Psychology Test 3 2
Terms
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- THe focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus out of all of those that we are capable of experiencing
- Selective Attention
- The tendency for vision to dominate the other senses
- Visual Capture
- Means "organized whole." Psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaninful wholes.
- Gestalt
- Refers to the organization of the visual field into two parts: the figure, which stands out from its surroundings, and the surroundings, or background
- Figure-ground
- The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups.
- Grouping
- The ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; it allows us to judge distance
- Depth Perception
- A laboratory device for testing depth perception, especially in infants and young animals. In their experiments with the visual cliff, Gibson and Walk found strong evidence that depth perception is at least in part innate.
- Visual Cliff
- Depth cues that depend on information from both eyes, cues for the "two eyes"
- Binocular cues
- Depth cues that depend on information from either eye alone, one that is available to either the left or the right eye
- Monocular cues
- A neuromuscular binocular depth cue based on the extent to which the eyes coverge, or turn inward, when looking at near or distant objects.
- Convergence
- An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in succession
- Phi Phenomenon
- Refers to our ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field. Given distorting lenses, we perceive things accordingly but soon adjust by learning the relationship between our distorted perceptions and the reality
- Perceptual adaptation
- The differences between the images received by the left eye and the right eye as a result of viewing the world from slightly different angles.
- Retinal disparity
- The perception that objects have consistent lightness, color, shape, and size, even as illumination and retinal images change.
- Perceptual constancy
- A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another
- Perceptual set
- Explores how people and machines interact and how machines and pyhsical environments can be adapted to human behaviors and thus to increase safety and productivity
- Human factors psychology
- Refers to the controversial claim that perception can occur without sensory input.
- Extrasensory perception (ESP)
- The study of ESP, psychokinesis, and other paranormal forms of interaction between the individual and the environment
- Parapsychology
- Our awareness of outselves and our environment
- Consciousness
- Periodic fluctuations in our bodies' psysiological states, including annual variations in appetite, 90-minute sleep cycles, the 28-day menstrual cycle, and circadian rhythms
- Biological rhythms
- Any regular biological rhythm, such as body temperature and sleep-wakefulness, that follows a 24-hour cycle. One that is about a day, or 24 hours, in duration
- Circadian rhythm
- The sleep stage in which the brain and eyes are active, the muscles are relaxed, and vivid dreaming occurs; also known as paradoxical sleep
- REM sleep
- The relatively slow brain waves characteristic of an awake, relaxed state
- Alpha waves
- The natural, periodic, reversible loss of consciousness, on which the body and mind depend for healthy functioning
- Sleep
- False sensory experiences that occur without any sensory stimulis
- Hallucinations
- The large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep
- Delta Waves
- A sleep disorder in which the person regularly has difficulty in falling or staying asleep
- Insomnia
- A sleep disorder in which the victim suffers sudden, uncontrollable sleep attacks, often characterized by entry directly into REM
- Narcolepsy
- A sleep disorder in which the person ceases breathing, while asleep, briefly arouses to gasp for air, falls back asleep, and repeats this cycle throughout the night
- Sleep apnea
- Person experiences episodes of high arousal with apparent terror.
- Night Terrors
- Are vivid sequences of images, emotions, and thoughts, the most vivid or which occur during REM sleep
- Dreams
- In Freud's theory of dreaming, Remembered story line
- Manifest content
- In Freud's theory of dreaming, the underlying but censored meaning of a dream
- Latent content
- The tendency for REM sleep to increase following deprivation
- REM rebound
- A social interaction in which one person (the hynotist) suggests to another (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur
- Hypnosis
- The condition in which, in reponse to the hypnotist's suggestion, subjects are unable to recall what happened while they were under hypnosis
- Posthypnotic amnesia
- A suggestion made during a hypnosis session that is to be carried out when the subject is no longer hypnotized
- Posthypnotic suggestion
- A split between different levels of consciousness, allowing a person to divide attention between two or more thoughts
- Dissociation
- A part of hypnotized person's consciousness that remains aware of happenings even under hypnosis
- Hidden observer
- Include stimulants, depressants, and hallucinogens- are chemical substances that alter mood and perception. They work by affecting or mimicking the activity of neurotransmitters
- Psychoactive drugs
- The diminishing of a psychoactive drug's effect that ocfurs with repeated use and the need for prgoressively larger doses in order to produce the same effect
- Tolerance
- Refers to the discomfort and distress that follow the discontinued use of addictive drugs
- Withdrawal
- A physiological need for a drug that is indicated by the presence of withdrawal symptoms when the drug is not taken
- Physical dependence
- Psychological need to use a drug
- Psychological dependence
- Are psychoactive drugs, such as alcohol, opiates, and barbiturates, that reduce neural activity and slow body functions
- Depressants
- Psychoactive drugs, caffine, nicotine, amphetamines, and cocaine, that excite neural activity and speed up body functions
- Stimulants
- Are psychoactive drugs, such as LSD and marijuana, that distort perception and evoke sensory imagery in the absence of sensory input
- Hallucinogens
- Depressants, sometimes used to induce sleep or reduced anxiety
- Barbiturates
- Depressants derived from the opium poppy, such as opium, morphine, and heroin; they reduce neural activity and relieve pain
- Opiates
- A type of stimulant and, as such, speed up body functions and neural activity
- Amphetamines
- Produces short-term euphoria by increasing serotonin levels in the brain. Repeated use may permanently damage serotonin neurons, suppress immunity, and dissrupt cognition
- Ecstacy (MDMA)
- A powerful hallucinogen capable of producing vivid false perceptions and disorganization of thought processes
- LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide)
- The major active ingrediant in Marijuana, classified as a mild hallucinogen
- THC
- An altered state of consciousness that has been reported by some people who have had a close brush with death
- Near-Death Experience
- The philosophical belief that the mind and body are distinct entities- the mind non-physical, the body physical
- Dualism
- The philosphical belief that the mind and body are different aspects of the same thing.
- Monism
- The belief that death is final and that no afterlife exists is a reflection of the
- monist position
- Those who believe that near-death experiences are proof of immortality are expressing the
- dualist position
- Any relatively permanent change in an organism's behavior due to experience
- Learning
- Organisms learn that certain events occur together. Classical conditioning and operant conditioning
- Associative learning
- Pavlovian conditioning, a type of learning in which a neutral stimulus becomes capable of eliciting a conditioned response after having become associated with an unconditioned stimulus
- Classical conditioning
- The view that psychology should be an objective science, study only observable behaviors, and avoid references to mental processes
- Behaviorism
- The unlearned, involuntary response to the unconditioned stimulus, in classical conditioning
- Unconditioned response (UCR)
- The stimulus that naturally and automatically elicits the reflexive unconditioned response, in classical conidtioning
- unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
- The learned response to a previously neutral conditioned stimulus, which results from the acquired association between the CS and UCS
- Conditioned response (CR)
- An originally neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a CR after associating with an unconditioned stimulus
- Conditioned stimulus (CS)
- The initial stage of conditioning in which the new response is established and gradually strengthened
- Acquisition
- The weakening of a CR when the CS is no longer followed by the UCS
- Extinction
- The reappearance of an extinguished CR after a rest period
- Spontaneous recovery
- The tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the original CS to evoke a CR
- Generalization
- Classical conditionng efers to the ability to distinguis the CS from similar simuli tha do not signal a UCS
- Discrimination
- A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by reinforcement or diminsihed if followed by punishment
- Operant conditioning
- That which occurs as a nautomatic response to some stimulus
- Respondent behavior
- Behavior the organism emits that operates on the enviornment to produce reinforcing or punishing stimuli
- Operant behavior
- States that rewarded behavior is likely to recur
- Law of Effect
- Experimental chamber for the operant conditioning of an animal such as a pigeon or rat. The controlled visual or auditory stimuli, deliver reinforcement or punishment, and precisely measure simple responsees such as bar presses or key pecking
- Operant Chamber (Skinner box)
- The operant conditioning procedure for establishing a new response by reinforcing successive approximations of the desired behavior
- Shaping
- Any event that strengthens the behavior it follows
- Reinforcer
- The powers of ___________ are inborn and do not depend on learning
- Primary reinforcers
- Stimuli that acquire their reinforcing power through their association with primary reinforcers
- Conditioned reinforcers
- The operant procedure of reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs
- Continuous reinforcement
- Operant procedure of reinforcing a response intermittently
- Partial (intermittent) reinforcement
- One in which reinforcement is presented after a set number of responses
- Fixed-ratio schedule
- One in which reinforcement is presented after a varying number of responses
- Variable-ratio schedule
- One in which a response is reinforced after a specified time has elapsed
- Fixed-interval schedule
- One in which responses are reinforced after varying intervals of time
- Variable-interval schedule
- The presentation of an aversive stimulus, such as shock, which decreases the behavior it follows
- Punishment
- A mental picture of one's environment
- Cognitive map
- Learning that occurs in the absence of reinforcement but only becomes apparent when there is an incentive to demonstrate it
- Latent learning
- The undermining efferct of being rewarded for something enjoyable is
- Overjustification effect
- The desire to perform a behavior for its own sake, rather than for some external reason, and to be effective
- Intrinsic motivation
- The desire to perform a behavior in order to obtain a reward or avoid a punishment
- Extrinsic motivation
- Learing by watching and imitating the behavior of others
- Observational learning
- The process of watching and then imitating a specific behavior and is thus an important means through which observational learning occurs
- Modeling
- Found in the brain's frontal lobe, may be the neural basis for observational learning.
- Mirror Neurons
- The opposite of antisocial behavior, positive, helpful, and constructive and is subject to the same principles of observational learning as is undesirable behavior, such as aggression
- Prosocial Behavior
- The persistence of learning over time via the storage and retrieval of information
- Memory
- An unusually vivid memory of an emotionally important moment in one's life
- Flashbulb memory
- The first step in memory; information is translated into some form that enables it to enter our memory system
- Encoding
- The process by which encoded information is maintained over time
- Storage
- The process of bringing to consciousness information from memory storage
- Retrieval
- The immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the memory system
- Sensory memory
- Conscious memory, which can hold about seven items for a short time
- Short-term memory
- The relatively permanent and unlimited capacity memory system into which information from short-term memory may pass
- Long-term memory
- Our unconscious encoding of incidental information such as space, time, and frequency and of well-learned information
- Automatic processing
- Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort
- Effortful processing
- The conscious, effortful repetition of information that you are trying either to maintain in consciousness or to encode for storage
- Rehearsal
- The tendancy for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than massed study or practice
- Spacing effect
- The tendency for items at the beginning and end of a list to be more easily retained than those in the middle
- Serial position effect
- The use of imagery to process information into memory
- Visual encoding
- The processing of information into memory according to its sound
- Acoustic encoding
- The processing of information into memory according to its meaning
- Semantic encoding
- refers to mental pictures and can be an imprtant aid to effortful processing
- Imagery
- Memory aids (the method of loci, acroynyms, peg-words, etc.), which often use visual imagery
- Mnemonics
- The memory technique of organizing material into familiar, meaningful units
- Chunking
- The visual sensory memory consisting of a perfect photographic memory, which last no more than a few tenths of a second
- Iconic memory
- The momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli, lasting about 3 or 4 seconds
- Echoic memory
- An increase in a synapse's firing potential folloing brief, rapid stimulation
- Long-term potentiation (LTP)
- THe loss of memory
- Amnesia
- Memories of skills, preferences, and dispositions. These memories are evidently processed not by the hippocampus, but by a more primitive part of the brain, the cerebellum
- Implicit memories
- Memories of acts, including names images, and events
- Explicit memories
- A neural center located in the limbic system that is important in the processing of explicit memories for storage
- Hippocampus
- A measure of retention in which the person must remember, with few retrieval cues, information learned earlier
- Recall
- A measure of retention in which one need only identify, rather than recall, previously learned information
- Recognition
- Also a measure of retention in that the less time it takes to relearn information, the more that information bas been retained
- Relearning
- The activation, often unconscious, of a web of associations in memory in order to retrieve a specific memory
- Priming
- The false sense that you have already experience a current situation
- Deja Vu
- The tendency to recall experiences that are consisten with our current mood
- Mood-congruent Memory
- The disruptive effect of something you already have learned on your efforts to learn or recall new information
- Proactive interference
- The disruptive effect of something recently learned on old knowledge
- Retroactive interference
- An example of motivated forgetting in that painful and unacceptable memories are prevented from entering consciousness.
- Repression
- The tendency of eye-witnesses to an event to incorporate misleading information about the event into their memories
- Misinformation effect
- Misattributing an event to the wrong source
- Source amnesia
- The mental activity associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating information
- Cognition
- A mental grouping of similar objects, events, or people
- Concept
- The best example of a particular category
- Prototype
- A methodical, logical procedure that, while sometimes slow, guarantess success
- Algorithm
- A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently
- Heuristic
- A sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem
- Insight
- An obstacle to problem solving in which people tend to search for information that validates their preconceptions
- Confirmation bias
- An inability to approach a problem in a new way
- Fixation
- The tendency to continue applying a particular problem-solving strategy even when it is no longer helpful
- Mental set
- A type of fixation in which a person can think of things only in terms of their usual functions
- Functioanl fixedness
- The tendency to judge the likelihood of things in terms of how well they conform to one's prototypes
- Representativeness heuristic
- Based on estimating the probability of certain events in terms of how readily they come to mind
- Availability heuristic
- The tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs and judgements
- Overconfidence
- The way an issue or question is posed. It can affect people's perception of the issue or answer to the question
- Framing
- The tendency for a person's preexisting beliefs to distort his or her logical reasoning
- Belief bias
- The tendency for people to cling to a particular belief even after the information that led to the formation of the belief is discredited
- Belief perseverance
- The science of designing and programming computer systems to do intelligent things and to simulate human thought processes
- Artificial intelligence (AI)
- Computer circuits that simulate the brain's interconnected neural cells and perform tasks such as learning to recognize visual patterns and smells
- Computer neural netwokrs
- Refers to spoken, written, or gestured words and how we combine them to communicate meaning
- Language
- The smallest units of sound in a language that are distinctive for speakers of the language
- Phonemes
- The smallest units of language that convey meaning
- Morphemes
- A system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others
- Grammar
- The aspect of grammar that specifies the rules used to derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language
- Semantics
- The aspect of grammar specifying the rules for combining words into grammatical sentences in a given language
- Syntax
- Begins at 3 to 4 months, is characterized by the spontaneous utterance of speech sounds
- Babbling stage
- Between 1 and 2 years of age children speak mostly in single words; they are therefore in the _______________ of linguistic development
- One-word stage
- Beginning about age 2, children are in the _________________ and speak mostly in two-word sentences
- Two-word stage
- The economical, telegram-like speech of children in the two-word stage. Utterances consist mostly of nouns and verbs; however, words occur in the correct order, showing that the child has learned some of the language's syntactc rules
- Telegraphic speech
- Benjamin Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think
- Linguistic determinism