Biological Bases of Behavior
a sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks. The affected person may lapse directly into REM sleep, often at inopportune times.
narcolepsy
a binocular cue for perceiving depth. By comparing retinal images from the two eyes, the brain computes distance — the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object.
retinal disparity
in Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) at which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.
sensorimotor stage
unselfish regard for the welfare of others.
altruism
an anxiety disorder in which a person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal.
generalized anxiety disorder
information processing that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information.
bottom-up processing
a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
schema
the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.
object permanence
the partly conscious, “executive”part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, the superego, and reality. The ego operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.
ego
fear or avoidance of situations, such as crowds or wide open places, where one may experience a loss of control and panic.
agoraphobia
conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of physical energy, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses the brain can interpret.
transduction
expanding the number of possible problem solutions; creative thinking that diverges in different directions.
divergent thinking
in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).
morpheme
five traits — openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism — that describe personality. (Also called the five-factor model.)
Big Five factors
a group of disorders in which a person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania. (Formerly called manic-depressive disorder.)
bipolar disorders
the minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time.
absolute threshold
a simple thinking strategy—a mental shortcut — that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than an algorithm.
heuristic
a frontal lobe brain area, usually in the left hemisphere, that helps control language expression by directing the muscle movements involved in speech.
Broca’s area
the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need.
drive-reduction theory
compulsive fretting; overthinking our problems and their causes.
rumination
diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.
sensory adaptation
a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds
echoic memory
the process by which certain animals form strong attachments during early life.
imprinting
the desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment.
extrinsic motivation
a type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat specific phobias.
systematic desensitization