AP Psychology - Unit 2: Cognition Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from the AP Psychology Unit 2 lecture on Cognition by Mr. Sin.

Perception

The process of interpreting the information we obtain through our five senses.

Sensation

The raw data or information that we receive from our sensory receptors.

Top-down Processing

Using prior knowledge and experiences to interpret information.

Proofreader's Illusion

When your brain overlooks spelling or grammar mistakes when proofreading a paper you wrote.

Bottom-up Processing

Building our perception from the ground up, organizing and interpreting information as it comes in without relying on prior knowledge.

Schema

A mental framework that's built from our past experiences, guides our perception, and helps us interpret and organize our environment.

Perceptual Set

A mental shortcut your brain uses to quickly interpret what you're experiencing, often influencing our immediate perception based on our expectations or emotions.

Selective Attention

Focusing on a particular stimulus while tuning out other stimuli in the environment.

Cocktail Party Effect

The ability to focus on a specific conversation or sound in a noisy setting.

Inattentional Blindness

The failure to notice stimuli in our visual field due to our attention being focused elsewhere.

Change Blindness

Failing to notice changes in the environment; a type of inattentional blindness.

Apparent Movement

Perceiving motion even though nothing is actually moving; an illusion.

Stroboscopic Motion

The illusion of movement created by showing a series of images in rapid succession.

Phi Phenomenon

Occurs when lights blink on and off in a sequence resulting in us perceiving objects as moving even though objects are stationary.

Induced Movement

When a stationary object appears to move because of the motion of surrounding objects.

Autokinetic Effect

When a stationary point of light in a dark environment appears to move.

Gestalt Psychology

Focuses on how humans naturally group elements together to form meaningful patterns.

Figure and Ground

Our visual system separates what we see into two categories - the figure (object of focus) and the ground (background).

Continuation

Our eyes naturally follow continuous lines or paths.

Closure Principle

Our brain subconsciously fills in missing information when viewing a familiar but incomplete object.

Similarity

We perceive a group of similar objects or patterns as one cohesive unit.

Proximity Principle

When objects are placed close to each other, they are often perceived as one single group.

Symmetry

Objects that are symmetrical to each other are perceived as one rather than individual separate elements.

Depth Perception

The ability to perceive the relative distance of an object in one's visual field.

Binocular Cues

Rely on both eyes working together to help us judge depth and spatial relationships.

Convergence

When we look at something close to us our eyes move inward and when we focus on something farther away our eyes straighten out.

Retinal Disparity

The difference between the two images our eyes see, creating a sense of depth.

Monocular Cues

Only require one eye and help us perceive depth on flat or two dimensional surfaces.

Relative Size

Allows us to determine how close an object is to us. Objects that are closer to us will appear larger, while objects that are farther away will appear smaller.

Interposition

Occurs when one object blocks another; the object being blocked is perceived as farther away.

Relative Height

Objects higher in our visual field appear farther away while objects lower in our field of view seem closer.

Texture and Gradient

Objects that are clear in focus and full of detail appear closer than objects that lack details and appear more blurry.

Linear Perspective

Parallel lines seem to converge in the distance, giving us a sense of depth and positioning.

Motion Parallax

Objects closer to you appear to move quickly while those that are farther away seem to move more slowly.

Perceptual Constancy

The ability to perceive objects as having consistent shape, size, color, and lightness, even when their appearance changes due to varying conditions.

Size Constancy

Our brain's tendency to perceive objects as the same size.

Color Constancy

We perceive the color of an object to remain constant even if the lighting changes.

Shape Constancy

The tendency of the brain to perceive an object's shape as the same even when it moves.

Lightness Constancy

Refers to our ability to perceive the blackness, whiteness and grayness of an object as constant even under different lighting conditions.

Cognition

All forms of knowing and awareness such as perceiving, conceiving, remembering, reasoning, judging, imagining, and problem-solving.

Schema

Mental categories that help us organize and understand the world.

Prototype

The most typical or basic example of a concept.

Assimilation

Fitting new information into existing schemas without altering them.

Accommodation

Changing a schema to incorporate new information.

Executive Functions

Cognitive processes that help individuals generate, organize, plan, and carry out goal-directed behaviors, as well as engage in critical thinking.

Algorithms

A person tackles a problem step by step in a systematic way.

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts based on past experiences.

Mental Set

A cognitive framework that relies on past experiences and successful strategies to solve new problems.

Priming

The phenomenon where exposure to one stimulus influences how we respond to a later stimulus.

Framing

How information is presented, which can shape how we interpret and react to it, often influencing our decisions and judgments.