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Robert M. SapolskyA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Key Figures
Themes
Index of Terms
Important Quotes
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Two amygdala (plural: amygdalae) sit in the temporal lobe on either side of the brain. The amygdala mediates aggressive behavior, anxiety, and innate and learned fear.
The ANS has two parts: the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (ANS). The PNS mediates the body’s response to arousing or stressful circumstances, triggering automatic responses like fight/flight and sexual arousal. The parasympathetic nervous system calms the body and triggers relaxation for events like sleep.
The study of animal behavior through solely observable phenomena, ignoring mentation. This field proposes that all behavior can be explained via operant conditioning; association will be taught between an action and consequence, thereby promoting or inhibiting the action.
The upper surface of the human brain and its newest part, associated with cognition, logic, and language. The cortex is made up of four lobes: the frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital, each with different functions.
A term used to describe the tendency of the frontal cortex to fatigue when subjected to cognitive tasks because cognition and executive control are metabolically expensive. Subjecting someone to sustained decision-making or memory tasks makes them perform more poorly on a separate cognitive task, including suppressing amygdaloid reaction immediately following.
Conditioning is the process of teaching an association. In classical conditioning (what Pavlov did with his dogs), subjects learn an association between two stimuli (a bell and food) such that the presence of one stimulus (the bell) evokes the innate response to the other (salivation). In operant conditioning (what Skinner did with pigeons), the subject learns the association between a behavior and a consequence (doing a trick earns a reward).
Aggressive behavior toward a person other than the source of provocation, which can relieve some stress of that provocation, i.e., “taking it out on someone.”
A neurotransmitter associated with feelings of pleasure, reward, and anticipation.
The study of how environmental factors inside and outside the body, such as the presence of specific chemicals, change how genes are read. In some cases, epigenetic changes can also be passed down to offspring.
The process of change throughout generations of organisms over time due to the reproductive success of individuals carrying genes/traits adaptive in the environment.
The frontal section of the cortex that handles several functions, including planning and decision making, speech and language, some motor skills, and modulating attention. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is a region of the FC particularly involved with reasoning, impulse control, and creativity.
A gene is the basic unit of heredity. Genes are made up of DNA and act as codes for the construction of proteins in the body. Each of our traits come from one or, more often, several of our genes working together.
The phenomena in which the effects of a gene and environment on a trait or behavior are codependent. For instance, a gene exists for violent aggression but is only triggered if an individual experiences childhood abuse.
The idea that traits evolve not only via their adaptive benefits for individuals but also their adaptive benefits for groups. Highly criticized as a theory, though see neo-group selection.
The process by which traits that may have evolved for one reason are coopted into use in another function and survive this way. For example, use of the tongue originally evolved for processing food but is now also used in human speech.
A range from 0 to 100 indicating the degree to which variation within a trait, not the trait itself, is due to genetic factors.
Chemical messengers that travel throughout the body and affect behavior, mood, and development. Different hormones, for example testosterone, estrogen, and oxytocin, have different functions.
A small structure within the LS that sits at the at the base of the brain and is the gateway of the LS to the ANS. It also sits above the pituitary gland and is a key structure in regulating hormones.
The evolutionary strategy of favoring the reproductive success of relatives, since they are closer to you genetically.
Structured after Piaget, a model of moral growth in children. “I’ve been told not to eat a cookie on the table in front of me. Should I eat it?”
Level 1: Preconventional Reasoning
Stage 1 (Age 2-4): How likely am I to be punished for it (ages 2-4)?
Stage 2 (Up to age 8-10): If I refrain, will I be rewarded?
Level 2: Conventional Reasoning (adolescence)
Stage 3: Who will be deprived if I eat it? What will they think of me if I did it?
Stage 4: What is the law? Is the law important?
Level 3: Postconventional Reasoning (in some adults)
Stage 5: Are the rules around me not eating the cookie actually just?
Stage 6: What is my personal moral stance on eating this cookie?
A mid-brain structure associated with emotion. The LS communicates to the ANS through the hypothalamus, allowing emotional responses to influence nervous system reactions in fight/flight responses, shivers, etc. It also networks with the cortex, allowing emotional influence on cognition and vice versa.
The prolonged increase in the responsiveness of the synapse to subsequent glutamate signals between one neuron and the next due to previous signaling. A key process in learning.
The idea that certain factors can limit our responsibility for our actions without eliminating our capacity for free will. This is a compatibilist idea, or an idea based on the assumption that determinism and free will are somehow compatible. It exists as a consideration in assigning guilt throughout the modern criminal justice system.
The idea that selection works on multiple levels of organization simultaneously. Selection does not only select for genes but whole traits, groups of traits, and groups of individuals.
The ability of the brain and nervous system to reorganize its structure, functions, or connections based on need. For example, brain regions associated with differentiation between tones grow larger when learning an instrument, and in some cases those born without particular brain regions can reassign that region’s function elsewhere.
The production of new neurons in the brain and nervous system, which occurs most dramatically in the womb but also throughout life.
A brain cell, comprised of a cell body with dendrites (which receive messages from other neurons), an axon (which extends to another area within the brain or nervous system), and axon terminals (which send messages to other neurons).
Chemical messengers between neurons, such as serotonin, dopamine, GABA, and glutamate, each with different purposes.
Two ways to classify the characteristics of organisms. A genotype is all the genetic material comprised in the organism, their individual and complete genome. A phenotype is all the observable, physically expressed traits of the organism.
Founder of developmental psychology, Jean Piaget’s model of cognitive growth in children:
Sensorimotor stage (0 to 24 months): The child is concerned with directly explorable objects.
Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years): Imaginary play begins as children can now use symbolic thought, but logic is intuitive not causative.
Concrete operational stage (7 to 12 years): Children can think logically but cannot abstract individual cases to apply more generally.
Formal operational stage (12 years onward): adult levels of reason, abstract thought and metacognition is approached
A form of subliminal cuing in which exposure to one stimulus influences a response to a subsequent stimulus without conscious guidance. For example, naming a game the “Wall Street Game” or the “Community Game” will change how players play it, even if there is no change to the rules.
Cooperation. Acting in ways that are intended to benefit others, particularly those that are within our social group.
Features that appear in puberty associated with sex but not directly involved in reproduction, for example larger size and facial hair in men.
The network of relationships between individuals in a culture that allow them to function effectively. Essentially, baseline trust and cooperation between individuals.
A characteristic that evolves as a side effect of a true adaptation.
The gap between two neurons through which neurotransmitters are passed as signal.
Originally proposed in the 1930s and taken up in the work of Steven Pinker, the civilizing process is the idea that over time, higher standards of conduct between individuals was generated as a byproduct of structural changes in state formation, specifically state monopolization of violence and the spread of commerce and trade. This incentivized all individuals to see others as potential partners in economic success.
The understanding that others have different knowledge from yourself, such as the awareness that someone else can see a ball that you can’t see or vice versa. This first develops around nine months of age in humans.
A functional metaphor of the brain as divided into three general layers. The first layer is the most ancient and deals with regulating automatic function, such as digestion and reflexive motion. The mid-brain is concerned with emotional response. The third layer, the cortex, sits on the upper surface of the brain and deals with cognition, memory storage, and abstract conceptualization. Primates devote more brain to this region than other species. These layers overlap and communicate in both bottom-up and top-down pathways.
A method for examining the degree of genetic and environmental influence on traits by examining their preponderance in twins.
By Robert M. Sapolsky