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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 the higher level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations |
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| Conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses are brain can interpret |
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| The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time |
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| Hey theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness |
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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% of the time. We experience the difference threshold and 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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| A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another |
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| The distance from the peak of one light or soundwave 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 and a light or sound, 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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| (1) in developmental psychology, adapting our current understanding (schemas) to incorporate new information. (2) in the sensation and perception, the process by which the eyes 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 focus 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 the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement |
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| The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brains natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. Contrasts with the step-by-step (cereal) processing of most computers and of conscious problem-solving |
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| Young – Helmholtz trichromatic (three color) theory |
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| The theory that the retina contains three different color receptors – one the most sensitive to read, one to green, one – which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color |
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| Opponent – process theory |
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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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| 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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| A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals |
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| Depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the use of two eyes |
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| Hey binocular queue for perceiving depth: by comparing images from red nose in the two eyes, the brain computes distance – the greater 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 the (having consistent color, brightness, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change |
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| Perceiving familiar objects as having a consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object |
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| In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field |
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| The proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. The heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied |
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| A self confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype |
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| A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior |
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| A complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned |
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| The idea that a physiological need creates and aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need |
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| A tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level |
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| A positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior |
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| The principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases |
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| Maslow's pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs become active |
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| A desire for significant accomplishment, for mastery of skills or ideas, for control, and for attaining a higher standard |
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| The acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language |
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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 had 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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| They desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake |
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| A desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment |
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| Learning by observing others |
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| The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior |
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| Frontal lobe neurons that some scientist believe fire when performing certain actions or when observing another do so. The brains mirroring of another's actions may enable imitation and empathy |
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| Positive, constructive, helpful behavior. The opposite of antisocial behavior |
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| The process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviors |
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| Learning that certain events occur together. the events maybe two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning) |
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| Any event or situation that evokes a response |
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| The acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language |
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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 psychologist today agree with 1 but not 2 |
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| Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus |
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| In classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning |
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| In classical conditioning, and unlearned, naturally occurring response (such as salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (such as food in the mouth) |
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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 learned response to a previously neutral (but now condition) stimulus |
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| In classical conditioning, and originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response |
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| In classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links in 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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| The diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus; 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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| In classical conditioning the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus. In social psychology unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members |
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| Learning that certain events occur together. The events maybe two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) for your response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning) |
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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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| Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and of that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely |
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| In 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 animals rate of bar pressing or key pecking |
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| In operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows |
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| In 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 reinforcers. He positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response |
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| Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli. And negative reinforcer is any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response |
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| And innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need |
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| Conditioned reinforcer or |
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| A stimulus that games it's reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer; also known as a secondary reinforcer |
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| Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs |
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| A pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced |
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| Partial or intermittent reinforcement |
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| Reinforcing a response only part of the time; result in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement |
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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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| An event that tends to decrease the behavior it follows |
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| Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus |
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| Behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences |
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| All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating |
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| A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, and people |
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| A mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories |
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| A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrast with the usually speedier – but also more error-prone – use of heuristics |
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| A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms |
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| The sudden realization of a problem's solution; contrast with strategy based solutions |
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| A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence |
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| A tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often away that has been successful in the past |
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| An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning |
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| Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability and memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common |
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| The tendency to be more confident than correct – to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments |
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| Clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited |
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| The way in issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments |
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| The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas |
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| Narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution |
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| Expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions) |
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| Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning |
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| In an language, the smallest distinctive sound unit |
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| In a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or part of a word (such as a prefix) |
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| In a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others. In a given language, semantics is the set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds, and syntax is the set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences |
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| Beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language |
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| The stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2 during which a child speaks mostly in single words |
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| Beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements |
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| Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram-"go car"-using mostly nouns and verbs |
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| Impairment of language, usually caused by left-hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speech) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding) |
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| Controls language expression- an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech |
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| Controls language reception- a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe |
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| Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think |
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| Mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations |
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| A general intelligence factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test |
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| The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions |
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| A method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores |
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| A test designed to predict a person's future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn |
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| A test designed to assess what a person has already learned |
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| A measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. Thus, a child who does as well as an average 8-year old is said to have a mental age of 8 |
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| The widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet's original intelligence test |
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| Defined originally as the ratio of mental age to chronological age multiples by 100. On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100 |
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| Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) |
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| The WAIS is the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance subtests |
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| Defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretests group |
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| A symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data; most scores fall near the mean and fewer and fewer near the extremes |
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| The extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, or on retesting |
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| The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to |
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| the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest |
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| The success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior |
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| Crystallized intelligence |
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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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| A condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence test score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life |
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| A condition of mild to severe intellectual disability and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 22 |
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