Psy Test 2 V2

What is Semantic Memory?

Memory of facts, information, and general knowledge that you know. (Remembering that England won the 1966 World Cup.)

What is Episodic Memory?

Memory of personal experiences and events that you have experienced. (Remembering watching the 2018 World Cup.)

What is Short-Term Memory?

A memory system that temporarily holds a limited amount of information. (Remembering a grocery list long enough to write it down.)

What is the Primacy Effect?

he tendency to remember items presented at the beginning of a list better than items in the middle. (Remembering the first few items on a grocery list.)

What is the Recency Effect?

The tendency to remember items presented at the end of a list better than items in the middle. (Remembering the last few items your teacher mentioned.)

What is the Misinformation Effect?

When misleading information received after an event changes how you remember that event. (Hearing an incorrect description of a robbery and later remembering it incorrectly.)

What is Misattribution?

When you remember information but incorrectly identify where it came from. (Remembering a gun from a TV show as if you saw it during a real robbery.)

What is Proactive Interference?

When old information makes it harder to remember new information. (An old password makes it difficult to remember your new password.)

What is Retroactive Interference?

When new information makes it harder to remember old information. (Learning a new phone number makes it harder to remember your old one.)

What is Classical Conditioning?

Learning that develops through involuntary paired associations between stimuli. (Feeling sick when you eat a food you associate with being ill.)

What is an Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)?

A stimulus that naturally causes a response without prior learning. (A flu virus causing you to feel sick.)

What is a Neutral Stimulus (NS)?

A stimulus that initially does not cause the response being studied. (A particular soup before you associate it with feeling sick.)

What is a Conditioned Response (CR)?

A learned response to a previously neutral stimulus after it has been associated with another stimulus. (Feeling sick when eating soup that you associate with being ill.)

What is Operant Conditioning?

Learning in which consequences influence how likely a behavior is to happen again. (Studying more because you receive a good grade.)

What is Positive Reinforcement?

Adding a desirable consequence after a behavior to increase that behavior. (Receiving a reward for completing homework.)

What is Negative Reinforcement?

Removing something unpleasant after a behavior to increase that behavior. (Taking medicine to relieve a headache.)

What is Positive Punishment?

Adding an unpleasant consequence after a behavior to decrease that behavior. (Receiving detention for arriving late.)

What is Negative Punishment?

Taking away something desirable after a behavior to decrease that behavior. (Losing video game privileges for breaking a rule.)

What is Vicarious Learning?

Learning by observing the consequences of another person's behavior. (Deciding not to cheat after seeing another student get penalized for cheating.)

What is a Primary Reinforcer?

A natural reward that satisfies a biological need and doesn't need to be learned. (Eating food or drinking water to live.)

What is a Secondary Reinforcer?

A learned reward that becomes valuable because of its connection to a basic reward. (Getting money to buy food.)

What is a Delayed Reinforcer?

A reward given after some time has passed following a behavior. (Getting paid at the end of the week for working.)

What is an Immediate Reinforcer?

A reward given right after a behavior. (Eating a snack immediately after finishing homework.)

What is the Hippocampus?

The brain structure primarily involved in forming new memories. (Remembering information you studied for an exam.)

What is the Cerebellum?

The part of the brain responsible for balance and motor coordination. (Keeping your balance while riding a bicycle.)

What is the Pons?

A brain structure involved in sleep and regulating sleep-related functions. (Helping regulate sleep.)

What is the Hypothalamus?

The brain structure that regulates basic drives and motivated behaviors, such as hunger and thirst. (Feeling hungry and wanting to eat.)

What is the Amygdala?

The brain structure involved in emotional processing. (Experiencing fear when something scares you.)

What is Broca's Area?

The brain area primarily involved in producing speech. (Forming words to answer a question.)

What is Wernicke's Area?

The brain area primarily involved in understanding language. (Understanding what your teacher says.)

What is the Thalamus?

The brain's sensory relay center, which directs most sensory information to other brain areas for processing. (Relaying information about a sound to the brain.)

What is the Medulla?

The brain structure that regulates vital functions such as breathing and heartbeat. (Keeping you breathing automatically.)

What is the Frontal Lobe?

The brain lobe involved in planning, decision-making, personality, and voluntary movement. (Making decisions about how to solve a problem.)

What is the Parietal Lobe?

The brain lobe involved in processing touch and spatial information. (Feeling someone tap your shoulder.)

What is the Occipital Lobe?

The brain lobe primarily responsible for processing visual information. (Recognizing colors and shapes.)

What is the Temporal Lobe?

The brain lobe involved in hearing, memory, and aspects of language processing. (Recognizing a familiar voice.)

What is the Myelin Sheath?

A fatty layer that insulates an axon's surface and helps electrical signals travel faster. (Like insulation around an electrical wire.)

What are Interneurons?

Neurons that communicate between other neurons and help process information. (Relaying messages between neurons in the nervous system.)

What is Neuroplasticity?

The brain's ability to reorganize its connections and functions through experience or learning. (The brain adapting to use other senses when vision is unavailable.)

What is Neurogenesis?

The process of creating new neurons. (The brain producing new nerve cells.)

What is Neurosis?

An older psychological term for emotional distress, such as anxiety or excessive worry. (Persistent worry about everyday situations.)

What is Sensation?

The process of detecting stimuli from the environment through sensory receptors. (Your ears detecting a ringing sound.)

What is Perception?

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information to understand what you are experiencing. (Recognizing that the ringing sound is your phone.)

What is Transduction?

The process of converting sensory energy into electrical signals that the nervous system can process. (Your eyes converting light into electrical signals.)

What is Bottom-Up Processing?

Processing information by starting with sensory details and building up to understand the whole. (Putting together individual puzzle pieces without knowing what the finished image looks like.)

What is Top-Down Processing?

Processing information using prior knowledge, expectations, and experiences to interpret what you perceive. (Slowing down because you know there are speed bumps on your usual route.)

What is Holistic Processing?

Processing information by focusing on the whole picture rather than individual details. (Recognizing a friend's face as a whole.)

What is Analytic Processing?

Processing information by focusing on individual details or parts. (Examining the eyes, nose, and hairstyle to recognize a face.)

What is Parallel Processing?

The brain's ability to process multiple aspects of information at the same time. (Recognizing an object's color, shape, and movement together.)

What is Apparent Motion?

The illusion of movement created by showing stationary images in quick succession. (A cartoon appearing to move when its drawings change rapidly.)

What is the Absolute Threshold?

The minimum intensity of a stimulus that can be detected 50% of the time. (Barely detecting a very quiet sound.)

What is the Difference Threshold?

The smallest difference between two stimuli that a person can detect. (Noticing that one sound is slightly louder than another.)

What is Sensory Adaptation?

A decrease in sensitivity to a constant, unchanging stimulus over time. (Getting used to a smell after being in a room for a while.)

What is the Subliminal Threshold?

A level of stimulation below conscious awareness. (An image presented too briefly or faintly to be consciously noticed.)

What is a Positive Correlation?

A relationship in which two variables tend to increase or decrease together. (More hours studied are associated with higher exam scores.)

What is a Negative Correlation?

A relationship in which one variable tends to increase as the other decreases. (More missed classes are associated with lower GPAs.)

What is a Zero Correlation?

A relationship in which there is no consistent linear association between two variables. (Two variables showing no consistent relationship.)

Can Correlation Prove Causation?

No. Correlation shows that variables are related, but it does not prove that one causes the other. (Missing classes and lower GPAs may be related, but other factors could influence both.)