Research & The Brain
Clue: This type of study describes relationships between variables but cannot tell you what causes what.
Correct response: What is a correlational study?
Clue: In this type of learning, a previously neutral stimulus comes to trigger a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally elicits that response.
Correct response: What is classical conditioning?
Clue: This natural, roughly 24-hour cycle helps regulate sleep, body temperature, and hormones.
Correct response: What is the circadian rhythm?
Clue: This mood disorder is characterized by persistent sadness, loss of interest, and changes in sleep and appetite for at least two weeks.
Correct response: What is major depressive disorder?
Clue: This type of therapy focuses on changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors; it’s often the first-line treatment for anxiety and depression.
Correct response: What is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)?
Clue: In an experiment, this is the variable the researcher manipulates.
Correct response: What is the independent variable?
Clue: Giving a child a sticker for doing homework is an example of this kind of operant consequence.
Correct response: What is positive reinforcement?
Clue: When you do something because it’s inherently enjoyable or interesting, rather than for a reward or grade, this type of motivation is at work.
Correct response: What is intrinsic motivation?
Clue: Recurrent, unexpected panic attacks and ongoing concern about having more attacks are key features of this anxiety-related disorder.
Correct response: What is panic disorder?
Clue: Noticing a negative thought, rephrasing it in a more balanced way, and then feeling less overwhelmed is an example of this emotion-regulation strategy.
Correct response: What is cognitive reappraisal (or cognitive restructuring)?
Clue: When neither the participant nor the researcher knows who is in which group, the study is called this, helping reduce bias and placebo effects.
Correct response: What is a double-blind study?
Clue: Remembering a phone number just long enough to dial it uses this system that holds a limited amount of information for a short time.
Correct response: What is working (or short-term) memory?
Clue: According to this theory, we experience emotions when we interpret bodily arousal and the situation together—for example, a racing heart on a bridge being labeled as “fear” or “excitement.”
Correct response: What is the Schachter–Singer two-factor theory of emotion?
Clue: This psychotic disorder involves symptoms like delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, disorganized behavior, and negative symptoms.
Correct response: What is schizophrenia?
Clue: Gradually facing feared situations (like dogs or flying) in a controlled way is this type of behavioral technique.
Correct response: What is exposure therapy (or systematic desensitization)?
Clue: This brain structure is heavily involved in fear and threat processing and comes up a lot when we talk about anxiety and emotion.
Correct response: What is the amygdala?
Clue: The tendency to better remember the first items in a list is known as this effect.
Correct Response: What is the primacy effect?
Clue: These “sleep hygiene” behaviors—like having a consistent bedtime and limiting screens before bed—can help reduce this common student complaint about having trouble falling or staying asleep.
Correct response: What is insomnia (or sleep difficulty)?
Clue: Recurrent binge-eating followed by compensatory behaviors such as vomiting, excessive exercise, or misuse of laxatives is characteristic of this eating disorder.
Correct response: What is bulimia nervosa?
Clue: This type of therapy helps people tolerate distress, ground themselves in the present, and regulate intense emotions.
Correct Response: What is DBT or Dialectical Behavioral Therapy?
Clue: These chemicals are released at the synapse and allow neurons to communicate—examples include serotonin and dopamine.
Correct response: What are neurotransmitters?
Each time you retrieve a memory, it becomes briefly flexible and can be altered before being stored again, which helps explain why our memories change over time. This process is known as what?
What is reconsolidation?
Clue: This phenomenon happens when you temporarily can’t move as you’re falling asleep or waking up, and it’s sometimes accompanied by hallucinations.
Correct response: What is sleep paralysis?
Clue: This group of disorders involves disruptions in memory, identity, or consciousness.
Correct response: What are dissociative disorders?
Clue: Medications like SSRIs are most commonly used to treat this category of disorders.
Correct response: What are depressive disorders (or depression)?