PSY 120 STUDY GUIDE
biological rhythm - Answers - a period, moe or less regular fluctuation in a biological
system, may not have psychological implication
entrainment - Answers - the rhythm of physiological or behavioural events becomes
matched to the environmental rhythm
endogenous - Answers - generated from within rather than by external cues
circadian - Answers - a biological rhythm with a period of about 24 hours from the latin
circa 'about' and dies 'a day'
suprachiasmatic nucleus - Answers - an area of the brain containing a biological clock
that governs circadians rhythms
melatonin - Answers - a hormone, secreted by the pineal gland, that is involved in the
regulation of daily biological clock rhythms
internal desynchronization - Answers - a state in which biological rhythms are not in
phase with one another
chronotype - Answers - a persons pattern of sleeping and wakefulness throughout a
typical day
seasonal affective disorder - Answers - a controversial disorder in which a person
experiences depression during the winter and an improvement of mood in the spring
rapid eye movement (REM) sleep - Answers - sleep periods characterized by eye
movement, loss of muscle tone and dreaming
sleep apnea - Answers - a disorder in which breathing briefly stops during sleep causing
the person to choke and gasp and momentarily awaken
narcolepsy - Answers - a disorder involving sudden and unpredictable daytime attacks
of sleepiness or lapses into REM sleep
REM behaviour disorder - Answers - a disorder in which the muscle paralysis that
normally occur during REM sleep is absent or incomplete, and the sleeper is able to act
out his or hr dreams
consolidation - Answers - a process by which the synaptic changes associated with
recently stored memories become durable and stable, causing memory to become more
reliable
,lucid dreaming - Answers - a dream in which the dreamer is aware of dreaming
activition-synthesis theory - Answers - the theory that dreaming results from the cortical
synthesis and interpretation of neutral signal triggered by activity in the lower part of the
brain
hypnosis - Answers - a procedure in which the practitioner suggests changes in the
sensations, perceptions, thoughts, feelings, perception, thoughts, feeling, or behavior of
them participant
dissociation - Answers - a split in consciousness in which one part of the mind operates
independently of others
stimulants - Answers - drugs that speed up activity in the central nervous system
depressants - Answers - drugs that slow activity in the central nervous system
opiates - Answers - drugs derived from the opium poppy, that relieve pain and
commonly produce euphoria
psychedelic drugs - Answers - consciousness altering drugs that produce hallucinations,
change thought processes, or distrupt the normal perception of time and space
anabolic steriods - Answers - synthetic derivatives of testosterone that are taken in pill
form or by injection to increase muscle mass and strength
tolerance - Answers - increase resistance to a drug's effect accompanying continued
use
withdrawal - Answers - physical and psychological symptoms that occur when someone
addicted to drug stops taking it
sensation - Answers - the detection of physical energy emitted or reflected by physical
objects, it occurs when energy in the external environment or the body stimulates
receptors in the sense organs
perception - Answers - the process by which brain organizes and interpret sensory
information
sense receptors - Answers - specialized cells that convert physical energy in the
environment or the body to electrical energy that can be transmitted as nerve impulses
to brain
, doctrine of specific nerve energies - Answers - the principles that different sensory
modalities exist because signals received by the sense organs stimulate different nerve
pathway leading to different areas of the brains
synesthasia - Answers - a condition in which stimulation of one sense also evokes
another
absolute threshold - Answers - the smallest quantity of physical energy that can be
reliability detected by an observer
difference threshold - Answers - the smallest difference in stimulation that can be
reliably detected by an observer when two stimuli are compared, also called just
noticeable difference
signal-detection theory - Answers - a psychophysical theory that divide the detection of
a sensory signal into a sensory process and a decisions process
sensory adaption - Answers - the reduction or disappearance of sensory
responsiveness when stimulation is unchanging or repetitious
sensory deprivation - Answers - the absence of normal levels of sensory stimulation
selective attention - Answers - the focusing of attention on selected aspects of the
environment and the blocking out of others
inattentional blindness - Answers - failure to consciously perceive something you are
looking at because you are not attending to it
hue - Answers - the dimension of visual experience specified by colour names and
related to the wavelength of light
brightness - Answers - lightness or luminance the dimension of visual experience
related to the amount of light emitted from or reflected by an object
saturation - Answers - vividness or purity of colour the dimension of visual experience
related to the complexity of light waves
retina - Answers - neural tissue lining the back of the eyeball's for interior, which
contains the receptors for vision
rods - Answers - visual receptors that respond to dim light
cones - Answers - visual receptor involved in colour vision
dark adaptation - Answers - a process by which visual receptors become maximally
sensitive to dim light
biological rhythm - Answers - a period, moe or less regular fluctuation in a biological
system, may not have psychological implication
entrainment - Answers - the rhythm of physiological or behavioural events becomes
matched to the environmental rhythm
endogenous - Answers - generated from within rather than by external cues
circadian - Answers - a biological rhythm with a period of about 24 hours from the latin
circa 'about' and dies 'a day'
suprachiasmatic nucleus - Answers - an area of the brain containing a biological clock
that governs circadians rhythms
melatonin - Answers - a hormone, secreted by the pineal gland, that is involved in the
regulation of daily biological clock rhythms
internal desynchronization - Answers - a state in which biological rhythms are not in
phase with one another
chronotype - Answers - a persons pattern of sleeping and wakefulness throughout a
typical day
seasonal affective disorder - Answers - a controversial disorder in which a person
experiences depression during the winter and an improvement of mood in the spring
rapid eye movement (REM) sleep - Answers - sleep periods characterized by eye
movement, loss of muscle tone and dreaming
sleep apnea - Answers - a disorder in which breathing briefly stops during sleep causing
the person to choke and gasp and momentarily awaken
narcolepsy - Answers - a disorder involving sudden and unpredictable daytime attacks
of sleepiness or lapses into REM sleep
REM behaviour disorder - Answers - a disorder in which the muscle paralysis that
normally occur during REM sleep is absent or incomplete, and the sleeper is able to act
out his or hr dreams
consolidation - Answers - a process by which the synaptic changes associated with
recently stored memories become durable and stable, causing memory to become more
reliable
,lucid dreaming - Answers - a dream in which the dreamer is aware of dreaming
activition-synthesis theory - Answers - the theory that dreaming results from the cortical
synthesis and interpretation of neutral signal triggered by activity in the lower part of the
brain
hypnosis - Answers - a procedure in which the practitioner suggests changes in the
sensations, perceptions, thoughts, feelings, perception, thoughts, feeling, or behavior of
them participant
dissociation - Answers - a split in consciousness in which one part of the mind operates
independently of others
stimulants - Answers - drugs that speed up activity in the central nervous system
depressants - Answers - drugs that slow activity in the central nervous system
opiates - Answers - drugs derived from the opium poppy, that relieve pain and
commonly produce euphoria
psychedelic drugs - Answers - consciousness altering drugs that produce hallucinations,
change thought processes, or distrupt the normal perception of time and space
anabolic steriods - Answers - synthetic derivatives of testosterone that are taken in pill
form or by injection to increase muscle mass and strength
tolerance - Answers - increase resistance to a drug's effect accompanying continued
use
withdrawal - Answers - physical and psychological symptoms that occur when someone
addicted to drug stops taking it
sensation - Answers - the detection of physical energy emitted or reflected by physical
objects, it occurs when energy in the external environment or the body stimulates
receptors in the sense organs
perception - Answers - the process by which brain organizes and interpret sensory
information
sense receptors - Answers - specialized cells that convert physical energy in the
environment or the body to electrical energy that can be transmitted as nerve impulses
to brain
, doctrine of specific nerve energies - Answers - the principles that different sensory
modalities exist because signals received by the sense organs stimulate different nerve
pathway leading to different areas of the brains
synesthasia - Answers - a condition in which stimulation of one sense also evokes
another
absolute threshold - Answers - the smallest quantity of physical energy that can be
reliability detected by an observer
difference threshold - Answers - the smallest difference in stimulation that can be
reliably detected by an observer when two stimuli are compared, also called just
noticeable difference
signal-detection theory - Answers - a psychophysical theory that divide the detection of
a sensory signal into a sensory process and a decisions process
sensory adaption - Answers - the reduction or disappearance of sensory
responsiveness when stimulation is unchanging or repetitious
sensory deprivation - Answers - the absence of normal levels of sensory stimulation
selective attention - Answers - the focusing of attention on selected aspects of the
environment and the blocking out of others
inattentional blindness - Answers - failure to consciously perceive something you are
looking at because you are not attending to it
hue - Answers - the dimension of visual experience specified by colour names and
related to the wavelength of light
brightness - Answers - lightness or luminance the dimension of visual experience
related to the amount of light emitted from or reflected by an object
saturation - Answers - vividness or purity of colour the dimension of visual experience
related to the complexity of light waves
retina - Answers - neural tissue lining the back of the eyeball's for interior, which
contains the receptors for vision
rods - Answers - visual receptors that respond to dim light
cones - Answers - visual receptor involved in colour vision
dark adaptation - Answers - a process by which visual receptors become maximally
sensitive to dim light
