Psychology Around Us: Memory, Personality, and Learning

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering memory processes and disorders, personality perspectives and traits, and conditioning and cognitive mechanisms of learning.

Memory

The ability to recall past events and past learning by means of encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Encoding

The memory process of putting information into a form that the brain can understand and getting it into memory.

Storage

The memory process of retaining information and memories in the brain over the long term for later use.

Retrieval

The memory process of recovering and calling up stored memories when they are needed.

Information-Processing Theory

A memory framework suggesting information is stored and retrieved piece by piece and moves among three memory stores during encoding, storage, and retrieval, analogous to a computer.

Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) Theory

A connectionist model of memory suggesting that memories are stored as part of a large integrated web of associations and represented as a pattern of activation across entire neural networks throughout the brain.

Three-Stage Memory Model

A framework conceptualizing memory into three sequential stores—sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory—each differing in purpose, duration, and capacity.

Sensory Memory

A memory store that holds detailed, brief sensory images or sounds for a few seconds or less (up to $\frac{1}{2}\,\text{sec}$ for visual; $2\text{–}4\,\text{sec}$ for auditory) with a large capacity.

Working Memory

A short-term memory store holding information currently being processed or analyzed for up to $30\,\text{seconds}$ without rehearsal, with a limited capacity of $5\text{–}9$ items.

Long-Term Memory

A memory store holding all gathered information that is available for use with relatively permanent duration and relatively unlimited capacity.

Automatic Processing

The encoding of information into memory automatically with no conscious effort.

Effortful Processing

The encoding of information that requires focused attention, conscious effort, and work to memorize.

Chunking

The practice of grouping individual bits of information into larger, meaningful units to increase working memory capacity.

Eidetic Memory

The ability to encode exceptionally detailed visual information based on how it looks, commonly known as photographic memory.

PQRST Method

An organizational study technique designed to improve memory retention, standing for Preview, Question, Read, Self-Recitation, and Test.

Explicit Memory

Memories with conscious recall, consisting of semantic memory (facts and general knowledge) and episodic memory (personal experiences and events).

Implicit Memory

Memories without conscious recall, consisting of procedural memory (motor skills and habits), classically conditioned responses, and priming.

Semantic Memory

A category of explicit long-term memory dedicated to facts, concepts, and general knowledge.

Episodic Memory

A category of explicit long-term memory dedicated to personal experiences, specific events, and biographical occurrences.

Procedural Memory

A type of implicit memory involving learned motor skills, habits, and actions (e.g., riding a bicycle or driving a car).

Serial Position Effect

The tendency to show superior recall for items at the beginning (primacy effect) and end (recency effect) of a list compared to items in the middle.

State-Dependent Learning

The phenomenon where retrieval is enhanced when an individual is in the same mental or physiological state as during initial learning.

Decay Theory

A theory of forgetting originating from Hermann Ebbinghaus's research suggesting that physical memory traces naturally fade and erode over time.

Proactive Interference

The disruption of retrieval where older stored information blocks the recall of newly learned information.

Retroactive Interference

The disruption of retrieval where newly acquired information blocks the recall of previously stored old information.

Long-Term Potentiation

A biological process involving strengthened synaptic connections that is crucial for transferring information from working memory into long-term memory.

Anterograde Amnesia

A memory disorder caused by brain damage that impairs the ability to form or encode new long-term memories after the onset event.

Retrograde Amnesia

A memory disorder characterized by the loss of memories for events and information acquired prior to the trauma or onset event.

Personality

The unique characteristics and stable traits that account for enduring patterns of inner experience and outward behaviour across situations.

Psychoanalysis

A psychological theory and method of psychotherapy developed by Sigmund Freud aimed at uncovering the unconscious mind.

Preconscious

In Freudian theory, the level of consciousness containing memories, feelings, and knowledge not currently in conscious awareness but easily brought to consciousness.

Unconscious

In Freudian theory, the mental realm containing instinctual motives, immoral desires, and unacceptable memories that are repressed from awareness.

Id

The primitive, instinctual structure of personality present at birth that operates entirely unconsciously according to the pleasure principle.

Ego

The rational and logical structure of personality that develops through learning and operates on the reality principle to satisfy the id's desires realistically.

Superego

The personality structure representing internalized societal values, moral limits, and parental standards that induces feelings of guilt and anxiety.

Defense Mechanisms

Unconscious protective tactics employed by the ego to reduce anxiety and internal conflicts generated by unacceptable id impulses.

Repression

A primary defense mechanism that prevents anxiety-provoking thoughts, desires, or traumatic memories from entering conscious awareness.

Reaction Formation

A defense mechanism where an individual refuses to acknowledge unacceptable impulses and instead overemphasizes their exact opposites.

Projection

A defense mechanism characterized by attributing one's own unacceptable thoughts, qualities, or motives to someone else.

Sublimation

A defense mechanism in which socially unacceptable drives are channeled into productive, socially valued activities.

Collective Unconscious

Carl Jung's concept of an inherited, shared reservoir of memories and behavioral archetypes common to all human beings.

Basic Anxiety

Karen Horney's term for the pervasive feeling of helplessness and isolation that develops in children when parents fail to provide a secure environment, setting the stage for adult neurosis.

Self-Actualization

The humanistic drive identified by Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers to fulfill one's unique potential and achieve personal growth.

Unconditional Positive Regard

Carl Rogers's term for total acceptance, support, and nonjudgmental love extended to an individual without conditions or terms of worth.

Superfactor

One of Hans Eysenck's three fundamental dimensions of personality (Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Psychoticism) derived from factor analysis of related trait clusters.

Five-Factor Model (Big Five)

An empirically derived personality framework that categorizes personality into five core dimensions: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

Situationism

The theoretical view asserting that human behaviour is primarily governed by external circumstances rather than stable internal personality traits.

Interactionism

The perspective emphasizing that behaviour is shaped by the reciprocal relationship between an individual's internal personality traits and the situations they encounter.

Reciprocal Determinism

Albert Bandura's concept stating that internal cognitive processes, behaviour, and external environmental factors constantly influence and interact with one another.

Projective Tests

Personality assessment instruments that present ambiguous stimuli (such as the Rorschach inkblot test or Thematic Apperception Test) onto which test-takers project their unconscious conflicts.

Phrenology

A historical practice founded by Franz Joseph Gall that attempted to determine mental traits and personality characteristics by measuring the bumps and contours of the skull.

Personality Disorder

An inflexible and pervasive pattern of inner experience and outward behaviour causing distress or significant functional impairment, characterized by distorted thinking, emotional dysregulation, impulse issues, and interpersonal dysfunction.

Borderline Personality Disorder

A personality disorder marked by pervasive instability in moods, personal relationships, self-image, and emotional regulation, along with impulsive and self-destructive behaviours.

Antisocial Personality Disorder

A personality disorder characterized by a persistent pattern of extreme disregard for the rights of others, deceitfulness, impulsivity, superficial charm, and aggressive or criminal conduct.

Learning

A lasting change in behaviour or mental processes resulting from practice, study, or experience, which must be inferred from observable behaviour.

Associative Learning

A form of learning involving a change in behaviour resulting from an experience in which two or more stimuli become connected or linked.

Non-Associative Learning

A change in response resulting from repeated experiences with a single sensory cue, without forming associations between multiple stimuli.

Habituation

A non-associative learning process characterized by a weakening and reduction of a behavioural response following repeated presentations of a harmless stimulus.

Dishabituation

The recovery of a habituated response following the introduction of a novel or distinct stimulus.

Sensitization

A non-associative learning process in which exposure to a strong or noxious stimulus causes an exaggerated response to subsequent presentations of weaker stimuli.

Classical Conditioning

A form of associative learning founded by Ivan Pavlov in which a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus until it triggers a conditioned response on its own.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A stimulus that naturally and automatically elicits a physiological response without any prior learning or conditioning (e.g., food).

Unconditioned Response (UR)

An unlearned, naturally occurring physical response elicited automatically by an unconditioned stimulus (e.g., salivation).

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

An originally neutral stimulus that, through pairing with an unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response (e.g., a bell).

Conditioned Response (CR)

The learned physical response elicited by a conditioned stimulus that has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus.

Acquisition

The initial stage in classical conditioning during which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response.

Extinction

The gradual weakening and eventual disappearance of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous Recovery

The sudden re-emergence of an extinguished conditioned response following a period of rest or delay without further conditioning trials.

Stimulus Generalization

The phenomenon in classical conditioning where stimuli that are similar to the original conditioned stimulus evoke the same conditioned response.

Stimulus Discrimination

The acquired ability of an organism to emit a conditioned response exclusively to a specific stimulus, but not to other similar stimuli.

Higher-Order Conditioning

A conditioning procedure in which a previously established conditioned stimulus acts as if it were an unconditioned stimulus to condition a new neutral stimulus.

Systematic Desensitization

A therapeutic classical conditioning technique used to treat phobias by gradually exposing a client to a feared stimulus while practicing relaxation.

Conditioned Taste Aversion

A biologically primed classical conditioning response where an animal or human avoids a specific taste or odour after a single pairing with nausea or illness.

Operant Conditioning

A form of associative learning in which the likelihood of a behaviour is modified and shaped by its consequences (reinforcement or punishment).

Law of Effect

Edward Thorndike's principle stating that behaviours followed by satisfying consequences tend to be repeated, whereas behaviours followed by unpleasant consequences become less likely.

Positive Reinforcement

An operant procedure in which presenting a pleasant stimulus following a response increases the probability that the response will occur again.

Negative Reinforcement

An operant procedure in which removing an aversive stimulus following a response increases the probability that the response will occur again.

Positive Punishment

An operant procedure in which administering an unpleasant stimulus following a behaviour decreases the probability that the behaviour will recur.

Negative Punishment

An operant procedure in which removing a desirable stimulus following a behaviour decreases the probability that the behaviour will recur.

Primary Reinforcers

Stimuli that are intrinsically rewarding because they satisfy basic biological needs essential for survival, such as food, water, or the termination of pain.

Secondary Reinforcers

Neutral stimuli that acquire rewarding value through learned association with primary reinforcers (e.g., money or praise).

Shaping

An operant conditioning procedure that involves reinforcing successive approximations toward a target behaviour until the complete complex sequence is mastered.

Learned Helplessness

A psychological state in which an animal or human, after repeated exposure to unavoidable, inescapable aversive events, ceases attempting to escape.

Observational Learning

Learning that occurs without direct reinforcement or training by watching, imitating, and modeling the behaviours and consequences of others.

Vicarious Learning

A form of social learning in which an individual observes the consequences (rewards or punishments) delivered to another person's actions and modifies their own behaviour accordingly.

Latent Learning

Learning that occurs without reinforcement and remains unexpressed in performance until an incentive or reward is provided.

Insight Learning

A sudden realization of a problem's solution involving a cognitive leap in understanding without trial-and-error behaviour.

Stroop Effect

A demonstration of cognitive interference where naming the font colour of a word is delayed and more error-prone when the printed word spells a conflicting colour name.