Psychology Exam Review: Thinking, Memory, and Learning

Vocabulary review flashcards covering essential key terms and concepts across Chapter 9 (Thinking, Language, and Intelligence), Chapter 8 (Memory), and Chapter 7 (Learning).

Cognition

The mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Concept

A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

Prototype

A mental image or best example of a category.

Algorithm

A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.

Heuristics

A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently, though more error-prone than algorithms.

Confirmation Bias

A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

Fixation

The inability to see a problem from a new perspective or employ a fresh approach.

Functional Fixedness

A block to problem solving that comes from thinking about objects only in terms of their typical functions.

Overconfidence

The tendency to be more confident than correct, overestimating the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

Framing

The way an issue is posed or structured, which can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

Belief Perseverance

Clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been disproven.

Skinner's Theory of Language Development

Explains language development through learning principles such as association, imitation, and reinforcement.

Chomsky's Theory of Language Development

Proposes that humans have an inborn, universal grammar that facilitates natural language acquisition.

Whorf's Hypothesis

Linguistic determinism theory suggesting that language shapes and determines the way we think.

Stanford-Binet

The widely used American revision of Binet's original intelligence test, adapted by Lewis Terman.

Charles Spearman and the G Factor

Proposed that general intelligence (g factor) underlies all specific mental abilities and performance.

Howard Gardner's 8 Intelligences

Theory stating intelligence comes in eight distinct forms: musical, visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic.

Robert Sternberg's 3 Intelligences

Triarchic theory dividing intelligence into three categories: analytical, creative, and practical.

Emotional Intelligence

The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions effectively.

WAIS

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale; the most widely used intelligence test for adults.

WISC

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children; an intelligence test designed specifically for school-aged children.

Memory Encoding

The processing of information into the memory system.

Memory Storage

The retention of encoded information over time.

Memory Retrieval

The process of getting stored information out of memory retention.

Automatic Processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information such as space, time, and frequency.

Effortful Processing

Memory encoding that requires active attention and conscious effort.

Spacing Effect

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

Serial Position Effect

Our tendency to best recall the last (recency effect) and first (primacy effect) items in a list.

Iconic Memory

A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli, lasting no more than a few tenths of a second.

Echoic Memory

A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli, where sounds can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds.

Short-Term Memory

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

Long-Term Memory

The relatively permanent and unlimited storehouse of the memory system.

Implicit Memory (Procedural Memory)

Retention independent of conscious recollection, involving motor skills and learned classical conditioning.

Explicit Memory (Declarative Memory)

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

Hippocampus

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

Déjà Vu

The eerie sense that one has experienced a current situation before, triggered by cues from the present context.

State Dependent Memory

The phenomenon where memory retrieval is most efficient when an individual is in the same state of consciousness or emotion as when the memory was formed.

Recall vs. Recognition

Recall involves retrieving information learned earlier without explicit cues, whereas recognition involves identifying previously learned items from given options.

Associative Learning

Learning that certain events occur together, including classical conditioning and operant conditioning.

Classical Learning

A type of learning in which an organism comes to associate two or more stimuli to anticipate events.

Operant Conditioning

A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher.

Observational Learning

Learning by observing others.

Modeling

The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior.

Pavlo and his work with dogs

Experiments demonstrating classical conditioning by pairing neutral stimuli with food to elicit salivation in dogs.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers an unconditioned response.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

An unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

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

Conditioned Response (CR)

The learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus.

Acquisition

The initial stage in classical conditioning when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus.

Extinction

The diminishing of a conditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus or reinforcement no longer follows.

Spontaneous Recovery

The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response.

Generalization

The tendency for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses.

Discrimination

The learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other irrelevant stimuli.

John Watson and Little Albert study

A classic study demonstrating how emotional responses, specifically fear, can be classically conditioned in a human child.

E.L. Thorndike

Psychologist who formulated the Law of Effect, establishing that rewarded behavior is likely to recur.

B.F. Skinner

Behaviorist who expanded on the law of effect to elaborate principles of operant conditioning and reinforcement schedules.

Positive Reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli following a desired response.

Negative Reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli following a response.

Primary Reinforcer

An innately reinforcing stimulus that satisfies a biological need.

Secondary Reinforcer

A stimulus that gains reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer.

Continuous Reinforcement

Reinforcing the desired response every single time it occurs.

Partial Reinforcement

Reinforcing a response only part of the time, resulting in slower acquisition but greater resistance to extinction.

Fixed-Ratio Schedule

A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses.

Variable-Ratio Schedule

A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses.

Fixed-Interval Schedule

A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed.

Variable-Interval Schedule

A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals.

Corporal Punishment

Physical punishment used to reduce behavior, associated with problems such as modeling aggression and inducing fear.

Punishment vs. Discipline

Punishment focuses on inflicting an undesirable consequence to stop behavior, whereas discipline focuses on teaching and encouraging positive replacement behaviors.

Latent Learning

Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it.

Albert Bandura and the Bobo doll study

Famous experiment demonstrating observational learning and modeling of aggressive behavior in children.