AP Psych Unit 3

Perception

Sensory experience of the world

Top-Down Processing

Perceiving things based on prior experiences and knowledge

Bottom-up Processing

Sensory analysis that begins at the entry level—with what our senses can detect

Schemas

Mental representations that enables us to organize our knowledge into categories

Perceptual Sets

A mental predisposition or readiness to perceive stimuli in a particular way based on previous experiences, expectations, beliefs, and context

Gestalt Psychology

A school of thought that looks at the human mind and behavior as a whole

Closure

Elements that form a closed object will be perceived as a group

Figure/Ground

A cognitive function that allows a person to direct their attention to a figure rather than its background

Proximity

Objects near each other tend to be viewed as a group

Similarity

People naturally group similar items together based on elements like color, size, and orientation

Attention

A state of consciousness in which a person can respond to a stimulus or stimuli

Selective Attention

The processes that allow an individual to select and focus on particular input for further processing while simultaneously suppressing irrelevant or distracting information

Cocktail Party Effect

The ability to focus one's attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli (mainly audio)

Inattention (Inattentional Blindness)

Failure to perceive something because attention is focused on something else, such as a task, object, or person

Change Blindness

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

Binocular Depth Cues

Includes retinal disparity and convergence

Retinal Disparity

The left and right fields of vision provide slightly different visual images when focusing on a single object

Convergence

Explores how sensory details, such as sight or touch, are combined and evaluated to form perceptions, like recognizing a familiar face or learning a new skill

Monocular Depth Cues

Includes relative size, texture gradient, occlusion, linear perspective, contrast differences, and motion parallax

Relative Clarity

Objects that appear sharp, clear, and detailed are seen as closer than more hazy objects

Relative Size

The farther an object, the smaller its image will be on the retina

Texture Gradient

Distortion in size which closer objects have compared to objects further away

Linear Perspective

A type of depth prompt that the human eye perceives when viewing two parallel lines that appear to converge

Interposition

A type of monocular cue in which one object partially obscures or covers another object, giving the perception the object that is partially covered is farther away

Perceptual Constancy

The tendency to perceive an object as having a constant shape, size, and brightness despite the stimuli changes that occur

Apparent Motion/Movement

The movement is caused by a perceptual illusion

Concepts

Mental groupings of similar objects, ideas, events and people

Prototypes

Mental representations of objects or concepts

Assimilation

The tendency to interpret new experiences in terms of existing schemas

Accommodation

Changes in schemas to incorporate information from experiences

Algorithms

A rule that guarantees the right solution to a problem, usually by using a formula

Heuristic

A 'rule of thumb' that generally, but not always, can be used to make a judgment to solve a problem

Representativeness Heuristic

Judging a situation based on how similar the aspects are to the prototypes the person holds in their mind

Availability Heuristic

Judging a situation based on examples of similar situations that readily come to mind

Mental Set

Tendency to approach situations in certain ways because that method worked in the past

Priming

Occurs when an individual's exposure to a certain stimulus influences their response to a subsequent prompt

Framing

Presenting an idea differently will affect the participants' thoughts, words, and actions

Gambler's Fallacy

Predicting a random event based on previous random events

Sunk-Cost Fallacy

A framing effect in which people make decisions about a current situation based on what they have previously invested in the situation

Executive Functions

Skills used to manage everyday tasks like making plans, solving problems and adapting to new situations

Creativity

The use of the imagination or original ideas

Divergent Thinking

Thinking of multiple, unique ideas or solutions to a problem

Convergent Thinking

Focuses on reaching one well-defined solution to a problem

Functional Fixedness

An individual develops an inability to use an object in more ways than it is traditionally intended to be used

Memory

The power of retaining and recalling past experience

Explicit Memory

The conscious, intentional recollection of factual information, previous experiences, and concepts

Episodic Memory

Part of long-term explicit memory, and comprises a person's unique recollection of experiences, events, and situations

Semantic Memory

A long-term explicit memory category involving the recollection of ideas, concepts, and facts commonly regarded as general knowledge

Implicit Memory

The unintentionally acquired memory; it is used unconsciously, and can affect thoughts and behaviors

Procedural Memory

A type of implicit, long-term memory involved in the performance of different actions and skills

Prospective Memory

A form of memory that involves remembering to perform a planned action or recall a planned intention at some future point in time

Long-Term Potentiation

A process by which synaptic connections between neurons become stronger with frequent activation

Working Memory Model

Describes short-term memory as a system with multiple components

Central Executive

A flexible system responsible for the control and regulation of cognitive processes

Phonological Loop

The speech and sound related component of working memory and holds verbal and auditory information

Visuospatial Sketchpad

The component of working memory responsible for handling visual and spatial information

Multi-Store Model

Original model of memory, consisting of the sensory register, short-term store, and long-term store

Sensory Memory

The immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the memory system

Iconic Memory

A type of short-term sensory memory in which one can recall visual images for just a few milliseconds after the physical image has disappeared.

Echoic Memory

Ultra-short-term memory for things one hears.

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.

Automatic Processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency.

Effortful Processing

Encoding information through conscious attention and effort.

Encoding

The processing of information into the memory system.

Storage

The retention of encoded information over time.

Retrieval

The process of getting information out of memory storage.

Levels of Processing Model (Shallow to Deep)

Focuses on the depth of processing involved in memory, and predicts the deeper information is processed, the longer a memory trace will last.

Structural Processing

Remembering only the physical quality of the word (e.g. how the word is spelled and how letters look).

Phonemic Processing

Remembering the word by the way it sounds.

Semantic Processing

The stage of language processing that occurs after one hears a word and encodes its meaning (deep processing).

Mnemonic Devices

Devices for memory tricks or strategies to make information easier to remember.

Method of Loci

A strategy for memory enhancement, which uses visualizations of familiar spatial environments in order to enhance the recall of information.

Working Memory

The small amount of information that can be held in mind and used in the execution of cognitive tasks.

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically.

Categorization

A type of cognition involving conceptual differentiation between characteristics of conscious experience, such as objects, events, or ideas.

Hierarchy

A system where individuals or concepts are ranked one above another based on specific criteria.

Spacing Effect

Demonstrates that learning is more effective when repeated in spaced-out sessions (don't cram study).

Memory Consolidation

The process by which a temporary, labile memory is transformed into a more stable, long-lasting form.

Massed Practice

A study method whereby a large amount of information is learned over a short period of time, usually over one or two classes or one night of studying (cramming).

Distributed Practice

A learning strategy, where practice is broken up into a number of short sessions over a longer period of time (aka spacing effect, spaced repetition).

Serial Position Effect

Our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list.

Primacy Effect

The tendency to recall information presented at the start of a list better than information at the middle or end.

Recency Effect

The tendency to recall information presented at the end of a list better than information at the start or middle.

Rehearsal

The mental repetition of incoming information

Maintenance rehearsal

Involves the repetition of information in its original, unaltered form

Elaborative rehearsal

A technique to help the short-term memory store thoughts or ideas and pass them into the long-term memory

Superior Autobiographical Memory

An ability that allows people to remember nearly every event of their life with great precision (aka hyperthymesia)

Autobiographical Memory

Memory for one's personal history

Retrograde Amnesia

Loss of memory for events immediately preceding a trauma, loss of memories that were stored before a traumatic event

Anterograde Amnesia

Loss of memory for events immediately following a trauma

Alzheimer's Disease

A progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and, finally, physical functioning

Infantile Amnesia

The inability to remember events that occurred during one's early years (before age three)

Recall

To transfer prior learning or past experience to current consciousness

Recognition

A form of remembering characterized by a feeling of familiarity when something previously experienced is again encountered

Retrieval Cues

A clue or prompt that is used to trigger the retrieval of long-term memory

Context-Dependent Memory

Improved recall when the context during encoding is the same as the context during retrieval

Mood-Congruent Memory

A psychological phenomenon in which a person tends to remember information that is consistent with their particular mood

State-Dependent Memory

A phenomenon where people remember more information if their physical or mental state is the same at time of encoding and time of recall

Testing Effect

Suggests long-term memory is increased when part of the learning period is devoted to retrieving information from memory