The Neuron & Neural Firing
A neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon.
Action potential
A measure of memory in which the person identifies items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test.
Recognition
In Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) at which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.
Sensorimotor Stage
Adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.
Conformity
The concept that diseases have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and, in most cases, cured, often through treatment in a hospital.
Medical model
In neural processing, a brief resting pause that occurs after a neuron has fired; subsequent action potentials cannot occur until the axon returns to its resting state.
Refractory period
The process of retaining encoded information over time.
Storage
The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.
Object permanence
The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.
Groupthink
The concept that genetic predispositions combine with environmental stressors to influence psychological disorder.
Diathesis-stress model
Neurotransmitter that influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion.
Dopamine
Processing multiple aspects of a stimulus or problem simultaneously.
Parallel processing
In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) at which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.
Formal operational stage
A culturally modeled guide for how to act in various situations.
Social script
This perspective on psychological disorders explains them by saying they are maladaptive thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, or emotions.
Cognitive
A major inhibitory neurotransmitter.
GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)
A memory component that briefly holds auditory information.
Phonological loop
In Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view.
Egocentrism
The tendency for repeated exposure to novel stimuli to increase our liking of them.
Mere exposure effect
A widely used system for classifying psychological disorders.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR)
A neurotransmitter's reabsorption by the sending neuron.
Reuptake
An increase in a nerve cell's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; a neural basis for learning and memory.
In Vygotsky's theory, a framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking.
Scaffold
A belief that leads to its own fulfillment.
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Self-harm that includes cuts or burns to their skin, hits themselves, or inserts objects under their nails or skin.
Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI)