Sleep
A recurring sleep stage during which vivid dreams commonly occur. Also known as paradoxical sleep because the muscles are relaxed but other body systems are active.
Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically.
Chunking
In classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally - naturally and automatically - triggers an unconditioned response (UCR).
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
The partly conscious part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment and for future aspirations.
Superego
In psychoanalysis, the patient's transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred for a parent).
Transference
The relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake state.
Alpha waves
Enhanced memory after Retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information.
Testing effect (also called retrieval practice effect or test-enhanced learning)
The reappearance, after a pause, of a weakened conditioned response.
Spontaneous recovery
In psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.
Defense mechanisms
Therapies that aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing a person's awareness of underlying motives and defenses.
Insight therapies
A pair of cell clusters in the hypothalamus that controls circadian rhythm.
Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)
A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.
Flashbulb memory
Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing an aversive stimulus.
Negative reinforcement
A caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude, which Carl Rogers believed would help people develop self-awareness and self-acceptance.
Unconditional positive regard (also known as unconditional regard)
A false belief, often of persecution or grandeur, that may accompany psychotic disorders.
Delusion
Recurring problems in falling or staying asleep.
Insomnia
The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood.
Mood-congruent memory
In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses.
Fixed-ratio schedule
Five traits - openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism - that describe personality.
Big Five factors (also called the five-factor model)
A rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating identities.
Dissociative identity disorder (DID) (formally called multiple personality disorder)
A sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and repeated momentary awakenings.
Sleep apnea
Our tendency to recall best the last items in a list initially (a recency effect), and the first items in a list after a delay (a primacy effect).
Serial position effect
Neurons that some scientists believe fire when we perform certain actions or observe another doing so.
Mirror neurons
The interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment.
Reciprocal determinism
A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by limitations in communication and social interaction, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)