Chapter 1 Key Terms Physiological explanation deals with the machinery of the body relates a behavior to the activity of the brain or organ that it lights up i e the chemical reactions that enable hormones to influence brain activity and the routes by which brain activity controls muscle contractions Ontogenetic explanation describes how a structure or behavior develops including the influence of genes nutrition experiences and their interactions ontogenetic comes from Greek root meaning origin i e the ability of a baby male bird to learn its song from adult male birds is able to be developed due to certain set of genes and the opportunity to hear the appropriate song Evolutionary explanation reconstructs the evolutionary history of a structure or behavior i e human goose bumps evolved inherited because ancestors had enough hair for the behavior to be useful Functional explanation describes why a structure or behavior evolved as it did i e when a cat gets scared its hair erects making that cat look bigger and more intimidating Mind body mind brain problem trying to determine thhe relationship between the mental mind and the physical brain Dualism the belief that there are different kinds of substances that exist independently most common belief among nonscientists rejected by most neuroscientists Monoism the belief that the universe is only comprised of one type of substance Materialism everything that exists Is physical by nature Mentalism only the mind truly exists Identity position mental processes and some brain processes are the same but described in different terms Solipsism I alone exist everyone else is just a robot or like characters in a dream many find it hard to believe but hard to refute also Problem of other minds the difficulty of knowing whether other people or animals have conscious experiences Hard problem concerns why and how any kind of brain activity is associated with consciousness Genes the basic units of heredity that maintain their structural identity from one generation to another and come in pairs Chromosomes strands of genes and come in pairs Deoxyribonucleic Acid DNA double stranded molecule that the chromosome and therefore gene are a portion of Ribonucleic Acid RNA a single stranded chemical that can serve as a template model for the synthesis of proteins Enzymes biological catalysts that regulate chemical reactions in the body Homozygous gene an identical pair of genes on the two chromosomes Heterozygous gene an unmatched pair of genes on the two chromosomes Dominant gene genes that show a strong effect in either the homozygous or heterozygous condition Recessive gene genes that show its effect only in the homozygous condition Sex linked genes genes located on the sex chromosomes present in both sexes but mainly have an effect on one sex Autosomal genes all other genes except sex linked genes X Y how sex chromosomes are designated females have two X chromosomes XX males have an X and a Y chromosome XY Monozygotic from one egg identical twins but can be misleading Dizygotic fraternal from two eggs Heritability refers to how much characteristics depend on genetic differences Multiplier effect genes or prenatal influence increase of some tendency environment that facilitates Phenylketonuria PKU a genetic inability to metabolize the aminol acid phenylalanine Evolution change in the frequency of various genes in a population over generations regardless if helpful or harmful to the species Artificial selection choosing individuals with desired traits and making them parents of the next generation Lamarckian evolution The use or disuse of some structure or behavior causes an increase or decrease in that behavior Fitness the number of copies of one s genes that endure in later generations Altruistic behavior a behavior that benefits someone other than the actor hard to find outside humans Reciprocal altruism idea that individuals help those that will return the favor Kin selection selection for a gene that benefit s the individual s relatives Group selection altruistic groups survive better than less cooperative ones Key Points Understand and be able to answer conceptual or factual questions about the biological explanations of behavior o Physiological explanation deals with the machinery of the body relates a behavior to the activity of the rain or organ that it lights up i e the chemical reactions that enable hormones to influence brain activity and the routes by which brain activity controls muscle contractions o Ontogenetic explanation describes how a structure or behavior develops including the influence of genes nutrition experiences and their interactions ontogenetic comes from Greek root meaning origin i e the ability of a baby male bird to learn its song from adult male birds is able to be developed due to certain set of genes and the opportunity to hear the appropriate song o Evolutionary explanation reconstructs the evolutionary history of a structure or behavior i e human goose bumps evolved inherited because ancestors had enough hair for the behavior to be useful o Functional explanation describes why a structure or behavior evolved as it did i e when a cat gets scared its hair erects making that cat look bigger and more intimidating The mind brain mind body problem is defined as trying to determine the relationship between the mental mind and the physical brain Know the difference between dualism Descartes and most non scientists and monism most neuroscientists For monism understand what is meant by identity position o Dualism the belief that there are different kinds of substances that exist independently most common belief among nonscientists rejected by most neuroscientists o Monoism the belief that the universe is only comprised of one type of substance Materialism everything that exists Is physical by nature Mentalism only the mind truly exists Identity position mental processes and some brain processes are the same but described in different terms Know the difference between DNA and RNA and the difference between chromosomes and genes and know the difference between heterozygous different and homozygous same and what that means for dominant vs recessive genes o Deoxyribonucleic Acid DNA double stranded molecule that the chromosome and therefore gene are a portion of o Ribonucleic Acid RNA a single stranded chemical that can serve as a template model for the synthesis of proteins o Genes the basic units of heredity that maintain their
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