PSY 270 exam 1 vocab

cognition

Mental activity, including the acquisition, storage, transformation, and use of knowledge

cognitive psychology

(1) A synonym for cognition. (2) The theoretical approach to psychology that focuses on studying people’s thought processes and knowledge.

cognitive approach

A theoretical orientation that emphasizes people’s thought processes and their knowledge.

empirical evidence

Scientific evidence obtained by careful observation and experimentation.

Introspection

An early approach to studying mental activity, in which carefully trained observers systematically analyzed their own sensations and reported them as objectively as possible, under standardized conditions.

Recency effect

A tendency for items at the end of a list to be recalled better than items in the middle of a list.

Short-term memory

The part of memory that holds only the small amount of information that a person is actively using. The more current term for this type of memory is working memory.

Working memory

The brief, immediate memory for the limited amount of material that a person is currently processing. Part of working memory also actively coordinates ongoing mental activities. In the current research, the term working memory is more popular than a similar but older term, short‐term memory.

Long-term memory

The large‐capacity memory for experiences and information accumulated throughout one's lifetime. Atkinson and Shiffrin proposed that information stored in long‐term memory is relatively permanent and not likely to be lost.

Ecological validity

A principle of research design in which the research uses conditions that are similar to the natural setting where the results will be applied.

Cerebral cortex

The outer layer of the brain that is essential for cognitive processes.

Serial processing

A type of cognitive processing in which a person performs operations one item at a time, rather than simultaneously, in contrast to parallel processing.

Parallel distributed processing (PDP) approach

A theory describing cognitive processing in terms of networks that link together neuron‐like units. These networks perform operations simultaneously and in parallel, rather than one step at a time. Also known as the connectionist approach and the neural‐network approach.

Memory

The process of maintaining information over time.

Imagery

The mental representation of stimuli when those stimuli are not physically present. Sensory receptors do not receive any input when a mental image is created.

Semantic memory

A person's organized knowledge about the world, including knowledge about words and other factual information.

Schemas

Generalized, well‐integrated knowledge about a situation, an event, or a person. Schemas allow people to predict what will happen in a new situation, These predictions are generally correct.

Bottom-up processing

The kind of cognitive processing that emphasizes stimulus characteristics in object recognition and other cognitive tasks. For example, the physical stimuli from the environment are registered on the sensory receptors. This information is then passed on to higher, more sophisticated levels in the perceptual system.

Top-down processsing

The kind of cognitive processing that emphasizes the importance of concepts, expectations, and memory in object recognition and other cognitive tasks.

Perception

The use of previous knowledge to gather and interpret stimuli registered by the senses. Perception requires both bottom‐up and top‐down processing.

Object recognition

The process of identifying a complex arrangement of sensory stimuli and perceiving that this pattern is separate from its background.

Pattern recognition

The process of identifying a complex arrangement of sensory stimuli and perceiving that this pattern is separate from its background.

Distal stimulus

In perception, the actual object that is “out there” in the environment, for example, a pen on a desk.

Proximal stimulus

In perception, the information registered on the sensory receptors—for example, the image on the retina created by a pen on a desk.

Iconic memory

Sensory memory for visual information. Iconic memory preserves an image of a visual stimulus for a brief period after the stimulus has disappeared.

Visual sensory memory

Sensory memory for visual information. Iconic memory preserves an image of a visual stimulus for a brief period after the stimulus has disappeared.

Primary visual cortex

The portion of the cerebral cortex located in the occipital lobe of the brain, which is concerned with basic processing of visual stimuli. It is also the first place where information from the two eyes is combined.

Illusory contours

The perception of edges in a visual stimulus even though edges are not physically present. Also known as subjective contours.

Subjective contours

The perception of edges in a visual stimulus, even though edges are not physically present. Also known as illusory contours.

Templates

According to an early theory of visual object recognition, the specific perceptual patterns stored in memory.

Distinctive feature

In visual perception, an important characteristic of the visual stimulus.

Geons

In recognition‐by‐components theory, the simple 3D shapes that people use in order to recognize visual objects,

Viewer-centered approach

A modification of the recognition‐by‐components theory of object recognition. However, the viewer‐centered approach proposes that people store a small number of views of a three‐dimensional object, rather than just one view.

Word superiority effect

Change blindness

Inattentional blindness

Ecological validity

Face-inversion effect

Phoneme

Attention

Divided-attention task

Multitask

Selective-attention task

Dichotic listening

Cocktail party effect

Working memory

Stroop effect

Attentional bias

Automatic processes

Controlled processes

Bottleneck theories

Orienting attention network

Executive attention network

Distributed attention

Focused attention

Illusory conjunction

Thought suppression

Ironic effects of mental control

Short-term memory

Long-term memory

Chunk

Brown/Peterson & Peterson technique

Rehearsal

Serial-position effect

Recency effect

Primacy effect

Semantics

Proactive interference (PI)

Release from PI

Working-memory approach

Phonological loop

Subvocalization

Acoustic confusions

Visuospatial sketchpad

Central executive

Episodic buffer

Rumination style