AP Psychology Unit 3 Study Guide: Attention, Perception, Cognition & Memory

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts in Attention, Perception, Cognition, and Memory for AP Psychology Unit 3.

Attention

The process of focusing mental resources on some information while filtering or reducing attention to other information.

Selective attention

Focusing on one stimulus while ignoring others.

Divided attention

Trying to attend to more than one task at once; performance often drops when tasks both require focused thought.

Sustained attention

Maintaining focus over time.

Inattentional blindness

Failing to notice a visible stimulus because attention is focused elsewhere.

Change blindness

Failing to notice a change in a visual scene.

Cocktail party effect

Noticing personally meaningful information, such as your name, even when attending to another conversation.

Controlled processing

Processing that needs more attention and effort compared to automatic processing.

Sensation

Detects physical stimuli through sensory receptors.

Perception

Organizes and interprets sensory information to create a meaningful experience.

Perceptual set

A readiness to perceive something in a particular way because of expectations, context, or experience.

Bottom-up processing

Processing where perception begins with sensory details and builds toward a whole.

Top-down processing

Processing where expectations, context, and prior knowledge shape interpretation.

Figure-ground

A Gestalt principle involving separating a main object from its background.

Proximity

A Gestalt principle of grouping objects that are close together.

Similarity

A Gestalt principle of grouping objects that look alike.

Continuity

A Gestalt principle of perceiving smooth, continuous patterns.

Closure

A Gestalt principle of filling gaps to perceive a complete object.

Connectedness

A Gestalt principle of treating visually connected items as one group.

Retinal disparity

A binocular cue where each eye receives a slightly different image, which the brain compares to help judge depth.

Convergence

A binocular cue where the eyes turn inward more when looking at nearby objects, providing depth information through muscle feedback.

Interposition

A monocular cue where an object that blocks another is usually perceived as closer.

Relative size

A monocular cue where, if two objects are assumed to be similar in size, the one with the smaller retinal image is often seen as farther away.

Linear perspective

A monocular cue where parallel lines appear to converge in the distance.

Texture gradient

A monocular cue where texture appears finer and more tightly packed farther away.

Relative height

A monocular cue where objects higher in the visual field are often perceived as farther away in a landscape.

Motion parallax

A monocular cue where, as you move, nearby objects appear to move faster across your view than distant objects.

Perceptual constancy

Recognizing objects as stable despite changing sensory input.

Size constancy

Perceiving an object as the same size even when its retinal image changes with distance.

Cognition

Mental activities including thinking, knowing, remembering, judging, and solving problems.

Concept

A mental category for similar objects, events, people, or ideas.

Prototype

The most typical or representative example of a category.

Schema

An organized framework of knowledge that shapes what we notice, remember, and expect.

Assimilation

Fitting new information into an existing schema.

Accommodation

Changing a schema to fit new information.

Algorithm

A step-by-step procedure that can solve a problem if correctly applied; often slower but systematic.

Heuristic

A mental shortcut that is fast and useful but can lead to errors.

Insight

A sudden realization of a solution.

Mental set

Relying on a strategy that worked before, even when a different approach would be better.

Functional fixedness

Difficulty seeing a familiar object being used in a new way.

Availability heuristic

Judging likelihood by how easily examples come to mind.

Representativeness heuristic

Judging something by how closely it matches a prototype or stereotype, sometimes ignoring base rates.

Anchoring bias

Relying too heavily on the first piece of information encountered.

Confirmation bias

Seeking or interpreting information in ways that support an existing belief.

Belief perseverance

Maintaining a belief even after the original evidence has been challenged.

Framing effect

The phenomenon where choices change depending on whether the same information is presented as a gain or a loss.

Overconfidence

Being more certain of a judgment than accuracy justifies.

Hindsight bias

Believing, after learning an outcome, that it was predictable all along.

Loss aversion

The tendency for losses to often feel more powerful than equivalent gains.

Encoding

Getting information into the memory system.

Storage

Maintaining information over time.

Retrieval

Bringing stored information back into awareness.

Explicit (declarative) memory

Conscious recall of facts and experiences; includes semantic and episodic memory.

Semantic memory

Memory for general facts and knowledge.

Episodic memory

Memory for personally experienced events.

Implicit (nondeclarative) memory

Memory expressed without conscious recollection, including skills and conditioned responses.

Procedural memory

Memory for how to perform skills, such as riding a bike.

Working memory

A memory system that actively holds and manipulates a limited amount of information for current tasks.

Long-term potentiation (LTP)

Lasting strengthening of connections between neurons, considered one mechanism involved in learning and memory.

Sensory memory

Very brief holding of incoming sensory information.

Long-term memory

Large-capacity, long-lasting memory storage.

Effortful processing

Information processing that requires attention and conscious effort.

Automatic processing

Information processing that occurs with little conscious effort, such as remembering some spatial or frequency information.

Maintenance rehearsal

Repeating information to keep it active.

Elaborative rehearsal

Connecting information to meaning, examples, or prior knowledge; generally supports deeper learning.

Chunking

Grouping information into meaningful units.

Mnemonics

Memory aids such as acronyms, rhymes, or vivid associations.

Spacing effect

The phenomenon where learning is often stronger when practice is spread across time rather than crammed into one session.

Testing effect / retrieval practice

The phenomenon where actively recalling information strengthens later access more than only rereading it.

Context-dependent memory

The phenomenon where retrieval can improve when the external context matches the learning context.

State-dependent memory

The phenomenon where internal state can sometimes serve as a retrieval cue.

Serial position effect

Better recall for items at the beginning (primacy) and end (recency) of a list.

Encoding failure

A cause of forgetting where information was never encoded well enough to be stored.

Storage decay

A process where a memory may weaken over time, especially without use.

Retrieval failure

A situation where information is stored in memory but is temporarily inaccessible.

Proactive interference

When older information disrupts learning or recall of newer information.

Retroactive interference

When newer information disrupts recall of older information.

Misinformation effect

When misleading information encountered after an event changes later memory reports.

Source amnesia

Remembering information but forgetting where it came from.

Reconstructive memory

Memory that is rebuilt during recall and can be influenced by schemas, expectations, and later information.

Flashbulb memory

Vivid memory for an emotionally significant event; vividness does not guarantee perfect accuracy.

Phoneme

The smallest sound unit that can distinguish meaning in a language.

Morpheme

The smallest meaningful unit in a language, such as a root or prefix.

Grammar

Rules that govern how language units are combined.

Syntax

Rules for word order and sentence structure.

Semantics

The meaning of words and sentences.

Babbling

Early infant speech-like sounds.

One-word stage

Stage in language development where single words convey whole ideas.

Telegraphic speech

Short combinations of key words in early language development.

Intelligence

The ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and adapt.

Standardization

Giving and scoring a test in a consistent way.

Reliability

Consistency of test scores.

Validity

Whether a test measures what it claims to measure.

Norms

Comparison data from a relevant reference group.

Growth mindset

The belief that abilities can develop through learning, effective strategies, and effort.