My Systems are Nervous
This is the term for the electrochemical signal that travels down the axon to facilitate communication with other neurons.
What is the action potential?
This term describes what happens when the assumptions our brain makes about sensory stimuli turn out to be in error.
What is a perceptual illusion?
Being grounded is an example of this type of behavior-change strategy.
What is a negative punishment?
This is the type of memory we're using when we hold and manipulate information in the moment.
What is working memory?
Wanting to do well on a test to avoid disappointing your parents is an example of this kind of motivation.
What is extrinsic motivation?
This is the region of the brain most associated with executive functions such as planning or organizing the achievement of goals.
What is the frontal lobe? (also acceptable: the prefrontal cortex)
This is the only sense directly linking the brain to the outside world.
What is smell/olfaction?
Watson used this type of learning to teach little Albert to be afraid of rats, banging a metal bar each time the rat was presented. Later, Albert began to fear any white, fuzzy object.
What is classical conditioning?
This brain structure is implicated in encoding long-term memory.
What is the hippocampus?
With its focus on external motivators, incentive theory draws heavily from this major school of psychology.
What is behaviorism?
Speech and language are lateralized to this side of the brain.
What is the left hemisphere?
The trichromatic model of color vision posits we have 3 different color photoreceptors, corresponding to these 3 colors.
What are red, green, and blue?
Gambling is an example of this type of reinforcement schedule.
What is variable ratio?
These are organized clusters of experience that can influence our recall of situational details. They might be violated if you visit your professor's office and see unexpected items like action figures.
What are schemas?
This part of the brain is especially important in processing emotions, especially fear.
What is the amygdala?
This is the space in which one neuron's chemical messengers (neurotransmitters) are sent to another neuron's dendrites.
What is the synapse?
The mantis shrimp can see such a wide spectrum of color because it has more types of this photoreceptor than any other known animal.
What are cones?
This term describes what happens when a behavior ceases to result in reinforcement, resulting in that behavior declining in frequency.
What is extinction?
Elizabeth Loftus is well known in memory research for investigating this phenomenon, illustrated by both the mall and car crash experiments.
What are false memories? (also acceptable: the misinformation effect)
This humanistic model posits that people need to be secure in the basic necessities of life before they can be concerned about seeking emotional connection, achievement, or self-esteem.
What is Maslow's hierarchy of needs?
When I see a spider and jump in fright, I am engaging this subdivision of the autonomic nervous system.
What is the sympathetic nervous system?
This is the feature of the famous dress picture that, based on our brains' assumptions, seems to determine whether we see the dress as blue and black or white and gold.
What is the light level?
This is what the neutral stimulus becomes after being paired with the unconditioned stimulus.
What is the conditioned stimulus?
H.M. lost the ability to make this type of memory after his hippocampus was removed to combat seizures. He could, however, still learn new skills.
What are explicit memories?
The TED talk The History of Human Emotions claimed that medieval knights commonly responded in this way to feeling intense dismay.
What is fainting?