AP Psychology Unit 7 Thinking/Memory

Availability heuristic

Availability heuristic

A mental shortcut where judgments are based on the ease with which examples come to mind.

Representative heuristic

A mental shortcut where judgments are based on how well an individual or event matches a prototype or stereotype.

Phoneme

The smallest unit of sound in a language that can change the meaning of a word.

Morpheme

The smallest unit of meaning in a language, such as a prefix or a suffix.

Prototype

A mental image or best example of a category that helps us classify and understand new information.

Schema

A mental framework or organized pattern of thought that helps us interpret and understand the world.

Confirmation bias

The tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information that confirms our preexisting beliefs or hypotheses.

Semantics

The study of meaning in language, including how words and sentences convey information.

Nature

The influence of genetic and biological factors on human development and behavior.

Nurture

The influence of environmental and social factors on human development and behavior.

Algorithm

A step-by-step procedure or formula for solving a problem or completing a task.

Concept

A mental representation of a category or class of objects, events, or ideas.

Wernicke's area

A region in the brain's left hemisphere involved in language comprehension and production.

Universal grammar

The theory that all humans are born with an innate ability to acquire language.

Overregularization

The application of grammatical rules to irregular words, resulting in errors (e.g., "goed" instead of "went").

Framing effect

The way in which information is presented can influence decision-making and judgments.

Functional fixedness

The tendency to perceive objects only in terms of their typical uses, limiting problem-solving abilities.

Iconic memory

A type of sensory memory that briefly holds visual information before it is processed further.

Episodic memory

The memory system that stores personal experiences and events in a chronological order.

Maintenance rehearsal

Repeating information over and over to maintain it in short-term memory.

Working memory

The system responsible for temporarily holding and manipulating information for cognitive tasks.

Primacy effect

The tendency to remember information presented at the beginning of a list better than information presented later.

Semantic memory

The long-term memory system that stores general knowledge and concepts.

Implicit memories

Memories that are not consciously aware of but still influence behavior and cognition.

Prospective memory

The ability to remember to perform a planned action or intention in the future.

Chunking

Organizing information into meaningful units to improve memory capacity and retrieval.

Elaborative rehearsal

A memory technique that involves actively relating new information to existing knowledge to enhance encoding and retrieval.