AP Pysch Unit 2B UPDATED VOCAB

wcpss

Concept

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

Prototype

A mental image or best example of a category used to classify information.

Schema

A mental framework that organizes and interprets information based on past experiences.

Assimilation

Interpreting new information using existing schemas without changing them.

Accommodation

Modifying existing schemas or creating new ones to fit new information.

Executive Functions

Mental processes that help plan, organize, control behavior, and achieve goals.

Algorithm

A step-by-step procedure that guarantees a correct solution when followed properly.

Heuristic

A mental shortcut that simplifies decision-making but can lead to errors.

Representativeness Heuristic

Judging something based on how closely it resembles a typical example or category.

Availability Heuristic

Estimating the likelihood of an event based on how easily examples come to mind.

Mental Set

The tendency to approach problems using strategies that worked in the past.

Priming

Exposure to one stimulus unconsciously influences a response to a later stimulus.

Framing

The way information is presented influences decisions and perceptions.

Sunk-Cost Fallacy

Continuing an activity because of resources already invested, despite unfavorable results.

Gambler's Fallacy

The false belief that previous random outcomes influence future independent outcomes.

Functional Fixedness

The inability to see objects as useful for anything beyond their traditional functions.

Creativity

The ability to produce new, original, and useful ideas or solutions.

Convergent Thinking

Narrowing possible solutions to identify one correct or best answer.

Divergent Thinking

Generating multiple possible solutions or creative ideas for a problem.

Explicit Memory

Long-term memory: Conscious memory of facts and personal experiences.

Episodic Memory

Long-term explicit memory: Conscious recollection of personal experiences and specific events.

Semantic Memory

Long-term explicit memory: Conscious recollection of general facts, concepts, and knowledge about the world.

Implicit Memory

Long-term memory: Memory that influences behavior without requiring conscious recollection.

Procedural Memory

Long-term implicit memory: Memory of how to perform learned skills and tasks automatically.

Prospective Memory

Memory for future intentions: Remembering to perform a planned action at a future time.

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

Long-term memory formation and storage: Lasting strengthening of neural connections following repeated stimulation.

Working Memory

Active short-term processing: A limited-capacity system that temporarily holds and manipulates information.

Visuospatial Sketchpad

Working memory: The component that temporarily processes visual and spatial information.

Long-Term Memory

Third stage of the multi-store model: Relatively permanent storage of information with a virtually unlimited capacity.

Multi-Store Model

A model describing three memory stages: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Sensory Memory

First stage of the multi-store model: Briefly stores incoming sensory information before further processing.

Central Executive

Working memory: The component that directs attention and coordinates other working-memory components.

Phonological Loop

Working memory: The component that temporarily holds and rehearses verbal and auditory information.

Iconic Memory

Sensory memory: Briefly retains visual information for a fraction of a second.

Echoic Memory

Sensory memory: Briefly retains auditory information for approximately 3-4 seconds.

Shallow Processing

Encoding: Processing information based on surface features, such as appearance or sound, rather than meaning.

Deep Processing

Encoding: Processing information by focusing on its meaning and connecting it to existing knowledge.

Effortful Processing

Encoding: Processing information through conscious attention, mental effort, and deliberate practice.

Automatic Processing

Encoding: Unconsciously processing information about space, time, frequency, and familiar tasks.

Encoding

First memory process: Transforming information into a form that can be processed and stored.

Storing

Second memory process: Retaining information in the brain over time.

Structural Processing

Shallow encoding: Processing information based on its physical appearance or structure.

Retrieval

Third memory process: Accessing previously stored information and bringing it back into awareness.

Phonemic Processing

Shallow encoding: Processing information based on the sounds of words.

Semantic Processing

Deep encoding: Processing information based on its meaning.

Mnemonic Devices

Encoding strategies: Techniques using associations, imagery, patterns, or other cues to improve memory.

Encode

Encoding process: Converting information into a form the brain can store and later retrieve.

Method of Loci

Encoding strategy: Associating information with specific locations in a familiar environment.

Chunking

Short-term and working memory strategy: Grouping individual pieces of information into larger, meaningful units.

Categories

Encoding and organization strategy: Grouping information based on shared characteristics.

Hierarchies

Encoding and organization strategy: Arranging information from broad categories to increasingly specific details.

The Spacing Effect

Long-term retention: Learning improves when study sessions are distributed over time.

Massed Practice

Study strategy: Studying intensively in one extended session with few or no breaks.

Distributed Practice

Study strategy: Spreading study sessions across multiple periods instead of studying all at once.

Serial Position Effect

Retrieval: The tendency to remember items at the beginning and end of a list better than items in the middle.

Primacy Effect

Long-term memory contribution: Remembering early items in a list better because they often receive more rehearsal.

Recency Effect

Short-term memory contribution: Remembering the last items in a list better because they remain temporarily available.

Sensory Memory

First stage of the multi-store model: Very brief initial storage of information received through the senses.

Short-Term Memory

Second stage of the multi-store model: Temporary storage of limited information for approximately 15-30 seconds.

Working Memory

Active short-term processing: Temporarily holding and manipulating information to complete mental tasks.

Long-Term Memory

Third stage of the multi-store model: Relatively permanent storage of facts, experiences, and skills.

Maintenance Rehearsal

Short-term memory: Repeating information to keep it temporarily active without necessarily processing its meaning.

Elaborative Rehearsal

Encoding into long-term memory: Connecting new information to existing knowledge to improve retention.

Autobiographical Memory

Long-term memory: Memory of one's own life, combining personal experiences with knowledge about oneself.

Retrograde Amnesia

Long-term memory disorder: The loss of memories formed before an injury or the onset of amnesia.

Anterograde Amnesia

Long-term memory disorder: The inability to form new long-term memories after an injury or the onset of amnesia.

Alzheimer's Disease

A progressive neurological disorder that causes memory loss, cognitive decline, and behavioral changes.

Infantile Amnesia

Long-term autobiographical memory: The inability to consciously recall personal memories from the earliest years of childhood.

Retrieval

Third memory process: Bringing previously stored information back into conscious awareness.

Recall

Retrieval: Producing previously learned information without having the information itself presented.

Recognition

Retrieval: Identifying previously learned information when it is presented again.

Retrieval Cues

Retrieval: Stimuli, thoughts, or environmental factors that help trigger stored memories.

Context-Dependent Memory

Retrieval: Remembering information better when the physical environment matches where it was learned.

Mood-Congruent Memory

Retrieval: The tendency to recall memories that match one's current emotional state.

State-Dependent Memory

Retrieval: Remembering information better when one's internal state matches the state during learning.

Testing Effect

Retrieval practice: Improved long-term retention resulting from actively recalling information through testing.

Metacognition

Thinking about, monitoring, and evaluating one's own thinking and learning processes.

Encoding Failure

Encoding: Forgetting because information was never adequately processed or stored in long-term memory.

The Forgetting Curve

Long-term retention: A graph showing that memory fades rapidly after learning and then declines more slowly.

Proactive Interference

Retrieval interference: Previously learned information makes it harder to remember newer information.

Retroactive Interference

Retrieval interference: Newly learned information makes it harder to remember older information.

Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon

Retrieval failure: Feeling that you know a word or name but being temporarily unable to recall it.

Ego

In Freud's theory, the part of personality that balances the id, superego, and reality.

Repression

In Freud's theory, unconsciously blocking distressing thoughts or memories from awareness.

Misinformation Effect

Memory distortion: Misleading information received after an event changes how the original event is remembered.

Source Amnesia

Retrieval error: Remembering information but forgetting where, when, or how it was originally learned.

Constructive Memory

Memory reconstruction: Actively reconstructing memories using experiences, expectations, and existing knowledge.

Memory Consolidation

Storage: Strengthening and stabilizing newly formed memories for long-term retention.

Imagination Inflation

Memory distortion: Becoming more confident that an event happened after repeatedly imagining it.

Intelligence

The ability to learn from experience, reason, solve problems, and adapt to new situations.

General Intelligence (g)

Spearman's proposed general mental ability underlying performance across different cognitive tasks.

Multiple Intelligences

Gardner's theory that intelligence consists of several distinct abilities rather than one general ability.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

A standardized intelligence score with an average of 100; historically mental age divided by chronological age times 100.

Mental Age

The age level associated with a person's performance on an intelligence test.

Standardization

Administering tests uniformly and establishing norms using a representative sample.

Valid

Describes a test that accurately measures what it claims to measure.

Construct Validity

The extent to which a test measures the theoretical concept it is intended to measure.

Reliable

Describes a test that produces consistent results under comparable conditions.

Predictive Validity

The extent to which test scores accurately predict future performance or outcomes.

Test-Retest Reliability

Measuring consistency by giving the same test to the same people at different times.