The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology (Penguin reference) - Softcover

Reber, Arthur

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9780140510799: The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology (Penguin reference)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140510796 ISBN 13: 9780140510799

Publisher: Penguin, 1985

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This reference work clarifies approximately 17,000 terms from psychology, psychiatry and related fields.

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From the Publisher:

Some sample entries:

EXCITATION

1 In physiology, a process whereby some stimulus energy pattern sets up a change or pattern of changes in a receptor. The energy here may be either physical or other neutral activity; see STIMULATION. 2 In the study of learning, a general high level of activity in the whole nervous system; a reasonable synonym here is drive state. 3 In social psychology, an increase in psychological tension; this meaning is intuitively close to conventional usage.

TROXLER'S EFFECT

A visual phenomenon. When an observer maintains fixation on a point directly in front while attempting to view a stationary line off to one side, this peripheral stimulus disappears. It is especially striking at low illumination levels but occurs at high levels as well, when a sort of visual fog seems to creep in from the periphery, obscuring objects. A slight movement in the periphery causes the peripheral stimuli to reappear.

SEROTONIN

A neurotransmitter found in neural pathways of peripheral ganglia and in the central nervous system. Also known as 5-hydroxytryptamine or 5-HT, it is an inhibitory transmitter the actions of which have been implicated in various processes, including sleep, pain, and the psychobiology of various affective disorders, specifically depression and bipolar disorder. At the time or writing, at least nine different types of serotonin receptors have been identified. Interestingly, while serotonin is involved in mediating many important behaviours, only some 1-2% of the body's serotonin is found in the nervous system: most is in the mucous membranes of the gastrointestinal system and blood platelets.

About the Author:

Arthur S. Reber was born in 1940 in Philadelphia. He took his BA degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1961 and his PhD at Brown University in 1967. He is Broeklundian Professor of Psychology, Emeritus at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He has also taught at the University of British Columbia, Canada, was a Fulbright Professor at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and a Visiting Scholar at the University of North Wales in Bangor, UK. His published work is primarily in cognitive psychology, the psychology of language, developmental psychology, and such diverse areas as philosophical psychology and critiques of parapsychology. He is the author of Implicit Learning and Tacit Knowledge (Oxford University Press) and co-editor with D. Scarborough of Toward a Psychology of Reading (LEA Press).

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