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What is Memory?

When it comes to memory we will be focusing on one central question:

What causes us to remember what we remember and to forget what we forget?

Why do I remember my 14th birthday party or the girl I had a crush on in the fifth grade, but I do not remember that one girl who sits in the back row in my first period class?

Memory is defined as learning that has persisted over time.  There are several models that exist to explain memory- we will go over the most important two; the three-box/information processing model and the levels of processing model.

But before I go through the models an easy way to look at memory is through a three step process; encoding, storage and retrieval.  Encoding is the process of putting information inside of your head.  Think of encoding like typing a project on your computer.  If someone starts fling rubber bands at your head that while you are trying to study, that would effect the info you are trying to get in your head; called encoding failure.  

Constructing Fake Memories and Forgetting Real Ones

Constructed Memories

In the 1980’s and 1990’s “recovered memories” were big headlines.  Individuals claim suddenly to remember events that have been “repressed” for years, often in the process of therapy.  Parents have been accused of molesting and even killing children based on these recovered memories.  Sometimes these recovered memories have been corroborated with physical evidence and justice was served.  Other times, they have been discovered to have been fabricated- constructed recollections of events.  A constructed memory can report false details of a real event or might even be a recollection of an event that never occurred.

Memory researcher, Elizabeth Loftus, showed us that leading questions can easily influence us to recall false details, and questioners can create an entirely new memory by repeatedly asking insistent questions.  Constructed memories feel like accurate memories to the person recalling them.  The only way to tell the difference is to find other types of evidence to back up or refute the memory.  In other words, because of the work by Elizabeth Loftus, we realize that it is really hard to tell the difference between a real and constructed memory.

Forgetting

It is inevitable, we forget things.  Sometimes we forget things because the memories decay, or we do not use the memory or connections to that memory for a long time.  This type of forgetting often happens before an AP exam if you have not reviewed.  Let’s say you learn neuroscience in September but stop using those memories until the AP in may.  Your knowledge of neural structures will probably have decayed.  But the good news is that if the memory existed in the first place, relearning the material occurs MUCH more quickly the second time (and even more quickly the third).  This is called the relearning effect.

Another factor that causes forgetting is interference.  Sometimes other information in your memory competes with what you are trying to recall.  There are two types of interferences:

• Retroactive interference: Learning new information interferes with the recall of old information.  You learn a new locker combination and now cannot remember last years combination.
• Proactive interference: Older information learned previously interferes with the recall of information learned more recently.  You call your new girlfriend/boyfriend your old one’s name.

Now that we kind of understand forgetting lets finish off by trying to grasp how memories are physically stored in our brain.

Language

There was a time when I was younger that I would go clubbing and show off my dancing skills.

When I first walked into the club I would get my mack on and talk to girls by the bar.  When I took the action to the dance floor the music was so loud as to make normal talking impossible.  Thus I would have to rely on non-verbal cues of communication, like body language and hand or facial gestures.  Needless to say I was rarely successful whether on or off the dance floor.  The point being that language (whether verbal or non-verbal) is the way humans communicate with each other.

It is almost impossible to conceive of a world without language.  Although some argue that non-verbal language is just as powerful as verbal language, let’s focus for a moment on the latter.  All language can be described with phonemes and morphemes.  Phonemes are the smallest unites of sounds in any language.  Click here to listen to the various English phonemes.  In the English language there are about 44 different phonemes.  There are many phonemes used around the world that we do not use.  My wife, who speaks Spanish, does this really cool rolling R phoneme that sounds sexy but I cannot do to save my life.  My Grandma, who spoke Yiddish, can do this funky throat clearing phoneme, that I can only do when I have a bad cold.  Some of the phonemes that we use, foreign speakers have difficulty pronouncing, like the th sound.

A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaningful sound.  Morphemes can be words, such as a and but, or they can be parts of words, such as prefixes or suffixes.  So language consists of phonemes put together to become morphemes, which make up words.  These words are spoken or written in a particular order, called syntax.  Each language has its own syntax, such as where the verb is usually placed in the sentence.  For example, in English, we out the adjective before the noun (white house) but in Spanish the noun often comes before the adjective (casa blanca).  By examining phonemes, morphemes and syntax (grammar), psychologists can describe different languages in detail.

Language Acquisition

Most psychologists are interested in how we first learned language and what kind of influence language has on the way we view the world.  The first stage of language acquisition is often called the babbling stage.  During this stage the baby is experimenting with various phonemes and if you listen closely to the cute babbling, you will here phonemes from ALL languages from all over the world.  So even though I cannot roll my R’s or do that cool African Bushman clicking sound, my four month old can!!!  It takes a few months of listening to those around us so we can begin to limit our phonemes to the ones that we will need for the English language.  This is a great argument as to why we should teach second and third languages at very young ages (they already know the phonemes).

The next language acquisition phase is telegraphic speech. This is where babies combine words into simple commands.  Although an adult can understand what the child is trying to say, their speech has no syntax.  They may say “Bottle, TV now!!!” and we know they mean “Daddy, can you please go the the fridge, prepare my bottle, give it to me and put Sponge Bob on.  Thank you ever so much.”  During this stage children begin using syntax, but often incorrectly.  For example, they might learn that adding the suffix -ed signifies past tense, but they might apply it at inappropriate times, such as, “Caleb hitted my head so I throwed the truck at his face”.  This misapplication of grammar rules is called overgeneralization.

There is no next stage of language acquisition- they go from telegraphic speech into complete sentences.  But there are two competing theories of how children learn language so well.  The first theory is rooted in Behaviorist BF Skinner’s operant conditioning.  This theory states that when a child is rewarded for using a word (either by a smile or encouraging word) then they will keep saying the word.  Bad language rules are punished and good ones, rewarded.

Recent cognitive theorists have stated that children not given reinforcements still use learn language, so BF is full of it.  Researcher and philosopher Noam Chomsky believed that humans learned language WAY to fast for it to be learned purely through reinforcers.  He theorized that children are born with a language acquisition device, an inborn universal understanding of language where children just know how to learn language from birth (this is also called the nativist theory of language acquisition).  The true answers probably lies with a combination of both Skinner and Chomsky.

Language and how we view the world

Most of us assume that humans think about the world and come up with words to describe what is in our minds.  Psychologist Benjamin Whorf came up with an interesting concept called linguistic relativity hypothesis, that challenges the status quo and states that language may control the way we think, not vice versa.  He theorized that the limitations on the grammar and vocabulary in our language may create limitations on how we see the world.  For example, the Hopi Indian tribe in North America had very few words in their language for past tense.  Thus because their language did not address past tense, the Hopi Indians seldom ever thought about the past.  The implications of Whorf’s idea are extraordinary.  If our language restricts our thinking, then just by changing some of our language rules and definitions, may change the way we view the world!

Cognition

Cognition is our ability to think, reason and remember.  It pretty much covers all thinking that goes on in our heads.  We are going to break cognition down into three distinct parts; memory, thinking and language.

The brain is the single most important structure in our bodies.  From our study of the brain we can tell that the brain controls most of human thought and emotion.  When you sit and think about it, the brain is also the coolest thing about you.  Every time you think about anything- it is your brain.  When you feel pain of pleasure- it comes from your brain.  Its all about the brain!!!

The brain is made up of neurons and glial cells.  I call my wife my glial cell.  Glial cells support nerve cells in the brain by providing food and support.  Although the brain is made up of millions of densely packed neurons, it actually feels no pain.  If I stuck a knife into your head, you would feel pain from the skin, scalp and skull being pierced, but once the knife reached the brain, pain stops (but the other stuff still hurts).   It was commonly believed that once you damage brain cells (through drinking, smoking, hitting your head or just holding your breath for a REALLY long time) they would never grow back.  There is some research now that points to the contrary.

If you happen to suffer from some brain damage, do not despair.  Some of our brain functions are flexible and if one part goes out, others will try to compensate and continue to function.  The concept that some of our brain will attempt to reroute itself if damaged is called Brain Plasticity.  It does this by rerouting connections to avoid damaged dendrites.  Picture Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie (take your pick or fill in your own fantasy) invites you over for nookie.  If the highway you were going to take to their house flooded, would you give up?  No way, you would use Mapquest to get directions using local streets.  That is essentially what our brains try to do when damaged.  Unfortunately, as we age the ability of brain plasticity working decreases.  The lesson here, if you are going to damage your brain, do it at a very young age.

Before we talk about brain structures, lets quickly go over some of the ways scientists learn about the brain.

Ways to study the Brain

Accidents

Every so often someone gets smacked in the head REALLY hard and from their injury we learn about the brain.  The most famous case occurred in 1848 to a fellow named Phineas Gage.  Phineas was working on the railroad when a iron pole shot through his head.

Unbelievably, he survived the accident.  But his personality and behavior changed drastically after the catastrophe.  He became violent, angry and unpredictable (not just because a four foot pole shot through his head).  Phineas’s accident first led scientists to believe that various parts of the brain control different parts of who we are.

Lesions

A lesion is the removal or destruction of part of the brain.  Doctors will lesion a patients brain during brain surgery (usually to remove some type of tumor).  By removing parts of the brain we were able to learn what different parts of the brain do.

Below is a  lesion of a rat’s brain

For example, if a doctor removed a tumor in your left temporal lobe of the brain and you were then unable to speak, we could assume that speech comes from that area of the brain.  Brain lesions were commonly used in the mid 1900s to control mentally unstable patients.  Part of the frontal lobe was removed (frontal lobotomy) and drastic behavioral changes occurred after surgery (we learned that our personalities are strongly centered in the front of our brains).

EEG (Electroencephalogram)

The brain is just like an electrical battery (remember the Matrix).  An EEG machine measures brain waves.  If you are awake it measures what we call alpha waves (short active waves) and when you are asleep it measures other waves like delta waves (long inactive waves).  If the EEG measures no activity then you are either brain dead or watching Jerry Springer.  It is used commonly in sleep research.

CAT Scan (Computerized Axial Tomography)

A CAT scan is just a really sophisticated x-ray of the brain.  It gives us a 3D picture of the brain which is great for locating tumors, but it does NOT show brain activity or function.

MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)

An MRI gives us the most detailed picture of the brain.  It uses magnetic fields to knock electrons of their orbit and takes a picture by seeing them run back to their orbits (kind of).  There is no radiation so the procedure is safe, but once again it only gives us an idea of structure and not function.

PET Scan (Positron Emission Tomography)

A PET scan is the best way for us to see activity in the brain.  The patient will usually swallow a substance (like glucose) and the PET scan will see what parts of the brain are using the substance.  If a patient seems to be using alot of the substance in a certain part of the brain, we can tell what part of the brain is working.

Functional MRI

This is essentially a combination of the PET scan and the MRI.  The fMRI can give us the best picture of the brain while showing use blood flow information.  The Yankees of brain technology.

Piece of cake, now on to the heart of this unit: Brain Anatomy and Function.

Perception is the way we interpret the information we sense.  The way we interpret the world in many ways dictates our sense of reality.  Even if our senses are keen (like superman on crack), if our perception is skewed we will not understand the information we sense.  Lets first go over some basic definitions and rules of sensation and perception.

Thresholds

Thresholds are the idea that our senses have limits.  First there is the absolute threshold, which is the smallest amount you can just sense something about half of the time.  What that means is that if the guy sitting next to you in class farts, and you take a whiff and smell it, but the next whiff do not smell it, then kind of smell it again- the fart is at your absolute threshold for smell.

If you can just barely hear a sound- then it is at your absolute threshold for sound.  Get it?

Another type of threshold is called the difference threshold (or just noticeable difference).  The difference threshold the the smallest amount of change needed in a stimulus before we notice the change.  Ok, picture this- you are watching TV (Family Guy or Gilmore Girls- take your pick) and your parents are singing Backstreet Boys in the next room.  You grab the controller and raise the volume one bar, but you still can’t hear Peter Griffin and his witty anti-Semitic rhetoric (note the sarcastic tone).

  That change in volume was under your difference threshold (or just notice difference).  In fact, you need to raise the volume four bars until you can tell the difference in amplitude.  So the difference threshold for your hearing is somewhere between the three and four bars on your TV.

We measure the difference threshold by using something called Weber’s Law.  Weber’s Law states that the change needed to notice a difference between two stimuli is proportional to the original intensity of the stimulus.  The more intense the stimulus, the more it will need to change before we notice the difference.  If you are lifting ten pounds, you only need a little more weight added on to notice the difference (1 pound to be exact).  But if you were lifting 100 pounds, you will need more weight to notice the difference (10 pounds).  For weight the proportion is 10% increase, hearing 5%, vision 8%.  So is you see a light shining at 70 watts, you must add 8% more intensity to see an increase in brightness.

Perceptual Theories

There are several theories that psychologists have that show us how we perceive the world.  These theories are not in opposition to each other (like McDonalds and Taco Bell- they are more like McDonalds and The Gap- just different).

Signal Detection Theory: This theory examines how outside influences effect our perception.  This theory attempts to predict what we will pay attention to among competing stimuli.   For example, they believe that one’s absolute threshold depends on your motivation to sense, tiredness, and a whole host of other issues.  They question why a new mother will sleep through traffic but awaken upon hearing the smallest whimper from their newborn.  Picture yourself at a noisy party, and someone says your name 10 feet away.  You will probably notice that sound above all the others (called the cocktail party effect) because you are motivated to hear your own name.  All of these factors (motivation, state of alertness, etc..) are called response criteria.  For example, if I am really hungry for meat, I am more likely to smell a hamburger than if I was not.  If I think I smell a hamburger, but it is not really there, that is called a false positive (perceiving stimuli that is not there).  If a hamburger is grilling right in front of me but I fail to smell it, that is called a false negative (not perceiving a stimulus that is present).   Which one is worse?

Top-Down Processing: When we perceive the world through top-down processing we are using our experience to fill in the gaps in front of us.  Take a look at the following sentence- I  _ant   t_     e_t    s_om_    c_tt_n    ca_dy.  You probably just automatically filled in the gaps and assumed that I want cotton candy (who doesn’t).   You know how to read and at this point see sentences not as individual words, but as ideas.  You look at the problem as use your experiences in reading to solve it.  Piaget (remember him) would say that you are relying on your schemas to process the information.  These schemas often cause us to form a perceptual set (a predisposition to perceive something in a certain way).  For example, Beavis and Butthead have a well known perceptual set; sex.  Every time someone in their word says the word “tool” or “hard”, they see it as sexual.  Their schemas for sex are so encompassing that they create this perceptual set so that everything in their lives is seen through the eyes of sexuality.  In the 1970’s, many parents were concerned about backmasking in music (when you play the music backwards, secret satanic messages are revealed).  Now in reality, there is nothing but jumbled noise, but the parents created a perceptual set, expecting to hear devil messages, so what did they hear?  What they expected.

Bottom-Up Processing: This type of processing usually occurs when we are unfamiliar with an object.  Instead of using our experience to decipher an object (like in top-down) we use the features of the object itself.  We actually examine the object at its basic core structure.  Try to picture a five year old who has just learned to read try to decipher I  _ant   t_     e_t    s_om_    c_tt_n    ca_dy.  They would examine every line and curve because they do not have the experience to do what you or I would do.  This type of processing is slower, but also prone to less errors than top-down.

Visual Perception

Psychologist love tackling issues dealing with how we see the world.  They examine issues like the figure-ground relationship which deals with how we distinguish what objects in our vision do we want to examine (figure) and what parts are just background (ground).

Above are two famous pictures that examine the figure-ground relationship.  What is the figure in either picture and what is the ground?  To the left is the vase the figure or ground?  Maybe the two faces are the figure?  On the right, you have to distinguish between the woman and the saxophone player.  Which is the background and which is the figure?

Gestalt Psychologists

Gestalt psychologists were a group that explored some of the above issues.  In particular they were concerned with how and why we GROUP objects together.  They stated that humans can’t help but perceive stimuli in groups rather than individual or isolated elements.  They had five factors for how we group objects.

1. Proximity: Objects that are close together are more likely to be perceived as belonging in the same group.  If you see two people walking down the hallway next to each other, you will probably perceive them as friends.

2. Similarity: Objects that are similar in appearance are more likely to be perceived as belonging to the same group.  If there are a small group of Latinos in your class, you may think they all know each other because you view them as similar (you may not be right of course).

3. Continuity: Objects that form a continuous form (such as a trail or geometric figure) are more likely to be perceived as belonging to the same group.

4. Closure: Objects that make up a recognizable image are more likely to be perceived as belonging to the same group even if the image contains gaps that the mind needs to fill in.  Just like top-down processing.

Gestalt thinkers are obsessed with the notion that we group these objects together in our lives and create groups that are larger than the sum of their parts.  If you asked me to sit down and write down all of the feeling that encapsulate the feeling of love I have for my sons, I may spend days writing.  But even after I finished the list, it will NOT equal my feelings.  My feelings of love (group) are larger than all the individual reasons I have to love.  It’s kinda cool when you think about it.

Visual Constancy

Remember, our eyes are like mirrors, reflecting information to the back of our retinas.  Even though the object we are looking at may change on our retina, we still know the object itself has not changed.  That sounds confusing but look at these concepts:

• Size Constancy: Objects that are closer to us produce bigger images on our retinas.  For example, if Mario Lopez was standing 100 feet from you, he would produce a image on your retina.  If he dances closer to you, his image on your retina will slowly increase.  But you know that Mario (a.k.a. Slater) is not really growing.  His size is kept constant in your mind, even though the picture on your retina changes in size.

• Shape Constancy:  Objects viewed from different angles will produce different shapes on our retinas, but we know that the shape of the object remains constant.

Take a look at the doors above.  The one to the left looks like a rectangle,  The one in the middle is shaped like a (what do you call it…..) parallelogram?  The shape looks different in our retinas, but our mind maintains that the shape of the door remains a rectangle.

• Brightness Constancy: We perceive objects as being a constant color even as the light reflecting off the object changes.  Kermit the frog is green in the daytime.  As night comes he will look gray, or even black as the light fades.  But we know that his color is always green even though it may not look like so in our retina.

Depth Cues

The concept of depth is one of the most studied aspects of perception.  Imagine what the world would look like if we could not see depth (it would look 2 dimensional).  Researcher E.J. Gibson conducted a very famous experiment called the visual cliff experiment to determine when humans are able to see depth.  He placed an infant onto one side of a glass topped table that creates teh impression of a cliff.  Actually, the glass extends across the entire table, so the baby cannot possible fall off.

 Gibson discovered that by the time the baby can crawl, it will not crawl across the glass table, showing us that depth perception does exist at young ages.  The general consensus is that babies develop depth perception at around three months of age.  The way babies (and adults) understand depth is by using a bunch of tricks that are called monocular and binocular cues.

Monocular Cues: Monocular cues are tricks that we (and artists who draw alot) use to judge depth perception.  What makes them monocular cues is that you need only one eye to use them.  So if you lost your eye in a tragic ping pong accident, the following cues would still be at your disposal to see depth.

• Interposition: If Justin Timberlake is standing in front of me and blocking me from looking at Jessica Alba, I am going to assume Justin is closer to me.  So if something is blocking something else, the thing being blocked is farther away- kind of in your face obvious.

• Texture Gradient: Objects look smoother if they are farther away and rougher if they are closer.  To look at Beyonce’s face from thirty feet and it will look smooth as pudding.  But get right up on her face and you will see crevices, bumps and imperfections all over.  Smooth=far away Rough=closer.

• Relative Size: If we know that two objects are around the same size and one looks alot bigger in our visual filed, you are going to assume it is bigger.  The Olsen twins are hanging out at your crib.  Ashley looks huge and Mary-Kate looks really small.  You are going to assume that Mary-Kate is farther away from you than Ashley or has some type of eating disorder- which is more likely?

• Linear perspective: Parallel lines look like the are converging over a distance.

Binocular Cues: Binocular cues are tricks we use to see depth using BOTH your eyes.  So if you are missing an eye, these will do you no good.

• Retinal Disparity: We have two eyes, so the brain gets two images.  The more similar the images are between the two eyes, your brain will assume the object is farther away.  The more of a difference the images are between the eyes, you brain will assume the object is closer.  I will explain in class, first one that reminds me gets 5 points on the Perception Quiz.

• Convergence: As an object comes closer to us, our eye muscles must strain to stay focused on the object.  The brain receives feedback from the muscles controlling eye movements and knows that the more the eye converges, the closer the object must be.

Culture and Perception

It is true that our culture does effect the way we perceive the world.  Some cultures, for example, do not use certain monocular cues (like linear perceptive).  Take a look at the figure below and tell me which line is longer.

  People in western societies tend to perceive the first line as being longer even though they are the same length.  If you come from a culture that does not use right angles (non carpentered cultures) you would not be fooled by such an illusion.

Right now, ask yourself how you feel; emotionally and physically.  For example, at the moment I am writing this I am happy because I am looking forward to some ribs tonight from this great BBQ place called Q’s.  At the same time, I am anxious because I have to teach in five days when school starts for the year.  My left shoulder is sore because I hurt it last year in a collision at home plate in the Westchester Temple softball league (Jewish men and softball is a dangerous combination- if you want to see the championship video recap for Larchmont Temple- my team click here).  I am thinking about where this example is actually going.  Oh yeah, I am also feeling some pressure deep down in my bowels (probably from the vegetarian burrito from Harry’s Burritos last night) and I am looking forward to some quality reading time on the porcelain throne.

The point is that every feeling, thought and emotion I have are due to millions of small nerve cells called neurons.  Without these neurons working and carrying messages throughout our body we would feel and be able to do nothing, kind of like a normal day in math class.

So the first and most basic structure in the biological school of psychology is the neuron which kind of looks like:

These neurons send information throughout our whole body.  Let’s go through the specific parts of a neuron and their functions (isn’t this edge of your seat, biting your fingernails exciting?)

Ok- when a neuron is hanging out doing nothing, it is called resting potential and it has a slightly negative charge inside of it.  When a neuron decides to go to work its called action potential (the process by which a neuron fires).  Action Potential is a electro-chemical process, which means half of the job is electrical and half is chemical.

Lets explain action potential by talking about three neuron buddies named Bikita, Fabian and Joe.  There is a rumor going around that Joe’s girlfriend is cheating on him with a toenail cell, but Joe does not know about it yet.  Lets call that rumor a neurotransmitter (chemical messengers that run throughout our body).  Pieces of the rumor (neurotransmitter) first get shot over to Bikita and stick to her dendrites.  Bikita cannot send the rumor along because she is not yet sure it is true and does not want to hurt Joe’s feelings.  When enough of the rumor (neurotransmitter) is attached to Bikita’s dendrites it hits her threshold and she cannot hold it in any more (she has to tell Joe).  She does not believe in telling just a bit of the story, she wants to tell the whole damn thing (called the all-or-none response).  So Bikita opens up a portal on her axon and lets in positive ions into her causing an electrical charge.  The electrical charge travels down the axon to the axon terminal (or terminal buttons) where the rumor (neurotransmitter) is stored to tell the next neuron.  The rumor is shot across the gap in between Bikita and her buddy Fabian called the synapse.  Fabian uses his dendrites to collect the rumor so he can proceed to use action potential to send the process to Joe.  When Fabian has had enough of the rumor and decides to send the information to Joe, he signals Bikita to stop send messages (neurotransmitter).  Bikita will then suck up the rest of the rumor (neurotransmitter) that is in the synapse in a process called reuptake.  It you actually understood any of this you are a freakin genius because that may be the worst analogy of all time.  I better go over this in detail in class!!!

Just like there are different rumors in your school, there are different neurotransmitters in your body.  Just like various rumors will effect you differently, various neurotransmitters do different things to your body.  I CANNOT underestimate how important these chemicals (neurotransmitters) are to our body.  Everything we do, we need a neurotransmitter to do well.  Every time you move, think, smile, or even feel emotion; you are at the mercy of your neurotransmitter.

Here are the important ones you should know for the AP Exam.

Neuron Definition Psychology

Now although we have all of these neurotransmitters naturally in our bodies, modern medicine has figured out a way to manipulate them using what we call drugs.

The Endocrine System

The endocrine system is a bunch of glands controlled by the hypothalamus.  A gland secretes chemical messengers called hormones.  Hormones make changes to our body much like neurotransmitters, but they work a whole lot slower.

Located near the base of our the, the pituitary gland is the MOST important gland in the endocrine system.  The hypothalamus sends messages to control the pituitary gland, but the pituitary gland sends out messages that controls most of the other glands.  Think of the hypothalamus as me.  My wife is the pituitary gland and my kids are all the other glands (adrenal glands, testicles and ovaries, etc…).  Obviously I am the boss of my family (because I am the man!!!!!).

 I make all the decisions, tell my wife what to do.  She in turn tells the kids what to do.

So I, like the hypothalamus, really do control the family (glands) even though my wife (the pituitary gland) makes the day to day decisions (do you really believe this? Well, it is the story I am sticking to!!!).

Now the big things the pituitary gland does are:

• helps regulate body growth.  Most people with growth disorders have issues with the pituitary gland.

• signals woman to lactate (produce breast milk) when it is time to feed their baby.  Although their are some woman who just always produce milk.

• helps control our body weight by regulating the thyroid.

• sends signals to our adrenal glands when we need that extra boost (fight or fight response)

• tells our ovaries and testicles to secrete sex hormones, but that should not matter until puberty or marriage!!!!!!!!!!

The other glands I would be aware of are:

The pineal gland that secretes melatonin, which regulates our awake/sleep cycle.

The gonads (just love that word).

• Male testicles (located in the scrotum)secrete androgens (sex hormones like testosterone).  These hormones regulate body changes associated with sexual development, including enlargement of the penis, the growth spurt that occurs during puberty, and the appearance of other male secondary sex characteristics such as deepening of the voice, growth of facial and pubic hair, and the increase in muscle growth and strength.

• The female gonads, the ovaries, are located in the pelvis. They produce eggs and secrete the female hormones estrogen and progesterone. Estrogen is involved in the development of female sexual features such as breast growth, the accumulation of body fat around the hips and thighs, and the growth spurt that occurs during puberty. Both estrogen and progesterone are also involved in pregnancy and the regulation of the menstrual cycle.

Before discussing the anatomy of the brain I just want you to realize that at this level EXACT areas of the brain are not all that important.  As long as you understand the general function and location you are going to do fine.  In other words, I am attempting to simplify a REALLY complex science.  Wish me luck!!!

OK lets break the brain down into three areas; the hindbrain, midbrain and forebrain.

Hindbrain

From an evolutionary perspective, the hindbrain is the oldest part of our brain and is located deep within our head and on top of our spinal cord.  Because this was our first and most basic brain (way back before we were cave people) it controls most of our most basic functions.  There are three structures you should know in the hindbrain.

Medulla Oblongata:

The medulla helps control our heart rate, blood pressure and breathing.  It is located directing above our spinal cord and if you get hurt in the Medulla you should just pack it in.

Pons Definition Psychology: 

The Pons is located just above the medulla and it helps coordinate the hindbrain with the midbrain and forebrain.  It is also involved in facial expressions.

 Cerebellum:

The Cerebellum is located at the bottom rear or our brain and looks like a little version of our whole brain (like mini me).  The Cerebellum helps us coordinate our balance and fine muscle movements.  If you are playing Duck Hunt on the original Nintendo (still the best game especially when you cheat by bringing the gun all the way up to the screen), you are using your Cerebellum.

Midbrain

Located in the middle of our brain, the midbrain does a whole lot of things, but for the purposes of the AP Psychology test, lets narrow it down to the two biggies.

1. The midbrain helps coordinate sensory information with simple movements.  What does that mean?  Sensory information is anything you feel using one of your five basic senses.  If someone hocks a lugi  at your head and you watch the goober travel through the air and track the incoming with your eyes at it races at your head, you are using your vision and eye and neck muscles together.  That is what I mean by sensory information with simple movements.  Just reading this text now, you are using your midbrain to keep your eyes and head moving.

2. The only structure you have to know in the midbrain is called the Reticular Formation.  The Reticular Formation control arousal.  Not sexual arousal, but actual “wake me up” arousal”.  If you were in a deep sleep and I stimulated your Reticular Formation you would instantly wake up and not be tired at all.  If I lesioned (cut out) your Reticular Formation, you would fall into a coma in which you would never wake.

Forebrain

The forebrain is the most important part of the brain for this class.  It contains the newest structures in our brain (those that evolved most recently).  We are going to break the forebrain down into three parts.

Thalamus Definition Psychology

The thalamus is the operator/switchboard of our brain.  Any sensory information that comes into out bodies (sight, hearing, touch and taste) go to our Thalamus first and the Thalamus sends the information to the right parts of our brain to get processed (except for smell), this is the thalamus definition psychology.

Limbic System:

The Limbic System is sometimes called the emotional control center of our brain because it contains structures that help us feel our most raw emotions.  The Limbic System itself is made up of several structures for which you have to know three of them:

1. Hypothalamus:  The hypothalamus is the size of a frozen pea (I don’t know why a said frozen, it could be a thawed or fresh pea as well) but may the the most important structure in our brain.  It is involved in controlling the following activities: thirst, hunger, body temperature, sexual arousal and the endocrine system.

2. Hippocampus:  The hippocampus is involved in memory processing.  Our memories are not stored in the hippocampus, but it does help put the memories in the right places all around our brain.  Think of the hippocampus as you school librarian (in out school he likes to be known as the medial specialist).  Your librarian does not store the information of all the books in the library in their head, but can tell you where to find that information.

3. Amygdala:  The amygdala handles some memory processing, but for the most part handles basic emotions like anger and jealousy.