Unit 2 - Cognition - AP PSYCHOLOGY

Cocktail Party Effect

Attention is directed at one conversation while blocking out others.

Inattentional Blindness

The failure to notice stimuli is caused by the fact that one's attention is directed elsewhere.

Change Blindness

The failure to notice changes in an environment or scene.

Binocular Depth Cues

Using information from both eyes to determine the depth of an object.

Convergence

When the eyes rotate inward toward an object to help determine its depth.

Retinal Disparity

The right and left retinal images are compared by the brain and fused into one image with depth.

Monocular Depth Cues

Using information from one eye to determine depth.

Relative Size

When two objects are similar in size, the one that casts a smaller retinal image is perceived as further away.

Interposition

When an object obstructs the view of another, the viewer perceives the one blocked as further away.

Relative Clarity

When an object is hazy, it is perceived as further away because it usually indicates that it passes through more light to reach the retinas.

Texture Gradient

When object texture becomes more indistinct, the viewer perceives it as further away.

Linear Perspective

Parallel lines converge at a point on the horizon as the distance from the viewer increases.

Perceptual Constancy

An object's properties are perceived as unchanged even though the stimulus did change.

Apparent Movement

One perceives movement when objects are not actually moving.

Concept

An idea that represents a grouping of objects by their essential properties.

Prototype

The best or average exemplar of a concept.

Schema

Basic knowledge about a concept that serves as a guide.

Assimilate

The process of incorporating new information into preexisting schema based on similarities.

Accommodation

The existing schema has already been changed to incorporate new information.

Problem-Solving Strategy

A set procedure that often involves a series of steps that eliminate possible combinations.

Algorithm

A set procedure that often involves a series of steps that eliminate possible combinations.

Availability Heuristic

Judging based on the relevant information in memory.

Representative Heuristic

Judging based on how much resemblance there is to a typical or average member of the category.

Bottom-Up Processing

Perception based on sensory information, processing incoming stimuli by their parts to recognize, interpret, or categorize.

Top-Down Processing

Perception based on internal prior expectations using previous experiences, knowledge, or hypotheses about incoming stimuli.

Perceptual Set

A schema that influences the way a person perceives.

Context Effect

Context can alter the way a person perceives.

Gestalt

Integrating elements to create a whole configuration not possessed by the individual parts.

Figure-Ground

Perceiving one object as the foreground that stands out from the indistinct background.

Explicit Memory

Long-term memory of general knowledge and information of personal experiences.

Episodic Memory

The ability to remember personally experienced events. Time and space.

Semantic Memory

The ability to remember explicit facts and general knowledge.

Implicit Memory

Memory of a previous event or experience without a direct, explicit recall or awareness of remembering.

Procedural Memory

Long-term memory for the skills of a task such as riding a bike.

Prospective Memory

Remembering to do something in the future.

Long-Term Potentiation

Neural change; neurons that fire together, wire together.

Sensory Memory

Brief storage of sensory information.

Iconic Memory

Type of sensory memory that is for visual stimuli.

Echoic Memory

Type of sensory memory that is for auditory stimuli.

Short-Term Memory

The reproduction, recall, or recognition of information for 10-30 seconds after someone presents it.

Long-Term Memory

A relatively permanent storage system of knowledge and skills that can last for hours, weeks, and years.

Effortful Processing

Mental activity that requires control and planning.

Automatic Processing

Mental activity that can be executed without effort or attention.

Mnemonic Devices

A device used to assist memory.

Method of Loci

A mnemonic device that associates each item with a mental image of a specific location.

Chunking

The process of dividing large pieces of information into pieces or 'chunks.'

Hierarchies

Organizing information in categories and subcategories.

Spacing Effect

Information learned in short study sessions with gaps between restudying is better remembered than mass practice.

Massed Practice

Practice periods are close together or all at once. Not as effective as distributed practice.

Distributed Practice

Space out practice periods for a task with lengthy rest in between, resulting in better memory of the material.

Serial Positioning Effect

People remember items at the beginning and end better.

Primacy Effect

People remember the first item better than the material later in the sequence.

Recency Effect

People remember the most recently presented items better than those in the middle.

Mental Set

The readiness to perform a task or solve a problem based on previously successful techniques or experiences.

Priming

A recent experience helps or hurts the ability to process a similar experience or stimulus.

Framing

The process of defining an issue, question, or problem with the intent to influence how people perceive it.

Gambler's Fallacy

The false belief that one can predict the outcome of a chance event based on past chance events.

Sunken-Cost Fallacy

The cognitive error of continuing to invest time, money, or energy into an endeavor when the costs outweigh the benefits because of one's prior commitment to it.

Executive Functions

Cognitive processes- organize, plan, carry out goals, make decisions, inhibit, and think critically.

Creativity

The ability to generate novel ideas and engage in divergent thinking.

Divergent Thinking

Vary from common strategies and generate many possibilities.

Functional Fixedness

It is perceiving an object only based on its most common use. It hinders creative thinking.

Autobiographical Memory

Memories of personally experienced events.

Retrograde Amnesia

An inability to remember past events.

Anterograde Amnesia

An inability to remember new information.

Alzheimer's Disease

A neurodegenerative disease that causes dementia and other cognitive declines.

Infantile Amnesia

The inability to remember events from early childhood because cognitive abilities for encoding long-term memory have not yet developed.

Recognition

Identifying previously learned information when it is presented.

Recall

Retrieving information from memory.

Standardization

Administering a test with consistency in environment and procedures.

Validity

Measures what it intends to measure.

Construct Validity

The extent to which a test measures the concept, trait, or thing it is attempting to measure.

Predictive Validity

The extent to which a test correlates with a future variable. Ex. Do SAT scores correlate with college success?

Reliability

Similar results each time it is administered.

Test-Retest Reliability

A measurement of the consistency of results on a test over time.

Split-Half Reliability

A measurement of the consistency of a test by comparing the scores of one half of the test with the other half. Ex. Odd versus even numbered questions.

Stereotype Threat

An individual's expectation of negative stereotypes adversely affects performance on intelligence tests.

Stereotype Lift

An individual's expectation of positive stereotypes improves performance on intelligence tests.

Flynn Effect

The gradual increase in IQ each generation (30 years).

Aptitude Test

An assessment designed to measure potential.

Achievement Test

An assessment designed to measure current levels of skill or knowledge in a given subject.

Fixed Mindset

The belief that something like intelligence is determined at birth and doesn't change.

Growth Mindset

The belief that something like intelligence can change. Mindsets affect academic achievement.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

A measure of intelligence based on a score on a test.

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)

One of the most utilized intelligence tests.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

One of the most utilized intelligence tests.

Encoding Failure

Failure to notice or encode information.

Proactive Interference

Old information hinders the recall of new information.

Retroactive Interference

New information hinders the recall of old information.

Tip-of-the-Tongue Problem

The experience of trying to retrieve something from memory unsuccessfully.

Repression

Memories are sometimes forgotten to defend the self or ego from distress.

Misinformation Effect

Recall misleading information that someone (researcher, lawyer) provided instead of the correct information.

Source Amnesia

Confusion about the information's source (how, when, where).

Constructive Memory

Remembering by filling in the blanks or changing details with stored knowledge.

Imagination Inflation

Judging an event as having occurred when they imagine the event beforehand.

Retrieval Cues

People hold memories in a web of associations.

Context-Dependent Memory

Improved recall occurs when the context present at encoding and retrieval is the same. Ex. Same room.

State-Dependent Memory

Improved recall when the same biological or psychological state is present during encoding and retrieval.

Mood-Congruent Memory

Improved recall when the same mood is present at encoding and retrieval.

Testing Effect

The research finding that taking a test leads to better retention than restudying the material for the same time.