23 of the Psychology glossary’s terms, each with the part of the syllabus where you first meet it.
An experiment carried out in a controlled, artificial setting where the researcher manipulates the independent variable and keeps other variables as constant as possible.
A type of artificial intelligence trained on very large collections of text to predict and generate language, used in chatbots and writing assistants.
A theme that goes beyond what participants said explicitly to identify the underlying ideas, assumptions or social meanings that shape the content of the data.
The specialisation of the two cerebral hemispheres for different functions, such as language being processed mainly in the left hemisphere in most people.
Thorndike’s principle that responses followed by satisfying consequences become more likely to recur in the same situation, and those followed by unpleasant consequences less likely.
A question whose wording suggests a particular answer, which can bias the reply and, in eyewitness research, alter what is later remembered.
A state of passivity in which an animal or person stops trying to escape or avoid harm after repeated exposure to unpleasant events it could not control.
The idea that acquiring a behaviour through observation is separate from carrying it out, so a behaviour can be learned but only performed later, when the expected consequences make it worthwhile.
An area of damaged or destroyed brain tissue, caused by injury, disease or surgery; studying the effects of lesions is a main method of linking brain areas to functions.
A classification of quantitative data by the information its numbers carry: nominal (categories), ordinal (ranks), and interval or ratio (equal units). It decides which graphs and statistics can be used.
A model of memory proposed by Craik and Lockhart (1972) in which how long information is retained depends on the depth of processing at encoding, from shallow (structural) to deep (semantic).
A rating scale on which participants show how far they agree or disagree with a statement, usually on five or seven points from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
A graph in which points joined by lines show how a variable changes over time or across ordered levels of another variable.
A straight line drawn through the points of a scatterplot so that it lies as close as possible to all of them, showing the direction and slope of a linear relationship.
The hypothesis that the structure and vocabulary of the language a person speaks influence how they perceive, remember and think about the world.
A summary and evaluation of published research on a topic that explains what is already known and shows how a new investigation builds on it.
The theory that specific areas of the brain are responsible for specific psychological functions, so that damage to one area produces a predictable loss of that function.
A memory store that holds information for periods from minutes to a lifetime, with a capacity that is practically unlimited.
A long-lasting strengthening of a synapse that follows repeated stimulation, so that the receiving neuron responds more strongly; it is a leading cellular explanation of learning and memory.
A research design that measures the same participants repeatedly over an extended period, so that change within individuals and the order of events can be studied.
The tendency for losses to have a greater psychological impact than gains of the same size, so that people take risks to avoid a loss that they would not take to secure an equal gain.
A compliance technique in which a person agrees to a request at a low cost, and the cost is then raised; many still comply because they feel committed to their earlier decision.
A culture in which most of the meaning of a message is carried by explicit words, so communication tends to be direct and relies little on shared context or non-verbal cues.