Placebo Effect: A psychological phenomenon where a patient experiences perceived or actual improvement in their condition after receiving a treatment with no therapeutic effect, due to their belief in the treatment's efficacy.
Just-noticeable Difference (JND): The minimum difference in stimulation that a person can detect 50% of the time. Also known as the difference threshold.
Weber's Law: States that the just-noticeable difference between two stimuli is proportional to the magnitude of the original stimulus.
Top-down Processing: Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, such as prior knowledge, experiences, and expectations, to interpret sensory input.
Schemata: Plural of schema; cognitive frameworks or concepts that help organize and interpret information.
Schema: A mental structure that organizes knowledge and guides cognitive processes and behavior.
Perceptual Set: A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another, influenced by expectations, experiences, emotions, and culture.
Bottom-up Processing: Analysis that begins with sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information.
Figure-ground Relationship: The organization of the visual field into objects (figures) that stand out from their surroundings (ground).
Gestalt Psychology: A school of thought that emphasizes our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.
Proximity: A Gestalt principle that states objects close to each other are perceived as a group.
Similarity: A Gestalt principle that states objects that are similar in appearance are perceived as part of the same group.
Continuity: A Gestalt principle where we perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones.
Closure: A Gestalt principle that describes the tendency to fill in gaps in order to perceive a complete, whole object.
Visual Cliff: A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals.
Monocular Depth Cues: Depth cues that are available to either eye alone, such as linear perspective, interposition, and texture gradient.
Binocular Depth Cues: Depth cues that depend on the use of both eyes, including retinal disparity and convergence.
Linear Perspective: A monocular cue for perceiving depth; the more parallel lines converge, the greater their perceived distance.
Relative Size Cue: A monocular cue in which smaller objects are perceived as farther away if we assume objects are similar in size.
Interposition Cue: A monocular depth cue where one object partially covers another, indicating that the covered object is farther away.
Texture Gradient: A monocular cue where a gradual change in texture signals increasing distance.
Retinal Disparity: A binocular cue for perceiving depth; the brain compares images from the retinas in both eyes to compute distance.
Binocular Disparity: Same as retinal disparity; refers to the slight difference in images between the two eyes.
Convergence: A binocular cue for depth perception; the extent to which the eyes turn inward when looking at an object.
Prototypes: A mental image or best example of a category, used to quickly sort and categorize items.
Algorithm: A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.
Heuristic: A simple thinking strategy that allows for quick judgments and problem-solving but is more error-prone than algorithms.
Availability Heuristic: Estimating the likelihood of events based on how easily examples come to mind.
Representativeness Heuristic: Judging the probability of an event based on how similar it is to a prototype.
Gambler's Fallacy: The erroneous belief that past random events affect the likelihood of future random events.
Sunk-cost Fallacy: Continuing a behavior or endeavor as a result of previously invested resources (time, money, effort), despite new evidence suggesting the cost outweighs the benefit.
Mental Set: A tendency to approach problems in a particular way, often one that has been successful in the past.
Functional Fixedness: The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions, inhibiting problem solving.
Framing: The way an issue is posed; framing can significantly affect decisions and judgments.
Creativity: The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.
Three-box/Information-Processing Model: A model of memory that includes sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
Levels of Processing Model: A theory that suggests memory retention depends on the depth of processing (deep vs. shallow).
Multi-store Model: Another term for the information-processing model, including three memory stores: sensory, short-term, and long-term.
Sensory Memory: The immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system.
Iconic Memory: A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second.
Echoic Memory: A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; sounds and words can still be recalled within 3-4 seconds.
Short-term Memory: Activated memory that holds a few items briefly before the information is stored or forgotten.
Selective Attention: The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.
Cocktail Party Effect: The ability to focus on one voice among many in a noisy environment, and the tendency to notice personally relevant information.
Inattentional Blindness: Failing to see visible objects when attention is directed elsewhere.
Change Blindness: Failing to notice changes in the environment.
Working Memory: A newer understanding of short-term memory involving conscious, active processing of incoming information and retrieval from long-term memory.
Central Executive: The part of working memory that directs attention and processing.
Visuospatial Sketchpad: A component of working memory responsible for handling visual and spatial information.
Auditory Loop (Phonological Loop): A component of working memory that deals with auditory information and language.
Maintenance Rehearsal: Repetition of information to maintain it in short-term memory.
Elaborative Rehearsal: Linking new information with existing memories and knowledge to store it in long-term memory.
Effortful Processing: Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.
Long-term Memory: The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system.
Storage: The process of retaining encoded information over time.
Episodic Memory: Memory of specific events or episodes in one’s life.
Semantic Memory: Memory of general knowledge, facts, and concepts.
Procedural Memory: Memory of how to perform different actions and skills; a type of implicit memory.
Explicit Memories: Memories that require conscious recall, such as episodic and semantic memories.
Implicit Memories: Memories that are retained without conscious awareness, such as procedural memory.
Prospective Memory: Remembering to perform a planned action or intention at the appropriate time in the future.
Shallowly Encoded: Processing information based on surface features (e.g., appearance or sound), resulting in weaker memory retention.
Deeply Encoded: Processing information by its meaning, leading to better retention.
Long-term Potentiation (LTP): A long-lasting strengthening of synapses between nerve cells, believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.
Encoding: The process of getting information into the memory system.
Primacy Effect: The tendency to remember the first items in a list better than the middle items.
Recency Effect: The tendency to remember the last items in a list best.
Serial Position Effect: The tendency to recall the first and last items in a list better than the middle items.
Serial Position Curve: A graph depicting both the primacy and recency effects in recall.
Method of Loci: A mnemonic technique that involves associating items to be remembered with specific physical locations.
Spacing Effect: The tendency for distributed study to yield better long-term retention than massed practice.
Massed Practice: Cramming; learning that takes place in one long session, less effective for long-term retention.
Chunking: Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically.
Mnemonic Devices: Memory aids, especially techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices.
Anterograde Amnesia: An inability to form new memories after a brain injury.
Retrograde Amnesia: An inability to retrieve information from before a brain injury.
Retrieval: The process of bringing information out of long-term memory storage.
Recognition: A measure of memory in which the person identifies items previously learned.
Recall: A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier.
Retrieval Cues: Stimuli that help you retrieve a certain memory.
Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon: The feeling that a memory is available but not quite retrievable.
Context-Dependent Memory: Improved recall of specific information when the context present at encoding and retrieval are the same.
Mood-Congruent Memory: The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current mood.
State-Dependent Memory: The theory that information learned in a particular state of mind is more easily recalled when in that same state.
Constructed Memory: A memory of an event that never occurred, which is created unconsciously to fill in gaps.
Misinformation Effect: Incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event.
Retroactive Interference: When new information interferes with the recall of old information.
Proactive Interference: When old information interferes with learning new information.
Standardized: Uniform procedures for administering and scoring a test.
Reliability: The extent to which a test yields consistent results.
Split-half Reliability: A measure of reliability in which a test is split into two parts and an individual’s scores on both halves are compared.
Test-retest Reliability: A method for determining the reliability of a test by comparing a test taker's scores on the same test taken on separate occasions.
Validity: The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to.
Predictive Validity: The success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict.
Construct Validity: The extent to which a test truly measures the theoretical construct it is intended to measure.
Aptitude Tests: Tests designed to predict a person’s future performance or capacity to learn.
Achievement Tests: Tests designed to assess what a person has learned.
Intelligence: The ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.
Fluid Intelligence: The ability to reason quickly and abstractly, tends to decrease with age.
Crystallized Intelligence: The accumulation of knowledge and verbal skills, tends to increase with age.
Mental Age: A measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that corresponds to a given level of performance.
Stanford-Binet IQ: A widely used intelligence test that revises Binet’s original test; calculates IQ as (mental age/chronological age) x 100.
Chronological Age: The actual age of the individual.
Heritability: The proportion of variation among individuals that can be attributed to genetic factors.
Flynn Effect: The observed rise over time in standardized intelligence test scores, attributed to environmental factors.