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a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span. |
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| agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm. |
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| biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience. |
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| the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. |
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| a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information. |
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| interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas. |
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the process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina.
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in Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.
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| the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived. |
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| in Piaget’s theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic. |
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the principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.
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| n Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view. |
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| people’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states—about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict. |
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| concrete operational stage |
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| in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events. |
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| in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts. |
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| the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age. |
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an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism’s exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development.
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| the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life. |
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| the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence. |
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| primary sex charcteristics |
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| The body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible. |
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| secondary sex characteristics |
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| nonreproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair. |
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| our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles. |
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| the “we” aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to “Who am I?” that comes from our group memberships. |
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| for some people in modern cultures, a period from the late teens to mid-twenties, bridging the gap between adolescent dependence and full independence and responsible adulthood. |
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| our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age. |
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| our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood. |
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| the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment. |
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| the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events. |
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analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information.
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| information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations. |
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| the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them. |
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| the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time. |
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| below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness. |
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| the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response. |
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| the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time. We experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference |
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| the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount). |
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| diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation. |
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| the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next. Electromagnetic wavelengths vary from the short blips of cosmic rays to the long pulses of radio transmission. |
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| the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth. |
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| the amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the wave’s amplitude. |
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| the light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information. |
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| the process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina. |
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| retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond. |
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| retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. The cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations. |
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| the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain. |
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| the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a “blind” spot because no receptor cells are located there. |
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| the central focal point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones cluster. |
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| nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of a stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement. |
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| the processing of many 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. |
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| the theory that the retina contains three different color receptors—one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue—which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color. |
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| 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. |
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| the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time (for example, per second) |
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| a tone’s experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency. |
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| the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window. |
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| a coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses. |
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| the innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs. |
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| the system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts. |
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| the sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance. |
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| the theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain. The “gate” is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain. |
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| the principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste. |
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| an organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes. |
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| the organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground). |
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| the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups. |
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| the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance. |
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| depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the use of two eyes. |
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| a binocular cue for perceiving depth: By comparing images from the retinas in the two eyes, the brain computes distance—the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object. |
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| depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone. |
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| perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent shapes, size, lightness, and color) even as illumination and retinal images change. |
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| in vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field. |
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| a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another. |
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| the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input, includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition. |
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| the study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis. |
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| 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). |
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| a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events. |
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| the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2). |
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| in classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning. |
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| in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally—naturally and automatically—triggers a response. |
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| in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally—naturally and automatically—triggers a response. |
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| in classical conditioning, a previously neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response. |
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| 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. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response. |
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higher-order conditioning
second-order conditioning |
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| 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. For example, an animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might then learn that a light predicts the tone and begin responding to the light alone. (Also called second-order conditioning.) |
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| the diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus (US) does not follow a conditioned stimulus (CS); occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced. |
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| the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response. |
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| the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses. |
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| unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members. |
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| behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus. |
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| a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher. |
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| behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences. |
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| Thorndike’s principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely. |
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| n operant conditioning research, a chamber (also known as a Skinner box) containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer; attached devices record the animal’s rate of bar pressing or key pecking. |
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| an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior. |
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| increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli, such as food. A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, whenpresented after a response, strengthens the response. |
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| increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli. A negative reinforcer is any stimulus that, when removedafter a response, strengthens the response. (Note: negative reinforcement is not punishment.) |
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| an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need. |
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conditioned reinforcer
secondary reinforcer |
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| a stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer; also known as a secondary reinforcer |
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| in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses. |
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| in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses. |
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| in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed. |
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| in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals. |
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| a mental representation of the layout of one’s environment. For example, after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it. |
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| learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it. |
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| the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior. |
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| frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so. The brain’s mirroring of another’s action may enable imitation and empathy |
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| positive, constructive, helpful behavior. The opposite of antisocial behavior. |
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