| A | B |
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| psychology | the scientific study of mental processes and behavior |
| theory | a general framework for scientific study; smaller aspects can be tested |
| research psychologists | psychologists who study the origin, cause, or results of certain behaviors |
| applied psychologists | psychologists who make direct use of the findings of research psychologists; they deal directly with clients |
| introspection | the process of looking into yourself and describing what is there |
| sociocultural approach | an approach that views behavior as strongly influenced by the rules and expectations of specific social groups or cultures |
| biopsychological approach | an approach that views behavior as strongly influenced by physiological functions |
| behavioral approach | an approach that views behavior as the product of learning and associations |
| psychoanalysis | a system that views the individual as the product of unconscious forces |
| humanistic approach | an approach that views people as basically good and capable of helping themselves |
| cognitive approach | an approach that emphasizes how humans use mental processes to handle problems or develop certain personality characteristics |
| eclecticism | the process of making your own system by borrowing from two or more other systems |
| placebo | a "medicine" that has no active ingredients and works by the power of suggestion |
| closed-ended questions | questions a person must answer by choosing from a limited, predetermined set of responses |
| hypothesis | a statement of the results that the experimenter expects |
| subjects | people or animals on whom a study is conducted |
| variables | factors that change in an experiment |
| independent variable | the factor that the experimenter manipulated or changes in a study |
| dependent variable | the factor in a study that changes or varies as a result of changes in the independent variable |
| field study | research that takes place outside the laboratory |
| experimental group | the group on which the critical part of the experiment is performed |
| control group | the group that does not participate in the critical part of the experiment |
| survey | a method of research that involves asking subjects questions about their feelings, opinions, or behavior patterns |
| sample | a group that represents a larger group |
| representative sample | a group that truly reflects a selected characteristic of a larger population |
| interview | a research method that involves studying people face to face and asking questions |
| case study method | research that collects lengthy, detailed information about a person's background, usually for psychological treatment |
| psychological tests | objective methods for observation and measurement of subjects in various areas such as intelligence |
| cross-sectional method | a method of research that looks at different age groups at the same time in order to understand changes that occur during the life span |
| longitudinal method | a method of research that studies the same group of people over an extended period of time |
| objective | based on facts and not influenced by personal beliefs or feelings |
| American Psychological Association | A.P.A. |
| stereotype | a fixed set of beliefs about a group that is generalized to all or most group members |
| bias | a prejudice or leaning that may aim to influence judgements in an unfair manner; slant; prejudice |
| double-blind study | a study during which neither participants nor researchers know to which group any subject belongs |
| brain | The most demanding organ of the body. It uses 20% of all our oxygen, eats up most of the sugar we take in, and operates on 20 watts of electrical power. |
| adrenaline | Chemical that prepares the body for emergency activity by increasing blood pressure, breathing rate, and energy level. |
| fissure | A depression marking off an area of the cerebral cortex. |
| hemisphere | 1. One half of the cerebral cortex. 2. Each half controls the opposite side of the body. |
| occipital lobe | Division of the cerebral cortex that interprets visual information |
| lobes | The major divisions of the cerebral cortex. |
| frontal lobe | Division of the cerebral cortex that contains the motor strip, prefrontal area, and frontal association area. |
| parietal lobe | Division of the cerebral cortex that contains the sensory strip. |
| motor strip | The band running down the side of the frontal lobe that controls all bodily movements (called motor functions). |
| corpus callosum | A large bundle of nerve fibers that transfer information from one half of the cerebral cortex to the other. |
| temporal lobe | Division of the cerebral cortex responsible for hearing and some speech functions. |
| prefrontal area | Part of the frontal lobe that enables us to re-experience personal past events. |
| frontal association area | 1. Part of the frontal lobe that engages in elaborate associations or mental connections. 2. It plays an important part in integrating personality and in forming complex thoughts. |
| lower brain | 1. Part of the brain common to animals and humans. 2. Regulates basic functions such as breathing. |
| thalamus | 1. Part of the lower brain. 2. Functions primarily as a central relay station for incoming and outgoing messages from the body to the brain and the brain to the body. |
| hypothalamus | 1. Part of the lower brain. 2. Regulates basic needs (hunger, thirst) and emotions. |
| limbic system | Lower brain area whose structures are involved in basic emotions and memory. |
| amygdala | Limbic system structure involved in emotion, especially aggression. |
| hippocampus | Limbic system structure involved in forming memories. |
| cerebral cortex | 1. The outermost layer of the brain. 2. Controls high-level mental processes such as thought. |
| reticular activating system (RAS) | 1. The alertness control center of the brain. 2. Regulates the activity level of the body. |
| neuron | 1. A nerve cell. 2. Transmits electrical and chemical information (via neurotransmitters) throughout the body. |
| dendrites | Parts of neurons that receive information from the axons of other neurons. |
| axon | The part of the neuron that carries messages away from the cell to the dendrites on another neuron. |
| synapse | The junction point of two or more neurons; a connection is made by neurotransmitters. |
| vesicles | Bubblelike containers of neurotransmitters, located at the ends of axons. |
| neurotransmitters | Chemicals in the endings of neurons that send information across synapses. |
| acetylcholine | Neurotransmitter that regulates basic bodily processes such as movement. |
| dopamine | Neurotransmitter involved in the control of bodily movements. |
| endorphins | Neurotransmitters that relieve pain and increase our sense of well-being. |
| central nervous system | The brain and spinal cord. |
| spinal cord | Part of the body that functions as an automatic "brain" in its own right and as a relay station for impulses to and from the higher brain. |
| reflex | An automatic behavior of the body involving movement that is activated through the spinal cord without use of the higher brain. |
| peripheral nervous system | All the nerves outside the brain and spinal cord. |
| somatic nervous system | A division of the peripheral nervous system containing sensory and motor nerves. |
| autonomic nervous system | 1. The automatic control system of the body. 2. Regulates breathing, heart rate, digestion, and so on. |
| sympathetic nervous system | A division of the autonomic nervous system that energizes and prepares for emergencies. |
| parasympathetic nervous system | 1. A division of the autonomic nervous system that conserves bodily activity. 2. Works in opposition to the sympathetic system to calm us down. |
| hormones | Chemical regulators that control bodily processes such as emotional responses and growth. |
| glands | Units of the body that contain the hormones. |
| endocrine system | System that includes all the glands and their chemical messages taken together. |
| pituitary gland | The master gland; it activates other glands and controls the growth hormone. |
| growth hormone | 1. The hormone that regulates the growth process. 2. It is controlled by the pituitary gland. |
| thyroid gland | The gland that controls and regulates the speed of bodily processes, call metabolism |
| metabolism | The speed at which the body operates or the speed at which it uses up energy. |
| cerebellum | 1. Part of the lower brain. 2. Coordinates and organizes bodily movements for balance and accuracy. |
| absolute threshold | the level of sensory stimulation necessary for sensation to occur |
| binocular disparity | The difference between the image provided by each eye |
| sensation | the process of receiving information from the environment |
| perception | the process of assembling and organizing sensory information to make it meaningful |
| white light | light as it originates from the sun or a bulb before it is broken into different frequencies |
| cornea | the clear outer covering of the eye, behind which is a fluid |
| iris | a colored circular muscle that opens and closes, forming larger and smaller circles to control the amount of light getting into the eye |
| lens | the part of the eye that focuses an image on the retina |
| pupil | the opening in the eye |
| retina | the back of the eye, which contains millions of receptors for light |
| blind spot | the portion of the retina through which the optic nerve exits and where there are no receptors for light waves |
| rod | a visual receptor most sensitive to the violet-purple wave-lengths; very sensitive for night vision; "sees" only black and white |
| cone | a visual receptor that responds during daylight; "sees" color |
| color blindness | inability to perceive certain colors, such as red and green |
| afterimage | image that remains after stimulation of the retina has ended. Caused by the firing of the cones not used after viewing something steadily in order to bring the visual system back in balance. |
| audition | the sense of hearing |
| pitch | how high or low a sound is |
| timbre | the complexity of a sound |
| intensity | how loud a sound is |
| decibels | a measure of how loud a sound is (its intensity) |
| eardrum | a piece of skin stretched over the entrance to the ear; vibrates to sound |
| cochlea | a snail-shaped part of the ear, filled with fluid and small hairs that vibrate to incoming sound |
| hair cells | receptor cells for hearing found in the cochlea |
| cilia | hairlike extensions on cells found in the cochlea and the nasal cavity |
| auditory nerve | bundle of nerves carrying sound to the brain |
| cutaneous receptors | nerve receptors in the skin that respond to pressure, temperature, or pain |
| olfaction | the sense of smell |
| olfactory bulbs | units that receive odor molecules and communicate their nature to the brain |
| pheromones | odor chemicals that communicate a message |
| taste receptors | chemical receptors on the tongue that decode molecules of food or drink to identify them |
| size constancy | the ability to retain the size of an object regardless of where it is located |
| color constancy | the ability to perceive an object as the same color regardless of the environment |
| brightness constancy | the ability to keep an object's brightness constant as the object as having the same shape regardless of the angle at which it is seen |
| space constancy | the ability to keep objects in the environment steady by perceiving either ourselves or outside objects as moving |
| depth perception | the ability to see the relation of objects in space |
| visual cliff | an apparatus used to demonstrate depth perception |
| retinal disparity | the difference between the images provided by the two retinas. When the images are brought together in the brain they provide a sense of depth |
| texture gradient | how rough or smooth objects appear; used in depth perception |
| gestalt | an organized whole, shape, or form |
| similarity | a perceptual cue that involves grouping like things together |
| proximity | a perceptual cue that involves grouping together things that are near one another |
| closure | the process of filling in the missing details of what is viewed |
| illusions | inaccurate perceptions |
| Müller-Lyer Illusion | illusion in which one line in a picture with two equal-length lines seems longer |
| reversible figure | illusion in which the same object is seen as two alternating figures-first one, then the other |
| subliminal perception | Stimulation presented below the level of consciousness |
| adaptation | the gradual loss of attention to unneeded or unwanted sensory information |
| learning curve | a gradual upward slope representing increased retention of material as the result of learning |
| eidetic imagery | an iconic memory lasting a minute or so that keeps images "in front of" the viewer so objeccts can be counted or analyzed; also called photographic memory |
| transfer of training | learning process in which learning is carried over from one task to another based on similarities between the tasks |
| positive transfer | transfer of learning that results from similarities between two tasks |
| information processing | the methods by which we take in, analyze, store, and retrieve material |
| schema | an organized and systematic approach to answering questions or solving problems |
| elaboration | the process of attaching a maximum number of associations to an item to be learned so that it can be retrieved more easily |
| mnemonic devices | unusual associations made to aid memory |
| principle learning | a method of learning in which an overall view of the material to be learned is developed so that the material is better organized |
| forgetting | an increase in errors in bringing material back from memory |
| overlearning | learning something beyond one perfect recitation so that the forgetting curve will have no effect; the development of perfect retention |
| forgetting curve | graphic representation of the rate and amount of forgetting that occurs |
| recall | the ability to bring back and integrate many specific learned details |
| recognition | the ability to pick the correct object or event from a list of choices |
| interference theory | the idea that we forget because new and old material conflict with one another |
| amnesia | the blocking of older memories and/or the loss of new ones |
| attention | alert focusing on material |
| short-term memory | memory system that retains information for a few seconds to a few minutes |
| long-term memory | memory system that retains informtion for hours, days, weeks, months, or decades |
| consolidation | process by which a memory solidifies over time, eventually becoming permanent |
| sensory memory system | system that includes direct receivers of information from the environment |
| iconic memory | a very brief visual memory that can be sent to the short-term memory |
| accoustic memory | a very brief sound memory that can be sent to the short-term memory |
| state-dependent learning | learning that occurs in one chemical state and is best reproduced when the same state occurs again |
