Acetylcholine - A neurotransmitter that enables learning and memory and also triggers

muscle contraction
Dopamine - A neurotransmitter associated with movement, attention and learning and
the brain's pleasure and reward system.
Norepinephrine - A neurotransmitter involved in arousal, as well as in learning and
mood regulation
Serotonin - A neurotransmitter that affects hunger,sleep, arousal, and mood.
Afferent Neurons - Neurons carrying info from sensory receptors to the peripheral
center
Efferent Neurons - Send neurons from the brain to the rest of the body
Electroencephalogram (EEG) - Recorded the waves of electrical activity that sweep
the brain’s surface. These waves are measured by electrodes placed on the scalp.
Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT) - imagining technique used to study the brain
to pinpoint injuries and brain deterioration
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - Brain imaging method using radio waves and
magnetic fields of the body to produce detailed images of the brain
Positron Emission Tomography - an imaging technique used to see which brain
areas are being activated while performing tasks
Cerebellum - involved in motor control and coordinating movements. Damage here will
cause the loss of muscular coordination
Reticular Formation - Arouses and alerts the forebrain and prepares it to receive
information from the senses. Damage to this area can cause permanent
unconsciousness.
Left Hemisphere - controls the right side of the body. Language, math, and analytics.
Control speech and language
Right Hemisphere - controls the left side of the body. Creative intuitive, spacial
Broca’s Area - Involved in producing speech
Motor Cortex - thin vertical strip at the back of the frontal lobe. Sends signals to our
muscles controlling voluntary movements
Parietal Lobe - Right behind the frontal lobe. Process sensory information from body
parts. Damage here can cause motor issues.
Wernicke’s Area - controls language reception
The Limbic System - involves hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus
Corpus Callosum - Fibers that connect left and right hemispheres

Sensory Adaptation - decreasing responsiveness to stimuli due to constant stimulation

Sensory Habituation - our perception of sensations based on how focused we are
Cones - layer of the retina that is activated by color, towards the center
Rods - layer in the retina that responds to black and white, outnumber cones
Place Theory - theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s
membrane is stimulated
Frequency Theory - the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches
the frequency of a tone, enabling us to sense a pitch
Absolute Threshold - smallest amount of stimulus we can detect, the minimal amount
of stimulus we can detect 50% of the time
Difference Threshold - smallest amount of change needed in a stimulus before we
can detect a change
Weber’s Law - just-noticeable difference for any given sense is constant proportion of
the stimulation being judged
Size Constancy - objects closer to our eyes produce bigger images on our retinas, but
we take distance into account in our estimation of size. We know that an object doesn’t
grow or shrink in size as it moves closer or farther away
Shape Constancy - different angles produce different shapes in our retinas, but we
know that the shape of an object remains constant

Trace Conditioning - conditioned stimulus precedes the unconditioned stimulus but is

removed before the unconditioned stimulus is presented so that the two stimuli do not
occur together
Acquisition - one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the
neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response
Instrumental Learning - associative learning in which a behavior becomes more or
less probable depending on its consequences
Fixed Ratio - reinforcers a response after a specified number of responses
Fixed Interval - reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed
Variable ratio - reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses
Variable interval - reinforces a response at unpredictable timer intervals
Latent Learning - Occurs but is not incentive to demonstrate it
Insight Learning - the organism develops a sudden insight into or understanding of a
problems solution

Episodic Memory - memories of specific events stored in sequential form

Semantic Memory - general knowledge of the world stored as facts
Procedural Memory - memories of skills learned through classical conditioning and
how to perform them
Proactive Interference- older information learned previously interfere with the recall of
information learned more recently
Retroactive Interference - the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old info
Availability Heuristic - estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in
memory
Representativeness Heuristic - judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well
they seem to represent particular prototypes
Rigidity - tendency to fall into established thought patterns
Construct validity - higher correlation between validity and reliability the more
construct the validity the new measure has
Intrapersonal - refers to one’s ability to understand oneself
Interpersonal - intelligence corresponds to a person’s ability to get along and be
sensitive with others
How is IQ chosen? Mental age/ chronological age x 100
Deviation IQ - dividing a person's test score by the average test score of people in the
same age group and multiplying this by 100
Elaborative Rehearsal - the linking of new info to material that is already known

Oral Stage - Infants seek pleasure through their mouths. Easily fixed in this stage as
adults become sarcastic and suffer from low self-esteem, continually looking for
approval
Anal Stage - Conflict over toilet training. If an individual is fixated in this stage, they will
continue to engage in behaviors related to retention; overly orderly and stingy
Preconventional - Decision making based on avoiding punishment
Conventional - Considering moral choices through others perspectives
Postconventional - Examining rights and values in moral decision making
Temperament - physical and emotional characteristics of a newborn child and young
infant
Formal Operation - in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally
beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract
concepts
Preoperational - in Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age)
during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental
operations of concrete logic; can begin to understand symbolism
Concrete Operational - in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from
about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that
enable them to think logically about concrete events
Sensorimotor - in Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during
which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor
activities
Imaginary Audience - adolescents belief that they are the focus of everyone else’
attention and concern
Personal Fable - the belief among teenagers that their story is unique from anyone else
and no one could understand them

Id - the unconscious mind contains instincts and psychic energy

Pleasure Principle - the tendency of the id to strive for immediate gratification
Reality Principle - principle by which the ego functions. The satisfaction of the
demands of the id only when negative consequences will not result
Displacement - defense mechanism that shifts impulses toward a more acceptable or
less threatening object or person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet
Regression - returning to another form of comforting behavior
Rationalization - coming up with a beneficial result of an undesirable occurrence
Sublimation - channeling one's frustration towards a different goal, a healthy
mechanism
Collective Unconscious - theory that we all share an inherited memory that contains
our cultures most basic elements
Nomothetic Approach - focuses on identifying general laws that govern the behavior
on all individuals
Big Five Personality Traits - extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness,
emotional stability, openness to experience
Triadic reciprocality/reciprocal determinism: the person (traits), the environment,
and the person's behavior each influence both of the other two in a constant looplike
fashion
Reliability - something is consistent
Validity - measures accuracy
Barnum Effect - people have the tendency to see themselves in vague, stock
descriptions of personality
Drive Reduction Theory - theory that our behavior is motivated by our biological needs
Yerkes-Dodson Law - the psychological principle stating that performance is best
under conditions of moderate arousal rather than either low or high arousal. People
perform easy tasks best at high levels of arousal and harder tasks best at low levels of
arousal.
Incentive Theory - A theory of motivation stating that behavior is directed toward
attaining desirable stimuli and avoiding unwanted stimuli.
We associate some stimuli with rewards and others with punishments, where we want
the rewards.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs - Not all needs are are created equal
(level 1) Physiological Needs, (level 2) Safety and Security, (level 3) Relationships,
Love and Affection, (level 4) Self Esteem, (level 5) Self Actualization
Lateral vs. Ventromedial: lateral produces hunger signals, ventromedial produces
feelings of fullness
Theory X - managers believe that employees will work if rewarded with benefits or
threatened with punishment
Theory Y - Managers believe that employed are internally motivated to do good work
Two Factor Theory - Both our physical responses and our cognitive labels (mental
interpretations) combine to cause any particular emotional response
If your heart rate is already elevated after a quick jog, you will report being more
frightened by a sudden surprise than if you were surprised in resting rate
GAS Steps - Alarm, resistance, exhaustion
Low metabolic Rate: one will burn less fuel and store more fuel as fat, having more
body fat
James-Lange Theory of Emotion - emotions result from our interpretations of our
bodily reactions to stimuli
Facial Feedback Theory - facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings such
as fear, anger, or happiness. Comes from social darwinism.
Cannon-Bard Theory - emotion and physiological reactions occur simultaneously
Cognitive-appraisal Theory - individuals decide on an appropriate emotion following
an event
Affective-primacy Theory - feel an emotion before you have time to interpret or
appraise the situation
Schachter-Singer THeory - A theory of emotion that states that both physiological
arousal and cognitive appraisal must occur before an emotion is consciously
experienced.
Relative Deprivation Theory - Actions of groups that are oppressed/deprived of rights
that others in society enjoy. ex. Civil Rights Movements

Symptom Substitution - after a person is successfully treated for one psychological

disorder, that person begins to experience a new psychological problem
Transference - in psychoanalysis, the patient's transfer to the analyst of emotions
linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred for a parent)
Determinism - holds that people hold no influence of what happens to them and
choices are predetermined
Non-directive - clients choose a course of action over telling them what to do, usually
humanistic
Gestalt Therapy - therapists help clients accept all parts of their feelings and
experiences
Existential Therapies - humanistic therapies helping clients achieve meaning in life
Systematic Desensitization - A type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant
relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to
treat phobias.
Anxiety Hierarchy - feared situations ranked least to most anxiety provoking
In vivo desensitization - brief and graduated exposure to an actual fear situation or
event
Flooding - attacking the most frightening scenario in their anxiety hierarchy first
Lithium - drug treatment for manic phase of bipolar disorder
Drugs that help with anxiety - Barbiturates such as Miltown. Xanax and Valium
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) - biomedical treatment in which electric shocks
produce a seizure2