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| The systematic study of behavior and experience |
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| The idea that everything that happens has a cause, or determinant, that one could observe or measure. |
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| Philosophical question of how experience relates to the brain |
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| The view that the mind is separate from the brain but somehow controls the brain and, therefore, the rest of the body. |
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| The view that conscious experience is inseparable from the physical brain. |
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| The question of how differences in behavior relate to differences in heredity and environment. |
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| Those who have an advanced degree in psychology, with a specialty in understanding and helping people with psychological problems. |
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| Branch of medicine that deals with emotional disturbances |
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| Therapy providers who rely heavily on the theories and methods pioneered by the early 20th century Viennese physician Sigmund Greud and later modified by others |
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| Similar to a clinical psychologist but with heavier training in social work. |
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| Those who provide advice and consultation to police, lawyers, and courts. |
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| Industrial/Organizational Psychology |
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| The psychological study of people at work |
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Human Factors Specialist
(Ergonomist) |
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| One who attempts to facilitate the operation of machinery so that ordinary people can use it efficiently and safely |
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| Specialists in the psychological condidtion of students |
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| Developmental Psychologists |
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| Those who study how behavior changes with age |
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| How behavior depends on the outcomes of past behaviors and current motivations |
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| One who studies the processes of thought and knowledge |
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Biopsychologist
(Behavioral Neuroscientist) |
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Definition
| Explains behavior in terms of biological factors, such as electrical and chemical activities in the nervous system, the effects of drugs and hormones, genetics, and evolutionary pressures |
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| Evolutionary Psychologist |
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| One who tries to explain behavior in terms of the evolutionary history of the species, including reasons evolution might have favored a tendency to act in particular ways |
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| Study how an individual influences other people and how the group influences an individual |
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| Cross-cultural Psychology |
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| Compares the behavior of people from different cultures |
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| An attempt to describe the structures that compose the mind |
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| The approach involving learning how people produce useful behaviors |
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| The mathematical description of the relationship between the physical properties of a stimulus and its perceived properties |
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| Comparative Psychologists |
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| Specialists who compare different animal species |
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| A field of psychology that concentrates on observable, measurable behaviors and not on mental processes |
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| Research seeking theoretical knowledge for its own sake |
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| Research dealing with practical problems |
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| Study of the predispositions and experiences that make people happy, productive, and successful |
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| When something is stated in such clear terms that the evidence that would count agaisnt the statment could be easily identified |
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| The obligation to present evidence to support one's claim |
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| Clear predictive statement (to be tested) |
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| Those that anyone can ovtain, at least approximately, by following the same procedures |
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| Combines the results of many studies and analyzes them as though they were all one very large study |
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| When there are many explanations that seem to fit with a set of facts, but the preferred choice is the one with less assumptions or assumptions more consistent with other well established theories |
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| Extrasensory Perception (ESP) |
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Definition
| Skill that is claimed by some involving gaining information without using sensory organs or recieving any form of physical energy |
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| Definition that specifies the operations or procedures used to produce or measure something; usually a way to give something a measure or numerical value |
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| Entire group of individuals to be considered |
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| A group chosen because of its ease of study |
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| A group sample representing percentages of characteristics likely to affect results (i.e. gender, race, age) |
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| Every individual in the population has an equal chance of being selected |
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| Groups of people from at least two cultures |
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| The tendency of an experimenter to distort or misperceive the results of an experiment based on the expected outcome |
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| An observer who records data without knowing the researcher's predictions |
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| A pill (or other treatment) with no known pharmacological effects |
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| Either the observer or the participants are unaware of which participants received which treatment |
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| Both the observer and the participants are unaware of which participants received which treatment |
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| Cues that tell participants what is expected of them and what the experimenter hopes to find |
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| A careful examination of what happens under more or less natural conditions |
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| A thorough description of the person, including abilities and disabilities, medical condition, life history, unusual experiences, and whatever else seems relevant |
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| A study of the prevalence of certain beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors based on people's responses to questions |
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| A measure of the relationship between two variables |
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| A procedure in which investigators measure the correlation between two variables without controlling either of them |
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| A mathematical estimate of the relationship between two variables (ranging from -1 to +1) |
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| Each dot represents a give individual, with one measurement for that individual on the x-axis and another measurement on the y-axis |
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| An apparent relationship based on casual observations of unrelated or weakly related events |
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| A study in which the investigation manipulates at least one variable while measuring at least one other variable |
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| The item that an experimenter changes and tests |
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| The item that an experimenter measures to determine how it was affected |
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| Receives the treatment that an experiment is designed to test |
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| Set of individuals treated in the sam way as the experimental group except for the procedure that the experiment is designed to test |
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| When the experimenter uses a chance procedure to make sure that every participant has the same probability as any other participant of being assigned to a given group |
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| A statement reporting participants have been told what to expect and that they agree to continue |
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| Physiological Explanation |
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| describes the mechanims that produce a behavior |
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| relates behavior to the evolutionary history of the species |
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| Developmental Explanation |
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| deals with changes over age as it relates to behavior |
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| Separate cells in the nervous system |
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Definition
other cells in nervous sytem that support the neurons in many ways (such as by insulating them, sychronizing activity among neighboring neurons, and removing waste products)
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| contains nucleus of cell for neuron |
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| widely branching structures that receive input from other neurons |
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| single, long, thin straight fiber with branches near its tip |
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| an insulating sheath that speeds up the transmission of impulses along an axon |
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| an excitation that travels along an axon at a constant strength, no matter how far it must travel |
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| an electrical polarization across the membrance (or covering) of an axon |
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| the specialized junction between one nueron and another, a neuron releases a chemical that either excites or inhibits the next neuron |
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| chemical that activates receptors on other neurons when action potential reaches the terminal bouton |
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| the neuron on the receiving end of the synapse |
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| drugs that increase energy, alertness, and activity |
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| enhance certain experiences, weaken others, and garble thinking and speech by their effects on synapses |
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| drugs that decrease arousal, such as alcohol and anxiolytics |
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| class of molecules that includes methanol, ethanol, propyl alcohol, and others |
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| Anxiolytic drugs/tranquilizers |
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| drugs that help people relax |
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| drugs that produce drowsiness, insensitivity to pain, and decreased responsiveness |
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| either natural drugs derived from the opium poppy or synthetic drugs with drugs with a chemical structure resembling natural opiates |
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| bind to the opiate receptors |
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| drugs that induce sensory distortions |
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| consists of the brain and the spinal cord |
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| Peripheral nervous system |
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| consists of bundles of nerves between the spinal cord and the rest of the body |
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| the outer covering of the forebrain |
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| left and right parts of the forebrain |
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| vibrations of the air or of another medium |
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| at the rear of the head, and is specialized for vision |
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| located in each hemisphere toward the left and right sides of the head, is the main area for hearing and some of the complex aspects of vision |
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| a subcortial structure deep within the temporal lobe, responds strongly to emotional situations |
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| lobe just forward from the occipital lobe, and is specialized for the body senses, including touch, pain, temperature, and awareness of the location of body parts in space |
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| Primary Somatosensory Cortex |
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| a strip in the anterior portion of the parietal lobe, has cells sensitive to touch in different body areas |
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| at anterior pole of brain |
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| importatnt for the planned control of fine movements |
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| anterior sections of the frontal lobe |
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| are active when you make a movement and also when you watch someone else make a similar |
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| located just below the thalamus, is important for hunger, thirst, temperature regulation, sex, and other motivated behaviors |
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| parts of hindbrian, which control the muscles of the head |
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| controls muscles from the neck down |
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| rapid, automatic response to a stimulus |
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| part of the hindbrain, important for any behavior that requires aim or timing |
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| Electroencephalograph (EEG) |
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| uses electrodes on the scalp to record rapid changes in brain electrical activity |
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| Magnetoencephalograph (MEG) |
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| process that measures brain activity by recording magnetic changes |
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| Positron-emission tomography (PET) |
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Definition
| records radioactivity of various brain areas emitted from injected chemicals |
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| Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) |
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| uses magnetic detectors outside the head to compare the amounts of hemoglobin with and without oxygen in different brain areas |
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| controls the internal organs such as the heart |
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| a set of glands that produce hormones and release them into the blood |
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| chemicals released by glands and conveyed via the blood to alter activity in various organs |
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| change as result of experience |
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| undifferentiated cells that later develop into specified functional cells |
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the question of how separate brain areas combine forces to produce a unifie peception of a single object
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| cycles that sound waves go through per second, measurement for frequency |
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| energies from the world around us that affect us in some way |
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| specialied cells that convert environmental energies into signals for the nervous system |
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| the continuum of all the frequencies of radiated energy |
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| adjustable opening in the eye |
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| colored structure on the surface of the eye surrounding the pupil |
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| layer of visual receptors covering the back surgace of the eyeball |
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| a rigid transparent structure on the outer surface of the eyeball |
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| flexible structure that can vary in thickness |
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| to adjust its focus for objects at different distances, ability enabled by the lens |
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| the central area of the human retina |
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| visual receptors adapted for color vision, daytime vision, and detailed vision |
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| visual receptors adapted for vision in dim light |
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| gradual improvement in the ability to see in dim light |
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| neurons that receive their input from the bipolar cells |
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| formed by joined axons from the ganglion cells; location wise turns around and exits the eye |
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| retinal area where the optic nerve exits |
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Trichromatic Theory
(Young-Helmholtz theory) |
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Definition
| states that our visual receptors respond to three primary colors; color vision depends on the response rates of three types of cones |
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| we perceive color in terms of paired opposites (red vs green, yellow vs. blue, white vs. black) |
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| perception closely related to frequency |
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| perception that depends on the amplitude of sound waves |
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| experiences of one color after the removal of another |
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| tendency of an object to appear nearly the same color under a variety of lighting conditions |
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| Theory that we perceive color when the cerebral cortex compares various retinal patterns |
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| fluid-filled canals of the snail-shaped organ in the ear |
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| results when the bones connected to the eardrum fail to transmit sound waves properly to the cochlea |
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| results from damage to the cochlea, the hair cells, or the auditory nerve |
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| a sound wave through the fluid of the cochlea vibrates all the hair cells, which produce action potentials in synchrony with the sound waves |
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| groups of hair cells respond to each vibration by producing an action potential |
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| the highest frequency sounds vibrate hair cells near the stirrup end, and lower frequency sounds vibrate hair cells at points farther along the membrane |
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| the tilt of the head, acceleration of the head, and orientation of the head with respect to gravity |
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| senses of the skin, aka somatosensory system (body sensory system) |
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| the idea that pain messages must pass through a gate, presumably in the spinal cord, that can block messages |
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| neurotransmitter released by intense pain |
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| neurotransmitters that inhibit the release of substance P and thereby weaken pain sensations |
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| chemical that stimulates receptors that respond to painful heat |
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| condition of continuing sensations, including pain, in a limb long after it has been amputated |
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| sense that detects chemicals on the tongue |
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| home of taste receptors, located in folds on the surface of the tongue |
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| Chemicals nonhuman mammals release into the environment |
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| condition in which a stimulus of one type, such as sound, also elicits another experience, such as color |
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| Absolute Sensory Threshold |
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| the intensity at which a given individual detects a stimulus 50% of the time |
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| study of people's tendencies to make hits, correct rejections, misses, and false alarms |
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| stimuli sometimes influence our behavior even when they are presented so faintly or briefly that we do not perceive them consciously |
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| the increase or decrease in an object's apparent brightness by comparison to objects around it |
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| specialized neurons in the visual cortex that respond to the presence of simple features, such as lines and angles |
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| a field that focuses on our ability to perceive overall patterns |
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| when tiny elements combine to produce larger items |
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| when you apply your experience and expectations to interpret what each item must be in context |
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| separating object from a background |
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| stimuli that can be perceived in more than one way |
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| tendency to perceive objects that are cose together as belonging to a group |
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| tendency to perceive objects that resemble each other as a group |
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| a filling in of the gaps that we perceive |
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| imagination of the rest of the figure |
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| we perceive objects as part of the same group if they chang or move in similar ways at the same time |
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| a simple, familiar, symmetrical figure |
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| tendency to perceive objects as keeping their shape, size, and color, despite certain distortions in the light pattern reaching our retinas |
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| when we incorrectly perveive as moving against a background when the object is stationary and the background is moving |
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| illusion of movement created by a rapid succession of stationary images |
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| difference in the aparent position of an object as seen by the left and right retinas |
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| degree to which the eyes turn in to focus on a close object; one of the cues for depth perception |
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| cues that depend on both eyes (ex. retinal disparity and convergence) |
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| cues that judge depth and distance with just one eye |
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| difference in speed of movement of images across the retina as you travel |
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| misinterpretation of a visual stimulus |
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