Psych Final Exam

Memory Improvement Techniques

Strategies to enhance memory, including preparation, distribution of learning, elaboration, practice retrieval, overlearning, verbal mnemonics, and visual imagery.

Cues

Pieces of information that help us remember past events.

Encoding Specificity Principle

The idea that the recall of information is more successful when cues at retrieval match cues at encoding.

Schacter’s Seven Sins of Memory

Categories of memory errors including transience, absent-mindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence.

Decay Theory of Forgetting

The theory that memories fade away over time without rehearsal.

Hyperthymesia

A rare medical condition characterized by an extraordinary ability to recall autobiographical memories.

Interference Theory of Forgetting

The theory that competing information obscures retrieval of memories.

Retrograde Amnesia

Memory loss for events that occurred before a specific traumatic event.

Anterograde Amnesia

The inability to encode new information into long-term memory, often permanent.

Chunking

A memory strategy that involves grouping information into meaningful patterns to improve recall.

Facial Feedback Hypothesis

The theory that facial expressions can influence emotional experience.

James-Lange Theory of Emotion

The theory that emotional experiences are the result of physiological arousal.

Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion

The theory that emotional experiences and physiological responses occur simultaneously.

Schacter’s Two-Factor Theory

The theory that emotions are based on physiological arousal and cognitive labeling of that arousal.

Universal Emotions

Basic emotions that are recognized across cultures, each associated with distinct facial expressions.

Emotion Regulation Strategies

Techniques to manage emotional experiences, including acting on the situation, reappraising meaning, and emotional expression.

Memory Reconstruction

The process by which our memories are often recreated from available information rather than being exact replicas of original experiences.

Encoding

The process of how information is initially learned.

Storage

The process of maintaining information over a short or long time.

Retrieval

The process involved in recovering information from memory to produce a response.

Iconic Memory

The visual component of sensory memory that creates and stores visual sensory information.

Echoic Memory

The auditory component of sensory memory that creates and stores auditory sensory information.

Immediate Memory

A system that actively holds onto a limited amount of information for manipulation and processing, also known as short-term or working memory.

Memory Span

The limit of what we can remember over the short term, typically around 7 plus or minus 2 items.

Rehearsal

The process of repeating information to yourself to help maintain it in memory.

Working Memory Model

Proposed by Baddeley and Hitch, it includes components such as the central executive, phonological loop, episodic buffer, and visuospatial sketchpad.

Episodic Memory

A type of long-term memory containing personal experiences and specific events.

Semantic Memory

A type of long-term memory relating to facts and concepts devoid of personal experience.

Procedural Memory

A type of long-term memory that entails knowing how to do things, including motor skills.

Levels of Processing

A theory that suggests incoming information is processed at different levels (structural, phonological, semantic), affecting memory retention.

Elaborative Rehearsal

A technique of actively manipulating information in immediate memory to connect it meaningfully to information stored in long-term memory.

False Memory

A recollection of an event that did not occur or the distortion of the actual memory due to the constructive nature of memory. (lost in the mall memory experiment)

Feynman Technique

A method for learning that involves teaching a concept to someone else to reinforce understanding and identify gaps in knowledge.

Cognitive Psychology

A branch of psychology focused on the study of mental processes including memory, perception, and problem-solving.

Electrooculograms

Measure eye movements during sleep.

Electromyograms

Measure jaw muscle tension.

REM sleep behavior disorder

A neurodegenerative disorder where individuals act out contents of their dreams.

Circadian rhythms

Our daily biological clocks that reset every morning by external cues.

Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)

Located above the optic chiasm, this is the body’s timekeeper.

Psychoactive drugs

Substances that alter consciousness and can be used to induce altered states.

Depressants

Drugs that slow down the arousal of the central nervous system.

Stimulants

Drugs that increase the activity of the central nervous system.

Hallucinogens

Substances that distort the sense of time and space.

Cannabis (Marijuana)

A psychoactive drug with THC that alters pain perception and increases relaxation.

Affective neuroscience

The study of how bodily arousal relates to emotional experiences.

Cognitive component of emotion

Refers to the subjective conscious experience of emotions, such as feeling happy or sad.

Physiology/neural circuitry in emotions

Involves bodily arousal responses like fast breathing and increased heart rate.

Behavioural component of emotion

Involves the expression of emotions through body language and facial expressions.

Duchenne smile

A genuine smile that involves the zygomatic major and orbicularis oculi muscles.

Circadian rhythm

The biological processes that follow a 24-hour cycle, influenced by external cues such as light.

Working memory

The cognitive system that temporarily holds and processes information.

Positive reinforcement

The addition of a rewarding stimulus to increase the likelihood of a behavior.

Negative reinforcement

The removal of an aversive stimulus to increase the likelihood of a behavior.

Positive punishment

The addition of an aversive stimulus to decrease the likelihood of a behavior.

Negative punishment

The removal of a rewarding stimulus to decrease the likelihood of a behavior.

Generalized conditioned reinforcer

A reward that can be used in many different situations, like money.

Pavlovian Conditioning Extinction

Occurs when the conditioned stimulus no longer predicts the arrival of the unconditioned stimulus, resulting in the loss of the conditioned response.

Spontaneous Recovery

The reappearance of a conditioned response after a rest period when the conditioned stimulus is presented again without the unconditioned stimulus.

Stimulus Generalization

The tendency for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit the same conditioned response.

Stimulus Discrimination

The ability to differentiate between similar stimuli, where one conditioned stimulus elicits a conditioned response and another does not.

Evaluative Conditioning

A process of associating an already conditioned stimulus with a neutral stimulus to influence preferences.

Higher Order Conditioning

An advanced form of classical conditioning where a neutral stimulus is paired with a conditioned stimulus, leading to the neutral stimulus eliciting a conditioned response.

Operant Conditioning

A learning process where the consequences of a behavior influence its future occurrence.

Reinforcement

Consequences that strengthen responses, making them more likely to occur in the future.

Punishment

Consequences that weaken responses, making them less likely to occur in the future.

Shaping

The process of gradually reinforcing behaviors that are closer to the desired endpoint behavior.

Schedules of Reinforcement

Different patterns or frequencies of delivering reinforcers that establish how and when behaviors will be reinforced.

Cognitive Maps

Mental representations of spatial relationships that facilitate navigation and learning.

Observational Learning

Learning that occurs by observing the behaviors of others rather than through direct experience.

Four Phases of Bandura’s Observational Learning

Attention, Retention, Production, and Motivation are the phases that influence learning through observation.

Fixed Ratio Schedule

A reinforcement schedule that rewards a response only after a specified number of responses have been made.

Fixed Interval Schedule

A reinforcement schedule that rewards the first response after a fixed amount of time has passed.

Variable Ratio Schedule

A reinforcement schedule that rewards an unpredictable number of responses.

Variable Interval Schedule

A reinforcement schedule that rewards the first response after varying amounts of time.

Divided Attention

The ability to simultaneously attend to two or more tasks.

Subconscious Processing

Information perceived without awareness that influences behavior.

Subliminal Processing

Sensory stimulus processed without conscious awareness.

Visual Neglect

A condition where patients with lesions in the right parietal lobe are not aware of stimuli in the left visual field.

ADHD

The most commonly diagnosed psychological problem in children, characterized by difficulty in maintaining attention.

Electroencephalograms (EEG)

A method for measuring brain activity across the surface of the brain.

Slow-Wave Sleep (SWS)

A stage of sleep characterized by delta activity, critical for brain restoration.

REM Sleep

A stage of sleep featuring rapid eye movement, vivid dreams, and desynchronized theta waves.

Dreams

Products of an altered state of consciousness where images and fantasies are interwoven with reality.

Insomnia

A sleep disorder characterized by the inability to fall asleep or remain asleep.

Narcolepsy

A neurodegenerative disorder marked by sleep attacks and sudden episodes of muscle weakness.

REM Sleep Behavior Disorder

A condition in which individuals act out the contents of their dreams during REM sleep.

Parasomnias

Disorders characterized by abnormal movements or behaviors during sleep.

Consciousness

Awareness of ourselves and the environment.

Altered state of consciousness

A bizarre, disorganized, or dreamlike state of consciousness.

Controlled processes

Processes that require greater conscious effort and are slower.

Automatic processes

Processes that occur with little conscious effort and are faster.

Nonconscious processes

Processes that occur in the body without conscious awareness.

Preconscious

Information that is outside of conscious awareness but can be brought into consciousness on demand.

Unconscious

Experiences, ideas, and motives that are threatening and removed from consciousness.

Split-brain

A condition resulting from severing the corpus callosum, altering communication between the two hemispheres.

Selective attention

The process of attending to one source of information while ignoring others.

Dichotic listening task

A task where one attends to one message while ignoring another.

Inattentional blindness

Missing aspects of the visual scene due to lack of attention.

Subliminal processing

Sensory stimulus that is processed without conscious awareness.

Automaticity

The ability to perform tasks with little conscious effort, often due to practice.