AP Psychology Unit 2 Important Terms

Perceptual Set

A tendency to perceive or notice some aspects of the available sensory data and ignore others

Proactive Interference

The forward-acting disruptive effect of older learning on recall of new information

The old ‘stuff’ you learned last month is getting in the way of the new ‘stuff’ you are trying to remember now

Retroactive Interference

Backward-acting disruptive effect of newer learning on recall of old information

The new ‘stuff’ you learned this week is making it hard to remember the ‘stuff’ you learned a few months ago

Anterograde Amnesia

Inability to form new memories due to injury or illness

As with H.M., he could recall his past, but not make new memories.

Retrograde Amnesia

Inability to retrieve information from one’s past due to injury or illness

Priming

The activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in long-term implicit memory

• After seeing or hearing the word rabbit, we are later more likely to spell the spoken word hair/hare as h-a-r-e, even if we don’t recall seeing or hearing rabbit.

Misinformation Effect

Occurs when misleading information has distorted one’s memory of events

Encoding Failure

Much of what we sense, we never notice, and what we fail to encode, we will never remember.

• the inability to store or transfer information from short-term memory into long-term memory

Storage Decay

The gradual fading or loss of information from memory over time as physical neurochemical memory traces (engrams) weaken due to disuse or the passage of time

Retrieval Failure

The inability to access a memory that is still stored in long-term memory because the proper triggers or cues are missing

Serial Position Effect

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

Explicit Memory

Retention of facts and experiences from long-term memory that one can consciously know and “declare”

Encoded through conscious effortful processing; encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.

Implicit Memory

Retention of learned skills or classically conditioned associations in long-term memory independent of conscious recollection 

Unconscious and automatic retention of skills, habits, and past experiences that influence your behavior without deliberate thought.

Iconic Memory

A fleeting sensory memory of visual stimuli

• For a few tenths of a second, our eyes register a picture-image memory of a scene, and we can recall any part of it in amazing detail.

Echoic Memory

Auditory version of iconic memory

• Being able to retain what you heard for a few tenths of a second

Semantic Memory

Facts and general knowledge

Ex; Such as George Washington was our first president

Episodic Memory

Conscious recollection of personal experiences, specific events, and situations tied to particular times and places.

Experienced events
Ex; Such as I had a clown at my 6th birthday party.

Repression

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

Pushing down anxiety educing feeling and memories

Mnemonic Devices

A memory tool or technique designed to help you encode, store, and recall complex information

Context Dependent Memory

Putting yourself back in the context where you earlier experienced something can prime your memory retrieval.

Ex; When you visit your childhood home or neighborhood, old memories surface.

State Dependent Memory

What we learn in one physiological state—be it drunk or sober—may be more easily recalled when we are again in that state

Flashbulb Memory

Clear, sustained long-term memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.

Infantile Amnesia 

As adults, our conscious memory of our first four years is largely blank, an experience called infantile amnesia.

Source Amnesia 

Faulty memory for how, when, or where information was learned or imagined

Ex; We may tell a friend some gossip, only to learn we got the news from that friend.

Inattentional Blindness

When attention is focused on one part of the visual field, and as a result, you may ignore or miss other parts.

Mental Set

The human tendency to rely on familiar, past-successful strategies or default problem-solving methods when facing a new situation

Divergent Thinking

A spontaneous, non-linear thought process that generates multiple creative ideas or solutions from a single starting point

Convergent Thinking

A cognitive process that narrows down multiple ideas, options, or data points to identify a single, optimal, and logically correct solution

Heuristic

Addresses problems by using mental shortcuts to make judgments.

Does not guarantee a solution and are more error-prone than algorithms.

Representative Heuristics

Can lead to an error in judgment when decisions are made according to prior expectations or stereotypes.

Matches a prototype

Availability Heuristics

Can lead to an error in judgment when decisions are made by recalling the first or most vivid example that comes to mind.

Based on how quickly it comes to mind

Hippocampus

Converts short-term memory into long-term memory

Involved in processing and retrieving declarative (facts and events) memory

Spatial relationship memories

Mental Illnesses due to damage to the Hippocampus

Alzheimer's and Anterograde Amnesia

Cerebellum

Balance and equilibrium

Coordinated sequences of movement

Plays a big role in Implicit Memory

Amygdala

Threat and Fear Processing

Emotional Memory (Strong positive and negative emotional events)

- Anger

- Aggression

- Afraid (Fear Responses)

- Also helps ingrain highly emotional memories

Frontal Lobe

Movement, Thoughts, and Behavior

Motor Cortex & Prefrontal Cortex

Motor Cortex

Involved in initiating voluntary movement

Prefrontal Cortex

Thinking, planning, decision-making, impulse control

Primacy Effect

When people remember and give more weight to information they encounter first in a sequence, list, or interaction compared to what comes later

Recency Effect

When people remember and give more weight to the most recently presented information in a sequence

Procedural Memory

A type of unconscious, long-term implicit memory that helps you perform everyday motor, visuospatial, and cognitive skills without needing to actively think about each step

- Ex; Buttoning up a shirt, Brushing Teeth

Prototype

The ideal example of any given concept

Closure (Gestalt)

The principle of making a whole or completed object by filling in the gaps.

Top Down Processing

(Relies on internal prior expectations)

Processing that involves experience, expectations, and motives to fill in the gaps and complete a perception.

Schemas

A structured framework, mental model, or blueprint used to organize, interpret, or manage information

• Makes sense of incoming information based on past experiences

• Ex; Expecting a doctor to wear a white coat, getting seated, eating, and paying at a restaurant

Bottom Up Processing

Relies on external sensory information

Processing of basic elements or features to build a perception.

Selective Attention

Focusing on a specific stimulus or task while actively ignoring irrelevant sights, sounds, or thoughts

- Also Where people respond to mentions of their names or specific topics in loud or distracting environments.

Divided Attention

The brain's ability to process or respond to multiple stimuli, information streams, or tasks at the same time

Proximity (Gestalt)

The principle that items close together group more easily than items far apart.

Similarity (Gestalt)

The principle that items more alike (e.g., similar color, size, shape, orientation, or texture group more easily than items that are different.

Continuity (Gestalt)

The human brain naturally perceives elements arranged on a smooth, continuous line or curve as more related to one another than elements that are scattered or broken

Framing

A cognitive bias where people react differently to the same information depending on how it is presented, or "framed," rather than the underlying facts

Forgetting Curve

The exponential decay of memory.

After 24 hours, about two-thirds of anything memorized is forgotten but one-third is stored relatively permanently.

Prospective Memory

The ability to remember to perform a planned action or intention at the right time in the future

“remembering to remember"

- Ex; Remember to get chips from the store

Method Of Loci

A mnemonic device that relies on spatial relationships between loci to encode and later retrieve information.

Ex; locations on a familiar route or rooms in a familiar building

Self-reference Effect

A psychological phenomenon where people better remember information when they relate it to themselves rather than to others or to general concepts