Psychology: Attention, Perception, Memory Biases, and Decision-Making

What is selective attention?

The subconscious filtering of information that allows us to focus on some stimuli while ignoring others.

Why does selective attention exist?

To enhance cognitive efficiency, conserve energy, facilitate faster decision-making, and avoid overload.

What are the key properties of attention?

Attention is limited, cannot process all stimuli equally, and prioritizes based on goal relevance, salience, and perceived importance.

What is the Bottleneck Theory of Attention?

The theory that many sensory inputs funnel into one narrow processing channel, allowing only selected information to receive deep processing.

What are the physical characteristics used for selection in the Bottleneck Theory?

Loudness, brightness, pitch, and suddenness.

What is selective perception?

The interpretation of information based on expectations, beliefs, prior knowledge, and schemas.

What is the function of selective perception?

To reduce uncertainty, save cognitive effort, and reach conclusions quickly.

What are the responses to inconsistency in perception?

Dominance (deny inconsistency), compromise (partial distortion), disruption (confusion), and recognition (notice anomaly).

What is the Hostile Media Effect?

The phenomenon where partisans perceive neutral media as biased against their side.

What is judgment in the context of decision making?

The process of forming beliefs, evaluations, and likelihood estimates.

What is decision making?

The process of choosing and executing an action.

What is the significance of cognitive heuristics?

They are mental shortcuts that simplify decision making but can produce systematic bias.

What are the four steps in the Judgment and Decision Making model?

1. Information gathering, 2. Evaluation, 3. Preference formation, 4. Action.

What is cognitive dissonance?

Psychological discomfort caused by inconsistency between beliefs, attitudes, and behavior.

What are the strategies for reducing cognitive dissonance?

1. Rationalization, 2. Behavior change, 3. Belief change.

What is self-perception theory?

The theory that people infer their attitudes by observing their own behavior.

What is hindsight bias?

The tendency to believe, after learning the outcome, that you knew it all along.

What are the key characteristics of hindsight bias?

Misremembering original beliefs, increased certainty after the outcome, and memory shifts to align with reality.

What is the impact of framing effects on memory?

The way information is worded can change memory and influence how details are recalled.

What is rosy retrospection bias?

The tendency to remember past events as more positive and enjoyable than they actually were.

What is egocentric bias?

The tendency to overestimate one's own role in events and remember oneself as more central and influential.

What is mood-congruent memory bias?

The influence of current mood on what and how we remember information.

What are the recency and primacy effects?

The tendency to remember the first (primacy) and last (recency) pieces of information better than the middle.

What is the cross-race effect?

The difficulty in distinguishing faces of people from other racial groups, rooted in attention and familiarity.

What is false memory syndrome?

The phenomenon of remembering events that never occurred or occurred differently than remembered.

What is long-term memory distortion?

The tendency for childhood memories to feel vivid yet be factually inaccurate, shaped by retelling and emotions.