AP Psych Unit Two-Cognition

selective attention

concentration on certain stimuli in the environment and not on others, letting important stimuli to be distinguished from peripheral or incidental ones

inattentional blindness

a failure to notice unexpected but perceptible stimuli in a visual scene while one’s attention is focused on something else in the scene (gorilla basketball experiment)

change blindness

a failure to notice changes in the visual array appearing in two successive scenes (tourist-door experiment)

perceptual set

a temporary readiness to perceive certain objects or events rather than others; schema

schema

basic knowledge about a concept or entity that serves as a guide to perception, interpretation, imagination, or problem solving;

gestalt

the idea that the mind perceives patterns or configurations instead of individual parts 

figure-ground

use of phsyical dimensions of an object against its background (football officials watching field goals)

grouping

the brain groups things/ideas (finger counting)

depth perception

awareness of three-dimensionality, solidity, and the distance between the observer and the object

visual cliff

experiment done to investigate the development of depth perception in nonverbal human infants and in nonhuman animals, and whether depth perception is an innate ability or learned through experience

binocular cues

means used to inform the visual system about the depth of a target or its distance from the observer that require integration of information from the two eyes and include signals about the convergence of the eyes and binocular disparity

convergence

the rotation of the two eyes inward toward a light source so that the image falls on corresponding points on the foveas (form a single image)

retinal disparity

the slight difference between the right and left retinal images

monocular cues

means used to inform the visual system about the depth of a target or its distance from the observer that require only one eye and include signals about the state of the ciliary muscles, atmospheric perspective, linear perspective, and occlusion of distant objects by near objects

stroboscopic movement

the apparent motion of a series of separate stimuli occurring in close consecutive order (motion pictures)

phi phenomenon

an optical illusion where the perception of movement is created by viewing a rapid succession of stationary images, rather than actual motion

autokinetic effect

an optical illusion where a stationary point of light in a dark, featureless environment appears to move

perceptual constancy

the phenomenon in which an object or its properties (e.g., size, shape, color) appear unchanged despite variations in the stimulus itself or in the external conditions of observation, such as object orientation or level of illumination

color constancy

the tendency to perceive a familiar object as having the same color under different conditions of illumination

perceptual adaptation

the brain's process of adjusting its interpretation of sensory information to a new or changed environment, leading to altered perception (helps brain focus on important stimuli)

cognition

all forms of knowing and awareness, such as perceiving, conceiving, remembering, reasoning, judging, imagining, and problem solving

metacognition

thinking about our own thinking

concepts

mental representation of a category or idea

prototype

in concept formation, the best or average exemplar of a category

assimilate

add to a schema (the process of absorbing, incorporating, or making similar)

accomodation

making a new schema (modify existing mental schemas or create new ones to incorporate new information that cannot be understood by current schema)

creativity

the ability to produce or develop original work, theories, techniques, or thoughts

divergent thinking

creative thinking that solves a problem by deviating from common strategies

convergent thinking

critical thinking that uses logical, linear steps to analyze already formulated solutions to decide the correct or most successful one 

executive functions

higher level cognitive processes of planning, decision making, problem solving, action sequencing, task assignment and organization, effortful and persistent goal pursuit, inhibition of competing impulses, flexibility in goal selection, and goal-conflict resolution 

algorithm

a step-by-step procedure that is used to accomplish a task

heuristic

mental shortcut that provides efficient means of finding an outcome, but does not guarantee one

representativeness heuristic

a strategy for making categorical judgments about a given person or target based on how closely it/they matches the typical member of the category

availability heuristic

a common strategy for making judgments in which the individual bases such judgments on the prominence of the information held in their memory about the particular type of event

insight

the clear and often sudden discernment of a solution to a problem (light bulb moment)

confirmation bias

the tendency to gather evidence that confirms preexisting expectations (and ignoring evidence that goes against those beliefs)

fixation

an obsessive preoccupation with a single idea

mental set

readiness to perform certain psychological functions that influences the response to a situation or stimulus (e.g. the tendency to apply a previously successful technique in solving a new problem)

intuition

immediate insight or perception, as contrasted with conscious reasoning or reflection

overconfidence

cognitive bias the comes from overestimation on one’s abilities, belief that one’s performance is better than someone else’s, or extreme certainty in one’s abilities

belief perseverance

the tendency to maintain a belief even after the information that originally powered it has been refuted or otherwise shown to be inaccurate

framing

the process of defining the context or issues surrounding a question, problem, or event in a way that serves to influence how the context or issues are perceived and evaluated

nudge

subtly altering a person's choice environment to influence their behavior in a predictable, positive way without restricting their freedom of choice

central executive

control center of working memory

phonological loop

component of working memory that temporarily stores auditory and verbal information

visuospatial sketchpad

component of working memory that temporarily stores visual and spatial information

long-term potentional

a persistent strengthening of synapses in the brain that is crucial for learning and memory