Psychology Key Terms

Front 1

Hindsight bias

Back 1

believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have forseen it. (A.k.a. the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon.)

Front 2

Overconfidence

Back 2

we tend to think we know more than we do/we tend to be more confident than correct

Front 3

Operational definition

Back 3

statement of procedures used to define research variables

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old brain

Back 4

the brainstem and limbic system and amygdala
automatic survival functions-breathing, heartbeat

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cerebellum

Back 5

“little brain” attached to the rear of the brainstem; its functions include processing sensory input and coordinating movement output and balance

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hippocampus

Back 6

memory formation/consolidation

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amygdala

Back 7

Two lima bean sized neural clusters that are components of the limbic system and are linked to emotion.
Influence aggression and fear

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motor cortex

Back 8

an area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements.

Front 9

sensory cortex

Back 9

the area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch and movement sensations.

Front 10

frontal lobe

Back 10

part of cerebral cortex just behind forehead; involved in speaking and muscle movements/making plans and judgements

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parietal lobes

Back 11

at the top of head to the rear; receives sensory input for touch and body position

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occipital lobes

Back 12

lying at the back of head; includes the visual areas, which receive visual info from the opposite visual field

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temporal lobes

Back 13

lying roughly above the ears; includes the auditory areas, each of which receives auditory info primarily from the opposite ear

Front 14

association areas of the brain

Back 14

areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions; rather, they are involved in higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking and speaking

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left brain

Back 15

right handed; processing info; processing language; --> lang., serial processing, expertise, organized (stereotype)

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right brain

Back 16

left handed; looks at spacial info; processes visual/spatial understandings; sometimes dyslexic, creative; good at drawing; fun, crazy, disorganized (stereotype)

Front 17

reciprocal determinism

Back 17

the process of interacting w/ our environment
• Different people choose different environments.
• Our personalities shape how we interpret and react to events.
• Our personalities help create situations to which we react.

Front 18

Learned helplessness-

Back 18

when animals and people experience no control over repeated bad events, they often learn helplessness

Front 19

self serving bias

Back 19

readiness to perceive ourselves favorably
People accept more responsibility for good deeds than for bad, for successes than for failures.
Most people see themselves as better than average.

Front 20

attribution theory

Back 20

suggests how we explain someone’s behavior-by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition.

Front 21

fundamental attribution error

Back 21

the tendency for observers, when analyzing another’s behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition.

Front 22

cognitive dissonance theory

Back 22

the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent. For example, when our awareness of our attitudes and of our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes

Front 23

social facilitation

Back 23

stronger responses on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others
On tougher tasks, people perform less well when observers or others working on the same task are present.
When others observe us, we become aroused. This arousal strengthens the most likely response – the correct one on an easy task, an incorrect one on a difficult task

Front 24

social loafing

Back 24

- the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable

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Normative social influence

Back 25

influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval

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Informational social influence

Back 26

influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality

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Deindividuatio

Back 27

abandoning normal restraints to the power of the group/the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity/
To be less self conscious and less restrained when in a group situation.

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Group polarization

Back 28

the enhancement of a group’s prevailing inclinations thru discussion within the group.

Front 29

Groupthink-

Back 29

the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives

Front 30

Attitude

Back 30

feelings, often based on our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events

Front 31

Autonomic nervous system

Back 31

controls our arousal

Front 32

Sympathetic division

Back 32

[arousing] directs the adrenal glands atop the kidneys to release the stress hormones epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrelaine) increases heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels.

Front 33

Parasympathetic division

Back 33

calming] inhibits further release of stress hormones, those already in the bloodstream linger awhile, so arousal diminishes gradually

Front 34

Spillover effect

Back 34

Sometimes our arousal response to one event spills over into our response to the next event.

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10 basic emotions

Back 35

• Joy
• Interest-excitement
• Surprise
• Sadness
• Anger
• Disgust
• Contempt
• Fear
• Shame
• Guilt

Front 36

Catharsis hypothesis

Back 36

idea that releasing negative energy will calm aggressive tendencies

Front 37

Feel-good-do-good phenomenon

Back 37

our increased willingness to help others when we are in a good mood.

Front 38

Adaptation-level phenomenon

Back 38

tendency to assess stimuli by contrasting them w/ a neutral level that changes w/ our experience.

Front 39

Relative – deprivation principle

Back 39

our perception that we are less well off than others with whom we compare ourselves.

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Cognition

Back 40

term covering all the mental activities associated w/ thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

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Prototypes

Back 41

best examples of a category

Front 42

Algorithm

Back 42

time-consuming but thorough set of rules that guarantees a solution to a problem.

Front 43

Heuristic

Back 43

simpler thinking strategy that allows to solve problems quickly but may lead us to incorrect solutions

Front 44

Confirmation-bias

Back 44

predisposes us to verify rather than challenge our hypotheses

Front 45

Fixation –

Back 45

mental set and functional fixedness, may us doggedly pursuing one line of reasoning and prevent us from taking the fresh perspective that would let us solve the problem

Front 46

Operant conditioning

Back 46

organisms associate their own actions w/ consequences: behaviors followed by reinforcers increase; those followed by punishers decrease

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Shaping

Back 47

a procedure in which reinforcers, such as food, gradually guide an animal’s actions toward a desired behavior.

Front 48

Discriminative stimulus

Back 48

signals a response will be reinforced

Front 49

Associative learning

Back 49

linking two events that occur close together. Successful adaptation requires both nature (the needed genetic predispositions) and nurture (a history of appropriate learning)

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Conditioning-

Back 50

the process of learning associations

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Classical conditioning

Back 51

learn to associate two stimuli and thus to anticipate events.

Front 52

Unconditioned response (UR)

Back 52

in classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (US), such as salivation when food is in the mouth.

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Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

Back 53

in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally-naturally and automatically-triggers a response

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Conditioned response (CR

Back 54

in classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus

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Conditioned stimulus (CS)

Back 55

in classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association w/ an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response.

Front 56

Discrimination

Back 56

learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus (which predicts the US) and other irrelevant stimuli.

Front 57

Operant conditioning

Back 57

organisms associate their own actions w/ consequences: behaviors followed by reinforcers increase; those followed by punishers decrease.

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Flashbulb Memory –

Back 58

a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event

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(encoding

Back 59

get info into our brain

Front 60

Sensory memory

Back 60

immediate, very brief recording of sensory info in the memory system.

Front 61

Serial Position Effect

Back 61

People remember the last and first items better than they do those in the middle of a list of items.

Front 62

Automatic processing-

Back 62

unconscious encoding of incidental info, of space, time, frequency, and of well-learned info, such as word meanings
• Space- visualizing location
• Time- unintentionally not the sequences of the days events
• Frequency- Effortlessly keep track of how many things happen
Occurs so effortlessly it is difficult to shut off, goes on w/out needing to pay attention to it.

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Effortful processing

Back 63

encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

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Self-Reference Effect

Back 64

We have good recall for info we can relate to ourselves.

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Mnemonics

Back 65

memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices…developed by ancient Greek scholars and orators as aids to remembering lengthy passages.

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proactive interference

Back 66

the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new info

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retroactive interference

Back 67

the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old info

Front 68

misinformation effect

Back 68

incorporating misleading info into one's memory of an event