman

1. Research on couples.

2. Happy argued, unhappy fought.

line of best fit

a line drawn in a scatter plot to fit most of the dots and shows the relationship between the two sets of data

confounding variable

a factor other than the independent variable that might produce an effect in an experiment

internal validity

the degree to which changes in the dependent variable are due to the manipulation of the independent variable

external validity

extent to which we can generalize findings to real-world settings

Pons

coordinates movement and controls sleep (part of brain stem)

Medulla

the base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing

reticular formation

filters info from the senses and sends it to the thalamus

Thalamus

the brain's sensory switchboard, located on top of the brainstem; it directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla

Hypothalamus

A neural structure lying below the thalamus; it directs several maintenance activities (eating, drinking, body temperature), helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland, and is linked to emotion and reward. (not smell)

Cerebellum

the "little brain" at the rear of the brainstem; functions include processing sensory input and coordinating movement output and balance

limbic system

neural system located below the cerebral hemispheres; associated with emotions and drives

Amygdala

A limbic system structure involved in memory and emotion, particularly fear and aggression. Involved in perception and expression of stress (almond shaped)

cerebral cortex

The intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres; the body's ultimate control and information-processing center.

motor cortex

an area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements

somatosensory cortex

area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch and movement sensations

Contralateral

on the opposite side of the body

Ipsilateral

same side

Neuroplasticity

the ability within the brain to constantly change both the structure and function of many cells in response to experience or trauma

auditory cortex

the area of the temporal lobe responsible for processing sound information

visual cortex

The visual processing areas of cortex in the occipital and temporal lobes.

association areas

areas of the cerebral cortex involved in higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking

prefrontal cortex

working memory, planning, prioritizing, self control, emotion management

parietal cortex

spatial processing and reasoning

temporal cortex

speech and music perception, language comprehension

angular gyrus

transforms visual representations into an auditory code

Broca's area

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

Wernicke's area

controls language reception - a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe

aphasia

impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding).

Broca's aphasia

condition resulting from damage to Broca's area, causing the affected person to be unable to speak fluently, to mispronounce words, and to speak haltingly (non fluent, expressive)

Wernicke's aphasia

condition resulting from damage to Wernicke's area, causing the affected person to be unable to understand or produce meaningful language (fluent, receptive)

Dendrites

Branchlike parts of a neuron that are specialized to receive information.

Axon

the extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers, through which messages pass to other neurons or to muscles or glands

terminal branches

Branched endings of an axon that transmit messages to other neurons

Acetylcholine (ACh)

enables muscle action, learning, and memory

Dopamine

influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion

excess dopamine

schizophrenia

not enough dopamine

Parkinson's

Serotonin

Affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal

not enough serotonin

depression

GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)

A major inhibitory neurotransmitter (stops next neuron from firing)

Glutamate

A major excitatory neurotransmitter; involved in memory

too much glutamate

migraines and seizures

Plasticity

the brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience

collateral sprouting

the process by which axons of some healthy neurons adjacent to damaged cells grow new branches

substitution of function

the damaged region's function is taken over by another area or areas of the brain

neurogenesis

the formation of new neurons

hydrocephalus

abnormal accumulation of fluid (CSF) in the brain

bottom-up processing

sensory analysis that begins at the entry level, with information flowing from the sensory receptors to the brain

top-down processing

a cognitive process that initiates with our thoughts, which flow down to lower-level functions, such as the senses

difference threshold

the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time

Weber's Law

the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount)

signal detection theory

the response to a stimulus depends both on a person's sensitivity to the stimulus in the presence of noise and on a person's response criterion

sensory adaptation

diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

Stroop Effect

the tendency to read the words instead of saying the color of ink (read automatically)

feature detector cells

cells in the visual cortex that are sensitive to specific features of the environment

movement aftereffect

persistence of a perception of motion of still objects when viewed after watching moving objects

perceptual illusions

misperceptions or interpretations of stimuli that do not correspond to the sensations received

Ponzo illusion

a line or object will look longer than another of the same size if depth cutes suggest the first is farther

size constancy

the tendency to interpret an object as always being the same actual size, regardless of its distance

shape constancy

the tendency to interpret the shape of an object as being constant, even when its shape changes on the retina

lightness constancy

we perceive an object as having a constant lightness even while its illumination varies

Figureground

the tendency to perceive objects, or figures, as existing on a background

theory of mind

people's ideas about their own and others' mental states—about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict. (develops at 3-4 years old)

parallel processing

the processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. Contrasts with the step-by-step (serial) processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving.

wakefulness (w-alert)

beta waves, high frequency, low amplitude, desynchronous

(w-relaxed)

alpha waves, lower frequency, higher amplitude, synchronous

Light sleep (N1)

theta waves, slow frequency, low amplitude, lasts about 10 mins

Non-REM 2

sleep spindles: sudden increase in wave frequency (theta), light sleep, about 20 mins

K complex

Single but large high-voltage spike of brain activity that characterizes stage 2 NREM sleep. (brain responding to outside stimuli)

Non-REM 3

delta waves, slowest frequency, highest amplitude, deep sleep, sleep walking/talking

REM sleep

waves similar to relaxed and wakefulness (alpha and beta), dreaming

structuralsim/Wilhelm Wundt

discovering the basic elements or structures of mental processes. focused on identifying the structures of the human mind

Functionalism (William James)

Approach to mental processes, emphasizing the functions and purposes of the mind and behavior in the individuals adaptation to the environment

quasi-experimental design

experiment without random assignment

demand characteristics

cues in an experiment that tell the participant what behavior is expected

research participant bias

In an experiment, the influence of participants' expectations, and of their thoughts on how they should behave, on their behavior.

descriptive statistics

mathematical procedures that are used to describe and summarize sets of data in a meaningful way

standard deviation

a measure of variability that describes an average distance of every score from the mean

occipital lobe

A region of the cerebral cortex that processes visual information (back)

temporal lobe

A region of the cerebral cortex responsible for hearing and language.

frontal lobe

A region of the cerebral cortex that has specialized areas for movement, abstract thinking, planning, memory, and judgement

subliminal perception

the detection of information below the level of conscious awareness

Retina

The multilayered light-sensitive surface in the eye that records electromagnetic energy and converts it to neural impulses for processing in the brain.

Rods

The receptor cells in the retina that are sensitive to light but not very useful for color vision

Cones

receptor cells in the retina allowing us to see in color

optic nerve

The structure at the back of the eye, made up of axons of the ganglion cells, that carries visual information to the brain for further processing.

Muller-Lyer Illusion

illusion of line length that is distorted by inward-turning or outward-turning corners on the ends of the lines, causing lines of equal length to appear to be different

trichromatic theory

Theory stating that color perception is produced by three types of cone receptors in the retina that are particularly sensitive to different, but overlapping, ranges of wavelengths.

opponent-process theory

Theory stating that cells in the visual system respond to complementary pairs of red-green and blue-yellow colors; a given cell might be excited by red and inhibited by green, whereas another cell might be excited by yellow and inhibited by blue.

binocular cues

depth cues, such as retinal disparity and convergence, that depend on the use of two eyes

convergence

A binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object