impression formation

the process in which an individual develops a schema of some object, person, or group. Early research on impression formation demonstrated that impressions were often influenced by the primacy effect; more recent studies have focused on the roles played in the process by such factors as the perceiver’s cognitive processes (e.g., how readily some types of ideas come to mind) and feelings (e.g., anger can predispose the perceiver to stereotype an individual).

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Psychology term of the day

January 28th 2025

autophony

n. the hearing of one’s own voice reverberating inside one’s head. Autophony is usually caused by diseases of the middle ear, such as serous otitis media, a condition called patulous eustachian tube in which the eustachian tube remains open, or superior canal dehiscence. Also called autophonia; autophonic response.