AP Psychology Unit 0-1 Terms

  Unit 0:

  • Case study: technique in which one person or group is studied in the hope of revealing info

  • Survey are self reported attitudes and behaviors of a particular group

  • Sampling bias is a flawed sampling process that does not represent everyone

  • Random sample fairly represents a population since all people have a chance to be included

  • Illusory correlation is the tendency to believe there is a correlation when there is none

  • Experiment involves independent and dependent variables to see a cause and effect

  • Control group is the group that is not exposed to the treatment

  • Quantitative is numbers, qualitative is reading

  • Mode is most frequently used number

  • Skewed is when the scores are not symmetrical around the average value

  • Standard deviation is how much scores vary around the mean

  • Normal curve has about 68% fall within one standard deviation of it

  • Meta analysis involves combining multiple studies

  • Statistical significance is a statistical statement  that a result occurred by chance

Probability is used to represent statistical significance, must be below 5%

Unit 1:

  • Central nervous system is brain and spinal cord

  • Peripheral nervous system are sensory and motor neurons that connect CNS to rest of body

  1. Somatic nervous system allows communication between brain and muscles connected to bones

  2. Autonomic nervous system has two divisions of its own

2.1 Sympathetic nervous system arouses body to fight or flight

2.2 Parasympathetic calms down the body

  • Interneurons are neurons that communicate internally and process information between sensory inputs and motor outputs

  • Glial cells help support neurons and protect them

  • Axon passes the messages down, messages are action potentials

  • Threshold is the level of stimulation required for a neural impulse

  • Refractory period is the break between action potentials

  • All or none is how a neuron either fires at full power or not

  • Synapses are the axon tip of the receiving neuron that takes the action potential

  • Reuptake is reabsorption by the sending neuron neurotransmitters

  • Agonist increase neurotransmitter actions

  • Antagonist blocks neurotransmitters

  • Common neurotransmitters

  1. Acetylcholine

  2. Dopamine

  3. Serotonin

  4. Norepinephrine

  5.  GABA

  6. Glutamate

  7. Endorphins

  • Endocrine system are the body's “slow” chemical communication  system that secretes hormones into the bloodstream

  • Hindbrain consists of medulla, pons, and cerebellum, helps with balance

  • Midbrain connects hindbrain with forebrain, controls some motor movement  and transmits auditory and visual info

  • Forebrain consists of cerebral cortex, thalamus, and hypothalamus, manages cognitive activities and voluntary movement

  • Medulla controls heartbeat and breathing

  • Pons help coordinate movement

  • Thalamus directs messages to sensory receiving areas in cortex and transmits replies to cerebellum and medulla

  • Reticular formation is a nerve network that filters info and plays a role in arousal

  • Cerebellum is at the rear of the brainstem includes processing sensory input coordinating motor movement

  • Limbic system is related to emotions and drives

  • Hypothalamus helps govern endocrine system and is linked to emotion and reward

  • Hippocampus helps process memories for storage

  • Occipital lobes are for eyes

  • Temporal lobes are for ears

  • Frontal lobe are involved in speaking, muscle control, and judgements

  • Parietal lobe help with feeling and touching things

  • PET is radioactive form of glucose thing

  • fMRT is like an MRI but for revealing blood flow and brain activity

  • Activation synthesis theory is that dreams are a byproduct of synthesis of a active brain’s random firing

  • Cognitive development reflects our own lives and knowledge

  • Physiological function is regular brain stimulation to help develop and preserve neural pathways

  • Bottom up is experiencing the world and taking it in as memories

  • Top down is using your past experiences to construct the world

  • Absolute threshold is the minimum stimulation needed to detect a stimuli 50% of the time

  • Hue is color

  • Wavelength is distance between peaks, short means higher frequencies like blue, long means lower frequencies like red

  • Amplitude is the height and determines the brightness

  • Cones help make color

  • Rods are black white grey colors

  • Cornea is protection

  • Sensorineural hearing loss damages receptor cells

  • Conduction hearing loss damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea

  • Place theory is the theory that links the pitch we hear from the place the cochlea is hit

  • Frequency matching theory is theory that links it to the rate of neural impulses traveling up

  • Gustation is sense of taste

  • Olfaction is sense of smell

  • Vestibular sense is our  sense of body movement that allows us to balance

  • Gate control theory is that small spinal nerves conduct pain and open the gate at the bottom of your spine, larger fibers can also prevent it