Unit 2A Quiz: Cognition, Perception,Thinking Strategies & Problem Solving

Inattentional Blindness

The level of conscious awareness where we are only in one place at a time and we miss things happening in front of us

Change Blindness

failing to notice changes in visual environment

Perceptual Set

A mental tendency to perceive one thing and not another (The ABC thing with 13)

Gestalt

an organized whole; helps simplify things for us by combining parts of information into important wholes

Figure-Ground

how figures stand out from their surroundings

Grouping

perceptual tendency to put together stimuli into reasonable groups

Depth Perception

The ability to see objects in three-dimension, but through the retina it is two dimensional; allows us to judge distance

Visual cliff

A test done on young children to help judge depth perception

Binocular Cue

depend on two eyes to judge depth (retinal disparity)

Convergence

inward angle of the eyes focusing on a near object; helps process sensory info and understand the environment around us

Retinal Disparity

causes each eye to perceive the same object differently; allows people to perceive depth or 3D

Monocular Cue

depend on one eye to judge depth

Stroboscopic Movement

an illusion when lights or images are flashed quickly

Phi Phenomenon

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

Autokinetic Effect

A visual illusion that causes motionless objects to look like theyre moving

Perceptual Constancy

recognizes objects without being deceived by changes; top-down process

Color constancy

perceiving many objects, but having consistent colors, even if the light/shadow is changing

Perceptual adaptation

The ability to adjust to changed sensory input/information

Selective Attention

our tendency to focus on certain things while ignoring distractions and information that doesn't matter (Cocktail party)

Cognition

all mental processes associated with thinking, knowledge, remembering and communicating

Metacognition

Awareness and knowledge concerning our own thinking (thinking about thinking)

Concept

mental organization of similar objects, events, ideas, or people; can be based off your experiences

Prototype

specific description; a mental image or best example of a category

Schema

A cognitive framework or concept that helps organize and interpret information and help us understand the world around us

Assimilation

adding and new info into our existing mental frameworks

Creativity

The ability to produce new and valuable or important(useful) ideas

Convergent thinking

narrowing the available problem solutions to find the best answer but only one solution (Less creative)

Divergent thinking

expanding the number of possible problem solutions (more creative)

Mental set

doing something over and over because you think it's ok; doesn't think outside the box (example of fixation)

Executive function

mental processes that enable us to plan focus remember instructions and do multiple tasks successfully

Algorithm

step-by-step instructions that provides the correct answer to a particular issue

Heuristic

A mental shortcut that allows a person to make decisions quickly with minimal effort

Insight

a sudden realization of a problem solution

Confirmation bias

A tendency to search for info that supports our ideas/opinions and ignores the other stuff that disagrees with our preconceptions

Fixation

the inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an obstacle to problem-solving

Intuition

an effortless immediate automatic feeling or thought; has a huge influence on decision-making usually adaptive

Representatives heuristic

we think of people through prototype lens or how they fit into things; may lead us to ignore other relevant info

Availability heuristics

making decisions based on an example, information, or recent experience from memory; easy to draw or feels common, but isn't

Overconfidence

The likelihood to be more confident than correct; to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments

Belief perseverance

Clinging on one's first beliefs, even when presented with information disproving them

Framing

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

Nudge

an attempt at influencing peoples judgment, choice or behavior in a predictable way

Accommodation

involves changing existing ideas to add in new information

Memory

the persistence of learning over time through the storage, encoding and retrieval of information

Recall

A mental process of retrieving past knowledge, events, and ideas for memory; well-learned overtime (ex: filling the blank)

Recognition

identifying items previously learned (for example a multiple-choice or matching)

Relearning

Learning something more quickly when you learn it a second or later time (ex: studying for a final exam)

Encoding

the processing of information into the memory system (ex: putting in new info)

Storage

the retention of encoded information over time (ex: organizing the info)

Retrieval

the process of getting information out of memory storage (ex: pulling out info)

Parallel processing

The brain's ability to simultaneously process different types of information

Sensory memory

The immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system

Short-term memory

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

Long-term memory

relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system

working memory

active maintenance of information in short-term storage; came from the long-term and added more info to memory then back to long-term

Central executive

the part of working memory that directs attention and takes out andupdates info

phonological loop (working memory)

sound/auditory information; stuff we repeat to ourselves to be able to recall info; sounding things out

visuospatial sketchpad

holds visual and spatial information; allows us to manipulate images in our mind

Neurogenesis

the formation of new neurons; form in response to sleep, exercise and non-stressful, but stimulating environments

long-term potential (LTP)

an increase in a cell's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory; brain is trying to reach out and lay down info

explicit memory (declarative memory)

retention of facts and experiences from long-term; uses hippocampus, episodic memory, important info, and explanation or effortful info

effortful processing

encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

Automatic processing

unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings

implicit memory (nondeclarative memory)

retention independent of conscious recollection; uses cerebellum, more automatic, skill/task, oriented, language and reading, memorizing, fears, and uses basal ganglia

iconic memory

Super quick, visual memory; lasts a few tenths of a second

Echoic memory

memory through fleeting
sensory info through stimuli; last 3 to 4 seconds

Chunking

organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically; can fit 5; one of the main ways of multitasking

mnemonics

memory aids; techniques that use vivid imagery; more easy to recall things; remembering concrete, visualizable words

Spacing effect

improved long-term retention. When recall of information is learned over space intervals instead of learning all at once.

Testing effect

enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information (ex: doing practice tests to test one's ability)

Shallow processing

encoding on a basic level based on the structure or appearance of words

Deep processing

A way of thinking that involves really understanding and connecting new info to things we already know

semantic memory

A type of long-term memory that stores general knowledge, concepts, facts, ideas, and meanings of words

Episodic memory

type of long-term memory used for declarative memory; day-to-day life memories

Hippocampus

helps process explicit memories for storage; located in the limbic system; explicit memories for facts and episodes; Temporal lobes

Flash bulb memory

a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event; you never forget; long-term memory

memory consolidation

A process where the brain converts short-term memories to long-term memories

Priming

unconscious associations in long-term implicit memory; can be activated; play out on actions

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 good or bad emotional state (mood)

Serial position effect

The tendency to be able to remember the last(recency effect) and first(primacy effect) items on the list

interleaving

switching between two different activities

anterograde amnesia

inability to form new memory due to injury or illness

retrograde amnesia

an inability to retrieve information from one's past due to injury or illness

Proactive interference (PO)

forward-acting; old stuff interferes with new stuff

Retroactive Interference (RN)

backward-acting; new stuff replaces the old stuff

Repression

in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

Reconsolidation

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