Psychology GRE Terms

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Ablation: A surgically induced brain lesion.
Absolute refractory period: The period that follows the onset of an action potential. During this period, a nerve impulse cannot be initiated.
Absolute threshold: The minimum of stimulus energy needed to activate a sensory system.
Accommodation: A principle of Piaget's theory of cognitive development. It occurs when cognitive . structures are modified because new information or new experiences do not fit into existing cognitive structures.
Acetylcholine: A neurotransmitter found in both central and peripheral nervous systems linked to Alzheimer's disease and used to transmit nerve impulses to the muscles.
Acrophobia: An irrational fear of heights.
ACT model (Adaptive Control of Thought): A model that :describes memory in terms of procedural .and declarative memory.
Actor-observer effect: The tendency of actors to see observer behavior as due to external factors (situational factors) and the tendency of observers to attribute actors' behaviors .to internal characteristics (dispositional characteristics).
Adrenaline: A hormone that increases energy available for "fight or flight" reactions (also known as epinephrine).
Afterimage: A visual sensation that appears after prolonged or intense. exposure to a stimulus.
Agnosia: Impairments in perceptual recognition,
Agoraphobia: An irrational fear of being in places or situations where' escape might be difficult,
All-or-nothing law: A law about nerve impulses stating that when depolarization reaches the critical threshold (â€“50 millivolts) the neuron is going to fire, each time, every time.
Alternate-form method: In psychometrics, it is the method of using two or more different forms of a test to determine the reliability of a particular test.
Altruism: A form of helping behavior where the animal's intent is to benefit other animals at some cost to itself.
Amnesia: A dissociative disorder where individuals are unable to recall past experience, but this inability is not due to a neurological disorder.
Analogy of inoculation: McGuire's analogy that people can be psychologically inoculated against the "attack" of persuasive communications by first exposing them to a weakened attack.
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA): A statistical method to compare the means of more than two groups by comparing the between-group variance to the within-group variance.
Anima (animus): An archetype from Jung's theory referring to the feminine behaviors in males, and the masculine behaviors in females.
Anorexia nervosa: An eating disorder characterized by a refusal to maintain a minimal normal body weight.
Anterograde amnesia: Memory loss for new information following brain injury.
Antisocial personality disorder: A personality disorder characterized by a pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others.
Aphagia: An impairment in the ability to eat.
Aphasias: Language disorders, which are associated with Broca's and Wernicke's areas in the brain. .
Apparent motion: An illusion that occurs when two dots flashed in different locations on a screen seconds apart are perceived as one moving dot.
Apraxia: An impairment in the organization of voluntary action.
Archetypes: The building blocks for the collective unconscious referred to in Jung's theory of personality.
Assimilation: A principle of Piaget's theory of cognitive development. It is the process of understanding new information in relation to prior knowledge, or existing schemata.
Association area: Areas in the brain that integrate information from different cortical regions
Atkinson-Shiffin model: A model of memory that involves three memory structures (sensory, short-term and long-term), and the processes that operate these memory structures.
Attachment bond: Evidence of a preference for the primary caregiver and a wariness of strangers.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADD/HD): A disorder characterized by developmentally atypical inattention and/or impulsivity-hyperactivity.
Attribution theory: Fritz Heider's theory that people tend to infer the causes of other people's behavior as either dispositional (related to the individual) or situational (related to the environment).
Authoritarian parenting style: A parenting style tending to use punitive control methods and lacking emotional warmth.
Authoritati parenting style: A parenting style tending to have reasonably high demands for child compliance coupled with emotional warmth.
Autism: A disorder whose essential features are lack of responsiveness to other people, gross impairment in communication skills, and behaviors and interests that are repetitive, inflexibly routined, and stereotyped.
Autokinetic effect: An illusion that occurs when a spot of light appears to move erratically in a dark room, simply because here is no frame of reference.
Availability heuristic: A decision-making short-cut that people tend to use when trying to decide how likely something is based upon how easily similar instances can be imagined.
Aversion therapy: A behavioral therapy of pairing unpleasant stimuli with undesirable behavior.
Balance theory: Fritz Heider's consistency theory that is concerned with balance and imbalance in the ways in which three elements are related
Behavioral contracts: A therapeutic technique that is a negotiated agreement between two parties that explicitly stipulates the behavioral change that is desired and indicates consequences of certain acts.
Behavioral-stimulants: A class of drugs that increase behavioral activity by increasing motor activity or by counteracting fatigue, and which are thought to stimulate receptors for dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin.
Bekesy's traveling wave theory: Proposed by Von Bekesy, the theory holds that high frequency sounds ' maximally vibrate the basilar membrane near the beginning of the cochlea close to the oval window and low frequencies maximally vibrate near the apex, or tip of the cochlea.
Between-subjects design: An experimental design whereby each subject is exposed to only one level of each independent variable.
Binocular disparity (stereopsis): A cue for depth perception that depends on the fact that the distance between the eyes provides two slightly disparate views of the world that, when combined, give us a perception of depth.
Bipolar disorder: A mood disorder characterized by both depression and mania.
Boomerang effect: In theories of attitude persuasion, it is an attitude change in the opposite direction of the persuader's message.
Borderline personality disorder: A personality disorder characterized by an instability in interpersonal behavior, mood and self-image that borders on psychosis.
Bottom-up processing (data-driven processing): Information processing that occurs when objects are recognized by the summation of the components of incoming stimulus to arrive at the whole pattern.
Brightness: The subjective impression of the intensity of a light stimulus.
Brightness contrast: In brightness perception, it refers to a when a particular luminance appears brighter when surrounded by a darker stimulus than when surrounded by a lighter stimulus.
Broca's aphasia: Impairments in producing spoken language associated with lesions to Broca's area..
Bulimia nervosa: An eating disorder that involves binge eating and excessive attempts to compensate for it by purging, fasting, or excessive, exercising.
Bystander effect: The reluctance of people to intervene to help others in emergency situations when other people also witness the situation.
Cannon-Bard theory: A 'theory of emotions. stating that awareness of emotions reflects our physiological arousal and our cognitive experience of emotion.
Case study: An experimental method used in developmental psychology to take a very detailed look at development by studying a small number of individuals. This is also called the clinical method.
Centration: A term from Piaget's theory, it is the tendency for preoperational children to be able to focus on only one aspect of a phenomenon.
Chi-square test: A statistical method of testing for an association between two categorical variables. Specifically, it tests for the equality of two frequencies or proportions.
Chlorpromazine: An antipsychotic drug thought to block receptor sites for dopamine, making it effective in treating the delusional thinking, hallucinations and agitation commonly associated with schizophrenia.
Circadian rhythms: Internally generated rhythms that ' regulate our daily cycle of waking and. sleeping, approximating a 24-hour cycle.
Classical conditioning: Also known as respondent conditioning, it is a result of learning connections between different events;''
Claustrophobia: An irrational fear of closed places.
Client-centered therapy, person-centered therapy, non-directive therapy: Carl Rogers' therapeutic technique that is based on the idea that clients have the freedom to control their own behavior, and that the client is able to reflect upon his or her problems, make choices and take positive action.
Clustering: A technique to enhance memory by organizing items into conceptually-related categories
Cognitive dissonance theory: Leon Festinger's consistency theory that people are motivated to reduce dissonant elements or add consonant elements to reduce tension.
Cognitive map: A mental representation of a physical space.
Color constancy: Refers to the fact that the perceived color of an object does not change when we change the wavelength of the light we see.
Compensation: A defense mechanism whereby something is done to make up for something that is lacking.
Conception: Takes place in the fallopian tubes where the ovum or egg cell is fertilized by the male sperm cell.
Conditioned response: In classical conditioning, it is the learned response to a conditioned stimulus.
Conditioned stimulus: In classical conditioning, it a neutral stimulus that has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response.
Confounding variables: Unintended independent variables.
Connectionism: Also called parallel distribution processing, it is a theory of information processing that is analogous to a complex neural network.
Consistency theories: Theoretical perspectives from social psychology that hold that people prefer consistency between attitudes and behaviors, and that people will change or resist changing attitudes based upon this preference.
Construct validity: A type of validity that refers to how well a test measures the intended theoretical construct.
Content validity: A type of validity that refers to how well the content items of a test measure the particular skill or knowledge area that it is supposed to measure.
Control group design: A technique of treating experimental and control groups equally in all respects, except that one group is exposed to the treatment in the experiment, and the other group is not exposed to the treatment.
Conversion disorders: Disorders characterized by unexplained symptoms affecting voluntary motor or sensory functions. Conversion disorder used to be referred to as "hysteria."
Correlation coefficient: A type of descriptive statistic that measures to what extent, if any, two variables are related.
Counterbalancing: A method of controlling the potential effects of unintended independent variables (e.g., order effects) by making sure that the experimental and control groups are similar in all respects expect for in the independent variable being measured.
Countertransference: In psychoanalysis, it occurs when the therapist experiences emotions in response to the patient's transference.
Criterion validity: How well the test can predict an individual's performance on an established test of the same skill or knowledge area.
Cross-sectional studies: An experimental method used in developmental psychology to compare different groups of individuals at different ages.
Crystallized intelligence: Proposed by Raymond Cattell, it is a type of intelligence that uses knowledge acquired as a result of schooling or other life experiences.
Cynophobia: A specific phobia referring to an irrational fear of dogs.
Decay theory: A theory that holds that if the information in long-term memory is not used or rehearsed it will eventually be forgotten.
Declarative memory: Sometimes called fact memory, it is memory for explicit information.
Defense mechanisms: In Freud's structural dynamic model of personality, they are unconscious mechanisms that deny, falsify, or distort reality.
Delusions: False beliefs, discordant with reality, that are maintained in spite of strong evidence to the contrary.
Demand characteristics: Cues that suggest to subjects what, the researcher expects from research participants.
Dementia praecox: The word literally means "split mind," and was used to refer to what is now known as schizophrenia.
Dementias: A neurological disorder characterized by a loss in intellectual functioning.
Dependent variable: A measurement of the response that is expected to vary with differences in the independent variable
Depersonalization disorder: A dissociative disorder that involves a sense of detachment from the self despite an intact sense of reality,
Depolarization: The second stage in the firing cycle, occurs when the membrane's electrical charge decreasesâ€”anytime the membrane's voltage moves toward a neutral charge of 0 millivolts.
Descriptive statistics: Statistics concerned with organizing, describing, quantifying, and summarizing a collection of actual observations.
Deviation quotients: A deviation IQ score that tells us how far away a person's score is from the average score for that person's particular age group.
Diathesis-stress model: A framework explaining the causes of mental disorders as an interaction between biological causal factors (a predisposition toward developing a specific mental disorder) and psychological causal factors (excessive stress).
Difference threshold: The amount of difference that there must be between two stimuli before they are perceived to be different.
Diploid cells: Cells that contain 23 pairs of chromosomes.
Discriminative stimulus: In operant conditioning, it is a stimulus condition that indicates that the organism's behavior will have consequences.
Displacement: A defense mechanism that refers to the pent-up feelings (often hostility) discharged on objects and people less dangerous than those objects or people causing the feelings.
Dissociative disorders: Disorders characterized by an avoidance of stress by escaping from personality identity.
Dissociative fugue: A dissociative disorder that involves amnesia plus a sudden, unexpected move away from one's home or location of usual daily activities.
Dissociative Identity Disorder: A dissociative disorder characterized by two or more personalities that recurrently take control of a person's behavior (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder).
Dissonance theory: The tendency to change thoughts or behavior in response to perceived inconsistencies.
Distal stimulus: In perception, it is the actual object or event out there in the world, as opposed to its perceived image.
Domain-referenced testing: Sometimes called criterion-referenced testing, it is concerned with the question of what the test taker knows about a specified content domain.
Dopamine hypothesis: A biochemical explanation for schizophrenia suggesting that the delusions, hallucinations and agitation associated with schizophrenia arise from an excess of dopamine activity at certain sites in the brain.
Double-bind hypothesis: A psychosocial theory of schizophrenia holding that people with schizophrenia received contradictory messages from primary caregivers during childhood, and that these contradictory messages led them to see their perceptions of reality as unreliable.
Double-blinding: A research design that controls for the influence of the researcher and research participants since neither group knows which participants are in the control group and which participants are in the experimental group.
Down's syndrome: A set of physiological conditions, including severe mental retardation, resulting from an extra 21st chromosome.
Duplexity, or duplicity theory of vision: The theory holding that the retina contains two kinds of photoreceptors.
Echoic memory: Auditory memory.
Ego psychology: A branch of psychoanalytic theory that emphasizes the role of the ego as autonomous.
Eidetic memory: Memory, for images.
Elaborative rehearsal: The process of organizing information and associating it with what you already know to get information into long-term memory.
Electroencephalograph (EEG): It records a gross average of the electrical activity in different parts of the brain.
Embryonic stage: The third stage during prenatal development, it refers to the period during which the embryo increases in size dramatically, begins to develop a human appearance with limb motion, produces androgen in the testes of male embryos, and develops nerve cells in the spine.
Emmert's law: A law describing the relationship between size constancy and apparent distanceâ€”the farther away the object appears to be, the more the scaling device in the brain will compensate for its retinal size by enlarging our perception of the object.
Empathy: The ability to vicariously experience the emotions of another,. Mad it is thought some social psychologists to be a strong influence oil helping behavior.
Encoding: The process of putting new information into memory.
Encoding specificity theory: A theory that recall is best if the context at recall approximates the context during the original encoding.
Endorphins: Peptides that are natural pain killer,, produced in the brain.
Episodic memory: A type of declarative memory, episodic memory refers to memories for particular events, or episodes, from personal experience.
Equity theory: A theory stating that individuals strive for fairness and feel uncomfortable when there is a perception of a lack of fairness.
Eros: In Freud's structural dynamic model of personality, it refers to the life instincts that serve the purpose of individual survival (hunger, thirst, and sex).
Ethology: The study of animals in their natural environment.
Exchange theory: The tendency to evaluate interactions and. relationships in terms of relative costs and benefits.
External validity: In research methodology, it refers to how generalizable the results of an experiment are.
Extinction: In operant conditioning, it is when a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly not reinforced and as a result, the conditioned response is no longer produced as consistently. .
Extirpation: A process of removing various parts of the brain, and then observing the behavioral consequences.
Extrinsic motivation: Behavior that is motivated by some external reward.
Face validity: A type of validity that refers to whether test items appear to measure what they are supposed to measure.
Factor analysis: A statistical technique using correlation coefficients to reduce a large number of variables to a few factors.
Fechner's law: A law that expresses the relationship between the intensity of the sensation and the intensity of the stimulus, and states that sensation increases more slowly as intensity increases.
Fetal period: The last stage of prenatal development, its onset is marked by the beginning of measurable electrical activity in the brain.
Fictional finalism: A concept in Alfred Adler's theory of personality, it is the notion that an individual is motivated more by his or her expectations of the future based on a subjective or fictional estimate of life's values, than by past experiences.
Field independence-field dependence: A personality style characterized by an ability/inability to distinguish experience from its context.
Fight or flight responses: The emotional experience associated with the sympathetic nervous system and managed by the hypothalamus during high arousal.
Figure: A concept in visual perception referring to the integrated visual experience that stands out at the center of attention.
Fixation: From psychoanalytic theory, it is an inability to successfully proceed through a stage in development because of an overindulgence or frustration.
Fixed action pattern: A behavior that is relatively stereotyped and appears to be species-typical.
Fixed-interval (FI): In operant Conditioning, it is when behavior is reinforced on the first response after a fixed period of time has elapsed since the last reinforcement.
Fixed-ratio (FR): In operant conditioning, it is when behavior is reinforced after a fixed number of responses.
Flooding: A behavioral modification technique used to treat anxiety disorders by exposing the client to the anxiety-producing stimulus.
Fluid intelligence: Proposed by Raymond Cattell, it is a type of intelligence that has the ability to quickly grasp relationships in novel situations and make correct deductions from them (e.g., solving analogies).
Follicle stimulating hormone: A hormone that is secreted by the pituitary gland to stimulate the growth of an ovarian follicle, which is a small protective sphere surrounding the egg or ovum.
Free association: A psychoanalytic technique in which the client says whatever comes to his or her mind regardless of how personal; 'painful, or seemingly irrelevant it may appear to be so that the analyst and patient together can reconstruct the nature of the client's original conflict.
Frequency: In sound perception, it is the number of sound wave cycles per second.
Frequency theory: A theory suggesting that the basilar membrane of the ear vibrates as a whole, that the rate of vibration equals the frequency of the stimulus and that the vibration rate is directly translated into the appropriate number of neural impulses per second.
Functional autonomy: A given activity or form of behavior may become an end or a goal in itself, regardless of its original reason for existence.
Functional fixedness: An impediment to effective problem solving because of an inability to use a familiar object in an unfamiliar way.
Functionalism: A system of thought in psychology that was concerned with studying how mental processes help individuals adapt to their environments.
Fundamental attribution error: The tendency to attribute individual characteristics as causes of others' behaviors and situational characteristics to one's own behavior.
g: Proposed by Charles Spearman, this is an individual difference in intelligence that refers to a general, unitary factor of intelligence.
GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid): A neurotransmitter that produces inhibitory postsynaptic potentials and is thought to play an important role in stabilizing neural activity in the brain.
Garcia effect: Named after researcher John Garcia, it is basically food aversion that occurs when people attribute illness to a particular food.
Gate theory of pain: A theory that proposes that there is a special "gating" mechanism located in the spine that can turn pain signals on or off, thus affecting whether we perceive pain.
Generation-recognition model: Model that proposes that recall tasks tap the same basic process of accessing information in memory as recognition tasks, but also require an additional processing step.
Genes: Located on the chromosomes, they are the basic units of hereditary transmission.
Germinal period: A period of rapid cell division during prenatal development that lasts approximately two weeks, and ends with the implantation of the cellular mass into the uterine wall.
Gonadoptropic hormones: Hormones produced by the pituitary gland during puberty that activate a dramatic increase in the production of hormones by the testes or ovaries.
Ground: A concept in visual perception that refers to the background against which the figures appear.
Group polarization: A tendency for group discussion to enhance the group's initial tendencies towards riskiness or caution.
Groupthink: A tendency of decision-making groups to strive for consensus at the expense of not considering discordant information.
Hallucinations: Perceptions that are not due to external stimuli but have a compelling sense of reality.
Halo effect: In social psychology, it is the tendency to generalize from one attribute or characteristic to a person's entire personality.
Haloperidol (Haldol): An antipsychotic drug thought to block receptor sites for dopamine, making it effective in treating the delusional thinking, hallucinations, and agitation commonly associated with schizophrenia.
Haploid cells: Cells that contain 23 single chromosomes. The gametes (sperm and egg cells) are haploid.
Hawthorne effect: The tendency of people to behave differently if they know that they are being observed.
Homeostasis: A term referring to those self ~regulatory processes that maintain a stable equilibrium.
Humanism: A system of thought that arose in opposition to both psychoanalysis and behaviorism, . and is characterized by a belief in the notion of free will and the idea that people should be considered .as wholes rather than in terms of stimuli and- responses (behaviorism) or instincts (psychoanalysis).
Hyperpolarization: An increase in the membrane potential that decreases the possibility of generating a nerve impulse.
Hypochondriasis: A disorder that causes an individual to be preoccupied with fears that he or she has a serious disease, based on a misinterpretation of one or more bodily signs or symptoms.
Hypothesis: A tentative and testable explanation of the relationship between two or more variables.
Iconic memory: Visual memory.
Id: In Freud's structural dynamic model of personality, it is the source and the reservoir of all psychic energy.
Idiographic: An approach to studying personality that focuses on individual case studies.
Illumination: A physical, objective measurement that is simply the amount of light falling on a surface.
Illusory correlation: An apparent correlation that is perceived, but does not really exist.
Imprinting: An attachment bond between a organism and an object in the environment.
Independent variable: The variable whose effect is being studied.
Induced motion: An illusion of movement occurring when everything around the spot of light is moved.
Inferential statistics: Statistics concerned with making an inference from the sample involved in the research to the population of interest in order to provide an estimate of popular characteristics.
Innate releasing mechanism (IRM): A mechanism in the animal's nervous system that serves to connect the stimulus with the right response.
Insomnia: A disturbance affecting the ability to fall asleep and/or stay asleep.
Instincts: In Freud's structural dynamic model of personality, these are inner representations of a psychological excitation or wish, and are the propelling aspects of Freud's dynamic theory of personality.
Intensity: In sound perception, it is the amplitude or height of an air-pressure wave and it is related to loudness.
Interneurons: Neurons located in the spinal cord that connect sensory neurons with motor neurons to form the reflex arc.
Interposition: Also called overlap, it refers to the cue for depth perception when one object (A) covers or overlaps another object (B), and we see object (A) as being in front.
Interval scale: A scale of measurement using actual numbers (not ranks).
Intrinsic motivation: Motivation by some reward that is inherent to the task.
IQ: A well-known measure of intelligence aptitude using an equation comparing mental age to chronological age.
Isomorphism: A theory that suggests that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the object in the perceptual field and the pattern of stimulation in the brain.
James-Lange theory of emotions: A theory that people become aware of their emotions after they notice their physiological reactions to some external event.
Just-world hypothesis: The tendency to believe that the. world is fair; that is, that people who are good are rewarded while people who are bad are punished.
Klinefelter's syndrome: The possession of an extra X chromosome in males that leads to sterility and often to mental retardation.
Language acquisition device (LAD): Proposed by Noam Chomsky, this is an innate, biologically-based mechanism that helps us understand rule structures in language.
Lateral inhibition: In visual perception, it is the process of inhibiting the response of adjacent retinal cells resulting in the sharpening and highlighting of the borders between dark and light areas.
Law of closure: From Gestal psychology, it is the tendency for people to perceive complete figures even when the actual figures are not complete.
Law of good continuation: From Gestalt psychology, it is the tendency for elements appearing to follow in the same direction (such as a straight line or a simple . curve) to be grouped together.
Law of pragnanz: From Gestalt psychology, it is the tendency for perceptual organization to be as "good" â€”as regular, simple and symmetricâ€”as possible.
Law of proximity: From Gestalt psychology, it is the tendency for elements close to each other to be perceived as a unit.
Law of similarity: From Gestalt psychology, it is the tendency for similar objects to be grouped together.
L-dopa: A synthetic substance that increases dopamine levels in the brain and is used to treat motor disturbances in Parkinson's disease. When L-dopa leads to an oversupply of dopamine in the brain, it can produce psychotic symptoms in Parkinson's patients.
Levels-of-processing theory (depth-of-processing theory): Proposed by Craik and Lockart, the theory suggests that there is only one memory system, and that items entering the memory are analyzed in one of three stages: physical (visual), acoustical (sound), or semantic (meaning).
Libido: From psychoanalytic theory, it refers to the life drive present at birth.
Liglitness constancy: Refers to the fact that, despite changes in the amount of light falling on an object (illumination), the apparent lightness of the object remains unchanged.
Linear perspective: A cue for depth perception that refers to the perception of parallel lines converging in the distance.
Linguistic relativity hypothesis: The theory proposing that our perception of reality is determined by the content of language. Also called the Whorfian hypothesis.
Lithium: A drug used to treat bipolar disorder.
Long term memory: The memory system that holds a permanent store of information.
Longitudinal studies: An experimental method used in developmental psychology to compare the same group of individuals repeatedly over time.
Loudness: The subjective experience of the magnitude or intensity of sound.
Luteinizing hormone: A hormone associated with ovulation.
Maintenance rehearsal: The process of rehearsing information so that items remain in short term memory for a longer duration than usual.
Major depressive disorder: A mood disorder characterized by at least a two-week period during which there is a prominent and relatively persistent depressed mood, or loss of interest in all or almost all activities.
Mania: A sympton of bipolar disorders, it is characterized by an .abnormally elevated mood, accompanied by a speeding up of thought processes and activities and an abnormally decreased need for sleep.
MAO inhibitors: Behavioral stimulants that reduce depression by inhibiting the action of an enzyme called MAO, which normally breaks down and deactivates norepinephrine and serotonin.
Matched-subjects design: In research methodology, it is a technique of matching subjects on the basis of the variable that he or she wants to control.
Mean: The numerical halfway point between the highest score and the lowest score, the arithmetic average.
Median: The middle value when observations are ordered from least to most or from most to least.
Mental chronometry: A cognitive psychology research method of measuring the time elapsed between a stimulus presentation and the subject's response to it.
Mere-exposure hypothesis: The tendency for people to prefer things with which they are familiar.
Meta-analysis: A statistical procedure that can be used to make conclusions on the basis of data from different studies.
Metacognition: The ability to think about and monitor cognition.
Metamemory: The ability to think about and monitor memory.
Method of savings: A research technique for studying memory by measuring the amount of time it takes to learn material and comparing it to the amount of time it takes to relearn material later. The decrease in time represents an indication of original learning.
Methylphenidate: A behavioral stimulant that increases alertness and decreases motor activity, and is used to treat hyperactive children who suffer from attention deficit disorder. Also known as Ritalin.
Mnemonic devices: Techniques used to improve the likelihood that we will remember something.
Mode: The value of the most frequent observation in a set of scores.
Modeling: A therapeutic technique in which the client learns appropriate behavior through imitation of someone else.
Monoamine theory of depression: A theory that holds that too much norepinephrine and serotonin leads to mania, while too little leads to depression. It is also sometimes called the catecholamine theory of depression.
Morphemes: The smallest units of meaning in a language. .
Motion aftereffect: An illusion that occurs when you first view moving pattern, such as stripes moving off to the right (or a waterfall), and then you view a spot of lightâ€”the spot of light will appear to move in the opposite direction.
Motion parallax: A cue for depth perception that occurs during movement when objects that are closer move.
Motor neurons: Neurons transmitting motor commands from the brain to the muscles along efferent fibers.
Narcissistic personality disorder: A personality disorder characterized by a grandiose sense of self-importance or uniqueness, preoccupation with fantasies of success, an exhibitionistic need for constant admiration and attention, and characteristic disturbances in interpersonal relationships such as feelings of entitlement.
Negative reinforcement: The probability that the desired response will be performed is increased by removing something undesirable whenever the desired response is made.
Neologisms: Newly invented words.
Neurotransmitters: Chemical substances that allow neurons to communicate with one another.
Nominal scale: A scale of measurement (also called a categorical scale), that labels observations rather than quantifying observations.
Nomothetic: An approach to personality that focuses on groups of individuals and tries to find the commonalities between individuals.
Nonequivalent group design: An experimental design whereby the researcher doesn't use random assignment, so the control group is not necessarily equivalent to the experimental group.
Norepinephrine: Also known as noradrenaline, it is involved in controlling alertness and wakefulness and is implicated in mood disorders such as depression and mania.
Normal distribution: A distribution that is symmetrical and has its greatest frequency in the middle.
Norm-referenced testing: Comparing the test-taker's performance to that test's norms that are derived from standardized samples.
Object permanence: From Piaget's theory, it is the capacity for representational thought.
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD): A disorder characterized by repeated obsessions (persistent irrational thoughts) and/or compulsions (irrational and repetitive impulses to perform certain acts) that cause significant impairment in a person's life.

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