Psychology Lecture Notes: Perception, Cognition, and Memory

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering psychological concepts of perception, cognition, problem-solving, memory, and intelligence based on Units 8, 9, and 10.

Schemas

A framework to help individuals organize, interpret, and process information.

Perceptual sets

A mental predisposition to perceive some aspects of sensory data while ignoring others, influenced by top-down processing.

Gestalt psychology

A field that emphasizes that our brains organize sensory information into meaningful, organized wholes, often referred to as the big picture.

Closure

The tendency for people to fill in blanks to perceive a complete object whenever external stimuli partially match that object.

Figure and ground

The separation of an object (figure) from its surrounding (ground).

Proximity

The tendency to perceive objects that are close together as belonging to a group.

Similarity

Perceiving complex visual information as groups of like things.

Selective attention

Focusing on certain things while ignoring others.

Cocktail party effect

An example of selective attention involving focusing on one speaker or stimulus while filtering out others.

Inattentional blindness

The failure to perceive visible, unexpected objects in the visual field because attention is focused elsewhere.

Change blindness

When individuals fail to notice significant changes in their visual environment because their attention is focused elsewhere.

Binocular depth cues

Depth cues where you must use both eyes.

Retinal disparity

A binocular cue where the left and right eyes provide slightly different visual images when focusing on a single object.

Convergence

The extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object; greater strain indicates the object is closer.

Monocular depth cues

Depth cues that can be seen with only one eye.

Relative clarity

A monocular cue where hazy or lighter objects appear to be farther away than objects that appear sharp and clear.

Relative size

A monocular cue where if two objects are similar in size, the one that is smaller is perceived as farther away.

Texture gradient

A surface or field that recedes in depth has a texture that gets finer or smoother.

Linear perspective

A monocular cue where parallel lines appear to meet in the distance; the sharper the angle of convergence, the greater the perceived distance.

Interposition

When one object partially blocks the view of another, leading us to perceive it as closer.

Constancies

The brain's ability to perceive familiar objects as unchanging in size, shape, color, and brightness, despite changes in retinal image, distance, or lighting.

Prototypes

A mental image of the best, ideal example of a category.

Accommodation

The process of creating or changing a schema.

Assimilation

The process of adding information to an existing schema.

Algorithms

Step-by-step problem-solving procedures.

Heuristics

Everyday decision-making processes that are fast, unconscious, and automatic, though more error-prone.

Representativeness heuristic

A mental shortcut where the brain guesses the likelihood of something based on how well it fits a pre-existing mental picture.

Availability heuristic

The tendency to deem information significant based on how quickly it comes to mind, sometimes incorrectly.

Mental set

An obstacle to problem-solving involving fixating only on solutions that have worked in the past.

Framing

The way an issue is presented or posed.

Priming

A technique in which the introduction of one stimulus influences how people respond to a subsequent stimulus.

Gambler's fallacy

The belief that the odds of a chance event increase if the event has not occurred recently.

Sunk-cost fallacy

The tendency to continue an endeavor because of previously invested time, energy, and money, even when abandoning it would be more beneficial.

Executive function

Higher-order cognitive processes enabling goal-directed behavior, planning, organization, and flexible thinking.

Creativity

Mental processes and problem-solving resulting in original, workable ideas.

Divergent thinking

Finding as many solutions as possible for a problem.

Convergent thinking

Finding the single, most correct solution for a problem.

Functional fixedness

An obstacle to problem-solving involving fixating on an object's usual purpose.

Memory

The persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information.

Explicit memory

Memories and information that we can declare and consciously work to remember.

Episodic memory

Memories of specific events and experiences from our lives.

Semantic memory

General knowledge and facts that we have learned.

Implicit memory

Non-declarative memory; information remembered unconsciously and effortlessly.

Procedural memory

Memory of how to do things.

Prospective memory

Remembering to remember.

Long-term potentiation

A pattern of neural firing that strengthens synaptic connections over time as behaviors and tasks are repeated.

Working memory model

Defines short-term memory as an active system for temporarily storing and manipulating information using specific components.

Central executive

The boss of working memory responsible for controlling attention, planning, and switching between tasks.

Phonological loop

The component of working memory that briefly stores and manipulates auditory information.

Visuospatial sketchpad

The component of working memory that briefly stores and manipulates visual information.

Long-term memory

A relatively permanent and limitless storage of information, skills, and experiences.

Multi-store memory model

Defines memory as composed of sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Sensory memory

Brief memory storage following a sensory input.

Iconic memory

Sensory memory for visual input.

Echoic memory

Sensory memory for audio input.

Short-term memory

The capacity to hold a limited amount of sensory information for approximately $20-30 \text{ seconds}$.

Automatic processing

Unconscious, effortless encoding of information.

Effortful processing

Encoding that requires conscious attention and deliberate work.

Encoding

The processing of information into the memory system.

Storage

The retention of encoded material over time.

Retrieval

The process of getting memory out of storage.

Levels of processing model

Memory retention depends on the depth of cognitive processing applied (structural, phonemic, or semantic) rather than just rehearsal.

Structural processing

Focusing on the visual aspects of information.

Phonemic processing

Focusing on the sound of information.

Semantic processing

Focusing on the meaning of information.

Mnemonic devices

Tools or aids used to improve memory.

Method of loci

A mnemonic device using imagined physical locations to aid memory.

Chunking

Grouping items into familiar, manageable units to reduce the amount of information to be remembered.

Serial position effect

The tendency to recall the first (primacy effect) and last (recency effect) items in a list but not the middle.

Maintenance rehearsal

The constant repetition of information to keep it in memory.

Elaborative rehearsal

Tying new information to things already known that have personal meaning.

Highly superior autobiographical memory

A rare condition allowing individuals to recall nearly every day of their lives with accurate detail.

Amnesia

Biological memory loss.

Retrograde amnesia

The inability to remember the past.

Anterograde amnesia

The inability to remember events past a certain point.

Infantile amnesia

The inability of adults to retrieve episodic memories from the first years of life.

Alzheimer's disease

A degenerative brain disorder associated with memory loss.

Retrieval cues

Signals that help trigger the recall of a memory.

Context-dependent memory

The phenomenon where memory is more effective when the surrounding context at recall matches the context during formation.

Mood-congruent memory

The tendency to recall experiences consistent with one's current good or bad mood.

State-dependent memory

Information learned in one state (e.g., mood, drug-use, pain) is more easily recalled when in that same state.

Metacognition

Thinking about thinking.

Testing effect

Enhanced memory resulting from repeated self-testing and rehearsal.

Forgetting curve

The concept that memories fade over time due to lack of use.

Encoding failure

When information fails to enter the memory system due to lack of attention.

Interference

A memory blockage involving proactive (old blocking new) or retroactive (new blocking old) interference.

Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

Retrieval failure of an elusive memory that is not often retrieved.

Repression

A defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-inducing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness.

Misinformation effect

The tendency for information learned after an event to interfere with the original memory.

Source amnesia

Memory impairment where one remembers information but cannot recall where, when, or how it was learned.

Constructive memory

When memories are altered by new information related to beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions to fill in gaps.

Memory consolidation

The process by which the brain turns short-term memories into long-term memories.

Imagination inflation

An increased tendency to falsely remember performing an action that was only imagined.

Intelligence

The ability to learn from experiences, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.

g - general intelligence

A single, underlying mental capacity that influences performance.

Intelligence quotient (IQ)

A measure of intelligence calculated by $\frac{\text{mental age}}{\text{chronological age}} \times 100$.

Standardization

Establishing a set of norms or standards for comparing individual test scores to a larger population.

Validity

The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to.

Reliability

The extent to which a test yields consistent results.

Stereotype threat

The fear that one's behavior will confirm an existing negative stereotype, which can lead to decreased performance.