1.
Absolute threshold: the lowest level of stimulation that a person can consciously detect 50 percent of the time the stimulation is present
2.
Acetylcholine: found at the synapses between neurons and muscle cells. It stimulates the skeletal muscles to contract but actually slows contractions in the heart muscle
3.
Action potential: the release of the neural impulses consisting of a reversal of the electrical charge with the axon
4.
Adaptive theory: theory of sleep proposing that animals and humans evolved sleep patterns to avoid predators by sleeping when predators are most active
5.
Aerial perspective: the haziness that surrounds objects that are farther away from the viewer, causing the distance to be perceived as greater
6.
Agonist: chemical substances that mimic or enhance the effects of a neurotransmitter on the receptor sites of the next cell, increasing or decreasing the activity of the cell
7.
Altered State of Consciousness: state in which there is a shift in the quality or pattern of mental activity compared to waking consciousness
8.
Antagonist: chemical substances that block or reduce a cell's response to the action of other chemicals or neurotransmitters
9.
Anterograde amnesia: loss of memory from the point of injury or trauma forward, or the inability to form new long term memories
10.
Autonomic nervous system: division of the PNS consisting of nerves that control all the involuntary muscles, organs and glands
11.
Axon: tube-like structure that carried the neural message to other cells
12.
Behaviorism: the science of behavior that focuses on observable behavior only
13.
Binocular cues: cues for perceiving depth based on both eyes
14.
Brightness constancy: the tendency to perceive the apparent brightness of an object as the same even when light conditions change
15.
Broca's area: allows a person to speak smoothly and fluently
16.
Case study: study of one individual in great detail
17.
Cerebellum: part of the lower brain located behind the pons that controls and coordinates involuntary, rapid, fine motor movement
18.
Chunking: process of re-coding or reorganizing information
19.
Circadian rhythm: a cycle of bodily rhythm that occurs over a 24 hour period
20.
Classical conditioning: learning to make an involuntary (reflex) response to a stimulus other than the original, natural stimulus that normally produces the reflex
21.
Cognitive perspective: modern theory in which classical conditioning is seen to occur because the conditioned stimulus provides information or an expectancy about the coming of the unconditioned stimulus
22.
Conditioned response: learned reflex response to a conditioned stimulus
23.
Conditioned stimulus: stimulus that becomes able to produce a learned reflex response by being paired with the original unconditioned stimulus
24.
Consciousness: a person's awareness of everything that is going on around him or her at any given moment, which is used to organize behavior
25.
Continuity: the tendency to perceive things as simply as possible with a continuous pattern rather than with complex, broken-up pattern
26.
Control group: subjects in an experiment who are not subjected to the independent variable and who may receive a placebo treatment
27.
Corpus callosum: thick band of neurons that connects the right and left cerebral hemispheres
28.
Correlation: a measure of the relationship between two variables
29.
Decay: loss of memory due to the passage of time, during which the memory trace is not used
30.
Dendrites: branchlike structures that receive messages from other neurons
31.
Dependent variable: variable in an experiment that represents the measurable response or behavior of the subjects in the experiment
32.
Depressants: drugs that decrease the functioning of the nervous system
33.
Depth perception: the ability to perceive the world in three dimensions
34.
Difference threshold: the smallest difference between two stimuli that is detectable 50 percent of the time
35.
Dopamine: exitatory or inhibitory; involved in control of movement and sensations of pleasure
36.
Double-blind study: study in which neither the experimenter nor the subjects know if the subjects are in the experimental or control group
37.
Elaborative rehearsal: a method of transferring information from STM into LTM by making that information meaningful in some way
38.
Encoding: the set of mental operations that people perform on sensory information to convert that information into a form that is usable in the brains storage systems
39.
Encoding specificity: the tendency for memory of information to be improved if related information (such as surroundings or physiological state) that is available when the memory is formed is also available when the memory us being retrieved
40.
Endorphines: inhibitory neural regulators; involved in pain relief
41.
Episodic memory: type of declarative memory containing personal information not readily available to others, such as daily activities and events
42.
Experimental group: subjects in an experiment who are subjected to the independent variable
43.
Extinction: the removal of a reinforcer to reduce the frequency of a behavior
44.
Figure and ground: the tendency to perceive objects, or figures, as existing on a background
45.
Fixed interval: schedule of reinforcement in which the interval of time that must pass before reinforcement becomes possible is always the same
46.
Fixed ratio: schedule of reinforcement in which the number of responses required for reinforcement is always the same
47.
Functionalism: early perspective in psychology associated with William James, in which the focus of study is how the mind allows people to adapt, live, work, and play
48.
Habituation: tendency of the brain to stop attending to constant, unchanging information
49.
Hallucinogens: false sensory perceptions, such as hearing voices that do not really exist
50.
Hormones: chemicals released into the blood stream by endorphine glands
51.
Humanistic perspective: the "third force" in psychology that focuses on those aspects of personality that make people uniquely human, such as subjective feelings and freedom of choice.
52.
Hypnosis: state of consciousness in which the person is especially susceptible to suggestion
53.
Hypothalamus: a small structure in the brain located below the thalamus and directly above the pituitary gland, responsible for motivational behavior such as sleep, hunger, thirst, and sex
54.
Independent variable: variable in an experiment that is manipulated by the experimenter
55.
Introspection: the processing of examining and measuring one's own thoughts and mental activities
56.
Latent content: the symbolic or hidden meaning of dreams
57.
Learning: any relative permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice
58.
Long term memory: the system of memory into which all the information is placed to be kept more or less permanently
59.
Maintenance rehearsal: practice of saying some information to be remembered over and over in one's head in order to maintain it in short term memory
60.
Manifest content: the actual content of ones dream
61.
Monocular cues: cues for perceiving depth based on one eye only
62.
Myelin: fatty substances produced by certain glial cells that coat the axons of neurons to insulate, protect, and speed up the neural impulses
63.
Narcolepsy: sleep disorder in which a person falls asleep immediately into REM sleep during the day without warning
64.
Naturalistic observation: to watch how animals or people behave in their normal environment
65.
Negative reinforcement: the reinforcement of a response by the removal, escape from, or avoidance of an unpleasant stimulus
66.
Neurons: the basic cell that makes up the nervous system and that receives and sends messages within that system
67.
Neuroscience: a branch of the life sciences that deals with the structure and function of neurons, nerves, and nervous tissue
68.
Neutral stimulus: stimulus that has no effect on the desired response
69.
Night terrors: relatively rare disorder in which the person experiences extreme fear and screams or runs around during deep sleep withing waking fully
70.
Nightmares: bad dreams occurring during REM sleep
71.
Observational learning: learning new behavior by watching a model perform that behavior
72.
Operant conditioning: the learning of voluntary behavior through the effects of pleasant and unpleasant consequences to responses
73.
Parasympathetic division: part of the ANS that restores the body to normal functioning after arousal and is responsible for the day to day functioning of the organs and glands
74.
Perception: the method by which the sensations experienced at any given moment are interpreted and organized in some meaningful fashion
75.
Peripheral nervous system: all nerves and neurons that are not contained in the brain and spinal cord but that run through the body itself
76.
Physical dependence: a condition occurring when a person's body becomes unable to function normally without a particular drug
77.
Placebo effect: the phenomenon in which the expectations of the participants in a study can influence their behavior
78.
Pons: the larger swelling above the medulla that connects the top of the brain to the bottom and that plays a part in sleep, dreaming, left-right body coordination, and arousal
79.
Positive reinforcement: the reinforcement of a response by the addition or experiencing of a pleasurable stimulus
80.
Proactive interference: memory problem that occurs when older information prevents or interferes with the learning or retrieval of newer information
81.
Procedural skills (memory): type of long term memory including memory for skills, procedures, habits, and conditioned responses. These memories are not conscious but are implied to exist because they affect conscious behavior
82.
Proximity: the tendency to perceive objects that are close to each other as part of the same grouping
83.
Psychodynamic perspective: modern version of psycholanalysis that is more focused on the development of a sense of self and the discovery of motivations behind a behavior other than sexual motivations.
84.
Psychological dependence: the feeling that a drug is needed to continue a feeling of emotion or psychological well-being
85.
Psychology: the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
86.
Punishment by application: the punishment of a response by the addition or experiencing of an unpleasant stimulus
87.
Punishment by removal: the punishment of a response by the removal of a pleasurable stimulus
88.
Recall: type of memory retrieval in which the information to be retrieved must be "pulled" from memory with very few external cues
89.
Recognition: the ability to match a piece of information or a stimulus to a stored image or fact
90.
REM behavior disorder: a rare disorder in which the mechanism that blocks the movement of the voluntary muscle fails, allowing the person to thrash around and even get up and act out nightmares
91.
REM rebound: increased amounts of REM sleep after being deprived of REM sleep on earlier nights
92.
REM sleep: stage of sleep in which the eyes move rapidly under the eyelids and the person is typically experiencing a dream
93.
Resting potential: the state of the neuron when not firing a neural impulse
94.
Restorative theory: theory of sleep proposing that sleep is necessary to the physical health of the body and serves to replenish chemicals and repair cellular damage
95.
Reticular formation: an area of neurons running through the middle of the medulla and the pons and slightly beyond that is responsible for general attention, alertness, and arousal
96.
Retrieval: getting information that is in storage into a form that can be used
97.
Retroactive interference: memory problem that occurs when newer information prevents or interferes with the retrieval of older information
98.
Retrograde amnesia: loss of memory from the point of some injury or trauma backwards or loss of memory for the past
99.
Semantic memory: type of declarative memory containing general knowledge, such as knowledge of language and information learned in formal education
100.
Sensation: the process that occurs when special receptors in the sense organs are activated, allowing various forms of outside stimuli to become neural signals in the brain
101.
Sensory adaptation: tendency of sensory receptor cells to become less responsive to a stimulus that is unchanging
102.
Sensory memory: the very first stage of memory, the point at which information enters the nervous system through the sensory organs
103.
Serial position effect: tendency of information at the beginning and end of a body of information to be remembered more accurately than information in the middle of the body of information
104.
Serotonin: a neurotransmitter originating in the lower part of the brain that can have either an excitatory or inhibitory effect, depending on the particular synapses being affected
105.
Shape constancy: the tendency to interpret the shape of an object as being constant, even when its shape changes on the retina
106.
Short term memory: the memory system in which information is held for brief periods of time while being used
107.
Single-blind study: study in which the subjects do not know if they are in the experimental or the control group
108.
Size constancy: the tendency to interpret an object as always being the same actual size, regardless of its distance
109.
Sleep apnea: disorder in which the person stops breathing for nearly half a minute or more
110.
Soma: the cell body of the neuron responsible for maintaining the life of the cell
111.
Somatic nervous system: division of the PNS consisting of nerves that carry information from the senses to the CNS and from the CNS to voluntary muscles of the body
112.
Stimulants: drugs that increase the functioning of the nervous system
113.
Stimulus generalization: the tendency to respond to a stimulus that is only similar to the original conditioned stimulus with the conditioned response
114.
Storage: holding onto information for some period of time
115.
Structuralism: early perspective in psychology associated with Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchner, in which the focus of study is the structure or basic elements of the mind
116.
Sympathetic division: (fight or flight) part of the ANS that is responsible for reacting to stressful events and bodily arousal
117.
Thalamus: part of the limbic system located in the center of the brain, this structure relays sensory information from the lower part of the brain to the proper areas of the cortex and processes some sensory info before sending it to the proper area
118.
Unconditioned response: an involuntary (reflex) response to a naturally occurring or unconditioned stimulus
119.
Unconditioned stimulus: a naturally occurring stimulus that leads to an involuntary (reflex) response
120.
Variable interval: schedule of reinforcement in which the interval of time that must pass before reinforcement becomes possible is different for each trial or event
121.
Variable ratio: schedule of reinforcement in which the number of responses required for reinforcement is different for each trial or event
122.
Wernike's area: involved in understanding the meaning of words
