Exam #1 Terms (Learning) Flashcards

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1
Q

What is critical thinking?

A

Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, appraises the source, discerns hidden biases, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions.

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2
Q

What is empiricism?

A

The idea that knowledge comes from experience, and that observation and experimentation enable scientific knowledge.

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3
Q

What is structuralism?

A

An early school of thought promoted by Wundt and Titchener; used introspection to reveal the structure of the human mind.

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4
Q

What is introspection?

A

The process of looking inward in an attempt to directly observe one’s own psychological processes.

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5
Q

What is functionalism?

A

An early school of thought promoted by James and influenced by Darwin; explored how mental and behavioral processes function-how they enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish.

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6
Q

What is behaviorism?

A

The view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2).

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7
Q

What is humanistic psychology?

A

A historically significant perspective that emphasized human growth potential.

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8
Q

What is cognitive psychology?

A

The study of mental processes, such as occur when we perceive, learn, remember, think, communicate, and solve problems.

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9
Q

What is cognitive neuroscience?

A

The interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language).

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10
Q

What is psychology?

A

The science of behavior and mental processes.

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11
Q

What is natural selection?

A

The principle that inherited traits that better enable an organism to survive and reproduce in a particular environment will (in competition with other trait variations) most likely be passed on to succeeding generations.

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12
Q

What is evolutionary psychology?

A

The study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural selection.

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13
Q

What are behavior genetics?

A

The study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior.

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14
Q

What is culture?

A

The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

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15
Q

What is positive psychology?

A

The scientific study of human flourishing, with the goals of discovering and promoting strengths and virtues that help individuals and communities to thrive.

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16
Q

What is the biophyscosocial approach?

A

An integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological, and social cultural viewpoints.

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17
Q

What is behavioral psychology?

A

The scientific study of observable behavior, and its explanation by principles of learning.

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18
Q

What is biological psychology?

A

The scientific study of the links between biological (genetic, neural, hormonal) and psychological processes.

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19
Q

What is psychodynamic psychology?

A

A branch of psychology that studies how unconscious drives and conflicts influence behavior and uses that information to treat people with psychological disorders.

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20
Q

What is social-cultural psychology?

A

The study of how situations and cultures affect our behavior and thinking.

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21
Q

What is testing effect?

A

Enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information.

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22
Q

What is SQ3R?

A

A study method incorporating five steps: Survey, Question, Read, Retrieve, Review.

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23
Q

What is psychometrics?

A

The scientific study of the measurement of human abilities, attitudes, and traits.

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24
Q

What is basic research?

A

A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span.

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25
Q

What is educational psychology?

A

The study of how psychological processes affect and can enhance teaching and learning.

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26
Q

What is personality psychology?

A

The study of individuals’ characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting.

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27
Q

What is social psychology?

A

The scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.

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28
Q

What is applied research?

A

Scientific study that aims to solve practical problems.

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29
Q

What is industrial-organizational (I/O) psychology?

A

The application of psychological concepts and methods to optimizing human behavior in workplaces.

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30
Q

What is human factors psychology?

A

A field of psychology allied with I/O psychology that explores how people and machines interact and how machines and physical environments can be made safe and easy to use.

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31
Q

What is counseling psychology?

A

A branch of psychology that assists people with problems in living and achieving greater well-being.

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32
Q

What is clinical psychology?

A

A branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders.

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33
Q

What is psychiatry?

A

A branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders.

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34
Q

What is community psychology?

A

A branch of psychology that studies how people interact with their social environments and how social institutions affect individuals and groups.

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35
Q

What is hindsight bias?

A

The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it.

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36
Q

What is a theory?

A

An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events.

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37
Q

What is a hypothesis?

A

A testable prediction, often implied by a theory.

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38
Q

What is an operational definition?

A

A carefully worded statement of the exact procedures (operations) used in a research study.

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39
Q

What is replication?

A

Repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding can be reproduced.

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40
Q

What is a case study?

A

A descriptive technique in which one individual or group is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles.

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41
Q

What is naturalistic observation?

A

A descriptive technique of observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate or control the situation.

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42
Q

What is a survey?

A

A descriptive technique for obtaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular group, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of the group.

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43
Q

What is sampling bias?

A

A flawed sampling process that produces an unrepresentative sample.

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44
Q

What is population?

A

All those in a group being studied, from which samples may be drawn.

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45
Q

What is a random sample?

A

A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion.

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46
Q

What is correlation?

A

A measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other.

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47
Q

What is correlation coefficient?

A

A statistical index of the relationship between two things (from -1.00 to +1.00).

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48
Q

What is a variable?

A

Anything that can vary and is feasible and ethical to measure.

49
Q

What is illusory correlation?

A

Perceiving a relationship where none exists, or perceiving a stronger-than-actual relationship.

50
Q

What is regression toward the mean?

A

The tendency for extreme or unusual scores or events to fall back (regress) toward the average.

51
Q

What is an experiment?

A

A research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process.

52
Q

What is an experimental group?

A

In an experiment, the group exposed to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable.

53
Q

What is a control group?

A

In an experiment, the group not exposed to the treatment, contrasts with the experimental group and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment.

54
Q

What is random assignment?

A

Assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance thus minimizing preexisting differences between the different groups.

55
Q

What is a double-blind procedure?

A

An experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant (blind) about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo.

56
Q

What is a placebo?

A

Experimental results caused by expectations alone.

57
Q

What is a confounding variable?

A

A factor other than the factor being studied that might influence a study’s results.

58
Q

What is an independent variable?

A

In an experiment, the factor that is manipulated.

59
Q

What is a dependent variable?

A

In an experiment, the outcome that is measured.

60
Q

What is validity?

A

The extent to which a test or experiment measures or predicts what it is supposed to.

61
Q

What is informed consent?

A

Giving potential participants enough information about a study to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate.

62
Q

What is debriefing?

A

The post-experimental explanation of a study, including its purpose and any deceptions, to its participants.

63
Q

What is learning?

A

The process of acquiring through experiences new and relatively enduring information or behaviors.

64
Q

What is habituation?

A

Decreasing responsiveness with repeated exposure to a stimulus.

65
Q

What is associative learning?

A

Learning that certain events occur together.

66
Q

What is a stimulus?

A

Any event or situation that evokes a response.

67
Q

What is respondent behavior?

A

Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus.

68
Q

What is operant behavior?

A

Behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences.

69
Q

What is cognitive learning?

A

The acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language.

70
Q

What is classical conditioning?

A

A type of learning in which we link two or more stimuli; as a result, the first stimulus comes to elicit behavior in anticipation of the second stimulus.

71
Q

What is a neutral stimulus (NS)?

A

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning.

72
Q

What is an unconditioned response (UR)?

A

In classical conditioning, an unlearned, naturally occurring response, to an unconditioned stimulus (US).

73
Q

What is an unconditioned stimulus (US)?

A

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers an unconditioned response (UR).

74
Q

What is a conditioned response (CR)?

A

In classical conditioning, a learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS).

75
Q

What is a conditioned stimulus (CS)?

A

In classical conditioning, an originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR).

76
Q

What is acquisition?

A

In classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response.

77
Q

What is higher-order conditioning?

A

A procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus.

78
Q

What is extinction?

A

The diminishing of a conditioned response.

79
Q

What is spontaneous recovery?

A

The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response.

80
Q

What is generalization?

A

The tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for similar stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses.

81
Q

What is discrimination?

A

In classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and similar stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.

82
Q

What is operant conditioning?

A

A type of learning in which a behavior becomes more likely to recur if followed by a reinforcer or less likely to recur if followed by a punisher.

83
Q

What is the law of effect?

A

Thorndike’s principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely.

84
Q

What is an operant chamber?

A

In operant conditioning research, a chamber containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer.

85
Q

What is reinforcement?

A

In operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.

86
Q

What is shaping?

A

An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior.

87
Q

What is a discriminative stimulus?

A

In operant conditioning, a stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement.

88
Q

What is positive reinforcement?

A

Increasing behaviors by presenting positive reinforcers.

89
Q

What is negative reinforcement?

A

Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing aversive stimuli.

90
Q

What is a primary reinforcer?

A

An innately reinforcing stimulus.

91
Q

What is a conditioned reinforcer?

A

A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer.

92
Q

What is a reinforcement schedule?

A

A pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced.

93
Q

What is a continuous reinforcement schedule?

A

Reinforcing the desired response every time it comes.

94
Q

What is a partial reinforcement schedule?

A

Reinforcing a response only part of the time.

95
Q

What is a fixed-ratio schedule?

A

In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses.

96
Q

What is a variable-ratio schedule?

A

In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses.

97
Q

What is a fixed-interval schedule?

A

In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed.

98
Q

What is a variable-interval schedule?

A

In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals.

99
Q

What is punishment?

A

Any event that tends to decrease the behavior that it follows.

100
Q

What is biofeedback?

A

A system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state.

101
Q

What is preparedness?

A

A biological predisposition to learn associations, such as between taste and nausea, that have survival value.

102
Q

What is instinctive drift?

A

The tendency of learned behavior to gradually revert to biologically predisposed patterns.

103
Q

What is a cognitive map?

A

A mental representation of the layout of one’s environment.

104
Q

What is latent learning?

A

Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it.

105
Q

What is insight?

A

A sudden realization of a problem’s solution.

106
Q

What is intrinsic motivation?

A

A desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake.

107
Q

What is extrinsic motivation?

A

A desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment.

108
Q

What is problem-focused coping?

A

Attempting to alleviate stress directly-by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor.

109
Q

What is emotion-focused coping?

A

Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to our stress reaction.

110
Q

What is personal control?

A

Our sense of controlling our environment rather than feeling helpless.

111
Q

What is learned helplessness?

A

The helplessness and passive resignation an animal or person learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events.

112
Q

What is external locus of control?

A

The perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate.

113
Q

What is internal locus of control?

A

The perception that we control our own fate.

114
Q

What is self-control?

A

The ability to control impulses and delay short-term gratification for greater long-term rewards.

115
Q

What is observational learning?

A

Learning by observing others.

116
Q

What is modeling?

A

The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior.

117
Q

What are mirror neurons?

A

Frontal lobe neurons that some scientists believe fire when we perform certain actions or observe another doing so.

118
Q

What is prosocial behavior?

A

Positive, constructive, helpful behavior.