Cognition: Perception and Thinking, problem solving, judgements, & decision making

Top-Down

Using prior knowledge to solve problems.

Bottom-Up

Having to use your senses to try and figure a puzzle out.

Cocktail party effect

Focus your hearing on one specific thing, even though noise is all around you.

Inattentional Blindness

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.

Change Blindness

Failing to notice changes in the environment.

Selective Attention

When there is so much going on and it’s hard to focus on one thing at a time.

Perceptual Set

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.

Schemas

Concepts that organize and interpret unfamiliar information.

Context

Not being able to recognize someone/ something in a different setting.

Motivation

Perception changes due to rewards given.

Emotions

Perception changes due to how you feel about the situation.

Figure-Ground

When we automatically separate an object (The main focus) from the background.

Proximity

Objects that are closer together are perceived as one group.

Continuity

Seeing smooth continuos patterns rather than broken ones.

Similarity

Objects that look alike in color, shape or size are perceived as part of the same group.

Closure

Filling in the gaps to create a complete object.

Connectedness

Objects that are visually linked by lines, shapes, or colors are seen as a single unit.

Visual Cliff

A laboratory device for testing depth perception, especially in infants and young animals.

Relative Clarity

That objects closer up appear more clear than objects further away.

Relative Size

When two objects of the same size look different becuase one is further away than the other.

Texture Gradient

Objects closer show more detail and textured and objects further away appear less detailed and smoother.

Interposition

When one object blocks another so it appears closer and the object blocked looks further.

Linear perspective

Parallel lines appear to meet as they get further away from our line of vision.

Apparent Movement

The illusion of movement that happens when stationary images or lights are shown quickly.

Stroboscopic effect

A type of apparent motion created when slightly different images are flashed quickly to make it seem it’s moving.

Phi Phenomenon

The illusion of movement when two or more lights blink on and off in sequence, making it look like a single light moving between them.

Auto kinetic effect

The illusion that a stationary point of light in a room is moving.

Relative Motion

A monocular depth where objects closer to you seem to move faster and in the opposite direction across your field of vision than objects farther away that move in the same direction as you.

Prototypes

Best example of a category. Enhances memo And recall.

Schemas

Places where new information is organized to provide a framework for understanding future experiences.

Assimilation

Taking new information and fitting it into an already existing schema. SS= Same Schema

Accommodation

When a new schema needs to be made in order to fit in new information. CC= Change or create

Creativity

The ability to produce new and original ideas, etc… combining existing knowledge in unique ways.

Convergent Thinking

Narrow the available problems to determine the single best solution. Down to one answer.

Divergent Thinking

Expanding the number of possible problem solutions. As many possibilities.

5 components of creativity

1. Expertise

2. Imaginative thinking skills

3. Venturesome personality

4. Intrinsic motivation

5. Creative environment

Executive functions

Mental skills that help us plan, organize, make decisions, focus attention, etc…

Algorithms

Step by step strategies for solving a problem, methodically leading to a specific solution. Always guarantied an answer

Heuristics

Step-saving thinking strategy or principle which generates a solution quickly. Short cut

Insights

A sudden realization that leads to a solution. Prior knowledge.

Confirmation bias

Searching for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

Fixation

Inability to see a problem from a new perspective.

Mental set

Approaching a problem in a way that had been successful in the past.

Functional Fixedness

Tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions.

Intuition

Effortless, immediate, automatic feelings or thoughts.

Representative heuristics

Estimating the likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent or match prototypes.

Gambler’s Fallacy

Thinking the probability of an outcome changes based on previous events.

Availability heuristics

Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory.

Overconfidence

Tendency to be more confident then correct.

Sunk-Cost fallacy

Reluctant to abandoning a strategy when abandonment would be more beneficial.

Belief Preserverance

Clinging to one’s initial conceptions after they have proven wrong.

Framing/Wording Effects

How an issue is worded can affect decisions and judgment.

Priming

Activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response.