AAMC Official Content List for the MCAT 2015 Psych/Soc

Topics: 6B
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1. attention refers to concentrating on one aspect of 16. circular ...

the sensory environment, sensorium reactions (S
2. selective focusing on one part of the sensorium phase)
attention while ignoring other stimuli, acts as filter 17. egocentrism inability to imagine what other person may
3. cocktail party while engaged in convo/paying attention, think or feel
phenomenon and you perceive that your name is being 18. centration tendency to focus on only one aspect of
called phenomenon, inability to understand
4. divided ability to perform multiple tasks at the conservation (go for slices of pizza vs.
attention same time quantity)

5. controlled, most new or complex tasks require this 19. concrete 7-11, understand conservation, consider
effortful type of undivided attention operational perspectives of others, engage in logical
processing thought, can't think abstractly

6. automatic familiar or routine tasks, permits brain to 20. formal 11+, think logically about abstract ideas,
processing focus on other tasks with divided attention operational ability to reason about abstract
concepts/problem solve
7. cognition looks at how our brains process and react
to the incredible info overload presented 21. symbolic refers to ability to play pretend, make
to us by the world thinking believe, imagination

8. information four key components: 22. adaptation new info processed via this, two
processing 1. thinking requires sensation, encoding, complementary processes: assimilation,
model and storage of stimuli accomodation
2. stimuli must be analyzed by brain (rather 23. schema organized patterns of behavior and
than responded to automatically) to be thought, include concept (what is a dog?),
useful in decision making behavior, seq. of events
3. decision made in 1 situation can be 24. assimilation process of classifying new info in existing
extrapolated/adjusted for new problems schema
(situational modification)
4. problem solving depend not only on 25. accommodation process by which existing schemata are
persons cognitive level but also modified to encompass new info
context/complexity of problem 26. role of culture 1. Sociocultural perspective
9. cognitive development of ability to think and solve in cognitive 2. Culture is transmitted to children by
developement problems across the lifespan development their parents
(3) 3. Children's intellectual processes are
10. Piaget's Stages 4 stages: SPCF developed to handle problems important
of Cognitive to their surroundings
Development
27. Sociocultural How we develop, particularly how we
11. sensorimotor first stage, 0-2 yrs, learn to manipulate his perspective learn and think, is primarily a function of
or her environment in order to meet the social and cultural environment in
physical needs, circular rxns start, which an individual is reared
development of object permanence
28. Lev Vygotsky says engine driving cog dev is child's
12. circular repetitive behaviors, primary is body internalization of her culture
reactions (S movement, secondary is focused on
phase) something outside the body 29. fluid consists of problem solving skills, peaks in
intelligence early adulthood
13. object understanding that objects continue to
permanence exist even when out of view, marks 30. crystallized related to use of learned skills and
beginning of representational thought intelligence knowledge, peaks in middle adulthood

14. representational child has begun to create mental 31. dementia begins with impaired memory, then
thought representations of external objects/events impaired judgement and confusion,
personality changes are common, loss of
15. preoperational 2-7, symbolic thinking, egocentrism, cog fxn, memory loss, atrophy of brain
centration
32. delirium rapid fluctuation in cog fxn that is
reversible and caused by medical causes
33. heredity factors on 1. Certain genetic defects have a 49. multiple intelligences seven defined types: linguistic,
cog dev (3) decrease in intelligence logical/math, musical,
2. Twin studies show similar IQs visual/spatial, bodily/kinesthetic,
3. Adopted children correlate more interpersonal, intrapersonal
with their biological parents' IQ 50. intelligence quotient used to measure intelligence,
34. Environmental 1. Severe malnutrition during pre/post stanford binet IQ test. mental
effect on cognitive natal decreases cognitive development age/chronlogical age * 100, gifted
development (3) 2. Toxins (drugs/alcohol) decrease is 130+
cognitive developement 51. 4 theories of General Intelligence
3. Children raised in stimulating home intelligence Primary Mental Abilities
environment have increase in cognitive Multiple Intelligences
development Triarchic Theory
35. Biological factors 1. Sense organs 52. General Intelligence Intelligence is a general cognitive
affecting cognitive 2. Heredity ability that could be measured
development (4) 3. Intelligence and numerically expressed
4. Maturation
53. 3 factors composing 1. Analytical intelligence
36. mental set 1st barrier to problem solving, potential triarchic theory 2. Creative intelligence
solutions may be derived from a this, 3. Practical intelligence
tendency to approach problems in the
same way 54. Analytical intelligence Component of triarchic theory
involved in problem solving
37. functional 2nd barrier of problem solving, inability
fixedness to consider how to use an object in a 55. Creative intelligence Component of triarchic theory
nontraditional way involving the ability to deal with
new situations using past
38. confirmation bias 3rd, preferring info that confirms experience and current skills
preexisting positions or beliefs while
ignoring contradictory evidence 56. Practical intelligence Component of triarchic theory
referring to the ability to adapt to
39. trial-and-error less sophisticated, various solns tried a changing environment
until one works
57. Heredity and 1. Genetic markers on
40. algorithms formula/procedure for solving certain Intelligence (3) chromosomes 4, 6, 12
type of problem 2. Identical twins have more
41. deductive top down, starts from general rules, similar IQ's than fraternal twins
reasoning draws conclusions from info given 3. Biological parents' IQ is more
42. inductive bottom up, seeks to create a theory via predictive of a child's IQ than the
reasoning generalizations (specific instances and adoptive parents
then conclusion) 58. 5 environmental Family
43. heuristics simplified principles used to make influences on Ethnicity
decision, rules of thumb intelligence Culture
Socio economic status
44. availability 4th, used when we try to decide how Gender
heuristics likely something is, we make decisions
based on how easily similar instances 59. Significantly Mental retardation
can be imagined subaverage intellectual
functioning that occurs
45. representativeness 5th, involves categorizing items on the with related limitations
heuristic basis of whether they fit in prototypical,
stereotypical, or representative image 60. Causes of mental 1/3 have biological cause
of that category retardation 2/3 have familial retardation

46. base rate fallacy using prototypical/stereotypical factors 61. 4 States of Alertness
while ignoring actual numerical info Consciousness Sleep
Hypnosis
47. disconfirmation evidence obtained from testing Meditation
principle demonstrated that the solution does
not work 62. alertness awake and able to think,
maintained by pre frontal cortex
48. overconfidence tendency to erroneously interpret one's and reticular formation, beta
decisions, knowledge, beliefs as waves
infallible
63. sleep unconscious state, studied by recording 82. sleep disorders two types: dyssomnias &
EEG parasomnias, usually occur in
64. beta waves high freq, person is alert/attending to NREM
task, neurons are randomly firing 83. dyssomnias disorders that make it difficult
65. alpha waves awake but relaxing with eyes closed, to fall asleep, stay asleep,
slower, more synchronized avoid sleep: insomnia,
narcolepsy, sleep apnea
66. stage 1 theta waves, irregular wave forms,
slower freq, higher voltages 84. parasomnias abnormal movements or
behaviors during sleep: night
67. stage 2 sleep spindles, k complexes terrors & sleepwalking
68. stage 3 & 4 slow wave sleep, eeg activity slow, only 85. insomnia difficulty falling asleep/staying
few sleep waves per second, high asleep, most common, related
voltage, low freq delta waves. 1-4 are to anxiety, depression,
NREM, declarative memory medications, disruptions of
consolidation sleep cycles/circadian rhythms
69. REM sleep arousal levels reach wakefulness, 86. narcolepsy characterized by lack of
muscles paralyzed, dreaming occurs, voluntary control over the
memory consolidation, procedural onset of sleep
memory consolidation
87. cataplexy loss of muscle control and
70. sleep cycle refers to single complete progression sudden intrusion of REM sleep
through sleep stages during waking hours caused by
71. changes in sleep over lifespan, length of sleep cycle emotional trigger
cycle (2) increases from 50 min in children to 90 88. sleep paralysis sensation of being unable to
minutes in adults move while being awake
children spend more time in SWS
89. hypnagogic/hypnopmpic hallucinations when going to
72. circadian rhythms interally generated rhythms that hallucinations sleep or awakening
regulate daily cycle of waking and
sleeping, approx. 24 hours 90. sleep apnea inability to breathe during
sleep: obstructive - physical
73. melatonin seratonin derived hormone from pineal blockage in pharynx/trachea,
gland, retina connected to pineal gland central: occurs whn brain fails
that triggers release to send signals to diaphragm
74. cortisol steroid hormone in adrenal cortex, to breathe
related to sleep wake cycle, 91. night terrors periods of intense anxiety that
contributes to wakefulness occur during SWS, difficult to
75. corticotropin released from hypothalamus bc of wake from/don't remember in
releasing factor increasing light, causes release of morning
adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) 92. sleepwalking/sonambulism SWS, no recollection of event
76. adenocorticotropic anterior pituitary, stimulates cortisol 93. sleep deprivation little as one night w/o sleep or
hormone (ACTH) release multiple nights with poor
77. dreaming 75% occurs in REM (longer/vivid), quality/short sleep
mental experience starts to shift to 94. REM rebound earlier onset and greater
dreamlike state after stage 2 duration of REM sleep
78. activation dreams are caused by widespread, compared to normal after
synthesis theory random activation of neural circuitry deprivation
79. problem-solving dreams are way to solve problems 95. hypnosis state in which a person
dream theory while sleeping appears to be in control of his
80. cognitive process merely sleeping counterpart of stream or her normal functions, but
dream theory of consciousness highly suggestible state

81. neurocognitive seek to unify bio and psych
models of perspectives of dreaming by
dreaming correlating the subject, cognitive
experience of dreaming with
measurable physiological changes
96. hypnotic induction hypnotists seeks to relax the
subject and increase the
subject's level of concentration
97. meditation usually involves quieting of mind for
spiritual, religious, or relayed to stress
reduction reasons, stage 1 sleep waves -
theta/alpha
98. depressants reduce nervous system activity, resulting
in same sense of relaxation and reduced
anxiety
99. alcohol increases GABA receptor (Cl channel
that causes hyperpolarization of the
membrane) causes brain inhibition,
diminished arousal. increase dopamine
level
100. alcohol myopia short sighted view of the world, inability
to recognize consequences of actions
101. Wernicker- caused by deficiency of thiamine (b1),
Korsakoff memory impairment, changes in mental
Syndrome status, loss of motor skills, can be
consequence of alc. marked by
retrograde and anterograde amnesia,
confabulation
102. barbiturates historically used as anxiety reducing and
sleep meds (amobarbital,
phenobarabital) replaced by
benzodiazepines, both increase GABA
activity (relaxation), highly addictive
110. hallucinogens LSD, complex interaction between
various NTs esp. serotonin. distortions of
reality and fantasy, enhacement of
sensory experience, introspection, inc
heart rate/BP, dilation of pupils, sweating,
inc body temp
111. marijuana active chemical is THC, act on
cannabinoid receptors, glycine receps,
opioid receps, THC increases GABA
activity and dopamine
112. drug addiction related to mesolimbic reward pathway -
one of 4 dopaminergic pathways.
113. mesolimbic includes nucleus accumbens (NAc),
reward pathway ventral tegmental area (VTA), and
connection between them is medial
forebrain bundle (MFB). usually for
motivation/emotional response but also
positive reinforcement for drug use
114. language fundamental to creation of communities,
communication
115. phonology actual sound of language
116. phonemes speech sounds in english (40)
117. categorical ability to make distinction between what
distinction different speech sounds represent

103. benzodiazepines replace barbiturates, less prone to OD 118. morphology refers to structure of word
(alprazolam, lorazepam, diazepam, 119. morphemes work building blocks that connote a
clonazepam) meaning
104. stimulants causes increase in arousal in nervous 120. semantics refers to association of meaning with a
system, increase freq of action potentials word
105. amphetamines increased arousal by increasing release 121. syntax refers to how words are put together to
of dopamine, NE, serotonin at synapse, form sentences
decrease reuptake. reduction in appetite,
122. pragmatics refers to dependence of language on
decreased need for sleep, inc heart
context and pre existing knowledge
rate/BP, euphoria, being on edge
(hypervigilance), anxiety, delusions of 123. prosody the rhythm, cadence, and inflection of
grandeur, paranoia voices, affects pragmatics

106. cocaine coca plant, purified from leaves or 124. timeline of 9-12mo: babbling
created synthetically. dec. reuptake of language 12-18mo: one word/month
dopa, NE, serotpnin by diff mechanism, acquistion 18-20mo: explosion of lang, combining
anesthetic/vasoconstrictive props. crack 2-3yrs: longer sentences
is smoking form 5 yrss: lang rules mastered

107. ecstasy (MDMA) hallucinogen combined with 125. errors of growth child applies grammatical rule in situation
amphetamine, inc heart rate, BP, blurry where it doesn't apply: runned
vision, sweating, nausea, hyperthermia, 126. Types of nativist (bio)
euphoria, alertness, sense of well language learning (behaviorist)
being/connectedness development interactionist (social)
108. opium natural forms are opiates (morphine, theories (3)
codeine), semisynthetic derivatives are 127. nativist theory Chomsky, advocates for existence of
opioids (oxycodone, hydrocodone, some innate capacity for lang
heroin) decreased rxn to pain and sense 128. transformational syntactic transformations, aka changes in
of euphoria grammar word order that retain same meaning
109. heroin body metabolizes it to morphine
129. language innate ability for lang, theoretical pway in 147. visual storing how information looks
acquistion brain that allows infants to absorb/process encoding
device lang rules 148. acoustic store the way it sounds
130. critical period for lang acquisition: 2yrs-puberty encoding
131. sensitive time when environmental input as maximal 149. semantic put it into meaningful context
period effect on development of ability. for lang: encoding
onset of puberty 150. self we best recall info when we put it into the
132. learning Skinner, lang acquisition by operant reference context of our own lives
theory conditioning phenomenon
133. reinforcement parents/caregivers repeat and reinforce 151. maintenance repetition of info to keep it within working
(in regards to sounds that sound most like the language rehearsal mem or store it into short term then long
LA) spoken by the parents/infants see that some term mem
sounds have little value bc not reinforced 152. mnemonics acronyms/rhyming phrases that provide vivid
134. social lang dev focuses on interplay between organization of info we are trying to
interactionist biological and social processes. driven by remember
theory child's desire to communicate and behave 153. method of involves associating each item in the list with
in social manner. allows for brain dev in loci location along a route through a building
acquisition of language that is already memorized
135. Whorfian linguistic relativity hypothesis: suggests that 154. peg-word associates numbers with items that rhyme
hypothesis our perception of reality is determined by with or resemble the numbers
the content of language
155. chunking involves taking individual elements of large
ex. Inuit ppl have many words for types of
list and grouping them together into groups
snow and we do not, so they are better at
of elements with related meaning
discriminating differences between snow
156. sensory most fleeting, first kind includes iconic and
136. Broca's area located in the inferior frontal gyrus of
memory echoic
frontal lobe, left hemi, controls motor fxn of
speech via cxns with motor cortex 157. iconic visual
memory
137. Wernicke's located in superior temporal gyrus of temp
area lobe, left hemi, responsible for lang 158. echoic AUDITORY
comprehension. memory
138. arcuate connects Broca's and Wernicke's 159. short-term fades quickly, over course of 30 sec without
fasciculus memory rehearsal
139. aphasia deficit in lang production or comprehension 160. 7 +/- 2 rule capacity of short term memory is approx. 7
items
140. Broca's speech comprehension intact, but
(expressive) reduced/absent ability to produce spoken 161. working closely related to short-term memory,
aphasia lang memory enables us to keep a few pieces of info in
consciousness simultaneously and manipulate
141. Wernicke's motor production/fluency of speech
that info. one must integrate short term mem,
(receptive) retained, but comprehension is lost
attention and exec fxn to do this
aphasia
162. long-term w/ enough rehearsal, info moves from short
142. conduction if arcuate fasiculus is affected, patient can't
memory to long term mem. limitless warehouse for
aphasia repeat something that has been said
knowledge that we are able to recall on
143. memory knowledge that we accumulate over our demand
lifetime
163. elaborative closely tied to self reference effect, ideas
144. encoding process of putting new info into memory rehearsal that relate to our own lives are more likely to
145. automatic info gained without effort get in LTM
processing
(Memory)
146. controlled when one actively works to gain info
(effortful)
processing
(memory)
164. implicit consists of skills and 180. Alzheimer's degenerative brain disorder thought to be
(nondeclarative/procedural) conditioned responses. disease linked to a loss of acetylcholine in neurons
memory unconsciousretrie that link to hippocampus. neurofibrillary
165. explicit (declarative) mems that require conscious tangles/beta amyloid plaques. retrograde
memory recall, two parts: semantic, 181. sundowing increase in dysfunction in late
episodic afternoon/evening
166. semantic memory facts that we know 182. retrograde loss of previous formed memories
167. episodic memory experiences amnesia
183. anterograde inability to form new memories
168. retrieval process of demonstrating
amnesia
that something that has been
learned has been retained 184. confabulation process of creating vivid but fabricated
memories
169. recall retrieval and statement of
previously learned info 185. agnosia loss of ability to recognize objects, people,
or sounds
170. recognition process of identifying a
piece of info that was 186. decay often memories simply lost naturally over
previously learned, easier time as neurochemical trace of STM fades
than recall 187. interference retrieval error caused by existence of other
171. relearning demonstrates that info has info
been stored in LTM 188. proactive old info interfering with new learning
172. spacing effect longer amt of time between interference
session of relearning, the 189. retroactive new info causes forgetting of old info
greater the retention interference
173. semantic network brain idea organization; 190. aging doesn't lead to significant memory loss.
concepts linked together semantically meaningful info still strong in
based on similar meaning elderly.
174. spreading activation one node of semantic 191. prospective remembering to perform a task at some
network activated, the other memory point in the future, intact with age. but time
linked concepts around it are based declines
also unconsciously activated
192. false memories that are fabricated and did not
175. priming recall is aided by first being memories occur
presented a word or phrase
193. misinformation how outside sources effect memory,
that is close to the desire
effect misinfo can alter recall/how you remember
semantic memory
194. source involving confusion between semantic and
176. context effects common retrieval cue,
amnesia episodic memory, person remembers the
memory aided by being in
details of an event but confuses context
physical location where
under which details were gained
encoding took place
195. neuroplasticity neural connections form rapidly in
177. state-dependent memory person's mental state can
response to stimuli, why brain reorganizes
also affect recall. drunk
drastically in response to injury.
people who learned
something while drunk, recall 196. plasticity (in related closely to learning and memory
better while drunk regard to because as stimuli activate neurons and
learning and NTs are released, this neural activity forms
178. serial position effect retrieval cue with lists,
memory) a memory trace that causes short term
participants have higher
memory
recall for first few and last
few items on the list (primacy 197. synaptic weak connections broken, strong neural
and recency) after long time, pruning cxns are bolstered. increases efficiency of
first few items is strong, last out brain's ability to process info
few fade
179. forgetting loss of memorized info
198. long term as stimulus is repeated (rehearsal) the stimulated neurons become more efficient at releasing their NTs and at the
potentiation same time receptor sites on other side of synapses increase (inc. receptor density). neurophysiological basis of LTM