| Word | Definition & Example |
|---|---|
| cognition n. |
The mental processes involved in thinking, knowing, and remembering. "Cognition develops rapidly during early childhood." Collocations: cognitive development, cognitive function |
| perception n. |
The process of becoming aware of something through the senses. "Visual perception is heavily influenced by expectation." Collocations: sensory perception, depth perception |
| behaviour n. |
The way a person or animal acts. "Operant conditioning shapes behaviour through reinforcement." Collocations: human behaviour, learned behaviour |
| stimulus n. |
Anything that produces a response in an organism. "A loud noise is a stimulus that triggers an immediate startle response." Collocations: external stimulus, conditioned stimulus |
| response n. |
A reaction to a stimulus. "The fight-or-flight response evolved to handle physical threats." Collocations: automatic response, emotional response |
| memory n. |
The ability to store and recall information. "Short-term memory holds about seven items for roughly 20 seconds." Collocations: short-term memory, long-term memory |
| attention n. |
The mental focus given to a particular stimulus. "Selective attention allows us to filter relevant information from background noise." Collocations: selective attention, divided attention |
| motivation n. |
The reasons behind a person's actions. "Intrinsic motivation comes from within rather than from external rewards." Collocations: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation |
| consciousness n. |
Awareness of oneself and one's surroundings. "Consciousness remains one of the hardest problems in psychology." Collocations: altered consciousness, stream of consciousness |
| unconscious adj. |
Not aware; below the level of conscious thought. "Freud argued that unconscious desires shape much of our behaviour." Collocations: unconscious mind, unconscious bias |
| personality n. |
The characteristic patterns of thinking and behaving that define a person. "The 'Big Five' is the most widely used personality framework." Collocations: personality trait, personality disorder |
| development n. |
The process of growth or change over time. "Piaget proposed four stages of cognitive development." Collocations: child development, cognitive development |
| disorder n. |
A condition that disrupts normal functioning. "Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health conditions." Collocations: mental disorder, anxiety disorder |
| therapy n. |
Treatment intended to relieve a disorder or improve well-being. "Cognitive behavioural therapy is effective for many anxiety conditions." Collocations: cognitive therapy, group therapy |
| empirical adj. |
Based on observation or experiment rather than theory. "Psychology relies on empirical evidence to test claims about the mind." Collocations: empirical evidence, empirical study |
| hypothesis n. |
A proposed explanation that can be tested. "The hypothesis predicted that sleep-deprived participants would perform worse." Collocations: test a hypothesis |
| correlation n. |
A relationship in which two variables change together. "Correlation does not prove that one variable causes the other." Collocations: positive correlation, weak correlation |
| reinforcement n. |
Anything that increases the likelihood of a behaviour. "Positive reinforcement strengthens behaviour by adding a reward." Collocations: positive reinforcement, schedule of reinforcement |
| bias n. |
A systematic tendency to favour one outcome. "Confirmation bias leads us to seek information that supports our existing beliefs." Collocations: cognitive bias, confirmation bias |
| intuition n. |
Knowing something without conscious reasoning. "Experienced firefighters often act on intuition built from past situations." Collocations: follow your intuition |
| emotion n. |
A strong feeling such as joy, fear, or anger. "Emotions evolved to help organisms respond rapidly to important events." Collocations: basic emotion, regulate emotion |
| adolescence n. |
The transitional period between childhood and adulthood. "Identity formation is a central task of adolescence." Collocations: early adolescence, late adolescence |
| cognitive adj. |
Relating to mental processes such as thinking and memory. "Cognitive load increases when learners have to process unfamiliar terms." Collocations: cognitive process, cognitive load |
| empathy n. |
The ability to understand and share another person's feelings. "Empathy allows therapists to build effective relationships with clients." Collocations: show empathy, lack empathy |
| resilience n. |
The ability to recover from difficulty. "Childhood resilience predicts better mental health in adulthood." Collocations: build resilience, emotional resilience |
How this vocabulary appears on the TOEFL
Psychology terms appear directly in passages and audio across Reading · Listening. The questions you'll see most frequently target this vocabulary are paraphrase identification (the test rewords a sentence using a synonym from this list), inference questions (you need the term's meaning to follow the argument), and reference questions (the term is the antecedent of a pronoun in another sentence). Knowing the term plus one or two natural collocations lets you decode passages faster and recognise paraphrases on the answer choices without re-reading.
How to study this list effectively
Don't try to memorise the whole list in one sitting. Effective vocabulary study works in three passes: (1) recognise — read each entry once until the word feels familiar; (2) retrieve — cover the definitions and try to recall each one from the word alone; (3) produce — write a sentence of your own that uses the word in a TOEFL context. Spaced repetition over 5–7 days will make the words stick far better than a single intensive review session. Pair this list with a practice test in the same section so you encounter the words in real test contexts.
Practise this vocabulary on real TOEFL tests
- Reading practice tests — passages on academic topics
- Listening practice tests — campus conversations and academic talks
- Full-length practice tests — vocabulary in context across all four sections
- More TOEFL vocabulary by topic