Psychology Unit 2 - thinking, problem solving, decision making, perception

concept

mental grouping of similar object, events, ideas, or people

- forms the basis of thought

prototype

a mental image or best example of a category

- ideal example for any given concept

Assimilation

taking in new information but not changing the schema in light of it

ex. a child learns the word "dog" to describe their family pet and then applies it to other similar-looking animals

Accomodation

taking in new information and changing the schema to incorporate the new information

ex. a child has a schema for "dog" that includes the info: furry, four legs, and one tail. When the child encounters a cat, they may try to fit that concept into their dog schema. However, they're corrected: there is a difference between dogs and cats. The child then creates a separate schema for "cat"

Algorithm

Address problems by attempting all possible solutions until the correct one is found

ex. a therapist using a structure, step-by step approach to treat a specific anxiety disorder. This could include exposure techniques, relaxation exercises, and cognitive restructuring techniques implemented in a specific order depending on progress

Heuristics

- Thinking short cuts that can lead us to the wrong answer

- Not necessarily bad, and can be useful

- Can lead to cognitive bias

Cognitive Biases

- The result of an imperfect thinking strategy

Representativeness heuristic

- Judging the likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent or match particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information.

- Decisions made according to prior expectations or stereotypes

Availability heuristic

Recalling the first or most vivid example that comes to mind

Overconfidence

Tendency to be more confident than correct. Overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements

Confirmation Bias

tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

Hindsight bias

tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it

Priming

describes how exposure to a stimulus can influence a person's response to a subsequent stimulus, without conscious awareness of the connection

Framing effect

the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgements

Mental Set

tendency to approach a problem in one particular way. Often a way that has been successful in the past

Gambler's fallacy

mistaken belief that the probability of a random event changes based on a previous event or series of events

ex. a gambler might believe that a red number is more likely to appear on a roulette wheel after a long run of black numbers

Sunk-cost fallacy

our tendency to continue with an endeavor we've invested money, effort, or time into - even if the current costs outweigh the benefits

Executive functions

cognitive processes that allow individuals to generate, organize, plan, and carry out goal-directed behaviors and experience critical thinking

Divergent thinking

expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions)

Convergent thinking

narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution

Functional fixedness

the tendency to see object (or situations) as only working in a particular way

ex. a dime can be used as a screwdriver

perception

- How we select, organize, and interpret our sensations

- Enables us to recognize meaningful objects and events

Bottom-up Processing

- Relies on external sensory information

- Start with the sensory receptors and work up to a higher level

Top-down processing

a cognitive process where the brain uses prior knowledge, expectations, and context to interpret sensory information

Perceptual Set

- A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

- Determined by the schemas you form as a result of you experiences

Schemas

A mental framework about a particular topic, event, object, idea, setting, or group of people that organizes information

Context Effects

Describes the influence of environmental factors on one's perception of a stimulus

Gestalt

a school of thought that emphasizes that the whole of any experience is more than the sum of its parts. It focuses on how the mind organizes individual sensory components into meaningful patterns and "wholes" or "gestalts"

Figure-ground

the cognitive process by which the human brain distinguishes between an object (figure) and its background (ground) in a visual scene

Grouping

tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

Selective attention

Consciously focusing on a particular stimulus while not focusing on another

Cocktail party effect

Ability to attend to only one voice among many, while also being able to detect your own name in an unattended voice

Selective Inattention

phenomenon where an individual fails to notice or register certain stimuli, even when they are present in their environment

Inattentional Blindness

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Change Blindness

Failing to notice changes in the environment

Binocular Cues

- Depth cues (retinal disparity & convergence) that depend on the use of two eyes

Retinal disparity

the slight difference in the images captured by each of your two eyes due to their different positions

Convergence

- merging of retinal images by the brain

- Two eyes move inward for near objects

Relative Size

the smaller image, the more distant it seems

monocular cues

visual signals that enable depth perception and distance judgment using only one eye

Interposition

If one object partially blocks another, we perceive it as closer

Relative Clarity

hazy objects are seen as more distant

Texture gradient

coarse objects appear closer & fine more distant

Linear perspective

parallel lines appear to converge with distance

Phi Phenomenon

An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in succession

Perceptual constancies

maintain the perception of an object even when the images of the object in the visual field change

size constancy

stable sizer perception amid changing size of the stimuli

shape constancy

shape constancy

color constancy

perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object