AP Psychology: Unit 2

Consciousness

The awareness of internal and external stimuli; the mind’s stream of thoughts and experiences.

Stream of Consciousness

The continuous, in-and-out flow of thoughts and sensations in many directions.

Unconscious

Mental processes outside awareness that Freud argued influence behavior and feelings.

Freud’s Levels of Awareness

Conscious and unconscious are different levels; not an all-or-none process.

EEG

A device that measures electrical activity in the brain.

Beta Waves

13–24 cps; associated with normal waking thought and problem solving.

Alpha Waves

8–12 cps; associated with deep relaxation, blank mind, and meditation.

Theta Waves

4–7 cps; associated with light sleep.

Delta Waves

1–3 cps; associated with deep sleep.

Circadian Rhythm

24-hour biological cycles in humans and many animals.

Melatonin

Hormone that adjusts biological clocks and helps realign circadian rhythms.

REM Sleep

Rapid Eye Movement sleep; high-frequency, low-amplitude brain waves; vivid dreaming; muscle paralysis.

Non-REM Sleep (NREM)

Stages 1–4 of sleep; progressively deeper sleep with fewer vivid dreams.

Stage 1 Sleep

Brief transitional stage of light sleep; may include hypnic jerks.

Stage 2 Sleep

Characterized by sleep spindles; vital signs begin to decline.

Stage 3 & 4 Sleep (Slow-Wave Sleep)

Deep sleep with high-amplitude, low-frequency delta waves.

REM Rebound

Increased REM sleep after REM sleep deprivation.

Memory Consolidation (REM)

REM sleep helps solidify and organize day’s learning; longer REM can enhance learning.

Dreaming

Vivid experiences that occur primarily during REM sleep; can occur in NREM but usually less vivid.

Day Residue

Freud’s idea that waking-life experiences spill into dreams.

Lucid Dreaming

Realizing you are dreaming while in a dream.

Manifest Content

The surface plot of a dream in Freud’s theory.

Latent Content

Hidden, symbolic meaning of a dream in Freud’s theory.

Wish Fulfillment (Freud’s Dream Theory)

Dreams reveal unconscious desires; surface content hides true wishes.

Cartwright Dream Theory

Dreams help solve everyday problems and support learning; sleep aids memory.

Activation-Synthesis Theory (Hobson & McCarley)

Dreams result from random neural activation; emotions are secondary.

Hypnosis

A systematic procedure that increases suggestibility in some people.

Dissociation (Hilgard)

Split of mental processes into separate streams of awareness; part of hypnosis theory.

Hypnosis as Role-Playing

Hypnosis as acting out socially expected roles.

Altered State of Consciousness (Hypnosis)

Hypnosis as an altered state involving dissociation and divided consciousness.

Hypnotic Phenomena

Anesthesia, hallucinations, disinhibition, and posthypnotic suggestions.

Dissociation

Split in awareness during hypnosis; a normal experience like driving and not remembering details.

Meditation

Practices that train attention and awareness to increase voluntary control; alpha/theta waves common.

Physiological Effects of Meditation

Slower heart rate, breathing rate, and skin conductance; relaxation response.

Long-Term Benefits of Meditation

Lower stress, improved mental health, mood, self-esteem, and creativity.

Psychoactive Drugs

Chemicals that modify mental, emotional, or behavioral functioning.

Narcotics/Opiates

Opium-derived drugs that relieve pain (e.g., heroin, morphine).

Sedatives

Drugs that depress CNS activity and promote sleep (e.g., sleeping pills, barbiturates).

Stimulants

Drugs that increase CNS activation (e.g., caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, amphetamines).

Hallucinogens

Drugs that alter perception and reality (e.g., LSD, mescaline).

Cannabis

Marijuana/hashish/THC; produces relaxed euphoria and cognitive effects.

Alcohol

Beverages with ethyl alcohol; causes euphoria and reduced inhibition.

MDMA (Ecstasy)

A drug with stimulant and hallucinogenic properties; energizing and sociable effects.

Mesolimbic Dopamine Pathway

Key brain reward pathway; many abused drugs increase activity here.

Tolerance

Decreased responsiveness to a drug, requiring higher doses for same effect.

Physical Dependence

Need to continue taking a drug to avoid withdrawal illness.

Psychological Dependence

Craving or compulsion to take a drug despite consequences.

Overdose

Death or severe harm from taking too much of a drug.

Marijuana Effects on Health

Does not significantly suppress immune response; limited impact on male fertility; short-term memory effects may fade after abstinence.

REM Sleep & Learning

REM sleep contributes to memory consolidation and can enhance daytime learning; longer REM linked to greater learning gains.

Nightmares

Anxiety-arousing dreams usually occurring in REM sleep.

Night Terrors

Abrupt awakenings from NREM sleep with intense autonomic arousal; not indicative of emotional disturbance.

Somnambulism (Sleepwalking)

Walking while asleep; often genetic and not indicative of emotional disturbance.

Learning

A relatively durable change in behavior or knowledge that is due to experience.

Conditioning

Learning associations between events that occur in an organism's environment.

Classical Conditioning

A type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

A stimulus that naturally evokes an unconditioned response without prior conditioning.

Unconditioned Response (UCR)

An unlearned reaction to an UCS that occurs without previous conditioning.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

A previously neutral stimulus that, through conditioning, can evoke a conditioned response.

Conditioned Response (CR)

A learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus.

Pavlovian Conditioning

Another term for classical conditioning, named after Ivan Pavlov.

Conditioned Reflex

A conditioned response that is relatively automatic or involuntary.

Acquisition (Classical Conditioning)

Initial stage of learning when the CS and UCS are paired, leading to the CR.

Stimulus Contiguity

Acquisition depends on the CS and UCS being presented together or close in time.

Extinction

Gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response when the CS is repeated without the UCS.

Spontaneous Recovery

Reappearance of an extinguished response after a period without exposure to the CS.

Stimulus Generalization

When a response to a specific stimulus is elicited by similar stimuli.

Stimulus Discrimination

When an organism does not respond the same way to similar stimuli that are not the original CS.

Higher-Order Conditioning

A conditioned stimulus functions as if it were an unconditioned stimulus.

Phobias

Irrational fears of specific objects or situations often linked to classical conditioning.

Operant Conditioning

A form of learning in which responses come to be controlled by their consequences.

Instrumental Learning

Thorndike’s term for learning controlled by consequences.

Law of Effect

If a response in the presence of a stimulus leads to positive effects, the association is strengthened.

Reinforcement

An event following a response that increases the tendency to make that response.

Reinforcement Contingencies

Rules that determine whether responses lead to the presentation of reinforcers.

Operant Chamber (Skinner Box)

A small enclosure where an animal can make a specific response and have its consequences controlled.

Cumulative Recorder

A device that records a respondent’s behavior and reinforcement over time.

Shaping

Reinforcement of closer and closer approximations to a desired response.

Acquisition (Operant Conditioning)

Initial learning of a response through reinforcement.

Resistance to Extinction

Persistence of a response after reinforcement has terminated.

Discriminative Stimulus

Cues that indicate the probable consequences of a response.

Primary Reinforcers

Events that are inherently reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs.

Secondary/Conditioned Reinforcers

Reinforcers that acquire value through association with primary reinforcers.

Schedules of Reinforcement

Rules that determine which occurrences of a response are reinforced.

Continuous Reinforcement

Every instance of the designated response is reinforced.

Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement

Only some responses are reinforced, making them more resistant to extinction.

Fixed Ratio (FR) Schedule

Reinforcement after a fixed number of non-reinforced responses.

Variable Ratio (VR) Schedule

Reinforcement after a variable number of non-reinforced responses.

Fixed-Interval (FI) Schedule

Reinforcement for the first response after a fixed time interval.

Variable-Interval (VI) Schedule

Reinforcement for the first response after a variable time interval.

Positive Reinforcement

Strengthens a response by presenting a rewarding stimulus.

Negative Reinforcement

Strengthens a response by removing an aversive stimulus.

Escape Learning

Learning a response that decreases or ends an aversive stimulus.

Avoidance Learning

Learning a response that prevents an aversive stimulus from occurring.

Punishment

An event following a response that weakens the tendency to repeat the response.

Instinctive Drift

Innate response tendencies interfere with conditioning processes.

Taste Aversions

Garcia’s finding that taste/odor‑nausea associations can form even with long delays.

Latent Learning

Learning that is not immediately shown in behavior; uncoverable later (Tolman).

Signal Relations

Rescorla’s view that the predictive value of a CS influences conditioning.

Observational Learning

Learning that occurs by observing others and their consequences.