Myers' Psychology Modules 2.1-2.8

Perception

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.

Top-down processing

A cognitive process that interprets sensory information by using existing knowledge, expectations, and experiences.

Selective attention

Focusing conscious attention 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.

Perceptual set

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.

Gestalt psychology

A specific focus on how we tend to integrate pieces of information in meaningful wholes.

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

Figure-ground

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

Depth perception

The ability to see objects in three dimensions, even though the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional. It is a key component when judging distance.

Visual cliff experiment

A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals. The results of the experiment found that infants tend to avoid the "cliff" side, indicating they can perceive depth.

Binocular cues

Depth cues that depend on the use of two eyes. Includes convergence and retinal dispairity.

Monocular cues

Depth cues available to each eye independently. Includes relative clarity, relative size, interposition, linear perspective and texture gradient.

Stroboscopic movement

The illusion of continuous movement went viewing a rapid series of slightly different still images (like watching hand-drawn animation).

Phi phenomenon

The illusion of movement when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession, creating the sense that the light is moving.

Autokinetic effect

The illusion of movement of a still light in a dark room, natural eye movement make the light seem to shudder and jerk around.

Apparent movement

The illusion that as we move, stable objects appear to move with us.

Peceptual constancy

Perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change. This includes color constancy, shape constancy, and size constancy.

Perceptual adaptation

The ability to adjust to changed sensory input, including artificially displaced or inverted visual field.

Metacognition

Cognition about our cognition! Being aware of our own thinking patterns and processes.

Concepts

Mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

Prototypes

Mental images of the best example of a concept. One’s prototype for the concept of a bird might be the common sparrow or robin.

Schemas

A framework that organizes and interprets information about the world, shaping our understanding and expectations.

Assimilation

Interpreting new experiences through terms of existing schemas.

Accomodation

Adapting schema to incorporate new experiences and information.

Convergent thinking

The ability to form one single correct solution to a problem.

Divergent thinking

The ability to consider many different options and to think in new and creative ways.

Components of creativity

Expertise, imaginative thinking skills, a venturesome personality, intrinsic motivation, and a creative environment.

Algorithms

Step-by-step procedures that guarantee a solution to a problem if followed correctly.

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts used to solve problems quickly, but with less guarantee of accuracy compared to algorithms.

Insight

A sudden realization of a problem's solution, often occurring after a period of incubation.

Mental set

Using a method that has worked before to solve a problem, but it does not work for the current problem and you cannot view the problem from another perspective.

Functional fixedness

The inability to see objects beyond what their original function is.

Representativeness Heuristic

A mental shortcut that involves judging the likelihood of things based on how well they match a particular prototype, often leading to errors in decision-making and ignorance of other information.

Availability heuristic

A mental shortcut that judges the likelihood of events based on how quickly they are remembered. More vivid instances come to mind quicker, so we have the tendency to perceive them as more likely to occur.

Anchoring and adjustment

A mental shortcut that involves using an initial estimate as a reference point and then making adjustments based on new information, which can lead to biases in decision-making. This kind of heuristic revolves around the first piece of information we get about a topic, which can significantly bias decision-making or perceptions of an event.

Gambler’s fallacy

The failure to recognize the independence of chance events, leading to the belief that one can predict the outcome of a chance events based on previous results.

Sunk-cost fallacy

The tendency to continue a project or behavior once an investment in money, effort, or time has been made, even if it is clear that the outcome will not be favorable.

Belief perseverance

The tendency for us to cling to our initial beliefs of a concept even when presented with evidence that discredits them.

Framing

The way an issue is presented to us. It can significantly affect decision making and judgement.

Intuition

Our immediate, automatic feeling about a situation, problem, person, etc. It is our “gut feeling.”

Recall, recognition, relearning

The three retention measures. They give evidence that learning persists and can be remembered.

Information-processing model

Encoding

The process of transforming sensory inputs into a memory.

Storage

The process of retaining previously encoded memories over time.

Retrieval

The process of accessing stored memories.

Sensory memory

The immediate, very brief recording of sensory information. The sensory info either goes on to be encoded into short-term memory, or it is not encoded and lost.

Short-term memory

The briefly activated memory of a few items that are later shored through encoding/rehearsal or forgotten.

Long-term memory

The permanent and essentially limitless archive of memories. Includes all knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Working memory

A newer understanding of short-term memory. It is the conscious, active processing of both incoming sensory information and information retrieved from long-term memory.

Phonological loop

A memory component that briefly holds auditory information.

Visuospatial sketchpad

A memory component that briefly holds information about objects’ appearance and location in space.

Long-term potentiation

An increase in a neuron’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. It is the neutral bias for learning and memory.

Explict memory

The retention of facts and experiences the we consciously know.

Implicit memory

The retention of learned skills or classically conditioned associations independent of conscious recollection.

Automatic processing

The unconscious encoding of “incidental” information such as space, time, sensory inputs, and meanings of words.

Iconic memory

The brief sensory memory of visual stimuli, lasting only a fraction of a second.

Echoic memory

The persistent sensory memory of auditory stimuli, lasting several seconds, allowing for the recall of sounds.

Shallow processing

Processing verbal or written information at a basic level, such as the structure or appearance of words, rather than their meaning.

Deep processing

Processing verbal or written information on a more meaningful level by encoding the semantics (meanings) of words. It is more effective for recalling words at a later time.

Semantic memory

The part of explicit memory that is the memory of facts and knowledge.

Episodic memory

The part of explicit memory that is the memory of experienced events.

Memory consolidation

The neutral storage of a long-term memory. The hippocampus migrates neural networks of memories to other areas of the cortex so the hippocampus has more room to consolidate new memories.

Flashbulb memories

Highly detailed and vivid recollections of surprising events, often associated with strong emotional responses.

Priming

The activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory.

Encoding specificity principle

The idea that cues and contexts specific to a memory will be most effective in helping us recall it.

State-dependent memory

The theory that information learned in a particular state (such as mood or intoxication) is more easily recalled when in that same state.

Mood-congruent memory

The tendency to recall memories that are consistent with one’s current mood.

Serial position effect

The tendency to recall best the last items in a list initially (recency effect) and the first items in a list have a delay (primacy effect).

Anterograde amnesia

The inability to form new memories. Old memories can still be recalled though.

Retrograde amnesia

The inability to remember old memories. New memories are able to be encoded and stored though.

Ebbinghaus forgetting curve

A graphical representation that depicts the decline of memory retention over time. If not rehearsed, forgetting is initially rapid, and then levels off over time.

Proactive interference

When old learning disrupts the recall of newly learned info.

Retroactive interference

When new learning disrupts recall of old information.

Reconsolidation

A process in which previously stored memories, when retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again.

Misinformation effect

Occurs when a memory has been corrupted/severely altered by misleading information.

Source amnesia

Faulty memory for how, when, or where information was learned (or imagined).

Intelligence

The ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.

General intelligence

A general factor that underlies all mental abilities, and therefore is measured by every task on intelligence tests.

Spearman’s theory of intelligence

The theory that revolves around general intelligence, or g factor. The value of g predicts abilities in various cognitive tasks.

Fluid intelligence

The ability to reason quickly and abstractly, independent of acquired knowledge.

Crystallized intelligence

Accumulated knowledge and verbal skills. It continuously increases with age.

Cattell-Horn-Carroll Intelligence Theory

The theory that intelligence is based of the g factor, but also includes fluid (Gf) and crystallized (Gc) intelligence to describe abilities in more specific cognitive areas.

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner’s theory proposing many different kinds of intelligence, including verbal skills, mathematical reasoning, interpersonal skills, and musical intelligence. The theory gives abilities beyond school-smarts equal importance in overall intelligence.

Savant syndrome

A condition in which a person with otherwise limited mental abilities is extremely exceptional at one specific skill.

Sternberg’s Three Intelligences

A theory that proposes multiple kinds of intelligence, similar to Gardner’s theory. There are three kinds: analytical (ability to solve problems with one defined answer), creative (ability to come up with innovative and novel ideas), and practical (the ability to do everyday tasks and solve problems with multiple solutions, like in every day life).

Emotional intelligence

The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and regulate emotions.

Achievement tests

Tests designed to measure what a person already knows.

Aptitude tests

Tests designed to predict what a person will be able to achieve or learn.

Mental age

The level of performance typically associated with children of a certain age. It reflects a child's intellectual development compared to their peers.

Stanford-Binet IQ Test

A cognitive ability assessment that measures intelligence through a series of tasks, providing an IQ score that indicates intellectual potential. It is the widely used American revision of Alfred Binet’s original IQ test.

Intelligence quotient

An individuals recorded mental age (derived from performance on an IQ test) divided by their chronological age and multiplied by 100. The mean score is always 100.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale

The most widely used intelligence test. It contains many different sub-tests, including vocabulary and perceptual reasoning. The test gives an overall score, but also scores for the individual sub-tests.

Standarization

The process of administering a test to a large, representative sample to establish norms and ensure that it yields consistent results across different populations.

Normal curve

A symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the normal distributions of data. The highest point of the curve is the mean score. Most scores are around the mean, and fewer scores are farther away from the mean.

Flynn Effect

The rise in intelligence test performance over time and across cultures.

Reliability

The extent to which a test yields consistent results after subsequent retesting.

Construct validity

The extent to which a test measures the concept it is intended to measure.

Predictive validity

The extent to which a test accurately predicts what it is designed to predict, such as future test scores or behaviors.

Heritability

The portion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genetics.