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ap psych 5b
unit 5b vocab
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Language | Our spoken, written, or signed words and ways we combine them to communicate meaning |
| Phoneme | In a language, the smallest distinctive unit of sound |
| Morpheme | In a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a full word or part of a word (such as a prefix) |
| Grammar | In a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others. Semantics is the language’s set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds, and syntax is its set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences |
| Babbling stage | Beginning around 4 months, the stage of speech development in which an infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language |
| One-word stage | The stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words |
| Two-word stage | Beginning around age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements |
| Telegraphic speech | Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram - “go car” - using mostly nouns and verbs |
| Aphasia | Impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca’s area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke’s area (impairing understanding) |
| Broca’s area | Helps control language expression - an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech |
| Wernicke’s area | A brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe |
| Linguistic determinism | The strong form of Whorf’s hypothesis - that language controls the way we think and interpret the world around us |
| Linguistic influence | The weaker form of “linguistic relativity” - the idea that language affects thought (thus our thinking and worldview is “relative to” our cultural language) |
| Intelligence | The ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations |
| General intelligence (g) | According to Spearman and others, underlies all mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test |
| Factor analysis | A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person’s total score |
| Savant syndrome | A condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as computation or drawing |
| Grit | In psychology, grit is passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals |
| Emotional intelligence | The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions |
| Intelligence test | A method for assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores |
| Achievement test | A test designed to assess what a person has learned |
| Aptitude test | A test designed to predict a person’s future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn |
| Mental age | A measure of intelligence performance devised by Binet; the level of performance typically associated with children of a certain chronological age; thus, a child who does as well as an average 8-year old is said to have a mental age of 8 |
| Stanford-Binet | The widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet’s original intelligence test |
| Intelligence quotient (IQ) | Defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 (thus, IQ = ma/ca x 100); on contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100 |
| Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) | The WAIS and its companion versions for children are the most widely used intelligence tests; they contain verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests |
| Standardization | The test items have been piloted on a similar population of people as those who are meant to take the test |
| Normal curve | The bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes; most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes |
| Reliability | The extent to which a test yields consistent results |
| Validity | The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to |
| Content validity | The extent to which a test measures the subject of what it was designed to measure |
| Predictive validity | The extent to which a test predicts future performance |
| Cohort | A group of people sharing a common characteristic, such as from a given time period |
| Crystallized intelligence | Our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age |
| Fluid intelligence | Our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease with age |
| Cross-sectional study | Research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time |
| Longitudinal study | Research that follows and retests the same people over time |
| Intellectual disability | A condition of limited mental ability, indicated by a score of 70 or below and difficulty adapting to the demands of life |
| Down syndrome | A condition of mild to severe intellectual disability and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21 |
| Heritability | Measure of how much of a trait’s variation within a population is explained by genetic factors |
| Stereotype threat | A self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype |
| Operational definition | A clear and detailed statement about how exactly data collected from the variables will be measured; allows for accurate replication |
| Independent variable | In an experiment, the factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied |
| Dependent variable | In an experiment, the outcome that is measured; the variable that may change when the IV is manipulated |
| Correlation | A measure of the extent to which two factors are related to each other, and thus how well either factor predicts the other; often shown by naturalistic observation or surveys |
| Random sample | A sample that fairly represent a population because each member of a target population has an equal chance of inclusion |
| Random assignment | Assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between groups (equalizes groups) |
| Experimental group | In an experiment, the group exposed to the treatment (to one version of the independent variable) |
| Control group | In an experiment, the group not exposed to the treatment; contrasts with the experimental group and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment |
| Hypothalamus | Neural structure lying below the thalamus in the limbic system; it plays a direct role in drives (eating, drinking, body temperature, sex drive), helps govern the endocrine system through the pituitary gland, and is linked to emotion, pleasure, and reward |
| Thalamus | Located at the top of the brainstem, it is the brain’s sensory control center (“sensory switchboard”); it directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla |
| Hormones | “Slow” chemical messengers that are manufactured by the endocrine glands, travel through the bloodstream, and affect other tissue; slower acting but longer lasting than neurotransmitters |
| Sympathetic nervous system | Division of the ANS that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy (“fight or flight”) |
| Parasympathetic nervous system | Division of the ANS that calms the body, conserving its energy (“rest and digest”) |
| Agonist | A molecule (drug or other chemical) that increases a neurotransmitter’s action; may increase the production of a neurotransmitter or block reuptake |
| Antagonist | A molecule (drug or other chemical) that inhibits or blocks a neurotransmitter’s action; may block the receptor site on the dendrite |
| Representativeness heuristic | Estimating the likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information |
| Availability heuristic | Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common |
| Explicit memory | Retention of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and “declare” (also called declarative memory) |
| Implicit memory | Retention of learned skills or classically conditioned associations independent of conscious recollection (also called nondeclarative memory) |
| Proactive interference | The forward-acting disruptive effect of older learning on the recall of new information (old interferes with new) |
| Retroactive interference | The backward-acting disruptive effect of newer learning on the recall of old information (new interferes with old) |
| Iconic memory | A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second |
| Fundamental attribution error | Our tendency, when we are an observer analyzing other’s behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition |
| Attribution theory | The theory that we explain someone’s behavior by crediting either either the situation or the person’s disposition |
| Deindividuation | The loss of self- awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity |
| Groupthink | The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives |
| Group polarization | The tendency for group views to become more extreme than the individuals in the group following discussion within the group |
| Neurotransmitters | faster acting but shorter lasting than hormones |
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