Help
Options
Didn't know it?
click below
click below
Knew it?
click below
click below
Don't Know
Remaining cards (0)
Know
retry
shuffle
restart
0:00
Embed Code - If you would like this activity on your web page, copy the script below and paste it into your web page.
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Psych 3,4,5
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Absolute Threshold | The minimum amount of energy in a sensory stimulus detected 50% of the time. |
| Signal Detection theory | A theory that assumes that the detection of faint sensory stimuli depends not only upon a person’s physiological sensitivity to a stimulus but also upon his decision criterion for detection, which is based on nonsensory factors." |
| Difference threshold | The minimum difference between two sensory stimuli detected 50% of the time. The difference threshold is also sometimes referred to as the just noticeable difference, or JND." |
| Weber's Law | For each type of sensory judgment that we can make, the measured difference threshold is a constant fraction of the standard stimulus value used to measure it. This constant fraction is different for each type of sensory judgment. |
| Steven's power law | The perceived magnitude of a stimulus is equal to its actual physical intensity raised to some constant power. The constant power is different for each type of sensory judgment. |
| Sensory adaptation | Our sensitivity to unchanging and repetitious stimuli disappears over time. |
| Wavelength | The distance in one cycle of a wave, from one crest to the next. |
| Amplitude | The amount of energy in a wave, its intensity, which is the height of the wave at its crest. |
| Frequency | The number of times a wave cycles in one second. |
| Nearsightedness | A visual problem in which the light waves from distant objects come into focus in front of the retina, blurring the images of these objects. |
| Farsightedness | A visual problem in which the light waves from nearby objects come into focus behind the retina, blurring the images of these objects. |
| Rods | Receptor cells in the retina that are principally responsible for dim light and achromatic vision. |
| Cones | Receptor cells in the retina that are principally responsible for bright light and color vision. |
| Dark Adaptation | The process by which the rods and cones through internal chemical changes become more and more sensitive to light in dim light conditions. |
| Trichromatic Theory | A theory of color vision that assumes that there are three types of cones, each only activated by wavelength ranges of light corresponding roughly to blue, green, and red. If all three are activated, we see white. Other colors are variations of activation |
| Opponent Process Theory | A theory of color vision that assumes that there are three opponent-process cell systems (red-green, blue-yellow, and black-white) and the colors in each system oppose one another in that if one color is stimulated, the other is inhibited. |
| Sensation | The initial information gathering and recoding by the sensory structures. |
| Perception | The interpretation by the brain of sensory information. |
| Bottom up Processing | The processing of incoming sensory information as it travels up from the sensory structures to the brain. |
| Top Down Processing | The brain’s use of knowledge, beliefs, and expectations to interpret sensory information. |
| Perceputal Set | The interpretation of ambiguous sensory information in terms of how our past experiences have set us to perceive it. |
| Contextual Effect | The use of the present context of sensory information to determine its meaning. |
| Figure-and-Ground Principal | The Gestalt perceptual organizational principle that the brain organizes sensory information into a figure or figures (the center of attention) and ground (the less distinct background). |
| Subjective Constancy | A line or shape that is perceived to be present but does not really exist. The brain creates it during perception. |
| Perceptual Constancy | The perceptual stability of the size, shape, brightness, and color for familiar objects seen at varying distances, different angles, and under different lighting conditions. |
| Depth Perception | Our ability to perceive the distance of objects from us. |
| Classical Conditioning | Acquiring a new response (the conditioned response) to a previously neutral stimulus (the conditioned stimulus) that reliably signals the arrival of an unconditioned stimulus. |
| Unconditioned stimulus | The stimulus in a reflex that automatically elicits an unconditioned response. |
| Unconditioned response | The response in a reflex that is automatically elicited by the unconditioned stimulus. |
| Acquisition | In classical conditioning, acquiring a new response (the conditioned response) to the conditioned stimulus. |
| Extinction | In classical conditioning, the diminishing of the conditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus no longer follows the conditioned stimulus. |
| Spontaneous recovery | In classical conditioning, a partial recovery in strength of the conditioned response following a break during extinction training. |
| Stimulus generalization | In classical conditioning, the elicitation of the conditioned response to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus. The more similar the stimulus is to the conditioned stimulus, the stronger the response. |
| Stimulus discrimination | In classical conditioning, the elicitation of the conditioned response only by the conditioned stimulus or only by a small set of highly similar stimuli that includes the conditioned stimulus. |
| Operant Conditioning | Learning to associate behaviors with their consequences. Behaviors that are reinforced (lead to satisfying consequences) will be strengthened, and behaviors that are punished (lead to unsatisfying consequences) will be weakened. |
| Law of effect | A principle developed by Edward Thorndike that says that any behavior that results in satisfying consequences tends to be repeated and that any behavior that results in unsatisfying consequences tends not to be repeated. |
| Reinforcer | A stimulus that increases the probability of a prior response. |
| Punisher | A stimulus that decreases the probability of a prior response. |
| Appetitive Stimulus | A stimulus that is pleasant. |
| Aversive Stimulus | A stimulus that is unpleasant. |
| Positive reinforcement | Reinforcement in which an appetitive stimulus is presented. |
| Negative reinforcement | Reinforcement in which an aversive stimulus is removed. |
| Positive punishment | Punishment in which an aversive stimulus is presented. |
| Negative punishment | Punishment in which an appetitive stimulus is removed. |
| Premack principal | The principle that the opportunity to perform a highly frequent behavior can reinforce a less frequent behavior. |
| Primary reinforcer | A stimulus that is innately reinforcing. |
| Secondary reinforcer | A stimulus that gains its reinforcing property through learning. |
| Shaping | Training a human or animal to make an operant response by reinforcing successive approximations of the desired response. |
| Behavior modification | The application of classical and operant conditioning principles to eliminate undesirable behavior and to teach more desirable behavior. |
| Partial schedule of reinforcement effect | The finding that operant responses that are reinforced on partial schedules are more resistant to extinction than those reinforced on a continuous schedule. |
| Fixed ratio schedule | A partial schedule of reinforcement in which a reinforcer is delivered each time a fixed number of responses is made. The fixed number can be any number greater than one. |
| Variable ratio schedule | A partial schedule of reinforcement in which the number of responses it takes to obtain a reinforcer varies on each trial but averages to a set number across trials. |
| Fixed interval schedule | A partial schedule of reinforcement in which a reinforcer is delivered after the first response is given once a set interval of time has elapsed. |
| Variable interval schedule | A partial schedule of reinforcement in which the time that must elapse on each trial before a response will lead to the delivery of a reinforcer varies from trial to trial but averages to a set time across trials. |
| Motivation | The set of internal and external factors that energize our behavior and direct it toward goals. |
| Drive Reduction Theory | A theory of motivation that proposes that our behavior is motivated to reduce drives (bodily tension states) created by unsatisfied bodily needs in order to return the body to a balanced internal state. |
| Incentive Theory | A theory of motivation that proposes that our behavior is motivated by incentives, external stimuli that we have learned to associate with reinforcement. |
| Arousal Theory | A theory of motivation that proposes that our behavior is motivated to maintain an optimal level of physiological arousal. |
| Extrinsic motivation | The desire to perform a behavior for external reinforcement. |
| Intrinsic motivation | The desire to perform a behavior for its own sake. |
| Over justification effect | A decrease in an intrinsically motivated behavior after the behavior is extrinsically reinforced and then the reinforcement is discontinued. |
| Latent learning | Learning that occurs but is not demonstrated until there is incentive to do so. |
| Observational learning | Learning by observing others and imitating their behavior. |
| Mirror Neurons | Neurons that fire both when performing an action and when observing another person perform that same action. |
| Sensory Memory | The set of sensory registers, one for each of our senses, that serve as holding places for incoming sensory information until it can be attended to, interpreted, and encoded into short-term memory. |
| Iconic Memory | The visual sensory register that holds an exact copy of the incoming visual input but only for a brief period of time, less than 1 second. |
| Short Term Memory | The memory stage with a small capacity (7 ± 2 chunks) and brief duration (< 30 seconds) that we are consciously aware of and in which we do our problem solving, reasoning, and decision making. |
| Memory Span Task | A memory task in which the participant is given a series of items one at a time and then has to recall the items in the order in which they were presented. |
| Memory span | The average number of items an individual can remember across a series of memory span trials. |
| Chunk | A meaningful unit in a person’s memory. |
| Maintenance Rehearsal | A type of rehearsal in short-term memory in which the information is repeated over and over again in order to maintain it. |
| Working Memory | A more detailed version of short-term memory that includes the mechanisms that allow short-term memory to accomplish its tasks. |
| Long-term Memory | The memory stage in which information is stored for a long period of time (perhaps permanently) and whose capacity is essentially unlimited. |
| Explicit (declarative) memory | Long-term memory for factual knowledge and personal experiences. This type of memory requires a conscious effort to remember and entails making declarations about the information remembered. |
| Sematic Memory | Explicit memory for factual knowledge. |
| Episodic Memory | Explicit memory for personal experiences. |
| Implicit (non-declarative) Memory | Long-term memory for procedural tasks, classical conditioning, and priming effects. This type of memory does not require conscious awareness or the need to make declarations about the information remembered. |
| Procedural memory | Implicit memory for cognitive and motor tasks that have a physical procedural aspect to them. |
| Priming | The implicit influence of an earlier presented stimulus on the response to a later stimulus. This influence is independent of conscious memory for the earlier stimulus. |
| Amnesic | A person with severe memory deficits following brain surgery or injury. |
| Anterograde amnesia | The inability to form new explicit long-term memories for events following surgery or trauma to the brain. Explicit memories formed before the surgery or trauma are left intact. |
| Retrograde amnesia | The disruption of memory for the past, especially episodic information for events before, especially just before, surgery or trauma to the brain. |
| Infantile/child amnesia | Our inability as adults to remember events that occurred in our lives before about 3 years of age. |
| Free recall | A memory task in which a list of items is presented one at a time and then the participant is free to recall them in any order. |
| Primacy effect | In memory, the superior recall of the early portion of a list relative to the middle of the list in a one-trial free recall task. |
| Recency effect | The superior recall of the latter portion of a list relative to the middle of the list in a one-trial free recall task. |
| Encoding | The process of moving information from one memory stage to the next (from sensory memory into short-term memory or from short-term memory to long-term memory). |
| Storage | The process of maintaining information in a memory stage. |
| Retrieval | The process of bringing information stored in long-term memory into short-term memory. |
| Elaborative rehearsal | A type of rehearsal in short-term memory in which incoming information is related to information from long-term memory to encode it into long-term memory. |
| Self-reference effect | The superior long-term memory for information related to oneself at time of encoding into long-term memory. |
| State dependent memory | Long-term memory retrieval is best when a person’s physiological state at the time of encoding and retrieval of the information is the same. |
| Mood dependent memory | Long-term memory retrieval is best when a person’s mood state at the time of encoding and retrieval of the information is the same |
| Mood congruence effect | Tendency to retrieve experiences and information that are congruent with a person’s current mood. |
| Mnemonic | A memory aid, some strategy or technique you use to help you remember information. |
| Method of loci | A mnemonic using a familiar room or place, associate new information using bizarre mental imagery to encode information into your brain. Then you just think of that room or place and recall that information using the bizarre mental imagery as cues. |
| Peg word system | A mnemonic in which the items in a list to be remembered are associated with the sequential items in a memorized jingle and then the list is retrieved by going through the jingle and retrieving the associated items. |
| Recall | A measure of long-term memory retrieval that requires the reproduction of the information with essentially no retrieval cues. |
| Recognition | A measure of long-term memory retrieval that only requires the identification of the information in the presence of retrieval cues. |
| Relearning | The savings method of measuring long-term memory retrieval in which the measure is the amount of time saved when learning information for the second time. |
| Encoding failure Theory | A theory of forgetting that proposes that forgetting is due to the failure to encode the information into long-term memory. |
| Storage decay theory | A theory of forgetting that proposes that forgetting is due to the decay of the biological representation of the information and that periodic usage of the information will help to maintain it in storage. |
| Interference theory | A theory of forgetting that proposes that forgetting is due to other information in memory interfering and thereby making the to-be-remembered information inaccessible. |
| Proactivity interference | The disruptive effect of prior learning on the retrieval of new information. |
| Retroactive interference | The disruptive effect of new learning on the retrieval of old information. |
| Cue-dependent theory | A theory of forgetting that proposes that forgetting is due to the unavailability of the retrieval cues necessary to locate the information in long-term memory. |
| Tip of the tongue phenomenon | The failure to recall specific information from memory combined with partial recall and the feeling that recall is imminent. |
| Schemas | Frameworks for our knowledge about people, objects, events, and actions that allow us to organize and interpret information about our world. |
| Spurce Misatribution | Attributing a memory to the wrong source, resulting in a false memory. |
| False memory | An inaccurate memory that feels as real as an accurate memory. |
| Misinformation effect | The distortion of a memory by exposure to misleading information. |
Created by:
edenbrownden
Popular Psychology sets