All terms come from the textbook Exploring Psychology (9th Edition) by David G. Myers.
This set is the vocabulary terms from chapters 8-12.
Terms : Hide Images
| 2089852260 | Memory | the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information | 0 | |
| 2089852261 | Recall | a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test | 1 | |
| 2089852262 | Recognition | a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test | 2 | |
| 2089852263 | Relearning | a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material again | 3 | |
| 2089852264 | Encoding | the processing of information into the memory system - for example, by extracting meaning | 4 | |
| 2089852265 | Storage | the retention of encoded information over time | 5 | |
| 2089852266 | Retrieval | the process of getting information out of memory storage | 6 | |
| 2089852267 | Sensory Memory | the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system | 7 | |
| 2089852268 | Short-term Memory | activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten | 8 | |
| 2089852269 | Long-term Memory | the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences | 9 | |
| 2089852270 | Working Memory | a newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory | 10 | |
| 2089852271 | Explicit Memory | memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare" (also called declarative memory) | 11 | |
| 2089852272 | Effortful Processing | encoding that requires attention and conscious effort | 12 | |
| 2089852273 | Automatic Processing | unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings | 13 | |
| 2089852274 | Implicit Memory | retention independent of conscious recollection (also called non declarative memory) | 14 | |
| 2089852275 | Iconic Memory | a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second | 15 | |
| 2089852276 | Echoic Memory | a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds | 16 | |
| 2089852277 | Chunking | organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically | 17 | |
| 2089852278 | Mnemonics | memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices | 18 | |
| 2089852279 | Spacing Effect | the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention that is achieved through massed study or practice | 19 | |
| 2089852280 | Testing Effect | enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information. Also sometimes referred to as a retrieval practice effect or test-enhanced learning | 20 | |
| 2089852281 | Shallow Processing | encoding on a basic level based on the structure or appearance of words | 21 | |
| 2089852282 | Deep Processing | encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the words; tends to yield the best retention | 22 | |
| 2089852283 | Hippocampus | a neural center located in the limbic system; helps process explicit memories for storage | 23 | |
| 2089852284 | Flashbulb Memory | a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event | 24 | |
| 2089852285 | Long-term Potentiation (LTP) | an increase in a cell's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory. | 25 | |
| 2089852286 | Priming | the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory | 26 | |
| 2089852287 | Mood-congruent Memory | the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood | 27 | |
| 2089852288 | Serial Position Effect | our tendency to recall best the last (a recency effect) and first items (a primacy effect) in a list | 28 | |
| 2089852289 | Anterograde Amnesia | an inability to form new memories | 29 | |
| 2089852290 | Retrograde Amnesia | an inability to retrieve information from one's past | 30 | |
| 2089852291 | Proactive Interference | the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information | 31 | |
| 2089852292 | Retroactive Interference | the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information | 32 | |
| 2089852293 | Repression | in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories | 33 | |
| 2089852294 | Misinformation Effect | incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event | 34 | |
| 2089852295 | Source Amnesia | attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined (also called source misattribution). At the heart of many false memories. | 35 | |
| 2089852296 | Deja Vu | that eerie sense that "I've experienced this before." Cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience | 36 | |
| 2089852297 | Cognition | the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating | 37 | |
| 2089852298 | Concept | a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, and people | 38 | |
| 2089852299 | Prototype | a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird such as a robin) | 39 | |
| 2089852300 | Algorithm | a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier - but also more error-prone - use of heuristics. | 40 | |
| 2089852301 | Heuristic | a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error prone than algorithms | 41 | |
| 2089852302 | Insight | a sudden realization of a problem's solution; contrasts will strategy-based solutions | 42 | |
| 2089852303 | Confirmation Bias | a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence | 43 | |
| 2089852304 | Mental Set | a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past | 44 | |
| 2089852305 | Intuition | an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning | 45 | |
| 2089852306 | Availability Heuristic | estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common | 46 | |
| 2089852307 | Overconfidence | the tendency to be more confident than correct - to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments | 47 | |
| 2089852308 | Belief Perseverance | clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited | 48 | |
| 2089852309 | Framing | the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments | 49 | |
| 2089852310 | Creativity | the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas | 50 | |
| 2089852311 | Convergent Thinking | narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution | 51 | |
| 2089852312 | Divergent Thinking | expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions) | 52 | |
| 2089852313 | Language | our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning | 53 | |
| 2089852314 | Phoneme | in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit | 54 | |
| 2089852315 | Morpheme | in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix) | 55 | |
| 2089852316 | Grammar | in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others. In a given language, semantics is the set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds, and syntax is the set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences | 56 | |
| 2089852317 | Babbling Stage | beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language | 57 | |
| 2089852318 | One-word Stage | the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words | 58 | |
| 2089852319 | Two-word Stage | beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements | 59 | |
| 2089852320 | Telegraphic Speech | early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram - "go car" -using mostly nouns and verbs | 60 | |
| 2089852321 | Aphasia | impairment of language, usually caused by left-hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding) | 61 | |
| 2089852322 | Broca's Area | controls language expression - an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech | 62 | |
| 2089852323 | Wernicke's Area | controls language reception - a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe | 63 | |
| 2089852324 | Linguistic Determinism | Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think | 64 | |
| 2089852325 | Intelligence | mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations | 65 | |
| 2089852326 | General Intelligence (g) | a general intelligence factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test | 66 | |
| 2089852327 | Savant Syndrome | a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing | 67 | |
| 2089852328 | Emotional Intelligence | the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions | 68 | |
| 2089852329 | Intelligence Test | a method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores | 69 | |
| 2089852330 | Aptitude Test | a test designed to predict a person's future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn | 70 | |
| 2089852331 | Achievement Test | a test designed to assess what a person has learned | 71 | |
| 2089852332 | Mental Age | a measure of the intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. Thus, a child who does as well as an average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age of 8 | 72 | |
| 2089852333 | Stanford-Benet | the widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) or Binet's original intelligence test | 73 | |
| 2089852334 | Intelligence Quotient (IQ) | defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 (thus, = ma/ca x 100). On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100. | 74 | |
| 2089852335 | Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) | the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests | 75 | |
| 2089852336 | Standardization | defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group. | 76 | |
| 2089852337 | Normal Curve | the bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes. Most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes | 77 | |
| 2089852338 | Reliability | the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, or on retesting | 78 | |
| 2089852339 | Validity | the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to | 79 | |
| 2089852340 | Content Validity | the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest | 80 | |
| 2089852341 | Predictive Validity | the success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior | 81 | |
| 2089852342 | Crystallized Intelligence | our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age | 82 | |
| 2089852343 | Fluid Intelligence | our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood | 83 | |
| 2089852344 | Intellectual Disability | a condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence test score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life | 84 | |
| 2089852345 | Down Syndrome | a condition of mild to sever intellectual disability and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21 | 85 | |
| 2089852346 | Heritability | the proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. May vary depending on the range of populations and environments studied | 86 | |
| 2089852347 | Stereotype Threat | a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype | 87 | |
| 2089852348 | Motivation | a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior | 88 | |
| 2089852349 | Instinct | a complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned | 89 | |
| 2089852350 | Drive-reduction Theory | the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need | 90 | |
| 2089852351 | Homeostasis | a tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level | 91 | |
| 2089852352 | Incentive | a positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior | 92 | |
| 2089852353 | Yerkes-Dodson Law | the principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases | 93 | |
| 2089852354 | Hierarchy of Needs | Maslow's pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs become active | 94 | |
| 2089852355 | Glucose | the form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues. When its level is low, we feel hunger | 95 | |
| 2089852356 | Set Point | the point at which your "weight thermostat" is supposedly set. When your body falls below this weight, increased hunger and a lowered metabolic rate may combine to restore the lost weight | 96 | |
| 2089852357 | Basal Metabolic Rate | the body's resting rate of energy expenditure | 97 | |
| 2089852358 | Achievement Motivation | a desire for significant accomplishment, for mastery of skills or ideas, for control, and for rapidly attaining a high standard | 98 | |
| 2089852359 | Emotion | a response of the whole organism, involving 1 physiological arousal, 2 expressive behaviors, and 3 conscious experience | 99 | |
| 2089852360 | James-Lange Theory | the theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli | 100 | |
| 2089852361 | Cannon-Bard Theory | the theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers 1) physiological responses and 2) the subjective experience of emotion | 101 | |
| 2089852362 | Two-factor Theory | the Schacther-Singer theory that to experience emotion one must 1) be physically aroused and 2) cognitively label the arousal | 102 | |
| 2089852363 | Facial Feedback Effect | the tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings, such as fear, anger, or happiness | 103 | |
| 2089852364 | Stress | the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging | 104 | |
| 2089852365 | General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) | Seyle's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress in three phases - alarm, resistance, exhaustion | 105 | |
| 2089852366 | Tend and Befriend | under stress, people (especially women) often provide support to others (tend) and bond with and seek support from others (befriend) | 106 | |
| 2089852367 | Health Psychology | a subfield of psychology that provides psychology's contribution to behavioral medicine | 107 | |
| 2089852368 | Psychoneuroimmunology | the study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health | 108 | |
| 2089852369 | Coronary Heart Disease | the clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in many developed countries | 109 | |
| 2089852370 | Type A | Friedman and Roseman's term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people | 110 | |
| 2089852371 | Type B | Friedman and Roseman's term for easygoing, relaxed people | 111 | |
| 2089852372 | Catharsis | in psychology, the idea that "releasing" aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges | 112 | |
| 2089852373 | Coping | alleviating stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods | 113 | |
| 2089852374 | Problem-focused Coping | attempting to alleviate stress directly - by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor | 114 | |
| 2089852375 | Emotion-focused Coping | attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to one's stress reaction | 115 | |
| 2089852376 | Learned Helplessness | the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events | 116 | |
| 2089852377 | External Locus of Control | the perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our life | 117 | |
| 2089852378 | Internal Locus of Control | the perception that you control your own fate | 118 | |
| 2089852379 | Self-control | the ability to control impulses and delay short-term gratification for greater long-term rewards | 119 | |
| 2089852380 | Aerobic Exercise | sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness; may also alleviate depression and anxiety | 120 | |
| 2089852381 | Feel-good, Do-good Phenomenon | people's tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood | 121 | |
| 2089852382 | Positive Psychology | the scientific study of optimal human functioning; aims to discover and promote strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to flourish | 122 | |
| 2089852383 | Subjective Well-Being | self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. Used along with measures of objective well-being (for example, physical and economic indicators) to evaluate peoples' quality of life | 123 | |
| 2089852384 | Adaptation-level Phenomenon | our tendency to form judgements (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience | 124 | |
| 2089852385 | Relative Deprivation | the perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself | 125 | |
| 2089852386 | Personality | an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting | 126 | |
| 2089852387 | Psychodynamic Theories | view personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences | 127 | |
| 2089852388 | Psychoanalysis | Freud's theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions | 128 | |
| 2089852389 | Unconscious | according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware | 129 | |
| 2089852390 | Free Association | in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing | 130 | |
| 2089852391 | Id | a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification | 131 | |
| 2089852392 | Ego | the largely conscious, "executive" part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. Operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id's desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain | 132 | |
| 2089852393 | Superego | the part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations | 133 | |
| 2089852394 | Psychosexual Stages | the childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones | 134 | |
| 2089852395 | Oedipus Complex | according to Freud, a boy's sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father | 135 | |
| 2089852396 | Identification | the process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parents' values into their developing superegos | 136 | |
| 2089852397 | Fixation | according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved | 137 | |
| 2089852398 | Defense Mechanisms | in psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality | 138 | |
| 2089852399 | Repression | in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories | 139 | |
| 2089852400 | Collective Unconscious | Carl Jung's concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species' history | 140 | |
| 2089852401 | Projective Test | a personality test, such as the Rorschach, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one's inner dynamics | 141 | |
| 2089852402 | Rorschach Inkblot Test | the most widely used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots, designed by Hermann Rorschach; seeks to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots | 142 | |
| 2089852403 | Humanistic Theories | view personality with a focus on the potential for healthy personal growth | 143 | |
| 2089852404 | Self-actualization | according to Maslow, one of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill one's potential | 144 | |
| 2089852405 | Unconditional Positive Regard | according to Rogers, an attitude of total acceptance toward another person | 145 | |
| 2089852406 | Self-concept | all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question "Who am I?" | 146 | |
| 2089852407 | Trait | a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports | 147 | |
| 2089852408 | Personality Inventory | a questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits | 148 | |
| 2089852409 | Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) | the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use), this test is now used for many other screening purposes | 149 | |
| 2089852410 | Empirically Derived Test | a test (such as the MMPI) developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups | 150 | |
| 2089852411 | Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism (emotional stability vs. instability), Openness, Extraversion | The "Big Five" Personality Factors | 151 | |
| 2089852412 | Social-cognitive Perspective | views behavior as influenced by the interaction between people's traits (including their thinking) and their social context | 152 | |
| 2089852413 | Reciprocal Determinism | the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment | 153 | |
| 2089852414 | Self | in contemporary psychology, assumed to be the center of personality, the organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and actions | 154 | |
| 2089852415 | Spotlight Effect | overestimating others' noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us) | 155 | |
| 2089852416 | Self-esteem | one's feelings of high or low self-worth | 156 | |
| 2089852417 | Self-efficacy | one's sense of competence and effectiveness | 157 | |
| 2089852418 | Self-serving Bias | a readiness to perceive oneself favorably | 158 | |
| 2089852419 | Narcissism | excessive self-love and self-absorption | 159 | |
| 2089852420 | Individualism | giving priority to one's own goals over group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications | 160 | |
| 2089852421 | Collectivism | giving priority to the goals of one's group (often one's extended family or work group) and defining one's identity accordingly | 161 |
