Psychology Lecture: Memory, Social Influence, and Anti-Social Behavior

A comprehensive vocabulary review of memory processes, exceptional memory, memory improvement strategies, conformity, obedience, bystander behavior, prejudice, and discrimination based on the lecture notes.

Hippocampus Damage

Brain damage that prevents a person from creating new long-term memories while leaving memories formed prior to the damage intact.

Mr. S

A Russian journalist with exceptional memory who could recall lists of 70+ items from 15 years prior, foreign language poems, and letters front and back, while experiencing synesthesia.

Eidetic Imagery

A form of photographic memory, occurring usually in children, where a clear visual image (afterimage) is retained for at least 30 seconds and can be visually scanned.

Haber & Haber (1964, 2000) Study

Research on eidetic imagery showing that 8% of a sample of 150 children possessed this ability, whereas the rate drops to close to 0.1% in adults.

Elaborative Processing

An encoding strategy for memory improvement that involves making information meaningful, organizing key ideas, chunking, and encoding retrieval cues.

Overlearning

A memory encoding strategy that involves continuing practice and learning beyond bare mastery of the material.

Mnemonics

Memory aids that make information meaningful and familiar by using mental pictures and forming bizarre, unusual, or exaggerated mental associations.

Conformity

Bringing one's behavior into agreement with perceived social norms by observing others in a group, driven by a strong need to be accepted.

Obedience

Changing one's behavior in direct response to the demands of an authority figure.

Asch's Conformity Experiments

Studies using line-matching tasks where accomplices deliberately gave wrong answers, showing that about 75% of participants conformed at least once and wrong answers were given in 37% of all trials overall.

Milgram's Obedience Study

An experiment testing compliance to an authority figure's demands to shock a learner, finding that 65% of participants obeyed by going all the way to 480 volts despite psychiatrists predicting only 1% would do so.

The Bystander Effect

The unwillingness or apathy of individuals to offer help to a person in need when others are present.

Diffusion of Responsibility

The psychological cause of the bystander effect, where individuals feel reduced personal accountability when present in a group.

Anti-Social Behavior

Any behavior that has a negative impact on others and violates social norms and rights, including aggression, bullying, and dehumanization.

Prejudice

The affective component of attitude, defined as a negative emotional attitude toward a group marked by suspicion, fear, or hatred.

Discrimination

The behavioral component of attitude, defined as the unequal treatment of people who should have the same rights as others.

Stereotypes

The cognitive component of attitude, defined as oversimplified positive or negative thoughts and images that categorize people.

Explicit Prejudice

Overt, open prejudice where individuals are consciously aware of their negative attitudes toward a group.

Implicit Prejudice

Unconscious prejudiced thoughts and feelings about others that an individual is not consciously aware of holding.

Systemic Prejudice

Prejudice that becomes institutionalized in the policies of organizations, such as police, schools, government, and the bail system.

Symbolic Prejudice

Disguised prejudice expressed in subtly veiled forms while remaining overt in underlying intent.

Scapegoating

Blaming a person or group for the actions of others or for conditions that are not of their making.

Subtyping

Categorizing an individual as an exception to the rule (such as a career woman) to maintain existing stereotypes in the face of disconfirming evidence.