1. cognition: the mental activities associated with

thinking, knowing, remembering, and

communicating

2. effortful processing: encoding that requires

attention and conscious effort

3. automatic processing: unconscious encoding

of incidental information, such as space, time,

and frequency, and of well-learned information,

such as word meanings

4. deep processing: processing that requires

more elaboration and rehearsal; creates a more

detailed, meaningful, and easily recalled memory

5. shallow processing: processing focused on

surface-level qualities; does not contribute to

deep understanding or easy recall

6. selective attention: the capacity for or process

of reacting to certain stimuli selectively when

several occur simultaneously.

7. divided attention: a type of simultaneous

attention that allows us to process different

information sources and successfully carry out

multiple tasks at a time

8. metacognition: awareness and understanding

of one's own thought processes

9. memory: the persistence of learning over time

through the storage and retrieval of information

10. short-term memory: activated memory that

holds a few items briefly, such as the seven digits

of a phone number while dialing, before the

information is stored or forgotten

11. implicit memory: retention independent of

conscious recollection

12. long-term memory: the relatively permanent

and limitless storehouse of the memory system;

includes knowledge, skills, and experiences

AP Psychology Unit 5 Copy Notes

13. sensory memory: the immediate, very brief

recording of sensory information in the memory

system

14. prospective memory: a form of memory that

involves remembering to perform a planned

action or recall a planned intention at some

future point in time

15. explicit memory: memory of facts and

experiences that one can consciously know and

“declare”

5.2 Encoding

16. encoding: the processing of information into

the memory system—for example, by extracting

meaning

17. visual encoding: the encoding of picture

images

18. acoustic encoding: the encoding of sound,

especially the sound of words

19. semantic encoding: the encoding of meaning,

including the meaning of words

20. mnemonics: memory aids, especially those

techniques that use vivid imagery and

organizational devices

21. imagery: mental pictures; a powerful aid to

effortful processing, especially when combined

with semantic encoding

22. chunking: organizing into familiar

manageable units; often occurs automatically

23. rehearsal: the conscious repetition of

information, either to maintain it in

consciousness or to encode it for storage

24. spacing effect: the tendency for distributed

study or practice to yield better long-term

retention than is achieved through massed study

or practice

5.3: Storing

25. storage: the retention of encoded

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information over time

26. flashbulb memory: a clear memory of an

emotionally significant moment or event

5.4: Retrieving

27. recall: a measure of memory in which the

person must retrieve information learned earlier,

as on a fill-in-the-blank test

28. recognition: a measure of memory in which

the person need only identify items previously

learned, as on a multiple-choice test

29. relearning: a measure of memory that

assesses the amount of time saved when learning

material for a second time

30. context-dependent memory: the improved

recall of specific episodes or information when

the context present at encoding and retrieval are

the same

31. serial position effect: our tendency to recall

best the last and first items in a list

5.5 Forgetting & Memory Distortion

32. amnesia: the loss of memory

33. anterograde amnesia: a loss of the ability to

create new memories after the event that caused

amnesia

34. retrograde amnesia: a loss of memory-access

to events that occurred, or information that was

learned in the past

35. proactive interference: the disruptive effect

of prior learning on the recall of new information

36. retroactive interference: the disruptive effect

of new learning on the recall of old information

37. misinformation effect: incorporating

misleading information into one’s memory of an

event

38. source amnesia: attributing to the wrong

source an event we have experienced, heard

about, read about, or imagined; at the heart of

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many false memories

5.6 Biological Bases of Memory

39. hippocampus: a neural center that is located

in the limbic system; helps process explicit

memories for storage

40. long-term potentiation: an increase in a

synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid

stimulation; believe dot be a neural basis for

learning and memory

5.7 Introduction to Thinking & Problem-Solving

41. concept: a mental grouping of similar objects,

events, ideas, or people

42. prototype: a mental image or best example

of a category

43. algorithm: a methodical, logical rule or

procedure that guarantees solving a particular

problem

44. heuristic: a simple thinking strategy that

often allows us to make judgments and solve

problems efficiently; usually speedier but more

error-prone than algorithms

45. creativity: the ability to produce novel and

valuable ideas

46. convergent thinking: process of determining

a straightforward and concrete solution to any

problem; involves speed, accuracy, and logic

47. divergent thinking: process of generating

multiple solutions to a given problem,

emphasizing spontaneous and creative ideas

48. insight: a sudden and often novel realization

of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with

strategy based solutions

49. intuition: an effortless, immediate, automatic

feeling or thought contrasted with explicit,

conscious reasoning

5.8 Biases and Errors in Thinking

50. hindsight bias: the tendency of people to

overestimate their ability to have predicted an

outcome that could not possibly have been

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predicted

51. confirmation bias: a tendency to search for

information that supports our preconceptions

and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

52. fixation: the inability to see a problem from a

new perspective, by employing a different

mental set

53. mental set: a tendency to approach a

problem in one particular way, often a way that

has been successful in the past

54. functional fixedness: the tendency to think

of things only in terms of their usual functions; an

impediment to problem solving

55. overconfidence: the tendency to be more

confident than correct & to overestimate the

accuracy of our beliefs and judgments

56. belief perseverance: clinging to one’s initial

conceptions after the basis on which they were

formed has been discredited

57. availability heuristic: estimating the

likelihood of events based on their availability in

memory; if instances come readily to mind, we

presume such events are common

58. representative heuristic: judging the

likelihood of thins in terms of how well they

seem to represent, or match, particular

prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant

information

59. framing effect: the way an issue is posed;

how an issue is framed can significantly affect

decisions and judgments

5.9 Introduction to Intelligence

60. intelligence: mental quality consisting of the

ability to learn from experience, solve problems,

and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

61. abstract intelligence: the creative facet of the

human mind

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62. verbal intelligence: the ability to analyze

information and solve problems using language-

based reasoning

63. crystallized intelligence: our accumulated

knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase

with age

64. fluid intelligence: our ability to reason

speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during

late adulthood

65. general intelligence: a general intelligence

factor that, according to Spearman and others,

underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore

measured by every task on an intelligence test

66. multiple intelligence: Gardner’s theory that

people do not have just an intellectual capacity,

but have many kinds of intelligence

67. triarchic theory of intelligence: Sternberg’s

theory that proposes that there are three distinct

types of intelligence: practical, distinct, and

analytical

68. processing speed: a cognitive ability that

could be defined as the time it takes a person to

do a mental task

69. Flynn effect: the phenomenon in which there

is a marked increase in intelligence test score

averages over time

70. savant syndrome: a condition in which a

person otherwise limited in mental ability has an

exceptional specific skill, such as in computation

or drawing

71. emotional intelligence: the ability to

perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions

5.10 Psychometric Principles & Intelligence Testing

72. intelligence quotient: defined originally as

the ratio of mental age to chronological age

multiplied by 100

73. Stanford-Binet test: the widely used

American revision of Binet’s original intelligence

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test

74. achievement test: a test designed to assess

what a person has learned

75. aptitude test: a test designed to predict a

person’s future performance; aptitude is the

capacity to learn

76. reliability: the extent to which a test yields

consistent results, as assessed by the consistency

of scores on two halves of the test or on retesting

77. content validity: the extent to which a test

samples the behavior that is of interest

78. predictive validity: the success with which a

test predicts the behavior it is designed to

predict; it is assessed by computing the

correlation between test scores and the criterion

behavior

79. gifted: an intellectual ability significantly

higher than average

80. intellectual disability: a condition of limited

mental ability, indicated by intelligence score of

70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the

demands of life

5.11 Components of Language & Language Acquisition

81. language: our spoken, written, or signed

words and the ways we combine them to

communicate meaning

82. phoneme: in language, the smallest

distinctive sound unit

83. morpheme: in language, the smallest unit

that carries meaning; may be a word or part of a

word

84. grammar: in a language, a system of rules

that enable us to communicate with and

understand others

85. syntax: the rules for combining words into

grammatically sensible sentences in a given

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language

86. semantics: the set of rules by which we

derive meaning from morphemes, words, and

sentences in a given language; also the study of

meaning

87. receptive language: language that is heard

(or received, as in sign)

88. productive language: language that is spoken

(or produced, as in sign)

89. babbling stage: beginning around 4 months,

the stage of speech development in which the

infant spontaneously utters various sounds at

first unrelated to the household language

90. one-word stage: the state in speech

development, from about age 1 to 2 during

which a child speaks mostly in single words

91. two-word stage: beginning about age 2, the

stage in speech development during which a

child speaks mostly two word statements

92. telegraphic speech: early speech stage in

which a child speaks like a telegram—“go

car”—using mostly nouns and verbs

93. critical period: a period during someone's

development in which a particular skill or

characteristic is believed to be most readily

acquired

94. inborn universal grammar: Chomsky’s

assertion that, in language, a certain set of

structural rules are innate to humans,

independent of sensory experience

95. linguistic determinism: the idea that

language and its structures limit and determine

human knowledge or thought, as well as thought

processes such as categorization, memory, and

perception

96. aphasia: impairment of language, usually

caused by left hemisphere damage

AP Psychology Unit 5 Copy Notes

97. Broca’s aphasia: aphasia affecting Broca’s

area, which controls the language expression; an

area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left

hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements

involved in speech

98. Wernicke’s aphasia: aphasia affecting

Wernicke’s area, which controls language

reception—a brain area involved in language

comprehension and expression, usually in the left

temporal lobe