AP Psychology Exam Review

48928457	Psychology	The science of behavior and mental processes
48928458	Positive Psychology	A field of research that focuses on people's positive experiences and characteristics, such as happiness, optimism, and resilience.
48928459	Biological Psychologists	Psychologists who analyze the biological factors influencing behavior and mental processes.
48928460	Developmental Psychologists	Psychologists who seek to understand, describe, and explore how behavior and mental processes change over a lifetime.
48928461	Cognitive Psychologists	Psychologists who study the mental processes underlying judgment, decision making, problem solving, imagining, and other aspects of human thought or cognition. Also called experimental psychologists.
48928462	Clinical And Counseling Psychologists	Psychologists who seek to assess, understand, and change abnormal behavior.
48928463	Educational Psychologists	Psychologists who study methods by which instructors teach and students learn and who apply their results to improving those methods
48928464	School Psychologists	Psychologists who test IQ's, diagnose students' academic problems, and set up programs to improve students' achievement
48928465	Forensic Psychologists	Psychologists who assist in jury selection, evaluate defendants mental competence to stand trial, and deal with other issues involving psychology and the law.
48928466	Psychodynamic Approach	A view developed by Freud that emphasizes the interplay of unconscious mental processes in determining human thought, feelings, and behavior.
48928467	Behavioral Approach	An approach to psychology emphasizing that human behavior is determined mainly by what a person has learned, especially from rewards and punishments.
48928468	Critical Thinking	The process of assessing claims and making judgments on the basis of well-supported evidence.
48928469	Hypothesis	In scientific research, a prediction stated as a specific, testable proposition about a phenomenon.
48928470	Variable	A factor or characteristic that is manipulated or measured in research
48928471	Theory	An integrated set of propositions that can be used to account for, predict, and even suggest ways of controlling certain phenomena
48928472	Naturalistic Observation	The process of watching without interfering as a phenomenon occurs in the natural environment.
48928473	Case Study	A research method involving the intensive examination of some phenomenon in a particular individual, group, or situation.
48928474	Survey	A research method that involves giving people questionnaires or special interviews designed to obtain descriptions of their attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and intentions.
48928475	Control Group	In an experiment, the group that receives no treatment or provides some other baseline against which to compare the performance or response of the experimental group.
48928476	Independent Variable	The variable manipulated by the researcher in an experiment.
48928477	Dependent Variable	In an experiment, the factor affected by the independent variable.
48928478	Placebo	A physical or psychological treatment that contains no active ingredient but produces an effect because the person receiving it believes it will.
48928479	Experimenter Bias	A confounding variable that occurs when an experimenter unintentionally encourages participants to respond in a way that supports the hypothesis.
48928480	Double-Blind Design	A research design in which neither the experimenter nor the participants know who is in the experimental group and who is in the control group.
48928481	Sampling	The process of selecting participants who are members of the population that the researcher wishes to study.
48928482	Correlation Coefficient	A statistic, r, that summarizes the strength and direction of a relationship between two variables.
48928483	Statistically Significant	Referring to a correlation, or a difference between two groups, that is larger than would be expected by chance.
48928484	Nervous System	A complex combination of cells whose primary function is to allow an organism to gain information about what is going on inside and outside the body and to respond appropriately.
48928485	Neuron	Fundamental unit of the nervous system; nerve cell.
48928486	Glial Cells	Cells in the nervous system that hold neurons together and help them communicate with one another.
48928487	Axon	A fiber that carries signals from the body of a neuron out to where communication occurs with other neurons.
48928488	Dendrite	A neuron fiber that receives signals from the axons of other neurons and carries those signals to the cell body.
48928489	Synapse	The tiny gap between neurons across which they communicate
48928490	Myelin	A fatty substance that wraps around some axons and increases the speed of action potentials.
48928491	Neurotransmitters	Chemicals that assist in the transfer of signals from one neuron to another.
48928492	Central Nervous System	The parts of the nervous system encased in bone, including the brain and the spinal cord.
48928493	Autonomic Nervous System	A subsystem of the peripheral nervous system that carries messages between the central nervous system and the heart, lungs, and other organs and glands.
48928494	Cerebellum	The part of the hindbrain whose main functions include controlling finely coordinated movements and storing memories about movement, but which may also be involved in impulse control, emotion, and language.
48928495	Thalamus	A forebrain structure that relays signals from most sense organs to higher levels in the brain and plays an important role in processing and making sense out of this information.
48928496	Hippocampus	A structure in the forebrain associated with the formation of new memories.
48928497	Cerebral Cortex	The outer surface of the brain
48928498	Corpus Callosum	A massive bundle of fibers that connects the right and left cerebral hemispheres and allows them to communicate with each other.
48928499	Dopamine	A neurotransmitter used in the parts of the brain involved in regulating movement and experiencing pleasure.
48928500	Serotonin	A neurotransmitter used by cells in parts of the brain involved in the regulation of sleep, mood, and eating.
48928501	Sensations	Messages from the senses that make up the raw information that affects many kinds of behavior and mental processes.
48928502	Amplitude	The difference between the peak and the baseline of a waveform.
48928503	Wavelength	The distance from one peak to the next in a waveform
48928504	Frequency	The number of complete waveforms, or cycles, that pass by a given point in space every second.
48928505	Cornea	The curved, transparent, protective layer through which light rays enter the eye.
48928506	Pupil	An opening in the eye, just behind the cornea, through which light passes.
48928507	Iris	The colorful part of the eye, which constricts or relaxes to adjust the amount of light entering the eye.
48928508	Retina	The surface at the back of the eye onto which the lens focuses light rays.
48928509	Rods	Highly light-sensitive, but color-insensitive, photoreceptors in the retina that allow vision even in dim light.
48928510	Cones	Photoreceptors in the retina that help us to distinguish colors.
48928511	Blind Spot	The light-insensitive point at which axons from all of the ganglion cells converge and exit the eyeball
48928512	Optic Chiasm	Part of the bottom surface of the brain where half of each optic nerves fibers cross over to the opposite side of the brain.
48928513	Trichromatic Theory	A theory of color vision identifying three types of visual elements, each of which is most sensitive to different wavelengths of light.
48928514	Opponent-Process Theory	A theory of color vision stating that color-sensitive visual elements are grouped into red-green, blue-yellow, and black-white elements
48928515	Perception	The process through which people take raw sensations from the environment and interpret them, using knowledge, experience, and understanding of the world, so that the sensations become meaningful experiences.
48928516	Psychophysics	An area of research focusing on the relationship between the physical characteristics of environmental stimuli and the psychological experiences those stimuli produce.
48928517	Signal-Detection Theory	A mathematical model of what determines a person's report that a near-threshold stimulus has or has not occurred.
48928518	Just-Noticeable Difference	The smallest detectable difference in stimulus energy
48928519	Relative Size	A depth cue whereby larger objects are perceived as closer than smaller ones.
48928520	Texture Gradient	A graduated change in the texture, or grain, of the visual field, whereby objects with finer, less detailed textures are perceived as more distant.
48928521	Top-Down Processing	Aspects of recognition that are guided by higher-level cognitive processes and psychological factors such as expectations.
48928522	Parallel Distributed Processing	An approach to understanding object recognition in which various elements of the object are thought to be simultaneously analyzed by a number of widely distributed, but connected, neural units in the brain.
48928523	Classical Conditioning	A procedure in which a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with a stimulus that elicits a reflex or other response until the neutral stimulus alone comes to elicit a similar response.
48928524	Unconditioned Stimulus	A stimulus that elicits a response without conditioning
48928525	Unconditioned Response	The automatic or unlearned reaction to a stimulus
48928526	Conditioned Stimulus	The originally neutral stimulus that, through pairing with the unconditioned stimulus, comes to elicit a conditioned response.
48928527	Conditioned Response	The response that the conditioned stimulus elicits
48928528	Extinction	The gradual disappearance of operant behavior due to elimination of rewards for that behavior.
48928529	Spontaneous Recovery	The reappearance of the conditioned response after extinction and without further pairings of the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli
48928530	Stimulus Generalization	A phenomenon in which a conditioned response is elicited by stimuli that are similar but not identical to the conditioned stimulus.
48928531	Operant Conditioning	A process through which an organism learns to respond to the environment in a way that produces positive consequences and avoids negative ones
48928532	Positive Reinforcers	Stimuli that strengthen a response if they follow that response.
48928533	Negative Reinforcers	The removal of unpleasant stimuli, such as pain.
48928534	Primary Reinforcers	Reinforcers that meet an organism's basic needs, such as food and water.
48928535	Latent Learning	Learning that is not demonstrated at the time it occurs
48928536	Observational Learning	Learning how to perform new behaviors by watching others
48928537	Encoding	The process of acquiring information and entering it into memory.
48928538	Storage	The process of maintaining information in memory over time
48928539	Retrieval	The process of recalling information stored in memory
48928540	Episodic Memory	Memory of an event that happened while one was present.
48928541	Semantic Memory	A type of memory containing generalized knowledge of the world.
48928542	Explicit Memory	The process in which people intentionally try to remember something
48928543	Implicit Memory	The unintentional influence of prior experiences
48928544	Maintenance Rehearsal	Repeating information over and over to keep it active in short-term memory.
48928545	Elaborative Rehearsal	A memorization method that involves thinking about how new information relates to information already stored in long-term memory.
48928546	Parallel Distributed Processing (Pdp) Models	Memory models in which new experiences change one's overall knowledge base.
48928547	Selective Attention	The focusing of mental resources on only part of the stimulus field
48928548	Short-Term Memory	The maintenance component of working memory, which holds unrehearsed information for a limited time.
48928549	Chunks	Stimuli that are perceived as one unit or as a meaningful grouping of information.
48928550	Long-Term Memory	) A relatively long-lasting stage of memory whose capacity to store new information is believed to be unlimited.
48928551	Primacy Effect	A characteristic of memory in which recall of the first two or three items in a list is particularly good.
48928552	Recency Effect	A characteristic of memory in which recall is particularly good for the last few items in a list.
48928553	Context-Dependent Memory	Memory that can be helped or hindered by similarities or differences between the context in which it is learned and the context in which it is recalled.
48928554	State-Dependent Memory	Memory that is aided or impeded by a person's internal state.
48928555	Anterograde Amnesia	A loss of memory for any event that occurs after a brain injury
48928556	Retrograde Amnesia	A loss of memory for events prior to a brain injury.
48928557	Mnemonics	Strategies for placing information in an organized context in order to remember it.
48928558	Consciousness	Awareness of external stimuli and one's own mental activity.
48928559	Nonconscious Level	A level of mental activity that is inaccessible to conscious awareness.
48928560	Preconscious Level	A level of mental activity that is not currently conscious but of which we can easily become conscious.
48928561	Unconscious Level	A level of mental activity that influences consciousness but is not conscious.
48928562	Altered State Of Consciousness	A condition in which changes in mental processes are extensive enough that a person or others notice significant differences in psychological and behavioral functioning.
48928563	d Eye Movement (Rem) Sleep	A stage of sleep in which brain activity and other functions resemble the waking state but that is accompanied by rapid eye movements and virtual muscle paralysis.
48928564	Insomnia	A sleep disorder in which a person feels tired during the day because of trouble falling asleep or staying asleep at night.
48928565	Narcolepsy	A daytime sleep disorder in which a person switches abruptly from an active, often emotional waking state into several minutes of REM sleep
48928566	Sleep Apnea	A sleep disorder in which people briefly but repeatedly stop breathing during the night.
48928567	Night Terror	Horrific dream that causes rapid awakening from stage 3 or 4 sleep and intense fear for up to thirty minutes.
48928568	Nightmare	Frightening dream that takes place during REM sleep.
48928569	Circadian Rhythm	A cycle, such as waking and sleeping, that repeats about once a day.
48928570	Lucid Dreaming	Awareness that a dream is a dream while it is happening.
48928571	Psychoactive Drug	Substance that acts on the brain to create some psychological effect.
48928572	Psychopharmacology	The study of psychoactive drugs and their effects
48928573	Depressant	Psychoactive drug that inhibits the functioning of the central nervous system.
48928574	Stimulant	Psychoactive drug that has the ability to increase behavioral and mental activity.
48928575	Opiate	Psychoactive drug, such as opium, morphine, or heroin, that produces sleep-inducing and pain-relieving effects
48928576	Hallucinogen	Psychoactive drug that alters consciousness by producing a temporary loss of contact with reality and changes in emotion, perception, and thought