ap psych unit 4 vocab

memory

the persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 326)

recall

a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 327)

recognition

a measure of memory in which the person identifies items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 327)

relearning

a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material again. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 327)

encoding

the process of getting information into the memory system— for example, by extracting meaning. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 329)

storage

the process of retaining encoded information over time. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 329)

retrieval

the process of getting information out of memory storage. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 329)

sensory memory

the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 329)

short-term memory

activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as digits of a phone number while calling, before the information is stored or forgotten. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 329)

long-term memory

the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 329)

working memory

a newer understanding of short-term memory that adds conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 329)

explicit memory

retention of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare." (Also called declarative memory.) (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 330)

effortful processing

encoding that requires attention and conscious effort. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 330)

automatic processing

unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 331)

implicit memory

retention of learned skills or classically conditioned associations independent of conscious recollection. (Also called nondeclarative memory.) (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 331)

iconic memory

a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 332)

echoic memory

a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 332)

chunking

organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 333)

mnemonics

memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 333)

spacing effect

the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 334)

testing effect

enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information. Also sometimes referred to as a retrieval practice effect or test-enhanced learning. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e pp. 20, 335)

shallow processing (shallow encoding)

encoding on a basic level, based on the structure or appearance of words. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 335)

deep processing (deep encoding)

encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the words; tends to yield the best retention. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 335)

semantic memory

explicit memory of facts and general knowledge; one of our two conscious memory systems (the other is episodic memory). (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 340)

episodic memory

explicit memory of personally experienced events; one of our two conscious memory systems (the other is semantic memory). (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 340)

memory consolidation

the neural storage of a long-term memory. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 340)

long-term potentiation (LTP)

an increase in a cell's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; a neural basis for learning and memory. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 342)

priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e pp. 165, 345)

mood-congruent memory

the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 346)

serial position effect

our tendency to recall best the last (recency effect) and first (primacy effect) items in a list. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 347)

anterograde amnesia

an inability to form new memories. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 351)

retrograde amnesia

an inability to retrieve information from one's past. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 351)

proactive interference

the forward-acting disruptive effect of older learning on the recall of new information. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 354)

retroactive interference

the backward-acting disruptive effect of newer learning on the recall of old information. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 354)

repression

in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e pp. 355, 581)

misinformation effect

occurs when misleading information has distorted one's memory of an event. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 357)

source amnesia

faulty memory for how, when, or where information was learned or imagined. (Also called source misattribution.) Source amnesia, along with the misinformation effect, is at the heart of many false memories. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 358)

cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e pp. 365, 498)

concept

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 365)

prototype

a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin). (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 365)

creativity

the ability to produce new and valuable ideas. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 366)

convergent thinking

narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 366)

divergent thinking

expanding the number of possible problem solutions; creative thinking that diverges in different directions. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 366)

algorithm

a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier—but also more error-prone—use of heuristics. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 370)

heuristic

a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than an algorithm. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 370)

confirmation bias

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 371)

mental set

a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 371)

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. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 372)

availability heuristic

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 373)

overconfidence

the tendency to be more confident than correct—to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 375)

belief perseverance

clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 376)

framing

the way an issue is posed; how an issue is worded can significantly affect decisions and judgments. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 376)

intelligence

the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 626)

general intelligence (g)

according to Spearman and others, underlies all mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 626)

factor analysis

a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person's total score. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 626)

emotional intelligence

the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 629)

achievement test

a test designed to assess what a person has learned. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 632)

aptitude test

a test designed to predict a person's future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 632)

mental age

a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the level of performance typically associated with children of a certain chronological age. Thus, a child who does as well as an average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age of 8. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 633)

intelligence quotient (IQ)

defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 (thus, IQ = ma/ca × 100). On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 634)

standardization

defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 635)

normal curve (normal distribution)

a symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data; most scores fall near the mean (about 68 percent fall within one standard deviation of it) and fewer and fewer near the extremes. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e pp. 68, 635)

reliability

the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternative forms of the test, or on retesting. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 636)

validity

the extent to which a test or experiment measures or predicts what it is supposed to. (See also content validity and predictive validity.) (Myers Psychology for AP 3e pp. 56, 636)

content validity

the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 637)

predictive validity

the success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior. (Also called criterion-related validity.) (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 637)

crystallized intelligence

our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 640)

fluid intelligence

our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease with age, especially during late adulthood. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 640)

cross-sectional study

research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e pp. 563, 641)

longitudinal study

research that follows and retests the same people over time. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e pp. 563, 641)

stereotype threat

a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype. (Myers Psychology for AP 3e p. 657)

Functional fixedness

a cognitive bias that limits a person's ability to use an object for anything other than its intended purpose.

Assimilation

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.

accommodation

adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.

Gambler's fallacy

a psychological bias that occurs when someone mistakenly believes that past events can influence future events that are independent of them.

Sunk-cost fallacy

cognitive bias that makes you feel as if you should continue pouring money, time, or effort into a situation.

Executive function

a set of mental processes that help people manage everyday tasks, solve problems, and adapt to new situations.

Procedural memory

a type of implicit memory that stores information on how to perform tasks automatically without conscious thought, like riding a bike, typing on a keyboard, or tying shoes ( connected to implicit memory)

Prospective memory

a form of memory that involves remembering to perform a planned action or recall a planned intention at some future point in time

Working memory model

a theory that describes how the brain temporarily stores and manipulates information to support complex cognitive tasks

Central executive

responsible for controlled processing in working memory, including but not limited to, directing attention, maintaining task goals, decision making, and memory retrieval.

Phonological loop

a component of working memory model that deals with spoken and written material.

Visuospatial sketchpad

a component of working memory that temporarily stores and manipulates visual and spatial information. It's responsible for non-verbal information, including color, shape, location, and kinesthetic information.

Multi-store model

a psychological theory that describes human memory as having three separate stores-the sensory register (SR), short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM).

Levels of processing model

a theory that states that the way information is encoded affects how well it is remembered. The model suggests that information that is processed more deeply is more likely to be remembered than information that is processed more superficially.

Structural processing

a type of processing that involves remembering the physical characteristics of a word or stimuli, such as its appearance or sound. It is considered a shallow level of processing

Phonemic Processing

processing includes remembering the word by the way it sounds (e.g. the word tall rhymes with fall)

Semantic Processing

the process of understanding and interpreting the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences. It's a broad concept that involves both lexical semantics (word meaning) and nonverbal conceptual world-knowledge (semantic memory)

Method of Loci

a mnemonic device, a trick used to help store and retrieve information. To use the technique, someone imagines a physical location, then places objects in that mental space which correspond to the things which must be remembered.

categories

A real-world grouping of things that share similar characteristics.

hierarchies

Processing information by dividing it into logical levels, beginning with the most general and moving to the most specific.

Massed practice

study method where a large amount of information is learned in a single, concentrated session with minimal breaks, essentially meaning "cramming"

Distributed practice

a learning technique that involves studying material in multiple short sessions over a longer period of time.

primacy effect

our tendency to recall best the first items in a list. ( part of serial position effect)

Recency effect

our tendency to recall best the last items in a list. ( part of serial position effect)

Maintenance rehearsal

the process of repeating information to keep it in short-term memory.

Elaborative rehearsal

a memory technique that involves connecting new information to existing knowledge to help it stick in your long-term memory.

Memory retention

the ability to store and recall previously learned information or experiences. It involves holding onto memories over time.

Autobiographical memory

our recollection of events that happened in our life and when those events took place. Can include facts about oneself, such as date and place of birth.

Alzheimer's disease

a progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and, finally, physical function.