Intro to Psychology Test 2

Learning

Relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge resulting from experience.

Associative Learning

Organism makes connections between stimuli or events that occur together in the environment.

Classical Conditioning

Learning to associate stimuli and to anticipate events.

Operant Conditioning

Organisms learn to associate behavior and its consequences.

Behaviorism

An approach to psychology that emphasizes the study of observable behavior and the role of the environment and prior experience to determine behavior.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response.

Neutral Stimulus (NS)

A stimulus that does not naturally elicit a response.

Acquisition

The initial learning period in which an organism learns to connect a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus.

Extinction

The decrease of a conditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus is no longer presented with the conditioned response.

Stimulus Discrimination

When an organism learns to respond differently to various stimuli that are similar.

Stimulus Generalization

When an organism demonstrates the conditioned response to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus.

Positive Reinforcement

Something added to increase the likelihood of a behavior.

Negative Reinforcement

Something removed to increase the likelihood of a behavior.

Positive Punishment

Something added to decrease the likelihood of a behavior.

Negative Punishment

Something removed to decrease the likelihood of a behavior.

Primary Reinforcers

Reinforcers with innate reinforcing qualities that do not need to be learned.

Secondary Reinforcers

Reinforcers that have no inherent value and whose value is learned.

Continuous Reinforcement

When an organism receives a reward each time it displays a behavior.

Partial Reinforcement

When an organism does not get rewarded every time they display the desired behavior.

Cognitive Map

A mental representation of the layout of an environment.

Latent Learning

Learning that occurs but is not immediately expressed in behavior.

Social Learning Theory

The idea that people can learn without direct reinforcement or punishment.

Observational Learning

Learning by watching others and then imitating their behavior.

Modeling

The process of learning by observing others.

Cognition

The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.

Language

A system of communication used by a particular community or country.

Phoneme

The smallest unit of sound in a language.

Morpheme

The smallest meaningful unit of language.

Semantics

The meaning derived from morphemes and words.

Syntax

The set of rules that governs the structure of sentences.

Prototype

The best example or representation of a concept.

Heuristic

A general problem-solving framework that uses cognitive shortcuts.

Intelligence

The ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.

Emotional Intelligence

The ability to understand and manage one’s own emotions and the emotions of others.

Learning Styles

The preferred way an individual processes information.

Multiple Intelligences Theory

The theory that proposes individuals possess various types of intelligences.

Creative Intelligence

The ability to generate novel ideas and solutions.

Functional Fixedness

The inability to perceive an object as being used for something other than what it was designed for.

Cognitive Bias

Systematic error in thinking

Anchoring Bias

Tendency to focus on one piece of information when making a decision or problem solving

Base Rate Fallacy

People are relatively insensitive to consensus info presented in the form of numerical base rates

Availability Heuristic

The tendency to estimate the likelihood that an event will occur how easily instances of it come to mind

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to seek, interact and create info that verifies existing beliefs

Hindsight Bias

The tendency to believe one could have predicted the outcomes of an event all along

Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

A theory proposed by Robert Sternberg identifies three types of intelligence: analytical, creative, and practical

Linguistic Intelligence

the ability to understand and use language

Cognitive Differences

Factors such as culture, education, and environment often influence variations in cognitive abilities and processes among individuals.

IQ

A measure of intelligence derived from standardized tests designed to assess human intelligence.

Critiques of IQ

argue that it does not capture the full range of human intelligence or account for cultural biases in testing.

Flash Bulb Memories

Memories that hold special places are especially clear because of the unusual, shocking, or traumatic circumstances surrounding them

False Memories

inaccurate or distorted recollections of events that individuals believe to be true, often influenced by suggestion or misinformation.

Eyewitness Testimony

A legal term referring to the account given by individuals who have witnessed a crime or event, often used as evidence in court. Not always accurate

Recall

The ability to retrieve and reproduce from memory previously encountered material

Recognition

The ability to identify previously encountered material

Semantic Encoding

Encoding of words and their meanings

Visual Encoding

encoding of images

Acoustic Encoding

encoding of sounds

Encoding

The process of transforming information into a format that can be stored in memory

Retrieval

The process of accessing and bringing stored information back into consciousness from memory. It is a crucial step in the memory process.

Storage

The process of maintaining information in memory over time, allowing it to be retained for future use

Sensory Registry

Storage of brief sensory events, such as sights, sounds, and tastes

Short-term Memory

Storage of brief sensory events, such as sights, sounds, and tastes

Chunking

A memory strategy that involves grouping information into larger, more manageable units to enhance retention and recall.

Long-Term memory

Continuous storage of information

Procedural

Memory that involves skills and actions

Declarative

memory that involves facts and events that can be previously recalled

Primacy

effect where events presented first are remembered better than those that occurred later

Recency

Information that is presented most recently is easier to remember

Memory errors

loss or incorrect recall of information or events that took place

Logical-Mathematical Intelligence

the ability to think logically and mathematically, and to recognize and use patterns

Spatial Intelligence

the ability to visualize, reason, and understand the relationships between objects and space

Musical Intelligence

the ability to understand and create music, including rhythm, pitch, and melody

Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence

The ability to use your body to solve problems, manipulate objects, and coordinate your mind and body

Interpersonal Intelligence

the ability to understand and interact with others

Intrapersonal Intelligence

the ability to understand and use knowledge about yourself to guide your life

Naturalistic Intelligence

the ability to recognize, understand, and work with the natural world

Episodic Memory

long-term memory; information about events you have personally experienced

Relearning

learning information that you previously learned

Equipotentiality hypothesis

if part of one area of the brain involved in memory is damaged, another part of the same area can take over that memory function

Amygdala

involved in fear and fear memories, processes emotional information

Hippocampus

associated with explicit memory and spatial memory, connections information to memories, damage can cause an inability to process and create new declarative memories

Cerebellum

responsible for procedural memories and classical conditioning, remembering semantic tasks

Neurostransmitters

communication amoung neurons is curcial for devloping new memories

Arousal Theory

people are driven to perform actions that maintain an optimal level of physiological arousal

Amnesia

Loss of long-term memory

Anterograde Amnesia

inability to remeber new information after trauma point

Retrograde amnesia

loss of memory for events that occurred prior to the trauma

Construction

Formation of new memories

Reconstruction

process of bringing up old memories

Suggestibility

misinformation from external sources that can create false memories

Repressed Memories

whole memories can be repressed or falsely recalled due to traumatizing events

Forgetting

loss of information from long-term memory

Encoding Failure

memories fail to be encoded into long-term memory, encoding require effort and attention

Transience

accessibility of memory decreasing over time (storage decay)

Absentmindedness

forgetting caused by lapses in attention

Blocking

accessibility of information is temporarily blocked (top-of-the-tongue phenomenon)

Misattribution

source of memory is confused

Bias

memories distorted by current belief system

Persistence

inability to forget undesirable memories

Interference

failure to retrieve information