AP Psychology Final

A complete of the vocabulary terms for the DHS AP Psychology MCT

Memory

The persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of infomation.

Alzheimer’s disease

A disease that begins as difficulty remembering new information and progresses into an inability to do everyday tasks.

Recall

A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test.

Recognition

A measure of memory in which the person identifies items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test.

Relearning

A measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material again.

Encoding

The process of getting information into the memory system-for example, by extracting meaning.

Storage

The process of retaining encoded information over time.

Retrieval

The process of getting information out of memory storage.

Parallel processing

Processing many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions.

Sensory Memory

The immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system.

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.

Long-term Memory

The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.

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.

Explicit Memories

Retention of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and “declare.” (Also called declarative memory)

Effortful Processing

Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.

Automatic Processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learning information, such as word meanings.

Implicit Memories.

Retention of learned skills or classically conditioned associations independent of conscious recollection (also called nondeclarative memory).

Iconic Memory

A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second.

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.

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically.

Mnemonics

Memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organized devices.

Hierarchies

Information composed of a few broad concepts divided and subdivided into narrower concepts and facts.

Spacing Effect

The tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through mased study or practice.

Testing Effect

Enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information. Also sometimes referred to as a retrieval practice effect or test-enhanced learning.

Shallow Processing

Encoding on a basic level, based on the structure or appearance of words.

Deep Processing

Encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the words; tends to yield the best retention.

Self-reference-effect

By relating information to something personally meaningful, we are much more likely to remember it.

Semantic Memory

Explicit memory of facts and general knowledge; one of our two conscious memory systems (the other is episodic memory).

Episodic Memory

Explicit memory of personally experienced events; one of our two conscious memory systems (the other is semantic memory).

Hippocampus

A neural center located in the limbic system; helps process explicit (conscious) memories-of facts and events-for storage.

Memory Consolidation

The neural storage of a long-term memory.

Infantile Amnesia

As you age, you forget some of your earliest memories.

Flashbulb Memories

A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.

Long term potentiation (LTP)

An increase in a cell’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; a neural basis for learning and memory.

Priming

The activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory.

Encoding specificity principle

The idea that cues and contexts specific to a particular memory will be most effective in helping us recall it.

State-dependent memory

Our tendency to more easily recall information we learned in a certain state.

Mood congruent memory

The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current good or bad mood.

Serial position effect

Our tendency to recall best the last (recency effect) and first (primacy effect) items in a list.

Anterograde amnesia An

An inability to form new memories

Retrograde amnesia

An inability to retrieve information from one’s past.

Proactive Interference

The forward-acting disruptive effect of older learning on the recall of new information.

Retroactive Interference

The backward-acting disruptive effect of newer learning on the recall of old information.

Repression

In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories.

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Reconsolidation

A process in which previously stored memories, when retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again.

Misinformation effect

Occurs when misleading information has corrupted one’s memory of an event.

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.

Deja Vu

That eerie sense that “I’ve experienced this before.” Cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience.

Scientific Method

A self correcting process for evaluating ideas with observation and analysis.

Theory

An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events.

Hypothesis

A testable prediction, often implied by a theory.

Operational definition

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A carefully worded statement of the exact procedures (operations) used in a research study.

Replication

Repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding can be reproduced.

Meta Analysis

A way to statistically combine the results of many studies to provide a bottom line result.

Case study

A descriptive technique in which one individual or group is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles.

Naturalistic observation

A descriptive technique of observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation.

Survey

A descriptive technique for obtaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular group, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of the group.

Random Sample

A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion.

Population

All those in a group being studied, from which samples may be drawn. (Note: Except for national studies, this does not refer to a country’s whole population).

Correlation

A measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other.

Correlation coefficient

A statistical index of the relationship between two things from -1.00 to +1.00).

Variable

Anything that can vary and is feasible and ethical to measure.

Scatterplot

A graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables. The slope of the points suggests the direction of the relationship between the two variables. The amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation.

Illusory correlation

Perceiving a relationship where none exists, or perceiving a stronger-than-actual relationship.

Regression towards the mean

The tendency for extreme or unusual scores or events to fall back (regress) towards the average.

Experiment

A research method in which investigator manipulates one or more factors (independent variables) to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process (the dependent variable). By random assignment of participants, the experimenter aims to control other relevant factors.

Experimental group

In an experiment, the group exposed to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable.

Control group

In an experiment, the group not exposed to the treatment; contrasts with the experimental group and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment.

Random assignment

Assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between the different groups.

Double-blind procedure

An experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant (blind) about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo. Commonly used in drug-evaluation studies.

Placebo effect

Experimental results caused by expectations alone; any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which the recipient assumes is an active agent.

Independent variable

Confounding variable

Dependent variable

In an experiment, the outcome that is measured; the variable that may change when the independent variable is manipulated.

Informed consent

Giving potential participants enough information about a study to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate.

Debriefing

The postexperiential explanation of a study, including its purpose and any deceptions, to its participants.

Mode

The most frequently occurring score(s) in a distribution.

Mean

The arithmetic average of a distribution, obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores.

Median

The middle score in a distribution; half the scores are above it and half are below it.

Range

The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution.

Standard Deviation

A computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score.

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.

Statistical significance

A statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance.

Biological psychology

The scientific study of the links between biological (genetic, neural, hormonal) and psychological processes.

Plasticity

The brain’s ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience.

Neuron

A nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system.

Cell body

The part of a neuron that contains the nucleus; the cell’s life-support center.

Dendrites

A neuron’s often bushy, branching extensions that receive and integrate messages, conducting impulses toward the cell body.

Axon

The neuron extension that passes messages through its branches to other neurons or to muscles or glands.

Myelin sheath

A fatty tissue layer segmentally encasing the axons of some neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed as neural impulses hop from one node to the next.

Glial cells (glia)

Cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons; they also play a role in learning, thinking, and memory.

Action potential

A neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon.

Threshold

The level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse.

Refractory period

In neural processing, a brief resting pause that occurs after a neuron has fired; subsequent action potentials cannot occur until the axon returns to its resting state.

All-or-none response

A neuron’s reaction of either firing (with a full-strength response) or not firing.

Synapse

The junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron. The tiny gap at this junction is called the synaptic gap or synaptic cleft.

Neurotransmitters

Chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between neurons. When released by the sending neuron, neurotransmitters travel across the synapse and bind to receptor sites on the receiving neuron, thereby influencing whether that neuron will generate a neural impulse.

Reuptake

A neurotransmitter’s reabsorption by the sending neuron.

Endorphins

“morphine within”- natural, opiate-like neurotransmitters linked to pain control and pleasure.

Agonist

A molecule that increases a neurotransmitter’s action.