Overview of Psychological Research and Cognitive Psychology

These flashcards cover key vocabulary terms and concepts from the lecture notes on psychological research and cognitive psychology.

Introspection

A method of self-observation in which individuals report their thoughts and feelings.

Behaviorism

A theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behavior.

Cognitive Revolution

A shift in psychology that began in the 1950s, focusing on the study of mental processes.

Neuron

The basic building block of the nervous system, which transmits information through electrical and chemical signals.

Synapse

The junction between two neurons, where information is transmitted from one neuron to another.

Cerebral Cortex

The outer layer of the forebrain, involved in complex brain functions such as perception, thought, and decision-making.

Lateralization

The specialization of function in one hemisphere of the brain or the other.

Cognitive Neuroscience

The study of the brain and how it relates to cognitive processes.

Visual Perception

The ability to interpret and make sense of visual stimuli from the environment.

Agnosia

A condition in which a person is unable to recognize and identify objects despite having intact sensory processing.

Perception of Depth

The ability to perceive the distance of objects based on various cues.

Feature Detection

The process in the brain of recognizing specific features of a stimulus such as edges, shapes, or movements.

Top-down Processing

Cognitive processing influenced by prior knowledge and expectations.

Bottom-up Processing

Data-driven perception that starts with the stimulus inputs and builds up to a perception.

Attention

The cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one aspect while ignoring others.

Change Blindness

The phenomenon of failing to notice changes in a visual stimulus occurring between fixations.

Priming

A technique in psychology used to train a person's memory in which exposure to one stimulus influences the response to another stimulus.

Prosopagnosia

An inability to recognize faces, even familiar ones, although the ability to recognize other objects remains intact.

Spatial Attention

The ability to focus attention on a specific location in space.

Dichotic Listening

A psychological test used to investigate selective attention within the auditory system.

False Memory

A psychological phenomenon where a person recalls something that did not happen or recalls it inaccurately.