Language: This is a good one; we all use some form of language everyday, but how do you define it? Technically, we can say that language is a formal system of communication which involves the combination of words and/or symbols, whether written or spoken, as well as some rules that govern them. It is not even necessary for another organism to comprehend the language, for it to actually be a language, just that it meets the above description. Latency: Latency is the fourth stage in Freud's Psychosexual theory of development, and it occurs from about age 5 or 6 to puberty. During the latency stage, a child's sexual impulses are repressed. The reason for this is that during the stage before latency (phallic stage) the child resolves the Oedipus or Electra Complex which are such traumatic events that the child then repress all of his or her sexual impulses. Interestingly, because this stage contains little or no psychosexual development, Freud was fairly uninterested in it. Latent Content: According to Freud, dreams have two types of content, each of which contains different meanings to the dreams. One of these type of content islatent content, which is the underlying, more hidden, but true meaning of a dream (as opposed to the manifest content). Freud believed that the latent content was somehow censored by the subconscious which was a way to protect us from the real meanings of the dreams. This was necessary because the dream content may be difficult for people to deal with, so people disguise the real meaning. However, Freud believed that when people were in conflict, if he could uncover or get to the latent content, then he could identify the person's problem and resolve their conflict. Latent Learning: The type of learning that occurs, but you don't really see it (it's not exhibited) until there is some reinforcement or incentive to demonstrate it. This may seem a bit silly, but it is important to understand that there is a difference between learning and performance. For example, if you are in a car going to school with a friend every day, but your friend is driving all the time, you may learn the way to get to school, but have no reason to demonstrate this knowledge. However, when you friend gets sick one day and you have to drive yourself for the first time, if you can get to school following the same route you would go if your friend was driving, then you have demonstrated latent learning. Learned Helplessness: When an organism (person, animal, etc.) is prevented from avoiding some aversive stimulus repeatedly (e.g., continuous electric shocks) the organism will reach a state in which it becomes passive and depressed because he believes that there are no actions it can take to avoid the aversive stimulus. Esssentially, the organism just gives up trying to avoid it and just takes the aversive stimulus. Thus, the organism learns that it is helpless against the aversive stimulus. Learning (Conditioning): We can use the following definition of learning to help us understand this concept: learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge that comes from experience or training. But what does this really mean? We all "know" things and we can all perform lots of behaviors. But where did they come from? Some things are innate - we are born with the knowledge. But others must be acquired actively. Thus, any knowledge or behavior that we now possess that we were not born with, was somehow "learned". Psychologists have studied learning in a variety of ways, from examining the salivation of dogs in response to meat powder, to how rats press a lever in the pursuit of obtaining some kind of reward, to offering children rewards for doing what is asked of them, to examining how people are able to tie their shoe laces. Lens: The human eye is made of several layers and components. Behind the cornea, iris, and pupil sits the lens (it is directly behind the pupil) which actually changes shape as you try to focus on something. When you try to focus on something the lens changes shape (called accomodation) and then focuses the incoming light onto the back of the eye (the retina) which send the information on to be processed by the brain. Lesion: Lesion is a term I hear all the time in relation to physical problems. A lesion is damage to body tissue (any tissue in your body). Sometimes doctors say they "lesioned an area" which means they purposely damaged the tissue in that area. When lesions occur in the brain they can cause serious problems or changes to brain functioning. Levels of Processing: This is a theory of memory that is contrary to the "stores" theory of memory. According to this theory, memory varies according to and is a by-product of the process of processing information during encoding. Information processed more deeply is remembered better. Libido: The terms libido was introduced by Sigmund Freud and is, at a very basic level, sexual desire and urges. The libido, which is part of the Id, is a secual energy or force that can come into conflict with the conventions of what is typically considered civilized behavior. Other psychologists, like Jung, viewed the libido more generally and thought it to be more of a creative or psychic energy that helps people accomplish more (like a motivating force). Limbic System: The limbic system is a grouping of structures in the brain that sits between in the most primitive part of the forebrain called the rhinecephalon. This is a doughnut-shaped network of neurons that inlfuences many deep-rooted drives and emotions including pain, anger, hunger, sex, thirst, and pleasure. The thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala, fornix, mammiliary bodies, and septal areas are all parts of the limbic system.
James Olds and Peter Milner discovered the function of the limbic system accidentally in 1954 when experimenting with electrical stimulation of the brain using rats and lever pressing. They found that when they stimulated this area of the brain while the rats pressed the lever, it produced pleasure and in response, the rats kept pressing the lever to continue getting pleasure (they pressed the lever thousands of times an hour). Lithium Carbonate: Lithium Carbonate is a chemical compound that is useful in treating bipolar disorder (also known as manic depression). Many people are familiar with Lithium" but it's really the compound Lithium Carbonate that is uses to treat manic depression. Lithium is found naturally in the body at about 1.3 parts per million in bone and 0.023 parts per million in muscle tissue. Lobotomy: Although this is not done much at all anymore (if at all), it is a procedure that was once used to reduce uncontrollably violent or emotional people. Technically this is a type of psychosurgery (surgery for psychological purpose that destroys brain tissue to change a person's behavior) in which the nerves that connect the frontal lobes to the parts of the brain that control emotions are severed. Used in the 1930's, the patient would be shocked into a coma then the surgeon would drive a big pick-like tool through the person's eye socket and then move it around to cut the nerves. Nasty! Longitudinal Study: A longitudinal study is somewhat similar to a repeated measures study but in this case people are study and restudied over a period of time (as opposed to studied across different experimental conditions as is the case with a repeated measures study). The longitudinal study design is good for looking at the effects or changes over a long period of time, usually as people age. For example, a psychologist may study the effects of counseling for children of divorce as they age. The children may get counseling for one year and then the researcher measures the children on different things (e.g., coping, stress, anxiety, etc.) once a year for the next 10 years and compare them to children who did not receive the counseling, but were measured in the same way and times. This would allow the researcher to see if the counseling had any effects as the children aged compared to those who did not receive counseling. Long-Term Memory: The term long-term memory refers to the unlimited capacity memory store that can hold information over lengthy periods of time. By saying "lengthy periods of time" we mean that it is possible for memories in LTM to remain there for an entire lifetime. In addition, there are three types of memories that can be stored in LTM: procedural memory, semantic memory, and episodic memory. LSD: LSD, which stands for lysergic acid diethylamide, is a very powerful hallucinigeneic drug. Many people know LSD as "acid". This drug was much more common in the 1960s and 1970s but is still common today. Some common hallucincations include vivid images, bright colors, incredible shapes, and strange pictures. However, some people also experience very unpleasant effects such as panic and hysteria. Don't mess with this drug!
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