First Semester Exam Review Sheet - IB Psychology Year 1

This set of flashcards covers key terms and concepts from the IB Psychology Year 1 curriculum.

Experimental Bias

A research method involving manipulation of variables to establish cause and effect.

Classical Conditioning

A learning process in which an innate response to a potent stimulus becomes associated with a previously neutral stimulus.

Operant Conditioning

A method of learning that employs rewards and punishments for behavior.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

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

Unconditioned Response (UCR)

An unlearned response that occurs naturally in reaction to the unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Response (CR)

The learned response to the previously neutral stimulus.

Field Experiment

A study conducted in a naturalistic setting rather than in a laboratory.

Natural Experiment

An experiment in which the researchers take advantage of a natural situation to investigate a variable.

Positive Reinforcement

The introduction of a desirable stimulus to increase behavior.

Negative Reinforcement

The removal of an unpleasant stimulus to increase behavior.

Positive Punishment

The application of an unpleasant stimulus to reduce a behavior.

Negative Punishment

The removal of a pleasant stimulus to decrease a behavior.

Independent Variable

The variable that is manipulated in an experiment.

Dependent Variable

The variable that is measured in the experiment.

Accommodation

The process of altering existing schemas to incorporate new information.

Assimilation

The process of integrating new experiences into existing schemas.

Scripts

Schemas that guide behavior in specific contexts or situations.

Random Sampling

A sampling technique where every individual has an equal chance of being selected.

Opportunity Sampling

A non-probability sampling method where participants are selected based on availability.

Self-Selected Sampling

Participants volunteer to participate in the study.

Purposive Sampling

Selecting participants based on specific characteristics or criteria.

Snowball Sampling

Recruiting participants through referrals from existing participants.

Sensory Memory

The brief retention of sensory information.

Short Term Memory

The capacity for holding a small amount of information for a short time.

Long Term Memory

The continuous storage of information over extended periods.

Maturation Bias

Bias occurring from maturity differences between participants.

Central Executive

The component of working memory responsible for reasoning and decision making.

Visuospatial Sketchpad

A part of working memory that deals with visual and spatial information.

Phonological Loop

A component of working memory that deals with auditory information.

Episodic Buffer

A temporary store that integrates information from different sources.

Cognitive Load Theory

A theory suggesting that we have a limited capacity for processing new information.

Social Desirability Bias

The tendency for respondents to answer questions in a manner that will be viewed favorably by others.

Cognitive Biases

Systematic patterns of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment.

Framing Effect

The way information is presented affects decision-making.

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information that confirms one’s preconceptions.

Anchoring Bias

The tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information encountered.

Observation

A qualitative research method involving the systematic watching of behavior.

Interview

A method of data collection that involves direct, Face-To-Face interaction.

Focus Group

A qualitative data collection method involving discussion among a selected group.

Case Study

A detailed analysis of a person, group, or event.

System 1 Thinking

Fast, automatic, and often unconscious mode of thinking.

System 2 Thinking

Slower, more deliberate, and more logical mode of thinking.

Descriptive Model

a framework that explains how people actually think, feel, and behave in real-world situations, focusing on actual actions, patterns, and cognitive processes (like biases and heuristics) rather than ideal or rational behavior

Normative Model

defines how people should behave, think, or decide ideally

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts or rules of thumb for decision making.

Observational Learning

Learning that occurs by watching others.

Direct Learning

Learning that occurs through direct experience.

Indirect Learning

Learning that happens through observing others without direct interaction.

Triangulation

The use of multiple methods or data sources in research to enhance credibility.

Reflexivity

The process of reflecting on the researcher’s influence on the research.

Cognitive Dissonance

Psychological discomfort experienced when holding contradictory beliefs or attitudes.

What is a lab experiment?

is a research method conducted in a controlled environment to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between variables.

What are matched pairs?

A research design where subjects are paired based on similar characteristics to control for confounding variables, with one member of the pair typically receiving a treatment and the other serving as a control.

What is an independent measures design?

An experimental design where different participants are used in each condition of the independent variable, meaning each group is independent of the others.

What is a repeated measures design?

An experimental design where the same participants are used in all conditions of the independent variable, allowing for within-subject comparisons.

What are demand characteristics?

Cues in an experiment that tell participants what behavior is expected or desired by the researcher, potentially influencing their behavior and biasing results.

What is a single-blind control?

A research method where the participants do not know whether they are in the experimental group or the control group, reducing the influence of participant expectations on the results.

What is experimenter bias?

A phenomenon where a researcher's expectations or beliefs about the outcome of an experiment unintentionally influence the participants' behavior, the data collection, or the interpretation of results.

What is a double-blind control?

A research method where neither the participants nor the researchers know who is in the experimental group and who is in the control group, minimizing both participant and experimenter bias.

What is asquece bias?

type of response bias in which participants in a survey or research study tend to agree with all statements or answer in an affirmative direction, regardless of their true feelings or attitudes.

What is sampling bias?

is a phenomenon where the sample selected for a study is not representative of the larger population, leading to skewed or inaccurate results that do not generalize well to the population.

What is debiasing?

refers to strategies or techniques used to reduce or eliminate cognitive biases in judgment and decision-making.

What are the key factors affecting social learning theory?

include attention (to the model), retention (remembering the observed behavior), reproduction (ability to perform the behavior), and motivation (having a reason to imitate the behavior).

What is credibility?

The quality of being trustworthy and believable, often referring to the reliability of information, sources, or research findings.

What is generalizability?

refers to the extent to which the findings from a study can be applied to a larger population or different settings and situations beyond the specific sample or context of the research.

What is internal validity?

refers to the extent to which a study establishes a trustworthy cause-and-effect relationship between the independent and dependent variables, free from the influence of confounding factors.

What is external validity?

refers to the extent to which the findings of a research study can be generalized to different populations, settings, and times outside of the specific experimental conditions.

What are the capacity, duration, and condition of sensory memory?

• Capacity: Very large, capable of holding a vast amount of sensory information briefly.

• Duration: Extremely short, typically less than 1 second for visual (iconic) memory and a few seconds for auditory (echoic) memory.

• Condition (Transfer to STM): Information is transferred from sensory memory to Short-Term Memory through the process of attention.

What are the capacity, duration, and condition of Short-Term Memory?

• Capacity: Limited, typically around 7 \pm 2 items (e.g., numbers, words).

• Duration: Short, generally lasting about 18-30 seconds without rehearsal.

• Condition (Nature of Information): Primarily acoustic (sound-based), but can also be visual or semantic. Information is actively processed and maintained through rehearsal.

What are the capacity, duration, and condition of Long-Term Memory?

• Capacity: Potentially unlimited, capable of storing vast amounts of information.

• Duration: Potentially unlimited, lasting from minutes to a lifetime.

• Condition (Nature of Information): Primarily semantic (meaning-based), but also visual, auditory, and episodic. Information is stored in an organized and interconnected manner.

What are some key words and related terms from the Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) study?

Key terms include the Pygmalion Effect, Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, and Experimenter Expectancy Effect. The study focused on the impact of teacher expectations on student intellectual performance, specifically regarding intellectual 'bloomers' and changes in IQ scores.

What was the Little Albert study?

conducted by John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner in 1920, was a classical conditioning experiment that demonstrated how emotional responses, specifically fear, could be conditioned in a human infant. Albert was conditioned to fear a white rat, and this fear then generalized to other furry white objects.

What was the Anderson and Pichert (1978) 'Homebuyer/Burglar' study?

A study that investigated how schema influences memory recall. Participants read a story from either a homebuyer or burglar perspective, and their recall demonstrated that they remembered details relevant to their adopted schema more accurately, even recalling new details when given a different schema to recall from a second time.

What was the Bransford and Johnson (1972) study?

A study that demonstrated how prior context or schema significantly aids comprehension and recall of ambiguous information. Participants who received a relevant title before reading a vague passage recalled more details than those who received it after or not at all.

What was the Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) study?

A study investigating the serial position effect on verbal recall, demonstrating the primacy and recency effects. They found that a delay between the word list presentation and recall task eliminated the recency effect, supporting the idea of separate short-term and long-term memory stores.

What was the Tversky and Kahneman (1981) study on the framing effect?

A study that demonstrated how the way information is presented (framed) can significantly influence people's decisions, even if the underlying choices are objectively the same. They showed that people tend to be risk-averse when choices are framed in terms of gains and risk-seeking when framed in terms of losses.

What was the Wason Selection Task (Wason, 1966) and how does it relate to confirmation bias?

A cognitive psychology experiment that investigated logical reasoning. Participants were given a rule (e.g., "If a card has a vowel on one side, then it has an even number on the other") and asked which cards needed to be turned over to test the rule. The study demonstrated that people often exhibited confirmation bias, tending to seek out information that would confirm their existing beliefs rather than attempting to falsify them.

What was Bandura's Bobo Doll Study (1961) and its relevance to cognitive processes?

demonstrated key principles of Social Learning Theory by showing that children observed and imitated aggressive behaviors performed by an adult model towards a Bobo doll. It highlighted the role of cognitive processes like attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation in learning through observation, not just direct reinforcement.

What was the Milgram obedience study, including its sample and setting?

(1963) investigated the extent to which individuals would obey orders from an authority figure. It used a self-selected sample of volunteers and was conducted in a lab setting at Yale University, involving participants administering what they believed were harmful electric shocks to another person.

What was the Piliavin and Rodin (1969) 'Subway Samaritan' study, and how does 'purposive' relate to it?

A field experiment investigating bystander intervention in an emergency on a New York subway. The researchers purposively chose the subway setting to create a naturalistic, high-pressure environment for observing helping behavior. While the setting was chosen with a specific purpose, the actual 'participants' (the unsuspecting commuters) constituted an opportunity sample rather than a purposive sample of individuals.

What was the Rosenthal and Fode (1963) study?

demonstrated experimenter bias by showing that experimenters' expectations could influence the performance of their subjects. They used mice randomly assigned as 'bright' or 'dull' to different student experimenters. The 'bright' mice unexpectedly performed better, even though there was no real difference, highlighting the need for double-blind controls.

What was the Money (1975) case study (David Reimer) and its relevance to gender roles?

involved identical twin boys, one of whom (Bruce) had a botched circumcision and was subsequently raised as a girl ('Brenda') based on John Money's theory that gender identity was primarily learned. This case, later known as David Reimer'

What was the Sherif (Robbers Cave) study, including its focus and participant selection?

was a classic field experiment involving groups of boys at a summer camp. It investigated the development and reduction of intergroup prejudice and conflict. The researchers used a purposive selection method to ensure the boys were initially well-adjusted, similar in background, and had no prior acquaintances, allowing them to study group formation and conflict from scratch.

What was the Rosenhan (1973) study, and how did it involve 'psychiatric', 'covert', and 'participant' elements?

investigated the reliability of psychiatric diagnoses. Healthy confederates (pseudopatients) feigned symptoms to gain admission to mental hospitals. The study was covert as staff were unaware they were part of an experiment. The participant observers documented their experiences, demonstrating the difficulty of escaping psychiatric labels once admitted.