AP Psych Unit 2: Cognition

Unit 2 (2.1 to 2.8d)

Algorithm

• Methodical rule or procedure

• Guarantees solution

• Requires time and effort

Heuristic

• Simple thinking shortcut

• Lets us act quickly / saves time

• Higher risk for errors

Availability Heuristic

Estimates likelihood based on how many events come to out mind quickly

Insight

• Sudden Aha! reaction

• Instant realization of a solution

• May not happen

Confirmation Bias

• Tendency to search for support for our own views and ignore contradictory evidence

• lets us quickly recognize supporting evidence

• Hinders recognition of contradictory evidence

Fixation

• Inability to view problems from a new angles

• Focuses thinking

• Hinders creative problem solving

Intuition

• Fast, automatic feelings and thoughts

• Based on experiences; huge & adaptive

• Leads us to overfeel & underthink

Overconfidence

• Overestimating accuracy of our beliefs and judgements

• Allows us to live happier and make decisions easily

• Puts us at an increased risk for errors

Belief Perseverance

• Ignoring evidence that contradicts our beliefs

• Supports our enduring beliefs

• Closes our mind to new ideas

Framing

• Wording a question or statement to make it more desirable

• Influences others’ decisions

• Produces misleading result

Creativity

• Ability to innovate valuable ideas

• Produces new insights and products

• May distract from structured routine work

Memory

• Learning that persists overtime

• Encoding, Storage, & Retrieval

Perceptual Set

• How people tend to notice one part of sensory information while ignoring others

• Top Down Processing

• Affects what we hear, taste, feel, and see

Inattentional Blindness

Failure to notice the existence of an unexpected item

Cocktail Party Effect

Ability to focus your listening attention on a single talker among a mixture of background noise and convos

Change Blindness

Failure to notice obvious change

Closure

Tendency to perceive an incomplete figure as a whole

Proximity

People tend to organize objects close to each other into a perceptional group and interpret them as a single identity

Gestalt Psychologists

Emphasize pieces of information into whole (Neker Cube)

Figure Ground

Separate objects from background

Grouping

Tendency to organize stimuli into a coherent group

Binocular Cues

Depth cue that depends on the use of both eyes

Convergence

• Type of Binocular Cue

• Retinal images combined by brain

Retinal Disparity

• A type of Binocular Cue

• Because of the space between your eyes, each eye / retina receives slightly different images of the world

Monocular Cues

Depth Perception that is available to either eye alone

Relative Clarity

• Type of Monocular Cue

• Because more light passes through objects farther away, those objects look hazy, while closer objects are clearer

Relative Size

• Type of Monocular Cue

• One that casts similar retinal image that makes it seem like it is farther away

Texture Gradient

• Type of Monocular Cue

• Moving towards / away changes texture perception

Linear Perspective

Parallel lines look closer together the farther the distance

Interposition

If one object blocks out view, we percieve it as closer

Stroboscopic Movement

Illusion of continuous movement experience when viewing a rapid series of slightly varying still images

Phi Phenomenon

Illuson of movement created when adjacent lights blink on and off in order

ex. illusion of moving arrow

Autokinetic Effect

Illusory movement of a still spot of light in a dark room

ex. when you strare at a stationary light and it appears to move

Perceptual Constancy

• Top down processing

• Percieving objects as unchanging even as light and retinal images change

James Gibson (1979)

• Ecological approach to perception

• Perception that depends on object’s context

Color Constancy

Familial objects have consistent color even if lighting alters color reflected by object

Brightness Constancy

• Depends on context

• Percieve object as having constant brightness despite changes of light

Relative Luminance

Amount of light an object reflects relative to surroundings

Shape Constancy

Percieve form of familiar objects

Size Constancy

Perceieve objects as having an unchanged size

Immanuel Kant

Knowledge comes from inborn ways of sensory experiences (Nature)

John Locke

Through experience we learn to percieve the world (Nurture)

Perceptual Adaptation

Ability to adjust sensory input

ex. adjusting to a new pair of glasses

Metacongition

Thinking about our thinking

Concepts

Mental grouping of smilar objects, events, ideas, and people

Discrimination Prototypes

Causes us to not notice prejudice, especially when behaviors don’t fit our preconceptions / Schemas

Schemas

Concepts / mental molds into which we pour our experiences

Assimilate

Interpret new experiences using our current schemas

Accomodation

Adjusting our schemas to incorporate information from new experiences

Convergent Thinking

Ability to provide single correct answer

ex. AP Psych Test

Divergent Thinking

Ability to consider different options

Functional Fixedness

When prior experiences inhibit our ability to find creative solutions

Selective Attention

Focusing concious awareness on a particular stimuli

Depth Perception

• Ability to see objects in a 3rd dimesion

• Allows us to judge distance

Visual Cliff

Lab device used to test depth perception in infants and animals

Jean Piaget

• Developmental Psychologist

• Studied development of cognition in children

• Argued that our intellectual progression reflects an unceasing struggle to make sense of our experiences.

Robert Sternberg

Creativity has 5 components

1. Expertise

2. Imaginative Thinking Skills

3. A Venturesome Personality

4. Intrinisic Motivation

5. A Creative Environment

Wolfgang Kohler

Showed that humans are not the only organisms to experience Insight (ex. chimps & birds)

Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman

Created the Represntative and Availability Heuristic

Representative 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

Nudge

Framing of choices that encourages people to make beneficial decisions

Recall

Retrieving information that is not currently in your conscious awareness but that was learned at an earlier time.

(ex. A fill-in-the-blank question tests your recall)

Recognition

Identifying items previously learned.

(ex. A multiple-choice question tests your recognition)

Relearning

Learning something more quickly when you learn it a second or later time.

(ex. When you review the first weeks of course work to prepare for your final exam, or speak a language used in early childhood, it will be easier to relearn the material than it was to learn it initially)

Encoding Memories

Process of getting information in to the memory system

Storage of Memories

• Process of encoding information overtime

• Retaining the information

Retrieval of Memories

• Process of getting information out of memory storage

• Later get information out of brain

Parallel Processing

Processing mutliple stimuli at the same time

Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin

Proposed 3 stages of the Multi-Store Theory:

1. Memory is first stored as a Sensory Memory

2. We process information into short term memory storage which is encoded through rehersal

3. Information gets moved to Long Term Memory Storage for later retrieval

Sensory Memory

Brief recording sensory info in a memory system

Working Memory

• Stage where short-term and long-term memories combine

• (1) incoming sensory information, and (2) information retrieved from long-term memory.

Central Executive

• Coordinates focused processing between phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad

Phonological Loop

Holds auditory information in short term memory (ex. repeat friend’s phone # before you put it into yoour phone)

Visuospatial Sketchpad

Holds information about object’s apprerance and location in space (ex. where you parked your car)

Eric Kandel

Identified the physiological changes that occur in the brain during the formation and storage of memories

Long Term Potential (LTP)

• Increase in a nerve cell’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation

• Neural basis for learning and memory.

Explicit Memory (Declaritive)

• Retention of facts or experiences we conciously know

• Encodes through Effortful Processing (Requires attention and concious effort)

Implicit Memories (Nondeclaritive)

• Retention of learned skills and classically conditioned associations

• Encoded through Automatic Processing (Unconcious encoding of information)

Iconic Memory

• Momentary sensory information of visual stimuli

• Photographic or picture image memory that lasts less than a second

Echoic Memory

• Momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli

• Words can still be recalled within 3 to 5 seconds

George A. Miller

Proposed that we can store about seven pieces of information (give or take two) in short-term memory

Chunking

• Organizing items into familiar, manageable units

• Often occurs automatically

Mnemonics

• Memory Aid

• Techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices.

Spacing Effect

Distributed study or practice which leads to long term retention

Testing Effect

Enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information (ex. practice questions)

Shallow Processing

• Encoding on a basic level

• Based on the structure or appearence of words

Deep Processing

• Based on meaning of words (Semantically)

• Best retention

Semantic Memory

Explicit memory of facts and general knowledge

Episodic Memory

Explicit memory of experienced events

Hippocampus

• Neural center located in the limbic system

• Helps process explicit (conscious) memories — of facts and events — for storage.

Memory Consolidation

Neural storage of long term memory storage

Flashbulb Memory

Clear memory of an emotionally significant memory (ex. where you were learning about Charlotte’s death)

Priming

Unconscious activation of associations that predisposes perception (ex. seeing the word rabbit makes us more likely to spell that word)

Encoding Specificity Principle

• Idea that cues or contexts specific to a particular memory will be most efficient in helping us recall it

• Memories are Context Dependent

Mood Congruent Theory

Tendency to recall experiences that depend on your mood/emotions (ex. having a bad day will make you remember other bad days)