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The Mind At Work

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Term
Definition
Consciousness   The awareness of sensations, thoughts, and feelings being experienced at a given moment  
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Stage 1 Sleep   The state of transition between wakefulness and sleep, characterized by relatively rapid, low-amplitude brain waves  
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Stage 2 Sleep   A sleep deeper than that of stage 1, characterized by a slower, more regular wave pattern, along with momentary interruptions of sleep spindles  
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Stage 3 Sleep   The deepest stage of sleep, during which we are least responsive to outside stimulation  
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Rapid Eye Movement (REM) Sleep   Sleep occupying 20 percent of an adult’s sleeping time, characterized by increased heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate; erections (in males); eye movements; and the experience of dreaming  
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Unconscious Wish Fulfillment Theory   Sigmund Freud’s theory that dreams represent unconscious wishes that dreamers desire to see fulfilled  
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Latent Content of Dreams   According to Sigmund Freud, the “disguised” meaning of dreams, hidden by more obvious subjects  
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Manifest Content of Dreams   According to Sigmund Freud, the apparent story line of dreams  
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Dreams-for-Survival Theory   The theory suggesting that dreams permit information that is critical for our daily survival to be reconsidered and reprocessed during sleep  
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Activation-Synthesis Theory   J. Allan Hobson’s theory that the brain produces random electrical energy during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep that stimulates memories stored in the brain  
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Circadian Rhythm   Biological processes that occur regularly on approximately a 24-hour cycle  
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Hypnosis   A trancelike state of heightened susceptibility to the suggestions of others  
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Meditation   A learned technique for refocusing attention that brings about an altered state of consciousness  
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Psychoactive Drugs   Drugs that influence a person’s emotions, perceptions, and behavior  
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Addictive Drugs   Drugs that produce a biological or psychological dependence in the user so that withdrawal from them leads to a craving for the drug that, in some cases, may be nearly irresistible  
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Stimulants   Drugs that have an arousal effect on the central nervous system, causing a rise in heart rate, blood pressure, and muscular tension  
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Depressants   Drugs that slow down the nervous system  
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Narcotics   Drugs that increase relaxation and relieve pain and anxiety  
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Learning   A relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience  
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Classical Conditioning   A type of learning in which a neutral stimulus comes to bring about a response after it is paired with a stimulus that naturally brings about that response  
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Neutral Stimulus   A stimulus that, before conditioning, does not naturally bring about the response of interest  
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Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)   A stimulus that naturally brings about a particular response without having been learned  
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Unconditioned Response (UCR)   A response that is natural and needs no training (e.g., salivation at the smell of food)  
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Conditioned Stimulus (CS)   A once-neutral stimulus that has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus to bring about a response formerly caused only by the unconditioned stimulus  
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Conditioned Response (CR)   A response that, after conditioning, follows a previously neutral stimulus (e.g., salivation at the ringing of a bell)  
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Extinction   A basic phenomenon of learning that occurs when a previously conditioned response decreases in frequency and eventually disappears  
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Spontaneous Recovery   The reemergence of an extinguished conditioned response after a period of rest and with no further conditioning  
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Stimulus Generalization   A process in which, after a stimulus has been conditioned to produce a particular response, stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus produce the same response  
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Stimulus Discrimination   The process that occurs if two stimuli are sufficiently distinct from each other that one evokes a conditioned response but the other does not; the ability to differentiate between stimuli  
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Operant Conditioning   Learning in which a voluntary response is strengthened or weakened, depending on the response’s favorable or unfavorable consequences  
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Reinforcement   The process by which a stimulus increases the probability that a preceding behavior will be repeated  
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Reinforcer   Any stimulus that increases the probability that a preceding behavior will occur again  
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Positive Reinforcer   A stimulus added to the environment that brings about an increase in a preceding response  
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Negative Reinforcer   An unpleasant stimulus whose removal leads to an increase in the probability that a preceding response will be repeated in the future  
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Punishment   A stimulus that decreases the probability that a previous behavior will occur again  
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Schedules of Reinforcement   The pattern of frequency and timing of reinforcement following desired behavior  
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Continuous Reinforcement Schedule   A schedule in which behavior is reinforced every time the behavior occurs  
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Partial (or Intermittent) Reinforcement Schedule   Reinforcing of a behavior some but not all of the time  
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Fixed-Ratio Schedule   A schedule by which reinforcement is given only after a specific number of responses are made  
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Variable-Ratio Schedule   A schedule in which reinforcement occurs after an average number of responses, but the reinforcement schedule is unpredictable  
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Fixed-Interval Schedule   A schedule that provides reinforcement for a response only if a fixed time period has elapsed, making overall rates of response relatively low  
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Variable-Interval Schedule   A schedule by which the time between reinforcements varies around some average rather than being fixed  
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Shaping   The process of teaching a complex behavior by rewarding closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior  
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Behavior Modification   A formalized technique for promoting the frequency of desirable behaviors and decreasing the incidence of unwanted ones  
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Cognitive Learning Theory   An approach to the study of learning that focuses on the thought processes that underlie learning  
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Latent Learning   Learning in which a new behavior is acquired but is not demonstrated until some incentive is provided for displaying it  
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Cognitive Map   A mental representation of spatial locations and directions  
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Observational Learning   Learning by observing the behavior of another person, or model  
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Cognitive Psychology   The branch of psychology that focuses on the study of higher mental processes, including thinking, language, memory, problem solving, knowing, reasoning, judging, and decision making  
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Memory   The process by which we encode, store, and retrieve information  
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Sensory Memory   The initial, momentary storage of information, lasting only an instant  
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Short-Term Memory   Memory that holds information for 15 to 25 seconds  
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Long-Term Memory   Memory that stores information on a relatively permanent basis, although it may be difficult to retrieve  
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Chunk   A meaningful grouping of stimuli that can be stored as a unit in short-term memory  
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Rehearsal   The repetition of information that has entered short-term memory  
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Declarative Memory   Memory for factual information: names, faces, dates, and the like  
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Procedural Memory   Memory for skills and habits, such as riding a bike or hitting a baseball, sometimes referred to as nondeclarative memory or implicit memory  
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Semantic Memory   Memory for general knowledge and facts about the world, as well as memory for the rules of logic that are used to deduce other facts  
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Episodic Memory   Memory for events that occur in a particular time, place, or context  
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Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon   The inability to recall information that one realizes one knows—a result of the difficulty of retrieving information from long-term memory  
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Recall   Memory task in which specific information must be retrieved  
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Recognition   Memory task in which individuals are presented with a stimulus and asked whether they have been exposed to it in the past or to identify it from a list of alternatives; generally easier than recall  
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Levels-of-Processing Theory   The theory of memory that emphasizes the degree to which new material is mentally analyzed  
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Explicit Memory   Intentional or conscious recollection of information  
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Implicit Memory   Memories of which people are not consciously aware, but which can affect subsequent performance and behavior  
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Flashbulb Memories   Memories centered on a specific, important, or surprising event that are so vivid it is as if they represented a snapshot of the event (like remembering where you were and what you were doing on 9/11)  
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Constructive Processes   Processes in which memories are influenced by the meaning we give to events  
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Schemas   Organized bodies of information stored in memory that bias the way new information is interpreted, stored, and recalled; sets of cognitions about people and social experiences  
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Autobiographical Memories   Our recollections of circumstances and episodes from our own lives  
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Decay   The loss of information in memory through its nonuse  
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Interference   The phenomenon by which information in memory disrupts the recall of other information  
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Cue-Dependent Forgetting   Forgetting that occurs when there are insufficient retrieval cues to rekindle information that is in memory  
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Proactive Interference   Interference in which information learned earlier disrupts the recall of newer information  
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Retroactive Interference   Interference in which there is difficulty in the recall of information learned earlier because of later exposure to different material  
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Thinking   Brain activity in which people mentally manipulate information, including words, visual images, sounds, or other data  
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Mental Images   Representations in the mind that resemble the object or event being represented  
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Concepts   Mental groupings of similar objects, events, or people  
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Prototypes   Typical, highly representative samples of a concept  
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Algorithm   A rule that, if applied appropriately, guarantees a solution to a problem  
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Heuristic   A thinking strategy that may lead us to a solution to a problem or decision, but—unlike algorithms—may sometimes lead to errors  
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Means-Ends Analysis   Problem solving which involves repeated tests for differences between the desired outcome and what currently exists  
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Functional Fixedness   The tendency to think of an object only in terms of its typical use  
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Language   The communication of information through symbols arranged according to systematic rules  
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Babble   Meaningless speechlike sounds made by children from around the age of 3 months through 1 year  
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Telegraphic Speech   Sentences in which only essential words are used, typically including only nouns and verbs  
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Overgeneralization   The phenomenon by which children overapply a language rule, thereby making a linguistic error (like adding -ed to walk to create "walked", and adding -ed to run to create "runned")  
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Learning-Theory Approach to Language Development   The theory suggesting that language acquisition (gaining) follows the principles of reinforcement and conditioning  
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Nativist Approach (to Language Development)   Theory that humans are genetically prewired to learn language at certain times and in particular ways  
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Universal Grammar   Noam Chomsky’s theory that all the world’s languages share a common underlying structure  
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Language-Acquisition Device   A neural system of the brain hypothesized by Noam Chomsky to permit understanding of language  
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Interactionist Approach to Language Development   The view that language development is produced through a combination of genetically determined predispositions and environmental circumstances that help teach language  
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Linguistic-Relativity Hypothesis   The hypothesis that language shapes and helps determine the way people perceive and understand the world  
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