Ap Psychology Review Packet Essay

Absolute Threshold:  the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time. 2. Accommodation:  the process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus near or far images on the retina. 3. Acetylcholine:  neurotransmitter that enables muscle action, learning and memory. 4. Achievement Motivation:  desire for accomplishment. 5. Achievement Test:  an exam designed to test what a person has earned. 6. Acoustic Encoding:  encoding of sound, especially words. 7. Acquisition:  the initial stage when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus. 8. Action Potential:  a neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon. 9. Activation Synthesis:  theory that REM sleep triggers neural firing that evokes random images, which our sleep brain weaves into stories. 10. Adaptation Level Phenomenon:  tendency to form judgements relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience. 11. Adrenal Glands:  a pair of endocrine glands that sit just above the kidneys and secrete hormones that help arouse the body in times of stress. 12. Algorithm:  a methodical, logical rule that guarantees solving a particular problem. 3. Alpha Waves:  the relatively slow brain waves of an awake, relaxed state. 14. Amnesia:  loss of memory. 15. Amphetamines:  drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes. 16. Amygdala:  two lima bean-sized neural clusters in the limbic system; linked to emotion. 17. Aphasia:  impairment of language caused by left hemisp here damage to Broca’s area, impairing speaking, or Wernicke’s area, impairing understanding. 18. Applied Research:  scientific study that aims to solve practical problems 19. Aptitude Test:  designed to predict a person’s future performance. 20. Association Areas:  areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary or sensory functions but in higher mental functions. 21. Associative Learning:  learning that certain events occur together. 22. Automatic Processing:  unconscious encoding of incidental information. 23. Autonomic Nervous System:  the part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs. 24. Availability Heuristic:  estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory. 5. Axon:  the extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers, through which messages pass to other neurons or to muscles and glands. 26. B. F. Skinner:  a leading behaviorist; rejected introspection and studied how consequences shape behavior. 27. Babbling Stage:  begins at 4 months; stage of speech development in which infant spontaneously utters various sounds. 28. Barbituates:  drugs that depress the activity of the central nervous system,  reducing anxiety  but impairing memory and judgement. 29. Basal Metabolic Rate:  body’s resting rate of energy expenditure. 30. Basic Research:  pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base 31. Behavior Genetics:  the study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior. 32. Behavioral Medicine:  integrates behavioral and medical knowledge to apply to health and disease. 33. Behaviorism:  the view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental process. 34. Belief Perseverance:  clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis has been discredited. 35. Binocular Cues:  depth cues such as retinal disparity that depend on using two eyes. 36. Bio-Feedback:  electronically recording, amplifying and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state. 37. Biological Psychology:  a branch of psychology concerned with the links between biology and behavior. 38. Biopsychosocial Approach:  an integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis. 39. Blind Spot:  the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a â€Å"blind spot† because no receptor cells are located there. 40. Bottom-Up Processing:  analysis that starts with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information. 1. Broca’s Area:  controls language expression; area of the frontal lobe of the left hemisphere. 42. Cannon-Baird Theory:  emotion arousing stimulus triggers physiological response and subjective experience of emotion. 43. Case Study:  an observational technique in which one person id studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles. 44. Central Nervous System:  the brain and spinal cord. 45. Cerebellum:  the â€Å"little brain† at the rear of the brainstem; processes sensory input and coordinates movement output and balance. 46. Cerebral Cortex:  the intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres; the body’s ultimate control and information-processing center. 47. Change Blindness:  failing to notice changes in the environment 48. Charles Darwin:  argued that natural selection shapes behaviors as well as bodies. 49. Chunking:  organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically. 50. Circadian Rhythm:  the biological clock; regular bodily rhythms that occur on a 24-hour cycle 51. Classical Conditioning:  one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate future events. 2. Clinical Psychology:  a branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats psychological disorders. 53. Cochlea:  a coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger neural impulses. 54. Cochlear Implant:  device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threade d through the cochlea. 55. Cognition:  Mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating. 56. Cognitive Map:  mental representation of the layout of ones environment. 57. Cognitive Neuroscience:  the interdisciplinary study of brain activity linked with cognition. 58. Cognitive Perspective:  how we encode, process, store, and retrieve information. 59. Color Constancy:  perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color either if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object. 60. Complementary Alternative Medicine:  unproven healthcare treatments intended to supplement conventional medicine. 61. Conditioned Reinforcer:  a stimulus that gains reinforcing power through its association with the primary reinforcer. 62. Conditioned Response:  the learned response to a previously neutral stimulus. 63. Conditioned Stimulus:  an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with US, triggers a response. 64. Conduction Hearing Loss:  hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea. 65. Cones:  retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and function in daylight of well-lit conditions. 66. Confirmation Bias:  a tendency to search for information that backs one’s own beliefs. 67. Consciousness:  our awareness of ourselves and our environment. 68. Content Validity:  extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest, 69. Continuous Reinforcement:  reinforcing a desired response every time it occurs. 70. Control Group:  the group that is not exposed to the treatment in an experiment. 71. Coping:  alleviating stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods. 72. Corpus Callosum:  axon fibers connecting the two cerebral hemispheres. 73. Correlation:  a measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other. 74. Correlation Coefficient:  a statistical index of the relationship between two things (from -1 to +1) 75. Counseling Psychology:  a branch of psychology that assists people with problems in living and in achieving greater well-being. 76. Critical Thinking:  thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. 77. Culture:  the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one culture to the next. 78. Delta Waves:  the large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep. 79. Dendrite:  the bushy, branchy extensions of a neuron that receive message and conduct impulses towards the cell body. 0. Dependent Variable:  the outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to the manipulation of the independent variable. 81. Depressants:  drugs that reduce neural activity and slow body functions. 82. Difference Threshold:  the minimum difference between stimuli required for detection 50% of the time. 83. Discrimination:  learned ability to distinguish between CS and stimuli that do not signal a US. 84. D issociation:  a split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others. 85. Dopamine:  neurotransmitter that influences movement, learning, attention and emotion. 86. Double-Blind Procedure:  an experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant as to whether the group has received a treatment or a placebo. 87. Drive-Reduction Theory:  physiological need; creates an aroused tension state, a drive, that motivates an organism to satisfy the need. 88. Dual Processing:  the principle that information is simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks 89. Echoic Memory:  momentary sensory memory of an auditory stimuli. 0. Ecstasy (MDMA):  a synthetic stimulant and a mild hallucinogen. Produces Euphoria and social intimacy, but with short-term health risks and longer-term harm to serotonin-producing neurans and to mood and cognition. 91. Edward Titchener:  father of structuralism. 92. Effortful Processing:  encoding that requires attention and conscious effort. 93. Electroencepha logram (EEG):  an amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweep across the brain’s surface. 94. Emotion:  response of the whole organism involving psychological arousal, expressive behavior and conscious experience. 95. Emotion-Focused Coping:  Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs relating to one’s stress. 96. Encoding:  the processing of information into the memory system by extracting meaning. 97. Endocrine System:  the body’s â€Å"slow† chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream. 98. Endorphins:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"morphine within† – natural, opiatelike neurotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure. 99. Environment:  every non-genetic influence. 100. ESP:  claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input. 101. Estrogen:  the primary female sex hormone. 102. Evolutionary Psychology:  the study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural selection. 103. Experiment:  a research method in which an investigator manipulates one of more factors to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process. 104. Experimental Group:  the group that is exposed to the treatment in an experiment. 105. Explicit Memory:  memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare; stored in hippocampus. 106. Extinction:  diminishing of CR; occurs in classical conditions when US does not follow CS. 07. Extrinsic Motivation:  desire to perform to receive rewards or avoid punishment. 108. Factor Analysis:  a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items, called factors, on a test. 109. Feature Detectors:  nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle or movement. 110. Feel-Good Do-Good Phenomena:  tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood. 111. Figure-Ground:  organization of visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings. 112. Fixation:  inability to see a problem from a new perspective. 113. Fixed-Interval Schedule:  reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified amount of time has elapsed. 114. Fixed-Ratio Schedule:  reinforcement schedule that reinforces only after specified number of responses. 115. Flashbulb Memory:  a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event. 116. Flow:  a completely involved, focused state of consciousness resulting from optimal engagements of one’s skills. 117. fMRI:  a technique for revealing bloodflow and, therefore, brain activity – shows brain function. 118. Fovea:  the central focal point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones cluster. 19. Framing:  the way an issue is posed. 120. Fraternal Twins:  twins who develop from separate fertilized eggs. They are genetically no closer than a brother or sister. 121. Frequency:  the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time. 122. Frequency Theory:  in hearing, the theory that the rate of neu ral impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch. 123. Freud’s Wish-fulfillment:  theory that dreams provide a psychic safety valve for expressing otherwise unacceptable feelings. 124. Frontal Lobes:  portion of the cerebral cortex lying just behind the forehead; involved in speaking, muscles movement, making plans and judgement. 125. Functional Fixedness:  the tendency to think of things only in their usual function. 126. Functionalism:  a school of psychology that focused on how our mental and behavioral processes function – how they enable us to adapt, survive and flourish. 127. GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid):  a major inhibitory neurotransmitter. 128. Gate-Control Theory:  theory that spinal cord contains a neurological gate that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass to the brain. 29. Gender Identity:  our sense of being male or female. 130. Gender Role:  a set of expectations for either males or females. 131. Gender Typing:  the acquisition of a traditional male or female role. 132. General Adaptation Syndrome:  Selye’s concept of body’s adaptive response to stress; alarm, resistance, exhaustion. 133. General Intelli gence:  general intelligence factor, according to Spearman, underlies specific mental abilities and is measured by every task on an intelligence test. 134. Generalization:  tendency after response has been conditioned for similar stimuli to elicit similar responses. 135. Genome:  the complete instructions for making an organism. 136. Gestault:  organized whole; tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes. 137. Glial Cells:  cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons. 138. Glutamate:  a major excitatory neurotransmitter – involved in memory. 139. Grouping:  perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups based on proximity, similarity, continuity and connectedness. 140. Hallucinations:  false sensory experiences. 141. Hallucinogens:  drugs taht distort perception and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input. 142. Health Psychology:  sub-field of psychology; provides psychology’s contribution to behavioral medicine. 143. Heritability:  the proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. 144. Heuristic:  a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make strategies and solve problems quickly. 145. Hierarchy of Needs:  Mazlow’s pyramid of human needs; begins with physiological needs which must be met before higher goals can be attained. 146. Higher-Order Conditioning:  procedure where conditioned stimulus in one experience is paired with a new, neutral stimulus, creating a new Conditioned Stimulus. 47. Hindsight Bias:  the tendency to believe that, after learning the outcome, one would have foreseen it. 148. Hippocampus:  a neural center that is located in the limbic system and helps process explicit memories for storage. 149. Homeostasis:  tendency to maintain a state of balance. 150. Hormones:  chemical messengers that are manufact ured by the endocrine glands. 151. Hue:  the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of the light. 152. Humanistic Psychology:  historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people and the individual’s potential for personal growth. 53. Hypothalamus:  a neural structure lying below the thalamus; it directs several maintenance activities, helps govern the endocrine system, and is linked to emotion and reward. 154. Hypothesis:  a testable prediction. 155. Iconic Memory:  a momentary sensory memory of a visual stimuli; a photographic memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second. 156. Identical Twins:  twins who develop from a single fertilized egg that splits into two, creating two genetically identical organisms. 157. Illusory correlation:  the perception of a relationship where none exists. 158. Implicit Memory:  retention independent of conscious recollection; stored in cerebellum. 159. Inattentional Blindness:  failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere 160. Incentive:  a positive or negative environmental stimulus. 161. Independent Variable:  the experimental factor which is directly manipulated. 162. Industrial Organizational Psychology:  using psychological concepts to optimize behavior in work places. 163. Information Processing:  theory that dreams help us sort out the day’s events and consolidate our memories. 164. Infradian Rhythm:  long-term cycle; greater than a day 65. Inner Ear:  the inner most part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs. 166. Insight:  sudden and novel realization of the solution to a problem. 167. Insomnia:  recurring problems in falling or staying asleep. 168. Instinct:  a complex behavior rigidly patterned throughout the species and is unlearned. 169. Intensity:  the amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we can perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the wave’s amplitude. 170. Interaction:  the interplay that occurs when the effect of one factor depends on another. 171. Interneurons:  neurons within the brain and spinal cord that communicate internally and intervene between the sensory inputs and the motor outputs. 172. Intrinsic Motivation:  desire to perform for its own sake. 173. Intuition:  effortless, immediate feeling or thought. 174. Iris:  a ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening. 175. James-Lange Theory:  emotion is awareness of physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli. 176. Kinesthesis:  system for sensing the position and movement of individual body movements. 77. Latent Content:  according to Freud, the underlying meaning of a dream. 178. Latent Learning:  learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it. 179. Law of Effect:  Thorndike’s principle that behavior followed by favorable consequences become more likely and behaviors followed by negative consequences become less likely. 180. Lens:  the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina. 181. Lesion:  destruction of the brain tissue. 182. Levels of Analysis:  the differing complementary views for analyzing any iven phenomenon. 183. Limbic System:  neural system located below the cerebral hemispheres; associated with emotions and drives. 184. Lingusitic Determinism:  Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think. 185. Long-Term Memory:  relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. 186. Long-Term Potentiation (LTP):  increase in synapse-s firing potential after rapid stimulation; the neural basis for learning and memory. 187. LSD:  a powerful hallucinogenic drug; alsdo known as acid. 188. Lymphocytes:  the two types of white blood cells that are part of the immune system. 189. Manifest Content:  according to Freud, the remembered story line of a dream. 190. Mean:  the arithmetic average of a distribution. 191. Median:  the middle score in a distribution. 192. Medulla:  the base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing. 193. Mental Age:  measure of test performance devised by Binet; chronological age that typically correlates with a given age. 194. Mental Set:  tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, often one that has been successful. 195. Methamphetamine:  a powerfully addictive drug that stimulates the central nervous system and appears to drop base dopamine levels over time. 96. Middle Ear:  the chamber between the eardrum and the cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window. 197. Mirror Neurons:  frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when performing another doing so; this may enable im itation or empathy. 198. Misinformation Effect:  incorporating misleading information into ones memory. 199. Mnemonics:  memory aids. 200. Mode:  the most frequently occurring score(s) in a distribution. 201. Modeling:  observing and imitating a specific behavior. 202. Monocular Cues:  depth cues available to either eye alone. Includes relative height, relative size, interposition, linear perspective, light and shadow, and relative motion. 203. Mood Congruent Memory:  tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current mood. 204. Morpheme:  the smallest unit that carries meaning. 205. Motivation:  a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior. 206. Motor Cortex:  an area at the rear if the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements. 207. Motor Neurons:  neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands. 208. MRI:  a technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce computer-generated images of soft tissue. 209. Mutation:  a random error in gene replication that leads to a change. 210. Myelin Sheath:  a layer of fatty tissue segmentally encasing the fibers of many neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed. 211. Narcolepsy:  a sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks. The sufferer may lapse directly into REM sleep, often at inopportune times. 212. Natural Selection:  inherited trait variations contributing to survival and reproduction will be passed on to succeeding generations. 13. Naturalistic Observation:  observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate or control the situation. 214. Nature-Nurture issue:  controversy over contributions of genes vs. experience 215. Near-death Experience:  an altered state of consciousness reported after a close brush with death; often similar to dru g-induced hallucinations. 216. Negative Reinforcement:  increasing behaviors by stopping a negative stimuli. 217. Neo-Freudian Theory:  theory that dreams can be used as a coping mechanism to deal with past events. 218. Nerves:  bundled axons that form neural â€Å"cables† connecting the central nervous system with muscles, glands, and sense organs. 219. Nervous system:  the body’s speedy, electrochemical communication network, consisting of all the nerve cells of the peripheral and central nervous systems. 220. Neurogenesis:  the formation of new neurons. 221. Neuron:  a nerve cell; the basic building block of he nervous system. 222. Neurotransmitters:  chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between neurons. 223. Night Terrors:  a sleep disorder characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified. 24. Norepinephrine:  neurotransmitter that helps control alertness and arousal. 225. Normal Curve:  a symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data. 226. Observational Learning:  learning by observing others. 227. Occipital Lobes:  portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the back of the head; includes areas t hat receive information from the visual fields 228. One-Word Stage:  from age 1 to 2; when a child speaks in single words. 229. Operant Behavior:  Behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences. 230. Operant Chamber:  a chamber / Skinner Box containing a bar that an animal can manipulate to obtain water or food. 231. Operant Conditioning:  type of learning in which behavior is strengthened followed by a reinforcer or diminished followed by a punisher. 232. Operational Definition:  a statement of the procedures used to define research variables. 233. Opiates:  opium and its derivatives, such as morphine and heroin; they depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety. 234. Opponent-Process Theory:  the theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision. 35. Optic Nerve:  the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain. 236. Organizational Psychology:  part of IO Psychology; examines psychological influences o worker satisfaction and productivity. 237. Overconfidence:  tendency to be more confident than correct. 238. Parallel Processing:  the processing of many aspects of a problem simu ltaneously. 239. Parapsychology:  study of paranormal phenomena. 240. Parasympathetic Nervous System:  the division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy. 241. Parathyroids:  help regulate the level of calcium in the blood 242. Parietal Lobes:  portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top/rear of the head; receives sensory input for touch and body position. 243. Partial/Intermittent Reinforcement:  Reinforcing a response only part of the time. 244. Perception:  the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events. 245. Perceptual Adaptation:  in vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or inverted visual field. 246. Perceptual Set:  mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another. 247. Peripheral Nervous System:  the sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system to the rest of the body. 248. Personnel Psychology:  focuses on recruitment, selection and placement of employees. 249. PET Scan:  a visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task. 250. Phoneme:  the smallest distinctive sound unit. 251. Physical Dependence:  a physiological need for a drug, marked by unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when the drug is discontinued 252. Pitch:  a tone’s experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency. 53. Pituitary Gland:  the endocrine gland system’s most influential gland. Under the influence of the hypothalamus, the pituitary regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands. 254. Place Theory:  in hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated. 255. Placebo Effect:  exper imental results caused by expectation alone. 256. Plasticity:  the brain’s ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage of by building new pathways based on experience 257. Polygraph:  lie detector machine; measures responses to emotion. 58. Pons:  part of the brainstem that helps coordinate movements. 259. Population:  all the cases in a group being studied, from which samples can be drawn. 260. Positive Reinforcement:  increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli. 261. Posthypnotic Suggestion:  a suggestion, made during a hypnotic session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized. 262. Predictive Validity:  the success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict. 263. Primary Reinforcer:  an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need. 264. Priming:  the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response. 265. Pro-Social Behavior:  positive, constructive behavior. 266. Proactive Interference:  the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information. 267. Problem-Focused Coping:  attempting to alleviate stress by changing the stressor or how we interact with that stressor. 268. Prototype:  a mental image or best example of a category. 269. Pshchological Dependence:  a psychological need to use a drug, such as to relieve negative emotions. 270. Psychiatry:  a branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders. 271. Psychoactive Drug:  a chemical substance that alters perceptions and moods. 272. Psychodynamic Perspective:  how behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts 273. Psychology:  the study of behavior and mental processes. 274. Psychoneuroeimmunology:  study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes affect the immune system. 275. Psychophysics:  the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them. 276. Psychophysiological Illness:  mind-body illness; any stress-related physical illness, including hypertension. 277. Pupil:  the adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters. 278. Random Assignment:  assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance, thus minimizing pre-existing differences between the two groups. 279. Random Sample:  a sample that fairly represents a given population. 280. Range:  The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution. 281. Recall:  measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier. 82. Recognition:  measure of memory in which the person only identifies items previously learned. 283. Reflex:  a simple, autonomic response to a sensory stimulus. 284. Rehearsal:  conscious repetition of information, either for maintenance or encoding. 285. Reinforcer:  an event that strengthens behavior. 286. Relative Deprivation:  perception that one is worse off relative to those you compare yourself to. 287. Relearning:  a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time. 288. Reliability:  extent to which a test yields consistent results. 89. REM Rebound:  the tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation. 290. REM sleep:  rapid eye movement sleep, a recurring sleep stage during which vivid dreams commonly occur. 291. Replication:  repeating the essence of a research study to see whether the basic findings extend to other participants and circumstances. 292. Representativeness Heuristic:  judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent particular prototypes. 293. Respondent Behavior:  occurs as automatic response to some stimulus. 294. Reticular Formation:  a nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in controlling arousal. 295. Retina:  the light-sensitive inner surface of the eye. 296. Retinal Disparity:  a binocular cue for perceiving depth by comparing the images of the retinas from the two eyes. 297. Retrieval:  process of getting information out of storage. 298. Retroactive Interference:  the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information. 299. Reuptake:  a neurotransmitter’s reabsorption by the sending neuron. 300. Rods:  retinal receptors that detect black, white and gray. 301. Savant Syndrome:  condition in which a person is limited in mental ability but has exceptional specific skill. 302. Scatterplots:  a graphed cluster of dots, the slope of which helps predict the direction of the relationship between the two variables. 303. Selective Attention:  the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimuli 304. Semantic Encoding:  encoding of meaning. 305. Semantics:  set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words and sentences. 306. Sensation:  the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment. 07. Sensorineural Hearing Loss:  hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerves. Also called nerve deafness. 308. Sensory Adaptation:  diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation. 309. Sensory Cortex:  area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch and moveme nt sensations. 310. Sensory Interaction:  principle that one sense may influence another; smell of food influences its taste. 311. Sensory Memory:  immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory. 12. Sensory Neurons:  neurons that carry incoming information from the sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord. 313. Serial Position Effect:  the tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list. 314. Serotonin:  neurotransmitter that affects mood, hunger, sleep and arousal. 315. Set Point:  the point where someone’s weight thermostat. 316. Shaping:  an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior closer and closer to the desired behavior. 317. Short-Term Memory:  activated memory that holds a few items briefly. 318. Sigmund Freud:  Austrian neurologists who founded psychoanalysis. 319. Signal Detection Theory:  a theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background noise. Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivation and level of fatigue. 320. Sleep Apnea:  a sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and repeated momentary awakenings. 321. Social Leadership:  group oriented leadership that builds teamwork and offers support. 322. Social Learning Theory:  the theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded and punished. 323. Social-cultural Perspective:  how behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures 324. Somatic Nervous System:  the division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body’s skeletal muscles. 325. Source Amnesia:  attributing the wrong source to an event we have experienced; at the heart of many false memories. 326. Spacing Effect:  tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better retention that massed study or practice. 327. Split Brain:  a condition resulting from surgery that isolates the brain’s two hemispheres by cutting the fibers connecting them. 328. Spontaneous Recovery:  Reappearance after a pause of an extinguished CR. 329. Standard Deviation:  a computed measure of how much the scores vary around the mean score. 330. Stanford-Binet:  widely used American revision of Binet’s original intelligence test. 331. Statistical Significance:  a statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance. 332. Stereotype Threat:  self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on negative stereotypes. 333. Stimulants:  drugs that excite neural activity and speed up body functions. 334. Storage:  retention of encoded information. 335. Stress:  how we perceive and respond to stressors that we appraise as threatening or challenging. 336. Structuralism:  an early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the structural elements of the human mind. 337. Structured Interviews:  asking the same questions of all applicants and rating on the standard scale. 338. Subjective Well-Being:  self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. 339. Subliminal:  below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness. 340. Survey:  a technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes of behaviors of a group. 341. Sympathetic Nervous System:  the division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations. 342. Synapse:  the junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron. 343. Syntax:  rules for combining words into sensible sentences. 344. Task Leadership:  goal oriented leadership that sets standards, organizes leadership and focuses on goals. 345. Telegraphic Speech:  early speech stage where child speaks like a telegram; uses nouns and verbs. 46. Temporal Lobes:  portion of the cerebral cortex lying above the ears; receives auditory information 347. Testosterone:  the most important of male sex hormones. Both males and females have it, but the additional testosterone in males stimulates the growth of the male sex organs in the fetus and the development of the male sex char acteristics during puberty. 348. Thalamus:  the brain’s sensory switchboard, located on top of the brainstem. 349. THC:  the major active ingredient in marijuana; triggers a variety of effects, including mild hallucinations. 350. Theory:  an explanation that organizes behavior and predicts future outcomes. 351. Threshold:  the level of stimulation necessary to trigger a neural impulse. 352. Thyroid Gland:  affects metabolism, among other things 353. Tolerance:  the diminishing effect with regular use of the same dose of a drug, requiring the user to take larger and larger doses of the drug before experiencing the drugs effects. 354. Top-Down Processing:  information processing guided by higher level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations. 55. Transduction:  conversion of one form of energy into another. 356. Two_Word Stage:  beginning at age 2; child speaks in 2 word statements. 357. Two-Factor Theory:  called Schachter-Singer Theory; to experience emotion, one must be physically aroused and cognitively label the arousal. 358. Type A:  competitive, hard-driving, impatient. 359. Type B:  easy-going, relaxed people. 360. Ultradian Rhythm :  short-term cycle; less than a day 361. Unconditioned Response:  the unlearned naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus. 362. Unconditioned Stimulus:  a stimulus that unconditionally triggers a response. 363. Validity:  extent to which a test measures what its supposed to measure. 364. Variable-Interval Schedule:  reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after random number of responses. 365. Variable-Ratio Schedule:  reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses. 366. Vestibular Sense:  sense of body movement and position including balance. 367. Visual Cliff:  lab device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals. 368. Visual Encoding:  encoding of picture images. 369. Watson and Rayner:  famous for their â€Å"Little Albert† experiment. 370. Wavelength:  the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next. 371. Weber’s Law:  the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage. 372. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale:  most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and non-verbal sub-tests. 373. Wernicke’s Area:  controls language reception; a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression in left temporal lobe. 74. Wilhelm Wundt:  known as father of experimental psychology; established the first psychology laboratory. 375. Withdrawal:  the discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing the use of an addictive drug. 376. Working Memory:  a newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual spat ial information and of information retrieved from long-term memory. 377. X-Chromosome:  the sex chromosome found in both men and women. 378. Y-Chromosome:  the sex chromosome found only in men. 379. Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory:  the theory that the retina contains three different color receptors – red, green and blue. absolute threshold:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time. 2. accommodation:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina. 3. accommodations:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Adapting one’s current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information. 4. acetylcholine:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ A neurotransmitter that, among its functions, triggers muscle contraction. 5. acoustic encoding:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The encoding of sounds, especially the sound of words. . acquisition:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The initial stage in classical conditioning; the phase associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response. 7. action potent ial:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ A neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon. The action potential is generated by the movement of positively charged atoms in and out of channels in the axon’s membrane. 8. activation synthesis hypothesis:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Theory to describe dreaming that explains dreaming as being random neural activity hat the brain tries to make sense of. 9. acuity:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The Sharpness of vision. 10. addictions:  dependency to drugs comes about from potentially one use of the substance were the body can build up dependence to the substance. 11. adolescence:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence. 12. adrenal glands:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ A pair of endocrine glands just above the kidneys. The adrenals secrete the hormones epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (nonadrenaline), which help to arouse the body in times of stress. 13. ll or nothing law:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Increasing the stimulus abov e the threshold will not increase the action potential intensity. The neuron’s action is an all or nothing response; it either will fire or it will not. The strength of the stimulus does not effect action potential’s speed. 14. alpha waves:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake state. 15. alzheimer’s disease:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ A progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and, finally physical functioning. 16. amnesia:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The loss of memory 17. mygdala:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Two almond-shaped neural clusters that are components of the limbic system and are linked to emotion. 18. assimilation:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Interpreting one’s new experience in terms of one’s existing schemas. 19. association areas:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions; rather, they are involved in higher mental functions such as lear ning, remembering, thinking, and speaking. 20. associative learning:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning). 1. attachment:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation. 22. audition:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The sense of hearing 23. automatic nervous system:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs (such as the heart). Its sympathetic division arouses; its parasympathetic division calms. 24. automatic processing:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings. 25. xon:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers, through which messages pass to other neurons or to muscles or glands. 26. barbiturates:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Drugs that depress the activity of the central nervous system, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgement. 27. basiler membrane:  within the cochlea of the inner ear is a stiff structural element that separates two liquid-filled tubes that run along the coil of the cochlea, the scala media and the scala tympani. 28. behavioral genetics:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior. 29. Behavioral Psychology:  a branch of psychology that focuses on how we learn from observable responses. An individuals’ response to different environment stimuli shapes our behaviors. 30. Behaviorism:  The view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree that psychology should be an objective science but do not think that it should be without reference to mental processes. 31. behaviorism:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. For example, intelligence may be operationally defined as what an intelligence test measures. 193. opiates:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Opium and its derivatives, such as morphine and heroin; they depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety. 194. opponent-process theory:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision. For example, some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green 195. optic nerve:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain. 96. parallel processing:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The processing of several aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. Contrasts with the step-by-step (serial) processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving. 197. parallel processing:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The processing of several aspects of a problem simul taneously; the brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. Contrasts with the step-by-step (serial) processing of most computers and of conscience problem solving. 198. Parasympathetic nervous system:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy. 199. parietal lobes:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top of the head and toward the rear; includes the sensory cortex. 200. Peripheral nervous system:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system (CNS) to the rest of the body. 201. PET:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ A visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task. 202. Phenotype:  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ An organisms physical characteristics is its phenotype.