Unit 2: Cognition Master Vocabulary Flashcards Mock

This set contains 123 vocabulary units covering perception, thinking, memory, and intelligence based on the cognition lecture notes.

Cognition

The broad set of mental processes involved in acquiring, storing, transforming, and using knowledge, including perception, memory, language, and reasoning.

Perception

The brain’s process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory input to understand and interact with the environment.

Selective Attention

A cognitive process that allows focus on a limited portion of sensory information while filtering out the vast majority of stimuli.

Cocktail Party Effect

A phenomenon where one can focus on a single conversation in a noisy environment while still detecting personally relevant info like their own name.

Inattentional Blindness

A failure to perceive a fully visible object because attention is directed elsewhere.

Change Blindness

A form of inattentional blindness in which a person fails to notice a change in the environment because the brain encodes general meaning rather than every detail.

Perceptual Set

A mental predisposition involving expectations, prior experiences, and context that biases our interpretation of ambiguous stimuli.

Gestalt Principles

A school of psychology emphasizing that the mind organizes sensory information into meaningful wholes; ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.’

Figure–Ground

A fundamental perceptual process in which the visual system separates elements into an object of focus and a background.

Grouping Principles

Rules the brain uses to organize sensory input into coherent patterns, such as proximity, continuity, and closure.

Proximity

A grouping principle where elements close together are perceived as belonging together.

Continuity

A grouping principle where we perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than abrupt changes.

Closure

A grouping principle where we mentally fill in gaps to perceive complete objects.

Depth Perception

The ability to perceive the world in three dimensions and judge distance, even though the retina receives two-dimensional images.

Binocular Cues

Depth cues that depend on the slightly different images received by each eye and are most effective for judging close distances.

Retinal Disparity

A binocular cue where the brain compares images from both eyes; the greater the difference, the closer the object is.

Monocular Cues

Depth cues available to either eye alone, used especially for judging far distances.

Interposition

A monocular cue where an object that blocks another appears closer.

Linear perspective

A monocular cue where parallel lines appear to converge with distance.

Relative size

A monocular cue where the smaller of two similar objects is perceived as being further away.

Relative clarity

A monocular cue where clearer objects are perceived as closer than hazy or blurry objects.

Texture gradient

A monocular cue where a gradual change from a coarse, distinct texture to a fine, indistinct texture signals increasing distance.

Light and shadow

A monocular cue where shaded and highlighted areas provide depth information about an object's three-dimensional form.

Relative height

A monocular cue where objects higher in our field of vision are perceived as farther away.

Motion parallax

A monocular depth cue that uses the relative movement of objects at different distances as we move.

Stroboscopic Movement

An illusion of motion created when a rapid series of slightly different images is presented in quick succession, used in animation.

Phi Phenomenon

An illusion where two or more adjacent lights blinking on and off rapidly create the perception of a single moving light.

Autokinetic Effect

A perceptual illusion in which a stationary point of light in a dark room appears to move due to a lack of reference points and eye movements.

Perceptual Constancy

The top-down process of perceiving objects as stable and unchanging despite variations in sensory input.

Color Constancy

Perceiving an object’s color as stable even when lighting changes alter the wavelengths reaching the eyes.

Brightness Constancy

Perceiving an object’s brightness as constant relative to its surroundings, regardless of illumination changes.

Shape Constancy

Recognizing an object’s shape as unchanged even when its retinal image changes due to the viewing angle.

Size Constancy

Perceiving an object as having a constant size despite changes in distance and retinal image size.

Critical Period (Vision)

A biologically determined window early in life where visual experience is required for normal visual development.

Perceptual Adaptation

The brain’s ability to adjust to altered visual input, such as inverted or displaced fields of view.

Concepts

Mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, or people that reduce cognitive load by allowing efficient categorization.

Prototypes

The most typical or best example of a category used for quick classification.

Metacognition

Thinking about your own thinking, including monitoring and regulating cognitive processes.

Schemas

Cognitive frameworks that organize and interpret information to help us understand the world quickly.

Assimilation

Interpreting new experiences using existing schemas, fitting new information into what is already known.

Accommodation

Adjusting existing schemas or creating new ones to incorporate new information, leading to cognitive growth.

Creativity

The ability to produce ideas that are both novel (original) and valuable (useful).

Convergent Thinking

A type of thinking that narrows possibilities to find a single best answer, used in intelligence tests and logic tasks.

Divergent Thinking

A type of thinking that expands the number of possible solutions, essential for brainstorming and innovation.

Expertise

A component of creativity involving a deep knowledge base that serves as the building blocks for ideas.

Imaginative Thinking Skills

A component of creativity involving the ability to see patterns and connections in new ways.

Venturesome Personality

A component of creativity characterized by risk-taking, persistence, and seeking new experiences.

Intrinsic Motivation

A component of creativity where one is driven by internal interest and challenge rather than external rewards.

Creative Environment

A component of creativity involving a setting that supports collaboration, provides freedom, and refines ideas.

Executive Functioning

A set of cognitive processes for planning, organizing, decision-making, and goal-directed behavior; the CEO of the brain.

Algorithms

Step-by-step procedures that guarantee a correct solution, though they are often slow and impractical for daily use.

Insight

A sudden realization of a solution without a conscious strategy, often following a period of incubation.

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts that allow quick judgments and decisions but are prone to error.

Representative Heuristic

Judging likelihood based on how well something matches a prototype, which can lead to ignoring base rates.

Availability Heuristic

Estimating likelihood based on how easily vivid, recent, or emotional examples come to mind.

Intuition

Automatic, effortless, and unconscious reasoning that is fast but can be biased in unfamiliar situations.

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to seek and remember information that supports existing beliefs while ignoring contradictory evidence.

Mental Set

A tendency to approach problems using strategies that worked in the past, even if they are no longer effective.

Functional Fixedness

A fixation where a person sees objects only in terms of their traditional uses, limiting problem-solving.

Overconfidence

Overestimating the accuracy of one’s knowledge or abilities, which can lead to errors but also increases persistence.

Belief Perseverance

Clinging to initial beliefs even after they have been discredited; one of the strongest cognitive biases.

Framing

The way information is presented, which can dramatically influence decisions and judgments.

Memory

The persistence of learning over time through the processes of encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Encoding

The process of getting information into the memory system, either automatically or through effort.

Storage

The retention of encoded information over time through sensory, short-term, and long-term memory.

Retrieval

The process of accessing stored information, often triggered by cues or context.

Recall

Retrieving information not currently in conscious awareness, such as in fill-in-the-blank questions.

Recognition

Identifying previously learned info, such as in multiple-choice questions.

Relearning

Learning something more quickly the second time, showing that memory was retained even if not recalled.

Parallel Processing

The brain's ability to process many aspects of a stimulus simultaneously rather than serially.

Connectionism

A memory model viewing memories as interconnected neural networks where learning strengthens activation pathways.

Sensory Memory

The immediate, brief recording of sensory information, including iconic and echoic forms.

Iconic memory

A brief sensory memory of visual stimuli lasting less than $1\,\text{second}$.

Echoic memory

A brief sensory memory of auditory stimuli lasting $3\text{--}4\,\text{seconds}$.

Short-Term Memory (STM)

Holds a small amount of information briefly (about $7$ items for $\sim 20\,\text{seconds}$) before it is forgotten or encoded.

Working Memory

An active processing system that manipulates information in STM and integrates it with long-term memory.

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

A relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Explicit (Declarative) Memory

Memory of facts and experiences that can be consciously recalled, stored via the hippocampus and frontal lobes.

Implicit (Non-Declarative) Memory

Unconscious memory for skills, classical conditioning, and associations, stored via the cerebellum and basal ganglia.

Procedural Memory

A type of implicit memory specifically for motor skills and habits, like riding a bike.

Mnemonics

Memory aids that use imagery, organization, or patterns to enhance the encoding process.

Chunking

Organizing information into familiar, manageable, and meaningful units to increase working-memory capacity.

Hierarchies

Organizing information from broad concepts to specific details to improve encoding and retrieval.

Spacing Effect

The tendency for distributed practice to yield better long-term retention than massed practice (cramming).

Testing Effect

Enhanced memory performance following retrieval practice rather than simply rereading information.

Shallow Processing

Encoding information based on superficial features like the appearance or sound of words.

Deep Processing

Encoding information based on the meaning of the words, which produces more durable memories.

Anterograde Amnesia

The inability to form new memories after a brain injury, while old memories remain intact.

Retrograde Amnesia

The inability to retrieve memories from the past, usually resulting from trauma or injury.

Encoding Failure

Information never enters long-term memory because of insufficient attention or shallow processing.

Storage Decay

The fading of a memory over time when that memory is not used or rehearsed.

Proactive Interference

When old information disrupts the recall of newly learned information.

Retroactive Interference

When new information disrupts the recall of previously learned information.

Repression

A Freudian concept of pushing anxiety-arousing memories into the unconscious (not widely supported by modern research).

Misinformation Effect

When misleading information distorts a person’s memory of an event, often studied in eyewitness testimony.

Source Amnesia

Attributing a memory to the wrong source, which is a major cause of false memories.

Deja Vu

The eerie sense of having experienced something before, likely caused by a neural misfire creating false familiarity.

Intelligence

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

Intelligence Tests

Assessments used to measure mental abilities and compare individuals using numerical scores.

General Intelligence (g)

Spearman’s concept that a single underlying factor influences performance across all cognitive tasks.