Educational Psychology: Motivation, Metacognition, Information Processing, and Behaviorism

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the core principles of Motivation and Engagement, Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning, Information Processing and Memory, and Behaviorism and Reinforcement.

Motivation

The internal force and energy that energizes, directs, and sustains behavior.

Value

The belief that a task is useful, important, interesting, or worth doing.

Expectancy

A learner's belief that success is possible and that they can succeed at a specific task.

Belonging

The feeling of being connected and supported by others within a safe, respectful environment where everyone matters.

Autonomy

A sense of choice, control, ownership, and having an active voice in one's learning.

Appropriate Challenge

Designing learning tasks that stretch thinking just beyond current ability without causing overwhelm.

Engagement

Active, multidimensional involvement in learning demonstrated through attention, effort, participation, and persistence.

Intrinsic Motivation

Engaging in learning because the task itself feels inherently meaningful, interesting, or satisfying.

Extrinsic Motivation

Engaging in learning driven by an external outcome, reward, approval, or requirement.

Competence

A learner's sense that their effort and strategy use can effectively lead to success.

Relatedness

A learner's sense of interpersonal belonging and social connection.

Metacognition

The awareness, monitoring, and active control of one's own thinking and learning processes.

Self-Regulated Learning

A cyclical process in which learners independently guide their own goals, strategies, effort, and progress.

Executive Function

A suite of mental skills supporting planning, focused attention, self-control, organization, and flexible thinking.

Strategy Use

The deliberate act of selecting and applying a learning method that fits the demands of the task.

Adjustment (Self-Regulation)

Changing learning strategies, seeking help or resources, or trying a new approach when comprehension breaks down.

Reflection (Self-Regulation)

Looking back after a task to evaluate what worked, what failed, and what to execute differently next time.

Self-Questioning

A self-regulatory strategy of asking oneself diagnostic questions while reading or studying to monitor comprehension.

Information Processing

A cognitive framework explaining how learners take in, attend to, organize, store, and retrieve information.

Working Memory

The mental workspace with limited capacity used to temporarily hold and manipulate a few pieces of information at one time.

Encoding

The cognitive process of organizing and structuring incoming information for long-term storage.

Long-Term Memory

The permanent mental repository for stored knowledge, concepts, skills, and experiences.

Schema

An organized internal knowledge structure that helps learners categorize and interpret new incoming information.

Automaticity

The capacity to execute a learned skill fluently with minimal conscious effort after extensive practice.

Retrieval Practice

The high-value learning practice of actively pulling information from memory without looking, which strengthens retention and future recall.

Spacing

Distributing study and review sessions across intervals of time (days, weeks, and units) rather than massing practice together.

Elaboration

A learning strategy that involves connecting new ideas with meaningful prior knowledge and context.

Dual Coding

Enhancing memory and understanding by intentionally pairing verbal words with visual representations.

Interleaving

Mixing different related topics or problem types within a single practice session rather than practicing one type continuously.

Chunking

Breaking complex instructional material into smaller, manageable units to avoid overloading working memory.

Behaviorism

A psychological theory that explains learning through observable actions, environmental cues, and consequences.

Antecedent

An environmental cue, signal, or situation that precedes and sets the occasion for a behavior.

Consequence

An event immediately following an observable behavior that alters the future likelihood of that behavior occurring.

Reinforcement

Any consequence that increases or maintains the frequency of a future behavior.

Punishment

Any consequence that decreases the frequency or likelihood of a future behavior.

Positive Reinforcement

Adding a desirable stimulus (e.g., praise, stickers, preferred activity) immediately following a behavior to increase its occurrence.

Negative Reinforcement

Removing an unpleasant stimulus (e.g., eliminating extra required time once work is done) to increase the likelihood of a behavior.

Positive Punishment

Adding an unpleasant stimulus (e.g., extra assignment) following a behavior to decrease its occurrence.

Negative Punishment

Removing a desirable stimulus or privilege (e.g., loss of recess) following a behavior to decrease its occurrence.

Shaping

The behavioral procedure of reinforcing successive small approximations toward a desired target behavior until it is fully achieved.

Reinforcement Schedule

The predetermined pattern governing when reinforcement is provided (e.g., continuous, intermittent, fixed, or variable), which impacts behavioral durability.