Pschology Exam Revision

Social Cognition

mental processes for perceiving, interpreting, and understanding the social world

Person Perception

process of forming impressions and judgments about others based on cues like appearance, behavior, and social context

Attribution

attaching meaning to behaviour, has both internal (personal) and external (situational) factors

Cognitive Dissonance

psychological discomfort from one's conflicting beliefs, attitudes, or behaviours

Heuristics

mental shortcuts for quick decision-making, problem-solving, and judgement

Stereotypes

widely held beliefs and generalizations about a group, often oversimplified or inaccurate

Prejudice

negative preconception against people based on group membership

Discrimination

unfair treatment of people based on group membership

Internal Attribution

attributing behavior to a person's internal characteristics, such as personality or motivation

External Attribution

attributing behavior to situational factors beyond a person's control

Fundamental Attribution Error

tendency to overemphasize internal characteristics and underestimate situational factors when explaining others' behavior

Affective Component (tri-component model of attitudes ABC)

relates to emotions and feelings within attitudes

Behavioral Component (tri-component model of attitudes ABC)

refers to observable actions associated with attitudes

Cognitive Component (tri-component model of attitudes ABC)

beliefs an individual holds about an attitude object

Confirmation Bias

tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information that confirms existing beliefs

Halo Effect

tendency for one positive characteristic to influence the overall perception of an individual

Dunning-Kruger Effect

cognitive bias where those with low competence overestimate their ability, and those with high competence underestimate theirs

Conformity

tendency to adjust thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors to align with group norms

Obedience

social influence where an individual follows orders from an authority figure

Social Power

ability to influence the behavior, beliefs, or attitudes of others

Zimbardo Prison Experiment

psychological experiment in 1971 to investigate effects of perceived power in a simulated prison

Groupthink

psychological phenomenon where desire for harmony in a group leads to poor decision-making

Group Shift

change in group's decision-making direction, becoming more extreme than individual members' positions

Sources of Power

ways individuals exert influence, including reward, coercive, legitimate, referent, and expert power

Informational Influence

when individuals conform to group's beliefs due to perceived accurate knowledge

Sensation

sensory receptors and sense organs detect and respond to sensory information

Perception

meaning is given to incoming sensory information

Reception

detection of stimulus energy by sensory receptor cells

Transduction

converting stimulus energy into electrochemical (neural) energy

Transmission

neural impulses leave their sensory receptor site and travel along specific nerve fibers to specific sensory areas in the brain

Photoreceptors

cells in the retina that convert light into electrical signals

Rods

photoreceptors responsible for vision in low light, providing peripheral vision

Cones

photoreceptors responsible for vision in high light, providing central and colour vision

Taste buds

clusters of taste receptor cells located on the tongue, responsible for taste sensation

Gustatory receptors

sensory receptors for taste in taste buds

Binocular cues

depth perception cues that require both eyes

Monocular cues

depth perception cues that require the use of one eye

Visual Constancies

to perceive visual objects as remaining the same despite changes in sensory input

Gestalt Principles

rules the brain applies to organize and interpret visual stimuli in a meaningful way

Closure

the Gestalt principle where the brain fills in gaps to perceive a complete image

Context

the setting or environment that influences our perception of stimuli

Cultural norms

shared standards that influence how individuals interpret visual information

Supertasters

individuals who are highly sensitive to flavour due to the increased number of taste buds

Taste perception

to perceive and interpret flavors detected by the taste buds

fallibility

the quality of being prone to error or experiencing difficulties in judgement

perceptual distortions

errors in the judgement or interpretation of sensory stimuli

visual illusions

distortions of visual information where the brain interprets an image differently than physical reality

muller-lyer illusion

an illusion consisting of two lines of equal length with opposite shaped patterns on the ends, leading to misperception of size

apparent distance hypothesis

the hypothesis explaining that distant objects appear larger when they share the same retinal size

ames room illusion

an illusion experienced when viewing people in a specially designed room, leading to distorted perceptions of size

supertasters

individuals with a heightened sense of taste due to an increased number of taste buds, experiencing more intense flavors

lexical-gustatory synaesthesia

a type of synaesthesia where individuals 'taste' words

grapheme-colour synaesthesia

Monocular Depth Cues

accommodation

pictoral cues

Binocular Depth Cues

retinal disparity

convergence

Pictoral Depth Cues

linear perspective

relative size

interposition

texture gradient

height in the visual field

Gestalt Principles

proximity

similarity

continuity

closure

figure-ground

Visual Constancies

size constancy 

shape constancy

brigthess constancy

orientation constancy

Food Packaging influences taste perception

influences with colour, texture, sounds (when package or container is opened), colour of dish it is served in, how it feels