AP Psych U2

Sensation

using sensory neurons to take in stimuli

Perception

how we interpret the stimuli, affected by culture

bottom-up processing

perceiving something new, no prior context, focus more on individual characteristics

Top-down processing/intuition

have prior knowledge to help explain a perception

Gestalt rules

how we interpret visual stimuli

Closure

we fill in the gaps in images

figure ground

what you interpret as foreground vs background

proximity

we group things together that are similar and appear together

Monocular

Clarity: closer something is, the easier it is to see it; relative size; interposition: know something is behind another

Binocular

Retinal disparity: taking average of what you see out of each eye to get what you see when you use both

Perceptual set

all that we perceive, not all that there is

Context

effects how we perceive things, we are a product of our experiences

Schema

complex mental frameworks that help us organize our knowledge, changes when we see something that doesn't fit it

Prototype

go to example for a mental concept

selective attention

conscious awareness focuses on a particular stimulus out of the entirety of your perception, might fail to see something because of focus on another

inattentional blindness

failing to see visible objects when our attention is focused on something else

Change blindness

failing to notice changes in the environment, if general characterizations don't change, we won't notice it

Cognition

mental activity associated with processing, understanding, and communicating info

assimilation

add new schema to existing one

accomodation

change schema to fit new info

Trial and error

guaranteed to end in success, but not fastest way

Algorithm

step by step process to solving a problem

Heursitics

mental shortcut, quickest way but not always correct

insight learning

when something finally clicks

Availability heuristic

based off of info most readily available: judging a book by its cover

representative heuristic

making judgements based off of similarity to prototypes; stereotypes, prejudices

convergent thinking

following established protocols, filling out a test

divergent thinking

thinking outside the box

confirmation bias

seeking info that supports existing beliefs

hindsight bias

overestimating ability to foresee past events

Gambler fallacy

idea that your luck will change because of a repeated result

Sunk-cost fallacy

idea of having invested a lot, but riding it out

Fixation

functional fixedness, inability to use an object for anything other than its designed purpose

overconfidence

we tend to overestimate our abilities

belief perseverance

belief in an idea despite overwhelming adversary

framing

way you choose your words impacts decisions

explicit/declarative memory

things we consciously remember

episodic

personal experiences

semantic

general knowledge and facts

prospective

hope to remember something in future

Implicit/procedural memories

things we remember without thinking about

procedural

muscle movements you don't have to think about

conditioned responses

doing something over and over again

Primed response

seeing an ad and wanting to buy something

Long-term potential

how memory gets encoded at cellular level, more we use our memory, more neural pathways we make, faster they become

echoic memory

sounds

iconic memory

images

short-term memory

temporary workspace, limited capacity (5-7)

Long-term memory

what you readily use, unlimited capacity

effortful processing

writing down notes

automatic processing

doing something without remembering

rehearsal

most basic form of effortful processing

spacing effect

when you space out your rehearsal

serial position effect

tend to remember first and last things in a list

deep vs shallow processing

when you give something meaning, you are more likely to encode it into long-term; shallow is only basic info

Mnemonics

mental hacks to give us meaning to something we semantically encode

Chunking

putting info into groupings (typically a limit of 5-7)

link method

creating a story to link information to

mental imagery

thinking about mental maps or a mental image of where something is

method of Loci

creating a storage system for memories

retrieval

depends on explicit and implicit memory, we can retrieve from long term and muscle memory

Recall

most basic, bringing memories from long-term

recognition

recognizing a face and putting a name to it

relearning

learning something again, takes less time

context effects

ability to retrieve information

mood-congruent

you remember when you were angry because you are currently angry

state-congruent

practice how you play

encoding specificity principle

the closer the way you encode it is to the way you retrieve it, the more likely you are to retrieve it

forgetting curve

steepest right after you learn something

Amnesia

problems with retrieval

anterograde

unable to form new memories, damage to hippocampus

retrograde

loss of pre-existing memories, damage to frontal lobe/cerebral cortex

interference

memories getting in the way of others

Retroactive

new learning interferes with past learning

Proactive

old info gets in the way of new info

Memory confabulation

we interject false info into our memories

General intelligence

thought intelligence was a general factor behind all of our mental ability

Fluid intelligence

ability to handle new situations, decreases as you get older

crystallized intelligence

all the things you know

Interpersonal vs intrapersonal intelligence

social smarts vs self smarts

analytical intelligence

problem-solving

creative intelligence

coming up with new ways to solve problems

practical intelligence

emotional intelligence, day to day stuff

IQ

mental age (measured by test)/chronological age (your actual age) x 100

Flynn effect

each generation has a greater intelligence, result of better access to healthcare, etc.

Standardized test

test is same for everyone

reliability tests

give consistent results, not same score but same trend

Validity

does test measure what it is designed to

achievement tests

measuring what you've learned

aptitude tests

trying to predict future performance

Fixed mindset

avoid challenges, effort is pointless

growth mindset

challenges are opportunities to improve