Psychology

cingulate cortex

situated in the medial aspect of the cortex. integral part of the limbic system, which is involved with the emotion formation and processing, learning and memory and is also important for executive function and respiratory control.

Morphemes

smallest units of meaning; made up of a combo of phonemes. (ex. pretested = "pre" "test" "ed"

language

spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

anger

strong feeling of displeasure and belligerence aroused by a wrong, wrath, ire (something confronted, as opposed to avoided) testosterone

arousal theory

organism seeks to maintain optimal level of arousal.

codes

other kinds of artificially constructed communication systems such as those used for computer programming can also be called languages

negative reinforcement

removal of an aversive stimulus (ex. walking around the block to avoid a neighbors dog)

storage

retention of encoded information over time.

syntax

rules of grammar than determine word order

subjective well-being

self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life.

heliophobia

fear of sunlight

conscious experience

fear, anger, love

Hermann Ebbinghaus

forgetting curve

mirror neurons

frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so.

language family

group from related descent or common ancestor

amygdala

group of nuclei located deep within the medial temporal lobes of the brain. emotional memory

Drive-Reduction Theory

idea that a physiological need creates an aroused state that drives the organism to reduce the need by say, eating or drinking. Aim: homeostasis

Edwin Smith Surgical papyrus

provides the earliest written description of the brain on record

Inborn Universal Grammar

Chomsky; opposed Skinner's ideas

instinct theory

Charles Darwin

Arcuate Fasiculus

Connects Broca's area to Wernicke's are

Deviation IQ

IQ score is based on the deviation of person's score from the norms of the person's age group, standardized so the average score is 100

Albert Bandura

Social Learning Theory

Personnel Psychology

Studies the principles of selecting and evaluating workers. Recruitment, selection, placement, training & development.

Le Doux's Dual-Pathway Model of Fear

Theory formulated by Joseph LeDoux ('94). Brain uses two pathways to process fear messages. thalamus - cerebral cortex (high road). thalamus to amygdala (low road). ex. see deer -- quick emotional response, sensory info passes through for processing (watch out!)

fear

a heightened negative emotional response to a real or perceived threat. often accompanied by escape and avoidance behaviors. (learned via observational learning); results in escape and avoidance behaviors

misinformation effect

after exposure to subtle misinformation, most people misremember.

algorithm

a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. contrasts with the speedier-but also more error-prone use of heuristics.

motivation

a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior.

emotions

a response of the whole organism, involved physiological arousal, expressive behaviors and conscious experience.

emotions

a response of the whole organism, involving; 1. conscious experience, 2. physiological arousal 3. expressive behavior

heuristic

a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently.

confirmation bias

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

Intelligence

ability to learn from experience, solve problems, use our knowledge to adapt to new situations

General Adaptation Syndrome

according to Selye, a stress response to any kind of stimulation is similar. THe stress individual goes through three phrases, alarm, resistance, exhaustion. (ex. girl who was kidnapped and reunited with family)

Mnemonics

acronyms, acrostics, chunking, hierarchy

Lew Terman

adapted the Binet-Simon test for American use

two-word stage

also called telegraphic speech, before 2nd birthday

natural language

any language which arises in an unpremeditated fashion as the result of the innate facility for language possessed by the human intellect

Wernicke's Area

area of the brain important to comprehension

Angular Gyrus

area of the brain important to reading

Broca's Area

area of the brain important to the production of language and grammatical processing

where do emotions reside?

autonomic nervous system (sympathetic, parasympathetic), limbic system, cerebral cortex

Phonemes

basic units of sound (ex. dog has 3)

one-word stage

begins around first birthday

hypothalamus

below the thalamus. directs several maintenance activities like eating, drinking, body temperature and control of emotions. helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland.

stimulus motives

biologically based needs for exploration and activity.

Conduction aphasia

can produce sound and comprehend, what comes out is typically grammatically and syntactically incorrect

flashbulb memories

clear memories of emotionally significant moments or events.

Walter Cannon

coined "fight or flight"; homeostasis; studied the physiology of emotion; Harvard.

Alfred Binet

commissioned by French school officials to measure mental abilities of children; mental age;

ophidiophobia

fear of snakes

Broca's aphasia

damage to Broca's area, language production is harmed, comprehension may be spared

extrinsic motivation

desire for external rewards, such as wealth or the respect of others. "means to an end"

intrinsic rewards

desire for internal gratification, like self-satisfaction or attaining a particular goal. "end in itself"

Karl Lashley

determined memories were not localized to one part of the brain, but widely distributed throughout cerebral cortex.

context effects

drug addicts experience cravings in certain places.

Sensory Memory

duration of sensory memories varies for the different senses. (Iconic .5s, Echoic 3-4s & Hepatic <1s)

catharsis

emotional release, the idea that releasing aggressive energy relieves aggressive urges. ex. "smashers"

anxiety

emotional state that results from threats that are uncontrollable or unavoidable. typically occurs without any external threat. (basis of many associative learning pairings via the amygdala)

panic attacks

episodes of intense fear or apprehension that are of sudden onset and of relatively brief duration

left frontal lobe

exuberant infants and alert, energetic adults show high levels in this area.

expressive behaviors

facial expressions, hand movements, postures

explicit memory

facts/experiences that one can consciously know and declare. *hippocampus

claustrophobia

fear of confined spaces

Anterograde Amnesia

inability to form or store new memories, or difficulty in doing so.

orexin

increases hunger (hypothalamus)

William Stern

initially suggested the IQ

psychosocial needs

interpersonal aspects of motivation, such as friendship or achievement.

flow

involved, focused state of consciousness, with diminished awareness of self and time.

implicit memory

involves learning an action while the individual does not know or declare what they know. *cerebellum

phobia

is an irrational, intense and persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, animals, or people; common form of anxiety disorder; between 8.7 & 18.1 % of americans suffer.

Wernicke's aphasia

language production not affected, patient suffers from a lack of comprehension

emotional roots

learning to associate achievement with positive emotions.

cognitive roots

learning to attribute achievements to one's own competence, thus raising expectations of oneself.

dopamine

linked to euphoria

long term potentiation

long term strengthening of neural connections as a result of repeated stimulation.

Retrograde Amnesia

loss of memory of past events.

George Miller

magic # plus or minus 2

achievement motivation

motive or desire to achieve success. we may undertake challenges with the risk of failure but may also lead to success.

avoidance motivation.

motive or desire to avoid failure. avoid taking chances that may result in failure, stick to the sure, safe path.

lateral hypothalamus

part of the thalamus shown to be involved in initiating, or "turning on eating". destroyed: animal will stop eating and eventually starve to death.

ventromedial hypothalamus

part of the thalamus shown to be involved in regulating feeling of satiety, or signals when to "stop eating". destroyed: overeating, severely obese.

physiological arousal

peripheral activation of "flight-or-flight"

retrieval

process of getting information out of memory storage.

encoding

processing of information into memory system.

stress

prolonged states of heightened emotional activity. angriest people faced roughly twice the risk of CAD and almost three times the risk of heart attack

"voodoo death"

sudden death caused by overreaction of the parasympathetic nervous system, slowing the heart to a stop. Walter Cannon.

limbic system

system of neural structures at the border of the brainstem and cerebrum, associated with emotions such as fear, aggression and drives for food and sex. it includes the hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus.

grammar

system of rules in language

industrial/organizational psychology

the application of psychological concepts and methods to optimizing human behavior in the workplace.

semantics

the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words and sentences

mood-congruent memory

the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with ones current mood. (ex. remembering things when drunk)

Cannon-Bard Theory

the theory that an emotion arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers physiological response and the subjective experience of emotion. (see bear, experience fear, run)

James-Lange Theory

the theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of the physiological responses to emotion arousing stimuli. proposed by American William James and Carl Lange. Late 1800s. (ex. car picture, bear-- are we scared of bear or scared because we are running?) concept of bodily arousal

hierarchy of needs

there is an order to human needs, starting with basic biological processing and progressing to self-actualization. (Maslow)

Two-factor theory

this theory states that to experience emotion, one must be physically aroused, and cognitively label the arousal.

common sense view of emotion

we first perceive a stimulus, then feel the emotion, then become physiologically aroused, then take behavioral action.

retroactive interference

when new informations makes it harder to recall something you learned earlier.

proactive interference

when something you learned earlier disrupts your recall of something you experience later.