Incomplete pictures which can only be completed correctly if the subject perceives the underlying unity and wholeness of the picture.

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL term for a small group of people in close enough physical proximity for each person in the group to interact directly with each of the others. Such a group is usually no more than six to eight people.

The exchange of information between people by any means, whether verbal (in speech and writing) or NON-VERBAL. The study of this field involves contributions from PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL SCIENCE, computer science, logic and linguistics.

A child supposedly reared by animals in the wild. Such tales are part of the folklore of pop psychology and should be taken with a pinch of salt.

One of the common forms of psychological disturbance classified as SCHIZOPHRENIA. It is characterised by giggling and silliness and displays of inappropriate EMOTIONS.

The CONSCIOUS and explicit recollection of something. This form of memory is usually what is lost in amnesia, unlike IMPLICIT MEMORY.

BEHAVIOUR expected of all the members of a group.

See NORM.

From the Latin word for ‘flight’, a fugue is a relatively long period of AMNESIA in which a person leaves his home, forgets his past and goes off to start a new and very different life somewhere else. When the UNCONSCIOUS conflict underlying the amnesia has been dealt with, the person will remember his old life and IDENTITY and forget the period of the fugue.

A leading British exponent of BEHAVIOURIST PSYCHOLOGY noted for his contributions to the theory of PERSONALITY and the construction of personality tests. He has been a controversial figure in the debate about RACE and IQ.

The study of the interaction between people and their work environment, particularly their relationship to machines and equipment. As well as PSYCHOLOGY, it draws on anatomy and physiology.