Ap Psychology Vocabulary

Front 1

A-B-A design

Back 1

Experimental design in which participants first experience the baseline condition (A), then experience the experimental treatment (B), and then return to the baseline (A).

Front 2

Abnormal psychology

Back 2

The area of psychological investigation concerned with understanding the nature of individual pathologies of mind, mood, and behavior.

Front 3

Absolute threshold

Back 3

The minimum amount of physical energy needed to produce a reliable sensory experience; operationally defined as the stimulus level at which a sensory signal is detected half the time.

Front 4

Accommodation

Back 4

According to Piaget, the process of restructuring or modifying cognitive structures so that new information can fit into them more easily; this process works in tandem with assimilation.

Front 5

Acquisition

Back 5

The stage in a classical conditioning experiment during which the conditioned response is first elicited by the conditioned stimulus.

Front 6

Action potential

Back 6

The nerve impulse activated in a neuron that travels down the axon and causes neurotransmitters to be released into a synapse.

Front 7

Acute stress

Back 7

A transient state of arousal with typically clear onset and offset patterns.

Front 8

Addiction

Back 8

A condition in which the body requires a drug in order to function without physical and psychological reactions to its absence; often the outcome of tolerance and dependence.

Front 9

Ageism

Back 9

Prejudice against older people, similar to racism and sexism in its negative stereotypes.

Front 10

Aggression

Back 10

Behaviors that cause psychological or physical harm to another individual.

Front 11

Agoraphobia

Back 11

An extreme fear of being in public places or open spaces from which escape may be difficult or embarrassing.

Front 12

AIDS

Back 12

Acronym for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, a syndrome caused by a virus that damages the immune system and weakens the body's ability to fight infection.

Front 13

Algorithm

Back 13

A step-by-step procedure that always provides the right answer for a particular type of problem.

Front 14

All-or-none law

Back 14

The rule that the size of the action potential is unaffected by increases in the intensity of stimulation beyond the threshold level.

Front 15

Altruism

Back 15

Prosocial behaviors a person carries out without considering his or her own safety or interests.

Front 16

Alzheimer's disease

Back 16

A chronic organic brain syndrome characterized by gradual loss of memory, decline in intellectual ability, and deterioration of personality.

Front 17

Amacrine cells

Back 17

Cells that integrate information across the retina; rather than sending signals toward the brain, amacrine cells link bipolar cells to other bipolar cells and ganglion cells to other ganglion cells.

Front 18

Ambiguity

Back 18

A perceptual object that may have more than “one interpretation.

Front 19

Amnesia

Back 19

A failure of memory caused by physical injury, disease, drug use, or psychological trauma.

Front 20

Amygdala

Back 20

The part of the limbic system that controls emotion, aggression, and the formation of emotional memory.

Front 21

Analytic psychology

Back 21

A branch of psychology that views the person as a constellation of compensatory internal forces in a dynamic balance.

Front 22

Anchoring heuristic

Back 22

An insufficient adjustment up or down from an original starting value when judging the probable value of some event or outcome.

Front 23

Animal cognition

Back 23

The cognitive capabilities of nonhuman animals; researchers trace the development of cognitive capabilities across species and the continuity of capabilities from nonhuman to human animals.

Front 24

Anorexia nervosa

Back 24

An eating disorder in which an individual weighs less than 85 percent of her or his expected weight but still controls eating because of a self-perception of obesity.

Front 25

Anticipatory coping

Back 25

Efforts made in advance of a potentially stressful event to overcome, reduce, or tolerate the imbalance between perceived demands and available resources.

Front 26

Anxiety

Back 26

An intense emotional response caused by the preconscious recognition that a repressed conflict is about to emerge into consciousness.

Front 27

Anxiety disorders

Back 27

Mental disorders marked by physiological arousal, feelings of tension, and intense apprehension without apparent reason.

Front 28

Apparent motion

Back 28

A movement illusion in which one or more stationary lights going on and off in succession are perceived as a single moving light; the simplest form of apparent motion is the phi phenomenon.

Front 29

Archetype

Back 29

A universal, inherited, primitive, and symbolic representation of a particular experience or object.

Front 30

Assimilation

Back 30

According to Piaget, the process whereby new cognitive elements are fitted in with old elements or modified to fit more easily; this process works in tandem with accommodation.

Front 31

Association cortex

Back 31

The parts of the cerebral cortex in which many high-level brain processes occur.

Front 32

Attachment

Back 32

Emotional relationship between a child and the “regular caregiver.

Front 33

Attention

Back 33

A state of focused awareness on a subset of the available perceptual information.

Front 34

Attitude

Back 34

The learned, relatively stable tendency to respond to people, concepts, and events in an evaluative way.

Front 35

Attributions

Back 35

Judgments about the causes of outcomes.

Front 36

Attribution theory

Back 36

A social-cognitive approach to describing the ways the social perceiver uses information to generate causal explanations.

Front 37

Audience design

Back 37

The process of shaping a message depending on the audience for which it is intended.

Front 38

Auditory cortex

Back 38

The area of the temporal lobes that receives and processes auditory information.

Front 39

Auditory nerve

Back 39

The nerve that carries impulses from the cochlea to the cochlear nucleus of the brain.

Front 40

Automatic processes

Back 40

Processes that do not require attention; they can often be performed along with other tasks without interference.

Front 41

Autonomic nervous system (ANS)

Back 41

The subdivision of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body's involuntary motor responses by connecting the sensory receptors to the central nervous system (CNS) and the CNS to the smooth muscle, cardiac muscle, and glands.

Front 42

Availability heuristic

Back 42

A judgment based on the information readily available in memory.

Front 43

Aversion therapy

Back 43

A type of behavioral therapy used to treat individuals attracted to harmful stimuli; an attractive stimulus is paired with a noxious stimulus in order to elicit a negative reaction to the target stimulus.

Front 44

Axon

Back 44

The extended fiber of a neuron through which nerve impulses travel from the soma to the terminal buttons.

Front 45

Basic level

Back 45

The level of categorization that can be retrieved from memory most quickly and used most efficiently.

Front 46

Basilar membrane

Back 46

A membrane in the cochlea that, when set into motion, stimulates hair cells that produce the neural effects of auditory stimulation.

Front 47

Behavior

Back 47

The actions by which an organism adjusts to its environment.

Front 48

Behavioral confirmation

Back 48

The process by which people behave in ways that elicit from others specific expected reactions and then use those reactions to confirm their beliefs.

Front 49

Behavioral data

Back 49

Observational reports about the behavior of organisms and the conditions under which the behavior occurs or changes.

Front 50

Behavioral measures

Back 50

Overt actions and reactions that are observed and recorded, exclusive of self-reported behavior.

Front 51

Behavioral rehearsal

Back 51

Procedures used to establish and strengthen basic skills; as used in social-skills training programs, requires the client to rehearse a desirable behavior sequence mentally.

Front 52

Behavior analysis

Back 52

The area of psychology that focuses on the environmental determinants of learning and behavior.

Front 53

Behaviorism

Back 53

A scientific approach that limits the study of psychology to measurable or observable behavior.

Front 54

Behaviorist perspective

Back 54

The psychological perspective primarily concerned with observable behavior that can be objectively recorded and with the relationships of observable behavior to environmental stimuli.

Front 55

Behavior modification

Back 55

The systematic use of principles of learning to increase the frequency of desired behaviors and/or decrease the frequency of problem behaviors.

Front 56

Belief-bias effect

Back 56

A situation that occurs when a person's prior knowledge, attitudes, or values distort the reasoning process by influencing the person to accept invalid arguments.

Front 57

Between-subjects design

Back 57

A research design in which different groups of participants are randomly assigned to experimental conditions or to control conditions.

Front 58

Biofeedback

Back 58

Biofeedback

Front 59

Biological constraints on learning

Back 59

Any limitations on an organism's capacity to learn that are caused by the inherited sensory, response, or cognitive capabilities of members of a given species.

Front 60

Biological perspective

Back 60

The approach to identifying causes of behavior that focuses on the functioning of the genes, the brain, the nervous system, and the endocrine system.

Front 61

Biomedical therapies

Back 61

Treatments for psychological disorders that alter brain functioning with chemical or physical interventions such as drug therapy, surgery, or electroconvulsive therapy.

Front 62

Biopsychosocial model

Back 62

A model of health and illness that suggests that links among the nervous system, the immune system, behavioral styles, cognitive processing, and environmental factors can put people at risk for illness.

Front 63

Bipolar cells

Back 63

Nerve cells in the visual system that combine impulses from many receptors and transmit the results to ganglion cells.

Front 64

Bipolar disorder

Back 64

A mood disorder characterized by alternating periods of depression and mania.

Front 65

Blocking

Back 65

A phenomenon in which an organism does not learn a new stimulus that signals an unconditioned stimulus, because the new stimulus is presented simultaneously with a stimulus that is already effective as a signal.

Front 66

Body image

Back 66

The subjective experience of the appearance of one's body.

Front 67

Bottom-up processing

Back 67

Perceptual analyses based on the sensory data available in the environment; results of analyses are passed upward toward more abstract representations.

Front 68

Brain stem

Back 68

The brain structure that regulates the body's basic life processes.

Front 69

Brightness

Back 69

The dimension of color space that captures the intensity of light.

Front 70

Broca's area

Back 70

The region of the brain that translates thoughts into speech or sign.

Front 71

Bulimia nervosa

Back 71

An eating disorder characterized by binge eating followed by measures to purge the body of the excess calories.

Front 72

Bystander intervention

Back 72

Willingness to assist a person in need of help.

Front 73

Cannon–Bard theory of emotion

Back 73

A theory stating that an “emotional stimulus produces two co-occurring reactions—arousal “and experience of emotion—that do not cause each other.

Front 74

Case study

Back 74

Intensive observation of a particular individual or small group of individuals.

Front 75

Catharsis

Back 75

The process of expressing strongly felt but usually repressed emotions.

Front 76

Central nervous system (CNS)

Back 76

The part of the nervous system consisting of the brain and spinal cord.

Front 77

Centration

Back 77

A thought pattern common during the beginning of the preoperational stage of cognitive development; characterized by the child's inability to take more than one perceptual factor into account at the same time.

Front 78

Cerebellum

Back 78

The region of the brain attached to the brain stem that controls motor coordination, posture, and balance as well as the ability to learn control of body movements.

Front 79

Cerebral cortex

Back 79

The outer surface of the cerebrum.

Front 80

Cerebral hemispheres

Back 80

The two halves of the cerebrum, connected by the corpus callosum.

Front 81

Cerebrum

Back 81

The region of the brain that regulates higher cognitive and emotional functions.

Front 82

Child-directed speech (mother-ese)

Back 82

A special form of speech with an exaggerated and high-pitched intonation that adults use to speak to infants and young children.

Front 83

Chronic stress

Back 83

A continuous state of arousal in which an individual perceives demands as greater than the inner and outer resources available for dealing with them.

Front 84

Chronological age

Back 84

The number of months or years since an individual's birth.

Front 85

Chunking

Back 85

The process of taking single items of information and recoding them on the basis of similarity or some other organizing principle.

Front 86

Circadian rhythm

Back 86

A consistent pattern of cyclical body activities, usually lasting 24 to 25 hours and determined by an internal biological clock.

Front 87

Classical conditioning

Back 87

A type of learning in which a behavior (conditioned response) comes to be elicited by a stimulus (conditioned stimulus) that has acquired its power through an association with a biologically significant stimulus (unconditioned stimulus).

Front 88

Client

Back 88

The term used by clinicians who think of psychological disorders as problems in living, and not as mental illnesses, to describe those being treated.

Front 89

Client-centered therapy

Back 89

A humanistic approach to treatment that emphasizes the healthy psychological growth of the individual; based on the assumption that all people share the basic tendency of human nature toward self-actualization.

Front 90

Clinical ecology

Back 90

A field of psychology that relates disorders such as anxiety and depression to environmental irritants and sources of trauma.

Front 91

Clinical psychologist

Back 91

An individual who has earned a doctorate in psychology and whose training is in the assessment and treatment of psychological problems.

Front 92

Clinical social worker

Back 92

A mental health professional whose specialized training prepares him or her to consider the social context of people's problems.

Front 93

Closure

Back 93

A perceptual organizing process that leads individuals to see incomplete figures as complete.

Front 94

Cochlea

Back 94

The primary organ of hearing; a fluid-filled coiled tube located in the inner ear.

Front 95

Cognition

Back 95

Processes of knowing, including attending, remembering, and reasoning; also the content of the processes, such as concepts and memories.

Front 96

Cognitive appraisal

Back 96

With respect to emotions, the process through which physiological arousal is interpreted with respect to circumstances in the particular setting in which it is being experienced; also, the recognition and evaluation of a stressor to assess the demand, the size of the threat, the resources available for dealing with it, and appropriate coping strategies.

Front 97

Cognitive appraisal theory of emotion

Back 97

A theory stating that the experience of emotion is the joint effect of physiological arousal and cognitive appraisal, which serves to determine how an ambiguous inner state of arousal will be labeled.

Front 98

Cognitive behavior modification

Back 98

A therapeutic approach that combines the cognitive emphasis on the role of thoughts and attitudes influencing motivations and response with the behavioral emphasis on changing performance through modification of reinforcement contingencies.

Front 99

Cognitive development

Back 99

The development of processes of knowing, including imagining, perceiving, reasoning, and problem solving.

Front 100

Cognitive dissonance

Back 100

The theory that the tension-producing effects of incongruous cognitions motivate individuals to reduce such tension.

Front 101

Cognitive map

Back 101

A mental representation of physical space.

Front 102

Cognitive perspective

Back 102

The perspective on psychology that stresses human thought and the processes of knowing, such as attending, thinking, remembering, expecting, solving problems, fantasizing, and consciousness.

Front 103

Cognitive processes

Back 103

Higher mental processes, such as perception, memory, language, problem solving, and abstract thinking.

Front 104

Cognitive psychology

Back 104

The study of higher mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, and thinking.

Front 105

Cognitive science

Back 105

The interdisciplinary field of study of the approach systems and processes that manipulate information.

Front 106

Cognitive therapy

Back 106

A type of psychotherapeutic treatment that attempts to change feelings and behaviors by changing the way a client thinks about or perceives significant life experiences.

Front 107

Collective unconscious

Back 107

The part of an individual's unconscious that is inherited, evolutionarily developed, and common to all members of the species.

Front 108

Comorbidity

Back 108

The experience of more than one disorder at the same time.

Front 109

Complementary colors

Back 109

Colors opposite each other on the color circle; when additively mixed, they create the sensation of white light.

Front 110

Compliance

Back 110

A change in behavior consistent with a communication source's direct requests.

Front 111

Concepts

Back 111

Mental representations of kinds or categories of items or ideas.

Front 112

Conditioned reinforcers

Back 112

In classical conditioning, formerly neutral stimuli that have become reinforcers.

Front 113

Conditioned response (CR)

Back 113

In classical conditioning, a response elicited by some previously neutral stimulus that occurs as a result of pairing the neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus.

Front 114

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

Back 114

In classical conditioning, a previously neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a conditioned response.

Front 115

Conditioning

Back 115

The ways in which events, stimuli, and behavior become associated with one another.

Front 116

Cones

Back 116

Photoreceptors concentrated in the center of the retina that are responsible for visual experience under normal viewing conditions and for all experiences of color.

Front 117

Conformity

Back 117

The tendency for people to adopt the behaviors, attitudes, and values of other members of a reference group.

Front 118

Confounding variable

Back 118

A stimulus other than the variable an experimenter explicitly introduces into a research setting that affects a participant's behavior.

Front 119

Consciousness

Back 119

A state of awareness of internal events and of the external environment.

Front 120

Consensual validation

Back 120

The mutual affirmation of conscious views of reality.

Front 121

Conservation

Back 121

According to Piaget, the understanding that physical properties do not change when nothing is added or taken away, even though appearances may change.

Front 122

Consistency paradox

Back 122

The observation that personality ratings across time and among different observers are consistent, while behavior ratings across situations are not consistent.

Front 123

Contact comfort

Back 123

Comfort derived from an infant's physical contact with the mother or caregiver.

Front 124

Contact hypothesis

Back 124

The idea that direct contact between hostile groups alone will reduce prejudice.

Front 125

Context of discovery

Back 125

The initial phase of research, in which observations, beliefs, information, and general knowledge lead to a new idea or a different way of thinking about some phenomenon.

Front 126

Context of justification

Back 126

The research phase in which evidence is brought to bear on hypotheses.

Front 127

Contextual distinctiveness

Back 127

Contextual distinctiveness

Front 128

Contingency management

Back 128

A general treatment strategy involving changing behavior by modifying its consequences.

Front 129

Controlled processes

Back 129

Processes that require attention; it is often difficult to carry out more than one controlled process at a time.

Front 130

Control procedures

Back 130

Consistent procedures for giving instructions, scoring responses, and holding all other variables constant except those being systematically varied.

Front 131

Convergence

Back 131

The degree to which the eyes turn inward to fixate on an object.

Front 132

Coping

Back 132

The process of dealing with internal or external demands that are perceived to be threatening or overwhelming.

Front 133

Corpus callosum

Back 133

The mass of nerve fibers connecting the two hemispheres of the cerebrum.

Front 134

Correlational methods

Back 134

Research methodologies that determine to what extent two variables, traits, or attributes are related.

Front 135

Correlation coefficient (r)

Back 135

A statistic that indicates the degree of relationship between two variables.

Front 136

Counseling psychologist

Back 136

Psychologist who specializes in providing guidance in areas such as vocational selection, school problems, drug abuse, and marital conflict.

Front 137

Counterconditioning

Back 137

A technique used in therapy to substitute a new response for a maladaptive one by means of conditioning procedures.

Front 138

Countertransference

Back 138

Circumstances in which a psychoanalyst develops personal feelings about a client because of perceived similarity of the client to significant people in the therapist's life.

Front 139

Covariation principle

Back 139

A theory that suggests that people attribute a behavior to a causal factor if that factor was present whenever the behavior occurred but was absent whenever it did not occur.

Front 140

Creativity

Back 140

The ability to generate ideas or products that are both novel and appropriate to the circumstances.

Front 141

Criterion validity

Back 141

The degree to which test scores indicate a result on a specific measure that is consistent with some other criterion of the characteristic being assessed; also known as predictive validity.

Front 142

Cross-sectional design

Back 142

A research method in which groups of participants of different chronological ages are observed and compared at a given time.

Front 143

Crystallized intelligence

Back 143

The facet of intelligence involving the knowledge a person has already acquired and the ability to access that knowledge; measures by vocabulary, arithmetic, and general information tests.

Front 144

Cultural perspective

Back 144

The psychological perspective that focuses on cross-cultural differences in the causes and consequences of behavior.

Front 145

Cutaneous senses

Back 145

The skin senses that register sensations of pressure, warmth, and cold.

Front 146

Dark adaptation

Back 146

The gradual improvement of the eyes' sensitivity after a shift in illumination from light to near darkness.

Front 147

Date rape

Back 147

Unwanted sexual violation by a social acquaintance in the context of a consensual dating situation.

Front 148

Daytime sleepiness

Back 148

The experience of excessive sleepiness during daytime activities; the major complaint of patients evaluated at sleep disorder centers.

Front 149

Debriefing

Back 149

A procedure conducted at the end of an experiment in which the researcher provides the participant with as much information about the study as possible and makes sure that no participant leaves feeling confused, upset, or embarrassed.

Front 150

Decision aversion

Back 150

The tendency to avoid decision making; the tougher the decision, the greater the likelihood of decision aversion.

Front 151

Decision making

Back 151

The process of choosing between alternatives; selecting or rejecting available options.

Front 152

Declarative memory

Back 152

Memory for information such as facts and events.

Front 153

Deductive reasoning

Back 153

A form of thinking in which one draws a conclusion that is intended to follow logically from two or more statements or premises.

Front 154

Delusions

Back 154

False or irrational beliefs maintained despite clear evidence to the contrary.

Front 155

Demand characteristics

Back 155

Cues in an experimental setting that influence the participants' perception of what is expected of them and that systematically influence their behavior within that setting.

Front 156

Dendrites

Back 156

The branched fibers of neurons that receive incoming signals.

Front 157

Dependent variable

Back 157

In an experimental setting, any variable whose values are the results of changes in one or more independent variables.

Front 158

Descriptive statistics

Back 158

Statistical procedures that are used to summarize sets of scores with respect to central tendencies, variability, and correlations.

Front 159

Determinism

Back 159

The doctrine that all events—physical, behavioral, and mental—are determined by specific causal factors that are potentially knowable.

Front 160

Developmental age

Back 160

The chronological age at which most children show a particular level of physical or mental development.

Front 161

Developmental psychology

Back 161

The branch of psychology concerned with interaction between physical and psychological processes and with stages of growth from conception throughout the entire life span.

Front 162

Diathesis-stress hypothesis

Back 162

A hypothesis about the cause of certain disorders, such as schizophrenia, that suggests that genetic factors predispose an individual to a certain disorder, but that environmental stress factors must impinge in order for the potential risk to manifest itself.

Front 163

Dichotic listening

Back 163

An experimental technique in which a different auditory stimulus is simultaneously presented to each ear.

Front 164

Difference threshold

Back 164

The smallest physical difference between two stimuli that can still be recognized as a difference; operationally defined as the point at which the stimuli are recognized as different half of the time.

Front 165

Diffusion of responsibility

Back 165

In emergency situations, the larger the number of bystanders, the less responsibility any one bystander feels to help.

Front 166

Discriminative stimuli

Back 166

Stimuli that act as predictors of reinforcement, signaling when particular behaviors will result in positive reinforcement.

Front 167

Dispositional variables

Back 167

The organismic variables, or inner determinants of behavior, that occur within human and nonhuman animals.

Front 168

Dissociative amnesia

Back 168

The inability to remember important personal experiences, caused by psychological factors in the absence of any organic dysfunction.

Front 169

Dissociative disorder

Back 169

A personality disorder marked by a disturbance in the integration of identity, memory, or consciousness.

Front 170

Dissociative identity disorder (DID)

Back 170

A dissociative mental disorder in which two or more distinct personalities exist within the same individual; formerly known as multiple personality disorder.

Front 171

Distal stimulus

Back 171

In the processes of perception, the physical object in the world, as contrasted with the proximal stimulus, the optical image on the retina.

Front 172

Divergent thinking

Back 172

An aspect of creativity characterized by an ability to produce unusual but appropriate responses to problems.

Front 173

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)

Back 173

The physical basis for the transmission of genetic information.

Front 174

Double-blind control

Back 174

An experimental technique in which biased expectations of experimenters are eliminated by keeping both participants and experimental assistants unaware of which participants have received which treatment.

Front 175

Dream analysis

Back 175

The psychoanalytic interpretation of dreams used to gain insight into a person's unconscious motives or conflicts.

Front 176

Dream work

Back 176

In Freudian dream analysis, the process by which the internal censor transforms the latent content of a dream into manifest content.

Front 177

Drives

Back 177

Internal states that arise in response to a disequilibrium in an animal's physiological needs.

Front 178

DSM-IV-TR

Back 178

The current diagnostic and statistical manual of the American Psychiatric Association that classifies, defines, and describes mental disorders.

Front 179

Echoic memory

Back 179

Sensory memory that allows auditory information to be stored for brief durations.

Front 180

Ego

Back 180

The aspect of personality involved in self-preservation activities and in directing instinctual drives and urges into appropriate channels.

Front 181

Egocentrism

Back 181

In cognitive development, the inability of a young child at the preoperational stage to take the perspective of another person.

Front 182

Ego defense mechanisms

Back 182

Mental strategies (conscious or unconscious) used by the ego to defend itself against conflicts experienced in the normal course of life.

Front 183

Elaboration likelihood model

Back 183

A theory of persuasion that defines how likely it is that people will focus their cognitive processes to elaborate upon a message and therefore follow the central and peripheral routes to persuasion.

Front 184

Elaborative rehearsal

Back 184

A technique for improving memory by enriching the encoding of information.

Front 185

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

Back 185

The use of electroconvulsive shock as an effective treatment for severe depression.

Front 186

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

Back 186

A recording of the electrical activity of the brain.

Front 187

Emotion

Back 187

A complex pattern of changes, including physiological arousal, feelings, cognitive processes, and behavioral reactions, made in response to a situation perceived to be personally significant.

Front 188

Emotional intelligence

Back 188

Type of intelligence defined as the abilities to perceive, appraise, and express emotions accurately and appropriately, to use emotions to facilitate thinking, to understand and analyze emotions, to use emotional knowledge effectively, and to regulate one's emotions to promote both emotional and intellectual growth.

Front 189

Encoding

Back 189

The process by which a mental representation is formed in memory.

Front 190

Encoding specificity

Back 190

The principle that subsequent retrieval of information is enhanced if cues received at the time of recall are consistent with those present at the time of encoding.

Front 191

Endocrine system

Back 191

The network of glands that manufacture and secrete hormones into the bloodstream.

Front 192

Engram

Back 192

The physical memory trace for information in the brain.

Front 193

Environmental variables

Back 193

External influences on behavior.

Front 194

Episodic memories

Back 194

Long-term memories for autobiographical events and the contexts in which they occurred.

Front 195

EQ

Back 195

The emotional intelligence counterpart of IQ.

Front 196

Equity theory

Back 196

A cognitive theory of work motivation that proposes that workers are motivated to maintain fair and equitable relationships with other relevant persons; also, a model that postulates that equitable relationships are those in which the participants' outcomes are proportional to their inputs.

Front 197

Erogenous zones

Back 197

Areas of the skin surface that are especially sensitive to stimulation and that give rise to erotic or sexual sensations.

Front 198

Estrogen

Back 198

The female sex hormone, produced by the ovaries, that is responsible for the release of eggs from the ovaries as well as for the development and maintenance of female reproductive structures and secondary sex characteristics.

Front 199

Etiology

Back 199

The causes of, or factors related to, the development of a disorder.

Front 200

Evolutionary perspective

Back 200

The approach to psychology that stresses the importance of behavioral and mental adaptiveness, based on the assumption that mental capabilities evolved over millions of years to serve particular adaptive purposes.

Front 201

Excitatory inputs

Back 201

Information entering a neuron that signals it to fire.

Front 202

Expectancy effects

Back 202

Results that occur when a researcher or observer subtly communicates to participants the kind of behavior he or she expects to find, thereby creating that expected reaction.