Glossary NSBED
Anne Leenders – 4083911
Chapter 1
Concept Description
Social Psychology An attempt to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings,
and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined,
or implied presence of others.
Cognitive The study of mental processes such as thinking, perceiving,
psychology speaking, acting, and planning. It tends to dissect these processes
into different sub-mechanisms and explain complex behavior in
terms of their interaction.
Modularity The notion that certain cognitive processes (or regions of the brain)
are restricted in the type of information they process and the type
of processing carried out.
Domain specificity The idea that a cognitive process (or brain region) is specialized for
processing only one particular kind of information.
Reductionism One type of explanation will become replaced with another, more
basic, type of explanation over time.
Reverse inference An attempt to infer the nature of cognitive processes from
neuroscience (notably neuroimaging) data.
Blank slate The idea that the brain learns environmental contingencies without
imposing any biases, constraints, or pre- existing knowledge on that
learning.
Chapter 2
Concept Description
Transcranial The application of a strong magnetic field over a region of the scalp
magnetic that causes temporary and localized interference in neural activity.
stimulation (TMS)
Temporal The accuracy with which one can measure when an event is
resolution occurring.
Spatial resolution The accuracy with which one can measure where an event is
occurring.
Invasiveness Whether or not the equipment is located internally or externally.
Mental The study of the time- course of information processing in the
chronometry human nervous system.
Speed–accuracy If people are forced to respond faster they will tend to be less
trade-off accurate.
Preferential In infant research, a number of stimuli (normally two) are presented
looking and the amount of time that the infant spends looking at each of
them is scored.
Habituation In infant research, the same stimulus (or the same kind of stimulus)
is presented repeatedly and the infant’s attention towards the
stimulus (measured in terms of looking time) diminishes.
Anne Leenders – 4083911
Chapter 1
Concept Description
Social Psychology An attempt to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings,
and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined,
or implied presence of others.
Cognitive The study of mental processes such as thinking, perceiving,
psychology speaking, acting, and planning. It tends to dissect these processes
into different sub-mechanisms and explain complex behavior in
terms of their interaction.
Modularity The notion that certain cognitive processes (or regions of the brain)
are restricted in the type of information they process and the type
of processing carried out.
Domain specificity The idea that a cognitive process (or brain region) is specialized for
processing only one particular kind of information.
Reductionism One type of explanation will become replaced with another, more
basic, type of explanation over time.
Reverse inference An attempt to infer the nature of cognitive processes from
neuroscience (notably neuroimaging) data.
Blank slate The idea that the brain learns environmental contingencies without
imposing any biases, constraints, or pre- existing knowledge on that
learning.
Chapter 2
Concept Description
Transcranial The application of a strong magnetic field over a region of the scalp
magnetic that causes temporary and localized interference in neural activity.
stimulation (TMS)
Temporal The accuracy with which one can measure when an event is
resolution occurring.
Spatial resolution The accuracy with which one can measure where an event is
occurring.
Invasiveness Whether or not the equipment is located internally or externally.
Mental The study of the time- course of information processing in the
chronometry human nervous system.
Speed–accuracy If people are forced to respond faster they will tend to be less
trade-off accurate.
Preferential In infant research, a number of stimuli (normally two) are presented
looking and the amount of time that the infant spends looking at each of
them is scored.
Habituation In infant research, the same stimulus (or the same kind of stimulus)
is presented repeatedly and the infant’s attention towards the
stimulus (measured in terms of looking time) diminishes.
