Psych Test 2

Creative Thinking

Keeping an open mind past the obvious answer

What are the four Gestalt Principles?

Closure, proximity, similarity, and good continuation

Closure

When we look at a stimulus, we tend to see it as a closed shape rather than lines

Proximity

Tendency to group close objects together during perception

Similarity

Tendency to group like objects together during perception

Good Continuation

Preferences for perceiving stimuli that seem to follow one another as part of a continuing pattern

Perceptual Constancies

Tendency to have certain perceptual experiences regardless of the relevant input from our senses (color, shape, and size)

Size constancy

Perception of the size of familiar on objects as roughly constant regardless of the changes in the sizes of the retinal image or distance

Shape Constancy

No matter where you look from, an object will remain the same shape

Color Constancy

Tendency of people to perceive an object as a certain color because they know that the object is supposed to be that color, even if the object is not that color at all

Forer Effect

Believing that a general personality description is unique to oneself (ex: horoscopes, zodiac signs)

Availability Error

Occurs when people base their judgment on evidence that is vivid or memorable instead of reliable or trust worthy (ex: amusement park accidents, airplane crashes> car crashes)

Confirmation Bias

Ignore and misinterpret evidence that conflicts with our own views (watching news channels that share the same values as us)

Pareidolia

Projecting human physical features onto non-human objects

Recall

A memory task that is used when a person needs to previously learned information from storage

Recognition

A memory task employed when a person needs to identify certain items that have been presented as familiar

Proactive Interference

When information that was learned at a previous time interrupts the learning of new information

Retroactive Interference

When the learning of new information disrupts

Time-based prospective memory

When a person intends to do something after a specified amount of time has passed (ex: make a call at 12)

Event-based prospective memory

When a person intends to do something that is elected by some external event or cue (ex: remember to send a letter when you pass by a post office)

Bottom-up processing

When information from external environment is registered and sent up to the brain for interpretation (when encountering with information for the first time)

Top-down processing

Occurs with higher levels of cognitive processing (information that is already learned)

Attention

Conscious awareness; can be focused on events that are taking places in the environment or inside our minds

Thinking critically about truth

AVOID

• Thinking everyone makes his or her own truth

• Coming to conclusions before having enough information

• Denying information contrary to personal beliefs

Opinion

To tell others what we think about something

Evidence

To show others what we think makes sense

Different kinds of evidence:

• Personal experience

• Unpublished + published reports

• Eyewitness + celebrity testimony

• Expert Opinion

• Research Review

Inquiry

Seeking answers to questions, investigating issues, and gathering info to help us draw conclusions

Inquiry helps beyond our:

• 1st impressions

• Feelings

• Preconceived notions

• Personal preferences

Introspection

Assessing one’s internal thoughts, feelings, and motivation

Runination

Negative cycle of thoughts

Growth mindset

• Life as a learning process

• Resilience

• See failure as an opportunity to learn and grow

• Welcomes challenges

• Mistakes are a part of learning

• Open to constructive feedback

• Effort is key

Affective empathy

ability to understand another person’s emotions and respond appropriately

Somatic empathy

ability to have some type of physical reaction in response to what someone else is experiencing

Cognitive empathy

the ability to understand another person’s mental state and what they might be thinking in a given situation

Obstacles to empathy

• Need to pay attention

• time consuming

• self-esteem/ self perception becomes a hurdle

• history between the individual

Benefits of Empathy

• Builds social connection with others

• Regulate social connections with others

• Promotion of altruistic behaviors

Observational learning

learning that takes place when an individual observes and then imitates another’s behavior (Albert Bandera’s Bobo Doll Experiment)

Becoming More Observant

• Use all 5 senses

• Being less self-absorbed

• Try to notice things you would normally miss

Factors involved in observational learning

• Attention

• Retention in memory

• Motivation

The four sources of knowledge:

• Perception

• Introspection

• Memory

• Reason

Perception

EXTERNAL source of knowledge

Introspection

INTERNAL source of knowledge

Memory

Rely on out memory to preserve and retrieve information

Reason

Reveals “how things are”

Obstacles to Knowing:

Assuming and Guessing

Assuming

Taking something for granted; accepting something as true that has not been proven or can easily be disputed

Guessing

Offering a judgement on a hunch or taking a chance on an answer without ant confidence that it is correct

Naturalistic Fallacy and its Variants

• Common = good/ bad

• Uncommon= bad/good

Knowledge

based on reality, not on fantasy, illusion, or wishful thinking

Commonsense Skepticism

Anything that lacks certainty is not suspect BUT anything that lacks evidence is suspect

Appeal to Intuition

Considered a source of knowledge: “knowing” due to feeling or perceiving

Appeal to Mystical Experience

Belief b based on having a privileged source of information

Appeal to Faith

Believing in something in spite of, or even because of, the fact that we have insufficient evidence for it

Actively

through direct experience, by testing and proving an idea or by reasoning

Passively

being told something by someone else; acquisition of knowledge without active effort