What is Psychology
What is Psychology
Uses the empirical approach (emphasize the use of observational study and the experimental method to receive information)
The study of behavior and mental processes
What makes up the CNS
Brain and Spinal Cord
The system located below the cerebral hemispheres is associated with emotions and drives
Limbic System
What is operant conditioning?
What is learning?
Process of acquiring through experience new and
relatively enduring information or behaviors
Explain the difference between a random sample and a random assignment
random sampling refers to how you select individuals from the population to participate in your study. Random assignment refers to how you place those participants into groups
What is a neuron
Basic units of the nervous system responsible for transmitting electrochemical signals. Neurons consist of a cell body, dendrites (receiving inputs), and an axon (transmitting outputs).
Oldest part and central brain core, responsible for automatic survival functions
Brain Stem
Who completed the experiment where they rang a bell just before feeding dogs, causing them to eventually salivate at the sound of the bell alone
Ivan Pavlov
What is classical conditioning?
A type of learning in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus and acquires the capacity to elicit a similar response
Explain the difference between nature vs nurture, and why we care
Nature: The genetic makeup of an individual, including biological predispositions for physical, emotional, and intellectual traits
Nurture: The influence of learning and environmental factors on an individual, including exposure, experience, and learning
A philosophical discussion about the relative importance of genetics and environment in shaping human traits
What parts of the brain are in the limbic system?
Amygdala: Two bean-sized neural clusters, Involved in our experience of emotion and tying emotional meaning to our memories
• Hypothalamus: Below the thalamus, Directs maintenance activities
• Hippocampus: The neural center in the limbic system that processes explicit memories for storage
What is lateralization and what part of the brain enables lateralization?
A tendency for the brain's left and right hemispheres to serve different functions
Corpus Callosum - a wide band of axon fibers that
transmits information between the cerebral
hemispheres
What is generalization?
The tendency to have conditioned responses triggered by related stimuli
What is Latent learning
Learning that occurs, but it may not be evident until there is a reason to demonstrate it
Responsible for the first Psychological Lab in Germany
Wilhelm Wundt
What is the function of the midbrain
Connects the hindbrain and the forebrain, Found atop the brainstem; controls some motor movement, and transmits auditory and visual information
Involved in language, motor control, reasoning, and emotion
Frontal lobe
Adding a desirable stimulus to increase the likelihood of a behavior occurring again
What role does punishment serve?
gives something undesirable/taking something desirable to decrease frequency of behavior
What is the Placebo Effect?
a phenomenon where a person experiences improvement in their health or symptoms after receiving an inactive treatment
List the parts of the hindbrain and their functions
Brainstem: The oldest part and central brain core, responsible for automatic survival functions
Medulla: Brainstem base, controls basic automatic survival processes like breathing, blood pressure, and heart rate
Pons: hindbrain structure that connects the brain and spinal cord; involved in regulating brain activity during sleep
Cerebellum: Little brain at the brainstem rear, Controls balance, coordination, movement, and motor skills, processes sensory input
Receives sensory input for touch and body position, Processes various sensory and perceptual information
Parietal lobe
A reinforcement schedule in which reinforcement is delivered after an unpredictable amount of time has elapsed
Variable Interval Schedule
What is Successive approximations?
Responses that are increasingly closer to the final desired behavior are rewarded; all other responses are ignored