Research Methods
This research method randomly assigns participants to conditions so researchers can determine cause and effect.
What is an experiment?
This specialized cell is the basic unit of the nervous system.
What is a neuron?
This is the process of receiving stimulus energy from the environment.
What is sensation?
This stage of sleep features vivid dreaming and rapid eye movements.
What is REM sleep?
In Pavlov’s experiments, the bell became this after it was paired with food and triggered salivation.
What is a conditioned stimulus?
In an experiment, this is the variable the researcher manipulates.
What is the independent variable?
These chemicals carry messages across the synapse from one neuron to the next.
What are neurotransmitters?
This is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information so that it makes sense.
What is perception?
This is the roughly 24-hour biological cycle that regulates sleep and wakefulness.
What is the circadian rhythm?
B.F. Skinner is associated with this type of learning, in which behavior is shaped by its consequences.
What is operant conditioning?
This group receives no treatment, or a placebo, and serves as the comparison.
What is the control group?
Low levels of this neurotransmitter are linked to the movement problems of Parkinson’s disease.
What is dopamine?
This is the minimum amount of stimulation a person can detect 50% of the time.
What is the absolute threshold?
This is the term for a state of awareness of the external events and of one’s own mental activity at a given moment.
What is consciousness?
Taking away an unpleasant stimulus to increase a behavior is called this.
What is negative reinforcement?
In this type of study, neither the participants nor the researchers know who is receiving the treatment.
What is a double-blind experiment?
This part of the limbic system is crucial for forming new long-term memories.
What is the hippocampus?
This transparent structure sits behind the pupil and changes shape to focus light onto the retina.
What is the lens?
Alcohol, barbiturates, and opioids belong to this class of drugs that slow down the central nervous system.
What are depressants?
In classical conditioning, this is the stimulus that naturally triggers a response without any learning, like food making a dog salivate.
What is an unconditioned stimulus?
This is a testable prediction about the outcome of a study, made before the research begins.
What is a hypothesis?
Damage to this area of the left frontal lobe makes it hard to produce fluent speech.
What is Broca’s area?
This bundle of fibers carries visual information from the eye to the brain
What is the optic nerve?
Cocaine, amphetamines, and caffeine belong to this class of drugs that speed up the central nervous system.
What are stimulants?
This is the term for learning by watching and imitating the behavior of others.
What is observational learning?