2/8/10 Psychology is: The study of the soul o Psyche= soul or mind o Logos, Word, study The systematic

c study of individual behavior and experience Science

Biological Psychology: Biological factors in behavior (genes, brain structures, neuro transmitters) o What parts of the brain are responsible for coordinating movement? o Is personality genetic?

Cognitive Psychology: Explains how info about the world is acquired, retained, and used o How do we perceive color? o Are our memories always accurate? Learning and memory gaining and keeping

Developmental Psychology: How thought and behavior change as people age and why o When do children understand that other people have minds? o Do we become disagreeable as we age? Theory of mindknowledge that my thoughts are different from my neighbors

Social and Personality Psychology What determines our behavior? The situation or our personality? o Why do we help people? o Am I an extrovert or introvert?

Ex: 1. Familiarity breeds contempt or 2. The more you know someone, the more you like them Ex: 1. Birds of a feather flock together or 2. Opposites attract Clinical Psychology: Tries to understand and treat abnormalities in thought and behavior o What kind of therapy is most effective for people suffering from bipolar disorder? o How much anxiety is normal?

Hot Topics: Emotions (what role do they play in our everyday life?) Evolutionary psychology Cultural psychology (how do cultural values, language, institutions etc affect our behavior etc) Positive psychology (counterpoint to abnormal psychology) Neuroscience and imagining work

Major Philosophical issues: Free-Will vs Determinism: Are the causes of behavior knowable, and is behavior predictable? Mind-Body and Mind-Brain Pattern: How is experience related to the organ system that we call the brain? o What is consciousness? Nature vs nurture: How do differences in behavior relate to differences in heredity (genes) v. environment (parents, culture, resources) or an interaction of the two?

2/10/10 Scientific Methods in Psychology Scientific method harder to apply to concepts like love, but its still worth a try

Scientific Methods in Psychology The scientific method o What makes good science? Research methods in Psychology o Correlational o Experimental

What are the goals of Science? Description o What are the characteristics of the behavior? o EX: can look at different characteristics of love Prediction o How likely is it that the behavior will occur? o EX: How often does depression happen in the population? Do men or women experience it more? Explanation o What causes the behavior? (not just what we do, but why we do it?)

Ex: behaviorism (if I poke you, how do I respond)

Today: if I poke you, what do you think and how do you respond? Control o Can we make the behavior happen/not happen? o Ex: clinical psychology o Can be messy: in what situations is it okay to interfere? Ex: forcing autistic people to conform to our society

Theory vs. Hypothesis Theory broad and big o Based on broad observations/readings: explanation or model deduced from a great many observations and capable of making valid predictions o Ex: Freudian theory Hypothesis is more specific and falsifiable: testable prediction of what will happen under certain specific conditions (based on a theory) o if this, then that

What makes a good theory? Falsifiable o What evidence would count against the theory? o Can we test it? o You will encounter new challenges in your travels this weektoo vague to be falsifiable o On date, you will meet blank who will offer you blankyes, falsifiable Parsimony o Start with fewest assumptions o Consistency with other theories o Ex: Freudian theory: Id vs. ego; one has to win out. Why cant it be just one thing happening?

Freudian Theory: Not falsifiable o The unconscious mind is constantly producing sexual thoughts, which the conscious mind represses and denies o How can we falsify this? Not parsimonious o Assumes an unobservable unconscious driven be sexual, aggressive motives (no way to see/measure thiswhy do we need this?) o Doesnt fit with what we know of human cognition from other studies

Cognitive Association Theory (Conceptual Networks) Falsifiable o If two objects that are repeatedly paired with one another do not prime one another, this does not support the theory o Clear what supports and what refutes Parsimonious o Fairly simple explanation o Consistent with other theories of neural structure

The Scientific Method: 1. Form the theory/hypothesis 2. Test the hypothesis (Method) 3. Analyze the results Theory versus Measurement Operationalization: How we measure theoretical variables o Theoretical variable: intelligence IQ, GPA, reaction time o Theoretical Variable: Love Self-report, eye gaze, intrusive thoughts, time spent together, brain mapping, word recognition

Two ways to test a hypothesis Correlational method (different from correlational statistic) o Measure the correlation, or relationship between the two variables of interest without controlling them Experimental method o Manipulate one variable to measure its effect on the other variable

Correlational designs: Naturalistic: assess behavior in everyday life Observational: study variables that cant be manipulated (gender, ethnicity, culture) First step (just establishing that a relationship exists)

Advantages of experimental designs Random assignment Manipulate variable Control extraneous variables (reduces compounds) Identify causation

Experimental designs Independent variable (IV) o Variable that we manipulate Dependent variable (DV) o Variable that we measure to determine effects of the IV

Design a study Hypothesis: Psych knowledge is good for relationships o IV: psychology knowledge; DV: relationship health How will you measure this? o Knowledge: grade in class, Relationship health: number of friends (CORRELATIONAL) Correlational or experimental? Need a control group o Ex: a group of non-psych students

Central Tendency Mean, median, mode (Psych uses mean the most)

Variation Range: lowest and highest values in a group, or distribution of measurements Standard deviation: measurement of variation of values around the mean

Correlation coefficient A statistic (r) which estimates the relationship between two variables R can range from -1.00 to 1.00 o Strength: size of the relationship (how large is the number?) o Direction: The direction of the relationship (positive or negative?) Positive correlation: as one variable increases, so does the second variable (opposite is a negative, or inverse correlation)

2/15: Chapter 3 Biological Psychology: What are the components of the nervous system? How does the brain create mental processes and behavior? Important: any explanation/diagnosis needs to be reconcilable with how the brain/body work

Major philosophical issues Universality: assumption that all humans have same body and brain architecture to work with The mind-brain problem: How is experience related to the organ system that we call the brain? The mind-body problem: are mind and body (and brain and body) separate and distinct?

Measuring Brain Activity: Lesion studies (damage to the brain from natural/surgical causes) o Ex: Phineas Gage: had a stake going through his head/brain but could still perform everyday activities and had pretty good motor control Starts gambling, cant make decisions about short-term/long-term gains, starts making cruel jokes, etc. o Frontotemporal Degeneration: when part of the brain atrophies and died; similar behavior to Phineas Gage Neuroimaging (fMRI, etc) o Can take images of brain activity for normal brains, can focus on specific parts of brain Ex: sleep-deprived people are more activated in terms of negative feelings in certain area of the brain o PET Imagingtells us on a broad level what kind of (glucose) uptake is happening o EEGcap that measures electrical activation in cortex of brain (when youre experiencing activity, not where in brain) o Replication: multiple methods: lesion, behavioral, fMRI, ERPcombining everything Animal models o Ablation/Lesion (can take out part of a brain and monitor results) o Single-cell recordings (put electrodes in brain and monitor what happens in a single cell in the brain) Ex: could show a cat different stimuli and see when there is activity

Neurons: Types of neurons: o Sensory: from body to brain (help us sense whats going on) Ex: hunger, sick to stomach, sense of touch, smell o Motor: brain to body o Interneurons: in between Parts of a neuron: o Dendrites: get info from other neurons o Cell body: all the info gets collected and summed up o Axon: long noodly thing o Myelin sheath: covers axons and protects them (multiple sclerosis if the sheath breaks down) o Axon terminals (terminal buttons): where it ends and connects to other neurons

How it works: o There is a threshold level that must be reached in order for axon to fire Excitatory and inhibitory information is being given, and unless you reach that threshold, neuron wont fire Fires and connects to other neurons via synaptic gap Reaction within neuron is electrical: Communication across neurons is chemical Between neurons: the synapse o Neuron releases chemicals at the synaptic gap (neurotransmitters), and other neurons will pick that up (if it is right key for lock) This is how we get specificity (neurons can release different neurotransmitters to unlock specific neurons o Once neuron fires, it will release neurotransmitters UNTIL 1. Enzymes in synaptic gap can destroy neurotransmitter so it can no longer reach new neuron 2. Reuptake: if neurotransmitters dont get taken up by postsynaptic neuron, they go back to pre-synaptic neuron 3. Autoreceptor: when an autoreceptor on pre-synaptic neuron receives a neurotransmitter, it knows there are too many neurotransmitters and knows to slow process down

Drugs and Neurotransmitters: Agonists: facilitate neurons firing o Ex: with Parkinsons, neurons producing dopamine start breaking downcan intervene by slowing reuptake of dopamine, add something that looks like dopamine and fits in neuron receptors; give people a piece of dopamine which actually helps them to produce more LDOPAchemical building block that temporarily helps body produce more dopamine Antagonists: slow things down; get in the way; try to reduce a neuron from firing

Brain Anatomy Hindbrain (core)stuff we share with other vertebras Limbic systemgoes around brainstem; has other core functions common to mammals Cerebral cortexsquiggles around the brain (the thing that makes us human)

Hindbraintakes care of a lot of basic functions (breathing, balancing, waking and sleeping) Top of the brainstem o Pons o Cerebellumcontrols balance, coordinating motor movement o Medulla

Limbic Systemborder around hindbrain; parts that are somewhat automatic/unconscious Hypothalamushelps coordinate things within the body (ex: sensory inputs and autonomic systemgetting inputs and sending outputs) o Responding to things outside and inside of body o Controls body temp, blood glucose levels Hippocampusmemory oriented; connects to cortex o About building/storing/creating new memories o London taxi drivers have larger hippocampuses Amygdalascanning environment for threat o human faces register herelooking for threats o emotional memories are somewhat connected to amygdale (ex: if you drank bad milk one time and got sick, youll remember that whenever you see milksame true for tequila) Also important: (not important for test) o Thalamus o Basal ganglia

Amygdala Activation (Chiao study 2008) Responds to emotional faces Emotional differences? In-group vs. out-group differences? o In-group solicits more response with fear and neutral faces, but there is not as much of an effect for the happy/anger faces

Cerebral Cortex: takes care of things like language, complex decision making, future planning, vision and perceptual processes Localized (things happen in certain places) Lateralizedtwo generally symmetric halves to the brain; not necessarily the same in terms of function o Righty: language on left half of brain; creativity on right half of brain o L for language; R for special relations o Hemisphere specialization: brain damaged participants see different things depending on which half of their brain is damaged Contralateral control: what we see on left side is processed on right side of the brain and vice versa

Motor cortex (back end frontal lobe), visual cortex (back of occipital lobe), auditory cortex (top of temporal lobe), sensory cortex (front of parietal) Frontal lobe o Logic and reasoning, planning, socially appropriate aspects of emotions o Motor skills in motor cortex (back of lobe) Parietal Lobe o Pain, pressure, special abilities o Somatosensory cortex (front of lobe)sensory inputs More room is given to more sensitive areas of body Temporal Lobe o Hearing, memory o Auditory complex: top of lobe near motor and sensory cortexes Occipital Lobe o Visual processing o Visual cortex (back of lobe)

2/22/10 Sensory Systems Sensation and Perception: Sensation: conversion of energy from the environment(stimuli) into a pattern of response by the nervous system by receptor cells (also transduction) Perception: Organization, reorganization, contextualization and interpretation of patterns of neural responses Time, Newsweek, Psychology Today

Sensation/Transduction: KNOW BASIC PROCESSES AND HOW THEY WORK pressure waves in the air and in food mechanical force Smell: similar to taste Touch: temperature, pain, pressure; Vision: electromagnetic variation Taste: chemical molecules floating around Hearing: sensation a variation in air

Underlying Principles stimulus for us to process o o o o Absolute threshold: the minimum Changes from sense to sense Changes from context to context Varies from person to person Just noticeable difference (JND) The minimum amount of stimulus that needs to be added in order to perceive a change (the amount you start with is important) More you start with, the more you need to notice a change: a proportion Webers Law: As baseline intensity goes up, youll need more to change in order to notice Signal Detection Theory Hits, misses, correct rejections and false alarms

Vision: o Electromagnetic spectrum (350-700) Structures of the eye Energy goes through the pupil and the lens (which ends up turning the image upside down), hits the back part of the eye (retina but specifically the fovea) receptors fire and information goes into optic nerve, which connects to the brains visual cortex Optic nerve creates a blind spot Rods: 90-95% of retina; periphery of retina; respond to dim light, movement Cones: 5-10% of retina; located toward fovea; interpret color; perceive detail

o o o

Trichromatic theory: of response by three types of cones color vision depends on the relative rate

o purple/blue o o are coming at you green (and vice versa) Additive Color Mixing:

Short-wavelength cones: respond to Medium-wavelength cones: green Long-wavelength cones: orange/red You see white when all the wavelengths When we see red, were less likely to see

Red and green make yellow Light is being emitted Adding new wavelengths in

Subtractive Color Mixing: When we mix paint, more wavelengths are absorbed (subtracted) and color we see is based on reflected wavelength o Ex: you mix blue and yellow, see green (because that is the color that is reflected and not absorbed)

Opponent Process Theory paired opposites Certain classes of retinal ganglion cells are inhibited by one color (eg red) and excited by its opposite (green) We perceive color in terms of a system of

Senses: o o o o Why do we have two eyes? Depth perception; blind spot Monocular vision: have to rely on relative size, occlusion (one object is being blocked by another) Two ears? Helps for keeping balance; telling in which direction things are (works better for things in front of you than behind you) Two nostrils? One nostril is slower, stuffier than the other 1. Stimulus molecules attach to receptors

2. chemical reaction into action potentials 3. o

Receptors convert the energy of a

o o

The spatial and temporal pattern of nerve impulses represents the stimulus in some meaningful way Odorants vary in sorption Low: orange High: peppermint Nostrils alternate flow rates High flow-rate nostril sensitive to highsorption odorants Low flow-rate nostril sensitive to lowsorption odorants Result: we smell low- and high-sorption odorants at the same intensity Smellpheromones Substances which are secreted to the outside by an individual and received by a second individual of the same species, in which they release a specific reaction, for example, a definite behavior or a developmental process Often for sexual communication

One type of pheromone: o o o Products of the Major Histocompatibility complex (MHC) are important for immune system The more varied your MHC is, the better your immune system works Mice are very good at smelling and mating assortatively based on MHCthey can smell just one locus of difference and mate based on this discrimination

Stinky T-Shirt Study genetically typed The males wore t-shirts for two nights, washed with odorless soap, told to avoid doing smelly thingssmoking, drinking, sex Women sniffed and rated the t-shirts, 3 from MHC similar men, 3 from MHC dissimilar men, some sniffed control t-shirts (never worn) Male and female students were

Women not on birth control pill rated the MHC dissimilar t-shirts as smelling sexier and more pleasant, and said the smell reminded them of their past lovers Women on the pill preferred MHC similar men o More likely to be related to you, your own offspring (more willing to take care of you)

2/24/10: PERCEPTION cortex from a nerve pulse (?) o integrating, and interpreting sensory information o experience Monocular depth cues: look more detailed) something in front Linear perspective: (parallel lines recede into the distancelike with a railroad) o Ponzo illusion for example (two receding parallel lines, and two lines bisecting ittop line looks longer) Height in field Motion parallax (things that are further away seem to move more slowly) o How fast things move past our retina Interposition (occlusion)blocking by Relative size Texture gradient (things that are closer Monocular and binocular depth cues Gestalt psychology Laws of grouping Language effects on color perception Perception: process of organizing, An active processthe mind adds to Perception begins in the cortex Transduction: transformation of energy in

Gestalt Psychology (shape or form) Focus is on overall patterns of an image

 parts o

The whole is different than the sum of its Just because you understand people as individuals doesnt mean youll understand how theyll act as a group Powerful role of assumptions/expectations Perceiver as active o Laws of grouping law of proximity : ( ) things that are close to each other we tend to group as together law of similarity: (rows of alternating circles and triangles) group similarly shaped items together law of good continuation: you tend to see lines as continuing as if its an extension of what you see in motion principle of illusory contours: tend to make shapes out of angles of others (see book) can also have to do with occlusion and closure principle of closure: tend to finish off lines to make known shapes principle of figure and ground: brain is constantly focusing on foreground and moving everything to the background good figure (simplicity):

Evolutionary Stages of Color Categorization black and white Language and Color Perception o o Two competing arguments Sunlight damages lens of the eye, causing yellowing. This yellowing makes it harder to distinguish blue from green Language structures shape our perceptual processes then red then yellow/green then green/yellow then blue then brown then purple/rose/orange/grey languages that have two words for color:

Kay and Kempton (1984)

 green distintion)

English vs Tamahumara (who has no blueShowed a color chip with colors ranging from green to blue (equidistant on a color schemeonly our perception that makes them seem closer)

Language and Color processes (boundary effects) for a color, we are able to see the distinctions 3/1/10 Learning and Conditioning: Dogs, Cats, Rats and Pigeons Learning: persons future behavior o o Classical Conditioning (Pavlov) o outside) o straightforward o naturally happens (on the inside) o o o o o USUR Conditioned stimulus (CS) Learned stimulus CS + US Conditioned Response (CR) Response to learned stimulus CSCR Unconditional response (UR) Natural response to something that Pretty biological and pretty Unconditioned stimulus (US) Thing that naturally happens (on the Behaviorist approaches Classical conditioning Operant conditioning Observational learning Process by which experience alters a However, even if we dont have a name Language structures shape our perceptual

 to predict what will happen in the environment o response (pain teachers you that) o response o that will result (what bell signals, for example)

In classical conditioning, you are learning Running away from fire is a conditioned Fire bell goes off fear is the conditional Physiological responses Usually something painful or pleasurable Classical conditioning is about signaling

Why does conditioning occur? o Temporal contiguity Different temporal relationships Forward pairing (CS then US) This works the best because the bell serves as an indicator (cause an effect) Simultaneous pairing of CS and US Backward paring (US then CS) Contingency and prediction

Classical Conditioning o

Stimulus generalization When a slightly different stimulus still produces the same response Stimulus discrimination the ability to respond to certain stimuli but not others (based on which stimuli produce results) Little Albert John Watson as father of behaviorism (along with Pavlov) Watson was charismatic, pushed behaviorism into popular media

o o

Phobia: not always an example of classical conditioning o Learned phobias can happen very quickly (one-trial learning), like with food poisoning Biological preparedness: its much easier for us to learn to fear things like snakes, spiders, rats, than things like electrical outlets o Ancestors that feared these things were more likely to survive and pass this down o Preparedness, not necessarily that were born afraid (just more easier learned)

Operant Conditioning (how you can operate on/manipulate the environment) anything to make fire burn, make loud sound, etc. o Law of effect In operant conditioning, you do something to the environment, and see whether or not it creates the effect you want (thereby controlling whether or not youll do it again) Satisfying effect: more likely to occur again in that situation reinforcement Discomforting effect: less likely to occur again in that situation Punishment In classical conditioning, you dont do

Reinforcement Schedule o o o o have a chance at winning Ratio vs interval schedules Fixed vs. Variable Fixed: happens every time Variable: it varies Ratio: how often the behavior is exhibited Interval: has to do with time passing Variable ratio Ex: Every time you buy a lottery ticket, you

o you have to do to get the money varies) o o o o (varies) o o up every day o o Summary o o o o actions o o

EX: You do chores and you get paid )what Fixed interval EX: Workers get paid by the hour EX: Tests come every four weeks Variable interval Ex: get paid every 3-8 days EX: How long it takes to get a test back EX: pop quizzes EX: six people get their homework taken Students study best for thisyou always have to be prepared (have to exhibit the behavior all the time) Fixed ratio EX: test comes every five chapters

Classical Learn which events predict other events Contingencies Preparedness Operant Learn about consequences of ones Sensitive to schedules of reinforcement Shaping via successive approximations You reward the animal/human for behavior approximating what you want, hoping that it will eventually lead to the desired behavior Sense of preparedness involved (cant teach any animal to do anythingthey have to have a tendency to do that anyway) Similarly, its hard to teach animals not to certain things (like raccoon with rubbing)

Bobo study

Children watched videos, and then were left alone to see if they could learn behavior of violently playing with Bobo without being reinforced Study suggests that reinforcement not necessary for learning

3/3/10 Multiple choice, some short answer, maybe one essay o Multiple choice about discrimination of concepts o Short answer is more definitional (explain a theory, talk about the different ways in which memory can occur); compare these two topics o Essay: apply a concept youve learned to something new o One hour fifteen minutes Memory and Memory Applications remember certain things, add certain things) Memory o o Memory processes Encoding (when we perceive outside information and neurochemical transformation in brain) Storage (ongoing process; has to do with how we retain memory once it has been encoded) o Either short-term or long-term o Ex: studying is a process to store memories Retrieval (process of retrieving something from memory) Memory errors can happen at all stages Memory processes Modal memory model Application How to improve your studying Eyewitness testimony Memory is an interpretive process (only

o o

Encoding: can exaggerate things, misinterpret, memories could get mixed together Storage: HM had hippocampus removed; lost long-term memory; something can interfere and get in the way of storing something long-term Retrieval: amnesia, tip of the tongue phenomenon, hard to remember something you havent used recently

Modal Memory Model Sensory registersSTMLTM Sensory registers: dont last long in memory (can recall some of what just happened, but then no more) STM (working memory): can pull things from your long-term memory temporarily in your short-term memory o If youre not repeatedly accessing the information, short-term memory is about 30 seconds o If you rehearse material, can hold it in short-term memory longer o 5+-2 units (chunks) for short-term memory The bigger the chunks, the fewer you can remember LTM: supposedly there forever (more a matter of whether you can bring it up); supposedly limitless Explicit memories o Semantic memory o Episodic memory Implicit memories

Basis for STM-LTM distinction things in a list o memory Capacity duration Primacy effect: likely to remember first Rehearsal; getting into your long term

 recent things in a list o time to rehearse o rehearse o Modal Memory or lose much of it

Recency effect: likely to remember most Short-term memory The middle things in a listdont have Interference, or not enough time to In LTM, but less rehearsed

As we process information, we filter, alter Sensory memoryshort-term memorylong-term storageretrieval from long-term memory Sensory memory: the senses momentarily register amazing detail Short-term memory: a few items are both noticed and encoded Long-term storage: some items are altered or lost Retrieval: depending on interference, retrieval cues, moods, and motives, some things get retrieved, some dont Short-term: differences on neuron level from long-term

Study Skills o help you) Deep processing o Make connections meaningful (more context/stories you can associate with what you want to remember) Number of connections and types of associations are important for memory Mnemonics o Ex: King Philip Came Over For Good Soup, Every Good Boy Does Fine Timing o Study in small chunks o Sleep Encoding specificity Ex: word association (in a way that will

Cram with the details you dont know as well; formulas that you know youre gonna need

Things that dont help drunk) o o o For this class o o Repetition Connections Encode multiple ways Process deeplyapply it Self-Test Review again Test again State-dependent memory (like studying Small effect size Not a practical effect Emotional Arousal and Memory Ex: Where were you on 9/11

VOCAB CHAPTERS 1-3

Psychological science: the study of mind, brain, and behavior Mind/body problem: a fundamental psychological issue that considers whether mind and body are separate and distinct or whether the mind is simply the subjective experience of the physical brain Introspection: a systematic examination of subjective mental experiences that requires people to inspect and report on the content of their thoughts Structuralism: an approach to psychology based on the idea that conscious experience can be broken down into its basic underlying components or elements Functionalism: an approach to psychology concerned with the adaptive purpose, or function, of mind and behavior Gestalt theory: a theory based on the idea that the whole of personal experience is different from simply the sum of its constituent elements Psychoanalysis: a method developed by Freud that attempts to bring the contents of the unconscious into conscious awareness so that conflicts can be revealed Behavioralism: a psychological approach that emphasizes the role of environmental forces in producing behavior

Cognitive psychology: the study of how people think, learn and remember Social psychology: the study of group dynamics in relation to psychological processes Theory: a model of interconnected ideas and concepts that explains what is observed and makes predictions about future events Hypothesis: a specific prediction of what should be observed in the world if a theory is correct Naturalistic observation: a passive descriptive study in which observers do not change or alter ongoing behavior Participant observation: a type of descriptive study in which the researcher is actively involved in the situation Longitudinal studies: involve observing and classifying developmental changes that occur in the same people over time Descriptive studies: involve observing and classifying behavior, either by naturalistic observation or participant observation Cross-sectional studies: involve observing and classifying developmental changes that occur in different groups of people at the same time Experimental expectancy effect: actual change in the behavior of the people or animals being observed that is due to observer bias Correlational study: research method that examines how variables are naturally related int eh real world, without any attempt by the researcher to alter them Directionality problem: when researchers find a relationship between two variables in a correlational study, they cannot determine which variable may have caused changes in the other variable Third variable problem: when the experimenter cannot directly manipulate the independent variable and therefore cannot be confident that another, unmeasured variable is not the actual cause of differences in the dependent variable Confound: anything that affects a dependent variable and may unintentionally vary between the experimental conditions of a study Selection bias: when participants in different groups in an experiment differ systematically Meta-analysis: a study of studies that combines the findings of multiple studies to arrive at a conclusion Reactivity: when the knowledge that one is being observed alters the behavior being observed

Self-report method: a method of data collection in which people are asked to provide information about themselves, such as in questionnaires or surveys Interactive method: involves asking questions of participants, who then respond in any way they feel is appropriate (open-ended) or select from among a fixed number of options (multiple choice) Response performance: a research method in which researchers quantify perceptual or cognitive processes in response to a specific stimulus Electroencephalogram (EEG): a device that measures electrical activity in the brain PET: a method of brain imaging that assesses metabolic activity by using a radioactive substance injected into the bloodstream MRI: a method of brain imaging that produces high-quality images of the brain fMRI: imaging technique used to examine changes in the activity of the working human brain TMS: use of strong magnets to briefly interrupt normal brain activity as a way to study brain regions IRBs: review boards to make sure proposed research is humane Heritability: a statistical estimate of the variation, caused by differences in heredity, in a trait within a population Receptors: in neurons, specialized protein molecules, on the postsynaptic membrane, that neurotransmitters bind to after passing across the synaptic cleft Reuptake: the process whereby a neurotransmitter is taken back into the presynaptic terminal buttons, thereby stopping its activity