Free WACE Year 11 Psychology Flashcard Review
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What are the two structural divisions of the nervous system?
The central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system (somatic and autonomic).
What does the sympathetic nervous system do?
Prepares the body for action when a threat is perceived: increases heart rate and breathing, dilates pupils, releases glucose and slows digestion.
What are the two roles of the somatic nervous system?
Sensory: carries information from receptors to the CNS. Motor: carries messages from the CNS to skeletal muscles for voluntary movement.
In which direction does a message travel through a neuron?
Dendrites → soma → axon → axon terminals.
Why is neural transmission called electro-chemical?
The message is electrical within the neuron and chemical (neurotransmitter) across the synapse between neurons.
What is the function of interneurons?
They are found within the CNS and connect sensory neurons to motor neurons, processing information between them.
Medulla vs cerebellum
Medulla: vital functions such as heart rate and breathing. Cerebellum: coordination, balance, posture and motor learning. Both are in the hindbrain.
What does the reticular formation do?
Contributes to attention (focusing on important stimuli) and regulates arousal, alertness and the sleep–wake cycle.
Thalamus vs hypothalamus
Thalamus: relays sensory information (except smell) to the cortex. Hypothalamus: maintains homeostasis (temperature, hunger, thirst) and controls the pituitary gland.
What did Sperry's split-brain research show?
The corpus callosum transfers information between hemispheres; with it cut, information shown only to the right hemisphere cannot be named because speech is usually in the left hemisphere.
Name the primary cortex in each lobe.
Frontal: primary motor cortex. Parietal: primary sensory (somatosensory) cortex. Temporal: primary auditory cortex. Occipital: primary visual cortex.
EEG vs fMRI
EEG: electrical activity, excellent temporal but poor spatial resolution. fMRI: blood-oxygen changes, good spatial but slower temporal resolution.
List the six lifespan stages in order.
Infancy, childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle age, older age.
Gross vs fine motor skills
Gross: large muscle movements such as walking. Fine: small, precise movements such as writing.
Sequence the stages of developmental plasticity.
Proliferation → migration → synaptogenesis → synaptic pruning → myelination.
Why do adolescents often take more risks?
The amygdala is relatively mature and reactive while the pre-frontal cortex, which supports planning and impulse control, is still developing.
What is disequilibrium in Piaget's theory?
An uncomfortable mismatch between existing schemas and new information, which motivates accommodation.
Name Piaget's four stages and one key change for each.
Sensorimotor: object permanence. Pre-operational: symbolic thinking. Concrete operational: conservation. Formal operational: abstract thinking.
What does the three mountains task test?
Egocentrism: whether a child can identify the view of a doll positioned elsewhere rather than choosing their own view.
What does the pendulum problem show?
Formal operational thinking: systematically changing one variable at a time to find that string length determines the swing rate.