Chapter 1
the scientific study of thought and behavior.
What is psychology
a group participating of those participants who will receive the treatment or whatever is predicted to change behavior
What is the experimental group
The part of the nervous system that comprises the brain and the spinal cord.
What is the central nervous system
Inner ear sensory receptors for sound that transduce sound vibrations into neural impulses
What are hair cells
Substances that can disrupt normal prenatal development and cause lifelong deficits
What are teratogens
the view that all knowledge and thoughts come from experience.
What is empiricism
in an experiment, the outcome or response to the experimental manipulation
What is the dependent variable.
The impulse of positive charge as it runs down an axon
What is the action potential
The lowest intensity level of a stimulus a person can detect half of the time.
What is the absolute threshold
The strong emotional connection that develops early in life between infants and their caregivers.
What is attachment
the position that the environment constantly interacts with biology to shape who we are and what we do.
What is nature through nurture
the rules governing the conduct of a person or group in general or in a specific situation or, more simply, standards of right and wrong
What are ethics
A long projection that extends from the neuron's soma; it transmits electrical impulses towards the adjacent neuron and stimulates the release of neurotransmitters.
What is the axon
The ability to see things in 3 dimensions and to discriminate what is near and what is far.
What is depth perception
The degradation of synapses and dying off of neurons that are not strengthened by experience
What is pruning
the study of how people experience physical stimuli such as light, sound waves, and touch
What is psychophysics
A specific, informed and testable prediction of the outcome of a particular set of conditions in a research design
What is the hypothesis
The study of changes in the way that genes are turned on or off, without a change in the sequence of dna
What is epigenetics
A complex emotional and sensory experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage.
What is pain
Piaget's third stage of cognitive development, which spans ages 6-11, during which the child can preform mental operations, such as reversing, on real objects or events.
What is the Concrete operational stage
Inherited solutions to ancestral problems that have been selected for because they contribute in some way to reproductive success
What are adaptations
a property that is manipulated by the experimenter under controlled conditions to determine whether it causes the predicted outcome of the experiment.
What is the independent variable
The development of new neurons
Cells in the retina, called rods and cones, that convert light energy into nerve energy
What are photoreceptors
Piaget's final stage of cognitive development, from ages 11 or 12 on through adulthood, when formal logic is possible.
What is the formal operational stage