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elevated plus maze

an apparatus used as a test of anxiety in laboratory rats and mice. It is a cross-shaped maze that is raised from the ground and has two enclosed arms and two open arms. Because of a natural fear of heights, rodents typically spend more time in the enclosed arms than in the open arms. However, if injected with anxiolytic (antianxiety) drugs, rodents will increase the amount of time they spend in the open arms.

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Psychology term of the day

July 27th 2024

script

script

n.

1. a cognitive schematic structure—a mental road map—containing the basic actions (and their temporal and causal relations) that comprise a complex action. Also called script schema.

2. a structured representation consisting of a sequence of conceptual dependencies grouped together to capture the semantic relationships implicit in everyday human situations. It was designed for the purpose of computer-based story understanding. [created in 1966 by U.S. cognitive and computer scientist Roger C. Schank (1946–  ) and U.S. psychologist Robert P. Abelson (1928–2005)]

3. see prescription drug.

4. see script analysis.