Module 4

Module 5

• Scientific method - a self-correcting process for asking questions and observing natural answers

• Hypothesis - a theory that can be tested

• Theory - explains behaviors or events by offering ideas that organize observations.

• Operational definitions - a carefully worded statement of the exact procedures used in a research study

• Replication -repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations to see whether the basic finding can be reproduced

• Naturalistic observation - a descriptive technique of observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate or control the situation

• Case study - a descriptive technique in which one individual or group is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles

• Survey - a descriptive technique for obtaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular group, usually by questioning a representative, a random sample of the group

• Sampling bias - a flawed sampling process that produces an unrepresentative sample

• Population - all those in a group being studied, from which samples may be drawn

• Random sample - a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion

Module 6

• Correlation - a measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other

• Correlation coefficient - a statistical index of the relationship between two things (from -1.00 to 1.00)

• Variable - anything that can vary and is feasible and ethical to measure

• Scatterplot - a graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables. The slope of the points suggests the direction of the relationship between two variables, the strength of the correlation (little scatter means high correlation)

• Illusory correlation - perceiving a relationship where none exists, or perceiving a stronger than actual relationship

• Regression toward the mean - the tendency for extreme or unusual scores or events to fall back (regress) toward the average

• Experiment - a research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors (independent variables) to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process (dependent variable). By random assignment of participants, the experimenter aims to control other relevant factors

• Experimental group - in an experiment, the group exposed to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable

• Control group - in an experiment, the group not exposed to the treatment contrasts with the experimental group and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment

• Random assignment - assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between the different groups.

• Double-blind procedure - an experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant or blind about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo. Commonly used in drug evaluation studies

• Placebo - experimental results caused by expectations alone any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which the recipient assumes is an active agent.

• Independent variable - in an experiment, the factor that is manipulated, the variable whose effect is being studied

• Confounding variable - a factor other than the factor being studied that might influence a study’s results

• Dependent variable - in an experiment, the outcome that is measured as the variable that may change when the independent variable is manipulated

• Validity - the extent to which a test or experiment measures or predicts what it is supposed to

Module 7

• Informed consent - giving potential participants enough information about a study to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate

• Debriefing - the post-experimental explanation of a study, including its purpose and any deceptions, to its participants

Module 8

• Descriptive statistics - numerical data used to measure and describe characteristics of groups. Includes measures of central tendency and measures of variation

• Histogram - a bar graph depicting a frequency distribution

• Mode - the most frequently occurring score(s) in a distribution

• Mean - the arithmetic average of a distribution, obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores

• Median - the middle score in a distribution half the scores are above it and half are below it

• Skewed distribution - a representation of scores that lack symmetry around their average value

• Range - the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution

• Standard deviation - a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score

• Normal curve - a symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types most scores fall near the mean and fewer and fewer near the extremes

• Inferential statistics - numerical data that allow one to generalize - to infer from sample data the probability of something being true of a population

• Statistical significant - a statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance
  

Module 9

• Neuron - a nerve cell, the basic building block of the nervous system

• Cell body - the part of a neuron that contains the nucleus, the life support center

• Dendrites - a neuron’s often bushy, branching extensions that receive and integrate messages conducting impulses toward the cell body

• Axon - the neuron extension that passes messages through its branches to other neurons or to muscles or glands

• Myelin sheath - a fatty tissue layer segmentally encasing the axons of some neurons enables vastly greater transmission speed as neutral impulses hop from one node to the next

• Glial cells - cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons, they also play a role in learning, thinking, and memory

• Action potential - a neural impulse, a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon

• Threshold - the level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse

• Refractory period - in neural processing a brief resting pause that occurs after a neuron has fired subsequent action potentials cannot occur until the axon returns to its resting state.

• All-or-none response - a neuron’s reaction of either firing or not firing

• Synapse - the junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron.

• Neurotransmitters - chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between neurons. When they travel across the synapse and bind to receptor sites on the receiving neuron, influencing whether or not the neuron will create a neuron impulse

• Reuptake - neurotransmitter reabsorption by the sending neuro

• Endorphins - “morphine within” - natural, opiate-like neurotransmitters linked to pain and to pleasure

• Agonist - a molecule that increases a neurotransmitter action

• Antagonist - a molecule that inhibits or blocks a neurotransmitter action

Module 10

• Nervous system - The body’s speedy, electrochemical communication network, consisting of all the nerve cells of the peripheral and central nervous systems

• Central nervous system - the brain and spinal cord

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

• Nerves - bundled axons that form neural cables connecting the CNS with muscles, glands, and sense organs

• Sensory neurons - neurons that carry incoming information from the body’s tissues and sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord

• Motor neurons - neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands

• Interneurons - neurons within the brain and spinal cord, they communicate internally and process information between the sensory and motor outputs

• Somatic nervous system - the division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body’s skeletal muscles also called the skeletal nervous system

• Autonomic nervous system (ANS) - the part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs. Its sympathetic division arouses; its parasympathetic division calms

• Sympathetic nervous system - the division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy

• Parasympathetic nervous system - the division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy

• Reflex - a simple automatic response to a sensory stimulus such as the knee-jerk response

• Endocrine system - the body’s “slow” chemical communication system, s set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream

• Hormones - chemical messengers that are manufactured by the endocrine glands, travel through the bloodstream and affect other tissues

• Adrenal glands - a pair of endocrine glands that sit just above the kidneys and secrete hormones that help arouse the body in times of stress (epinephrine and norepinephrine)

• Pituitary gland - the endocrine system's most influential gland, under the influence of the hypothalamus, it regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands

Module 11

• Lesion-tissue destruction a brain lesion is a naturally or experimentally caused destruction of brain tissue

• EEG (electroencephalogram) - an amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity sweeping across the brain’s surface. These waves are measured by electrodes placed on the scalp

• MEG (magnetoencephalography) - a brain imaging technique that measures magnetic fields from the brain’s natural electrical activity

• CT scan (computed tomography) - a series of X-ray photographs taken from different angles and combined by computer into a composite representation of a slice of the brain’s structure

• PET (position emission tomography) scan - a visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task

• MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) - a technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce computer-generated images of soft tissue MRI scans show brain anatomy

• fMRI (functional MRI) - a technique for revealing blood flow and brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans. They show brain function as well as structure

• Brain stem - the oldest part and central core of the brain, beginning where the spinal cord swells as it enters the skull, the brainstem is responsible for automatic survival functions

• Medulla - the base of the brainstem, controls heartbeat and breathing

• The Thalamus - the brain’s sensory control center, 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

• Reticular formation - a nerve network that travels through the brainstem into the thalamus and plays an important role in controlling arousal

• Cerebellum - the little brain at the rear of the brainstem, functions include processing sensory input, coordinating movement output and balance, and enabling nonverbal learning and memory

• Limbic system - neural system (including amygdala, hypothalamus, and hippocampus) located below the cerebral hemispheres, associated with emotions and drives

• Amygdala - two lima bean neural clusters in the limbic system, linked to emotion

• Hypothalamus - a neural structure lying below the thalamus, it directs several maintenance activities, helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland, and is linked to emotion and reward

• The hippocampus - a neural center located in the limbic system, helps process the storage of explicit memories of facts and events

Module 12

• Cerebral cortex - the intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres, the body’s ultimate control and information-processing better

• frontal lobes the portion of the cerebral cortex lying just behind the forehead, involved in speaking and muscle movements and in making plans and judgments

• parietal lobes - the portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top of the head and toward the rear, receives sensory input for touch and position.

• occipital lobes - the portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the back of the head, includes areas that receive information from the visual fields

• temporal lobes - the portion of the cerebral cortex lying roughly above the ears, includes auditory areas, each receiving information primarily from the opposite ear

• motor cortex - an area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements

• Somatosensory cortex - an area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch and movement sensations

• association areas - areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions, rather they are Involved in higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking

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

• neurogenesis - the formation of new neurons

Module 13

• Corpus Callosum: the large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them

• split brain: a condition resulting from surgery that isolates the brain’s two hemispheres by cutting the fibers connecting them

• consciousness: our subjective awareness of ourselves and our environment

• Cognitive neuroscience - the interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition

• Dual processing - the principle that information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks

• blindsight - a condition in which a person can respond to a visual stimulus without consciously experiencing it

• parallel processing - processing many aspects of a problem simultaneously, generally used to process well-leaned information or to solve easy problems

• sequential processing - processing one aspect of a problem at a time, generally used to process new information or to solve difficult problems

Module 14

• behavior genetics - the study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior

• heredity - the genetic transfer of characteristics from parents to offspring

• environment - every nongenetic influence, from prenatal nutrition to the people and things around us

• chromosomes - threadlike structures made of DNA molecules that contain the genes

• DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) - a complex molecule containing the genetic information that makes up the chromosomes

• genes - the biochemical units of heredity that make up the chromosomes, segments of DNA capable of synthesizing proteins

• genome - the complete instructions for making an organism, consisting of all the genetic material in that organism’s chromosomes

• Identical (monozygotic) twins - develop from a single fertilized egg that splits in two, creating two genetically identical organisms

• fraternal (dizygotic) twins - develop from separate fertilized eggs, they are genetically no closer than ordinary brothers and sisters, but they share a prenatal environment

• heritability - the proportion of variation among individuals in a group that we can attribute to genes, the heritability of a trait can vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied

Module 16

• Sensation - the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment

• Sensory Receptors  - sensory nerve endings that respond to stimuli

• Perception - the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events

• Bottom-up processing - analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain integration of sensory information

•  

• Top-down processing - information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations

• Inattentional blindness - failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

•  Change blindness - failing to notice changes in the environment, a form of inattentional blindness

• Transduction - conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brain can interpret

• Psychophysics - the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them

• Absolute threshold - the minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time

• Signal detection theory - a theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulus (noise) assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness

• Subliminal - below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness

• Difference threshold - the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time. We experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference or jnd

• Priming - the activation, often unconsciously of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response 

• 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)

• Sensory adaptation - diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

• Cock tail party effect - you can focus on one sound with many other stimuli around them, like at a noisy party

• Subliminal stimulation - when you are unable to see or hear stimuli, you are not able to process what has been shown or announced

• Sensory adaptation - when an individual adapts to the noise of their surroundings when smells are not as strong, or noises are not as loud 

Module 17

• Perceptual set - a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

• Extrasensory perception (ESP) -  the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input, includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition 

• Parapsychology - the study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis

• Context - influences how we perceive certain stimuli 

• Motivation - pursuing or seeking out new experiences, sensations, and feelings

• Emotion - you sense an emotion and then perceive it which makes you react to it 

Module 18

• Wavelength - the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next. Electromagnetic wavelengths vary from the short blips of gamma rays to the long pulses of radio transmission 

• Hue - the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light, what we know as the color names, blue, green, and so forth

• Intensity - the amount of energy in a light wave or sound wave, which influences what we perceive as brightness or loudness. Intensity is determined by the wave’s amplitude (height)

• Cornea - the eye's clear, protective outer layer, covering the pupil and iris

• Pupil - the adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters

• Iris - a ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening 

• Lens - the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina

• Retina - the light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information 

• Accommodation - the process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina

• Rods - retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray, and are sensitive to movement, necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond 

• Cones - retinal receptors that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. Cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations  

• Optic nerve - the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain

• Blind spot - the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a blind spot because no receptor cells are located there 

• Fovea - the central focal point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones cluster

• Young - Helmotz trichromatic theory (tree color) - the theory that the retina contains three different types of color receptors - one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue - which when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color

• Opponent-process theory - the theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green,blue-yellow, white-black) enable color vision. For example, some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red, and others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green

• Feature detectors - nerve cells in the brain’s visual cortex that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as a shape, angle, or movement

• Parallel processing - processing many aspects of a problem simultaneously, the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision

• Acuity - the ability to hear, see, or think accurately and clearly

• Photoreceptors - specialized light-detecting cells on the retinas at the back of your eyes

• Near-sighted - not being able to look far away because of a refractive error

• Far-sighted - not being able to see up close because of a refractive

• Vision - information processing in order to understand images and objects that surround us as stimuli.

Module 19

• Gestalt rules of perception - an organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes. Stimulation, continuation, closure, proximity, figure/ground, symmetry and order (pragnanz)

• Grouping - the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

• Figure - ground - the organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground)

• Proximity - we group nearby figures together, we do not see 6 separate limes we see three sets of 2 lines

• Continuity - we perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones, this pattern could be a series of alternating semicircles, but we perceive it as two continuous lines 

• Closure - we fill in gaps to create a complete, whole object, thus we assume that the circles on the left are complete but partially blocked by the (illusory) triangle. Add nothing more than little segments to close off the circles and your brain stops constructing a traingle

• Stereopsis (depth perception) - the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional, allows us to judge distance

• Visual cliff - a laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals 

• Binocular cues - how we perceive depth using both of our eyes, with convergence and retinal disparity

• Convergence - the inward angle of the eyes focusing on a near object

• Retinal disparity - how your brain judges how close an object is to you by comparing two images perceived by your retinas

• Monocular cue - a depth cue such as interposition or linear perspective available to either eye alone 

• Relative height - we perceive objects that are higher to be farther and vice versa

• Relative size - if we assume two objects are similar in size, most people perceive the one that casts the smaller retinal image as farther away

• Interposition - if one object partially blocks our view of another, we perceive it as closer

• Relative motion - as we move, like in a car, we perceive the objects outside to move with us. Objects in front appear to move backward. The farther an object is away the faster it will seem to move 

• Linear perspective - parallel lines appear to meet in the distance. The sharper the angle of convergence, the greater the perceived distance

• Light and shadow - shading produces a sense of depth consistent with our assumption that light comes from above. If you invert the illustration, the hollow will become a hill

• Phi phenomenon - an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession.

• Aerial perspective - the technique of creating an illusion of depth by depicting distant objects as paler, less detailed, and usually bluer than near objects.

• Perceptual constancy - perceiving objects as unchanging ( having consistent color, brightness, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change

Module 20

• Audition - the sense or act of hearing 

• Hearing - helps us adapt and survive, provides information and enables relationships, allows us to communicate invisibly 

• Middle ear - the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer. Anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window

• Hammer, anvil, and stirrup - pick up the vibrations and transmit them to the cochlea, a small shaped tube in your inner ear

• Cochlea - a coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear, sound waves traveling through the cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses

• Sound waves - longitudinal waves that travel through a medium like air or water

• Frequency -  the length the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time (per second), determines pitch 

• Pitch - a tone’s experienced highness or lowness depends on frequency

• Decibels- how we measure amplitude, 0= absolute threshold for hearing

• Height - the height of sound waves that determine the perceived loudness 

• Sensorineural hearing loss - hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerves, the most common form of hearing loss, also called nerve deafness

• Conduction hearing loss - a less common form of hearing loss, caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea

• Sound localization -  the ability to tell the direction from which a sound is originating

 Module 21 

• Touch - our tactile sense

• Temperature - 

• Pain - physical even produced by your senses 

• Path to CNS - the pain sensory receptors ( nociceptors) respond to potentially damaging stimuli by sending an impulse to the spinal cord, then passes it to the brain where it is interpreted as pain 

• Gate control theory - the theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological gate that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain. The gate is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up the small nerve fibers or by information coming from the brain

• Endorphins - a natural pain killer our body produces 

• Gustation - our sense of taste 

• Five taste sensations - sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami 

• Sweet - energy source

• Salty - sodium essential to physiological processes

• Sour  - potentially toxic acid

• Bitter - potential poisons 

• Umami - proteins to grow and repair tissues

• Olfaction - the sense of smell

• Olfactory bulb - A rounded mass of tissue that contains several types of nerve cells that are involved in the sense of smell

• Motor cortex - coordinates movements across multiple joints and muscle groups to achieve smooth and purposeful actions

• Somatosensory cortex - receives tactile information from the body, including sensations such as touch, pressure, temperature, and pain

• Kinesthetic - our movement since- our system for sensing the position and movement of individual body arts

• Vestibular - our sense of body movement and position that enables our sense of balance 

• Thalamus - the part of your brain that processes sensory information except for smell

• Association areas - specific areas of the brain that are used for specific things, they are used for higher mental functions, not involved in motor or sensory 

• The four lobes are responsible for  

Module 22-23

• m22

• Consciousness - our subjective awareness of ourselves and our environment

• Consciousness comes to us in altered states

• Sour  - potentially toxic acid

• Bitter - potential poisons 

• Umami - proteins to grow and repair tissues

• Olfaction - the sense of smell

• Olfactory bulb - A rounded mass of tissue that contains several types of nerve cells that are involved in the sense of smell

• Motor cortex - coordinates movements across multiple joints and muscle groups to achieve smooth and purposeful actions

• Somatosensory cortex - receives tactile information from the body, including sensations such as touch, pressure, temperature, and pain

• Kinesthetic - our movement since- our system for sensing the position and movement of individual body arts

• Vestibular - our sense of body movement and position that enables our sense of balance 

• Thalamus - the part of your brain that processes sensory information except for smell

• Association areas - specific areas of the brain that are used for specific things, they are used for higher mental functions, not involved in motor or sensory 

• The four lobes are responsible for 

• Hypnosis - a social interaction in which one person suggests to another that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur

• Spontaneous altered states - daydreaming, drowsiness, and dreaming

• Physiological altered states - ( drug-induced ) hallucinations, food or oxygen starvation

• Psychologically altered states - sensory deprivation, hypnosis, meditation

• Dissociation - a split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others

• m23

• Sleep - a periodic, natural loss of consciousness – as distinct from unconsciousness resulting from a coma, general anesthesia, or hibernation

• Circadian rhythm - our biological clock, regular bodily rhythms of temp, and wakefulness that occur on a 24 hour cycle

• EEG - confirm that the brains auditory cortex responds to sound stimuli even during sleep

• EMG - a diagnostic procedure to assess the health of muscles and the nerve cells that control them

• EOG - involves placing adhesive sensors on the skin around your eye. These sensors detect eye activity. You'll wear four of these sensors for a sleep study, two around each eye.

• The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) - a pair of cell clusters in the hypothalamus that controls circadian rhythm, in response to light the scn causes the pineal gland to adjust melatonin production, thus modifying our feelings of sleepiness

• Alpha waves - the relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake state nrem 1

• Delta waves - the large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep of nrem 3 and rem

• Theta waves - high amplitude brain waves nrem 1

• Beta waves - associated with being awake or conscious, fast activity 

• Nrem - non-rapid eye movement 

• Rem - rapid eye movement

• Nr1 - light sleep, your body starts to slow down, and you may experience hallucinations right before hand, lasts about 10 minutes 

• Nr2 - even more relaxed and you get sleep spindles, random bursts of energy, 30 - 60 minutes, slow brain waves

• Nr3 - deep sleep, 20-40 minutes, you are fully asleep and hard to wake up, even slower brain waves

• Rem - about an hour, this is when you dream, you are full asleep, but your brain is really active 

• The whole cycle lasts about 90 minutes   

Module 24

• Insomnia - recurring problems in falling or staying asleep

• Narcolepsy - a sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks, the sufferer may lapse directly into REM sleep, often at inopportune times

• Sleep apnea - a sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and repeated momentary awakenings

• Night terrors - a sleep disorder characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified, unlike nightmares, night terrors occur during NREM 3 sleep, within two or three hours of falling asleep, and are seldom remembered

• Dream - a sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing, through a sleeping person;s mind

• Sleep deprivation - our body needs to get enough sleep cycles throughout the night, when we don't, our body feels the effects of it and therefore we do not feel the benefits of sleep, after not getting enough sleep for so many nights we build up debt. The effects of it are loss of focus, decrease in the immune system, increase of fat cells, increased risk of arthritis and heart problems and hunger, reduced muscle

• REM motor behavior disorder - when the gate doesn't fully close and signals to move from our dreams our bodies act out. Nothing is stopping the signal from going to your brain

• Why we dream - there are a lot of different theories on why we dream, but there is no clear answer why, some think it satisfies us, or helps sort memories, to stimulates the brain while we sleep

• Siggy (Freud)

  • He thought that dreams were a way for our brain to push away things our conscious mind didnt want us to know

  • Manifest content - according to Freud, the symbolic, remembered storyline of a dream ( as distinct from its latent, or hidden, content)  

  •  Latent Content - according to Freud, the underlying meaning of a dream (as distinct from its manifest content)

  • Archetypical symbols - images, motifs, objects, colors, numbers, or animals that have universal meaning

  • Information processing theory - describes how individuals record, store, and retrieve information in their brains

  • Reflect cognitive development - how children think, explore and figure things out. It is the development of knowledge, skills, problem-solving and dispositions, which help children to think about and understand the world around them. 

  • Preserve neural pathways -  when humans focus their attention enough, they can slowly rewire these pathways themselves

  • Activation synthesis theory - why humans have dreams. It states that a dream is the cerebral cortex processing nerve impulses being sent from the body to the brain stem into something that makes sense

  • REM rebound - a phenomenon in which a person temporarily receives more REM sleep than they normally would.

  • Module 25

    • Psychoactive drugs - a chemical substance that alters perceptions and moods

    • Substance use disorder  - a disorder characterized by continued substance craving and use despite significant life disruption and/or physical risk

    • Tolerance - the diminishing effect with regular use of the same dose of a drug, requiring the user to take larger and larger doses before experiencing the drugs effect

    • Withdrawal - the discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing an addictive drug or behavior

    • Depressants - drugs, alcohol, barbiturates and opiates, that reuce neural activity and slow body functions

    • Alcohol use disorder - alcohol use marked by tolerance, withdrawal and a drive to continue problematic use

    • Barbiturates - drugs that depress central nervous system activity, reducing anxiety but affecting memory and judgement 

    • Opiates - opium and its derivatives such as morphine and heroin depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety 

    • Stimulants - drugs such as caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, methamphetamines, and ecstasy that excite neural activity and speed up body functions

    • Nicotine - a stimulating and highly addictive in psychoactive drug in tobacco 

    • Amphetamines - stimulate neural activity, causing accelerated body functions with energy and mood

    • ,methamphetamines - a powerfully addictive drug that stimulates the CNS with accelerated body functions, reduces dopamine

    • Ecstasy - synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen produces euphoria and social intimacy, but with short-term health risks and longer-term harm to serotonin-producing neurons and to mind and cognition 

    • Hallucinogens - psychedelic drugs, such as LSD, that distort perception and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input

    • Near-death experience - an altered state of consciousness reported after a close brush with death often similar to drug-induced hallucinations 

    • LSD - a powerful hallucinogenic drug also known as acid

    • THC - the major active ingredient in marijuana, triggers a variety of effects, including mild hallucinations 

    • Benzodiazepines - depressants that produce sedation and hypnosis, relieve anxiety and muscle spasms, and reduce seizures

    • When using drugs, they mimic the process of another hormone in yuor body, other drugs block different hormones to decrease the effects of stimulating hormones 

• Module 26

• Pavlov/Pavlov’s Dog - Pavlov used classical conditioning to condition the dog to 

• salivate whenever the food was placed in front of them, he used a bell and meat powder to create the 

  Salivating that would come from eating the food before the dog ate, the dog responded to the bell and expected the powder and has the same reaction without it

  • Stimulus - any event or situation that evokes a response

  • Respondent behavior -  behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus

  • Neutral stimulus (NS) - in classical conditioning a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning 

  • UR - unconditioned response  - in classical conditioning, an unlearned, 

  naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus 

  • US - unconditioned stimulus, in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally, naturally and

  Automatically - triggered an unconditioned response

  • CR - conditioned response, in classical conditioning, is a learned response to a previously neutral but now

  Conditioned response

  • Cs - condition Stimulus, in classical conditioning an originally neutral stimulus that, after

  Association with an unconditioned stimulus triggers a conditioned response 

  • Acquisition - in classical conditioning, three initial stages, when one links a neutral stimulus so that the

  Neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response, in operant conditioning the strengthening

  Of s reinforced response

  • Extinction - the diminishing of conditioned response, occurs in classical conditioning when a 

  An unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus and occurs in opposite conditioning 

  when a response is no longer reinforced

  • Spontaneous recovery - the reappearance after a pause of an extinguished conditioned response

  • Generalization - the tendency, once a response has been conditioned for stimuli similar to the 

  Conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses  

  • Discrimination - in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned

  • Stimulus and similar stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus

  • Applications: Cravings; Immune response -  with drug cravings, they advise to stay away from people

  • Or areas that would make them feel that craving for the drug. With food cravings, when we eat

  • Something we like we crave for more so it's hard for people who are dieting because they crave the Surgary thing. With the immune system, if a drug is accompanied by a taste then that taste could 

  create the same response as the drug

  • Watson's emotional Albert - brought the idea that fear is learned, a baby, Little Albert, was used in this 

  Free Experiment to condition someone to feel fear, the baby didn't actually fear the animal but the noise, 

  They used a rat and placed the baby with the rat. A steel bar was hit behind the baby’s head seven times 

  After that the fear of the sound was associated with the rat, this was later generalized to other 

  Animals, dogs, rabbits but not other items like toys. As Albert grew up he never knew about this 

  experiment and never knew why he had an aversion to certain animals.

  
  

  • Module 27

    • Instrumental learning-  a type of learning in which behaviors are strengthened or weakened by their consequences

    • Law of effect - when a child does something good they get praise and when they do something not acceptable they get punishment

    • Operant conditioning -  a method of learning that uses rewards and punishment to modify behavior.

    • Operant behaviors - the action triggered by a stimulus that produces a positive or negative award

    • Skinner box - a chamber used for animals to observe classical and operant conditioning

    • Shaping - a method of increasing a targeted behavior through reinforcement in a process of successive approximation

    • Reinforcement - Primary reinforcers are biological. Secondary reinforcers, however, are such conditioned stimuli as money, grades or tokens for good behavior.

    • Positive reinforcement - Positive reinforcement is a process that strengthens the likelihood of a particular response by adding a stimulus after the behavior is performed

    • Negative reinforcement - Negative reinforcement also strengthens the likelihood of a particular response, but by removing an undesirable consequence.

    • Positive punishment - adding a negative consequence after an undesired behavior is emitted to decrease future responses.

    • Negative punishment - taking away a certain desired item after the undesired behavior happens in order to decrease future responses.

    • Schedules of punishment - the rules that determine how often an organism is reinforced for a particular behavior. The particular pattern of reinforcement has an impact on the pattern of responding by the animal. A schedule of reinforcement is either continuous or partial.

    • Continuous - subject to receive positive rewards for behavior every time the behavior is exhibited.

• Partial  -A type of learning which occasionally reinforces a desired behavior after it happens, such as praising a student every other time a question is answered correctly.

• Ratio schedules -  involve reinforcement after an average number of responses have occurred.

• Fixed ratio  - after a specified number of responses 

• Variable ratio - after an unpredicted number of responses

• Fixed interval - after a specified number of time

• Variable interval - after an unpredicted amount of time

• Punishment - a consequence that reduces or aims to reduce the likelihood of a targeted and undesirable behavior from happening again. 

Module 29

• Biological limits of classical and operant conditioning 

• Preparedness - a biological predisposition to learn associations such as between taste and nausea, that have survival value

• Taste aversion - eating something toxic and then getting ill, then not being able to eat that thing again because the taste triggers the sickness you felt it becomes a conditional stimulus

• Instinctive drift - the tendency of learned behavior to gradually revert to biologically predisposed patterns

• Cognitive map - a mental representation of the layout of one’s environment, for example after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it

• Problem-focused coping - attempting to alleviate stress directly- by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor

• Emotion-focused coping - attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to our stress reaction

• Personal control - our sense of controlling our environment rather than feeling helpless

• Learned helplessness - the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or person learns when unable to avoid repeated assertive events

• External locus of control - the perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate

• Internal locus of control - the perception that we control our own fate

• Self-control - the ability to control impulses and delay short-term gratification for greater long-term rewards

• M30

• Observational learning - learning by observing others also called social learning 

• Modeling - the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior

• Mirror neurons - frontal lobe neurons that some scientists believe fire when we perform certain actions or observe another doing so, the brain mirroring of another's actions may enable imitation and empathy

• Prosocial - positive, constructive, helpful behavior the opposite of antisocial

• Antisocial - negative, aggressive behavior, 

• Both are caused by observational learning

Module 34 - 35

• Cognition - all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

•   Concept - a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people Prototype - a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories ( as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin)

• Creativity - the ability to produce new and valuable ideas 

• Convergent thinking - narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution

• Divergent thinking - expanding the number of possible problem solutions creative thinking that diverges in different directions 

• Symbol - everything we experience has a meaning 

• Algorithm - methodical rule or procedure 

• Insight - sudden lightbulb reaction 

• Inductive reasoning - a method of drawing conclusions by going from the specific to the general 

• Deductive reasoning - general ideas to specific conclusions 

• Confirmation bias - a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence 

• Fixation - in cognition, the inability to see a problem from a new perspective an obstacle to problem-solving

• Mental set - a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past 

• Heuristics - a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently, usually speedier but also more error-prone than an algorithm

• Intuition - an effortless immediate automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning 

• Representativeness heuristics - estimating the likelihood of events in terms of how they seem to represent or match particular prototypes may lead us to ignore other relevant information 

• Availability heuristics - estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory if instances come readily to mind we presume such events are considered common 

• Overconfidence bias- the tendency to be more confident than correct to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements 

• Framing - wording a question or statement so that it evokes a desired response 

• Belief perseverance - ignoring evidence that proves our beliefs are wrong 

• Belief  bias- a cognitive bias where one will predict the outcome of an argument based on their own beliefs and knowledge without considering the validity or invalidity of the issue

• False consensus  - when people overestimate the amount of shared belief, attitudes, and behaviors 

• Thinking -Thinking, also known as ‘cognition’, refers to the ability to process information, hold attention, store and retrieve memories and select appropriate responses and actions

• Prejudice - an unfair feeling of dislike for a person or group because of race, sex, religion, etc 

• Intelligence - as the ability to learn from and adapt to novel situations and to use that knowledge to create a desired outcome

Module 31

• Memory - the persistence of learning over time the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information

• Recall - a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill in the blank test

• Recognition - a measure of memory in which the person identifies items previously learned, as on multiple choice test

•  Relearning - a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material again

• Encoding - the process of getting information into the memory system - for example, by extracting meaning

• Storage - the process of retaining encoded information over time

• Retrieval - the process of getting information out of memory storage

• Parallel processing - processing many aspects of a problem simultaneously

• Sensory memory - the immediate very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system

• Short term - activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as digits of a phone number while calling, before the information is stored or forgotten

• Long term - the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system includes knowledge, skills, and experiences

• Semantic memory - a type of long-term memory involving the capacity to recall words, concepts, or numbers, which is essential for the use and understanding of language.

• Episodic memory - the memory of everyday events that can be explicitly stated or conjured

• Working memory - a newer understanding of short term memory that adds conscious active processing of incoming auditory and visual information and of information retrieval from long term memory

• Explicit memory - retention of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare (declarative)

• Effortful processing - encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

• Automatic processing - unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well - learned information, such as word meanings

• Implicit memory - retention of learned skills or classically conditioned associations independent of conscious recollection (non- declarative)

• Iconic momeoy - a momentary sensory of visual stimuli, a picture image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second

• Echoic memory - a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli, if attention is elsewhere sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds

• Chunking - organizing items into familiar, manageable units, often occur automatically

• Mneumonics - memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices

• Spacign effect - the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long term retention than is achieved through massed study or practiced

• Testing effect - enhanced memory after retrieving rather than simply rereading, information, also sometimes referred to as a retrieval practice or test enhanced learning

• Shallow processing - encoding on a basic level, based on the structure or appearance of words 

• Deep processing - encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the words, tends to yield the best retention

Module 36

• Language - our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning 

• Phoneme - in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit Morpheme - in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning 

• Grammar - a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others

• Semantics- the language’s set of rules fro deriving meaning of sound 

• Syntax - set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences

• Babbling stage  - beginning around 4 months, an infant mutters sounds at first related to household language

• One word stage - resembles household language 

• Two word stage - at 2, the child speaks in two word statements

• Telegraphic speech - child speaks like a telegram, nouns and verbs 

• Receptive language - their ability to understand what is said about them

• Productive - their ability to produce words

• Critical periods  -a period during someone's development in which a particular skill or characteristic is believed to be most readily acquired

• Impact of deafness on language development -  they can be born to hearing parents, never learn english fullt, learn to sign language at an early age

• Aphasia - impalemnt of language, usually caused by left hemishphere damage either to broca’s area or wenrickes

• Brocas area- helps with language expression , damage leads to brocas aphasia

• Wernickes area - language comprehension and expression, damage leads to wernickes aphasia

• Linguistic determonism - that language controls the way we think and interpret the world around us

• Linguistic influence - the idea that language affects thoughts

• Imaging -   representations and the accompanying experience of sensory information without a direct external stimulus

Module 32-33

• Hippocampus and frontal lobes  -explicit memory fromation 

• Cerebellum and basal ganglia - implicit memory formation

• Memory consolidation - the neural storage of  long trm memory

• Flashbulbmemory - a clear, sustained memory of an emotionally significant moment or event 

• Long term potentiation - an increase in a cells firing ptotential after a brief, rapid stumlation, a neural basis fro learning and memory

• Acetychloine - a neurtransmitter, that carries messages to your brian to your body to your nerve cells

• Priming - the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory

• Encoding specificity principle - the idea that cues and contexts specific to a particular memory will be most effective in helping us recall it

• Mood congruent memory - the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current mood bad or good

• Serial position effect - our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list 

• Recency - the latest things that have been processed, fresh in your minf

• Primary - the first things that have been processed andstored in your memory

• Anterograde amnesia - an inability to form new memories

• Retrograde amnesia - an inability to retrieve information from ones past

• Encoding failure - when we fail to encode we fail to remember 

• Storage decay - when we later forget something we encoded

• Inattention  - lack of attention

• Multitasking - doing multipls tasks simultaneously

•  Proactive Interference - the forward acting disruptive effect of older learning on the recall of new info

• Retroactive interference - the backward acting disruptive effect of newer learning on the recall of old info

• (TOT) phenomenon -  is a state in which one cannot quite recall a familiar word but can recall words of similar form and meaning  

• Dissociative disorders -  are mental health conditions that involve experiencing a loss of connection between thoughts, memories, feelings, surroundings, behavior and identity 

• Motivated forgetting - when our brain makes ud forget certain experiences to protect us, repression

• Reconsolidastion - a process in which previously stored memories, when retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again 

• Misinformation effect - occurs when misleading has distorted one’s memory of an event

• Dissociative - when your mind blocks out important information about yourself, causing “gaps” in your memory

• Dissociative fugue- a temporary state where a person has memory loss (amnesia) and ends up in an unexpected place.

• Misinformation effect - the tendency for the information you learned after an event to interfere with your original memory of what happened

• Distortion - internal mental filters or biases that increase our misery, fuel our anxiety, and make us feel bad about ourselves

• Eye witness testimony - an important area of research in cognitive psychology and human memory. Eyewitnesses can provide very compelling legal testimony, but rather than recording experiences flawlessly, their memories are susceptible to a variety of errors and biases.

• Source amnesia  - is the inability to remember where, when or how previously learned information has been acquired while retaining the factual knowledge

• Deja vu - “I ve experienced this before” The current situation triggers a feeling of an earlier experience

• Misattribution - to incorrectly indicate the cause, origin, or creator of (something)

• Suggestion - the process of sending out stimuli, consciously or unconsciously, planned or not

Module 60 - 61

• Intelligence test- a method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores

• Achievement test - a test designed to assess what a person has learned

• Misinformation effect - the tendency for the information you learned after an event to interfere with your original memory of what happened

• Distortion - internal mental filters or biases that increase our misery, fuel our anxiety, and make us feel bad about ourselves

• Eye witness testimony - an important area of research in cognitive psychology and human memory. Eyewitnesses can provide very compelling legal testimony, but rather than recording experiences flawlessly, their memories are susceptible to a variety of errors and biases.

• Source amnesia  - is the inability to remember where, when or how previously learned information has been acquired while retaining the factual knowledge

• Deja vu - “I ve experienced this before” The current situation triggers a feeling of an earlier experience

• Misattribution - to incorrectly indicate the cause, origin, or creator of (something)

• Suggestion - the process of sending out stimuli, consciously or unconsciously, planned or not

Module 60 - 61

• Intelligence test- a method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores

• Achievement test - a test designed to assess what a person has learned

• Standardization - defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group

• Normal curve - the bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes, most scores fall near the average, fewer and fewer towards the extremes

• Reliability - the extent to which a test shows consistent results, tested by looking at the consistency of scores 

• Validity - the extent to which a test measures a procedure will do what it's supposed to 

• Content validity - the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest 

• Predictive validity - the success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict, assessed by computing the correlation between test scores 

• Factor analysis is a statistical method used to describe variability among observed, correlated variables in terms of a potentially lower number of unobserved variables called factors.

• The theory of multiple intelligences proposes that individuals possess a range of different types of intelligence.

• Savant syndrome is a rare condition in which persons with various developmental disorders, including autistic disorder, have an amazing ability and talent

• Sternberg, contends there are three types of intelligence: practical (the ability to get along in different contexts), creative (the ability to come up with new ideas), and analytical (the ability to evaluate information and solve problems

• Grit a personality trait characterized by perseverance and passion for achieving long-term goals.

• The social and emotional intelligence definition refers to the ability to be aware of one's own feelings in the present moment

• The Flynn effect refers to the puzzling observation of an increase in human intelligence scores over time

• Cohort - a group of people sharing a common characteristic, such as from  given time period

• Crystallized intelligence - our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills, tends to increase with age

• Fluid intelligence - our ability to reason speedily and abstractly, tends to decrease with age, especially during late childhood 

• Cross-sectional study - research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time

• Longitudinal study - research that follows and retests the same people over time

Module 62-63

• Fluid vs. Crystalized Intelligence

• Crystallized intelligence - our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills, tends to increase with age

• Fluid intelligence - our ability to reason speedily and abstractly, tends to decrease with age, especially during late childhood 

• Brain anatomy /Intelligence

• larger brain size and volume is associated with better cognitive functioning and higher intelligence.

• Intellectual disability

• A condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence test score of 70 or below and difficutly adapting tp the demands of life (foremrly referred to as mental retardation)

• Down syndrome

• A condition of mild to severe intellectual disability and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome

• Mental retardation

• Same as ID

• Giftedness

• ntellectual giftedness is an intellectual ability significantly higher than average. It is a characteristic of children, variously defined, that motivates differences in school programming

• IQ - Dynamic or Stable?

• IQ scores are not static throughout a person's life. It does nat stay the same because as yuo 

• grow and learn more your score will fluctuate

• IQ - Nature or Nurture

•  Based on both environmental and gentic influences, we learnv from the outside world

• But also our genes play a role, when we are only genetically goven intelligence then the socioeconomic standing corresponds, if we are only based on environment then people with disadvantage backgrounds are at a disadvantage, the most genetically similar people are the more similar these scores will be, (twins)

• Heritability

• The proportion of variation among individuals in a group that ee can attribute to genes, the heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied

• 64

• Stereotype threat - a self- conforming concern that one will be evaluted basedo on a negative stereotype

• Intelligence test bias

• Depends on which type of bias scientific or culture 

• Scieitific would eb based on we are genetically different girls or boys, if one test was geared to test the knowledge or aptitude of one gender and not the other thats scientific 

• But if the test was biased by culture and the way people lived like if people wore a different style of clothing or lived in a different area than another group them that could create a bias

• But there are three camps for it

• 1. There are genetically disposed racial differences in inteliigence

• 2. There are socially influenced racial differences in intelligence

• 3. There are racial differences in test scores because the tests are innapropriate or biased