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Intro Pysch 1
History, Brain, Freud, Skinner, Development, Language and Memory
32
Psychology
Undergraduate 1
09/26/2008

Additional Psychology Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
Rene Descartes
Definition
French philosopher who argued that the body and mind are different things, a theory that outlined the problem of dualism.
Term
Paul Broca
Definition
A surgeon whose observations of brain damaged patients led him to concluded that, unlike Descartes' ideas, the mind is grounded in the material of the brain.
Term
Wilhem Wundt
Definition
Essentially the father of the field of psychology, he conducted some of the first classes in physiological psychology and wrote books about it. He focused on analyzing conciousness through an approach called structuralism.
Term
Structuralism
Definition
The analysis of the basic elements that constitute the mind.
Term
Introspection
Definition
The subjective observation of one's own experience.
Term
Functionalism
Definition
The study of the purpose mental processes serve in enabling people to adapt to their environment.
Term
G. Stanley Hall
Definition
Set up the first psychology research laboratory in North America at Johns Hopkins, founded the American Journal of Psychology and served as the first president of the APA. A strong advocate of functionalism.
Term
Gestalt psychology
Definition
A psychological approach that emphasizes that we often perceive the whole rather than the sum of the parts.
Term
psychoanalysis
Definition
bringing unconscious material into conscious awareness.
Term
medulla
Definition
an extension of the spinal cord into the skull that coordinates heart rate, circulation, and respiration.
Term
reticular formation
Definition
small cluster inside the medulla that regulates sleep, wakefulness, and levels of arousal.
Term
cerebellum
Definition
a large structure of the hindbrain that controls fine motor skills.
Term
pons
Definition
the structure that relays info from the cerebellum to the rest of the brain
Term
tectum
Definition
orients an organism in the environment
Term
tegmentum
Definition
involved in movement and arousal. dopamine and serotonin are plentiful in this area
Term
thalmus
Definition
relays and filters info from the senses and transmits the information to the cerebral cortex
Term
hypothalamus
Definition
regulates body temperature,blood sugar levels, hunger, thirst and sexual behavior, mostly through release of hormones.
Term
Pituitary gland
Definition
relaeses hormones that direct the functions of many other glnds in the body. COntrols stress (ACTH which then stimulates adrenaline), digestive activities and reproductive processes.
Term
Limbic system
Definition
a group of forebrain structures including the hypothathalamus, the amygdala, and th hippocampus, whic are involved in motivation, emotion, learning and memory.
Term
Hippocampus
Definition
critical for creating new memories and integrating them into a network of knowledge so that they can be stored indefinitely in other parts of the cerebral cortex. In charge of short term memory
Term
Amygdala
Definition
plays a central role in many emotional processes, particularly the formation of emotional memories. Attaches significance to previously neutral events. When we are in emotionally arousing situations, the amygdala stimulates the hippocampus to remember many details surrounding the situation.
Term
basal ganglia
Definition
set of subcortcal structures that directs intentional movements. Receives input form the cerbrl cortex and sends outputs to the motor center in th brain stem.
Term
contralateral control
Definition
each side of the brain receives and transmits signals from and to the opposite side of your body.
Term
occipital lobe
Definition
processes visual info
Term
parietal lobe
Definition
processing info about touch. contains the somatosensory cortex.
Term
temporal lobe
Definition
resposible for hearing and language.Primary auditory cortex receives sensory info from the ears and then secondary areas of the temporal lobe process the info to meaningful units. Also identifies complex visual objects.
Term
frontal lobe
Definition
has specialized areas fro movement, abstract thinking, planning, memory and judgement. Contains motor cortex and areas that help us manipulate info and retrieve memories. Sets us apart from most other species.
Term
association areas
Definition
neurons that help provide sense and meaning to info registered in the cortex. They allow for brain plasticity.
Term
prosopagnosia
Definition
inability to recognize faces. Damage to the fusiform gyrus.
Term
the ventral stream
Definition
travels across the occipital lobe into the lower levels of the temporal lobe and includes brain areas that represent an objects shape and identity...what it is.
Term
the dorsal stream
Definition
travels up from the occipital lobe to the parietal lobe, connecting with brain areas that identify the location and motion of an object...where it is.
Term
form agnosia
Definition
inability to recognize objects by sight
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