PSYC 101 - FINAL TEXTBOOK NOTES

consciousness

A person’s subjective experience of the world and the mind.

phenomenology

The study of how things seem to the conscious person.

problem of other minds

The fundamental difficulty we have in perceiving the consciousness of others.

mind–body problem

The issue of how the mind is related to the brain and body.

dichotic listening

A task in which people wearing headphones hear different messages in each ear.

cocktail-party phenomenon

A phenomenon in which people tune in one message even while they filter out others nearby.

minimal consciousness

A low-level kind of sensory awareness and responsiveness that occurs when the mind inputs sensations and may output behaviour.

full consciousness

When you know and are able to report your mental state.

self-consciousness

Distinct level of consciousness in which the person’s attention is drawn to the self as an object.

mental control

The attempt to change conscious states of mind.

thought suppression

The conscious avoidance of a thought.

rebound effect of thought suppression

The tendency of a thought to return to consciousness with greater frequency following suppression.

ironic processes of mental control

Ironic errors occur because the mental process that monitors errors can itself produce them.

dynamic unconscious

An active system encompassing a lifetime of hidden memories, the person’s deepest instincts and desires, and the person’s inner struggle to control these forces.

repression

A mental process that removes unacceptable thoughts and memories from consciousness and keeps them in the unconscious.

cognitive unconscious

Includes all the mental processes that give rise to a person’s thoughts, choices, emotions, and behaviour even though they are not experienced by the person.

dual process theories

Suggest that we have two different systems in our brains for processing information: one for fast, automatic, and unconscious processing; and the other for slow, effortful, and conscious processing.

altered state of consciousness

A form of experience that departs significantly from the normal subjective experience of the world and the mind.

circadian rhythm

A naturally occurring 24-hour cycle.

REM sleep

A stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements and a high level of brain activity.

sleep apnea

A disorder in which the person stops breathing for brief periods while asleep.

narcolepsy

A disorder in which sudden sleep attacks occur in the middle of waking activities.

sleep paralysis

The experience of waking up unable to move, sometimes associated with narcolepsy.

manifest content

A dream’s apparent topic or superficial meaning.

latent content

A dream’s true underlying meaning.

activation–synthesis model

The theory that dreams are produced when the brain attempts to make sense of random neural activity that occurs during sleep.

psychoactive drugs

Chemicals that influence consciousness or behaviour by altering the brain’s chemical message system.

drug tolerance

The tendency for larger drug doses to be required over time to achieve the same effect.

depressants

Substances that reduce the activity of the central nervous system.

expectancy theory

The idea that alcohol effects can be produced by people’s expectations of how alcohol will influence them.

balanced placebo design

A study design in which behaviour is observed following the presence or absence of an actual stimulus and also following the presence or absence of a placebo stimulus.

alcohol myopia

A condition that results when alcohol hampers attention, leading people to respond in simple ways to complex situations.

stimulants

Substances that excite the central nervous system, heightening arousal and activity levels.

narcotics (opiates)

Highly addictive drugs derived from opium that relieve pain.

hallucinogens

Drugs that alter sensation and perception and often cause visual and auditory hallucinations.

marijuana (cannabis)

The leaves and buds of the hemp plant, which contain a psychoactive drug called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

gateway drug

A drug whose use increases the risk of the subsequent use of more harmful drugs.

hypnosis

A social interaction in which one person makes suggestions that lead to a change in another person’s subjective experience of the world.

posthypnotic amnesia

The failure to retrieve memories following hypnotic suggestions to forget.

hypnotic analgesia

The reduction of pain through hypnosis in people who are susceptible to hypnosis.

Language

A system for communicating with others using signals that are combined according to rules of grammar and that convey meaning.

Grammar

A set of rules that specify how the units of language can be combined to produce meaningful messages.

Phonemes

The smallest units of speech that distinguish one word from another.

Morphemes

The smallest meaningful units of language.

Syntactic Rules

Indicate how words can be combined to form phrases and sentences.

Telegraphic Speech

Speech devoid of function morphemes and consisting mostly of content words.

Nativist Theory

Language development is best explained as an innate, biological capacity.

Universal Grammar

A collection of processes that facilitate language learning.

Aphasia

The loss of ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage.

Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis

The idea that language shapes the nature of thought.

Concept

A mental representation that groups or categorizes shared features of related objects, events, or other stimuli.

Prototype Theory

The concept that we classify new objects by comparing them to the ‘best’ or ‘most typical’ member of a category.

Exemplar Theory

Making category judgments by comparing a new instance with stored memories of other instances of the category.

category-specific deficit

A neurological syndrome characterized by an inability to recognize objects that belong to a particular category.

rational choice theory

The classical view that we make decisions by determining how likely something is to happen, judging the value of the outcome.

availability heuristic

A rule of thumb that items that are more readily available in memory are judged as having occurred more frequently.

heuristic

A fast and efficient strategy that may facilitate decision making but does not guarantee a solution.

algorithm

A well-defined sequence of procedures or rules that guarantees a solution to a problem.

representativeness heuristic

A mental shortcut that involves making a probability judgement by comparing an object or event with a prototype.

conjunction fallacy

When people think that two events are more likely to occur together than either individual event.

framing effects

Occurs when people give different answers to the same problem depending on how the problem is framed.

sunk-cost fallacy

A framing effect in which people make decisions about a current situation based on what they have previously invested.

optimism bias

People believe that, compared with others, they are more likely to experience positive events and less likely to experience negative events.

prospect theory

Proposes that people take risks when evaluating potential losses and avoid risks when evaluating potential gains.

means–ends analysis

A process of searching for the means or steps to reduce the differences between the current situation and the desired goal.

analogical problem solving

Attempting to solve a problem by finding a similar problem with a known solution and applying that solution.

functional fixedness

The tendency to perceive the functions of objects as unchanging.

reasoning

A mental activity that consists of organizing information or beliefs into a series of steps to reach conclusions.

belief bias

The idea that people’s judgements about whether to accept conclusions depend more on how believable the conclusions are than logical validity.

syllogistic reasoning

Assesses whether a conclusion follows from two statements that are assumed to be true.

illusory truth effect

An error in reasoning that occurs when repeated exposure increases the likelihood that people judge a statement to be true.

illusion of explanatory depth

An illusion that occurs when people overestimate the depth of their understanding.