Psychology: scientific study of mind and behavior
Scientific method: a process in which scientists have an observation, create a hypothesis, collect data and find conclusions/trends
Theory: explaining a process
Hypothesis: a prediction of what will happen
Alternative hypothesis: a statement that proposes a significant relationship or difference between variables in a study
Variable: something that varies from person to person, and from situation to situation
Iv: what the scientist controls
Dv: how the thing being controlled reacts
Control variable: A variable that is not allowed to vary but rather held constant during the experiment
Extraneous variable: something that may or may not interfere with an experiment
Confounding variable: if the extraneous variable causes different results
Between subjects design: each participant is only exposed to one experimental condition
Within subjects design: a research method where all participants experience every condition of an experiment
Correlation coefficient: r
Positive correlation: positive, upward direction
Negative correlation: negative, downward direction
Scatter plot: allows us to visualize the correlation between two variables
Subjective happiness: a person's perception of their own happiness and life satisfaction
Perceived stress: an individual's subjective experience of stress, or their perception of how demanding and overwhelming their life is
Satisfaction with life scale: a person's perception of their own life satisfaction
Multi store- model of memory: Attention, encoding, storage, retrieval
Sensory store: a temporary holding place for incoming sensory information from the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.
Short term store: a psychological process that stores and retrieves information for a short period of time
Long term store: the brain's ability to store and retrieve information over a long period of time
Coding: taking in information
Capacity: the max amount of information being taken in
Trace duration: the length of time a memory is retained before it is forgotten
Level of processing: Attention, encoding, storage, retrieval
Encoding time: taking in information
Depth of processing: can affect retention of information
Alternative hypothesis: due to confounds (alternative explanation)
Brian lateralization theory: the left side is controlled by the right brain, vice versa.
Manual dexterity: the ability to use your hands and fingers to skillfully grasp and manipulate objects
Hand dominance: division of brain hemispheres
Brocas area: language production
Wernickes area: language processing
Inferential statistics: make inferences and predictions about a population based on a sample of data taken from the population in question
T test: type of inferential test of mean difference.
Probability theory: the study of the likelihood of an event happening
P value: indicator of statistical significance
Decision criterion: a standard used to measure a person's or program's success
Statistically significant:
High p-value = there is a high chance that the two groups are same (p= 0.90 = 90%)
Low p-value = there is a low chance that the two groups are same (more confident)
Effect size: measure of the magnitude of strength of the result
No effect: 0
Small effect: .2
Medium effect: .5
Large effect: >.8
Measure validity and reliability
Construct validity: when measure what it's supposed to be measuring
Convergent validity: does the measure predict scores of other measurements that are also theoretically related
Different kinds of reliability: test retest reliability, split half reliability, equivalent form validity