AP Psych 2.1-2.2ab

Gestalt

an organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.

ex. smiley face instead of two dots and a curved line

Figure-ground

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

more emphasis on figure than the ground

• ex. brain games jump rope changing background

Grouping

the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups.

ex. sports players with the same color jersey on the same team

Depth Perception

the ability to see objects in three dimensions, although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance. 

Visual Cliff

a laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals.

Binocular Cues

a depth cue, such as retinal disparity, that depends on the use of both eyes.

clues your brain gets from using both eyes together to figure out how far away things are.

Convergence

a cue to a nearby object’s distance, enabled by the inward angle of the eyes. 

Your eyes turn inward (toward your nose) when you look at something close.

Retinal Disparity

a binocular cue for perceiving depth. By comparing retinal images from the two eyes, the brain computes distance — the greater the disparity between two images, the closer the object. 

a way your brain figures out how far away things are using the slightly different pictures each eye sees.

Monocular cue

a depth cue, such as interposition(overlap) or linear perspective, available to either eye alone.

Relative clarity

Clue your brain uses to figure out how far away something is based on how clear or sharp it looks.

Relative Size

your brain figures out how far away something is based on how big it looks.

Shape Constancy

despite viewing the door at different angles, we know that the door remains rectangular.

Stroboscopic movement

an illusion of continuous movement (as in a motion picture) experienced when viewing a rapid series of slightly varying still images.

ex. flipbook

Phi phenonomenon

an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in succession.  

when your brain thinks something is moving even though it’s actually just lights blinking on and off in a certain order.

Autokinetic effect

the illusory movement of a still spot of light in a dark room

Motion Parallax

the way objects appear to move at different speeds and directions depending on their distance from you when you’re moving

close objects move quickly in the opposite direction of your movement

far objects move slowly slowly or barely at all.

Perceptual constancy

perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent color, brightness, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change

when your brain knows that things stay the same even if they look different because of changes in distance, angle, or lighting.

Color constancy

perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object.

Perceptual adaptation

the ability to adjust changed sensory input , including an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field.

when your brain gets used to changes in the way you see things and adjusts so you can see normally again.

Vection

the sensation of self-motion caused by visual input.

Induced motion

This occurs when a stationary object (like the bridge) seems to move because the background or surrounding environment (the rotating room) is moving.

Visual dominance

when visual stimuli dominate over vestibular and proprioceptive signals, causing the sensation of self-motion despite being stationary.

Multisensory conflict

It highlights how the brain resolves conflicts between sensory inputs (e.g., your eyes say you're moving, but your inner ear says you're not).

Illusory Motion Perception

Vection is specifically related to the perception of motion rather than static stimuli.

Sensory Restriction

experiments where sensory input is limited(only given vertical lines to see)

Cognition

all mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Metacognition

cognition about our cognition; keeping track of and evaluating our mental processes.

“thinking about our own thinking”: “Do I understand this?”

Concept

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

Prototype

a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype is a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a crow).  

Schema

a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information

more detailed/specific compared to a concept

It’s your brain’s way of knowing what usually happens or what to expect.

Assimilation

interpreting new experiences in terms of our existing schemas. 

It’s like putting a new thing into an old category.

Accommodation

adapting our current schemas (understandings) to incorporate new information.

It’s like updating your brain’s folder so it can handle something new.

Perceptual Set

A temporary mindset or expectation that influences what we perceive in a specific situation.

ex. being afraid of shadow after watching scary movie

Context Effects

the context (environmental factors) that surrounds an event impacts how an event is perceived and remembered.  
-external factors

Creativity

the ability to produce new and novel ideas.

Convergent Thinking

narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution.

Divergent Thinking

expanding the number of possible problem solutions; creative thinking that diverges in different directions.

Analogy

Convergent thinking is like being a detective. You take all the clues and figure out one right answer. It’s about narrowing down the choices.

Executive Functioning

cognitive skills that work together, enabling us to generate, organize, plan, and implement goal-directed behavior.

Algorithm

a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier — but also more error prone — use of heuristics.

Heuristics

a simple thinking strategy — a mental shortcut — that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than an algorithm.

Intuition

an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted to explicit conscious reasoning.

Representative heuristic

judging the likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information

similar to what you think a typical example would be

Availability heuristic

judging the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common. 

how easily you can THINK of examples

Insight

a sudden realization of a problem’s solution; contrast with strategy-based solutions.

“Aha” moment

Confirmation bias

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

Fixation/functional fixedness

in cognition, the inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an obstacle in problem solving.

-using same way to solve a problem even though it doesn’t work

Mental set

a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.

Overconfidence

the tendency to more confident than correct — to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements.  

Planning fallacy

when people think something will take less time than it really does.

Belief perseverance

the persistence of one’s initial conceptions even after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited

when someone keeps believing something even after being shown strong proof that it’s wrong.

Framing

the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgements

Nudge

framing choices in a way that encourages people to make beneficial decisions

-fruit at eye level in cafeteria

Gambler’s fallacy

a cognitive bias where individuals mistakenly believe that the outcome of a random event is influenced by previous outcomes, even when the events are independent.

ex. avoid buying lottery number because it won

Sunk Cost Fallacy

occurs when people continue investing time, money, or effort into a decision or project based on past investments rather than the current or future value of continuing. It stems from the desire not to "waste" what has already been spent, even when stopping would be the rational choice.

-staying in long-term toxic relationship

Prisoner’s Dilemna

 a classic concept in game theory that demonstrates how two individuals might not cooperate, even when it is in their best interest to do so, due to a lack of trust or fear of being exploited.

ex. steal or split