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| the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time |
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| adapting one's current understandings (schemas)to incorporate new information |
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| the process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina |
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| a neurotransmitter that, among its functions, triggers muscle contraction |
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| a desire for significant accomplishment: for mastery of things, people, or ideas; for attaining a high standard |
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| a test designed to assess what a person has learned |
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| the encoding of sound, especially the sound of words |
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| the initial stage in classical conditioning; the phase associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response. |
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| a neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon. The action potential is generated by the movement of positively charged atoms in and out of channels in the axon's membrane. |
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| empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies. A feature of Rogers' client-centered terapy. |
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| adaptation-level phenomenon |
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| our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral" level defined by our prior experience |
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| the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence |
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| a pair of endocrine glands just above the kidneys. the adrenals secrete the hormones epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline), which help to arouse the body in times of stress. |
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| sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness; may also alleviate depression and anxiety |
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| any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy |
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| a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier but also more error prone use of heuristics. |
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| the relatively sho\low brain waves of a relaxed, awake state |
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| unslfish regard for the welfare of others |
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| a progressiv and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and finallyphysical functioning |
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| drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing speededup body functions adnassociated energy and mood changes |
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| two almond-shaped neural clusters that are components of the limbic system and are linked to emotion |
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| impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area or to Wernicke's area |
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| scientific study that aims to solve practical probles |
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| a test designed to predict a person's future performance; aptitude is the capcity to learn |
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| the science of designing and grograming computer systems to do intelligent things and to simulate human thought processes, such as intuitive reasoning, learning, and understanding language |
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| the theory that we tend to give a causal explnationfor someone's behavior, often by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition |
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| a disorder that appears in childhood and is mared by deficient communication, social interation, and understanding of others states of mind |
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| unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and fequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meaning |
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| the part of the peripheral nervous sstem that controls the glands and the uscles of the internal organs. Its sympathetic division arouses; its parasympathetic division clams. |
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| estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind,we presume such events are common |
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| a type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state with an unwanted behavior |
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| drugs that depress the activity of hte central nervous system, reducing anxiety buy imparing memory and judgement |
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| the body's resting rate of energy expenditure |
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| theapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors |
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| the view that psychology should be an objective sience that studies behavior without freferenc to mental process |
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| the tendency for one's preexisiting beliefs to distort logical reasoning, sometimes by making invalid concusions seems valid, or valid conclusions seem invalid |
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| clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited |
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| depth cues, such as retinal disparity and convergence, that depend on th euse of two eyes |
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| bio-psycho-social perspective |
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| a contemporary perspective which assumes that bioloical, psychological, and sociocultural factors combine and interact to produce psychological disorders |
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| a system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological stae, such as blood pressure or muscle tentoins. |
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| a brand of psychology concerned ith the linds between biology and behavior |
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| periodic physiological fluctuations |
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| analysis that begins with the sense receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information |
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| the heory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers physiological responses and the subjective experience of emotion |
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| the theory tha tan emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers physiological responses and the subjectie experience of emotion |
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| an observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles |
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| the intriate favric of interconnected neural cells that covers the cerebral hemispheres; the body's ultimate contral and information-processing center. |
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| the bilogical clock; regular bodily rhythms that occur on a 24 hours cycle |
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| a humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening ithin a genuine, accepting, empathic environment to facilitate clients growth. |
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| a branch of psychology that studies, assesses and treats people with psychological disorders. |
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| a coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound awves trigger nerve impulses |
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| all themental activities associated with thinking, knowing, rememberin, and communication |
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| cognitive dissonance theory |
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| the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent. For example, when our awareness of our attitudes and of our actions clasah we can reduce the relulting dissonance by changing our attitudes. |
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| therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thnking and acting; based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions |
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| cognitive-behavior therapy |
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| a popular integreated therapy that combines cognitive therapy with behavior therapy |
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| Carl Jung's concept of a shared, inheritied reservoir of memory traces from our species' history. |
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| giving priority to the goals of one's group and defining one's identity accordingly |
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| perceiving familiar objects as having consistentcolor, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths relfected by the object |
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| complementary and alternative medicine |
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| unproven health care treatments not taught widely in medical schools, not used in hospitals, nad not usually reimbursed by insurance companies |
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| computer circuits that mimic the brain's interconnected neural cells, performing tasks such as learning to recognize visual patterns and smells |
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| concrete operational stage |
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| in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to thinhk logically about concete events |
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| a stimulus theat gains ins reinforcing power through it's associaton with a primary reinfocer; also known as secondary reinforcer |
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| hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea |
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| receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and the function in daylight or in well-lit conditoins. Th cones detect fine detali and give rise to color sensations. |
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| a tendency to rearch for information thta confirms one's preconceptions |
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