Psych Test

Psychology 107 with Schumacher at Texas A&M University

About this deck

By: Joe Harper
Textbook:

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

Introduction to Psychology
Created: 2011-05-01
Size: 85 flashcards
Views: 37

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Psychology

the scientific study of behavior and mind

Comes from Greek “psyche” (soul or breath) and “logos” (study of)

Behavior

Observable actions such as moving about, talking, ect; behaviors can also refer to the activities of cells and to thoughts and feelings

Can be measured in a systematic way

Empiricism

The idea that knowledge arises directly from experience

Wundt

established the first psychological laboratory in 1879 at the University of Leipzig

Founder/father of modern psychology

Believed in the structuralism form of psychology

Hypothesis

a prediction about the characteristics of the behavior under study

Mean of a data set

the average

Operational definition

definitions that specify how concepts can be observed and measured.

EX: intelligence might be defined operationally as performance on a psychological test

Correlation

a statistic that indicates whether two variables vary together in a systematic way on a scale of -1 to 1

Reactivity

when behavior changes as a result of the observation process

Scatterplot

each point in a scatterplot shows an individual's scores on each of the two variables

Independent variable

The aspect of the environment that is manipulated in an experiment. It must consist of at least two conditions.

Dependent variable

The behavior that is measured or observed in an experiment

Experimental group

The group that has the change done to them

Control group

The group that remains the same

Sensory neurons

cells that carry environmental messages toward the spinal cord and brain

Motor neurons

cells that carry information away from the central nervous system to the muscles and glands that directly produce behavior

Dendrites

the fibers that extend outward from a neuron and receive information from other neurons

Soma

the cell body of a neuron

Axon

the long tail-like part of a neuron that serves as the cell's transmitter

Terminal buttons

The tiny swellings at the end of the axon that contain chemicals

Synapse

the small gap between the terminal buttons of a neuron and the dendrite or cell body of another neuron

Spinal reflex

Largely automatic body reactions-such as the knee jerk-that are controlled primarily by spinal cord pathways

Excitatory message

a message to a neuron that brings depolarization which increases the chance of action potential.

Is opposed to a Inhibitory Message

Central nervous system

the brain and the spinal cord

EEG (electroencephalograph)

A device used to monitor the gross electrical activity of the brain

Hindbrain

A primitive part of the brain that sits at the juncture point where the brain and spinal cord merge. Structure in the hindbrain, including the medulla, pons, and reticular formation, at as the basic life-support system for the body

Cerebellum

A hindbrain structure at the base of the brain that is involved in the coordination of complex motor skills

"Little brain"

Motor skills

Thalamus

a relay station in the forebrain thought to be an important gathering point for input from the senses

Temporal lobes

one of the four anatomical regions of each hemisphere of the cerebral cortex, located roughly on the sides of the brain; it's involved in certain aspects of speech and language perception

Involved in auditory information

Occipital lobes

Located at the back of the brain

Visual processing

Corpus callosum

The collection of nerve fibers that connects the two cerebral hemispheres and allows information to pass from one side to the other

Sensation

the elementary components, or building blocks, of an experience (such as a pattern of light and dark, a bitter taste, or a change in temperature)
Fundamental, elementary components of an experience

Cones

receptor cells in the center of the retina.
Color

Perception

The collection of processes used to arrive at a meaningful interpretation of sensations

Rods

Receptor cells in the central portion of the retina, around the sides

Interpret light

Fovea

The "central pit" area in the retina where the cone receptors are located

Prosopagnosia

The ability to recognizes faces is lost

Transduction

The process by which external messages are translated into the internal language of the brain

Visual cortex

More components of a message are picked out and identified.

Vision

Top-down processing

Processing that is controlled by one's beliefs and expectations about how the world is organized

Bottom-up processing

processing that is controlled by the physical message delivered to the senses

Trichromatic theory

a theory of color vision proposing that color information is extracted by comparing the relative activations of three different types of cone receptors

Habituation

the decline in tendency to respond to an event that has become familiar through repeated exposure

Sensitization

increased responsiveness, or sensitivity, to an event that has been repeated

Unconditioned Stimulus

Pavlov- food

Unconditioned Response

Pavlov- drool for food

Conditioned stimulus

Pavlov- Bell

Conditioned Response

Pavlov- drool for bell

Blocking

occurs because something provides no new information

EX light and right

Rehearsal

a strategic process that helps to maintain short-term memories indefinitely through the use of internal repetition

Short-term memory

a limited-capacity system that we use to hold information after it has been analyzed for periods lasting less than a minute or two

Episodic memory

A memory for a particular event

Semantic memory

Knowledge about the world or stored facts

procedural memory

Knowledge about how to do things

Serial position effect

The pattern that shows that you'll remember items from the beginning and end of a sequence when you need to remember a list

Cognitive psychology

The study of activities that underlie all forms of thought

Phonemes

The smallest significant sound units in speech

40-45 English phonemes. EX Ess="s"

Morphemes

The smallest units of language that carry meaning

EX cool (1 M) uncool (2 M)

Grammar

Dictates the acceptable order of morphemes within a word

Surface structure

The order of a sentence

Deep structure

The interpretation(s) of a sentence

Pragmatics

The practical knowledge used to comprehend the intentions of a speaker and to produce an effective response

Telegraphic speech

The tendency for 2 year olds to misuse syntax

Overgeneralization

The tendency for children to apply certain rules of speech to exceptions of those rules.

EX "goed" instead of "went"