psychology cognition vocabulary part one

bottom-up processing

system in which perceptions are built from sensory input

top-down processing

interpretation of sensations is influenced by prior knowledge, expectations, and experiences.

schema

mental frameworks that help organize and interpret information.

perceptual set

a readiness to perceive things a certain way, based on expectations, emotions, or cultural background.

gestalt psychology

field of psychology that focused on how people naturally organize sensory information into meaningful wholes.

closure

organizing our perceptions into complete objects by filling in gaps.

proximity

things that are close together tend to be grouped together.

similarity

things that look similar tend to be grouped together.

selective attention

focusing on one thing among many distractors.

inattentional blindness

failure to notice visible objects when attention is directed elsewhere.

change blindness

failure to notice a visual change in the environment.

binocular depth cues

cues that require both eyes.

retinal disparity

the difference between location in the left and right eyes; the brain uses this difference to calculate depth.

monocular cues

cue that requires only one eye.

assimilation

adjustment of a schema by adding information similar to what is already known.

accommodation

adjustment of a schema to fit new information.

hueristic

a mental shortcut for decision-making.

representativeness hueristic

estimating the likelihood of an event by comparing it to an existing prototype.

availability hueristic

individuals judge the likelihood of an event based on how easily examples or instances come to mind.

mental set

persistant in apporaching a problem in a way that has worked in the past but is not working now.

priming

activation of associations in memory, often unconsciously.

framing

the way information is presented affects decisions and judgements.

convergent thinking

narrowing down to a single best solution.

functional fixedness

inability to see new uses for familiar objects.

storage

retention of the encoded information over time.

retrieval

getting the information out of memory back into awareness.

explicit memory

memories we consciously try to remember, recall, and reform.

episodic memory

information about events we have personally experienced.

semantic memory

knowledge about words, concepts, and language based on knowledge and facts.

implicit memory

skills and conditioned responses, retrieved without conscious effort.