psych 100

acetylcholine (ACh) - learning, memory, muscle movement; too little is associated with Alzheimer's action potential - a neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon agonists - drugs that increase the action of a neurotransmitter amygdala - plays a central role in many emotional processes, particularly the formation of emotional memories antagonists - drugs that diminish the function of a neurotransmitter association areas - composed of neurons that help provide sense and meaning to information sistered in the cortex autonomic nervous system - a set of nerves that carries involuntary and automatic commands that control blood vessels, organs, and glands axon - the part of a neuron that carries information to other neurons, muscles, or glands B. F. Skinner - behaviorism, pioneer in operant conditioning; behavior is based on an organism's reinforcement history, worked with pigeons (Skinner box) basal ganglia - a set of subcortical structures that directs intentional movements behavioral neuroscience - the study of the relationship between the brain and behavior (mostly in nonhuman animals) behaviorism - the view that psychology should be an objective science that restricts scientific inquiry to observable behavior case method - a procedure for gathering scientific information by studying a single individual cell body/soma - coordinates the information-processing tasks and keeps the cell alive cell membrane - thin, flexible barrier around a cell; regulates what enters and leaves the cell central nervous system - consists of the brain and spinal cord cerebellum - large structure of the hindbrain that controls fine motor skills cerebral cortex - the outermost layer of the brain, visible to the naked eye, and divided into two hemispheres Charles Darwin - naturalist, published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection chromosomes - strands of DNA wound around each other in a double-helix configuration cognitive neuroscience - the study of the relationship between the brain and the mind (mostly in humans) cognitive psychology - the scientific study of all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating construct validity - the extent to which the thing being measured adequately characterizes the property corpus callosum - a thick band of nerve fibers that connects large areas of the cerebral cortex on each side of the brain and supports communication of information across the hemispheres correlation - occurs when variations in the value of one variable are synchronized with variations in the value of another cultural psychology - the study of how culture influences mental life debriefing - the post-experimental explanation of a study, including its purpose and any deceptions, to its participants demand characteristics - aspects of an observational setting that cause people to behave as they think someone else wants or expects dendrites - parts of the neuron that receive information from other neurons and relay it to the cell body dependent variable - the variable that is being measured, may change in response to manipulations of the IV developmental psychology - a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span dopamine - voluntary motor function, regulates emotion arousal and motivation; too much is associated with schizophrenia and too little is associated with Parkinson's double-blind study - a study in which neither the researcher nor the participant knows how the participant is expected to behave empirical method - a set of rules and techniques for observation empiricism - the belief that accurate knowledge can be acquired through observation endocrine system - a network of glands that produce and secrete into the bloodstream chemical messages known as hormones, which influence a wide variety of basic functions, including metabolism, growth, and sexual development endorphins - "body's natural painkillers," dull experience of pain and elevate moods epigenetics - the study of environmental influences on gene expression that occur without a DNA change evolutionary psychology - the study of the ways in which the human mind has been shaped by natural selection external validity - variables have been operationally defined in a realistic way, the extent to which results from a study can be applied to other situations, groups or events frontal lobe - specialized areas for movement, abstract thinking, planning, memory, and judgment; located behind the forehead functionalism - an approach to psychology that emphasized the adaptive significance of mental processes gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) - A major inhibitory neurotransmitter; too little is associated with seizures, tremors, and insomnia gene - major unit of hereditary transmission, sequence of DNA that codes for a protein and thus determines a trait Gestalt psychology - suggests that we do not focus on every small part of the world around us, but rather that we perceive objects of elements of more complex systems glial cells - provide support and nutrition, maintain homeostasis, form myelin glutamate - major excitatory neurotransmitter; too much causes overactive neurons which lead to seizures Hermann von Helmholtz - studied human reaction time; estimated the length of nerve impulse hindbrain - area of the brain that coordinates information coming into and out of the spinal cord hippocampus - creates new memories and integrates them into a network of knowledge, so that they can be stored indefinitely in other parts of the cerebral cortex hypothalamus - regulates body temp, hunger, thirst, and sexual behavior hypothesis - a falsifiable prediction made by a theory hysteria - a loss of function that has no obvious physical origin independent variable - the variable that is manipulated, the variable whose effect is being studied informed consent - an ethical principle that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate internal validity - the degree of confidence that the causal relationship being tested is trustworthy and not influenced by other factors or variables interneurons - neurons within the brain and spinal cord that communicate internally and intervene between the sensory and motor neurons introspection - an examination of one's own thoughts and feelings, most prominent in functionalism Ivan Pavlov - pioneer in classical conditioning, trained dogs to salivate at the ringing of a bell JEAN PIAGET <3333 - known for his theory of cognitive development in children John B. Watson - behaviorism, emphasis on external behaviors of people and their reactions on a given situation, famous for Little Albert study in which baby was taught to fear a white rat John Garcia - researched taste aversion. showed that when rats ate a novel substance before being nauseated by a drug or radiation, they developed a conditioned taste aversion for the substance Kenneth Clark - researched impact of segregation on children of color, work was cited in Brown v. Board of Education Kurt Lewin - social psychology, behavior is not the product of a stimulus but rather how people think about the stimulus manipulation - a technique for determining the causal power of a variable by actively changing its value Mary Whiton Calkins - first female president of the APA Max Wertheimer - Gestalt psychologist who argued against dividing human thought and behavior into discrete structures medulla - extension of the spinal cord into the skull; coordinates heart rate, circulation, and respiration mirror neurons - active when you make a movement and also when you watch someone else make a similar movement motor cortex - an area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements motor neurons - carry signals from the spinal cord to the muscles to produce movement myelin sheath - speeds up transmission and insulates/protects the axon natural correlation - a correlation observed in the world around us natural selection - the process by which the specific attributes that promote an organism's survival and reproduction become more prevalent in their species over time naturalistic observation - a technique for gathering scientific information by unobtrusively observing people in their natural environments nervous system - interacting network of neurons that conveys information throughout the body neuron - cells in the nervous system that communicate with each other to perform information-processing tasks neurotransmitters - chemicals that transmit information across the synapse to a receiving neuron's dendrites Noam Chomsky - language development; disagreed with Skinner about language acquisition, stated there is an infinite # of sentences in a language, humans have an inborn native ability to develop language norepinephrine - alertness, wakefulness, mood, and attention; too little is associated with mood disorders nucleus - a part of the cell containing DNA and RNA and responsible for growth and reproduction observer bias - the tendency for observers' expectations to influence both what they believed they observed and what they actually observed occipital lobe - processes visual information, located at the back of the cerebral cortex operational definiton - a description of a property in concrete, measurable terms parasympathetic nervous system - helps the body return to a normal resting state parietal lobe - processes information about touch, located in front of the occipital lobe peripheral nervous system - connects the central nervous system to the body's organs and muscles philosophical dualism - the view that the mind and body are fundamentally different things philosophical empiricism - the view that all knowledge is acquired through experience, people are born as blank slates philosophical idealism - the view that perceptions of the physical world are the brain's interpretation of information from the sensory organs (reality is shaped by our thoughts and ideas) philosophical materialism - the view that all mental phenomena are reducible to physical phenomena philosophical nativism - the view that some knowledge is innate rather than acquired philosophical realism - the view that perceptions of the physical world are produced entirely by information from the sensory organs (reality has an absolute existence outside of our consciousness) pituitary gland - "master gland," releases hormones that direct the functions of many other glands in the body pons - a structure that relays information from the cerebellum to the rest of the brain population - a complete collection of people power - a detector's ability to detect the presence of differences or changes in the magnitude of a property principle of reinforcement - any behavior that is rewarded will be repeated and any behavior that isn't rewarded won't be repeated psychoanalysis - a therapy that aims to give people insight into the contents of their unconscious minds psychoanalytic theory - a general theory that emphasizes the influence of the unconscious on feelings, thoughts, and behaviors psychology - the scientific study of mind and behavior (where mind refers to a set a private events that happen inside a person, and behavior refers to a set of public events) random assignment - a procedure that assigns participants to a condition by chance random sampling - a technique for selecting participants that ensures that every member of a population has an equal chance of being included in the sample reaction time - the amount of time between the onset of a stimulus and a person's response to that stimulus receptors - parts of the cell membrane that receive neurotransmitters and either initiate or prevent a new electric signal refractory period - the time following an action potential during which a new action potential cannot be initiated reliability - a detector's ability to detect the absence of differences or changes in the magnitude of a property replication - an experiment that uses the same procedures as a previous experiment but with a new sample from the same population resting potential - The difference in electric charge between the inside and outside of a neuron's cell membrane (-70 millivolts) reticular formation - nerve network in the brainstem; regulates sleep, wakefulness, and levels of arousal sample - a partial collection of people drawn from a population scientific method - a procedure for using empirical evidence to establish facts self-selection - a type of bias that can arise when study participants choose their own treatment conditions, rather than being randomly assigned sensory neurons - receive information from the external world and convey this information to the brain via the spinal cord serotonin ("happy chemical") - sleep, mood, body temp, appetite; too little is associated with mood disorders Sigmund Freud - Austrian physician whose work focused on the unconscious causes of behavior and personality formation, founded psychoanalysis Sir Frederic Bartlett - discovered that memory recall is flawed, people remembered what they expected to read rather than what they actually read social psychology - the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another Solomon Asch - conformity; showed that social pressure can make a person say something that is obviously incorrect somatic nervous system - a set of nerves that conveys information between voluntary muscles and the central nervous system somatosensory cortex - a strip of the parietal lobe lying just behind the central fissure, involved with sensations of touch structuralism - an approach to psychology that attempted to isolate and analyze the mind's basic elements (structure of mind and consciousness) subcortical structures - areas of the forebrain housed under the cerebral cortex near the center of the brain sympathetic nervous system - set of nerves that prepares the body for action in challenging or threatening situations synapse - the region between the axon of one neuron and the dendrites of another temporal lobe - processes auditory info (hearing and language), located on the lower side of each hemisphere terminal buttons - small knobs at the end of axons that secrete chemicals called neurotransmitters 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 theories - hypothetical explanations of natural phenomena third-variable problem - a natural correlation between two variables cannot be taken as evidence of a causal relationship between them because a third variable might be causing them both unconscious - the part of the mind that contains information of with people are not aware variables - properties that can take on different values Wilhelm Wundt - research assistant to Helmholtz, German physiologist who founded psychology as a formal science; opened first psychology research laboratory in 1879 William James - founder of functionalism; studied how humans use perception to function in our environment