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Psychology
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| is the process by which our senosry receptros and vervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our enviroment | sensation |
| the process by which we organize and interpret senroy information | perception |
| analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brains integration of sensory information | bottom-up processing |
| information processing guided by higher-level mental processes | top-down processing |
| the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli and our psychological experience of them | psychophysics |
| the minimum stimulation needed to detect a stimulus 50 percent of the time | absolute threshold |
| a stimulus that is believe one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness | subliminal |
| the activation, often unconsciously, of an assocation by an imperceptible stimulus, the effect of which is to predispose a perception, memory, or response | priming |
| the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time | difference threshold (just noticeable difference) |
| states that the just noticeable difference between two stimuli is a constant minimum proportion of the stimulus | Weber's law |
| refers to the decreased sensitivity that occurs with continued exposure to an unchanging stimulus | sensory adaptation |
| refers to the distance from the peak of one light wave to the next | wavelength |
| color | hue |
| determined by the amplitude of the waves and is experienced as brightness and loudness | intensity |
| the light-sensitive, multilayered inner surface of the eye that contains the rods and cones as well as neurons that form the beginning of the optic nerve | retina |
| the process by which the lens of the eye changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina | accommodation |
| concentrated in the periphery of the retina; have poor sensitivity; detect black, white, and gray; function well in dim light; and are needed for peripheral vision | rods |
| in and around the fovea; have excellent sensitivity, enable color vision, and function best in daylight or bright light | cones |
| comprised of the axons of retinal ganglion cells; carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain | optic nerve |
| the region of the retina where the optic nerve learves the eye; because there are no rods or cones in this area, there is no vision here | blind spot |
| the retina's point of central focus; it contains only cones; therefore, images focused on the fovea are the clearest | fovea |
| located in the visual cortex of the brain; nerve cells that selectively respond to specific viusal features, such as movement, shape, or angle; evidently the basis of visual information processing | feature detectors |
| information processing in which several espects of a stimulus, such as light or sound, are processed simultaneously | parallel processing |
| maintains that the retina contains red-, green-, and blue-sensitive color receptors that in combination can produce the perception of any color; explains the first stage of color processing | Young-Helmholtz trichromatic (three-color) theory |
| maintains that color vision depends on pairs of opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, and white-black); explains the second stage of color processing | opponent-process theory |
| sense of hearing | audition |
| directly related to wavelength: longer waves produce lower pitch; shorter waves produce higher pitch | frequency |
| determined by its frequency, that is, the number of complete wavelenghts that can pass a point in a given time | pitch |
| the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing the three bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the eardrum's vibrations on the cochlea's oval window | middle ear |
| the coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube of the inner ear through which sound waves trigger neural impulses | cochlea |
| contains the semicircular canals and the cochlea, which inclues the receptors that transform sound energy into neural impuleses; because it also contains the vestibular sac, it plays an important role in balance, as well as in audition | inner ear |
| the sense of the position and movement of the parts of the body | kinesthesis |
| sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance | vestibular sense |
| maintains that a "gate" in the spinal cord determines whether pain signals are permitted to reach the brain; neural activity in small nerve fibers opens the gates; activity in large fibers or information from the brain closes the gate | gate-control theory |
| the principle that one sense may influence another | sensory interaction |
| means "organized whole"; emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes | Gestalt |
| refers to the organization of the visual field into two parts: the figure, which stands out from its surroundings, and the surroundings, or background | figure-ground |
| the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups | grouping |
| the ability to see objects in 3D although the images that strike the retina are 2D; it allows us to judge distance | depth perception |
| a laboratory device for testing depth perception, especially in infants and young animals | visual cliff |
| depth cues that depends on information from both eyes | binocular cues |
| refers to the differences between the images received by the left eye and the right eye as a result of viewing the world from slightly different angles | retinal disparity |
| depth cues that depend on information from either eye alone | monocular cues |
| the perception that objects have consistent lightness, color, shape, and size, even as illumination and retinal images change | perceptual constancy |
| the perception that familiar objects have consistent color despite changes in illumination that shift the wavelengths they reflect | color constancy |
| refers to our ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field | perceptual adaptation |
| a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another | perceptual set |
| refers to the controversial claim that perception can occur without sensory input | extrasensory perception (ESP) |
| the study of ESP, psychokinesis, and other paranormal forms of interaction between the individual and the enviroment | parapsychology |
| any relatively permanent change in an organism's behavior due to experience | learning |
| organisms learn that certain events occur together | associative learning |
| a type of learning in which a neutral stimulus becomes capable of triggering a conditioned response after having become associated with an unconditioned response | classical conditioning |
| the view that spychology should be an objective science without reference to mental processes | behaviorism |
| a stimulus that does not trigger a response before conditioning in classical conditioing | neutral stimulus (NS) |
| the unlearned, involuntary response to the unconditioned stimulus in classical conditioning | unconditioned response (UR) |
| the stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers the reflexive unconditioned response in classical conditioning | unconditioned stimulus (US) |
| the learned response to a previously neutral conditioned stimulus, which results from the acquired association between the CS and US in classical conditioning | conditioned response (CR) |
| an orginally neutral stimulus that comes to trigger a CR after association with an unconditioned stimulus in classical conditioing | conditioned stimulus (CS) |
| refers to the initial stage of conditioing in which the new response is established and gradually strengthened in a learning experiment; the strenghtening of a reinforced response in operant conditioning | acquisition |
| pairing an established conditioined stimulus (CS) with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) CS | higher-order conditioning |
| referes to the weakening of a CR when the CS in no longer followed by the US; in operant conditioning, it occurs when a response is no longer reinforced | extinction |
| the reappearance of an extinguished CR after a rest period | spontaneous recovery |
| refers to the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli stimilar to the original CS to evoke a CR | generalization |
| in classical conditioning refers to the ability to distinguish the CS from similar stimuli that do not signal a US; in operant conditioning, it refers to responding differently to stmiuli that signal a behavior will be reinforced or will not be reinforced | discrimination |
| that which occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus | respondent behavior |
| a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if follwed by a reinforcer or dimished if followed by a punishment | operant conditioning |
| behavior that operates on the enviroment, producing consequences | operant behavior |
| states that behaviors followed by favorable consequences are likely to recur, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely | law of effect |
| an experimental chamber for the operant conditioning of an animal such as a pigeon or rat; the controlled enviroment enables the investigator to present visual or auditory stimuli, deliver reinforcement or punishment, and precisely measure simple response | operant chamber (Skinner box) |
| the operant conditioning procedure for establishing a new response by reinforcing successive eapproximations of the desired behavior | shaping |
| any event that strengthens the behavior it follows in operant conditioning | reinforcer |
| strengthens a response by presenting a typically pleasurable stimulus after that response in operant conditioning | positive reinforcement |
| strengthens a response by removing an aversive stimulus after that response in operant conditioning | negative reinforcement |
| the powers are inborn and do not depend on learning | primary reinforcers |
| stimuli that acquire their reinforcing power through their association with primary reinforcers; also called secondary reinforcers | conditioned reinforcers |
| the operant procedure of reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs; in promoting the acquisition of a new response it is best to use this | continuous reinforcement |
| the operant procedure of reinforcing a response intermittently | partial (intermittent) reinforcement |
| one in which reinforcement is presented after a set number of responses in operant conditioning | fixed-ration schedule |
| one in which reinforcement is presented after a varying number of responses in operant conditioning | variable-ratio schedule |
| one in which a response is reinforced after a specified time has elapsed in operant conditioning | fixed-interval schedule |
| one in which responses are reinforced after varing intervals of time in operant conditioning | variable-interval schedule |
| the presentation of an aversive stimulus, such as shock, which decreases the behavior it follows in operant conditioning | punishment |
| a mental representation of the layout of one's enviroment | cognitive map |
| learning that occurs in the absence of reinforcement by only becomes apparent when there is an incentive to demonstrate it | latent learning |
| learning by watching and imitating the behavior of others | observational learning |
| the process of watching and then imitating a specific behavior and is thus an important means through which observational learning occurs | modeling |
| found in the frontal lobe; may be the neural basis for observational learning; these neurons generate impulses when certain actions are performed or when another individual who performs those actions is observed | mirror neurons |
| the opposite of antisocial behavior; positive, helpful, and constructive and is subject to the same principles of observational learning as is undesirable behavior, such as aggression | prosocial behavior |
| the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information | memory |
| the first step in memory; information is translated into some form that enables it to enter our memory system | encoding |
| the process by which encoded information is retained over time | storage |
| the process of getting information out of memory storage | retrieval |
| the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system | sensory memory |
| activated memory, which can hold about seven items for a short time | short-term memory |
| the relatively permanent and unlimited capacity memory system into which information from short-term memory may pass; it includes knowledge, skills, and experiences | long-term memory |
| the newer way of conceptualizing short-term memory as a work site for the conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory | working memory |
| refers to our unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information | automatic processing |
| encoding that requires attention and conscious effort | effortful processing |
| the conscious, effortful repetition of information that you are tyring either to maintain in consciousness or to encode for storage | rehearsal |
| the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than massed study or practice | spacing effect |
| the tencency for items at the beginning and end of a list to be more easily retained than those in the middle | serial position effect |
| refers to mental pictures and can be powerful aid to effortful processing | imagery |
| memory aids (acronyms, pegwords, etc), which often use vivid imagery and organizational devices | mnemonics |
| the memory technique of organizing material into familiar, meaningful units | chunking |
| the visual snosry memory consisting of a perfect photographic memory, which lasts no more than a few tenths of a second | iconic memory |
| the momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli, lasting about 3 or 4 seconds | echoic memory |
| an increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; believed to be the neural basisi for learning and memory | long-term potentiation (LTP) |
| an unusuallly vivid memory of an emotionally important moment or event | flashbulb memory |
| the loss of memory | amnesia |
| memories of motor and cognitive skills and things learned by classical conditioning independent of conscious recollection; these memories are evidently processed, not by the hippocampus, but by a more primitive part of the brain, the cerebellum | implicit memories |
| memories of facts and personally experienced events; also called declarative memories | explicit memories |
| a temporal lobe neural center located in the limbic system that is important in the processing of explicit memories for storage | hippocampus |
| a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, with few retrieval cues | recall |
| a measure of emmroy in which the person need only indentify, rather than recall, previously learned information | recognition |
| a measure of memory in that the less time it takes to relearn information, the more that information has been retained | relearning |
| the activation, often unconsciously, of a web of assocations in memry in order to retrieve a specific memroy | priming |
| the false sense that you have laready experienced a current situation | deja vu |
| the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current mood | mood-congruent memory |
| the disruptive effect of something you already have learned on your efforts to learn or recall new information | proactive interference |
| the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old knowledge | retroactive interference |
| an example of motivated forgetting in that anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories are prevented from entering consciousness | repression |
| the tendency of eyewitnesses to an event to incorporate misleading information about the event into their memories | misinformation effect |
| refers to attributing an event to the wrong source at the heart of many false memories | source amnesia |
| refers to all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating | cognition |
| a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, and people | concept |
| the best example of a particular category | prototype |
| a methodical, logical rule or procedure that, while sometimes slow, guarantees success | algorithm |
| a simple thinking stragegy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problerms efficiently; do not guarantee sucess and sometimes even impede problem solving | heuristic |
| a sudden and often novel realization of the soluation to a problem; contrasts with trial and error and, indeed, may often follow and unsuccessful episode of trial and error | insight |
| an obstacles to problems solving in which people tend to search for information that supposrts their preconceptions | confirmation bias |
| an inability to see a problem from a new perspective | fixation |
| referts to the tendency to continue applying a particular problem-solving strategy even when it is no longer helpful | mental set |
| the tendency to judgwe the likelihood of things in terms of how well they match particular prototypes | representativeness heuristic |
| based on estimating the probability of certain events in terms of how readily they come to mind | availability heuristic |
| refers to the tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments | overconfidence |
| the tendency for people to cling to a particular belief even after the information that led to the formation of the belief is discreditied | believe perseverance |
| an immediate, automatic, and effortless feeling or though | intuition |
| refers to spoken, written, or signed words and how we combine them to communicate meaning | language |
| begins around 4 months; characterized by the spontancious utterance of speech sounds | babbling stage |
| between 1 and 2 years; speak mostly in single words | one-word stage |
| beginning about age 2; speak mostly in two word sentences | two-word stage |
| the economical, telegram-like speech of children in the two-word stage; utterances consist mostly of nouns and verbs; however, words occur in the correct order, showing that the child has learning some of the lanuage's syntactic rules | telegraphic speech |
| Benjamin Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think | linguistic determinism |
| mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations | intelligence |
| according to Spearman and others, a general intelligence factor that underlies each of the more specific mental abilities indentified through factor analysis | general intelligence |
| a statistical procedure that identifies factors, or clusters of related items, that seem to define a common ability | factor analysis |
| very low intelligence score, yet possesses one exceptional ability, for example, in music or drawing | savant syndrome |
| refers to an ability to produce novel and valuable ideas | creativity |
| the ability to perceive, manage, understand, and use emotions | emotional intelligence |
| a method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores | intelligence set |
| introduced by Binet; the chronoligical age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance | mental age |
| Lewis Terman's widely used revision of Binet's original intelligence test | Stanford-Binet |
| defined origianlly as the ration of mental age to chronological age multiplied by 100 | intelligence quotient (IQ) |
| the most widely used intelligence test; individually administered, contains 11 subtests, and yields separate verbal and performance intelligence scores, as well as an overall intelligence socre | Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) |
| the process of defining meaningful scores by comparison with a pretested group | standardization |
| a bell-shaped curve that represents the distribution (frequency of occurrence) of many physcial and psychological attributes; symmetrical, with most scores near the average and fewer near the extremes | normal curve |
| the extent to which a test produces consistent results | reliability |
| the degree to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to | validity |
| the extent to which it samples the behavior that is of interest | content validity |
| an IQ below 70 and difficulty adapting to the normal demands of independent living (mental retardation) | intellectual disability |
| usually the result of an extra chromosome in the person's genetic makeup | Down syndrome |
| the extent to which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; also called criterion-related validity | predictive validity |
| the proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes | heritability |
| the phenomenon in which a person's concern that he or she will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype (as on an aptitude test, for example) is actually followed by lower performance | stereotype threat |
| refers to the way an issue or question is posed; it can affect people's perception of the issue or answer to the question | framing |
Created by:
bmsivley