KS3 Psychology Key Terms & Vocabulary

Basal ganglia

the brain region that turns repeated actions into automatic habits.

Cue

the trigger that tells your brain to start a habit, such as a time, place or feeling.

Delayed gratification

resisting a small reward now to get a bigger reward later.

Dopamine

a brain chemical linked to reward, pleasure and motivation.

Dopamine

released when we expect a reward, not only when we get it.

Fixed mindset

the belief that your intelligence and talents cannot change.

Goal

something you decide you want to achieve and work towards.

Growth mindset

the belief that your abilities can improve through effort and practice.

Habit

a behaviour you repeat so often that it becomes automatic and needs little thought.

Mistakes

a normal part of learning, and how you bounce back from them is what matters most.

Motivation

the drive that makes us start an action and keep going toward a goal.

Neuroplasticity

the brain can keep changing and growing new connections throughout life.

Resilience

being able to cope with hard times and bounce back from difficulties.

Resilience

not a fixed trait you are born with; it is a skill you can build with practice.

Reward

the good feeling that makes the brain want to repeat the loop next time.

Routine

the actual behaviour you carry out — the habit itself.

Our actions

driven by basic needs like food and sleep, and by rewards we want to gain.

Willpower

mental effort that can run low, so it is hard to rely on it all day.

The idea that any habit forms in exactly 21 days is a popular myth, not a scientific finding.

Asking for help when you are struggling is a sign of resilience, not weakness.

"Bouncing back" means recovering and keeping going after something goes wrong.

When neurons send messages to each other a pathway forms, and practice makes that pathway stronger.

Breaking a big goal into small steps makes it feel manageable instead of overwhelming.

Calming strategies like deep breathing can help you manage stress in a difficult moment.

Celebrating small steps and effort keeps you motivated when things feel hard.

The psychologist Carol Dweck introduced the idea of fixed and growth mindsets.

In a growth mindset, effort is seen as the way to get better at something.

Physical activity like a short walk can raise dopamine and boost motivation.

Studying for a test to get a good grade is an example of extrinsic motivation.

Extrinsic motivation comes from outside — doing something to earn a reward or avoid a punishment.

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Chunking

grouping information into small sets so it is easier to hold and remember.

Cue

a reminder, like a smell or place, that helps us pull a memory back out.

Decay

memories fade over time if we never use or recall them.

Encoding

putting information into the memory in a form the brain can store.

Forgetting

a normal part of how the brain works, not a sign something is wrong.

Interference

when similar memories get mixed up and one is harder to recall.

Memory

how the brain takes in, keeps, and brings back information.

Mnemonic

a memory trick, such as a rhyme, picture or word, that gives your memory a hook.

Punishment

an unpleasant consequence after a behaviour that makes it less likely to be repeated.

Reinforcement

when something that follows a behaviour makes that behaviour more likely to happen again.

Retrieval failure

when a memory is stored but we cannot pull it out at the moment.

Retrieval

getting stored information back out when you need it.

Reward

a pleasant thing given after a behaviour that makes you more likely to repeat it.

Storage

keeping information in the memory over time.

The acronym ROY G BIV uses first letters to help recall the rainbow colours in order.

Testing yourself (active recall) fixes memories better than just rereading notes.

A lot of the brain's myelin is built during childhood, which is one reason young people pick up new skills quickly.

Cramming everything the night before leads to worse long-term memory than spreading it out.

Pairing words with a picture or diagram, called dual coding, makes information easier to remember.

The forgetting curve, found by Hermann Ebbinghaus, shows how quickly we forget new information over time.

Flashcards work because they make you actively recall the answer instead of just reading it.

We forget fastest just after learning, then the rate of forgetting slows down.

Without going over it again, we forget about 70% of new information within a day.

Without review, a new memory naturally gets weaker over time — this fading is called the forgetting curve.

We forget most new information quickly, so reviewing it again at intervals stops it fading.

Forgetting can mean the information is still stored but hard to retrieve.

The hippocampus helps turn short-term memories into lasting long-term memories.

Mixing different topics in one study session, called interleaving, strengthens memory more than doing one topic only.

Long-term memory has a huge, almost unlimited capacity.

Long-term memory can hold information for years, even a lifetime.

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Body clock

your body's own internal clock that controls when you feel sleepy and awake.

Deep sleep

the hardest stage to wake someone from.

Body clock

set by light entering through the eyes, not by the skin.

Melatonin

the hormone that makes you feel sleepy and helps your body get ready for bed.

Good habit

to stop using screens about an hour before bedtime.

Stage 1

light sleep when you first drift off, and you are easily woken.

Teenagers

more sensitive to the effects of blue light than adults are.

Phones, tablets and other screens give off blue light, which is the type of light that makes you feel alert.

The body clock runs on a cycle of about 24 hours, roughly one day.

The master body clock sits in a tiny part of the brain called the SCN.

The body clock uses light and darkness to decide when you should feel awake or sleepy.

During sleep the body repairs tissues, muscles and cells that were used during the day.

The word "circadian" comes from Latin and means "about a day".

The body clock also controls things like body temperature and other hormones.

The body clock keeps ticking on its own even without seeing daylight, but light keeps it set to 24 hours.

One full sleep cycle lasts about 90 minutes and repeats through the night.

Most people go through about four to six sleep cycles each night.

Darkness in the evening normally tells the brain to release melatonin a couple of hours before sleep.

In deep sleep the body repairs itself, builds muscle and bone, and strengthens the immune system.

Most vivid dreams happen during REM sleep.

All humans need sleep; you cannot train yourself to do without it for long.

Growth hormone, which helps your body grow and repair itself, is mostly released during deep sleep.

Lack of sleep makes it harder to concentrate and pay attention.

A tired brain finds it harder to take in and learn new information.

Too little sleep can make you irritable, moody and quick to overreact.

Jet lag happens when fast travel across time zones leaves your body clock out of step with local time.

Light and darkness are the strongest signals that set the body clock.

When light reaches your eyes the brain slows melatonin production, helping you feel awake.

In darkness the body makes more melatonin, a hormone that makes you feel sleepy.

When very sleep-deprived, the brain can have tiny "microsleeps" lasting a few seconds without you noticing.

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Axon

the long, tail-like part of a neuron that carries messages away from the cell body.

Cerebellum

sometimes called the "little brain" because it looks like a small cerebrum.

Cerebrum

the largest part of the brain.

Cerebrum

the part of the brain used for thinking, learning and memory.

Central nervous system

made up of the brain and the spinal cord.

Psychology

the study of the mind and behaviour — how people think, feel and act.

Dendrites

the branch-like parts of a neuron that receive messages and pass them to the cell body.

EEG

often used to diagnose epilepsy and to study sleep.

Cerebrum

split into two halves called hemispheres.

Adrenaline

the hormone released into the blood that triggers fight or flight.

Psychology

a science, not just opinions, because it tests ideas with evidence.

Myelin sheath

a fatty layer around the axon that helps the message travel faster.

Neuron

a nerve cell that carries messages around the body as electrical and chemical signals.

Peripheral nervous system

the network of nerves connecting the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body.

Psychologist

a scientist who studies how the mind affects what people do.

Synapse

the tiny gap between one neuron and the next.

The fight-or-flight response happens automatically, without you deciding or thinking about it.

The brain detects danger first, then starts the body's reaction.

The brain stem controls automatic jobs like breathing and heart rate.

The brain stem connects the brain to the spinal cord.

Clinical psychology studies mental health and helps people who are struggling.

Cognitive psychology studies how people think, learn and remember.

Developmental psychology studies how people grow and change as they get older.

Social psychology studies how people behave in and are affected by groups.

During fight-or-flight, breathing speeds up to get more oxygen into the blood.

The cell body holds the nucleus and keeps the neuron alive and working.

The cerebellum controls balance and coordination of movement.

The cerebellum sits at the back of the brain, below the cerebrum.

Doctors use CT scans to find bleeding, swelling or fractures in the brain quickly.

A CT scan uses X-rays to show the brain's structure, often in emergencies.

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Person

more likely to help when they are alone than when in a group.

Altruism

helping someone without expecting any reward in return.

Albert Bandura

the psychologist who studied how children learn by watching others.

Bias

a leaning towards or against someone that can make our judgement unfair.

Bystander effect

when people are less likely to help if other people are around.

Conformity

changing your behaviour or beliefs to match a group.

Conforming

changing our behaviour to match a group so we fit in and feel accepted.

Discrimination

treating someone unfairly because of the group they belong to.

Empathy

understanding and sharing how another person feels.

Halo effect

when one good quality, like being attractive, makes us assume someone is good in other ways too.

First impressions

quick guesses, so they can sometimes be wrong or unfair.

First impression

the quick opinion we form about someone soon after meeting them.

Learner

an actor and the electric shocks were not real, though the teacher believed they were.

Obedience

doing what a person in charge (an authority figure) tells you to do.

Obedience

following an order from someone in charge; conformity is copying a group to fit in.

Peer pressure

the feeling that you should act like the people around you.

Peer pressure

the influence from people in your own social group, like friends or classmates.

Prejudice

judging or disliking someone unfairly before getting to know them.

Primacy effect

the first thing we learn about someone shapes how we see them afterwards.

Prosocial behaviour

doing something to help or benefit another person.

One reason people conform

to fit in and be accepted by the group.

Another reason people conform

feeling unsure and assuming the group knows best.

Stereotype

a fixed idea that all people in a group are the same.

People often judge others on appearance, but looks do not tell you what someone is really like.

Most of Asch's group were confederates: actors told to give the same wrong answer.

Many of Asch's participants knew the group was wrong but agreed anyway.

In Asch's study, having just one other person give the right answer made people much less likely to conform.

Solomon Asch ran a famous conformity study using lines in the 1950s.

In Asch's study about 75% of people conformed to the wrong answer at least once.

In Asch's study people had to say which line matched a target line in length.

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Attention

how your brain chooses what to focus on out of everything around you.

Cocktail party effect

focusing on one conversation in a noisy room while ignoring the rest.

Divided attention

trying to pay attention to more than one thing at the same time.

Figure-ground

the brain separates a scene into the main object (figure) and the background (ground).

Five main senses

sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste.

Hearing

the sense that uses the ears to detect sound.

Optical illusion

when your brain sees something differently from how it really is.

Inattentional blindness

missing something in plain sight because your attention is elsewhere.

What feels like multitasking

usually your brain quickly switching between tasks.

Perception

when your brain organises and makes sense of the signals your senses detect.

Top-down processing

using what you already know and expect to understand what you see.

Receptors

special cells in a sense organ that detect a stimulus and start a signal.

Sensory receptors

special cells in your sense organs that detect signals like light, sound or touch.

Selective attention

focusing on one thing while ignoring other things around you.

Sensation

when your sense organs detect a signal from the world, like a sound or a smell.

Sense organ

a body part, like the eye or ear, that detects something in the world.

Sensory adaptation

when you stop noticing a signal that does not change, like steady background noise.

Sight

the sense that uses the eyes to detect light.

Smell

the sense that uses the nose to detect chemicals floating in the air.

Taste

the sense that uses the tongue to detect chemicals in food.

Top-down processing

using what you already know to make sense of what you sense.

Touch

the sense that uses the skin to detect pressure, pain and temperature.

Staring at a bright image then looking away can leave a faint afterimage you still seem to see.

An ambiguous figure has two possible meanings, and the brain switches between them.

Your brain can only process a limited amount of information at any one time.

Attention helps you pick out information that is useful and ignore what is not.

The eyes take in light, but the brain decides what the image means.

The brain, not the eyes or ears, does the perceiving by interpreting the messages sent to it.

The brain fills in missing parts of a scene using what it expects to be there.

Your brain does not just copy what your eyes see; it makes a clever guess about what is really there.

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Every emotion

normal, even uncomfortable ones like sadness or anger.

Amygdala

a part of the brain that detects danger and helps trigger emotions like fear.

Physical activity

one of the best things you can do for your mental wellbeing and can boost your mood.

Caffeine

a stimulant, so energy drinks and cola in the evening make it harder to sleep.

Emotion

a feeling, such as happiness or sadness, that you experience.

Emotion

a feeling, such as happiness or fear, that the brain creates in response to a situation.

Emotions

useful because they help warn us of danger and keep us safe.

Fear

useful because it warns us about danger so we can react quickly.

All feelings

normal; there are no "good" or "bad" emotions to have.

Mental health

about how we think, feel and cope with everyday life.

Fight-flight-freeze response

automatic, so you do not have to think about it for it to happen.

Self-care

looking after yourself and doing things that help your mind and body feel well.

Stress

a normal response to a challenging or new situation, and everyone feels it sometimes.

Wellbeing

feeling good and able to cope with the ups and downs of life.

When you feel stressed, your body releases a chemical called adrenaline.

Blue light from screens interrupts melatonin, the hormone that helps control sleep.

We can often work out what we are feeling from sensations in our body.

In fight-flight-freeze, the heart speeds up, breathing quickens, and muscles tense ready for action.

We cannot choose our feelings, but we can choose how we respond to them.

Connecting with friends and family helps you feel good and cope better with hard times.

Slow, deep breathing signals to your body that you are safe and helps calm the stress response.

Ekman found that people from very different cultures recognise the same facial expressions for basic emotions.

Emotions change how we think, how our body feels and how we behave.

Emotions act as signals that give us useful information about what is happening.

Strong emotions cause body signals, such as a faster heartbeat or a churning stomach.

Each basic emotion shows on the face in a way other people can usually recognise.

The basic emotions (such as happiness, fear and anger) are recognised by people in every culture around the world.

Most emotions usually fade away with time rather than lasting forever.

Everyone has mental health, just like everyone has physical health.

Basic emotions show up in our facial expressions, which is how others read them.

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