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217 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error prone than algorithms.
Heuristic
a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier- but more error prone- use of heuristics
Algorithm
a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas or people.
Concept
in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.
Phoneme
in language, the smallest unit that carries meaning
Morpheme
the tendency to be more confident than correct- to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements.
Overconfidence
judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent or match particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information
Representativeness Heuristic
estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are common.
Availability Heuristic
clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they are formed has been discredited.
Belief Perseverance
the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also the study of meaning
Semantics
the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language
Syntax
beginning at about four months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language.
Babbling
early speech state in which a child speaks like a telegram, using mostly nouns and verbs.
Telegraphic Speech
a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories.
Prototype
the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments
Framing
the view that knowledge originates in experience and that science should, therefore, rely on observation and experimentation
Empiricism
an early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the structural elements of the human mind.
Structuralism
a school of psychology that focused on how our mental and behavioral processes function- how they enable us to adapt, survive and flourish
Functionalism
the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes
Behaviorism
the longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors.
Nature and Nurture Issue
an integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological and social-culture levels of analysis.
Biopsychosocial Perspective
the scientific study of the measurement of human abilities attitudes and traits
Psychometrics
pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base.
Basic Research
how situations and cultures affect our behavior and thinking
Social-Cultural Perspective
psychology that studies how the unconscious drives and conflicts influence behavior, and uses that information to treat people with psychological disorders.
Psychodynamic Perspective
perspective that associates mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
Cognitive Perspective
the perspective where the roots of behavior and mental processes using the principles of natural selection.
Evolutionary Perspective
perspective where the links between biological and psychological processes are studied.
Biological Perspective
a psychologist who studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span.
Developmental Psychologist
a psychologist who studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders
Clinical Psychologist
a person who deals with psychological disorders; often provide medical treatments as well as psychological therapy.
Psychiatrist
the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it.
Hindsight Bias
thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions
Critical Thinking
an observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles.
Case Study
observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation.
Naturalistic Observation
a measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other
Correlation
a statistical index of the relationship between two things. (-1 to +1)
Correlation Coefficient
a graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables. The slope of the points suggests the direction of the relationship between the two variables. The amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation.
Scatterplot
the perception of a relationship where none exists
Illusory Correlation
an experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant about whether the research participants have received the treatment or the placebo.
Double-Blind Procedure
experimental results caused by expectation alone; any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which the recipient believes is an active agent
Placebo Effect
in an experiment, the group that is exposed to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable
Experimental Group
in an experiment, the group that is NOT exposed to the treatment; contrasts with the experimental group and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of treatment
Control Group
a statement of the procedures used to define research variables
Operational Definition
the experimental factor that is manipulated
Independent Variable
the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable
Dependent Variable
the arithmetic average of a distribution, obtained by adding the scores and dividing by the number of scores
Mean
the middle score in a distribution, half the scores are above it; half the scores are below it
Median
the most frequently occurring score in a distribution
Mode
the perspective studying the brain activity that is linked with cognition
Cognitive Perspective
a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score
Standard Deviation
a psychologist who applies the psychological concepts and methods to optimizing human behavior in workplaces
Industrial-Organizational Psychologist
scientific study that aims to solve practical problems
Applied Research
repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances
Replication
a technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a certain group, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of a group.
Survey
all the cases in a group being studied, from which samples may be drawn
Population
a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion
Random Sample
the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request
Foot in the Door Phenomenon
the tendency for observers, when analyzing another's behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition
Fundamental Attribution Error
stronger responses on simple or well learned tasks in the presence of others.
Social Facilitation
the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity
Deindividuation
the enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion with groups
Group Polarization
unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its member
Discrimination
the phenomenon the repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them
Mere Exposure Effect
an aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship
Passionate Love
an unjustifiable attitude toward a group and its members. Prejudice generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings and a predisposition to discriminatory action.
Prejudice
the bushy, branching extensions of a neuron that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body.
Dendrite
the extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers, through which messages pass to other neurons or to muscles or glands.
Axon
a nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system.
Neuron
a neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon.
Action Potential
the junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron. The tiny gap at this junction is called the synaptic gap or synaptic cleft.
Synapse
a chemical messenger that crosses the synaptic gaps between neurons. When released by the sending neuron, it releases across the synapse and binds to a receptor site on the receiving neuron, thereby influencing whether that neuron will generate a neural impulse.
Neurotransmitter
the brain and spinal cord.
Central Nervous System
the sensory and motor neurons that connect the CNS to the rest of the body.
Peripheral Nervous System
the division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body's skeletal muscles.
Somatic Nervous System
the part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs. Contains the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
Autonomic Nervous System
the division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations
Sympathetic Nervous System
the endocrine system's most influential gland. Under the influence of the hypothalamus, the pituitary regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands.
Pituitary Gland
a simple, autonomic response to a sensory stimulus.
Reflex
a chemical messenger that is manufactured by the endocrine glands, travels through the bloodstream and affects other tissues
Hormone
a nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in arousal.
Reticular Formation
the oldest part of the central core of the brain, beginning where the spinal cord swells as it enters the skull; responsible for automatic survival functions.
Brainstem
a technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce computer-generated images of soft tissue. Show brain anatomy as well
MRI
tissue destruction; naturally or experimentally caused destruction of tissue
Brain Lesion
an amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweep across the brain's surface. These waves are measured by electrodes placed on the scalp.
EEG
a visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task.
PET Scan
the base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing.
Medulla
the brain's sensory switchboard, located on the top of the brainstem; it directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla.
Thalamus
the little brain at the rear of the brain stem; functions inclue processing sensory input and coordinating movement output and balance
Cerebellum
doughnut shaped neural system located below the cerebral hemispheres; associated with emotions and drives.
Limbic System
two lima bean sized neural clusters in the limbic system
Amygdala
a neural structure lying below the thalamus; it directs several maintenance activities; helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland and is linked to emotion and reward
Hypothalamus
portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the back of the head; includes areas that receive information from visual fields
Occipital Lobe
portion of the cerebral cortex lying just behind the forehead; involved in speaking and muscle movements and in making plans and judgements.
Frontal Lobe
portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top of the head and toward the rear; receives sensory input for touch and body position
Parietal Lobe
portion of the cerebral cortex lying roughly above the ears includes the auditory areas, each receiving information primarily from the opposite ear
Temporal Lobes
controls language reception-- a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe
Wernicke's Area
controls language expression that directs the muscle movements involved in speech
Broca's Area
the division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body; conserving its energy
Parasympathetic Nervous System
gland that sits just above the kidneys and secretes hormones that helps arouse the body in times of stress.
Adrenal Gland
the brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience.
Plasticity
impairment of language, usually caused by the left hemisphere damage to either Broca's Area of Wernicke's Area
Aphasia
a complex molecule containing genetic information that makes up the chromosomes.
DNA
threadlike structures made of DNA molecules that contain the genes.
Chromosomes
the biochemical units of heredity that make up the chromosomes; segments of DNA capable of synthesizing a protein
Genes
the study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior.
Behavior Genetics
the random error in gene replication that leads to a change.
Mutation
the principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations, those that lead to increased reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations
Natural Selection
a level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse
Threshold
an area at the rear of the frontal loves that controls voluntary movements
Motor Cortex
area at the front of the parietal loves that registers and processes body touch and movement sensations
Sensory Cortex
biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.
Maturation
in Piaget's theory, the stage front birth to about 2 years of age, during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities
Sensorimotor Stage
the awareness that things continue to exist when not perceived.
Object Permanence
in Piaget's theory, the stage from about 2 to about 6 or 7 years of age, during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.
Preoperational Stage
in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development, beginning about age 12, during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.
Formal Operational Stage
the principle, which Piaget believed to be part of a concerte operational reasoning, that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.
Conservation
in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view.
Egocentrism
the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age
Stranger Anxiety
the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life
Imprinting
the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life.
Temperament
the most important of the male sex hormones stimulates the growth of the male sex organs in the fetus and the development of the male sex characteristics during puberty.
Testosterone
our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles.
Identity
an organism's decreasing response to a stimulus with repeated exposure to it?
Habituation
in classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.
Acquisition
in classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that comes after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response.
Conditioned Stimulus
in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally-- naturally and automatically-- triggers a response.
Unconditioned Stimulus
in classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus.
Conditioned Response
in classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus, such as salivation when food is in the mouth.
Unconditioned Response
a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events
Classical Conditioning
the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response.
Spontaneous Recovery
the helplessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events.
Learned Helplessness
the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses.
Generalization
an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior
Shaping
increasing behaviors by representing positive stimuli. A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response.
Positive Reinforcement
increases behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli.
Negative Reinforcement
learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it
Latent Learning
a desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment
Extrinsic Motivation
a desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake
Intrinsic Motivation
learning by observing others.
Observational Learning
a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher
Operant Conditioning
in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specific time has elapsed.
Fixed-Interval Schedule
in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specific number of responses.
Fixed Ratio Schedule
in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals.
Variable-Interval Schedule
in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specific number of responses.
Variable Ratio Schedule
an event that decreases the behavior it follows.
Punishment
the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior
Modeling
frontal love neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so.
Mirror Neurons
Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely.
Law of Effect
reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement.
Partial Reinforcement
the diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus does not following a conditioned stimulus; occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced.
Extinction
historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people and the individual's potential for personal growth.
Humanistic Perspective
the tendency to be more confident than correct-- to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements.
Overconfidence
a statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance.
Statistical Significance
a neural center that is located in the limbic system helps process explicit memories for storage
Hippocampus
in operant conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.
Discrimination
an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need.
Primary Reinforcer
female sex hormone
Estrogen
a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within three or four seconds
Echoic Memory
a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event
Flashbulb Memory
activated memory that holds a few items briefly before the information is stored or forgotten.
Short-Term Memory
the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.
Long-Term Memory
retention independent of conscious recollection.
Implicit Memory
the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information
Retroactive Interference
the disruptive on prior learning of the recall of new information
Proactive Interference
the tendency to remember the first and last items in a list
Serial Position Effect
a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli, a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second.
Iconic Memory
unconscious encoding of incidental information
Automatic Processing
an increase in a synapse's firing potential after a brief, rapid stimulation
Long Tem Potentiation
in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness
Repression
the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with ones current mood.
Mood-Congruent Memory
the losing of one's memory
Amnesia
memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare.
Explicit Memory
a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier
Recall
a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned.
Recognition
incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event.
Misinformation Effect
the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice.
Spacing Effect
attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined.
Source Amnesia
where the processing of an information into the memory system goes wrong.
Encoding Failure
the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory or response.
Priming
a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.
Mental Set
a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence
Confirmation Bias
the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to provlem solving.
Functional Fixedness
clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.
Belief Perseverance
a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.
Insight
adapting our current understandings to incorporate new information.
Accommodation
our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age.
Crystalized Intelligence
our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood
Fluid Intelligence
the time of natural cessation of menstruation
Menopause
the first menstrual period
Menarche
a general intelligence factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test.
General Intelligence
a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person's total score.
Factor Analysis
the ability to perceive, understand, manage and use emotions.
Emotional Intelligence
defined originally as the ratio of mental age to chronological age, multiplied by 100.
Intelligence Quotient
the success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior.
Predictive Validity
the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test or retesting.
Reliability
mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations
Intelligence
defining a meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group.
Standardization
the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to.
Validity
the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest.
Content Validity
a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional skill, such as in computation or drawing.
Savant Syndrome
a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype
Stereotype Threat
an expectation that help, not hurt, those who have helped them.
Reciprocity Norm
attitude change path in which interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.
Central Route Persuasion
the principle that frustration-- the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal--creates anger, which can generate aggression
Frustration Aggression Principle
the theory that we can explain someone's behavior by crediting either the situation or the persons disposition
Attribution Theory
the theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs.
Social Exchange Theory
we act to reduce discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent.
Cognitive Dissonance
influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval.
Normative Social Influence
the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable.
Social Loafing
the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present.
Bystander Effect
the understood rule for accepted and expected behavior.
Norm
the tendency to favor ones own group.
Ingroup Bias
a generalized belief about people.
Stereotype
physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt someone.
Aggression
unselfish regard for the welfare of others
Altruism
mutual views often help by conflicting people, when each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive.
Mirror Image Perceptions