AP Psychology

Glossary of Key Terms

Absolute Threshold: The smallest amount of stimulation needed for a person to detect a sensation at least 50% of the time.

Accommodation: The eye's ability to change the shape of its lens to focus light onto the retina, allowing for clear vision at different distances.

Acquisition: The process in classical conditioning where a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus, leading to the neutral stimulus becoming a conditioned stimulus that elicits a conditioned response.

Agonist: A psychoactive drug that increases the effectiveness of a neurotransmitter by mimicking it, increasing its production, or blocking its reuptake.

Algorithm: A step-by-step, systematic procedure for solving a problem that guarantees a solution.

Altruism: Selfless concern for the well-being of others.

Amygdala: Two round clusters in the limbic system involved in emotional reactions, such as fear, anxiety, and aggression.

Animism: In Piaget's preoperational stage, giving human-like qualities to non-living things.

Antagonist: A psychoactive drug that decreases the effectiveness of a neurotransmitter by blocking its release or preventing it from binding to receptors.

Apparent Movement: The perception of motion when nothing is actually moving, created by specific visual cues and contexts.

Arousal Theory: A theory of motivation stating that people are motivated to maintain an optimal level of physiological and psychological arousal.

Autokinetic Effect: An apparent movement phenomenon where a stationary point of light in a dark environment appears to move due to lack of visual references.

Availability Heuristic: A mental shortcut where judgments are made based on how easily examples come to mind, potentially leading to errors based on recent or vivid memories.

Axon Terminal: The end of a neuron's axon where signals are converted and sent to another neuron across the synapse.

Babbling Stage: A stage of language development around 4-6 months where infants combine consonants and vowels to make sounds like "Baba" or "Gaga," experimenting with the sounds of their language.

Beta Waves: Low amplitude and fastest brain waves, generally occurring when a person is engaged in mental activities.

Big Five Theory of Personality: A trait theory suggesting five core traits make up personality: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (Emotional Stability).

Binocular Cues: Depth perception cues that rely on both eyes working together, such as convergence and retinal disparity.

Biopsychosocial Model: A model that understands health and illness (including psychological disorders) as resulting from the interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors.

Blindsight: A phenomenon occurring after damage to the primary visual cortex where an individual appears blind in part of their visual field but can still respond to some visual stimuli without conscious awareness.

Borderline Personality Disorder: A Cluster B personality disorder characterized by instability in relationships, self-image, emotions, fear of abandonment, self-harming behaviors, and intense mood swings.

Broca's Area: An area typically in the left hemisphere in front of the motor cortex crucial for language production and controlling muscles involved in speech.

Bystander Effect: A phenomenon where individuals are less likely to offer help in a situation when other people are present, due to diffusion of responsibility.

Cerebellum: A structure in the hindbrain that plays a major role in coordinating voluntary movements, balance, and processing information on precise movements.

Change Blindness: A type of inattentional blindness where a person fails to notice changes in the environment due to their attention being focused elsewhere.

Chronosystem: The outermost layer of the Ecological Systems Theory, representing the influence of historical events, societal changes, and the timing of experiences on an individual's development.

Circadian Rhythm: A biological clock that operates on an approximately 24-hour cycle, influencing blood pressure, internal temperature, hormones, and the sleep-wake cycle.

Classical Conditioning: A type of learning where an individual links a neutral stimulus to an unconditioned stimulus, resulting in the neutral stimulus triggering a learned response.

Cognition: All forms of knowing and awareness, such as perceiving, conceiving, remembering, reasoning, judging, imagining, and problem-solving.

Cognitive Neuroscience: The study of how brain activity is linked with cognition.

Color Constancy: The ability to perceive the color of an object as remaining constant even if the lighting changes.

Cones: Photoreceptors in the retina that are responsible for color vision and vision in bright light, concentrated in the fovea.

Conditioned Response (CR): A learned response that is triggered by a previously neutral stimulus that has become a conditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A previously neutral stimulus that, after repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus, triggers a learned response (conditioned response).

Conductive Deafness: Hearing loss caused by a blockage or damage that prevents sound from traveling efficiently from the outer ear to the middle and inner ear.

Content Validity: The extent to which a test inquires about the information or behaviors that are of interest of the test.

Continuous Reinforcement: A reinforcement schedule where reinforcement is provided every time a correct behavior is performed.

Contralateral Hemispheric Organization: The way in which the brain's hemispheres control opposite sides of the body and process sensory information.

Convergence: A binocular depth cue where the eyes move inward when focusing on something close and straighten out when focusing on something farther away.

Cooing Stage: A stage of language development around 2-3 months where infants make soft, repetitive vowel sounds like "ooh" and "ah."

Cornea: The transparent outer layer of the eye that light first passes through.

Crystallized Intelligence: Accumulated knowledge and verbal skills that an individual has, which generally increases as a person gets older.

Dementia: A broad term for cognitive disorders that significantly impair memory, reasoning, and other mental abilities; Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause.

Dendrite: Branch-like extensions of a neuron that receive chemical signals from other neurons.

Dependent Personality Disorder: A Cluster C personality disorder consisting of a strong need to be taken care of, difficulty making decisions independently, and struggling with separation from those they depend on.

Depolarization: The process in neural firing where an outside stimulus causes the inside of the neuron's cell membrane to become more positive, eventually reaching the threshold for firing an action potential.

Depressants: Psychoactive drugs that reduce neural activity, causing drowsiness, muscle relaxation, and lowered breathing (e.g., alcohol, sleeping pills).

Depth Perception: The ability to perceive the relative distance of an object in one's visual field.

Dermis: The layer of skin below the epidermis consisting of connective tissue, blood vessels, and nerve endings, involved in the sense of touch and pain.

Diathesis-Stress Model: A model suggesting that psychological disorders result from the interaction of an inherent vulnerability (diathesis) and environmental stressors.

Difference Threshold: The minimum change between two stimuli that is needed for an individual to detect the change.

Diffusion of Responsibility: In the bystander effect, the phenomenon where individuals feel less personal responsibility to help when other people are present.

Dispositional Attributions: Explanations for a person's behavior based on their internal characteristics, such as their intelligence, attitude, or personality.

Divergent Thinking: A type of thinking that involves exploring multiple possible solutions to a problem, often associated with creativity.

Drive Reduction Theory: A theory of motivation stating that physiological needs create aroused psychological states (drives) that motivate organisms to reduce the need and restore homeostasis.

Ego: In Freud's psychodynamic theory, the part of the personality that operates on the reality principle, mediating between the demands of the id and the superego and interacting with the external world.

Egocentric: In Piaget's preoperational stage, having difficulty seeing the world from another person's point of view.

Elaboration Likelihood Model: A model explaining how people are persuaded, suggesting they are persuaded through either the central route (using facts and logic) or the peripheral route (using emotions and quick thinking).

Elaborative Encoding: An encoding strategy where new information is paired with prior knowledge, linking it to information already known.

Encoding: The process and strategies used to take in information and store it in long-term memory.

Episodic Memory: A type of explicit memory that involves the recall of personal experiences, events, and their associated contexts.

Exosystem: In the Ecological Systems Theory, environments or settings that an individual is not directly part of but is still indirectly impacted by, such as a parent's workplace or local government decisions.

Explicit Memory: Conscious memory for facts, knowledge, and personal experiences; includes semantic and episodic memory.

Extinction: In classical conditioning, the gradual diminishing of the conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without being paired with the unconditioned stimulus.

Factor Analysis: A statistical method used in personality inventories to identify clusters of related questions that measure the same underlying trait.

Fixed Mindset: The belief that intelligence is something you are born with and cannot change.

Flynn Effect: The phenomenon of a general increase in average IQ scores across the world over time.

Forebrain: The top and largest region of the brain, including the cerebral cortex, thalamus, and limbic system.

Fovea: The central focal point in the retina, containing a concentration of cones, responsible for sharp, detailed color vision.

Frequency: In sound waves, the number of waves that pass a given point per second, determining the pitch of the sound.

Frontal Lobe: The lobe located just behind the forehead, involved in higher-level thinking, judgment, speech, and voluntary movement.

Functional Fixedness: A cognitive bias that limits a person to using an object only in its traditional or most common way, hindering creative problem-solving.

Fundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to overemphasize internal factors (dispositional attributions) when judging others' behaviors while underestimating the importance of situational factors.

Gambler's Fallacy: The mistaken belief that if an event occurs more frequently than normal during a given period, it will happen less frequently in the future, or vice versa.

Gate Control Theory: A theory of pain suggesting that the spinal cord contains a neurological gate that can either block pain signals or allow them to pass through to the brain, influenced by psychological and sensory factors.

Gender: The social, physical, and behavioral traits that a society considers normal for men or women; learned aspects of a person's sex.

Gender Schema Theory: A theory explaining how children create mental categories for masculinity and femininity, helping them understand their own gender roles and gravitate towards associated activities.

Generative (Language): The property of language that allows for the creation of an infinite number of unique sentences and ideas.

Gestalt Psychology: A school of psychology focusing on how humans naturally group elements and organize their perceptual world into meaningful wholes.

Ghrelin: A hormone produced by the stomach that signals to the brain that the body needs energy, increasing appetite (the "hunger hormone").

Glial Cells: Neural cells that provide structure, insulation, communication, and waste transportation for neurons, forming the basis of the nervous system but not processing information themselves.

Grammar: The set of rules that govern how words can be combined to form meaningful phrases and sentences in a language.

Growth Mindset: The belief that intelligence can be developed through effort and learning.

Gustation: The term for the sense of taste.

Habituation: When an organism gradually stops responding as strongly to a stimulus that is repeated over time, due to learning from the repeated stimulus.

Hallucinogens: Psychoactive drugs that cause an individual to sense things that are not actually there (e.g., marijuana, peyote, LSD).

Heuristics: Mental shortcuts based on past experiences used to solve problems or make quick decisions, which do not always guarantee accuracy.

Higher-Order Conditioning (Second-Order Conditioning): In classical conditioning, when a neutral stimulus is paired with an already established conditioned stimulus, causing the new neutral stimulus to also elicit a conditioned response.

Hindbrain: The region located at the bottom of the brain, including the spinal cord, brain stem, and cerebellum.

Hippocampus: A structure in the temporal lobe involved in learning and forming new memories, but not where memories are permanently stored.

Histrionic Personality Disorder: A Cluster B personality disorder consisting of excessive emotionality and attention-seeking behavior, often becoming uncomfortable when not the center of attention.

Holophrases: Single words used by children in the one-word stage of language development to communicate a larger meaning or idea.

Hypodermis: The layer of fat underneath the dermis, not technically skin, that helps insulate tissues and absorb shocks.

Hypothalamus: A structure in the limbic system that helps keep the body balanced (homeostasis), controls basic drives (thirst, hunger, temperature, sex), and works with the pituitary gland to regulate hormones.

Id: In Freud's psychodynamic theory, the unconscious part of the personality that strives to satisfy basic drives, focusing solely on pleasure and immediate gratification.

Implicit Memory: Unconscious memory for information or skills learned without being fully aware of it, such as procedural memory.

Induced Movement: An apparent movement phenomenon where a stationary object appears to move because of the motion of surrounding objects.

Industry vs. Inferiority: Erikson's fourth psychosocial stage (elementary/middle school years) where children compare themselves to peers and develop a sense of competence (industry) or doubt their abilities (inferiority) based on encouragement and recognition.

Informational Influence: Social influence that occurs when individuals conform because they believe others have more accurate information.

Initiative vs. Guilt: Erikson's third psychosocial stage (preschool years) where children start asking questions and taking control, developing initiative if supported or guilt if constantly downplayed.

Insomnia: A sleep disorder characterized by trouble falling asleep or staying asleep.

Instinctive Drift: A limitation in shaping behaviors where an animal's learned behaviors may fade due to their natural instincts interfering.

Interposition: A monocular depth cue where one object blocks another, causing the blocked object to be perceived as farther away.

Intrinsic Motivation: An internal drive to pursue a goal for personal satisfaction rather than external rewards.

IQ (Intelligence Quotient): A score derived from standardized tests designed to assess intelligence.

Jet Lag: A phenomenon where an individual's circadian rhythm becomes out of sync with the local time after traveling across time zones, causing fatigue and disorientation.

Kinesthesis: The sense that provides information about the position and movement of individual body parts.

Language: A shared system of symbols that represent objects, actions, and ideas, used for communication.

Lateralization (Brain): The differing functions of the left and right hemispheres of the brain; hemispheric specialization.

Leptin: A hormone produced by fat cells that signals to the brain that the body is full, reducing the motivation to eat (the "satiety hormone").

Levels of Processing Model: A model suggesting that memory retention is dependent on the depth at which information is processed, with deeper (semantic) processing leading to better retention than shallow (structural, phonemic) processing.

Lightness Constancy: The ability to perceive the blackness, whiteness, and greyness of an object as constant even under different lighting conditions.

Limbic System: A group of brain structures whose main functions are emotions, learning, memory, and some basic drives, including the amygdala, hippocampus, and hypothalamus.

Linear Perspective: A monocular depth cue where parallel lines appear to converge in the distance, giving a sense of depth and positioning.

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP): A process that strengthens the synaptic connections between neurons through repeated activation, enhancing the ability to store and retain knowledge and skills.

Macrosystem: In the Ecological Systems Theory, the outermost layer representing the influence of broad societal values, laws, customs, and cultural beliefs on an individual's development.

Mechanical Receptors: Sensory receptors located in the skin that respond to pressure.

Medulla: Part of the brain stem involved in vital functions like breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure.

Memory: The processes involved in encoding, storing, and retrieving information.

Mental Set: A cognitive framework based on past experiences and successful strategies used to approach new problems.

Mesosystem: In the Ecological Systems Theory, the layer representing the relationships and interactions between different Microsystems in an individual's life, such as the relationship between parents and peers.

Microsystem: In the Ecological Systems Theory, the innermost layer representing the immediate environments and direct interactions an individual has, such as family, friends, classmates, and teachers.

Midbrain: The region located in the center of the brain, sitting above the base of the brain stem.

Monocular Cues: Depth perception cues that only require one eye and help perceive depth on flat or two-dimensional surfaces.

Morphemes: The smallest units of meaning in a language, which can be whole words, prefixes, or suffixes.

Motor Cortex: An area in the frontal lobe responsible for voluntary movement, with the left motor cortex controlling the right side of the body and vice versa.

Motor Homunculus: A visual representation of the amount of brain area dedicated to controlling voluntary movement in different body parts.

Myopia (Nearsightedness): A condition where the lens focuses light in front of the retina, causing distant objects to appear blurry.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder: A Cluster B personality disorder defined by a need for admiration, a lack of empathy, an inflated sense of self-importance, and expecting special treatment.

Narcolepsy: A rare sleep disorder where individuals struggle to sleep at night and uncontrollably fall asleep during the day.

Neutral Stimulus (NS): In classical conditioning, a stimulus that initially elicits no response from a subject.

Neurons: The basic functional units of the nervous system that communicate with each other using electrical impulses and chemical signals.

Neuroscience (Cognitive): The study of how brain activity is linked with cognition.

Neuroticism (Emotional Stability): In the Big Five Theory, a trait involving a person's tendency to experience emotional instability (high neuroticism) or remain calm and resilient (low neuroticism/high emotional stability).

Neurotransmitters: Chemical messengers that transmit signals between neurons across the synapse.

Nociceptors: Sensory receptors located in the dermis (pain receptors) that detect harmful stimuli such as extreme temperatures, damage, or chemical irritants.

Non-REM (NREM) Sleep: Stages of sleep characterized by lower levels of awareness and distinct brain wave patterns, preceding REM sleep.

Normative Influence: Social influence that occurs when individuals conform to fit in with a group or avoid disapproval.

Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD): A Cluster C personality disorder characterized by perfectionism, a constant need for control over aspects of one's life, and wanting things to be in a set order (distinct from OCD).

Occipital Lobe: The lobe located at the back of the brain, responsible for processing visual information.

Olfactory Bulb: A structure in the brain that receives electrical signals from olfactory receptors and processes information about smell.

Olfactory Receptors: Specialized nerve cells located in the olfactory epithelium in the nasal cavity that detect odor molecules.

One-Word Stage: A stage of language development around 12-18 months where a child starts saying single words that often represent an entire idea (holophrases).

Operant Conditioning: A type of learning where behavior is modified by its consequences (reinforcement or punishment).

Opioids: A category of psychoactive drugs that function as depressants and provide pain relief, known for their addictive nature (e.g., morphine, heroin, oxycodone).

Opponent-Process Theory: A theory of color vision suggesting that color perception is based on opposing pairs of color receptors (red-green, blue-yellow, black-white), explaining phenomena like afterimages.

Optimistic Explanatory Style: The tendency to explain bad events as temporary problems, focusing on external factors, and attributing good events to internal factors.

Organizational Encoding: An encoding strategy where information is processed in terms of a specific sequence, such as lists or groups, or by focusing on relationships between items.

Papillae: Small structures located on the tongue that house the taste buds.

Paradoxical Sleep: Another term for REM sleep, where the brain waves are similar to wakefulness but the body is at its most relaxed due to muscle paralysis.

Parasympathetic Division: A division of the autonomic nervous system that relaxes the body, slowing heart rate, increasing digestion, and helping to focus on saving and storing energy (rest and digest).

Parietal Lobe: The lobe located in the upper part of the brain behind the frontal lobe, primarily involved in receiving and processing sensory information such as touch, pain, temperature, and spatial orientation.

Perception: The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information from the environment.

Perceptual Constancy: The ability to perceive objects as having consistent shape, size, color, and lightness even when their appearance changes due to varying conditions.

Perceptual Set: A cognitive framework or predisposition that influences how an individual perceives information, based on their culture, mood, emotions, expectations, and environment.

Peripheral Route to Persuasion: In the Elaboration Likelihood Model, a route to persuasion that uses emotions and quick thinking, taking less time and elaboration than the central route.

Personality: An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Pessimistic Explanatory Style: The tendency to explain bad events as something that is more permanent, focusing on internal factors, and attributing good events to external factors.

Phantom Limb Sensation: The experience of pain or other sensations in a body part that has been lost.

Pheromones: Chemical signals released by an individual that affect the behavior or physiology of other individuals of the same species, detected by the olfactory system.

Phonemes: The smallest units of sound in a language that do not have any inherent meaning but are the building blocks for spoken language.

Phonemic Processing: A level of processing in the Levels of Processing Model where the focus is on how information sounds, such as the pronunciation of a word.

Photoreceptors: Light-sensitive cells in the retina (rods and cones) that convert light into neural impulses.

Phi Phenomenon: An apparent movement phenomenon that occurs when lights blink on and off in a sequence, resulting in the perception of moving objects even though they are stationary.

Pituitary Gland: Often referenced as the "master gland," located in the brain, that produces and releases hormones regulating many bodily functions and controlling other endocrine glands.

Place Theory: A theory of pitch perception suggesting that the brain determines the pitch of a sound based on the specific location among the cochlea where hair cells are activated.

Pons: Part of the brain stem involved in regulating breathing, sleep cycles, and relaying signals between the cerebellum and the cerebral cortex.

Postsynaptic Terminal: The dendrite of the receiving neuron in the synapse where neurotransmitters are accepted.

Predictive Validity: A type of validity that predicts future performance.

Prefrontal Cortex: An area within the frontal lobe dealing with foresight, judgment, speech, and complex thought.

Preoperational Stage: In Piaget's theory of cognitive development, a stage where children become better at using mental symbols but still struggle with concepts like conservation and reversibility and are egocentric.

Presynaptic Terminal: The axon terminal of the neuron that converts an electrical signal to a chemical one and sends neurotransmitters into the synaptic gap.

Primary Visual Cortex: An area in the occipital lobe that receives visual input from the eyes.

Procedural Memory: A type of implicit memory that helps recall how to perform tasks such as motor skills and routines.

Projective Tests: Personality assessment tests with open responses that do not limit the test taker to a select group of answers, used to better understand a person's unconscious mind (e.g., Rorschach, TAT).

Proprioceptors: Sensory receptors located in various muscles and tendons that provide information about the position and movement of our limbs to the brain.

Prosopagnosia (Face Blindness): A condition resulting from damage to the occipital and temporal lobes where individuals lose the ability to recognize faces.

Prospective Memory: Memory that involves remembering to perform future actions.

Psychoactive Substances/Drugs: Substances that purposely alter an individual's perception, consciousness, or mood.

Psychodynamic Theory: A theory of personality, primarily associated with Sigmund Freud, focusing on unconscious drives, the interaction of the id, ego, and superego, and the use of defense mechanisms.

Pupil: The opening in the eye that allows light to enter.

Rationalization: A defense mechanism where an individual justifies an uncomfortable thought or behavior to make it seem more acceptable.

Reaction Formation: A defense mechanism where an individual acts in the opposite way as they feel.

Reciprocal Determinism: A concept by Albert Bandura showing a cycle created by a person's personal factors, environment, and behavior, with each factor influencing the others and shaping personality.

Recognition: A type of memory retention where a person can identify previously learned information when presented with it.

Recall: A type of memory retention where a person can retrieve previously learned information from memory without external cues.

Refractory Period: A time period after a neuron fires an action potential when it cannot respond to any other stimulus and needs to wait until repolarization occurs.

Regression: A defense mechanism where an individual reverts back to behaviors of an early developmental stage, generally happening during heightened stress.

Reinforcement Schedule: The plan or rule that determines when and how often reinforcers are given to an individual for a behavior.

Relative Height: A monocular depth cue where objects higher in one's visual field appear farther away, while objects lower appear closer.

Relative Size: A monocular depth cue where objects closer to a person appear larger, while objects farther away appear smaller.

Relearning: A type of memory retention where a person can quickly learn information again that they have previously learned and forgotten.

REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep: The last stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements, muscle paralysis, active internal structures, and the occurrence of dreams and nightmares (also known as paradoxical sleep).

REM Rebound: A phenomenon where an individual deprived of REM sleep will enter REM sleep more quickly and spend more time in REM in subsequent sleep periods.

REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD): A sleep disorder where a person acts out their dreams during REM sleep due to the absence or incomplete paralysis of external muscles.

Repolarization: The process after a neuron fires an action potential where channels open to try and rebalance the charges by letting more positive ions back outside the cell membrane, bringing the neuron back to resting potential.

Repressed Memories: In psychodynamic theory, memories that are pushed out of conscious awareness to defend the ego from distress, believed to be an automatic process.

Representativeness Heuristic: A mental shortcut where judgments are made based on how much something resembles a typical case or stereotype, potentially causing individuals to overlook important details.

Resting Potential: The state of a neuron when it is not firing, with a negative charge inside the cell membrane compared to the outside.

Retina: The light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye containing photoreceptors (rods and cones) that convert light into neural impulses.

Retinal Disparity: A binocular depth cue that refers to the slightly different views of an object seen by each eye, creating a sense of depth.

Retroactive Interference: When newer memories interfere with the recall of older memories.

Reversibility: In Piaget's preoperational stage, the ability to mentally reverse an action.

Rods: Photoreceptors in the retina that are responsible for vision in dim light and detecting black, white, and gray, located more in the periphery of the retina.

Saccades: Rapid, jerky movements of the eyes when scanning a visual scene.

Satiety Hormone: Leptin, a hormone produced by fat cells that signals to the brain that the body is full, reducing the motivation to eat.

Schema: A cognitive framework that helps organize and interpret information (distinct from mental set).

Schizoid Personality Disorder: A Cluster A personality disorder characterized by detachment from social relationships and a restricted range of emotional expression, often preferring solitude.

Schizotypal Personality Disorder: A Cluster A personality disorder consisting of discomfort in social settings, believing in odd beliefs, exhibiting odd or eccentric behaviors or speech, and having unusual perceptual experiences.

Selective Attention: The process of focusing on a particular stimulus while tuning out other stimuli in the environment.

Self-Concept: How a person sees and describes themselves, including their personality, skills, roles, and traits ("who am I?").

Self-Efficacy: An individual's belief in their ability to successfully perform a specific task.

Self-Serving Bias: The tendency to attribute one's successes to internal factors and one's failures to external factors.

Semantic Encoding: An encoding strategy where the focus is on the meaning or context of the information, often used with deep processing and considered highly effective.

Semantic Memory: A type of explicit memory that involves knowledge of facts, concepts, and general information.

Semantic Processing: The deepest level of processing in the Levels of Processing Model where the focus is on the meaning of the information.

Semantics: The meaning behind words and sentences in a language.

Sensation: The process of detecting information from the environment through the sensory organs.

Sensory Adaptation: When a person gets used to a continuous and unchanging stimulus, leading to a reduced sensory response (different from habituation).

Sensory Homunculus: A visual representation of the amount of brain area dedicated to processing sensations (touch, pressure, temperature, body position) from different body parts.

Sensory Interaction: The process where different senses influence each other to help understand and respond to the world.

Sensory Neural Deafness: Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea or the auditory nerve.

Sensory Transduction: The process where outside stimuli are taken through one of the senses and converted into neural impulses that create a sensation.

Sexual Orientation: An individual's sexual attraction towards members of the same sex, different sex, or both sexes.

Shading and Contour: Monocular depth cues where hazy parts of an image appear farther away and clearer, sharper parts appear closer.

Shaping: In operant conditioning, the process of gradually guiding an animal or person toward a desired behavior by reinforcing successive approximations of the final goal.

Shape Constancy: The ability to perceive an object's shape as the same even when it moves or is viewed from a different angle.

Situational Attributions: Explanations for a person's behavior based on external environmental factors, such as the weather or world events.

Size Constancy: The ability to perceive objects as the same size even when their appearance changes due to their distance.

Sleep Apnea: A sleep disorder where an individual has difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep due to struggling with their breathing.

Sleep Spindles: Bursts of neural activity that occur during Non-REM stage 2 sleep.

Sleep Terrors (Night Terrors): Intense fear experienced while sleeping, which can lead to sleep deprivation and a disrupted sleep schedule (distinct from nightmares).

Sleepwalking (Somnambulism): A sleep disorder where a person gets up and walks around while still sleeping, most commonly occurring during Non-REM stage 3 sleep.

Social Cognitive Theory: A theory of personality focusing on the interaction between a person's personal factors (thoughts, beliefs), behaviors, and environment.

Social Responsibility Norm: An expectation that people will help those who are dependent or in need of assistance.

Social Reciprocity Norm: An expectation that people will receive a positive action back when they do something positive for someone else ("every action has a reaction").

Social Emotional Development: How individuals learn to recognize and regulate emotions, interact effectively, approach challenges with healthy conflict resolution, develop empathy, build secure relationships, and understand their roles, values, and identity within social and cultural contexts.

Socialization: The process of learning what values, standards, and attitudes are appropriate within a society, influenced by factors like family, school, peer groups, and media.

Somatosensory Cortex: An area in the parietal lobe responsible for processing touch, pressure, temperature, and body position sensations.

Somnambulism (Sleepwalking): A sleep disorder where a person gets up and walks around while still sleeping, most commonly occurring during Non-REM stage 3 sleep.

Spontaneous Recovery: The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response.

Standardization: The process of administering and scoring a test in a consistent manner to ensure that all test takers are evaluated under the same conditions.

Stimulant: A psychoactive drug that generally excites and promotes neural activity, increasing energy and reducing appetite (e.g., caffeine, nicotine, cocaine).

Stimulus: An event, object, or thing that triggers a specific reaction.

Stimulus Discrimination: In classical conditioning, when an individual learns to differentiate between the conditioned stimulus and other similar stimuli.

Stimulus Generalization: In classical conditioning, when an individual responds to a stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus.

Structural Processing: The most superficial level of processing in the Levels of Processing Model where the focus is on the physical appearance or structure of the information.

Stroboscopic Motion: An apparent movement phenomenon commonly used in animations or movies, where the illusion of movement is created by showing a series of images in rapid succession.

Sublimation: A defense mechanism where an individual takes an unacceptable impulse and channels that impulse into a socially acceptable action.

Sunken Cost Fallacy: A cognitive bias where individuals continue a behavior or project because of the resources (time, money, effort) they have already invested, even if it is no longer rational to do so.

Superego: In Freud's psychodynamic theory, the part of the personality that represents a person's ideals, moral values, and judgments, guiding behavior based on societal expectations.

Surface Structure Semantics: The literal meaning of words and sentences.

Sympathetic Division: A division of the autonomic nervous system that mobilizes the body and gets it ready for action, increasing heart rate, dilating eyes, and increasing breathing (fight or flight).

Synapse: The small pocket of space between the axon terminal of one neuron and the dendrite of another neuron where signals are transmitted.

Synaptic Gap: The narrow space between the presynaptic terminal of one neuron and the postsynaptic terminal of another neuron.

Synesthesia: A neurological condition where one sense experience is experienced through another, such as seeing colors when hearing music or tasting flavors when reading words.

Syntax: Specific rules for arranging words and phrases into sentences in a language.

Tactile Encoding: An encoding strategy where the feeling of touch is used when encoding information.

Telegraphic Speech: The two-word stage of language development where a child connects two or three word phrases together, using only essential words without extra grammar.

Temporal Lobe: The lobe located right above the ears, involved in processing auditory and linguistic information, recognizing faces, and assisting with memory.

Texture and Gradient: Monocular depth cues where objects that are clear and in focus with full detail appear closer than objects that lack details and appear more blurry.

Thalamus: A structure located deep within the brain, just above the brain stem, that receives sensory information from all sensory organs (except smell) and relays it to the appropriate areas of the cerebral cortex for processing (the "relay station").

Theta Waves: Brain waves with a greater amplitude and slower frequency compared to Beta and Alpha waves, strong during times of relaxation.

Theory of Mind: The ability to understand that other people have their own mental states (beliefs, intentions, desires, knowledge) that may be different from one's own.

Thermal Receptors: Sensory receptors located in the skin that respond to temperature changes (warmth or cold).

Threshold: The level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse (action potential).

Tolerance: A condition where a person requires more of a drug to achieve the same effect as they develop a higher tolerance with repeated use.

Trait Theories: Theories of personality that focus on identifying and measuring enduring characteristics (traits) that form a person's personality.

Transduction (Sensory): The process where outside stimuli are taken through one of the senses and converted into neural impulses that create a sensation.

Trichromatic Theory: A theory of color vision suggesting that the retina contains three different types of cones, each most sensitive to a different wavelength of light (red, green, or blue), and that combinations of signals from these cones produce the perception of all colors.

Trust vs. Mistrust: Erikson's first psychosocial stage (infancy) where infants develop a sense of trust if their needs are consistently met or mistrust if they are not.

Two-Word Stage: A stage of language development around 18-24 months where a child can connect two or three word phrases together (telegraphic speech).

Umami: One of the six basic tastes, also known as savory, associated with the taste of the amino acid glutamate.

Unconditioned Response (UR): A natural response that happens without any learning, triggered by an unconditioned stimulus.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US): A stimulus that naturally triggers a response without any prior teaching or learning.

Validity: The extent to which a test measures what it is intended to measure.

Vestibular Sense: The sense of body movement and balance, related to the fluid and hair cells in the semicircular canals of the inner ear.

Visual Cortex (Primary): An area in the occipital lobe that receives visual input from the eyes.

Visual Encoding: An encoding strategy where information is encoded by the visual elements observed.

Visual Spatial Sketchpad: A part of the working memory model (also called the inner eye) that handles visual and spatial information.

Volley Theory: A theory of pitch perception suggesting that groups of neurons work together to fire in a staggered manner, allowing them to collectively match the frequency of higher-pitched sounds (addressing limitations of the Frequency Theory).

Wakefulness: A state of consciousness where a person is awake, typically aware of their surroundings, and can think, feel, and react to events.

Weber-Fechner Law: A law stating that for a person to notice a difference between two stimuli, the two stimuli must differ by a constant percentage, not a constant amount (related to difference threshold).

Wernicke's Area: An area typically located in the left temporal lobe responsible for creating meaningful speech.

Working Memory: Another term for short-term memory, a system that processes and temporarily holds information for different cognitive tasks.

Yerkes-Dodson Law: The principle stating that performance increases with arousal, but only up to a certain point; if arousal goes beyond that point, performance begins to decrease.