PSYC100 Unit 2 Study Guide: Sensation, Perception, Memory, Development, and Social Psychology

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key psychological terms, brain regions, memory mechanisms, developmental milestones, and social psychology concepts from PSYC100 Unit 2.

Neuroplasticity

The brain's ability to change its structure and functioning through experience, development, or compensation for damage.

Gene × environment interaction (G×E)

A relationship where the effect of an environmental exposure on an outcome differs depending on genetics (or vice versa).

Epigenetics

Biological processes that regulate gene expression without altering the underlying DNA sequence.

Sensation

The detection of physical stimulation through sensory receptors, such as light waves or sound waves.

Transduction

The conversion of physical sensory information into neural or electrical signals that the nervous system can process.

Perception

The brain's organization and interpretation of sensory information to identify objects, people, meaning, and spatial relationships.

Bottom-up processing

Processing that begins with the incoming stimulus and its individual features, building the whole perception from the parts.

Top-down processing

Processing in which expectations, context, memories, and prior knowledge influence the interpretation of incoming sensory input.

Rods

Retinal photoreceptors that are more useful in low light and dim surroundings; sensitive, but not specialized for color vision.

Cones

Retinal photoreceptors that are more useful in bright light and daylight, supporting color vision and detailed visual discrimination.

Ventral "what" pathway

A visual stream extending from occipital visual areas toward the temporal lobe that supports recognition and identifying what an object is.

Dorsal "where/how" pathway

A visual stream extending from occipital visual areas toward the parietal lobe that supports spatial location and visually guided actions.

Prosopagnosia

A neurological condition characterized by difficulty recognizing faces as identities despite intact detection of facial features.

Capgras syndrome

A condition in which an individual recognizes someone's appearance but experiences the person as an impostor due to disrupted emotional or familiarity responses.

Binocular disparity

A binocular depth cue where the two retinas receive slightly different views and the brain compares these differences to estimate distance.

Convergence

A binocular depth cue where eye muscles rotate inward for near objects and move closer to parallel for distant objects.

Linear perspective

A monocular depth cue in which parallel lines appear to come together in the distance.

Absolute threshold

The minimum amount of stimulation needed to detect a stimulus, often defined in psychophysics at a 50% detection rate.

Difference threshold

The smallest difference between two stimulus levels that can be noticed (also known as the just-noticeable difference).

Weber’s law

The principle stating that a detectable difference depends on a proportion of the starting intensity rather than a fixed absolute increment.

Sensory adaptation

Reduced responsiveness occurring at the sensory receptor level during sustained, unchanging stimulation.

Habituation

A reduced attentional or behavioral response following repeated or continuous exposure to familiar stimulation, where deliberately directing attention can restore awareness.

Iconic memory

Brief visual sensory memory that holds a trace of incoming visual input for an extremely short period without attention.

Working memory

A limited-capacity memory system that actively maintains and manipulates information, integrating new input with prior knowledge.

Chunking

The process of grouping separate pieces of information into meaningful units based on existing schemas or knowledge.

Schema

An organized knowledge structure stored in long-term memory that makes patterns familiar and supports meaningful chunking.

Episodic memory

A subtype of explicit (declarative) long-term memory that stores personal experiences associated with a specific time and context.

Semantic memory

A subtype of explicit (declarative) long-term memory that stores facts, meanings, and general knowledge.

Procedural memory

A subtype of implicit (nondeclarative) memory involving learned motor skills and physical actions, closely linked to the cerebellum.

Maintenance rehearsal

Repeating material without substantially expanding its meaning; keeps information active briefly but is less effective for durable storage.

Elaborative rehearsal

Relating new material to existing knowledge, comparing concepts, or generating personal examples to build meaningful paths for retrieval.

Spreading activation model

A model positing that concepts are stored in a network of associations, where activating one node makes connected concepts more accessible.

Encoding specificity principle

The principle that cues present or mentally linked during learning can aid subsequent memory retrieval.

Consolidation

The process through which a newly encoded memory becomes stabilized and established through neural changes.

Long-term potentiation (LTP)

A persistent strengthening of synapses based on recent patterns of activity, wherein repeated presynaptic activity leads to increased postsynaptic responsiveness.

Reconsolidation

The neural process in which retrieving a stored memory makes it modifiable and vulnerable to distortion before it is stored again.

Anterograde amnesia

An impairment in the ability to form new explicit long-term memories following a brain injury or event.

Retrograde amnesia

The loss of memories that were formed prior to a brain injury or traumatic event.

Proactive interference

A memory failure occurring when older, previously learned material interferes with the acquisition or recall of new information.

Retroactive interference

A memory failure occurring when newly learned information interferes with the retrieval of older information.

Source misattribution

A memory distortion in which a person accurately recalls information but attributes it to the wrong source or origin.

Suggestibility

A memory distortion where misleading post-event questions, cues, or phrasing alter or bias an individual's recollection.

Memory bias

The skewing or reconstruction of past recollections under the influence of current beliefs, moods, or knowledge.

Construct validity

The extent to which the operational definitions and measures used in a study accurately capture the theoretical concepts being evaluated.

Internal validity

The extent to which an observed effect can be confidently attributed to the manipulated independent variable rather than confounds.

External validity

The degree to which the findings of a study can be generalized beyond the specific participants, settings, or experimental materials.

Secure base

An available, responsive caregiver who provides an infant with the felt safety required to comfortably explore the surrounding environment.

Secure attachment

An attachment pattern stemming from consistent caregiver responsiveness, wherein an infant may show distress upon separation but is readily soothed at reunion and resumes exploring.

Insecure-avoidant attachment

An attachment pattern associated with consistently unresponsive caregiving, wherein an infant minimizes overt displays of need and shows little reaction to separation or reunion.

Insecure-ambivalent attachment

An attachment pattern associated with inconsistent caregiving, wherein an infant displays intense distress, clinginess, and difficulty being soothed upon reunion.

Neurogenesis

The creation or birth of new neurons, which is particularly prominent during prenatal development.

Myelination

The formation of a fatty insulating sheath around axons that accelerates and optimizes electrical signal transmission.

Synaptogenesis

The biological formation of connections (synapses) between neurons, characterized by a rapid burst during the first two years of life.

Synaptic pruning

The weakening and elimination of underused synaptic connections as experience refines and specializes neural circuits.

Phonemes

The basic, meaningfully distinct speech sounds of a language that infants initially discriminate broadly before perceptual narrowing occurs.

Parentese

A style of slow, higher-pitched, and exaggerated speech directed at infants that effectively captures their attention.

Joint attention

A state in which an infant and caregiver coordinate shared focus on a common object or event, supporting vocabulary and word learning.

Telegraphic speech

Early childhood linguistic utterances characterized by short, two-word phrases that prioritize essential content words.

Overgeneralization

The developmental tendency for children to overapply newly learned grammatical rules to irregular exceptions (e.g., producing "runned").

Fundamental attribution error

The cognitive tendency to overestimate dispositional traits and underestimate situational factors when explaining the behavior of others.

Actor–observer bias

The tendency to attribute one's own actions to external situational demands while attributing others' identical actions to internal personal traits.

Self-serving bias

The cognitive habit of taking personal credit for successes through internal attributions while blaming external situational factors for failures.