, other Senses CognItIon, ConSCIouSnESS, AnD lAnguAgE
• Smell: detection of volatile or aerosolized
chemicals by olfactory chemoreceptors Consciousness Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
(olfactory nerves) • Sensorimotor stage: focuses on manipulating
Stage EEg Waves features
• taste: detection of dissolved compounds by the environment to meet physical needs
taste buds in papillae Awake Beta and Able to perceive, process, through circular reactions; object permanence
• Somatosensation: four touch modalities alpha access, and express ends this stage
(pressure, vibration, pain, and temperature) information • Preoperational stage: focuses on symbolic
• kinesthetic sense (proprioception): ability to 1 Theta Light sleep thinking, egocentrism (inability to imagine
tell where one’s body is in space what another person thinks or feels), and
2 Theta Sleep spindles and K centration (focusing on only one aspect of a
complexes phenomenon)
object recognition
3/4 Delta Slow-wave sleep; dreams; • Concrete operational stage: focuses on
• Bottom-up (data-driven) processing: recognition understanding the feelings of others and
declarative memory
of objects by parallel processing and feature manipulating physical (concrete) objects
consolidation; some sleep
detection. Slower, but less prone to mistakes
disorders • formal operational stage: focuses on abstract
• top-down (conceptually-driven) processing: thought and problem-solving
recognition of an object by memories and rEM Mostly Appears awake
expectations, with little attention to detail. beta physiologically; dreams;
paralyzed; procedural Problem-Solving and Decision-Making
Faster, but more prone to mistakes
• gestalt principles: ways that the brain can memory consolidation; some Problem-solving techniques include trial-and-
infer missing parts of an image when it is sleep disorders error, algorithms, deductive reasoning (deriving
incomplete conclusions from general rules) and inductive
Sleep disorders include dyssomnias (amount or
reasoning (deriving generalizations from evidence).
timing of sleep), such as insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep
lEArnIng AnD MEMorY apnea, and sleep deprivation; and parasomnias Heuristics (simplified principles used to make
(odd behaviors during sleep), such as night terrors decisions, “rules of thumb”), biases, intuition, and
learning and sleepwalking (somnambulism). emotions may assist decision-making, but may also
lead to erroneous or problematic decisions.
• habituation: the process of becoming used to
a stimulus Consciousness-Altering Drugs
• Dishabituation: occurs when a second Drug addiction is mediated by the mesolimbic
Attention
stimulus intervenes, causing a resensitization pathway, which includes the nucleus accumbens, • Selective attention: allows one to pay
to the original stimulus medial forebrain bundle, and ventral tegmental area. attention to a particular stimulus while
• observational learning: the acquisition of Dopamine is the main neurotransmitter. determining if additional stimuli require
behavior by watching others attention in the background
• Associative learning: pairing together Drug group function • Divided attention: uses automatic processing to
stimuli and responses, or behaviors and Depressants Sense of relaxation pay attention to multiple activities at one time
consequences (alcohol, barbiturates, and reduced anxiety
• Classical conditioning: a form of associative benzodiazepines) language Areas in the Brain
learning in which a neutral stimulus becomes • Wernicke’s area: language comprehension;
Stimulants Increased arousal
associated with an unconditioned stimulus damage results in Wernicke’s aphasia
(amphetamines, cocaine,
such that the neutral stimulus alone produces (fluent, nonsensical aphasia with lack of
ecstasy)
the same response as the unconditioned comprehension)
stimulus; the neutral stimulus thus becomes a opiates/opioids Decreased reaction to
• Broca’s area: motor function of speech;
conditioned stimulus (heroin, morphine, pain; euphoria
damage results in Broca’s aphasia (nonfluent
opium, pain pills)
aphasia in which generating each word
hallucinogens Distortions of requires great effort)
+
(LSD, peyote, mescaline, reality and fantasy; • Arcuate fasciculus: connects Wernicke’s
UCS
(food)
Neutral ketamine, psilocybin- introspection and Broca’s areas; damage results in
stimulus
UCR (bell) No Response containing mushrooms) conduction aphasia (the inability to repeat
words despite intact speech generation and
Marijuana has some features of depressants,
comprehension)
stimulants, and hallucinogens (in very high doses).
Memory MotIvAtIon, EMotIon, AnD StrESS
Human Memory
CS (bell) Motivation
Sensory Short-term Working Long-term
CR (salivation)
Memory Memory Memory Memory
Motivation is the purpose or driving force behind
(< 1 sec) (< 1 min) (lifetime) our actions.
• operant conditioning: a form of associative • Extrinsic: based on external circumstances
learning in which the frequency of a behavior
Explicit Implicit • Intrinsic: based on internal drive or perception
is modified using reinforcement (increases Memory Memory
behavior) or punishment (decreases behavior) (conscious) (unconscious)
Motivation theories
Stimulus • Instinct theory: innate, fixed patterns of
Declarative Procedural
Added Removed Memory Memory behavior in response to stimuli
(facts, events) (skills, tasks) • Arousal theory: the state of being awake and
Continues
reactive to stimuli; aim for optimal level of
Positive Negative arousal for a given task (Yerkes–Dodson law)
Episodic Semantic
reinforcement reinforcement Memory Memory
Strong Optimal arousal
(events, experiences) (facts, concepts)
Behavior
Optimal performance
• Encoding: the process of putting new
Performance
Impaired performance
information into memory because of strong anxiety
Facts are stored via semantic networks. retrieval
Stops
Positive Negative
punishment punishment of information is often based on priming
Increasing attention
interconnected nodes of the semantic network. Weak and interest
recognition of information is stronger than recall. Low High
Arousal
01_MCAT_QS_BehavSci.indd 2 4/10/14 12:03 PM
, • Drive reduction theory: individuals act to PSYChologICAl DISorDErS
relieve internal states of tension
• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: prioritizes needs Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Anxiety disorders
into five categories: physiological needs (DSM): the guide by which most psychological disorders • generalized anxiety disorder: constant
(highest priority), safety and security, love and are characterized, described, and diagnosed. disproportionate and persistent worry
belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization • Specific phobias: irrational fears of specific
types of Psychological Disorders objects
(lowest priority)
Schizophrenia: psychotic disorder characterized by • Social anxiety disorder: anxiety due to social
distortions of reality and disturbances in content or performance situations
Emotion
and form of thought, perception, and behavior. • Agoraphobia: fear of places or situations
Seven universal emotions: happiness, sadness, Positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, where it is hard for an individual to escape
contempt, surprise, fear, disgust, anger and disorganized thought and behavior. negative
• Panic disorder: recurrent attacks of intense,
theories of emotion: symptoms include disturbance of affect and avolition.
overwhelming fear and sympathetic nervous
Depressive disorders system activity with no clear stimulus. It may
first Second
lead to agoraphobia.
theory response response • Major depressive disorder: contains at least
one major depressive episode obsessive–compulsive disorder: obsessions
James–lange Nervous Conscious
• Pervasive depressive disorder: a depressed (persistent, intrusive thoughts and impulses) and
system emotion
mood (either dysthymia or major depression) compulsions (repetitive tasks that relieve tension but
arousal
for at least two years cause significant impairment)
Cannon–Bard Nervous Action • Seasonal affective disorder: the colloquial Body dysmorphic disorder: unrealistic negative
StIMuluS
system name for major depressive disorder with evaluation of one’s appearance or a specific body part
arousal and seasonal onset, with depression occurring
conscious during winter months Dissociative disorders
emotion • Dissociative amnesia: inability to recall past
Schachter–Singer Nervous Conscious Bipolar and related disorders experience. May involve dissociative fugue, a
system emotion • Bipolar I disorder: contains at least one manic sudden change in location that can involve the
arousal and episode assumption of a new identity
cognitive • Bipolar II disorder: contains at least one • Dissociative identity disorder: two or more
appraisal hypomanic episode and at least one major personalities that take control of behavior
depressive episode • Depersonalization/derealization disorder:
• Cyclothymic disorder: contains hypomanic feelings of detachment from the mind and
Stress episodes with dysthymia body, or from the environment
Stress: the physiological and cognitive response to
challenges or life changes formation of Identity Personality
• Primary appraisal: classifying a potential freud’s stages of psychosexual development Psychoanalytic perspective: personality results from
stressor as irrelevant, benign–positive, or • Based on tensions caused by the libido, with unconscious urges and desires
stressful failure at any given stage leading to fixation • Freud: id, superego, ego
• Secondary appraisal: directed at evaluating • Jung: collective unconscious, archetypes
whether the organism can cope with the
humanistic perspective: emphasizes internal
stress, based on harm, threat, and challenge
feelings of healthy individuals as they strive toward
Conscious
Stressor (distress or eustress): anything that leads happiness and self-realization
to a stress response; can include environmental, • Maslow: hierarchy of needs
social, psychological, chemical, and biological
• Rogers: unconditional positive regard
stressors
Preconscious type and trait theory: personality can be described
The three stages of the general adaptation syndrome ego
as a number of identifiable traits that carry
are alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.
superego characteristic behaviors
good health bad stress
id
• Type theories of personality: ancient Greek
1. Alarm 3. Exhaustion humors, Sheldon’s somatotypes, division into
Good health stage Unconscious
stage types A and B, and the Myers–Briggs type
Resistance
panic zone
(homeostasis)
2. Resistance
Inventory
stage • Eysenck’s three major traits: psychoticism,
breakdown
(burnout) extraversion, neuroticism
Time
• Trait theorists’ Big Five: openness,
Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development conscientiousness, extraversion,
agreeableness, and neuroticism (OCEAN)
IDEntItY AnD PErSonAlItY • Stem from conflicts that are the result of decisions
we are forced to make about ourselves and the • Allport’s three basic types of traits: cardinal,
Self-Concept and Identity environment around us at each phase of our lives central, and secondary
• Self-concept: the sum of the ways in which • Stages are trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs.
we describe ourselves: in the present, who we shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry
used to be, and who we might be in the future vs. inferiority, identity vs. role confusion,
• Identities: individual components of our self- intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs.
concept related to the groups to which we belong stagnation, integrity vs. despair
• Self-esteem: our evaluation of ourselves kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning development
• Self-efficacy: the degree to which we see • Describes the approaches of individuals to
ourselves as being capable of a given skill in a resolving moral dilemmas
given situation
• Six stages are divided into three main
• locus of control: a self-evaluation that refers phases: preconventional, conventional, and
to the way we characterize the influences in postconventional
our lives. Either internal (success or failure is a
result of our own actions) or external (success vygotsky’s theory of cultural and biosocial
or failure is a result of outside factors) development
• Describes development of language, culture,
and skills
01_MCAT_QS_BehavSci.indd 3 4/10/14 12:03 PM
• Smell: detection of volatile or aerosolized
chemicals by olfactory chemoreceptors Consciousness Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
(olfactory nerves) • Sensorimotor stage: focuses on manipulating
Stage EEg Waves features
• taste: detection of dissolved compounds by the environment to meet physical needs
taste buds in papillae Awake Beta and Able to perceive, process, through circular reactions; object permanence
• Somatosensation: four touch modalities alpha access, and express ends this stage
(pressure, vibration, pain, and temperature) information • Preoperational stage: focuses on symbolic
• kinesthetic sense (proprioception): ability to 1 Theta Light sleep thinking, egocentrism (inability to imagine
tell where one’s body is in space what another person thinks or feels), and
2 Theta Sleep spindles and K centration (focusing on only one aspect of a
complexes phenomenon)
object recognition
3/4 Delta Slow-wave sleep; dreams; • Concrete operational stage: focuses on
• Bottom-up (data-driven) processing: recognition understanding the feelings of others and
declarative memory
of objects by parallel processing and feature manipulating physical (concrete) objects
consolidation; some sleep
detection. Slower, but less prone to mistakes
disorders • formal operational stage: focuses on abstract
• top-down (conceptually-driven) processing: thought and problem-solving
recognition of an object by memories and rEM Mostly Appears awake
expectations, with little attention to detail. beta physiologically; dreams;
paralyzed; procedural Problem-Solving and Decision-Making
Faster, but more prone to mistakes
• gestalt principles: ways that the brain can memory consolidation; some Problem-solving techniques include trial-and-
infer missing parts of an image when it is sleep disorders error, algorithms, deductive reasoning (deriving
incomplete conclusions from general rules) and inductive
Sleep disorders include dyssomnias (amount or
reasoning (deriving generalizations from evidence).
timing of sleep), such as insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep
lEArnIng AnD MEMorY apnea, and sleep deprivation; and parasomnias Heuristics (simplified principles used to make
(odd behaviors during sleep), such as night terrors decisions, “rules of thumb”), biases, intuition, and
learning and sleepwalking (somnambulism). emotions may assist decision-making, but may also
lead to erroneous or problematic decisions.
• habituation: the process of becoming used to
a stimulus Consciousness-Altering Drugs
• Dishabituation: occurs when a second Drug addiction is mediated by the mesolimbic
Attention
stimulus intervenes, causing a resensitization pathway, which includes the nucleus accumbens, • Selective attention: allows one to pay
to the original stimulus medial forebrain bundle, and ventral tegmental area. attention to a particular stimulus while
• observational learning: the acquisition of Dopamine is the main neurotransmitter. determining if additional stimuli require
behavior by watching others attention in the background
• Associative learning: pairing together Drug group function • Divided attention: uses automatic processing to
stimuli and responses, or behaviors and Depressants Sense of relaxation pay attention to multiple activities at one time
consequences (alcohol, barbiturates, and reduced anxiety
• Classical conditioning: a form of associative benzodiazepines) language Areas in the Brain
learning in which a neutral stimulus becomes • Wernicke’s area: language comprehension;
Stimulants Increased arousal
associated with an unconditioned stimulus damage results in Wernicke’s aphasia
(amphetamines, cocaine,
such that the neutral stimulus alone produces (fluent, nonsensical aphasia with lack of
ecstasy)
the same response as the unconditioned comprehension)
stimulus; the neutral stimulus thus becomes a opiates/opioids Decreased reaction to
• Broca’s area: motor function of speech;
conditioned stimulus (heroin, morphine, pain; euphoria
damage results in Broca’s aphasia (nonfluent
opium, pain pills)
aphasia in which generating each word
hallucinogens Distortions of requires great effort)
+
(LSD, peyote, mescaline, reality and fantasy; • Arcuate fasciculus: connects Wernicke’s
UCS
(food)
Neutral ketamine, psilocybin- introspection and Broca’s areas; damage results in
stimulus
UCR (bell) No Response containing mushrooms) conduction aphasia (the inability to repeat
words despite intact speech generation and
Marijuana has some features of depressants,
comprehension)
stimulants, and hallucinogens (in very high doses).
Memory MotIvAtIon, EMotIon, AnD StrESS
Human Memory
CS (bell) Motivation
Sensory Short-term Working Long-term
CR (salivation)
Memory Memory Memory Memory
Motivation is the purpose or driving force behind
(< 1 sec) (< 1 min) (lifetime) our actions.
• operant conditioning: a form of associative • Extrinsic: based on external circumstances
learning in which the frequency of a behavior
Explicit Implicit • Intrinsic: based on internal drive or perception
is modified using reinforcement (increases Memory Memory
behavior) or punishment (decreases behavior) (conscious) (unconscious)
Motivation theories
Stimulus • Instinct theory: innate, fixed patterns of
Declarative Procedural
Added Removed Memory Memory behavior in response to stimuli
(facts, events) (skills, tasks) • Arousal theory: the state of being awake and
Continues
reactive to stimuli; aim for optimal level of
Positive Negative arousal for a given task (Yerkes–Dodson law)
Episodic Semantic
reinforcement reinforcement Memory Memory
Strong Optimal arousal
(events, experiences) (facts, concepts)
Behavior
Optimal performance
• Encoding: the process of putting new
Performance
Impaired performance
information into memory because of strong anxiety
Facts are stored via semantic networks. retrieval
Stops
Positive Negative
punishment punishment of information is often based on priming
Increasing attention
interconnected nodes of the semantic network. Weak and interest
recognition of information is stronger than recall. Low High
Arousal
01_MCAT_QS_BehavSci.indd 2 4/10/14 12:03 PM
, • Drive reduction theory: individuals act to PSYChologICAl DISorDErS
relieve internal states of tension
• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: prioritizes needs Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Anxiety disorders
into five categories: physiological needs (DSM): the guide by which most psychological disorders • generalized anxiety disorder: constant
(highest priority), safety and security, love and are characterized, described, and diagnosed. disproportionate and persistent worry
belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization • Specific phobias: irrational fears of specific
types of Psychological Disorders objects
(lowest priority)
Schizophrenia: psychotic disorder characterized by • Social anxiety disorder: anxiety due to social
distortions of reality and disturbances in content or performance situations
Emotion
and form of thought, perception, and behavior. • Agoraphobia: fear of places or situations
Seven universal emotions: happiness, sadness, Positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, where it is hard for an individual to escape
contempt, surprise, fear, disgust, anger and disorganized thought and behavior. negative
• Panic disorder: recurrent attacks of intense,
theories of emotion: symptoms include disturbance of affect and avolition.
overwhelming fear and sympathetic nervous
Depressive disorders system activity with no clear stimulus. It may
first Second
lead to agoraphobia.
theory response response • Major depressive disorder: contains at least
one major depressive episode obsessive–compulsive disorder: obsessions
James–lange Nervous Conscious
• Pervasive depressive disorder: a depressed (persistent, intrusive thoughts and impulses) and
system emotion
mood (either dysthymia or major depression) compulsions (repetitive tasks that relieve tension but
arousal
for at least two years cause significant impairment)
Cannon–Bard Nervous Action • Seasonal affective disorder: the colloquial Body dysmorphic disorder: unrealistic negative
StIMuluS
system name for major depressive disorder with evaluation of one’s appearance or a specific body part
arousal and seasonal onset, with depression occurring
conscious during winter months Dissociative disorders
emotion • Dissociative amnesia: inability to recall past
Schachter–Singer Nervous Conscious Bipolar and related disorders experience. May involve dissociative fugue, a
system emotion • Bipolar I disorder: contains at least one manic sudden change in location that can involve the
arousal and episode assumption of a new identity
cognitive • Bipolar II disorder: contains at least one • Dissociative identity disorder: two or more
appraisal hypomanic episode and at least one major personalities that take control of behavior
depressive episode • Depersonalization/derealization disorder:
• Cyclothymic disorder: contains hypomanic feelings of detachment from the mind and
Stress episodes with dysthymia body, or from the environment
Stress: the physiological and cognitive response to
challenges or life changes formation of Identity Personality
• Primary appraisal: classifying a potential freud’s stages of psychosexual development Psychoanalytic perspective: personality results from
stressor as irrelevant, benign–positive, or • Based on tensions caused by the libido, with unconscious urges and desires
stressful failure at any given stage leading to fixation • Freud: id, superego, ego
• Secondary appraisal: directed at evaluating • Jung: collective unconscious, archetypes
whether the organism can cope with the
humanistic perspective: emphasizes internal
stress, based on harm, threat, and challenge
feelings of healthy individuals as they strive toward
Conscious
Stressor (distress or eustress): anything that leads happiness and self-realization
to a stress response; can include environmental, • Maslow: hierarchy of needs
social, psychological, chemical, and biological
• Rogers: unconditional positive regard
stressors
Preconscious type and trait theory: personality can be described
The three stages of the general adaptation syndrome ego
as a number of identifiable traits that carry
are alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.
superego characteristic behaviors
good health bad stress
id
• Type theories of personality: ancient Greek
1. Alarm 3. Exhaustion humors, Sheldon’s somatotypes, division into
Good health stage Unconscious
stage types A and B, and the Myers–Briggs type
Resistance
panic zone
(homeostasis)
2. Resistance
Inventory
stage • Eysenck’s three major traits: psychoticism,
breakdown
(burnout) extraversion, neuroticism
Time
• Trait theorists’ Big Five: openness,
Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development conscientiousness, extraversion,
agreeableness, and neuroticism (OCEAN)
IDEntItY AnD PErSonAlItY • Stem from conflicts that are the result of decisions
we are forced to make about ourselves and the • Allport’s three basic types of traits: cardinal,
Self-Concept and Identity environment around us at each phase of our lives central, and secondary
• Self-concept: the sum of the ways in which • Stages are trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs.
we describe ourselves: in the present, who we shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry
used to be, and who we might be in the future vs. inferiority, identity vs. role confusion,
• Identities: individual components of our self- intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs.
concept related to the groups to which we belong stagnation, integrity vs. despair
• Self-esteem: our evaluation of ourselves kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning development
• Self-efficacy: the degree to which we see • Describes the approaches of individuals to
ourselves as being capable of a given skill in a resolving moral dilemmas
given situation
• Six stages are divided into three main
• locus of control: a self-evaluation that refers phases: preconventional, conventional, and
to the way we characterize the influences in postconventional
our lives. Either internal (success or failure is a
result of our own actions) or external (success vygotsky’s theory of cultural and biosocial
or failure is a result of outside factors) development
• Describes development of language, culture,
and skills
01_MCAT_QS_BehavSci.indd 3 4/10/14 12:03 PM
