Cognitive Psychology

Sensation

Occurs when sensory receptor cells are stimulated and send information to specialized brain regions for processing.

Perception

The process of selecting, organising, and interpreting sensory information to give it meaning.

McGurk Effect

Demonstrates that what we perceive is not always the same as the sensory information received.

Congenital cataracts

A condition where light cannot properly enter the eye, making visual input unavailable and preventing normal visual processing development.

Prosopagnosia

Also known as face blindness; a condition caused by damage to parts of the temporal lobe, where vision remains intact but individuals cannot recognize faces.

Transduction

The conversion of one form of energy into another, e.g., light energy into electrical signals in vision.

Parallel processing

The brain processes visual information simultaneously rather than one step at a time, analyzing different aspects of a scene at once.

Ventral Stream

The pathway responsible for object recognition and identification, answering the question 'What am I looking at?'

Dorsal Stream

The pathway responsible for guiding movements and spatial awareness, answering the question 'How do I interact with it?'

Visual Form Agnosia

A condition resulting from ventral stream damage, characterized by an inability to recognize object forms while maintaining intact color and texture perception.

Optic Ataxia

A condition resulting from dorsal stream damage, characterized by difficulty in reaching for or grasping objects while object recognition remains normal.

Bi-stable perceptions

Images that allow for two interpretations, but only one can be perceived at a time, demonstrating the selective nature of conscious perception.

Gestalt Principles

Principles that describe how objects are perceived as distinct from their surroundings, including proximity, similarity, closure, and figure-ground.

Bottom-Up Processing

A data-driven processing approach that begins with sensation and follows a sequence from detecting features to creating perception.

Top-Down Processing

A concept-driven processing approach that begins with perception influenced by expectations, knowledge, and context.

Memory

A set of systems that store and retrieve information acquired through the senses.

Short-Term Memory (STM)

Temporary storage for information currently in awareness, with limited capacity and duration.

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

A permanent memory store with very large capacity and potentially lifelong duration.

Working Memory Model

A model replacing the simple concept of STM, consisting of several interacting components, including the central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and episodic buffer.

Declarative Memory

Memory for facts and events that can be consciously recalled; includes episodic and semantic memory.

Procedural Memory

Memory for skills and actions expressed through performance rather than conscious recall.

Amnesia

Memory impairment caused by various factors including brain injury, disease, drug abuse, or psychological trauma.

Retrograde Amnesia

Loss of memories formed before an injury or illness, leading to difficulty remembering past events.

Anterograde Amnesia

Inability to form new conscious memories after an injury, with older memories often remaining intact.