Midterm study guide vocabulary.
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Tendency to think we would have foreseen future events. | Hindsight bias
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Tendency to overestimate abilities or future success (exceptions: about to be judged, depression) | Overconfidence
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Experimental factor that is manipulated and being studied | Independent variable
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Experimental factor that is being measured; changes | dependent variable
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Selected segment of the population under study | Random sample
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Process in which participants are selected randomly from the larger group such that the sample will be representative | Random assignment
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Perceived correlation that doesn't really exist | Illusory correlation
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Testable prediction, often implied by a theory | Hypothesis
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Tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs/behaviors | False-consensus effect
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Condition of an experiment that contrasts with the experimental condition and serves as a comparison | Control treatment
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Statement of the procedures used to define research variables | Operational definition
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One person is studied in depth | Case study
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Observing/recording behavior in natural situations without trying to manipulate/control it | naturalistic observation
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Statistical measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well each factor predicts the other | Correlation
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Any effect on behavior caused by a placebo | Placebo effect
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Questionnaire/interview designed to investigate the opinions, behaviors, or characteristics of a particular group | Survey
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Both participants and staff are unaware of placebo vs. drug | Double blind
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Either the participants or staff are unaware of placebo vs. drug | Single blind
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Computed measure of how much scores vary around mean | Standard deviation
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Average | Mean
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Middle | Median
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Most frequent | Mode
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Graphs points on a coordinate grid to look for a correlation | Scatterplot
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Symmetrical distribution across a bell curve | Normal distribution
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Negatively skewed (hump towards right side) vs. positively skewed (hump towards left side) | Skewed distribution
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Gap between highest and lowest data points | Range
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Chemical messengers that traverse synaptic gaps | Neurotransmitters
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Chemical messengers produced in one tissue that affect another | Hormones
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Bushy, branching extensions of a neuron that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body | Dendrites
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Natural, opiate-like transmitters linked to pain control & pleasure | Endorphins
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Specialized cell transmitting nerve impulses; a nerve cell | Neurons
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Connective tissue of the nervous system, consisting of several different types of cells associated with neurons | Glial cells
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Glands that secrete hormones or other products into the blood | Endocrine glands
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Extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers through which messages are sent to neurons/muscles/glands | Axons
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Junction between two nerve cells over which neurotransmitters travel | Synapse
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Reabsorption of a neurotransmitter by transport of a pre-synaptic neuron after it has performed its function of transmitting a neural impulse | Reuptake
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Level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse | Threshold
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Neural impulse; a brief electrical charge traveling down an axon | Action potential
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Layer of fatty tissue segmentally encasing the fibers of many neurons; speeds up transmission | Myelin sheath
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Soma; contains all of the cell body structures of normal cells | Cell Body
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Stores various transmitters that are released at the synapse | Synaptic vesicle
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Period of time during which an organ or cell is incapable of repeating an action potential | Refractory period
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Tissue destruction | Lesion
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Transmits impulses between other neurons, especially as a reflex | Interneuron
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Neurons that carry incoming information from senses to the Central Nervous System | Affector neuron (sensory)
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Neurons that carry outgoing information from the Central Nervous System to muscles | Effector neuron (motor)
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Positron emitting tomography; brain performs specific task and the image shows areas of brain ACTIVITY | PET scan
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Magnetic resonance imaging; measures response of atomic nuclei to high-frequency radio waves in a magnetic field; shows brain STRUCTURE | MRI
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Areas of cerebral cortex that aren't involved in primary motor or sensory functions; higher mental functioning | Association areas
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Change of a cell's membrane potential to positive until reaching threshold (resulting in an action potential) | Depolarization
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Return of membrane potential to negative after depolarization | Repolarization
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Simple, automatic, inborn response to a sensory stimulus | Reflex
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If the signal hits threshold, the signal is sent at the same strength regardless of the initial stimulus | All-or-none
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Involved in muscle action, learning, and memory; those with Alzheimer's have reduced amounts of this neurotransmitter | Acetylcholine
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Influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion; excessive amounts of this neurotransmitter is linked with schizophrenia | Dopamine
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Affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal; antidepressant drugs raise levels of this neurotransmitter | Serotonin
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This neurotransmitter helps control alertness and arousal | Norepinephrine
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Serves inhibitory functions and is sometimes implicated in eating and sleep disorders | GABA
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Substance that mimics or has a similar effect to a neurotransmitter | Agonist
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Substance that blocks the effect of a neurotransmitter | Antagonist
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Paralyzes the motor nerves by blocking dopamine/acetylcholine | Curare
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Loss of dopamine causing tremors, muscular rigidity, and slow, imprecise movement | Parkinson's disease
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Brain disorder characterized by deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and finally, physical functioning | Alzheimer's disease
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Characterized by disorganized/delusional thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions/actions | Schizophrenia
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Lowered serotonin leading to a state of low mood | Depression
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Part of peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of internal organs | Autonomic nervous system
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Part of peripheral nervous system that controls skeletal muscles | Somatic nervous system
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Division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy; homeostasis | Parasympathetic nervous system
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Division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations | Sympathetic nervous system
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Brain and spinal cord | Central Nervous System
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Sensory and motor neurons that connect the CNS to the body | Peripheral Nervous System
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Associated with emotions such as fear and aggression and drives desires such ass those for food and sex; includes hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus | Limbic system
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Two neural clusters in the limbic system that influence fear and aggression | Amygdala
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Neural structure below the thalamus; the reward center, directs many maintenance activities, helps govern endocrine, regulates hunger, thirst, body temperature, sex, and flight-or-flight, triggers the pituitary gland | Hypothalamus
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"Little brain" attached to the rear of the brainstem; helps coordinate voluntary movement and balance | Cerebellum
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Sensory switchboard; directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex and transmits replies to cerebellum/medulla | Thalamus
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Nerve network in brainstem; helps control arousal | Reticular formation
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Base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing | Medulla
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Involved in speaking, muscle movements, planning/judgement | Frontal Lobe
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Includes the sensory cortex and the angular gyrus | Parietal Lobe
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Includes the auditory areas and Wernicke's area | Temporal Lobe
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Includes the visual areas | Occipital Lobe
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Registers and processes body sensations | Sensory cortex
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Area at rear of the frontal lobes; controls voluntary movements | Motor cortex
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Area of the left temporal lobe involved in language comprehension | Wernicke's area
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Area of the left frontal lobe that allows for speech | Broca's area
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Large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them | Corpus callosum
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Neural center in the limbic system that PROCESSES explicit memories for storage | Hippocampus
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Impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area or Wernicke's area | Aphasia
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Brain's capacity for modification | Plasticity
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Tendency for observers to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition | Fundamental attribution error
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Tendency for people who agree to a small request to comply later with a larger one | Foot-in-the-door phenomenon
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Having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes as relating to behavioral decisions and causing attitudes to change | Cognitive dissonance
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Central (person ponders the content and logic of message) vs. peripheral (individual is encouraged not to look at the content of the message, but at the source; knowledge of source, number of arguments, stimuli, scarcity) | Central vs. peripheral routes to persuasion
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Decision must be made between two attractive choices | Approach-approach conflict
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Decision must be made between two unattractive choices | Avoidance-avoidance conflict
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Decision must be made about whether or not to pursue a single goal that has both attractive and unattractive aspects | Approach-avoidance conflict
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Conformity influenced by social norms | Normative social influence
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Conformity influenced by other's opinions about reality | Informational social influence
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Improved performance of tasks in the presence of others | Social facilitation
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Tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when trying to attain a common goal | Social loafing
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Loss of self-awareness/self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal/anonymity | Deindividuation
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Enhancement of a group's prevailing attitudes | Group polarization
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Desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives | groupthink
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Generalized belief about a group of people | stereotype
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"Us" - people with whom one shares a common identity | ingroup
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Prejudice provides an outlet for ager by providing a scapegoat | Scapegoat theory
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Tendency of people to believe the world is just | Just-world phenomenon
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Frustration creates anger, then aggression | Frustration-aggression principle
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Perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, ideas | conflict
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Repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them | Mere exposure effect
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Theory that altruism does not exist; helpful behavior occurs when the benefits outweigh the costs | Social exchange theory
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Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction; conflicting parties grant small conciliatory acts that gradually increase until peace is achieved | GRIT
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Overall goal for the betterment of the group | Superordinate goals
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Biochemical units of heredity that make up the chromosomes | Genes
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Threadlike structures of DNA molecules that contain genes | Chromosomes
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Complex molecule containing the genetic information that makes up the chromosomes | DNA
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Forms the basic structural unit of nucleic acids such as DNA | Nucleotide
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We learn social behavior by observing and imitating | Social learning theory
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Characteristics by which people define male and female | gender
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Acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role | gender-typing
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Set of expected behaviors for males and for females | Gender role
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Study of the evolution of behavior and the mind | Evolutionary psychology
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Person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity | Temperament
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Understood rule for accepted and expected behavior | Cultural norms
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Twins who develop from separate eggs; share fetal environment | Fraternal twins
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Twins who develop from a single fertilized egg | Identical twins
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Studies which attempt to tease apart genetic and environmental components of a behavior or disorder by comparing the outcomes of twins ("nature" and "nurture") | Adoption studies
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Those trait variations contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations | Natural Selection
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Change in an organism's behavior due to experience | Learning
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Promising a reward for doing what one already likes to do | Overjustification effect
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Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it | Latent learning
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Tendency to respond to any stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus | Generalization
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Reinforcers guide behavior closer to a desired goal | Shaping
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Involuntary learning, determined by what precedes it | Classical conditioning
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Behavior is strengthened if followed by reinforcement or diminished if followed by punishment | Operant conditioning
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Learning by observing others | Observational learning
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Innately reinforcing stimulus (food) vs. symbolically reinforcing stimulus (money) | Primary vs. Secondary reinforcers
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Initial learning of the stimulus-response relationship | Acquisition
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Diminished response to the conditioned stimulus when it is no longer coupled with the unconditioned stimulus | Extinction
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Reappearance of an extinguished response after a rest | Spontaneous recovery
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Ability to distinguish between conditioned stimulus and similar stimuli | Discrimination
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An event that decreases the behavior that it follows | Punishment
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Fixed = specific time/interval; variable = unspecified | Fixed vs. variable reinforcers
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Ratio = number of responses; interval = time elapsed | Ratio vs. interval reinforcers
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Stimulus that unconditionally triggers a response | unconditioned stimulus
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Originally irrelevant stimulus that comes to trigger a response | conditioned stimulus
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Naturally occurring response to a unconditioned stimulus | unconditioned response
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Learned response to a previously neutral conditioned stimulus | conditioned response
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Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs | Continuous reinforcement
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Mental representation of the layout of one's environment | Cognitive map
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Mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering | Cognition
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Developing human from about 2 weeks through the 2nd month | Embryo
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Fertilized egg before developing into an embryo | Zygote
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Developing human from 9 weeks to birth | Fetus
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Organ in the uterus of pregnant women, nourishing and maintaining the fetus through the umbilical cord | Placenta
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Agents that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm (ex. chemicals and viruses) | Teratogens
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Physical/cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking | Fetal alcohol syndrome
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Baby's tendency to search for a nipple | Rooting reflex
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Properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects | conservation
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Emotional tie with another person | attachment
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Certain animals forming attachments during a critical period | Imprinting
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Adapting one's current schema's to incorporate new information | Accommodation
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Interpreting one's new experience in terms of existing schemas | Assimilation
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Concept/framework that organizes and interprets information | Schema
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Ability to reason speedily and abstractly; decreases with age | Fluid intelligence
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Accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; increases with age | Crystallized intelligence
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Awareness that things continue to exist when not perceived | Object permanence
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Fear of strangers that infants commonly display (8 months) | Stranger anxiety
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Inability of preoperational children to take another's point of view | Egocentrism
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Infants know the world mostly in terms of sensory impressions and motor activities (birth-2 years) | Sensorimotor stage
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Child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic (2-7 years) | Preoperational stage
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Children gain mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events (7-11 years) | Concrete operational stage
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People begin to think logically about abstract concepts (>12 years) | Formal operational stage
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Kohlberg's theory; before age 9, children obey rules to avoid punishment or gain rewards | Preconventional
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Kohlberg's theory. adolescents care for others and uphold laws and social rules simply because they are laws and rules; maintain social order | Conventional
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Kohlberg's theory; affirms people's agreed-upon rights; follows what one personally perceives as basic ethical principles | Postconventional
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Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think | Linguistic relativity
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Optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development | Critical period
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Rules for combining words into grammatically sensible phrases | Syntax
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Set of rules by which we derive meaning from words | Semantics
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In a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit | Phoneme
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In a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning | Morpheme
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Secure = less extreme reactions to stress, more willing to try new things, be better problem solvers, form better relationships. Insecure = refuse to interact with others, avoid others, exaggerate distress, show anger, anxiety, or fear | Secure vs. Insecure attachment
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Parenting style that is demanding but not responsive; strict | Authoritarian
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Parenting style that is responsive but not demanding; lenient | Permissive
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Parenting style that is demanding and responsive; balanced and expects maturity | Authoritative
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People's ideas about their own and others' mental states | Theory of mind
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Predicts how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid background stimulation | Signal detection theory
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One sense may influence another (ex. smell influences taste) | Sensory interaction
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Below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness | Subliminal
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Sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment | sensation
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Organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events | Perception
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Minimum difference a person can detect between two stimuli | Difference threshold
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Minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time | Absolute threshold
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To perceive their difference, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage | Weber's law
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Conversion of one form of energy into another | Transduction
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Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation | Sensory adaptation
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Nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain | Optic nerve
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In hearing, the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone | Frequency theory
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Our perception of sound depends on where each component frequency produces vibrations along the basilar membrane | Place theory
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Visual system interprets information about color by processing signals from cones and rods in an antagonistic manner | Opponent-process theory
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The release of substance P in the spinal cord produces the sensation of pain | gate control theory
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Processing many things at once | Parallel processing
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Adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters | Pupil
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Transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to focus images on the retina | Lens
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Light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information | Retina
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Central focal point in the retina, around which cones cluster | Fovea
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Point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye; no receptor cells | Blind spot
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Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond | Rods
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Receptor cells concentrated near the center of the retina; function in daylight/well-lit conditions; fine detail and color | Cones
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Transmit signals from photoreceptors to ganglion cells | Bipolar cells
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Transmit visual information from the retina to the brain | Ganglion cells
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Ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening | Iris
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Smell | Olfactory
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Taste | Gustatory
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System for sensing the position and movement of body parts | Kinesthesis
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Sense of body movement and position | Vestibular sense
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Sensory neurons located in muscles, joints, and the inner ear; part of kinesthesis | Proprioceptors
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Canals in the inner ear that control the vestibular sense | Semicircular canals
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Coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses | Cochlea
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Tiny cells located on the basilar membrane | Hair cells
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Three bones in the middle ear, collectively called ossicles; help to amplify sound waves | Hammer, anvil, and stirrup
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membrane of the middle ear that vibrates in response to sound waves (aka tympanic membrane) | ear drum
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Part of the outer ear; focuses sound waves to middle ear | Pinna
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Impression of a vivid sensation retained after the stimulus has ceased | Afterimage
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Stimulus neurons in the spinal cord which send messages of pain via the thalamus to the cortex | Substance P
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Membrane at the base of the cochlea that vibrates in certain frequencies | oval window
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Membrane inside the cochlea covered in hair cells | Basilar membrane
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Capacity for the process of reacting to certain stimuli selectively when several occur simultaneously | Selective attention
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Slight difference in lateral separation between two objects as seen by the left eye and the right eye | Retinal disparity
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Tendency to perceive the size of a familiar object despite differences in distance (and consequent differences in the size of the patter projected on the retina of the eye) | Size constancy
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Blinking lights in succession create the perception of movement | Phi phenomenon
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Monocular cue; if one object partially blocks the view of another, we perceive it as closer | Interposition
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Tendency for vision to dominate the other senses | Visual capture
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perception of motion from slightly varying images | Stroboscopic movement
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Binocular cue; extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object | Convergence
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Organized whole perceived as more than the sum of its parts | Gestalt
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Monocular cue; gradual change from course, distinct texture to fine, indistinct textures signals increasing distance | Texture gradient
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Ability to see objects in 3D although the images that strike our retina are 2D; allows us to judge distance | Depth perception
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Monocular cue; parallel lines seem to converge with distance | Linear perspective
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Monocular cue; objects higher in our field of vision are perceived as farther away | Relative height
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Monocular cue; light from distant objects passes through more atmosphere so they are perceived as hazy and farther away | Relative clarity
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Mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another; determined by our schemas and experiences | Perceptual set
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Influence of environmental factors on perception of a stimulus | Context effect
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