exam Flashcards
(327 cards)
1
Q
What is psychology?
A
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
2
Q
What is critical thinking?
A
Question, analyze, interpret, evaluate, and make judgment on information you receive.
3
Q
What is hindsight bias?
A
The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it.
4
Q
What is confirmation bias?
A
A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.
5
Q
What is overconfidence?
A
Tendency to overestimate our ability to make correct predictions.
6
Q
What are peer reviews?
A
The evaluation of scientific, academic, or professional work by others in the same field to ensure its quality and validity before publication or presentation.
7
Q
What is a hypothesis?
A
A testable prediction, often implied by a theory.
8
Q
What does falsifiable mean?
A
Hypothesis tested to see if it can be proven wrong based on scientific observation and investigation.
9
Q
What is an operational definition?
A
A statement of the procedures used to define research variables (how are the variables measured).
10
Q
What is replication?
A
Repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances.
11
Q
What is a case study?
A
A descriptive technique in which one individual or group is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles.
12
Q
What is meta-analysis?
A
A procedure for statistically combining the results of many different research studies.
13
Q
What is naturalistic observation?
A
Observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation.
14
Q
What is a survey?
A
A descriptive technique for obtaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular group.
15
Q
What is social desirability bias?
A
A tendency to give socially approved answers to questions about oneself.
16
Q
What is self-report bias?
A
Inaccuracies or distortions in responses to surveys or questionnaires due to factors such as social desirability, memory recall, or misunderstanding of questions.
17
Q
What is experimenter bias?
A
A phenomenon that occurs when a researcher’s expectations or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results obtained.
18
Q
What is a population in research?
A
The group from which your participants were drawn from.
19
Q
What is a sample?
A
A subset of the population.
20
Q
What is sampling bias?
A
Exists when a sample is not representative of the population from which it was drawn.
21
Q
What is a random sample?
A
A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion.
22
Q
What is convenience sampling?
A
Using a sample of people who are readily available to participate.
23
Q
What is a representative sample?
A
A sample that accurately reflects the characteristics of the population as a whole.
24
Q
What is experimental methodology?
A
Aim to determine cause and effect relationships by manipulating, and controlling for, certain factors/variables.
25
What is non-experimental methodology?
Is research that lacks the manipulation of an independent variable, random assignment of participants to conditions or orders of conditions, or both.
26
What is correlation?
Expresses the relationship between two variables. NO cause and effect!
27
What is a correlational coefficient?
A number between -1 and +1 expressing the degree of relationship between two variables.
28
What is the directionality problem?
A problem encountered in correlational studies; the researchers find a relationship between two variables, but they cannot determine which variable may have caused changes in the other variable.
29
What is a scatterplot?
A graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables.
30
What is the third variable problem?
The concept that a correlation between two variables may stem from both being influenced by some third variable.
31
What is regression toward the mean?
Tendency for extremely high or low scores (outliers) to move closer to the mean with retesting over time.
32
What is an experiment?
A research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process; to show cause the effect.
33
What is an experimental group?
In an experiment, the group that is exposed to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable.
34
What is a control group?
In an experiment, the group that is not exposed to the treatment; contrasts with the experimental group and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment.
35
What is an independent variable?
The experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied.
36
What is a dependent variable?
The outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable.
37
What is random assignment?
Assigning participants to experimental and control conditions by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups.
38
What is a single-blind procedure?
Research design in which participants don't know whether they are in the experimental or control group.
39
What is a double-blind procedure?
An experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant (blind) about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo.
40
What is a placebo?
A harmless pill, medicine, or procedure prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the patient than for any physiological effect.
41
What is the placebo effect?
A measurable or observable improvement in health or behavior that occurs after a 'dummy' treatment or inert substance, driven by the patient's belief in the treatment's effectiveness rather than its active ingredients.
42
What is a confounding variable?
A factor other than the independent variable that might produce an effect in an experiment.
43
What is validity?
The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to.
44
What is reliability?
The extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternate forms of the test, or on retesting.
45
What is quantitative research?
Research that collects and reports data primarily in numerical form.
46
What is qualitative research?
Research that relies on what is seen in field or naturalistic settings more than on statistical data.
47
What is a Likert scale?
Quantitatively assess opinions, attitudes, or behaviors usually on a 1 - 5 scale.
48
What is an institutional review board?
A committee at each institution where research is conducted to review every experiment for ethics and methodology.
49
What is informed consent?
An ethical principle that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate.
50
What does 'protect from harm' mean in research?
Participants should be free from physical and psychological harm in research.
51
What is confidentiality?
The act of holding information in confidence, not to be released to unauthorized individuals.
52
What are research confederates?
Individuals who seem to be participants but in reality are part of the research team.
53
What is debriefing?
The post-experimental explanation of a study, including its purpose and any deceptions, to its participants.
54
What is a measure of central tendency?
A descriptive statistic that tells which result or score best represents an entire set of scores (mean, median, or mode).
55
What is mode?
The most frequently occurring score(s) in a distribution.
56
What is median?
The middle score in a distribution; half the scores are above it and half are below it.
57
What is mean?
Average.
58
What is percentile rank?
The percentage of scores below a specific score in a distribution of scores.
59
What is skewed distribution?
An asymmetrical but generally bell-shaped distribution (of opinions); its mode, or most frequent response, lies off to one side.
60
What is bimodal distribution?
A type of probability distribution that exhibits two distinct peaks or modes, indicating the presence of two separate groups or processes within the same dataset.
61
What are measures of variation?
A measure used to describe the distribution of data; most common are standard deviation, variance, and range.
62
What is range?
The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution.
63
What is standard deviation?
A computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score or how consistent scores are over time.
64
What is normal distribution?
Describes a symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that shows the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes; 50% score above the mean; 50% score below the mean.
65
What is statistical significance?
A statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance (measured as a 'p value').
66
What is effect size?
A measure of the strength of the relationship between two variables or the extent of an experimental effect (Cohen's d value).
67
What is nature in psychology?
The influence of our inherited characteristics on our personality, physical growth, intellectual growth, and social interactions.
68
What is nurture in psychology?
Environmental influences.
69
What is the evolutionary perspective?
The theory that seeks to identify behavior that is a result of our genetic inheritance from our ancestors.
70
What is natural selection?
A process in which individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than other individuals because of those traits.
71
What is environment in psychology?
The sum of your surroundings.
72
What is heredity?
The passing on of physical or mental characteristics genetically from one generation to another.
73
What is eugenics?
The science of improving a human population by controlled mating to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics.
74
What is the nervous system?
The body's speedy, electrochemical communication network, consisting of all the nerve cells of the peripheral and central nervous systems.
75
What is the central nervous system?
Brain and spinal cord.
76
What is the autonomic nervous system?
A subdivision of the peripheral nervous system. Controls involuntary activity of visceral muscles and internal organs and glands.
77
What is the sympathetic nervous system?
The division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations.
78
What is the parasympathetic nervous system?
The division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy.
79
What is the peripheral nervous system?
A division of the nervous system consisting of all nerves that are not part of the brain or spinal cord.
80
What is the somatic nervous system?
The division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body's skeletal muscles.
81
What are neurons?
A nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system.
82
What are glial cells?
Cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons.
83
What is a reflex arc?
A relatively direct connection between a sensory neuron and a motor neuron that allows an extremely rapid response to a stimulus, often without conscious brain involvement.
84
What are sensory neurons?
Neurons that carry incoming information from the sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord.
85
What are motor neurons?
Neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands.
86
What are interneurons?
Neurons within the brain and spinal cord that communicate internally and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs.
87
What is a synapse?
The junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron.
88
What is the myelin sheath?
A layer of fatty tissue segmentally encasing the fibers of many neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed of neural impulses as the impulse hops from one node to the next.
89
What is an action potential?
A neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon.
90
What is the all or nothing principle?
A nerve or muscle cell either responds to a stimulus completely or not at all, regardless of the stimulus's strength, once a threshold is reached.
91
What is depolarization?
The process during the action potential when sodium is rushing into the cell causing the interior to become more positive.
92
What is reuptake?
A neurotransmitter's reabsorption by the sending neuron.
93
What is multiple sclerosis?
A chronic disease of the central nervous system marked by damage to the myelin sheath, causing tremor, weakness, incoordination, paresthesia, and disturbances in vision and speech.
94
What are excitatory neurotransmitters?
Chemicals released from the terminal buttons of a neuron that excite the next neuron into firing.
95
What is dopamine?
A neurotransmitter associated with movement, attention and learning and the brain's pleasure and reward system.
96
What is norepinephrine (NE)?
A neurotransmitter that increases alertness, arousal, and attention.
97
What is GABA?
An inhibitory neurotransmitter involved in regulating brain function and maintaining a calm, relaxed state.
98
What is substance P?
A neurotransmitter that is involved in the transmission of pain messages to the brain.
99
What are hormones?
Chemical messengers that are manufactured by the endocrine glands, travel through the bloodstream, and affect other tissues.
100
What is leptin?
A hormone produced by adipose (fat) cells that acts as a satiety factor in regulating appetite.
101
What is ghrelin?
A hormone secreted by an empty stomach; sends 'I'm hungry' signals to the brain.
102
What is melatonin?
A hormone manufactured by the pineal gland that produces sleepiness.
103
What is the refractory period?
The time following an action potential during which a new action potential cannot be initiated.
104
What is resting potential?
The state of the neuron when not firing a neural impulse.
105
What is threshold?
The level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse.
106
What is myasthenia gravis?
An autoimmune neuromuscular disorder characterized by weakness of voluntary muscles.
107
What are inhibitory neurotransmitters?
Chemicals released from the terminal buttons of a neuron that inhibit the next neuron from firing.
108
What is serotonin?
A neurotransmitter that affects hunger, sleep, arousal, and mood.
109
What is glutamate?
A major excitatory neurotransmitter; involved in memory.
110
What are endorphins?
Natural, opiate-like neurotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure.
111
What is acetylcholine?
A neurotransmitter that enables learning and memory and also triggers muscle contraction.
112
What is adrenaline?
A hormone released into the bloodstream in response to physical or mental stress.
113
What is oxytocin?
A hormone and neuropeptide that plays a vital role in reproduction, social bonding, and emotional regulation.
114
What are psychoactive drugs?
Chemicals that affect the central nervous system and alter activity in the brain.
115
What is an antagonist?
Stops/blocks neural firing.
116
What is an agonist?
A chemical that mimics the action of a neurotransmitter.
117
What are stimulants?
Drugs that excite neural activity and speed up body functions.
118
What is caffeine?
A stimulant drug found in coffee, tea, cola drinks, chocolate, and many over-the-counter medications.
119
What is cocaine?
A powerful and addictive stimulant, derived from the coca plant, producing temporarily increased alertness and euphoria.
120
What are opioids?
Synthetic drugs that are prescribed for pain relief.
121
What is heroin?
A narcotic drug derived from opium that is extremely addictive.
122
What is addiction?
A physiological or psychological dependence on a drug.
123
What are reuptake inhibitors?
Drugs that interfere with the recovery of neurotransmitters into the sending terminal branch so that a greater amount remains in the synapse.
124
What are depressants?
Drugs that reduce neural activity and slow body functions.
125
What is alcohol?
A depressant.
126
What are hallucinogens?
Drugs that alter moods, thoughts, and sense perceptions including vision, hearing, smell, and touch.
127
What is marijuana?
A drug, often smoked, whose effects include euphoria, impairment of judgment, concentration, and hallucinations.
128
What is tolerance?
The diminishing effect with regular use of the same dose of a drug, requiring the user to take larger and larger doses before experiencing the drug's effect.
129
What is withdrawal?
The discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing the use of an addictive drug.
130
What is brain plasticity?
The brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience.
131
What is EEG (electroencephalogram)?
An amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweep across the brain's surface.
132
What is fMRI (functional MRI)?
A technique for revealing blood flow and, therefore, brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans.
133
What are lesions?
Areas of tissue that have been pathologically altered by injury, wound, or infection.
134
What is the brain stem?
Connection to spinal cord. Filters information flow between peripheral nervous system and the rest of the brain.
135
What is the medulla oblongata?
Part of the brainstem that controls vital life-sustaining functions such as heartbeat, breathing, blood pressure, and digestion.
136
What is the reticular activating system?
Responsible for alterations in arousal and sleep-wake transitions. Extreme damage can cause coma.
137
What is the cerebellum?
The 'little brain' at the rear of the brainstem; functions include processing sensory input and coordinating movement output and balance.
138
What is the cerebral cortex?
The intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres; the body's ultimate control and information-processing center.
139
What is the limbic system?
Neural system located below the cerebral hemispheres; associated with emotions and drives.
140
What is the thalamus?
The brain's sensory switchboard, located on top of the brainstem; it directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex.
141
What is the hypothalamus?
A neural structure lying below the thalamus; it directs several maintenance activities and is linked to emotion and reward.
142
What is the pituitary gland?
The endocrine system's most influential gland; regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands.
143
What is the hippocampus?
A neural center located in the limbic system; helps process explicit memories for storage.
144
What is the amygdala?
A limbic system structure involved in memory and emotion, particularly fear and aggression.
145
What is the corpus callosum?
The large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them.
146
What is Broca's area?
Controls language expression; directs the muscle movements involved in speech.
147
What is Wernicke's area?
A brain area involved in language comprehension and expression.
148
What is cortex specialization?
The idea that different parts of the brain have different functions and are connected to different parts of the body.
149
What is contralateral hemispheric organization?
The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body while the right brain controls the left body except smell.
150
What is the split brain procedure?
The severing of the corpus callosum to reduce the spread of seizures across brain hemispheres.
151
What is aphasia?
Impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area or to Wernicke's area.
152
What is the occipital lobe?
A region of the cerebral cortex that processes visual information.
153
What is the temporal lobe?
A region of the cerebral cortex responsible for hearing and language.
154
What is the parietal lobe?
A region of the cerebral cortex whose functions include processing information about touch.
155
What is the frontal lobe?
A region of the cerebral cortex that has specialized areas for movement, abstract thinking, planning, memory, and judgement.
156
What is the somatosensory cortex?
Area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch and movement sensations.
157
What is the prefrontal cortex?
Part of the frontal lobe responsible for thinking, planning, and language.
158
What is the motor cortex?
An area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements.
159
What is consciousness?
Our awareness of ourselves and our environment.
160
What is circadian rhythm?
The biological clock; regular bodily rhythms that occur on a 24-hour cycle.
161
What is jet lag?
A disruption of circadian rhythms due to crossing time zones.
162
What are EEG patterns?
Beta, alpha, theta, delta; how stages of sleep are identified.
163
What is NREM sleep?
Non-rapid eye movement sleep; encompasses all sleep stages except for REM sleep.
164
What are hypnagogic sensations?
Life-like hallucinations that occur shortly after falling asleep.
165
What is REM sleep?
Describes sleep in which vivid dreams typically occur; this type of sleep increases as the night progresses.
166
What is REM rebound?
The tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation.
167
What is activation synthesis theory?
A theory of dreaming that proposes the brain tries to make sense of random brain activity during sleep.
168
What is consolidation theory?
Circuits wired together during the waking period are strengthened during sleep.
169
What is restoration theory?
A theory proposing that sleep provides 'time out' to help us recover from depleting activities.
170
What is insomnia?
Recurring problems in falling or staying asleep.
171
What is narcolepsy?
A sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks.
172
What is REM sleep behavior disorder?
A neurological disorder in which the person does not become paralyzed during REM sleep.
173
What is sleep apnea?
A sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep.
174
What is somnambulism?
Sleepwalking.
175
What is sensation?
The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.
176
What is absolute threshold?
The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time.
177
What is just noticeable difference (difference threshold)?
The smallest difference between two stimuli that is detectable 50 percent of the time.
178
What is Weber's law?
The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage.
179
What is sensory adaptation?
The tendency of sensory receptor cells to become less responsive to a stimulus that is unchanging.
180
What is sensory interaction?
The principle that one sense may influence another.
181
What is synesthesia?
A crossing of senses; smell a number or taste a sound.
182
What are wavelengths?
The distance between the arrival of peaks of a light wave.
183
What is the retina?
The light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones.
184
What is the blind spot?
The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a 'blind' spot.
185
What is the visual (optic) nerve?
Carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain.
186
What is the lens?
The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina.
187
What is accommodation?
The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina.
188
What is nearsightedness?
A condition in which nearby objects are seen more clearly than distant objects.
189
What is farsightedness?
A condition in which faraway objects are seen more clearly than near objects.
190
What is the fovea?
The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster.
191
What are photoreceptors?
Cells that respond to light (rods and cones).
192
What is transduction?
Conversion of one form of energy into another; in sensation, transforming stimulus energies into neural impulses.
193
What are rods?
Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision.
194
What are cones?
Retinal receptor cells that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions; detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations.
195
What is the Trichromatic Theory?
The theory that the retina contains three different color receptors—one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue.
196
What is the opponent-process theory?
The theory that opposing retinal processes enable color vision.
197
What are afterimages?
Images that occur when a visual sensation persists for a brief time even after the original stimulus is removed.
198
What are ganglion cells?
Specialized neurons in the retina that connect to the bipolar cells.
199
What is dichromatism?
A type of color blindness where one of the three basic color mechanisms is absent or not functioning.
200
What is monochromatism?
The inability to distinguish colors; also known as color blindness.
201
What is prosopagnosia?
Inability to recognize faces.
202
What is blindsight?
A psychological defense mechanism, caused by a self-protective need to deny visual information.
203
What is pitch?
A tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency.
204
What is amplitude?
Height of a wave; great amplitude = loud sounds; small amplitude = soft sounds.
205
What is place theory?
The theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated.
206
What is volley theory?
A theory that proposes that our brain decodes pitch by noticing the frequency at which groups of hair cells on the basilar membrane are firing.
207
What is frequency theory?
The theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone.
208
What is conduction deafness?
An inability to hear resulting from damage to structures of the middle or inner ear.
209
What is sensorineural deafness?
Results from physical damage to the hair cells, the vestibulocochlear nerve, or the auditory cortex.
210
What is sound localization?
We can locate sounds based on which ear they strike first.
211
What is the olfactory system?
The sensory system responsible for the sense of smell.
212
What are pheromones?
Chemical signals released by an animal that communicate information and affect the behavior of other animals of the same species.
213
What is gustation?
Sense of taste.
214
What are taste receptors?
Chemical receptors on the tongue that decode molecules of food or drink.
215
What is umami?
Taste for monosodium glutamate; savory.
216
What is oleogustus?
A proposed sixth taste sensation.
217
What can cause hearing loss?
Aging, extremely loud noise, some antibiotics, or other medical conditions.
218
What is sound localization?
The ability to locate sounds based on which ear they strike first.
219
What is the olfactory system responsible for?
The sense of smell.
220
What is gustation?
The sense of taste.
221
What are taste receptors?
Chemical receptors on the tongue that decode molecules of food or drink to identify them.
222
What is umami?
The taste for monosodium glutamate; savory.
223
What is oleogustus?
A proposed sixth taste sensation for the taste of fat.
224
Who are supertasters?
People with heightened sensitivity to all tastes and mouth sensations.
225
What are medium tasters?
Individuals who have an average sensitivity to taste, experiencing flavors moderately.
226
What are nontasters?
Individuals who are not sensitive to taste and seek out relatively sweeter or fattier foods to maximize taste.
227
What is gate control theory?
The theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological 'gate' that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain.
228
What is phantom limb sensation?
Patients who have had a limb amputated may still experience sensations as if the limb were still there.
229
What is the vestibular sense?
The sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance.
230
What are semicircular canals?
Three fluid-filled canals in the inner ear responsible for our sense of balance.
231
What is kinesthesis?
The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts.
232
What is perception?
The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information to recognize meaningful objects and events.
233
What is bottom-up processing?
Analysis that emphasizes the characteristics of the stimuli rather than our concepts or expectations.
234
What is top-down processing?
Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, drawing on our experience and expectations.
235
What are schemas?
Concepts or mental frameworks that organize and interpret information.
236
What is a perceptional set?
A predisposition or readiness to perceive specific stimuli in a particular way.
237
What is attention?
Focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events.
238
What is selective attention?
The ability to focus on only one stimulus from among all sensory input.
239
What is the cocktail party effect?
The ability to concentrate on one voice amongst a crowd.
240
What is inattentional blindness?
Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.
241
What is change blindness?
Failing to notice changes in the environment; a form of inattentional blindness.
242
What is Gestalt psychology?
The idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
243
What is closure in perception?
The tendency to complete figures that are incomplete.
244
What is figure-ground organization?
The organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings.
245
What is proximity in perception?
The tendency to group objects that are close together.
246
What is similarity in perception?
The tendency to perceive things that look similar to each other as being part of the same group.
247
What are binocular cues?
Depth cues that depend on the use of two eyes.
248
What are monocular cues?
Distance cues available to either eye alone.
249
What is convergence?
A binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes move inward when looking at an object.
250
What is retinal disparity?
A binocular cue for perceiving depth by comparing images from the retinas in the two eyes.
251
What is relative clarity?
A monocular cue for perceiving depth; hazy objects are farther away than sharp, clear objects.
252
What is relative size?
A monocular cue for perceiving depth; the smaller retinal image is farther away.
253
What is texture gradient?
A gradual change from a coarse, distinct texture to a fine, indistinct texture signals increasing distance.
254
What is linear perspective?
The phenomenon where parallel lines appear to converge with distance.
255
What are perceptual constancies?
The tendency to perceive objects as stable and unchanging despite changing sensory information.
256
What is apparent motion?
The perception of movement when a series of stationary images are presented in rapid succession.
257
What is cognition?
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
258
What is metacognition?
Awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes.
259
What is a concept?
A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
260
What is a prototype?
A mental image or best example of a category.
261
What is assimilation?
Interpreting new experiences in terms of existing schemas.
262
What is accommodation?
Adapting current understandings to incorporate new information.
263
What is executive functioning?
The cognitive abilities and processes that allow humans to plan or inhibit their actions.
264
What is an algorithm?
A step-by-step procedure for solving a problem.
265
What is a heuristic?
A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently.
266
What is representative heuristic?
Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to match a particular prototype.
267
What is availability heuristic?
Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory.
268
What is a mental set?
A tendency to approach a problem in one particular way.
269
What is priming?
The activation of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response.
270
What is framing?
A cognitive bias where decisions are made based on how information is presented.
271
What is Gambler's Fallacy?
A cognitive bias that suggests if something hasn't happened recently, it soon will.
272
What is Sunk-cost fallacy?
A cognitive bias where individuals continue investing in a decision because they have already invested so much.
273
What is functional fixedness?
The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions.
274
What is creativity?
The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.
275
What is divergent thinking?
A thought process that expands the number of possible problem solutions.
276
What is convergent thinking?
A thought process that narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution.
277
What is explicit/declarative memory?
Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare.
278
What is episodic memory?
Memory for one's personal past events.
279
What is semantic memory?
General knowledge, facts, and language meaning.
280
What is implicit/procedural memory?
Memory that involves conditioned associations and knowledge of how to do things.
281
What is prospective memory?
Remembering to do things in the future.
282
What is long-term potentiation (LTP)?
The more a memory is utilized, the more strength that neuron has.
283
What is working memory?
A newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of information.
284
What is the visuospatial sketchpad?
A component of working memory where we create mental images to remember visual information.
285
What is long-term memory?
The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system.
286
What is the multi-store model?
An explanation of memory based on three separate memory stores.
287
What is sensory memory?
A type of storage that holds sensory information for a few seconds or less.
288
What is the central executive in memory?
A memory component that coordinates the activities of the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad.
289
What is the phonological loop?
A component of working memory that deals with verbal and acoustical information.
290
What is iconic memory?
A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli.
291
What is echoic memory?
A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli.
292
What is shallow processing?
Encoding on a basic level based on the structure or appearance of words.
293
What is deep processing?
Encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the words; tends to yield the best retention.
294
What is automatic processing?
Unconscious encoding of incidental information.
295
What is effortful processing?
Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.
296
What is encoding?
The processing of information into the memory system.
297
What is storing in memory?
Maintaining information in memory.
298
What is retrieval?
The process of getting information out of memory storage.
299
What is structural processing?
Remembering words by their physical features.
300
What is phonemic processing?
Encoding based on the sound of words.
301
What is semantic processing?
Encoding words by their meaning.
302
What are mnemonic devices?
Memory aids that use vivid imagery and organizational devices.
303
What is the method of loci?
A mnemonic technique that involves associating items with a sequence of familiar locations.
304
What is chunking?
Organizing items into familiar, manageable units.
305
What are categories in memory?
Objects, events, ideas organized based on shared characteristics.
306
What are hierarchies in memory?
Memories organized into a structured system from general to specific levels.
307
What is the spacing effect?
Our tendency to retain information more easily if we practice it over time.
308
What is the serial position effect?
Our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list.
309
What is the primacy effect?
The tendency to remember words at the beginning of a list especially well.
310
What is the recency effect?
The tendency to remember words at the end of a list especially well.
311
What is maintenance rehearsal?
A system for remembering involving repeating information to oneself.
312
What is elaborative rehearsal?
A method of transferring information from short-term memory into long-term memory by making it meaningful.
313
What is autobiographical memory?
A special form of episodic memory consisting of a person's recollections of life experiences.
314
What is retrograde amnesia?
An inability to retrieve information from one's past.
315
What is anterograde amnesia?
An inability to form new memories.
316
What is Alzheimer's disease?
A progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory and reasoning.
317
What is infantile amnesia?
The inability to remember events from early childhood.
318
What is recall in memory?
A measure of memory where the person must retrieve information learned earlier.
319
What is recognition in memory?
A measure of memory where the person identifies items previously learned.
320
What are retrieval cues?
Stimuli that aid the recall or recognition of information stored in memory.
321
What is context-dependent memory?
The theory that information learned in a particular situation is better remembered in that same situation.
322
What is mood-congruent memory?
A memory process that selectively retrieves memories that match one's mood.
323
What is state-dependent memory?
The theory that information learned in a particular state of mind is more easily recalled in that same state.
324
What is the testing effect?
Completing practice tests will help improve memory and learning.
325
What is the forgetting curve?
A graphic depiction of how recall steadily declines over time.
326
What is encoding failure?
Failure to process information into memory.
327
What is proactive interference?
The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information.
