Psych, First Exam terms
experiment
An _______________ is a research design in which a variable is manipulated. In experiments, a researcher manipulates one or more variables to determine whether the manipulation affects other variables.
information-processing system
An ___________________ is any device that can acquire, store, and manipulate symbols.
Edward Titchener
a student of Wundt, held that complex conscious experiences could be broken down into elemental parts or structures. best known for creating his version of psychology that described the structure of the mind: structuralism.
The Flaws of Research Methods
People might not have answered honestly. The research procedure might have altered people's feelings. People might have answered differently at a different time. Other people's opinions might have differed. The varied phrasing of the question may have affected the answers. Some responses were difficult to interpret. The summary of people's responses may have been inaccurate.
controlling for random error
Pros and cons of experimental designs. Control- try to hold everything constant except the experimental conditions. Eliminate potential 3rd variable explanations present in survey research. ___________________________ -extraneous variables that exist in any experiment. Observe behavior, emotions and cognitions rather than having people self report. Alcohol administration- my lab at umb has highschool ecological/ external validity- generalize to real world contexts. Cons of experimental designs. Operational definitions of variables. Positive correlation, if one increases the other increases, if one decreases, the other decreases, the variables fluctuate in the same direction. Negative correlations, the variables fluctuate in opposite direction of each other. Zero correlation, no relationships between variables, we talk about the strength of correlation.
negative correlations
Relations that go in the opposite direction, with higher amounts of one variable co-occurring with lower amounts of the other, are called _______________. You would expect, for example, that rainfall and the use of sunscreen would be correlated negatively.
Functionalism
School of thought - (The How) Advocated by William James and influenced by Darwin, it focuses on how behaviors function to allow people and animals adapt to their environment. It emphasizes study of the mind in action. People who studied this school of thought were interested in what the mind does—what it's good for—rather than what components it contains.
confound
random assignment reduces the possibility of a potential experimental _____________, a factor other than the independent variable that might create differences between experimental conditions.
scatterplot
A _____________ is a graph that displays the relation between two variables. When there's more rain, more people use umbrellas.
control group
A ______________ is an experimental condition that eliminates the factor or factors that vary in the other experimental conditions. In other words, the control group brings the level of the independent variable down to zero: It eliminates it.
variable
A _______________ is any property that fluctuates. The results of a correlational study indicate the degree to which two or more variables are related. Correlational studies commonly are conducted with large numbers of people. Researchers measure two or more variables in each individual and then ask whether, in the group as a whole, the variables are correlated.
synapse
A _________________ is a small gap that separates any two neurons. neurons still must communicate across the synaptic gap; neurons are not connected to one another directly. Neurons communicate chemically.
representative sample
A ____________________ is one whose qualities (gender, ethnicity, income, attitudes, personalities, etc.) match those of the overall population. Match based on typical demographic criteria of population.(For example if 1% of the population in the U.S. was Indian (I wish) then 1% of the participants in the experiment would need to be indian.
cerebral cortex
A major technique for studying the brain examines changes in blood flow. The technique, called functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, is a method for depicting the brain regions that are particularly active when people perform mental tasks. The last step up in our bottom-to-top voyage through the brain takes us all the way to the top, to the __________________, a layer of cells on the outer, top surface of the brain that is only a few millimeters thick. This network of brain cells is the biological tool that enables people to have human thinking powers: to contemplate ourselves, our past, and our future; to communicate using language; to create works of art; and to gain some control over the impulses and emotions generated in lower regions of our brains. The next thing you would notice is that some of the grooves in the brain's surface are particularly deep. These are fissures that divide the cortex into a number of distinct parts, known as cerebral lobes.
neurotransmitters,synaptic vesicles, receptors
A sending neuron—that is, a neuron transmitting a signal to a second neuron—releases ________________________, which are chemical substances that travel across synapses. The sending neuron stores neurotransmitters in small sacs known as _______________________. They are like tiny bubbles, each of which contains a small amount of neurotransmitter. Some of the neurotransmitter molecules released from the sending neuron reach receptors on the dendrites of receiving neurons. Neurotransmitter __________________ are sites to which neurotransmitters can attach. Some neurotransmitters bind to excitatory receptors, which increase the likelihood that the receiving neuron will generate an action potential. Others bind to inhibitory receptors, which decrease the likelihood that the receiving neuron will fire.
limbic system
All mammals possess a ________________, which is a set of brain structures that resides above the brain stem but below higher brain regions (Figure 3.5). The limbic system enables mammals to have emotional lives.
independent variable
Any variable that the experimenter manipulates is called an _______________. If, for example, an experimenter studying memory gives some people one minute to memorize a list of words and gives other people two minutes.
sensory cortex
At the front of the parietal cortex is the ____________________, a strip of brain matter that receives information from all parts of the body. The sensory cortex represents each of the various parts of the body; body parts are "mapped" into the cortex (Figure 3.10). Sensory input from your foot goes to one part of the cortex, input from your knee goes to another, and so forth. This body-to-brain mapping has two notable features: (1.)Adjacent body parts are mapped into adjacent areas of the cortex. (2.) The amount of space devoted to a body part in the brain is not proportional to the physical size of the body part. Instead, the amount of space in the cortex devoted to a body part relates directly to the sensitivity of that part of the body. Parts of your body that are highly sensitive (e.g., lips, fingers) receive more space in the somatosensory cortex than less sensitive parts (e.g., your elbow or back).
motor cortex
At the rear of the frontal lobes, in the area closest to the parietal lobe, is a region of the brain known as the _________________. This cortical region sends out signals that move the body's muscles; the signals are sent to the spinal cord, where they are relayed to muscles in the body's extremities.
temporal lobe, auditory cortex
Below the parietal lobes, its location and shape akin to a thumb on a mitten or baseball catcher's glove, is the ________________ . Two psychological tasks that rely on the temporal lobe are hearing and remembering. Hearing is accomplished thanks to a region in the upper surface of the temporal lobe known as the _____________________. This part of the temporal lobe is active whenever you listen to sounds, detecting their pitch, volume, and timing in relation to one another. Listening to both spoken words and music requires use of your auditory cortex. As for memory, certain regions in the temporal lobe are key to organizing the multiple brain systems that become active when you remember facts and experiences.
action potentials,myelin sheath
But, periodically, neurons spring to life. They generate ____________________ (also known as nerve impulses or spikes), which are electrochemical events in which an electrical current travels down the length of the axon, from the soma to the axon terminals. Action potentials follow an "all or none" principle. The neuron is either "firing" (generating an action potential) or not. When at rest, the neuron's interior mostly contains substances that are charged negatively. On the outside of the cell are sodium ions, which are charged positively. During an action potential, the sodium ions briefly enter the neuron through channels in the neuron's cell wall. This flow of charged particles generates an electric impulse in the vicinity of the channel. nerve impulses can travel down neurons at speeds in excess of 100 meters per second. They are speeded along by the __________________, a fatty substance that surrounds the axon and acts as an electrical insulator. Myelin happens to differ in color from neurons; neurons are grey, whereas myelin is white. Areas of the brain that contain mostly neuron cell bodies and dendrites, which are not covered by myelin, thus are called the brain's grey matter. Bundles of myelin-covered axons traveling from one region to another are referred to as the brain's white matter.
remember
Description: Observational Research does an excellent job of allowing researchers to describe actual behavior and determine how often that behavior happens. Prediction allows us to predict when it will happen. Causation will allow us to explain why it happens. Descriptive=observational, prediction=correlation, causation=experimental. JUST TYPE "remember"
split brain
Evidence of this comes from ________________ experiments, which are studies of people or animals whose corpus callosum is cut, rendering it unable to transmit information between the hemispheres. In addition to its bottom-to-top and left/right arrangement, the brain has yet a third type of organization. These communications networks, then, are a third form of organization—one that cuts across floors and sides of the apartment building. Importantly, you can do all of this simultaneously; you can bring the images, emotions, and words into your mind all at once. How—at the level of analysis of the brain—can we explain the ability of the mind to relive the argument? (1.) Specialized regions of the brain (2) Brain networks.
plasticity
Experiences alter brain anatomy. Brain structures are not fixed and unchangeable. Instead, like muscle, they grow with experience. This feature of the brain is called ________________, which is the brain's capacity to change physically as a result of experience. Note how plasticity makes the brain unlike a computer. Whether through injury or illness, people sometimes incur damage to one part of the brain. When this happens, there are, in principle, three possible outcomes for the mind: No mental ability: The person won't have any thoughts or feelings. It might be that every part of the brain must function normally in order to provide the capacity for thought. All mental abilities are intact but impaired: The person will be able to think, but thinking will be less quick and intelligent. It might be that each part of the brain contributes equally to its overall speed and power. Selective loss of specific mental abilities: Some thinking abilities will remain completely intact, but other abilities will be lost. This would indicate that the brain is differentiated and that the specific part that was damaged is needed for the specific mental ability that was lost. What usually happens? Commonly it is #3. Phineas Gage, a railroad construction worker in Vermont. an on-the-job error caused an explosion to go in the other direction—up toward Gage's head, propelling an iron rod up from the ground, into Gage's face, and straight through part of his brain. Gage seemed no less intelligent than before the accident occurred. Gage no longer could control his social behavior. He was unable to adhere to the rules, conventions, and responsibilities of society. Instead, brain damage is selective. It can cause people to lose one type of ability—in Gage's case, the ability to align one's behavior with social rules and responsibilities.
frontal lobes
Finally, moving forward from the parietal lobes, you reach the _____________________. In humans, as well as in our evolutionary cousins, the great apes, the frontal lobes are the largest region of the brain, comprising about 35% of its total volume. These unique biological features underlie humans' most distinctive mental abilities (Semendeferi et al., 2002; Wood & Grafman, 2003): to think about ourselves; to set goals for ourselves and stick to them; to control our emotions; to recognize ourselves as social beings who are evaluated by others. The frontal lobes also contain brain matter that is needed to control body movements.
John Watson
He (1913) declared behaviorism to be a school of thought whose sole focus is the "prediction and control of behavior". The contents of mind, by contrast, cannot be directly observed. Psychology should focus exclusively on behavior. Extends approach to human behavior. (Little Albert).
B.F.Skinner
He Furthered experiments on behavior, learning, and conditioning. (Operant Chamber). Like Watson, Skinner emphasized the study of behavior, but he defined "behavior" to include thinking and feeling. In Skinner's analysis, the ultimate cause of all behavior—all bodily movements, thoughts, and feelings—is the environment.
Buddha
He asked about the causes of emotion: He proposed that two thoughts combined to create emotional suffering: People (1) believe they are separate from the world (as opposed to being part of the world of nature), and (2) believe they will be happier if they acquire more worldly possessions (more money, a nicer home, higher-status friends, etc.). Rather than happiness, however, these thoughts cause suffering. People inevitably want more and more things. They become stuck in a cycle of desire, disappointment, envy, and more desire. he proposed a "therapy" to reduce negative emotion. It was meditation. he wanted to help people live happier lives.
Carl Rogers
He developed a humanistic theory of personality that centered on people's experiences of themselves, or self-concept. He practiced Humanistic Psychology.
Ivan Pavlov
He discovers conditioned reflexes. (Pavlov's Dogs)
Immanuel Kant
He questioned Locke. a philosopher in eighteenth-century Germany named ___________. He knew that people learned from experience. But he did not think of the mind as a blank slate. Some ideas, he believed, are present in the mind from birth, thanks to nature. how did you learn the concept of "time," where did you learn the concept of "space" Or the concept of causality—that one event can cause another? products of nature, not nurture.
Cognitive revolution
I distinct period in psychological time period that argued that the mind's ability to acquire, retain, and draw on knowledge could, and should, be central to psychological science. A return to an emphasis on mental processes and how they influence behavior.
correlation coefficient
If the points in a scatterplot do not systematically go up or down—for instance, if they roughly form a circle—then the two variables are uncorrelated. The ________________ (or simply correlation) is a numerical value that represents the strength of the relation between any two variables. It usually is symbolized with the letter r. The correlation is based on a formula (which can be found in this book's Statistics Appendix) that limits the minimum and maximum correlation to −1.0 and +1.0. Correlations above zero are called positive correlations and those below zero are called negative correlations. Does a positive correlation between two variables prove that one variable caused the other? No. In general, when two variables X and Y are correlated, there are four possibilities: (1) X causes Y; (2) Y causes X; (3) some third variable affects both X and Y, and thus neither X nor Y is a cause; (4) the relation between X and Y is sheer coincidence.
thalamus
Importantly, you can do all of this simultaneously; you can bring the images, emotions, and words into your mind all at once. How—at the level of analysis of the brain—can we explain the ability of the mind to relive the argument? (1.) Specialized regions of the brain (2) Brain networks. Many of these transmissions run through a brain structure known as the _______________, which is located near the center of the brain. The thalamus serves as a kind of "relay station" for connections among brain regions.
capgras syndrome
In _____, the brain regions connecting facial detection and emotion are severed. Face recongition and emotion are connected. The brain is highly differentiated.
correlational study
In a ___________________ (or a correlational design), researchers measure two or more quantities and determine whether higher (or lower) levels of one are associated with higher (or lower) levels of another. The measured quantities are called variables.
random sample
In a _____________________, each individual's presence in (or absence from) the sample is determined by a chance process (similar to flipping a coin or rolling dice).(A sample in which each individual's inclusion, or not, is determined by a chance process. Participants who self-select into a study (it does not equal) a random sample.
prefrontal cortex
In front of the association areas is the prefrontal cortex. The _____________________ is a complex piece of biological machinery that contains many specialized subsections that contribute to a variety of mental functions. One is the ability to keep information in mind—to concentrate on facts, focus your attention, and manipulate information in your mind. You can even think about things that happened long ago or that might happen in the distant future; the prefrontal cortex enables humans, unlike other species, to engage in "mental time travel". The second function of the prefrontal cortex is the one lost by Phineas Gage: the ability to align your behavior with social rules and conventions. Frontal lobe damage breaks the normal connections between (1) thoughts about the social world, which are generated in the cortex, and (2) feelings about the social world, which are generated in lower regions of the brain. As a result, people with frontal lobe damage may fail to experience emotions that normally keep our behavior in line with others' expectations. These include feelings of embarrassment over not fitting in with a crowd and anxiety about the possibility that others will think poorly of them. Frontal lobe damage also reduces empathy.
association areas
In front of the motor cortex are regions of the frontal lobe containing____________________ of the cerebral cortex. Association areas receive sensory input that has been processed by other regions of the brain. They connect these inputs to memories and stored knowledge of the world.
Description, prediction, or causal explanation
In psychology, or any science, a researcher usually has one of three goals: ________________________________.When researchers begin to study a topic, they seek careful, systematic descriptions. Descriptions establish basic facts about the topic under study. These facts, once obtained, guide subsequent theory and research. When pursuing the second goal, prediction, scientists try to forecast the occurrence of events. They want to know if information available at one point in time can be used to estimate an outcome that occurs later. When studying something, there are two types of predictions: (1) What predicts its occurrence, and (2) once it occurs, what does it, in turn, predict. Causal explanations identify factors that directly influence outcomes; they show "how an outcome depends on other variables or factors". Causal explanations are valuable for two reasons. First, they advance the central goal of science: understanding of how the world works. Second, they open the door to practical applications. A key aspect of causal explanation is manipulation. If a factor is manipulated and, as a result, an outcome varies, then the manipulated factor causally influenced the outcome.
cerebral hemispheres
In summary, you've seen that the brain has a bottom-to-top organization. Low-level structures in the brain stem regulate bodily states and serve basic survival-related needs. Middle-level structures of the limbic system enable organisms to have feelings and to form memories. And the high-level structures of the cerebrum, especially the cerebral cortex, enable people to engage in complex, creative, rational thought. This might already seem like a lot of organization for one bodily organ. Yet there's more: The brain also has a left/right organization. it has two parts, on the left and right, which are separated by a deep groove. The two sides are known as the brain's two ________________________. When going from body to brain, signals cross.
Psychology time line
In the 1600s, physiologists begin to study the workings of the brain and its relation to behavior. By the 1700s, physiologists find that specific bodily functions can be traced to specific brain areas. Scientific psychology has a definitive starting point: 1875, when Wilhelm Wundt arrived at the University of Leipzig as a professor and started the experimental research laboratory that was formalized as the Institute of Experimental Psychology in 1879 (first psychology research lab at the university of leipzig, Germany). The field's nineteenth-century founders, however, had global goals, and held the first international psychology convention in Paris in 1889. Cross-cultural evidence advances all branches of psychological science. What should psychology's main focus of study be? How should psychologists formulate theories and conduct research? Psychologists provided diverse answers to these questions. The field thus contained alternative schools of thought, that is, general approaches to building a psychological science. Watson (1913) declared behaviorism to be a school of thought whose sole focus is the "prediction and control of behavior".
neurons
In the case of the brain, there are about 100 billion cells, and they are called ____________. ____________—also called nerve cells—are the building blocks of the brain.
positive psychology
It was an (intellectual movement in 21st century) argues that psychologists have devoted excessive attention to human frailties, and instead should focus on "positive individual traits". These traits are strengths that enable people to cope with difficult circumstances, to bounce back from setbacks, and to gain wisdom from their experiences.
occipital lobe
Let's start our survey of the lobes of the cerebral cortex at the back of the brain. At the brain's rear is the _________________. This region is heavily involved in the processing of visual information—in fact, it is commonly called the visual cortex. the occipital lobe is active when you generate visual information in your head—in other words, when you engage in mental imagery.
rats
Most behaviorists chose to study animals that were easy to maintain in a laboratory, such as ________. They would learn to navigate through mazes. This kind of research had a key advantage: It allowed for accurate scientific measurement of observable behavior.
parietal lobes
Moving from the occipital lobe toward the front and top of the brain, we next reach the parietal lobes. The ___________________ contain brain matter needed for somatosensoryinformation processing (Andersen et al., 1997), that is, the processing of information that relates features of your body (or soma) to features of the environment (which you detect through sensory systems).
Glial cells
Neurons are not the only cells in the brain. They have neighbors, called glial cells—and lots of them. _________________ support the biological functioning of neurons, by supplying nutrients and disposing of the brain's biological waste matter. They also hold neurons in place, which is what gives them their name; glia is the Greek word for "glue."
psychoanalysis
New Schools Develop: ________________. Sigmund Freud developed a school of thought known as ________. It claims that the mind contains different parts. one part contains sexual impulses, whereas another contains social rules.
Wilhelm Wundt
Scientific psychology has a definitive starting point: 1875, when _____________ arrived at the University of Leipzig as a professor and started the experimental research laboratory that was formalized as the Institute of Experimental Psychology in 1879 (first psychology research lab at the university of leipzig, Germany). But three factors turned his attention to psychology. One was sheer interest; A second was his knowledge of technical advances in science and medicine. The third was _________'s knowledge of advances in the study of the nervous system. He wrote Principles of Physiological Psychology,(first psychology textbook) he explored the mind's capacity for consciousness, he pioneered the experimental methods, He was not the only person to open a psychological laboratory in 1875. The Science of Psychology- He promotes the belief that experimental methods should be used to study mental processes. What is the best way to measure mental processes?
pons
The ___________ is a region of the brain stem located just above the medulla. It performs a number of functions and contains structures that control your rate of breathing. It also generates a distinctive stage of sleeping (REM sleep) in which the brain is highly active, generating dreams, but the body is essentially paralyzed. The pons also functions as a relay station, conveying signals among other brain regions.
amygdala
The _______________ is a small structure shaped roughly like an almond (from which it gets its name: amygdala is the Greek word for "almond"). Like most brain structures, the amygdala is connected to numerous other structures in the brain; as a result, it is active during a variety of psychological processes (Labar, 2007). Yet one psychological process in which its role is particularly central is the detection of threat. Another type of threat that it processes is financial. They understood the gambling game and played it intelligently, but felt much less threatened by possible monetary loss.
medulla
The _______________ plays a major role in homeostasis, which is the body's maintenance of a stable, consistent inner physical state. It contributes to homeostasis by regulating rates of physiological activity, such as heart rate and blood pressure. The medulla also is the key pathway from the brain to the rest of the body; communications between the spinal cord and higher regions of the brain run through the medulla. In addition, the medulla controls the "gag reflex," the contraction of the throat that prevents choking.
cerebellum
The _______________, which looks like a miniature brain tucked under the back of the brain, regulates motor movement. With a damaged cerebellum, you would still be able to move your body, but those movements wouldn't be as coordinated and precise. Thanks to these connections, the cerebellum also is active in the control of emotion and thinking, including the accurate perception of passages of time. Fortunately, evolution has provided you with more brain.
fornix
The ________________ (Latin for "arch") is a curving structure that provides a connection between the hippocampus and the hypothalamus, thus helping these structures of the brain to interact and work as a system.
cingulate gyrus
The _________________, which wraps around the top of the limbic system, contributes to people's ability to stop themselves from doing one thing and switch to doing something else. For example, suppose you are asked to name the color of the letters in the following word: ORANGE. You have to stop yourself from saying "orange,".
hippocampus
The ___________________ is a curved, roughly banana-shaped structure in the limbic system that participates in two major tasks of everyday life. One of those tasks is remembering. The creation of permanent memories is carried out, in part, in the hippocampus. Evidence of the hippocampus's role in memory comes from cases of Alzheimer's disease, a medical condition that generally strikes people in older adulthood. A second task the hippocampus helps to accomplish is spatial memory, the recall of geographic layouts and the location of items within them.
hypothalamus
The _____________________ is a limbic system structure that is small yet critical to survival. It plays a key role in maintaining internal bodily states, such as body temperature. The hypothalamus also triggers behaviors that have been important throughout evolution, such as eating, drinking, and sexual response. The hypothalamus can perform these tasks thanks, in part, to its connections to the nearby pituitary gland, which is part of the body's endocrine system (discussed later in this chapter). The hypothalamus sends signals directly to the pituitary, which in turn communicates to the rest of the body. The hypothalamus is located just underneath the thalamus. Startling research results obtained in the 1950s showed that the hypothalamus also is key to motivation. The brain stimulation was rewarding because the hypothalamus is part of a reward circuit, that is, a set of interconnected brain structures that normally becomes active when an organism pursues a rewarding stimulus or experience, such as food or sex. Amazingly, even when there is no rewarding stimulus in the environment, activation of the circuit is highly rewarding.
triune brain model
The _____________________, then, suggests that the overall human brain consists of three main parts, each of which is a distinct functioning brain that carries out its own unique activities. MacLean contended that the three levels of brain emerged at different points in the evolution of Earth's species (1.) The reptilian brain, the lowest level of the three brain regions, is evolutionarily ancient. It has existed since the evolution of reptiles. (2.) The paleomammalian (ancient mammal) brain, the midlevel brain system, is newer, yet still quite old. It reached its full development with the evolution of mammals, more than 100 million years ago. (3.) The neomammalian (new mammal) brain is the newest and highest-level brain system. It reached its fullest development in our species, Homo sapiens, somewhere between 50,000 and 200,000 years ago. You could, right now, say that "I'm reading my psych textbook". You may experience "mixed emotions" that you can't easily describe. Right now, your brain is regulating your body temperature and breathing rate, but you can't feel your brain doing so. When you put experiences into words, you are using your neomammalian brain. Emotions, by contrast, are produced by the paleomammalian brain. It is not capable of producing language (so nonhuman animals aren't speaking to one another), which helps to explain why the emotions it produces sometimes can't easily be put into words. Finally, the reptilian brain executes simple functions like regulating body temperature and breathing. look at these "three brains" in detail. In doing this, we'll use their standard contemporary biological names: (1) the brain stem (MacLean's reptilian brain), (2) the limbic system (the paleomammalian brain), and (3) the cerebrum (the neomammalian brain) and its outermost layer, the cerebral cortex.
a tool, a muscle
The brain is like (1) __________ and (2) a _______________. The philosopher Rom Harré (2002, 2012) emphasizes that the brain is like a tool. (1)You can use any tool for a variety of jobs, including those tasks for which it was not originally designed. although your brain was originally designed to solve problems encountered in the evolutionary past, you can use it to perform contemporary tasks—reading, writing, driving—for which it was not designed originally. (2)When you use a tool to perform a job, it is you—not the tool—that is responsible for executing the job. when solving a math problem, answering a trivia question, or learning a second language, it's you—not your brain—that's doing the problem solving, answering, or learning. You need your brain to do these jobs, but you, not your brain, did them. Like a muscle, the brain also changes when you perform a task repeatedly. The changes make it easier for you to do that task in the future. Experiences alter brain anatomy. Brain structures are not fixed and unchangeable. Instead, like muscle, they grow with experience.
physiology
The branch of biology that studies the functions and parts of living organisms.
corpus callosum
The left and right hemispheres are connected through the _____________________, a structure containing more than 200 million cells that transmit signals from one side of the brain to the other. The left hemisphere specializes in language. Two nineteenth-century physicians—Frenchman Paul Broca and German Karl Wernicke—discovered this in studies of people with impaired language ability, or aphasia.
brain stem
The lowest region of the brain is the _______________, which sits at the top of the spinal cord. Three main structures of the brain stem—the medulla, the pons, and the midbrain—regulate bodily activities critical to survival.
hypothesis
The purpose of an experiment usually is to test a __________. A __________ is a prediction about the result of a study.
experimental design
The researcher's plan for manipulating variables is the __________________. In the terminology of _____________, there are two types of variables: independent and dependent variables.
sample
The select subgroup of people contacted by the researcher is called the _____________. Researchers use information from the sample to draw conclusions about the population as a whole.
experimental conditions
The settings are identical in all ways but one: the level of the independent variable changes. These different settings, which contain different levels of the independent variable, are called the study's _________________. Memorization times of one minute and two minutes, in our example above, would be that study's two experimental conditions.
midbrain
The third main brain stem structure is the _____________, a small yet complex structure that contributes to an organism's survival in a number of ways. One region of the midbrain protects the organism by generating defensive reactions to threatening events.
dependent variable
The variable that is potentially influenced by the manipulated independent variable is called the __________________. Psychologists measure the dependent variable to see whether it was affected by the independent variable. In our memory example above, the experimenter would give people a memory test and measure the number of words they remember. The number of words remembered would be the dependent variable. The term dependent means that the level of this variable may be influenced by—or may "depend" on—the independent variable. The settings are identical in all ways but one: the level of the independent variable changes.
olfactory bulbs
The___________________ are brain structures required for a sense of smell. They receive information from the nasal cavity and transmit it to other parts of the brain.
Behaviorism
They looked for a firmer basis for building a science. One place they found it was the school of thought known as ___________. Watson (1913) declared _____________ to be a school of thought whose sole focus is the "prediction and control of behavior". The contents of mind, by contrast, cannot be directly observed. Psychology should focus exclusively on behavior. (The mind is less important, most things are learned).(Nurture!)
Broca's area, Wernicke's area
Two areas of the brain that are critical to language are (1) ___________________, which contributes to people's ability to produce words, and (2) __________________, which is needed for the proper understanding of spoken language. Language isn't the left hemisphere's only specialty. Another one is arithmetic. Images of people's brain activity while they multiply numbers. Activities that require one to combine symbols or objects in a step-by-step manner, according to specified rules, are called analytical tasks. On analytical tasks, the left hemisphere predominates. Spatial activities differ from analytical ones. In spatial thinking, you create images in your mind. Mental rotation experiments yield two fascinating results. You experienced one of them for yourself: It takes longer to rotate an image through a larger visual angle than a smaller one. The brain's two hemispheres, then, are like two teams of workers who specialize in different jobs. Thanks to the corpus callosum, they're in constant communication, so their overall activities are coordinated. Without the corpus callosum, the left and right hemispheres do, in fact, function as if they are "two separate brains".
dendrites, soma,axon
Two specialized structures give neurons a shape that is unique. The first is _________________, which are projections that branch out from the main body of the neuron, known as the __________. Like branches on a tree, the dendrites become thinner as they reach out farther from the soma. The dendrites receive incoming signals from other neurons. Neurons' second specialized structure is a thin and long projection known as an __________. Every neuron has one axon, which sends information out to other neurons. At its far end, the axon branches into a large number of axon terminals. It is at the axon terminals that a neuron transmits its signals to other neurons.
Psychoanalytic Theory
Unconscious mental processes shape feelings, thoughts, and behaviors
Abraham Maslow
What about human behavior and motivation??? Shifts focus to the Whole Person. Emphasis on self-determination, free will, and the importance of choice. He analyzed motivation, identifying human motivational needs ranging from food and safety to the need to mature and grow psychologically. He created Maslow's Hierarchy of needs.
What predicts its occurrence, and once it occurs, what does it predict
What are the two types of predictions___________, When studying something, there are two types of predictions: __________________
covariation
What do you need to determine causality? __________________- there must be a change in the dv as a result of a change in the iv.
manipulation
What is a key aspect of causal explanation (If a factor is manipulated and, as a result, an outcome varies, then the manipulated factor causally influenced the outcome.)
population
When survey researchers conduct a study, the overall, large group of people of interest to them is the study's ________________
positive correlation
When there's more rain, more people use umbrellas. This type of relation, in which higher levels of one variable co-occur with higher levels of the other variable, is called a ________________.
Aristotle
Which philosopher included categories like perception, memory, desire, rational thought, and action. Also that Rational thinking conflicts with desire. He examined the "psyche"- mind or soul. He pursued knowledge for knowledge's sake: Where did our beliefs, our abilities, and our likes and dislikes come from?
John Locke
__________ was a British philosopher. said that we get our ideas from experience; he argued for nurture, not nature. Ideas, he claimed, originate in our perceptions of the world. When we experience events, vision, hearing, and other senses bring information from the world into our minds. Believed the the mind was a blank slate.
Research Designs
____________ are plans for the execution of scientific research projects.
Survey Method
_____________ is a research design in which researchers obtain descriptive information about a large group of people by getting information from a select subgroup of them.(Used to collect various evidence types).
Levels of analysis
______________ are different ways of describing and explaining an object or event. Person, mind, and brain explanations complement one another; they can each be correct in their own way. As you move down a level (from person to mind, or mind to brain), the lower level deepens your understanding of the higher level. It generally is best to start at the top, at the person level of analysis.
Structuralism
______________ is a school of thought that emphasized study of the mind's basic components, or structures. Perception and feeling, then, would be basic structures of the mind. (The What)
Sigmund Freud
_________________ developed a school of thought known as psychoanalysis. psychoanalysis claims that the mind contains different parts. one part contains sexual impulses, whereas another contains social rules. He developed a theory of human nature and a therapy for treating psychological disorders, They looked for a firmer basis for building a science. Sigmund Freud said that the brain is an energy system. According to Freud, different parts of the brain store mental energy and use it to power behavior. Just as too much pent-up energy in a steam engine can cause mechanical problems, too much pent-up mental energy in the brain can cause psychological problems. Each analogy—pump, machine, energy system, computer, and Internet—tells us something about the brain.
Humanistic Psychology
_________________ is an intellectual movement which argues that the everyday personal experiences of human beings—their thoughts, feelings, hopes, fears, and personal beliefs about who they are and what they wish to become—must be psychologists' main target of study. Carl Rogers developed it.
temporal precedence/temporal ordering
_________________. The iv must proceed the observed change in the dv. If the IV and DV occur at the same time, we cannot be sure which is the cause and which is the effect - Correlation studies have this issue. Rule out all plausible alternative hypotheses. Temporal precedence. The IV must proceed the observed change in the DV. If the IV and DV occur at the same time, we cannot be sure which is the cause and which is the effect. Correlation studies have this issue. Referred to as _____________________, this at least allows us to say alcohol came first because we assessed it at Time 1 and assessed our outcome at time 2. However, it does not establish causality because there are many things that could have also contributed to sexual behavior between Time 1 and Time 2.
Cognitive Psychology
___________________ -The scientific study of how perception, thought, memory, and reasoning are processed. Many researchers during the cognitive revolution studied the mind by treating it as an information-processing system
connectome
___________________, the complete network of neural connections in the brain and overall nervous system of an organism.
random assignment
______________________ is a process in which participants are allocated to conditions of an experiment on an entirely chance basis. An experiment, then, has two defining characteristics: (1) more than one experimental condition, and (2) the random assignment of research participants to experimental conditions. Random assignment serves a critical function. It reduces the possibility of a potential experimental confound, a factor other than the independent variable that might create differences between experimental conditions. If different types of people are assigned to the different conditions of an experiment, one cannot determine the true cause of differences between the conditions, which may have resulted from (a) the experimental conditions or (b) the people assigned to the experimental conditions. Random assignment solves this. He conducts a survey asking caregivers of 1000 3-year-olds about their child's language use. Dr. Drew breaks the results down by the child's sex. Sex is an example of a subgroup in the study.
cross-sectional survey
______________________- (one single survey), usually have multiple measures
longitudinal/prospective surveys
_________________________-(multiple surveys across time)3 or more assessments. Can establish temporal ordering, variable a at time 1, variable B at time 2.
Back translation
_______________is a method in which research materials—instructions to participants, survey items, experimental stimuli—are translated twice: (1) from the original, first language to a second language; and then (2) from the second language back to the first. The two translations are done by two different bilingual individuals, working independently. conducting research cross-cultural.
The Unconscious
is the part of the mind that operates outside of conscious awareness. Unconscious conflicts determine behavior and personality.
experiment diagram
look at notes for (experiment diagram) answer
Nature
refers to a biological origin of psychological characteristics. NATIVISM:(the theory or doctrine that concepts, mental capacities, and mental structures are innate rather than acquired or learned). Characteristics that you have thanks to nature are ones you inherit; they are part of your genetic makeup. Colloquially, one says that they are "hard wired.
William James
the "Father of American psychology".Another laboratory opened in the United States, at Harvard University, its director was an intellectual giant:_____________ He created Functionalism - (The How) Advocated by him and influenced by Darwin, functionalism focuses on how behaviors function to allow people and animals adapt to their environment. Although Darwin was a naturalist, his 1859 book On the Origin of Species influenced psychologists to investigate how behavior allows animals to adapt to their environments. James's defined psychology in his book "The Principles of Psychology". By perceptively analyzing a vast range of topics—consciousness, self-concept, thought, emotion, instinct, social behavior, will power, hypnotism. He sided with Kant more than Locke, What was needed, instead, was scientific evidence.
reticular formation
the brain stem houses a network of brain cells that you're relying on right now to keep you awake and alert as you read this chapter. This network is the _____________________, a brain system that influences an organism's overall level of arousal. Damage to the reticular formation can cause a coma.
Paul Maclean
the neuroscientist ______________ (1990), similarly identifies a three-part, bottom-to-top organization of brain structures. MacLean's model is known as the triune brain. "Triune" means "three in one."
x causes y, y causes x, some third variable affects both x and y so neither x nor y is a cause, and the relation between x and y is sheer coincidence
when two variables X and Y are correlated, there are four possibilities: (1) X causes Y; (2) Y causes X; (3) some third variable affects both X and Y, and thus neither X nor Y is a cause; (4) the relation between X and Y is sheer coincidence.
Nurture
which means "to educate or bring up" (think "nursery school"), refers to the development of abilities through experiences in the world. Empiricism(the theory that all knowledge is derived from sense-experience). Abilities that come from ____________ are those you learn rather than inherit. John Locke argued for this, and didn't argue for Nature.