Myers' Psychology Vocab Unit 2

The vocabulary/key terms from Unit 2 of the Myer's Psychology for the AP Course

selective attention

focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

inattentional blindness

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

change blindness

failing to notice changes in the environment; a form of inattentional blindness

perceptual set

a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

gestalt

an organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes

figure-ground

an organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground)

grouping

the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

depth perception

the ability to see objects in three dimensions, although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance

visual cliff

a laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals

binocular cue

a depth cue, such asretinal disparity, that depends on the use of two eyes.

convergence

a cue to nearby objects’ distance, enabled by the brain combining retinal images.

retinal disparity

a binocular cue for perceiving depth. By comparing retinal images from two eyes, the brain computes distance —- the grater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the distance.

monocular cue

a depth cue, such as interposition or linear perspective, available to either eye alone

stroboscopic movement

an illusion of continuous movements (as in motion picture) experienced when viewing a rapid series of slightly varying still images

phi phenomenon

an illusiong of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession

autokinetic effect

the illusory movement of a still spot of light in a dark room

perceptual constancy

perceving objects as unchanging (having consistent color, brightness, shape, and size) even as illumination and retainal images change

color constancy

perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object.

perceptual adaptation

the ability to adjust to changed sensory input, including an artificially displacfed or even inverted visual field.

cognition

all the mental activities associated with think, knowing, remembering, and communicating

metacognition

cognition about our cognition, keeping track of and evalutating our mental proccesses.

concept

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people

prototype

a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a crow).

Jean Piaget

development psychologsts, who studied the development of cognition in children, argued that our intellectual progression reflects an unceasing struggle to make sense of out experiences

schema

a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information

assimilation

interpreting our new experiences in terms of out existing schemas

accommodation

adapting our current schemas (understandings) to incorporate new information

creativity

the ability to produce new and valuable ideas

convergent thinking

narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the singlebest solution

divergent thinking

expanding the number of possible problem solutions; creative thinking that diverges in different directions

Robert Sternberg

him andhis colleague believe creativity has five components

executive functions

cognitive skills that work together, enabling us to generate, organize, plan, and implement goal-directed behavior.

algorithm

a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier —- but also more error-prone —- use of heuristics.

heuristic

a simple thinking strategy —- a mental shortcut —- that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently, usually speedier but also more error-prone than an algorithm

insight

Wolfgang Köhler

confirmation bias

fixation

mental set

intuition

Amos Tversky

Daniel Kahneman

representativeness heuristic

availability heuristic

overconfidence

belief perseverance

framing

nudge

memory

recall

recognition

relearning

Hermann Ebbinghaus

encoding

storage

retrieval

parallel processing

Richard Artkinson

Richard Shiffrin

sensory memory

short-term memory

long-term memory

working memory

central executive

phonological loop

visuospatial sketchpad

neurogenesis

Eric Kandel

long-term potentiation (LTP)

explicit memory

effortful processing

automatic processing

implicit memory

iconic memory

echoic memory

George A. Miller

chunking

mnemonics

spacing effect

testing effect

shallow processing

deep processing

semantic memory

episodic memory

hippocampus

memory consolidation

flashbulb memory

priming

encoding specificity principle

mood-congruent memory

serial position effect

interleaving

anterograde amnesia

retrograde amnesia

proactive interference

retroactive interference

repression

reconsolidation

Elizabeth Loftus

misinformation effect