Chapter 1
This is the first step in the scientific method.
What is developing a research question?
Neural impulses travel down this part of the neuron.
What is the axon?
The process of converting information into a form that can be stored in memory.
What is encoding?
This contemporary approach to psychology is directed toward studying things that give life meaning, such as happiness, love and altruism.
What is positive psychology?
This type of long term memory refers to habits and motor behaviors that are recalled without conscious effort.
What is procedural memory?
This research method examines the relationships between variables but cannot explain causation.
What is correlational?
This type of neuron transmits information from the brain and spinal cord to muscles and glands.
What are motor neurons?
The loss or impairment of the ability to form or store new memories.
What is anterograde amnesia?
Groups of participants in a research experiment who do not receive the experimental treatment or intervention.
What are control groups?
This early school of psychology studies our perceptions of the world in terms of meaningful patterns.
What is Gestalt psychology?
A method of studying the conscious mind by focusing inward on mental experiences such as sensations and feelings.
What is introspection?
This type of drug blocks the actions of neurotransmitters.
What are antagonists?
The memory subsystem that allows for retention and processing of newly acquired information for a maximum of about 30 seconds.
What is short term memory?
A sensory store for holding a mental representation of a sound for a few seconds after it registers in the ears.
What is echoic memory?
An area in the left temporal lobe involved in processing spoken and written language.
What is Wernicke's area?
This perspective views behavior as influenced by unconscious impulses and drives.
What is psychodynamic?
The "master" gland.
What is the pituitary?
This part of declarative memory refers to memory of future actions.
What is prospective memory?
An excess of this neurotransmitter has been linked to schizophrenia.
What is dopamine?
The loss or impairment of the ability to understand or express language.
What is aphasia?
This occurs in research when respondents give answers they think the researchers want to hear, as opposed to what they may truly think or feel.
What is social desirability bias?
A group of nerve fibers that connect the left and right hemisphere.
What is the corpus collosum?
This seahorse-shaped structure in the forebrain is primarily responsible for laying down declarative memories.
What is the hippocampus?
A small, pea-sized structure in the forebrain that helps regulate many vital body functions, including body temperature, emotional states and responses to stress.
What is the hypothalamus?
Vivid, enduring memories of emotionally charged events that seem permanently seared into the brain.
What are flashbulb memories?