Neuroplasticity
What is neuroplasticity?
The process in which the brain changes due to experience, learning, or injury.
This neurotransmitter is associated with reward, pleasure, and motivation.
dopamine
What is localization of function?
The idea that specific brain areas have specific functions.
A mental shortcut that allows people to make quick judgments based on how easily examples come to mind.
Availability Heuristics
What is social identity?
This is the part of our self-concept that comes from belonging to social groups.
A lot of stimulation or repeated practice = stronger neural connection
long term potentiation
What is the difference between the excitatory function and the inhibitory function of a neurotransmitter?
Excitatory effect: Increases the likelihood that the postsynaptic neuron will fire an action potential.
(e.g., glutamate receptors) while, Inhibitory effect: Decreases the likelihood that the neuron will fire.
(e.g., GABA receptors)
This part of the brain is associated with the flight or fight response, aggression, and the creation of emotional memories.
Amygdala
What is Confirmation bias?
the heuristic of seeking out information that confirms or strengthens your pre-existing belief.
According to SIT, people categorize themselves into groups in this first cognitive process.
social categorization
Maguire’s (2000) study of London taxi drivers showed increased grey matter in this part of the brain.
hippocampus
What are the clearance mechanisms for neurotransmitters?
These two processes—reuptake and enzymatic degradation—help end neurotransmission.
What is the role of the hippocampus?
To convert short-term episodic and declarative memory into long-term memory. It also plays a role in the creation and storage of spatial memory.
postulates that humans have limited working memory capacity, and information overload occurs if they are presented with information that exceeds this capacity.
cognitive load
This process occurs when individuals adopt the norms, values, and behaviors of their in-group.
social identification
When we learn something new, neurons connect to create a new trace in the brains
Dendritic branching
These tiny gaps between neurons are where chemical messages are transmitted from one cell to another.
Synapse
This lobe is responsible for executive functions such as planning, inhibition, and decision-making.
Frontal Lobe
What is extraneous load?
This type of cognitive load comes from poor instructional design—such as unnecessary information that distracts from learning.
This final stage of SIT explains why we compare our group to others to maintain positive self-esteem.
social comparison?
Why is the understanding of neural plasticity important in our understanding of the localization of behavior in the brain?
By measuring the increase in grey matter in a specific part of the brain as the result of learning a new task, for example, we then can assume that this part of the brain was firing more frequently, leading to dendritic branching.
What is one criticism of the argument that a behavior can be attributed to a neurotransmitter?
Reductionist. Although a reductionist argument may be good in the study of memory since such arguments could potentially lead to positive strategies for helping people with memory impairment, explaining a complex behavior such as falling in love as a "neurochemical cocktail" may be considered an oversimplification of human behavior - ignoring cognitive and sociocultural factors in the behavior.
Bi-directional Ambiguity:
is a problem. We do not know if a deficit in dopamine and serotonin causes depression or whether these deficits are a result of depression.
What did HM's Study demonstrate?
The role of Hippocampus in memory consolidation
According to Cognitive Load Theory, learning is most effective when these two types of load are reduced
Intrinsic and extraneous load
Create an imaginary situation that depicts; group favouritism
This can be any example, of football team, friends e.t.c