AP Psych Unit 2

Assimilation

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas

Sensory memory

the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system

Procedural memory

a type of implicit memory that involves motor skills and behavioral habits

Episodic memory

the collection of past personal experiences that occurred at a particular time and place

Encoding failure

failure to process information into memory

Reliability

the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternate forms of the test, or on retesting

Flynn Effect

The rise in average IQ scores that has occurred over the decades in many nations

Growth mindset

the idea that our abilities are malleable qualities that we can cultivate and grow

Proactive interference

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

Repression

in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

Misinformation effect

incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event

top-down processing

information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations

bottom-up processing

analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information

Schema

a concept of framework that organizes and interprets information

selective attention

the ability to focus on only one stimulus from among all sensory input

change blindness

failing to notice changes in the environment

accommodation

adapting one's current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information

representative heuristic

judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes

availability heuristic

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common

functional fixedness

the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving

Gambler's Fallacy

the belief that the odds of a chance event increase if the event hasn't occurred recently

sunk cost fallacy

a framing effect in which people make decisions about a current situation based on what they have previously invested in the situation

implicit memory

retention of learned skills

explicit memory

memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare"

retrograde amnesia

an inability to retrieve information from one's past

antereograde amnesia

loss of ability to form new memories

retroactive interference

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

procedural memory

a type of implicit memory that involves motor skills

prospective memory

remembering to do things in the future

Semantic memory

General knowledge and facts