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 dedicated to fast, automatic, and unconscious processing; and the other dedicated to 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
“biological clock”

REM sleep

a stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements and a high level of brain activity, during which EEG patterns become high-frequency sawtooth waves, similar to beta waves

electrooculograph (EOG)

an instrument that measures eye movements during sleep

insomnia

difficulty in falling asleep or staying asleep

sleep apnea

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

somnambulism (sleepwalking)

occurs when a person arises and walks around 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 and is sometimes associated with narcolepsy

sleep terrors (night terrors)

abrupt awakenings with panic and intense emotional arousal

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 in particular situations

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 drug

hypnosis

a social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) makes suggestions that lead to a change in another person’s (the participant’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

Phonological Rules:

indicate how phonemes can be combined to form words

Morphemes:

the smallest meaningful units of language

Morphological Rules:

indicate how morphemes can be combined to form words

Syntactic Rules:

indicate how words can be combined to form phrases and sentences

Telegraphic Speech:

devoid of function morphemes and consist mostly of content words
ex. toddler speaking → “I done” “More”

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

“we make category judgements 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, even when the ability to recognize objects outside the category is undisturbed

rational choice theory

the classical view that we make decisions by determining how likely something is to happen, judging the value of the outcome, and then multiplying the two
our judgements will vary depending on the value we assign to the possible outcomes

availability heuristic

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 that a solution will be reached

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 of the object or event

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, can influence the assignment of value

sunk-cost fallacy

a framing effect in which people make decisions about a current situation on the basis of what they have previously invested in the situation

optimism bias

people believe that, compared with other individuals, they are more likely to experience positive events and less likely to experience negative events in the future

prospect theory

proposes that people choose to take on risks when evaluating potential losses and to 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

attempt to solve a problem by finding a similar problem with a known solution and applying that solution to the current problem

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 in order 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 on whether the arguments are logically valid

syllogistic reasoning