Bio
A branch of genetics that focuses on "gene expression" - that is, how environmental factors may "activate" genes.
Epigenetics
The process by which someone comes into contact with another culture and begins to adopt the norms and behaviors of that culture.
Acculturation
an individual relies too heavily on an initial piece of information offered (known as the "anchor") when making decisions.
Anhoring Bias
Pooling data from multiple studies of the same research question to arrive at one combined answer.
Meta Analysis
Using multiple data sources, multiple researchers, or multiple research methods in an investigation to reach a richer understanding of a behavior or cognitive process.
Triangulation
The clinical term for identical twins; they share 100% of their DNA.
Monozygotic Twins
the process of interaction and integration among people of different nations and cultures.
Globalization
the tendency of people to think and solve problems in simpler and less effortful ways rather than in more sophisticated and more effortful ways, regardless of intelligence.
Cognitive Misers
A study that attempts to find a correlation between two variables by collecting data early in the life of participants and then continuing to test them over a period of time to measure change and development.
Prospective Research
An actor who participates in a psychological experiment pretending to be a subject but in actuality working for the researcher
Confederate
refers to the process by which extra neurons and synaptic connections are eliminated in order to increase the efficiency of neuronal transmissions.
Neural Pruning
people see a relationship between two variables even when there is none.
Illusory correlation
The component of Baddeley & Hitch's Working Memory Model responsible for processing auditory information.
Phonological Loop
research over a period of time using observations, interviews, or psychometric testing. (Similar to a repeated measures design in an experiment).
Longitudinal study
When a researcher joins a group in order to better observe and understand their behavior.
Participant observation
a chemical or a drug that binds to receptors in the brain and causes a reaction. They can occur naturally in the body as neurotransmitters (endogenous agonists) or come from exterior sources like drugs and toxins (exogenous agonists).
Agonists
when one is highly aware of one of their membership in a social group.
Salience
The component of Baddeley & Hitch's Working Memory Model which holds information about what we see.
Visuospatial Sketchpad
cause and effect relationships where the effects become causes and there is a sequential unfolding of effects over time.
Domino Causality
an experiment in which the researchers know which participants are receiving treatment and which are not; however, the participants do not know which condition they are in.
Single Blind Testing
The theory that you may have genes that may make you more likely to have certain traits if those genes are exposed to the appropriate environmental stressors.
Genetic Vulnerability
when it is not really possible to maintain one’s original culture, but because of exclusion or discrimination, it is not possible to assimilate into a new culture.
Marginalization
a memory error that produces fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world.
Confabulation
a beneficial effect produced by a placebo drug or treatment, which cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must, therefore, be due to the patient's belief in that treatment.
Placebo Effect
We cannot be sure whether variable A causes a change in variable B or vice versa. It could also be that there is no cause-and-effect relationship in either direction, but that it is interactive or caused by another, underdetermined "third variable."
Bidirectional ambiguity