AP Psych Vocab Unit 2 Mods 33-36

Anterograde Amnesia

An inability to form new memories

Retrograde Amnesia

An inability to retrieve information from one's past

Proactive Interference

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

Retroactive Interference

The backward-acting disruptive effect of newer learning on the recall of old information

Repression

In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

Reconsolidation

A process in which previously stored memories, when retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again

Misinformation Effect

Occurs when misleading information has distorted one's memory of an event

Source Amnesia

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

Deja Vu

That eerie sense that "I've experienced this before." Cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience

Cognition

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Concept

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

Prototype

A mental image or best example of category

Creativity

The ability to produce new and valuable ideas

Convergent Thinking

Narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution

Divergent Thinking

Expanding the number of possible problem solutions; creative thinking that diverges in different directions

Algorithm

A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

Heuristic

A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than an algorithm

Insight

A sudden realization of a problem's solution; contrasts with strategy-based solutions

Confirmation Bias

A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

Fixation

In cognition, the inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an obstacle to problem solving

Mental Set

A tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past

Intuition

An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning

Representativeness Heuristic

Estimating the likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information

Availability Heuristic

Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are common

Overconfidence

The tendency to be more confident than correct- to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements

Belief Perseverance

Clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited

Framing

The way an issue is posed; how an issue is worded can significantly affect decisions and judgements

Language

Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

Phoneme

In a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

Morpheme

In a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word

Grammar

In a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others

Babbling Stage

Beginning around 4 months, the stage of speech development in which an infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language

One-Word Stage

The stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words

Two-Word Stage

Beginning about age 2, the stage in a speech development during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements

Telegraphic Speech

Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram - "go car" - using mostly nouns and verbs

Aphasia

Impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding)

Broca's area

Helps control language expression - an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech

Wernicke's area

A brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe

Linguistic determinism

The strong form of Whorf's hypothesis - that language controls the way we think and interpret the world around us

Linguistic influence

The weaker form of "linguistic reality" - the idea that language affects thought (thus our thinking and world view is "relative" to our cultural language)