AP Psychology

326024167	Axon	a long, thin fiber that transmits signals away from the neuron cell body to other neurons or to muscles or glands
326024168	Absolute threshold	the minimum amount of stimulus an organism can detect for a specific type of sensory input
326024169	avoidance theory	learn that has occurred when an organism engages in a response that prevents aversive stimulation from occurring
326024170	achievement tests	tests that gauge a person's mastery and knowledge of various subjects
326024171	aptitude tests	psychological tests used to assess talent for specific types of mental ability
326024172	behaviorism	a theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should only be observable behavior
326024173	clinical psychology	the branch of psychology concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders and everyday behavioral problems
326024174	cognition	the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge
326024175	case study	an in depth investigation of an individual subject
326024176	control group	subjects in a study who do not receive the special treatment given to the experimental group
326024177	correlation	the extent to which two variables are related to each other
326024178	central nervous system	the brain and the spinal cord
326024179	cerebral cortex	the convoluted outer layer of the cerebrum
326024180	corpus callosum	the structure that connects the two cerebral hemispheres
326024181	cones	specialized visual receptors that play a key role in daylight vision and color reception
326024182	classical conditioning	a type of learning in which a neutral stimulus acquires the ability to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus
326024183	conditioned reinforcers	secondary reinforcers
326024184	conditioned stimulus	a previously neutral stimulus that has through conditioning acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response
326024185	continuous reinforcement	reinforcing every instance of designated response
326024186	chunk	a group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit
326024187	dependent variable	in an experiment the variable that is thought to be affect by the manipulation of the independent variable
326024188	drive	an internal state of tension that motivates an organism to engage in activities that should reduce tension
326024189	evolutionary psychology	theoretical perspective that examines behavioral processes in terms of their adaptive value for a species over the course of many generations
326024190	experimental group	the subjects in a study who receive some special treatment in regard to the independent variable
326024191	extraneous variables	any variables other than the independent variable that seem likely to influence the dependent variable in a specific study
326024192	electroencephalograph	a device that monitors the electrical activity of the brain over time by means of recording electrodes attached to the surface of the scalp
326024193	extinction	the gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response tendency
326024194	encoding	forming a memory code
326024195	emotional intelligence	the ability to perceive and express emotion, assimilate emotion in thought, understand and reason with emotion and regulate emotion
326024196	emotion	a subjective conscious experience accompanied by bodily arousal and by characteristic overt expressions
326024197	functionalism	a school of psychology based on the belief that psychology should investigate the function or purpose of consciousness rather than its structure
326024198	humanism	a theoretical orientation that emphasizes the unique qualities of humans especially their freedom and their potential for personal growth
326024199	hypothesis	a tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables
326024200	hindbrain	the part of the brain that includes the cerebellum and two structures found in the lower part of the brain stem the medulla and the pons
326024201	hormones	the chemical substances released by the endocrine glands
326024202	hypnosis	a systematic procedure that typically produces a heightened state of suggestibility
326024203	independent variable	in an experiment, a condition or event that an experimenter varies in order to see its impact on another variable
326024204	intelligence quotient	a child's mental age divided by chronological age multiplied by 100
326024205	intelligence tests	psychological tests that measure general mental ability
326024206	genes	DNA segments that serve as the key functional units in hereditary transmission
326024207	mean	the arithmetic average of the scores in a distribution
326024208	median	the score that falls exactly in the center of a distribution of scores
326024209	mode	the score that occurs most frequently in a distribution
326024210	midbrain	the segment of the brain stem that lies between the hindbrain and the forebrain
326024211	myelin sheath	insulatin material derived from glial cells that encases some axons of neurons
326024212	mental set	persisting in using problem solving strategies that have worked in the past
326024213	mental age	in intelligence testing a score that indicates that a child displays the mental ability typical of a child of that chronological age
326024214	motivation	goal directed behavior
326024215	long term memory	an unlimited capacity store that can hold information over lengthy periods of time
326024216	narcolepsy	a disease marked by sudden irresistible onsets of sleep during normal waking periods
326024217	narcotics	drugs derived from opium that are capable of relieving pain
326024218	night terrors	abrupt awakenings from NREM sleep accompanied by intense automatic arousal and feelings of panic
326024219	nightmares	anxiety-arousing dreams that lead to awakening usually from REM sleep
326024220	Non-REM sleep	sleep stages 1 through 4 which are marked by an absence of rapid eye movements, relatively little dreaming varied EEG activity
326024221	negative reinforcement	the strengthening of a response because it is followed by the removal of an aversive stimulus
326024222	observational learning	a type of learning that occurs when an organism's responding is influenced by the observation of other who are called models
326024223	personality tests	psychological tests that measure various aspects of personality, including motives, interests, values and attitudes
326024224	positive reinforcement	reinforement that occurs when a response is strengthened because it is followed by the presentation of a rewarding stimulus
326024225	punishment	an event that follows a response that weakens or suppresses the tendency to make that response
326024226	psychoanalytic theory	a theory developed by Freud that attempts to explain personality, motivation, and mental disorders by focusing on unconscious determinants of behavior
326024227	recall	a memory test that requires subjects to reproduce information on their own without any cues
326024228	recognition	a memory test that requires subjects to select previously learned information from an array of options
326024229	rehearsal	the process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about information to be stored in memory
326024230	repression	keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious
326024231	reinforcement	an event following a response that strengthens the tendency to make that same response
326024232	rods	specialized visual receptors that play a key role in night vision and peripheral vision
326024233	REM sleep	a deep stage of sleep marked by rapid eye movements, high frequency brain waves, and dreaming
326024234	shaping	the reinforcement of closer and closer approximations of a desired response
326024235	signal detection theory	a psychophysiological theory proposing that the detection of stimuli involves decision processes as well as sensory processes which are influenced by a variety of factors besides the physical intensity of a stimulus
326024236	short term memory	a limited capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed information for about 20 to 30 seconds
326024237	semantics	the area of language concerned with understanding the meaning of words and word combinations
326024238	structuralism	a school of psychology based on the notion that the task of psychology is to analyze consciousness into its basic elements and to investigate how these elements are related
326024239	top down processing	in form perception a progression form the whole to the elements
326024240	twin studies	a research design in which hereditary influence is assessed by comparing the resemblance of identical twins and fraternal twins with respect to a trait
326024241	unconditioned response	an unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus that occurs without previous conditioning
326024242	unconditioned stimulus	a stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning
326024243	validity	the ability of a test to measure what it was designed to measure
326024244	deviation IQ test scores	scores that locate subjects precisely within the normal distribution using the standard deviation as the unit of measurement
326024245	autonomic nervous system	the system of nerves that connect to the heart, blood vessels, smooth muscles, and glands