unit 8 psych vocab

Consciousness

Our awareness of ourselves and our environment.

Hypnosis

A social interaction in which one person (the subject) responds to another person’s (the hypnotist’s) suggestions that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur.

Posthypnotic suggestion

A suggestion made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized; used to help control undesired symptoms and behaviors.

Psychoactive drug

A chemical substance that alters perceptions and moods.

Tolerance

The diminishing effect with regular use of the same dose of a drug, requiring the user to take larger doses before experiencing the drug’s effect.

Addiction

Compulsive craving of drugs or certain behaviors despite known adverse consequences.

Withdrawal

The discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing an addictive drug or behavior.

Depressants

Drugs that reduce neural activity and slow body functions.

Alcohol use disorder

Alcohol use marked by tolerance, withdrawal, and a drive to continue problematic use.

Barbiturates

Drugs that depress central nervous system activity, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgment.

Opiates

Opium and its derivatives, such as morphine and heroin; they depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety.

Stimulants

Drugs that excite neural activity and speed up body functions.

Amphetamines

Drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes.

Nicotine

A stimulating and highly addictive psychoactive drug in tobacco.

Methamphetamine

A powerfully addictive drug that stimulates the central nervous system, with speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes.

Ecstasy (MDMA)

A synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen that produces euphoria and social intimacy.

Hallucinogens

Psychedelic drugs that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input.

LSD

A powerful hallucinogenic drug also known as acid (lysergic acid diethylamide).

THC

The major active ingredient in marijuana; triggers a variety of effects, including mild hallucinations.

Memory

The persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information.

Encoding

The processing of information into the memory system, for example, by extracting meaning.

Storage

The process of retaining encoded information over time.

Retrieval

The process of getting information out of memory storage.

Sensory memory

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

Short-term memory

Activated memory that holds a few items briefly before the information is stored or forgotten.

Long-term memory

The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system.

Working memory

Focusing on conscious, active processing of incoming information and information retrieved from long-term memory.

Explicit memory

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

Effortful processing

Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.

Automatic processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information.

Implicit memory

Retention independent of conscious recollection.

Iconic memory

A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli.

Echoic memory

A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli.

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units.

Mnemonics

Memory aids that use vivid imagery and organizational devices.

Spacing effect

The tendency for distributed study to yield better long-term retention than massed study.

Testing effect

Enhanced memory after retrieving information, rather than simply rereading it.

Shallow processing

Encoding based on the structure or appearance of words.

Deep processing

Encoding semantically based on the meaning of the words.

Self-reference effect

Tendency to recall information better when we can meaningfully relate it to ourselves.

Hippocampus

A neural center located in the limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage.

Long-term potentiation (LTP)

An increase in a cell’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation, believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.

Recall

A measure of memory where the person must retrieve information learned earlier.

Recognition

A measure of memory where the person identifies previously learned items.

Relearning

A measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material again.

Priming

The activation of particular associations in memory.

Context-dependent memory

Recall of specific information is improved when the contexts present at encoding and retrieval are the same.

State-dependent memory

Recall is improved when physiological or psychological states are the same during encoding and retrieval.

Mood-congruent memory

The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current mood.

Serial position effect

Our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list.

Anterograde amnesia

An inability to form new memories.

Retrograde amnesia

An inability to retrieve information from one’s past.

Proactive interference

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

Retroactive interference

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

Repression

The defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness.

Misinformation effect

Incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event.

Source amnesia

Attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, or read about.

Déjà vu

The eerie sense that one has experienced something before.