AP Psychology Unit 2 Key Terms

Selective attention

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.

Inattentional blindness

A failure to notice a fully-visible but unexpected object because attention was engaged on another task.

Change blindness

A perceptual phenomenon that occurs when a change in a visual stimulus is introduced and the observer does not notice it.

Perceptual set

A tendency to perceive stimuli in a certain way based on expectations or prior experiences.

Gestalt

An organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts.

Figure-ground

The organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings.

Grouping

The tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups.

Depth perception

The ability to perceive the world in three dimensions and to judge distances.

Visual cliff

A laboratory device used to test depth perception in infants and young animals.

Binocular cue

Depth cues that depend on the use of two eyes.

Convergence

A binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object.

Retinal disparity

A binocular cue for perceiving depth; the difference between the images provided by the two eyes.

Monocular cue

Depth cues available to either eye alone.

Stroboscopic movement

Apparent motion perceived when images are shown in rapid succession.

Phi phenomenon

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

Autokinetic effect

The perception that a stationary point of light is moving in a dark environment.

Perceptual constancy

The ability to perceive objects as unchanging despite changes in sensory input.

Color constancy

The perception of the color of an object as being constant even under changing illumination.

Perceptual adaptation

The ability to adjust to an altered visual field.

Cognition

The mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge and comprehension.

Metacognition

Thinking about one's own thinking processes.

Concept

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

Prototype

A mental image or best example of a category.

Jean Piaget

A developmental psychologist known for his theory of cognitive development in children.

Schema

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

Assimilation

The process of incorporating new experiences into existing schemas.

Accommodation

The process of adjusting schemas to better fit new experiences.

Creativity

The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

Convergent thinking

The ability to give the correct answer to standard questions that do not require significant creativity.

Divergent thinking

The ability to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions.

Robert Sternberg

A psychologist known for his theories on intelligence, creativity, and wisdom.

Executive functions

Higher-level cognitive processes needed for planning, reasoning, and decision-making.

Algorithm

A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.

Heuristic

A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently.

Insight

A sudden realization of a problem's solution.

Wolfgang Kohler

A psychologist known for his work in the field of insight and problem-solving in animals.

Confirmation bias

The tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information that confirms one's preconceptions.

Fixation

The inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective.

Mental set

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

Intuition

An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought.

Amos Tversky

A cognitive psychologist known for his work in judgment and decision-making.

Daniel Kahneman

A psychologist who contributed to the understanding of human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty.

Representativeness heuristic

Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, a particular prototype.

Availability heuristic

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

Overconfidence

The tendency to be more confident than correct.

Belief perseverance

The tendency to maintain a belief even after the evidence is discredited.

Framing

The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

Nudge

A subtle prompt that influences the behavior and decision-making of a person.

Memory

The persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information.

Recall

A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier.

Recognition

A measure of memory in which the person identifies items previously learned.

Relearning

A measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time.

Hermann Ebbinghaus

A pioneering researcher in memory who studied the forgetting curve.

Encoding

The process of getting information into the memory system.

Storage

The process of retaining information in memory over time.

Retrieval

The process of getting information out of memory storage.

Parallel processing

The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously.

Richard Atkinson

A psychologist known for his work on memory and the three-stage model of memory.

Richard Shiffrin

A psychologist who collaborated with Atkinson on the development of the three-stage model of memory.

Sensory memory

The immediate, very brief recording of sensory information.

Short-term memory

Activated memory that holds a few items briefly before the information is stored or forgotten.

Long-term memory

The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system.

Working memory

A newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious active processing of incoming information.

Central executive

The part of working memory that directs attention and processing.

Phonological loop

The component of working memory that deals with auditory information.

Visuospatial sketchpad

The component of working memory that processes visual and spatial information.

Neurogenesis

The formation of new neurons.

Eric Kandel

A neuroscientist who studied the cellular mechanisms of learning and memory.

Long-term potentiation (LTP)

An increase in a synapse's firing potential after repeated stimulation.

Explicit memory

Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare.

Effortful processing

Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.

Automatic processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information.

Implicit memory

Retention independent of conscious recollection.

Iconic memory

A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli.

Echoic memory

A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli.

George A. Miller

A psychologist who proposed that the capacity of short-term memory is about seven items.

Chunking

The process of organizing items into familiar, manageable units.

Mnemonics

Memory aids that use vivid imagery and organizational devices.

Spacing effect

The tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice.

Testing effect

The phenomenon in which retrieval helps improve long-term memory.

Shallow processing

Encoding on a basic level based on the structure or appearance of words.

Deep processing

Encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the words.

Semantic memory

A type of explicit memory that involves knowledge of facts, concepts, and general knowledge.

Episodic memory

A type of explicit memory of personally experienced events.

Hippocampus

A neural center located in the limbic system that helps process explicit memories.

Memory consolidation

The process of converting short-term memories into long-term memories.

Flashbulb memory

A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.

Priming

The activation of particular associations in memory.

Encoding specificity principle

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

Mood-congruent memory

The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current mood.

Serial position effect

The tendency to recall the first and last items in a list better than the middle items.

Interleaving

The mixed practice of different topics or types of problems to enhance learning.

Anterograde amnesia

An inability to form new memories following a traumatic event.

Retrograde amnesia

An inability to retrieve information from one's past.

Proactive interference

The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information.

Retroactive interference

The disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information.

Repression

The unconscious mechanism employed by the ego to keep disturbing or threatening thoughts from becoming conscious.

Reconsolidation

The process whereby previously stored memories, when retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again.

Elizabeth Loftus

A cognitive psychologist known for her research on the malleability of memory.

Misinformation effect

Incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event.