Nature and Nurture
The genetic and predisposed characteristics a person is born with are referred to by this term.
What is heredity?
The brain and spinal cord together make up this system.
What is the central nervous system?
These cells provide structure, insulation, and support for neurons.
What are glial cells?
This structure is most responsible for forming new conscious memories.
What is the hippocampus?
This roughly 24-hour internal clock regulates the sleep-wake cycle.
What is the circadian rhythm?
The minimum stimulus intensity detected 50 percent of the time is called this.
What is the absolute threshold?
This term refers to outside influences and experiences that shape behavior and mental processes.
What is environment?
Every nerve branching from the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body belongs to this system.
What is the peripheral nervous system?
This neural pathway allows a rapid spinal reflex to occur without waiting for the brain.
What is a reflex arc?
This structure is most closely associated with processing fear and emotional memory.
What is the amygdala?
Vivid sensory experiences that occur as someone enters Stage 1 sleep are called these.
What are hypnagogic sensations?
The smallest detectable difference between two stimuli is known by this term.
What is the just-noticeable difference?
This research method compares identical and fraternal twins to estimate the genetic contribution to a trait.
What are twin studies?
Reaching for your pencil or raising your hand is controlled by this voluntary division.
What is the somatic nervous system?
A neuron’s slightly negative charge while it is not firing is called this.
What is resting potential?
This band of fibers connects the brain’s left and right hemispheres.
What is the corpus callosum?
This type of sleep is described as “paradoxical” because the brain is active while the body is largely immobilized.
What is REM sleep?
You stop noticing the temperature of pool water after being in it for several minutes because of this.
What is sensory adaptation?
This research method compares adopted children with their biological and adoptive families.
What are adoption studies?
Digestion continues without you consciously thinking about it because of this nervous-system division.
What is the autonomic nervous system?
This is the process by which a neuron reabsorbs leftover neurotransmitter from the synapse.
What is reuptake?
A patient understands what others say but produces slow, halting, grammatically broken speech after damage to this area.
What is Broca’s area?
An unusually high amount of REM sleep after a period of REM deprivation is called this.
What is REM rebound?
This process occurs when the lens changes shape to focus visual information properly.
What is accommodation?
Modern psychologists use this term when heredity and environment shape each other’s effects rather than acting independently.
What is interaction?
Your heart pounds and your palms sweat after a sudden scare because this branch has been activated.
What is the sympathetic nervous system?
A drug that mimics or amplifies a neurotransmitter’s normal effect is called this.
What is an agonist?
Language impairment resulting from brain damage is known by this general term.
What is aphasia?
Repeated interruption of breathing during sleep is this disorder.
What is sleep apnea?
Staring at a green image and then seeing a red afterimage is explained by this theory.
What is opponent-process theory?
This principle says inherited traits that improve survival and reproduction are more likely to be passed on.
What is natural selection?
After a frightening experience ends, this branch helps slow your heart rate and breathing back down.
What is the parasympathetic nervous system?
A drug that blocks a neurotransmitter receptor without activating it is called this.
What is an antagonist?
When one hemisphere specializes in a function more than the other, psychologists call it this.
What is lateralization?
A person talks, thrashes, or physically acts out dreams because normal REM muscle paralysis fails.
What is REM sleep behavior disorder?
A person says they cannot see an object but can still accurately guess where it is located.
What is blindsight?
Forced sterilization and claims that some groups were genetically superior are historical examples of this misuse of evolutionary ideas.
What is eugenics?
The sympathetic and parasympathetic systems are the two branches of this division of the peripheral nervous system.
What is the autonomic nervous system?
Needing larger and larger doses of a drug to produce the same effect is called this.
What is tolerance?
After a stroke, another part of the brain gradually takes over a lost function. This demonstrates the brain’s ability to do this.
What is plasticity?
This theory says dreams occur as the brain attempts to make sense of seemingly random neural activity.
What is activation-synthesis theory?
This theory explains why rubbing an injury can reduce the sensation of pain.
What is gate-control theory?