Educational Psychology: Learning, Cognition, and Social Contexts

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering educational psychology topics including bullying, culture, behavioral learning theories, operant and classical conditioning, memory models, cognitive views of learning, and constructivist frameworks.

Bullying

A repetitive form of physical or psychological aggression occurring when a student or group of students targets an individual over time to dominate the victim

Primary Indicators of Bullying

The three defining criteria of bullying behavior: duration, power, and intent to harm.

Culture

The knowledge, rules, traditions, and attitudes that guide behavior in a particular group of people.

Ethnicity

A cultural heritage shared by a group of people.

Resistance Cultures

Group perspectives and cultural patterns that reject mainstream middle-class values and expectations, often contributing to lower academic achievement.

Stereotype Threat

The extra emotional and cognitive burden experienced by a member of a group when feeling apprehensive about confirming a negative stereotype

Learning

A process that occurs when experience causes a relatively permanent change in behavior and knowledge.

Principle of Contiguity

The learning principle stating that two events or sensations become associated and remembered together through repeated pairings over time.

Classical Conditioning

A form of learning where individuals learn to respond to or form an attitude toward a stimulus that previously had no effect or a very different effect on them.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A stimulus that automatically produces an emotional or physiological response prior to any learning or conditioning.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

A naturally occurring emotional or physiological response elicited by an unconditioned stimulus without prior training.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

A previously neutral stimulus that, after repeated pairings with an unconditioned stimulus, evokes a learned emotional or physiological response.

Conditioned Response (CR)

A learned physiological or emotional response evoked by a conditioned stimulus following classical conditioning.

Operant Conditioning

Learning in which voluntary behavior is strengthened or weakened by consequences or antecedents that precede an action.

Positive Reinforcement

Strengthening or increasing the likelihood of a target behavior by presenting a desired stimulus immediately following the behavior.

Negative Reinforcement

Increasing a target behavior by removing or terminating an aversive stimulus following the desired action.

Presentation Punishment

Decreasing or suppressing an unwanted behavior by presenting an aversive stimulus immediately following that behavior.

Removal Punishment

Decreasing or suppressing an unwanted behavior by taking away a pleasant stimulus following that behavior.

Continuous Schedule of Reinforcement

A reinforcement schedule in which a reinforcer is delivered after every single correct response.

Fixed-Interval Schedule

A reinforcement schedule where reinforcement is made available only after a set, predictable period of time has elapsed.

Variable-Interval Schedule

A reinforcement schedule where reinforcement is made available after varying, unpredictable lengths of time.

Fixed-Ratio Schedule

A reinforcement schedule in which reinforcement is delivered after a specific, predetermined number of responses.

Variable-Ratio Schedule

A reinforcement schedule in which reinforcement is delivered after an unpredictable, varying number of responses.

Extinction

The progressive disappearance or cessation of a learned response when the reinforcing consequences are completely withheld.

Stimulus Discrimination

The ability to respond in different ways to similar but distinct stimuli based on past reinforcement experiences.

Premack Principle

A behavioral principle asserting that a high-frequency, preferred activity can serve as an effective reinforcer for completing a less-preferred activity.

Social Isolation

A behavioral management procedure that removes an individual from a reinforcing classroom environment to de-escalate behavior and separate them from triggering stimuli.

Shaping

A behavioral technique that involves reinforcing successive approximations or small sequential steps to build a complex target behavior.

Observational Learning

The acquisition and later performance of behaviors demonstrated by models, requiring attention, retention, production processes, and motivation or reinforcement.

General Knowledge

Information and cognitive skills that apply broadly to many different situations and content domains.

Domain-Specific Knowledge

Information that is specialized and applies only to one particular topic or subject area.

Declarative Knowledge

Knowledge that can be verbalized, defined as 'knowing that' something is the case.

Procedural Knowledge

Knowledge of how to execute specific actions or procedures, defined as 'knowing how to' perform a task.

Conditional Knowledge

Self-regulatory knowledge concerning when and why to apply specific declarative and procedural knowledge.

Prototype

A best example or most representative exemplar of a category.

Sensory Register

A memory system of sensory receptors that holds raw environmental stimuli briefly for $1$-$3\,\text{seconds}$ with a practically unlimited capacity.

Perception

The cognitive process of interpreting and attributing meaning to raw sensory information.

Gestalt

A psychological theory stating that people naturally organize perceptual information into coherent, unified wholes rather than isolated parts.

Bottom-Up Processing

Perceptual analysis based on identifying separate, discrete defining features and assembling them into a recognizable pattern.

Top-Down Processing

Perceptual processing guided by existing context, prior expectations, and pre-existing knowledge.

Attention

The deliberate cognitive focus directed toward a specific stimulus or event.

Automaticity

The ability to execute thoroughly learned tasks smoothly and quickly without requiring significant conscious mental effort.

Short-Term Memory

A memory component that holds a limited amount of information, typically $5$-$9\,\text{chunks}$, for a brief duration of approximately $20$-$30\,\text{seconds}$.

Working Memory

The active cognitive system responsible for temporarily holding and processing the information an individual is focusing on at any given moment.

Maintenance Rehearsal

A cognitive strategy for keeping information active in working memory by repeating it to oneself over and over.

Elaborative Rehearsal

Retaining information in working memory and facilitating transfer to long-term memory by linking it with existing knowledge.

Chunking

The cognitive process of grouping individual bits of discrete data into larger, meaningful composite units to maximize memory capacity.

Interference

The process by which the retrieval of information is blocked or degraded because new learning conflicts with old learning, or previous learning conflicts with new information.

Decay

The gradual fading and weakening of memory traces over the passage of time.

Reconstruction

The cognitive recreation of past information by synthesizing memory traces with logic, expectations, and existing general knowledge.

Long-Term Memory

The permanent storage repository of knowledge, possessing practically unlimited capacity and duration.

Schema

Basic cognitive mental frameworks used to organize, categorize, and represent concepts and knowledge in memory.

Story Grammar

The typical structural schema and organizational framework characteristic of a particular narrative category.

Script

A schema containing the expected sequence of actions and events characteristic of a common, routine situation.

Episodic Memory

A subcategory of long-term explicit memory designated for personal experiences tied to a particular time and place.

Mnemonics

Systematic techniques and strategies designed to improve retention and facilitate the recall of information.

Acronym

A mnemonic method that creates a memorable new word from the first letter of each word in a sequence or list.

Loci Method

A mnemonic technique where items to be remembered are mentally paired with familiar physical locations or rooms along an imagined path.

Metacognitive Awareness

Knowledge and consciousness regarding one's own thinking, learning abilities, and cognitive processes.

Levels of Processing Theory

A cognitive theory proposing that the degree of recall is directly related to the depth and elaboration of cognitive processing during encoding.

Serial Position Effect

The tendency to accurately recall the beginning and end of an informational sequence while struggling to retain items positioned in the middle.

Flashbulb Memories

Vivid, detailed, and enduring memories of emotionally significant or traumatic personal experiences.

First Wave Constructivism

A constructivist perspective associated with Jean Piaget that emphasizes the individual's psychological and internal construction of meaning.

Second Wave Constructivism

A constructivist perspective associated with Lev Vygotsky that emphasizes social interactions, culture, and collaborative environments in shaping knowledge.

Scaffolding

Temporary instructional support and guidance provided by educators or more capable peers that enables learners to accomplish tasks within their zone of proximal development.