THURSDAY LONG QUIZ 4 FCKING CHAPTERS

Reliability

(of a test) is defined as the repeatability of its scores.

Biased

(test)overstates or understates the true performance of one or more groups.

Operational Definition of Consciousness

If a cooperative person report being conscious (aware) of one stimulus and not of another, then he or she was conscious of the first and not the second.

Response processes

If a test claims to measure a certain skill, then the test-takers should need to use that skill instead of using shortcuts.

Internal structure

If a test claims to measure a single skill, such as working memory, then all the items should correlate with one another.

Backward masking

If the interfering stimulus follows it but doesn't precede.

Animal magnetism

Mesmer drew the quirky conclusion that he did not need a magnet because he himself was a magnet.

Relation to other variables

Most importantly, if a test is valid, the scores predict important kinds of performance.

Consequences of testing

Tests produce benefits, but also some unintended consequences.

Binocular rivalry

The alternation between seeing the pattern in the left retina and the pattern in the right retina.

Content

The content of a test should match its purposes.

Readiness potential

The increased motor cortex activity prior to the start of the movement.

Déjà vu experience

a feeling that an event is uncannily familiar.

Jet lag

a period of discomfort and inefficiency while your internal clock is out of phase with your new surroundings.

Circadian rhythm

a rhythm of activity and inactivity lasting about a day.

Posthypnotic suggestion

a suggestion to do or experience something after coming out of hypnosis.

Meditation

a systematic procedure for inducing a calm, relaxed state through the use of special techniques

Masking

a word or other stimulus appears on the screen for a fraction of a second, preceded and/or followed by an interfering stimulus.

Activation-synthesis theory of dreams

according to it, dreams occur because the cortex takes the haphazard activity that occurs during REM sleep plus whatever stimuli strike the sense organs and does its best to make sense of this activity.

Epiphenomenon

an accidental by-product with no purpose, like the noise a machine makes.

Coma

caused by traumatic brain damage, the brain shows a steady but low level of activity and no response to any stimulus.

Flynn effect

decade by decade, generation by generation, people's raw scores on IQ tests have gradually increased, and to keep up with this trend, test makers have had to make the tests harder.

Norms

descriptions of how frequently various scores occur.

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep or paradoxical sleep

during this stage of sleep, the sleeper's eyes move rapidly back and forth under the closed lids.

Down syndrome

have a variety of physical and medical impairments as a result of having an extra copy of chromosome #21.

Minimally conscious state

in which people have brief periods of purposeful actions and speech comprehension.

Hypnosis

is a condition of focused attention and increased suggestibility that occurs in the context of a special hypnotist-subject relationship.

Validity

is defined as the degree to which evidence and theory support the interpretations of test scores for the intended purposes.

Melatonin

is important for both circadian rhythms and many species' annual rhythms of reproduction, hibernation, and so forth

Orexin

is important for maintaining long periods of wakefulness.

Neurocognitive theory

is that dreaming is simply a kind of thinking, similar to daydreaming or mind wandering, that occurs under these conditions, reduced sensory stimulation, loss of voluntary control of thinking, and enough activity in other brain areas.

Consciousness

is the subjective experience of perceiving oneself and one's surroundings.

Vegetative state

marked by limited responsiveness, such as increased heart rate in response to pain.

Insomnia

means lack of sleep, not enough sleep for the person to feel rested the next day.

Sleep apnea

means no breathing, failing to breathe for a minute or more and then wake up gasping for breath.

Electroencephalograph (EEG)

measures and amplifies tiny electrical changes on the scalp that reflect patterns.

REM behavior disorder

people with this condition fail to inhibit their muscular activity during REM, and as a result, they sometimes walk around flailing their arms.

Narcolepsy

people with this condition lose the brain cells that produce orexin, and therefore return to a pattern resembling infants. They experience sudden attacks of sleepiness during the day.

Stereotype threat

people's perceived risk of performing poorly and thereby supporting an unfavorable stereotype about their group.

Flash suppression

possibility for the other dots to flash on and off, rapidly.

Polysomnography

produced when combining an EEG measure with a simultaneous measure of eye movements.

Periodic limb movement disorder

prolonged "creepy-crawly" sensations in their legs, accompanied by repetitive leg movements strong enough to awaken the person, especially during the first half of the night.

Mentally challenged or mentally disabled

refers to people more than two standard deviations below average, corresponding to an IQ score of 68 or 70, depending on the test.

Later shift

that is, someone working from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. shifts to the 4 p.m. to midnight time (like traveling west) instead of midnight to 8 a.m. (like traveling east).

Brain death

the brain shows no activity and no response to any stimulus.

Suprachiasmatic nucleus

the circadian rhythm of sleep and wakefulness is generated within the brain by a tiny structure.

Manifest content

the content that appears on the surface.

Test-retest reliability

the correlation between scores on a first test and a retest.

Latent content

the hidden ideas that the dream experience represents symbolically.

Hybrid vigor

the improvement from crossing two genetic strains of a plant.

Standardization

the process of evaluating the questions, establishing rules for administering a test, and interpreting the scores.

Default network

the system active during mind wandering and daydreaming.

Sleep spindles

waves of activity at about 12 to 14 per second.