General Psychology: Learning, Memory, Emotion, and Consciousness

Essential vocabulary terms and definitions covering learning processes, memory architecture, theories and physiology of emotion, and states of consciousness.

Classical Conditioning

A form of associative learning in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response, famously demonstrated by Pavlov's salivating dogs.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A stimulus that automatically and naturally triggers an unlearned, involuntary response without any prior conditioning.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

An unlearned, automatic physiological or emotional reaction elicited naturally by an unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

A previously neutral stimulus that, after repeated association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a learned conditioned response.

Conditioned Response (CR)

The learned response produced by a conditioned stimulus following repeated pairings with an unconditioned stimulus.

Extinction (Classical Conditioning)

The weakening and eventual disappearance of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous Recovery

The sudden reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response after a rest period without any further conditioning trials.

Operant Conditioning

A form of instrumental learning developed by B.F. Skinner in which the consequences of a behavior (reinforcement or punishment) modify the likelihood that the behavior will recur.

Positive Reinforcement

The presentation of a rewarding or desirable stimulus following a behavior, which increases the probability of that behavior occurring again.

Negative Reinforcement

The removal, termination, or avoidance of an unpleasant or aversive stimulus following a behavior, which increases the frequency of that behavior.

Positive Punishment

The administration or presentation of an aversive stimulus following a behavior to decrease the likelihood of that behavior recurring.

Negative Punishment

The removal or confiscation of a valued, pleasant stimulus following a behavior to decrease the likelihood of that behavior recurring.

Shaping

An operant procedure that involves reinforcing successive approximations toward a target complex behavior.

Law of Effect (Thorndike)

The principle formulated by Edward Thorndike stating that behaviors followed by favorable outcomes become more likely to recur, whereas behaviors followed by unfavorable outcomes become less likely.

Learned Helplessness

An organism's passive resignation and learned expectation that it has no control over negative or painful outcomes, resulting from exposure to unavoidable aversive stimuli.

Instinctive Drift

The biological tendency of animals to revert to innate, instinctive behaviors that interfere with learned operant behaviors.

Observational Learning (Bandura)

Learning that occurs through observing and imitating the actions of others, mediated by four processes: attention, retention, production, and motivation.

Atkinson and Shiffrin's Model

A memory model proposing that memory storage consists of three distinct processing units: sensory memory, short-term memory (working memory), and long-term memory.

Sensory Memory

A memory storage stage that briefly retains physical information from the environment in its raw sensory form, including iconic (visual) and echoic (auditory) memories.

Chunking

The memory strategy of grouping individual pieces of information into larger, meaningful units to expand short-term memory capacity.

Episodic Memory

A subcategory of explicit (declarative) memory that stores personal, autobiographical experiences and events tied to specific times and places.

Semantic Memory

A subcategory of explicit (declarative) memory that stores general knowledge, facts, language, and concepts about the world rather than personal experiences.

Procedural Memory

A subcategory of implicit (non-declarative) memory involving learned motor skills, habits, and classical conditioning that do not require conscious recollection.

Serial Position Effect (Ebbinghaus)

The phenomenon whereby recall of items from a list is influenced by their order of presentation, characterized by the primacy effect (superior recall of initial items) and the recency effect (superior recall of final items).

Schemas

Preexisting mental frameworks or organized structures of knowledge that help organize and interpret information, reflecting the constructive nature of memory.

Proactive Interference

A memory disruption occurring when prior or older learned material interferes with the recall of newly learned information.

Retroactive Interference

A memory disruption occurring when newly learned material interferes with the retrieval of previously learned older information.

Anterograde Amnesia

A memory disorder marked by the inability to form and store new long-term memories following neurological trauma or damage.

Retrograde Amnesia

A memory disorder marked by the loss of access to events and memories acquired prior to the onset of trauma or brain injury.

James-Lange Theory of Emotion

The theory that physiological arousal occurs first in response to a stimulus and directly produces the conscious experience of an emotion.

Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion

The theory proposing that physiological arousal and emotional experience occur simultaneously and independently when an emotion-provoking stimulus is perceived.

Cognitive (Two-Factor) Theory of Emotion

The theory developed by Schachter and Singer stating that emotion is determined jointly by physiological arousal and the cognitive interpretation or labeling of that arousal.

Misattribution of Arousal

The tendency of individuals to incorrectly identify the source of physiological arousal, demonstrated in the Dutton and Aron shaky suspension bridge experiment.

Display Rules

Sociocultural norms and learned conventions that dictate how, when, and where emotions should be expressed or suppressed.

Facial Feedback Hypothesis

The hypothesis proposing that skeletal muscle feedback from facial expressions directly influences and triggers the subjective experience of emotions.

Broaden-and-Build Model of Positive Emotion

A model proposing that positive emotions expand an individual's momentary thought-action repertoires, thereby building enduring physical, cognitive, and social resources.

Theory of Mind

The developmental awareness that oneself and other people possess internal mental states, including thoughts, beliefs, and desires, often evaluated using the false belief task.

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN)

A biological clock structure situated in the hypothalamus that regulates the body's circadian rhythms in response to environmental light cues.

REM Sleep (Paradoxical Sleep)

A unique stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements, high brainwave activity, vivid dreaming, and skeletal muscle paralysis.

Manifest Content

According to Sigmund Freud, the conscious, overt storyline, visual imagery, and literal events of a dream remembered upon waking.

Latent Content

According to Sigmund Freud, the hidden, disguised, and unconscious psychological wishes and meanings underlying a dream's manifest content.

Activation-Synthesis Theory

The theory proposing that dreams are the cerebral cortex's attempt to synthesize and make sense of random neural signals generated by lower brainstem structures during REM sleep.

Sleep Apnea

A dyssomnia characterized by repeated, temporary cessations of breathing during sleep, leading to frequent gasping awakenings and excessive daytime fatigue.

Tolerance

A state resulting from repeated psychoactive drug use in which an individual requires increasingly larger doses of the substance to achieve the initial desired effect.

Divided Consciousness View of Hypnosis

A perspective proposing that hypnosis involves a dissociated split state of awareness, wherein a hidden observer continues to process reality while another stream follows the hypnotist's suggestions.