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| The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it. (Aka the I-knew-it-all-along syndrome) |
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| Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions but rather examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluated evidence, and assesses conclusions. |
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| An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events. |
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| A testable prediction, often implied by a theory |
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| A statement of the procedures (operations) used to define research variables. For example, human intelligence may be operationally defined as what an intelligence test measures. |
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| Repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances. |
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| An observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hopes of revealing universal principles. |
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| A technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular group, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of the group. |
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| All the cases in a group being studied, from which samples may be drawn. |
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| A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion. |
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| Observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation |
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| A measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other |
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| A statistical index of the relationship between two things (from -1 to +1) |
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| A graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables. The slope of the points suggests the direction of the relationship between the two variables. The amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation. |
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| A research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process. By random assignment of participants, the experimenter aims to control other relevant factors. |
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| Assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance, thus minimizing pre-existing differences between those assigned to the different groups. |
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| An experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo. Commonly used in drug-evaluation studies. |
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| Experimental results caused by expectations alone; any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which the recipient assumes is an active agent. |
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| In an experiment, the group that is exposed to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable. |
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| In an experiment, the group that is not exposed to the treatment; contrasts with the experimental group and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment. |
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| The perception of a relationship where none exists. |
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| The experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied. |
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| The outcome factor; the variable that may change inn response to manipulations of the independent variable. |
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| The most frequently occurring score in a distribution |
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| The arithmetic average of a distribution, obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores. |
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| The middle score in a distribution; half the scores are above it and half are below it |
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| The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution |
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| A computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score |
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| A symmetrical, bell shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data; most scores fall near the mean and fewer near the extremes. |
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| A statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance. |
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| The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next. |
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| A nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system. |
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| Neurons that carry outgoing information from the sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord. |
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| Neurons that carry outgoing info from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands. |
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| Neurons within the brain and spinal cord that communicate internally and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs. |
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| The bushy, branching extensions of a neuron that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body. |
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| The extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers, through which messages pass to other neurons or to muscles or glands. |
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| A layer of fatty tissue segmentally encasing the fibers of many neurons, enables vastly great transmission speed of neural impulses as the impulse hops from one node to the next. |
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| A neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon. |
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| The level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse. |
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| The junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron. The tiny gap at this junction is called the synaptic gap or synaptic cleft. |
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| Chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between neurons. When released by the sending neuron, neurotransmitters travel across the synapse and bind to receptor sites on the receiving neuron, thereby influencing whether that neuron will generate a neural impulse. |
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| A neurotransmitter's reabsorption to the sending neuron |
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| The body's speedy, electrochemical communication network, consisting of all the nerve cells of the peripheral and central nervous systems. |
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| The brain and spinal cord. |
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| Peripheral Nervous System |
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| The sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system to the rest of the body. |
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| Bundled axons that form neural cables connecting the central nervous system with muscles, glands, and sense organs. |
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| The division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body's skeletal muscles. |
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| The part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs. Its sympathetic division arouses; its parasympathetic division calms. |
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| Sympathetic Nervous System |
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| The division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations. |
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| Parasympathetic Nervous System |
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| The division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy. |
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| A simple, automatic response to a sensory stimulus, such as the knee-jerk response |
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| The body's slow chemical communication system; a set of glands that secret hormones into the bloodstream. |
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| Chemical messengers that are manufactured by the endocrine glands, travel through the bloodstream, and affect other tissues. |
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| A pair of endocrine glands that sit just above the kidneys and secret hormones (epinephrine and norepinephrine) that help arouse the body in times of stress. |
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| The endocrine system's most influential gland. Under the influence of the hypothalamus, the pituitary regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands. |
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| Tissue destruction. A brain lesion is a naturally or experimentally caused destruction of brain tissue. |
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| Electroencephalogram (EEG) |
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| An amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweet across the brain's surface. These waves are measured by electrodes placed on the scalp. |
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