Psych 201 final

Medulla

Plays a significant role in sleeping, sneezing, and coughing

Genotype

Represents your full genetic potential

Pure research

Research that is undertaken primarily because the researcher is interested in a research topic

Prefrontal cortex

Some researchers consider this to be the "executive center" of the brain, where decisions are made to keep information in working memory and to solve problems.

The vestibular sense

Tells us whether we are falling and provides us cues to whether our body is changing speed

Decibels (dB)

The loudness of a sound is expressed in ___________.

size consistency

Two identical model cars are parked at the far end of the parking lot. You are able to determine that one of the cars is closer to you than the other because it appears to be slightly larger, even though you know it is the same as the other. This is an example of which perceptual cue?

Biological perspective

Works on the assumption that thoughts, fantasies, and dreams (and the inborn or instinctive behavior patterns of various species) are made possible by the nervous system and especially by the brain

Correlation coefficient

Expresses the strength and direction (positive or negative) of the relationship between two variables

Glial cells

Form a fatty substance called myelin

Behavioral Genetics and Personality

Heredity is apparently involved in psychological disorders ranging from anxiety and depression to personality disorders

Amygdala

If you are upset over something that you saw on social media, most likely your _________ is highly active right now

Vestibular

If you were having trouble with balance, it would most likely be a problem with your _________ system

Pupil

In the context of the human eye, the size of the __________ is sensitive to an individual's emotions.

The scientific method

In this process, psychologists are guided by principles of critical thinking as they try to draw conclusions from research evidence collected

Epinephrine

Intensifies most emotions and is central to the experience of fear and anxiety

The blind spot

Is insensitive to visual stimulation

Forensic psychologist

Jane is a practicing psychologist who assesses the mental status of people charged with crimes and shares her findings with the courts. She is most likely a _____.

Relationship between dopamine and schizophrenia

People with schizophrenia may have more receptor sites for dopamine in an area of the brain that is involved in emotional responding

Participants are debriefed afterward

Criteria for psychologists to use deceptions in their experiments, while still following American Psychological Association guidelines

Thalamus

The pain message is relayed from the spinal cord to the _____________ and then projected to the cerebral cortex, making us aware of the location and intensity of the damage.

The gate theory

Amy accidentally hit her elbow against the edge of a wall. Amy's mother rushed to her and rubbed the affected elbow. Amy's pain subsided. Which theory would best explain this incident?

Hippocampus

Shana is a young girl who was in a bus accident a few years ago. Since her accident, Shana is only able to remember people she had met before the accident and instances from her childhood. However, she is unable to remember people she met recently or events that are currently happening in her life. She reads the same newspaper for several days without realizing that she has read it before. The accident has made Shana unable to permanently store new information because she sustained an injury to her _____.

afferent neurons

Bobby was standing in line to purchase a movie ticket. All of a sudden, the man in front of him took a few steps back and stepped on Bobby's foot. Bobby immediately felt pain in his foot. This sensation was transmitted to the spinal cord and the brain through _________.

Reinforcement

Sophia does not like eating vegetables. To ensure that she eats vegetables, her mother offers her and extra helping of dessert every time Sofia finishes her vegetables. In the context of behaviorism, this is known as ______.

umami

A new basic taste that was recently added to the primary taste qualities

The corpus callosum

A number of people with severe cases of epilepsy have split-brain operations in which much of _________ is severed

Insist on evidence

A principle of critical thinking

Hypothesis

A statement about behavior or mental processes that is testable through research

Critical thinking

A way of evaluating the claims and comments of other people that involves skepticism and examination of evidence

Correlation

An association among variables

Hormones

Are secreted directly into the bloodstream

sensory adaptation

At the start of the exam Bobbi did not notice any distracting sounds. As time passed she became more and more aware of the ticking clock on the wall. What is this an example of?

Mutation

Best defined as a sudden variation in an inheritable characteristic, as distinguished from a variation that results from generations of gradual selection

Optic nerve

Conducts sensory input to the brain, where it is relayed to the visual area of the occipital lobe

A visual illusion

Denotes a trick of perceptual constancies on the eye

Double blind study

Derrick is a research assistant in Dr. Smith's psychology lab. When the participant asked him what the conditions of the study were, Derrick replied "I do not know." What type of study is this an example of?

Applied research is

Designed to find solutions to specific personal or social problems

absolute threshold

Determined by exposing individuals to progressively stronger stimuli until the minimum stimuli the person can detect is found

Nearsightedness can result when the eyeball is elongated such that the images of

Distant objects are focused in front of the retina

Gamma-aminobutyric acid

Esteban finds that he is often very anxious and not at ease. Which neurotransmitter might help him the most?

Sensorineural deafness

Exposure to very loud sounds can lead to damage of the auditory nerve or hair cells, resulting in ____________.

Serotonin

Neurotransmitter involved in emotional arousal and sleep

Dopamine

Nicotine, alcohol, and many other drugs are pleasurable because they heighten levels of ____.

Pupils

On a bright, sunny day, Manny leaves a dimly-lit movie theater and goes out into the street. The ___________ in his eyes adjust to the sudden increase in light.

Naturalistic observation

On his first day as a school psychologist, Daniel took a trip to the school playground and quietly sat in the corner watching the children play. He noticed several patterns in the way children behaved with each other, especially when they were playing games. Daniel is most likely using the method of _____.

Broca's aphasia

Phoebe recently suffered a major fall in which she sustained brain injuries. Since then, she had had immense difficulty in communicating with others. She appears to understand what others tell her, but her responses are slow and laborious. Her sentences are always incomplete, with important grammatical words missing. Which of the following conditions best reflects Phoebe's case?

Cognitive psychologists

Primarily study how we can perceive and mentally represent the world, how we learn, remember the past, plan, problem solve, and use language

B.F. Skinner

Proposed that organisms learn to behave in certain ways because their behavior has a positive outcome

The principle of closure

Refers to the tendency to perceive a broken figure as being complete or whole

central nervous system

The brain and spinal cord make up the ______, which controls and commands bodily functions.

Sypmathetic Nervous System

The branch of the autonomic nervous system that is most active during when you are scared

natural selection

The concept that holds that adaptive genetic variations among members of a species enable individuals with those variations to survive and reproduce

Behaviorist

Training a pet most likely relies on this psychological perspective

Cones

Visual activity is highest when images are focused on the fovea because of the high concentration of __________ in the region.

Subliminal stimulation

Visual stimuli can be flashed too briefly, below our absolute threshold for conscious perception, to enable us to process them. This is an example of _____________.

Placebos

When a patient insists on having a medical cure but a physician does not believe that medicine is necessary, the physician may prescribe sugar pills. These fake pills are called ____.

Placebos

When a patient insists on having a medical cure, but a physician does not believe that medicine is necessary, the physician may prescribe sugar pills. These fake pills are called _____.

Vision

dominant sense in human beings