AP Psych Ch1 : Scientific foundations + Statistics terms

• Inferential statistics


  use to compare differences, find statistical significance, or draw a conclusion. ex: probability testing
• Descriptive


  use to summarize, organize, or characterize. ex: correlation, central tendency
• Mean

  add up all value and divide by # of values
• Median


  line up all #s from smallest to largest then find the middle
• Mode


  Most frequently occurring data #
• Normal/Bell Curve tendencies

  Median, Mode, and Mean are all the same or close
• Negative skew tendencies

  Left skew, most scores are in the high range
• Positive skew tendencies

  Right skew, most scores are in the low range
• Range


  Highest # minus the lowest #, the bigger the range the higher standard deviation
• 68% of people score within 1 standard deviation


  95% of people score within 2 standard deviations of the mean

  
• finding standard deviation

  take square root of the variance
• Case Study


  examine one person or group in depth
• Debriefing


  explaining to participants, at the end of an experiment, the true purpose of the study and exactly what transpired
• Positive skew example


  w

  
• Negative skew example peaks right


  right

  
• Memory is learning that persists over time; it is information that has been acquired and stored and can be retrieved.
• Research on memory’s extremes has helped us understand how memory works.
• Explicit memories are involved in Carlos’ errand.
• Storage is keeping that name in your memory.
• Retrieval is the process of using that name when greeting the new student later.
• At age 92, my father suffered a small stroke that had but one peculiar effect: he lost most of his ability to lay down new memories of conversations and everyday episodes.
• Alzheimer’s disease severely damages the brain, and in the process, strips away memory.
• Some disorders slowly strip away memory.
• Alzheimer’s disease begins as difficulty remembering new information and progresses into an inability to do everyday tasks.
• Evidence of memory may be seen in an ability to recall information, recognize it, or relearn it more easily on a later attempt.
• Memory is learning that has persisted over time, through the storage and retrieval of information.
• The connectionism information-processing model views memories as products of interconnected neural networks.
• Psychologists use memory models to think and communicate about memory.
• Through parallel processing, the human brain processes many things simultaneously.
• The three processing stages in the Atkinson-Shiffrin model are sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
• Information-processing models involve three processes: encoding, storage, and retrieval.
• Family members and close friends become strangers; complex speech devolves to simple sentences; the brain’s memory centers weaken and wither.
• Over several years, someone with Alzheimer’s may become unknowing and unknowable.
• Lost memory strikes at the core of our humanity, leaving people robbed of a sense of joy, meaning, and companionship.
• Science writer Joshua Foer wanted to improve his ordinary memory, and after a year of intense practice, he won the U.S. Memory Championship by memorizing a pack of 52 playing cards in under two minutes.
• With practice, the peg-word system can enable us to count by peg-words instead of numbers and recall items in any order and to name any given item.
• Mnemonics are memory aids, often using vivid imagery, that can enhance recall.
• The peg-word system is a mnemonic that utilizes our superior visual-imagery skill, requiring memorization of a jingle and visual association of the peg-words with to-be-remembered items.
• Chunking is an effortful processing strategy that involves organizing information into manageable units, which can enhance recall.
• Memory whizzes, such as those who compete in the World Memory Championships, often have exceptional memory skills, but their superiority is usually due to their superior use of mnemonic strategies, not their intelligence.