Second Semester Exam Review - Key Terms

Flashcards covering key vocabulary from the Cognitive and Sociocultural Approaches, including memory models, social identity, thinking & decision-making, biases, and cultural dimensions.

Cognitive Approach

Focuses on mental processes such as memory, thinking, and decision-making.

Sociocultural Approach

Examines the influence of social and cultural factors on behavior and cognition.

Enculturation

The process by which people learn the necessary and appropriate norms in the context of their culture.

Models of Memory

Frameworks explaining how memory functions, including encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Social Identity Theory

Explains how individuals define themselves in terms of their group memberships.

Explicit Memory

Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare.

Minimal Group Paradigm

An experimental procedure where trivial group differences are created artificially to see effects of social categorization on intergroup discrimination.

Cultural Norms

Unique set of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors specific to a particular culture.

Semantic Memory

Memory for general knowledge and facts.

In-Group Favoritism

Biased behavior that benefits members of the in-group.

Odden & Rochat Study

Investigated the role of observational learning in enculturation in Samoa.

Episodic Memory

Memory for personal experiences and events.

Out-Group Discrimination

Creating disadvantages for the out-group.

Acculturation

Internalizing the norms of the dominant culture where you have migrated.

Implicit Memory

Memories that we are not consciously aware of.

Social Categorization

Cognitive process of categorizing people into in-groups and out-groups.

Emotional Memory

Memory for how emotions feel.

4 Acculturation Strategies

Integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization.

Procedural Memory

Memory for skills, habits, and actions.

Tajfel Study

Demonstrated the effect of social categorization on intergroup behavior in a minimal group paradigm.

Shah Study

Study on the association between acculturation and obesity in South Asian migrant workers.

Sensory Memory

Capacity unlimited, duration fraction of a second, condition attention.

Short-Term Memory

Temporary storage system that holds information briefly before it is either stored or forgotten.

Long-Term Memory

The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system.

Atkinson & Shiffrin Model

Model that distinguishes between sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Baddeley & Hitch Model

A working model of memory.

Glanzer & Cunitz Study

Demonstrated the serial position effect: primacy and recency effects.

Schema Theory

Cognitive schema: mental representation that organizes knowledge, beliefs, and expectations.

Cognitive Schema

A mental representation that organizes knowledge, beliefs, and expectations.

Social Schema

Mental representations about various groups of people.

Scripts

Schemas about sequences of events.

Self-Schemas

Beliefs and ideas people have about themselves.

Bottom-Up Processing

Processing sensory information as it comes in.

Top-Down Processing

Occurs when one's beliefs or schemas act as a filter for information received.

Anderson & Pichert Study

Investigated how memory of a story is affected by previous knowledge.

Bartlett Study

Investigated how memory is reconstructed based on cultural schemas, using the 'War of the Ghosts' story.

Bransford & Johnson Study

Studied the effect of context on comprehension and memory of text passages.

Thinking

Process of using knowledge and information to make plans, interpret the world, and make predictions.

Decision Making

Process of identifying and choosing alternatives based on the values and preferences of the decision maker.

System One Thinking

Automatic, intuitive, and effortless way of thinking; relies on mental shortcuts.

System Two Thinking

Slower, rational, more conscious thinking; requires mental effort.

Wason Study

Investigated the role of the dual-process model on thinking and decision-making.

Reconstructive Memory

Theory that views memory as an active process of recreation of past events.

Misleading Questions

Information not entirely consistent with what actually happened.

Post-Event Information

Information provided about an event, directly or indirectly, after the event already occurred.

Recall

Retrieving information from memory without any cues.

Recognition

Identifying information after experiencing it again.

Loftus & Palmer Study

Studied the effect of misleading questions on eyewitness testimony of a car accident.

Biases in Thinking/Decision Making

Systematic patterns of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment.

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts or simplified strategies that lead to cognitive biases.

Framing Effect

How the presentation of information influences decisions.

Availability Heuristic

Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory.

Tversky & Kahneman Study (Framing Effect)

Demonstrated how different ways of presenting choices (as gains or losses) affect risk preferences.

Tversky & Kahneman Study (Availability Heuristic)

Showed how easily recalled information influences decisions.

Emotion & Cognition

The interplay between emotional and cognitive processes.

Flashbulb Memory Theory

Vivid and detailed memories of highly emotional events.

Mechanism of Formation (Flashbulb Memory)

Photographic representation of events that are surprising and personally consequential.

Mechanism of Maintenance (Flashbulb Memory)

Sustaining of memory that has been imprinted in memory.

Brown & Kulik Study

Aimed to determine the determinants of flashbulb memories about nationally newsworthy, significant events.

Neisser & Harsch Study

Studied the accuracy of flashbulb memories over time.

Stereotypes

A preconceived notion or belief about a group of people.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

An individual's behavior changes as a result of others' expectations about the individual.

Illusory Correlation

Seeing a relationship between variables when they are not related.

Stereotype Threat

The anticipation of a situation that can potentially confirm a negative stereotype about one's group.

Social Comparison

Comparing in-groups and out-groups.

Human Agency

The belief that people are agents of their behavior.

Compliance

The result of direct pressure to respond to a request.

Door-in-the-Face Technique

Making a large request that is likely to be turned down, then making a smaller request.

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

Getting people to comply with something small with the hope of them complying with something larger.

Low-Balling Technique

Getting someone to commit to an attractive offer and then increasing the cost of fulfilling it.

Cultural Dimensions

General factors underlying cross-cultural differences in values and behaviors.

Individualism

In these societies, ties between individuals are loose; everyone is expected to look after themself and their immediate family.

Collectivism

In these societies, from birth onward, people are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups.

Emic

An approach to studying culture that is culture-specific

Etic

An approach to studying culture that is cross-cultural