AP Psychology Unit 2

Cocktail Party Effect

How we perceive our names amongst a mix of other sounds (your hearing immediately focuses on someone shouting your name against an array of loud noises).

Distractions

Our focus shifts between tasks, it cannot truly multitask.

Inattentional Blindness

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is detected elsewhere.

Change Blindness

Failing to notice environmental changes.

Expectations

Top-down processing of stimuli connects what we see to what we expect to see.

Perceptual Set

Mental predisposition to perceive one stimulus and not the others.

Schemas

Learned concepts that prime us to organize and interpret information; built from experiences and are adjusted as we learn more information

Gestalt

Literally means form/whole; Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.

Figure Ground (Form Perception)

The organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from surroundings (hyper-focus).

Grouping (Form Perception)

Perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups.

Grouping: Proximity

Grouped because of their closeness to each other.

Grouping: Similarity

Grouped because they’re similar to one another.

Grouping: Closure

Grouped because they’re in an enclosed area together.

Depth Perception

Ability to see objects in 3 dimensions, although images striking retina are 2 dimensional; allows us to judge distance.

Depth Perception: Visual Cliff

Device that mimics a cliff; tests depth perception in infants and young animals.

Depth Perception: Binocular Cue

Depth cue that depends on both eyes.

Depth Perception: Monocular Cue

Depth cue depending on only one eye.

Retinal Disparity

Comparing retinal images from 2 eyes, the brain computes distance—greater disparity between 2 images, greater distance.

Convergence

Uses inward angle of the eye to perceive depth.

Relative Clarity

A monocular depth cue where the brain perceives hazy, blurry, or less detailed objects as farther away, and sharp, clear objects as closer.

Relative Size

Monocular cue that the brain perceives larger images as closer and smaller images as farther away.

Texture Gradient

A monocular depth cue where the surface details of an object or ground appear coarse and distinct up close, but progressively become finer, denser, and more blended as distance increases.

Linear Perspective

A monocular depth cue where two parallel lines appear to come together as they move farther away into the distance.

Interposition

A monocular depth cue where one object partially blocks or overlaps another, causing your brain to perceive the blocking object as closer and the blocked object as farther away.

Motion Perception

Similarly perceived as depth; compares images to one another and surrounding environment (shrinking = further; growing = closer).

Strobic Movement

Continuous movement experienced when viewing a rapid series of slightly varying still images (ex: stop motion).

Phi Phenomenon

Human brain perceives continuous motion between stationary, alternation objects flashed in quick succession.

Autokinetic Effect

Visual illusion where a single, stationary point of light in a dark or empty room appears to move.

Perceptual Constancy

Perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change.

Color Constancy

Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color.

Brightness

Tendency to perceive an object as maintaining a constant level of brightness, whiteness, or blackness even when the amount of light illuminating it changes; depends upon relative luminance.

Shape and Size

Brain may ignore the actual images focused on the retinas to retain the shape and size of a familiar object.

Perceptual Adaptation

Ability to adjust changed sensory input, including an artificially displaced or inverted visual field (ex: eyes adjusting to a dark room when the light gets turned off).

Cognition

All mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Meta Cognition

Thinking about thinking

Concepts

Mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people (instruments = flute, piano, and guitar)

Concepts: Prototypes

Mental image; best example of a category

Schema: Convergent Thinking

Narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the best single solution.

Schema: Divergent Thinking

Expanding the number of possible problem solutions; creative thinking that diverges in different directions.

Aptitude

Ability to learn plays a role in creativity but isn’t the only factor in fostering it.

Executive Functioning

Cognitive skills that work together, enabling us to generate, organize, plan, and implement goal-directed behavior

Algorithm

Methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.

Heuristics

Mental shortcut; a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently.

Insight

Sudden realization of a problem’s solution

Confirmation Bias

Tendency to search for information that supports already make preconceptions

Fixation

Inability to see a new perspective

Mental Set

Approach a problem in one specific way often successful in the past

Intuition

Effortless, immediate, automatic, feeling or thought, as contrasted to explicit conscious reasoning.

Representativeness Heuristics

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.

Availability Heuristics

Judging the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are common.

Overconfidence

Tendency to be more confident than correct; to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements.

Belief Perserverence

Persistence of one’s initial conceptions even after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.

Framing

Way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgements.

Nudge

Framing choices in a way that encourages people to make beneficial decisions.

Opting

Creating opt-out choices rather than opt-in ones can increase the number of people who participate like organ donation and retirement saving plans.

Recall

Measure of memory in which a person must retrieve information learned earlier as on a fill in the blank test.

Recognition

Measure of memory in which a person identifies items previously learned.

Relearning

Measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material again.

Encoding

Process of getting information into the memory system

Storage

Process of retaining encoded information over time

Retrieval

Process of getting information out of memory storage

Parallel Processing

Process multiple aspects of a stimulus or a problem simultaneously (smelling an aroma while doing your homework).

Sensory Memory

Immediate, very brief recording of sensory information into the memory system.

Short-term Memory

briefly activated memory of a few items (a few numbers to write down someone’s contact information) that is late stored or forgotten.

Long-term Memory

Relatively permanent, limitless archive of the memory system (knowledge, skills, and experience).

Central Executive

A memory component that coordinates the activities of the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad.

Phonological Loop

Memory component that briefly holds auditory information

Visuospatial Sketchpad

Memory component that briefly holds information about objects appearance and location in space.

Neurogenesis

Formation of new neurons

Long-term Potentiation (LTP)

Increase in a nerve cell’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; a neural basis for learning and memory

What do the frontal lobe/hippocampus and cerebellum/basal ganglia do?

a) Explicit Memory

b) Implicit Memory

Effortful Processing

Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

Automatic Processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information (space, time, frequency)

Iconic Memory

Momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second.

Echoic Memory

Momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can be recalled within 3-4 seconds.

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units

Mnemonics

Memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices

Hierarchies

Organizing information into a few broad categories divided and subdivided into narrower concepts and facts.

Spacing Effect

Tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through mass or study practice.

Testing Effect

Enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading information.

Shallow Processing

Encoding on a basic level, based on the structure or appearance of words.

Deep Processing

Encoding semantically, based on the meaning of words (Structural Encoding - letters; Phonemic Encoding - sound; Semantic Encoding - meaning)

Prospective Memory

Related to future actions; remembers information that is future oriented (due date)

Explicit Memory

Retention of facts and experiences that we can consciously know and “declare”

Implicit

Retention of learned skills or classically conditioned associations of independent conscious recollection.

Semantic Memory

Explicit memories of facts and general knowledge; based on schemas and concepts

Episodic Memory

Explicit memory of personally experienced events

Frontal Lobe

Prefrontal cortex plays a role in working memory by sending older memories into short-term to help process new information.

Hippocampus

Helps us process conscious memories (facts and events) for storage

Memory Consolidation

Neural storage of a long-term memory; improved with sleep

Cerebellum

Forms and stores classically conditioned associations

Basil Ganglia

Formation memories for motor movements and procedural memories

Memory Trace

Lastig physical change as the memory forms

Flashbulb Memory

Clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event; highly vivid, detailed snapshots of something emotionally relevant.

Amnesia

Significant memory loss

Anterograde Amnesia

Inability to form new memories

Retrograde Amnesia

Inability to remember information from one’s past

Alzheimer’s Disease

Brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills, and eventually the ability to carry out simple tasks.

Infantile Amnesia

Inability of adults to remember episodic experiences that occurred during the first few years of life and tendency to have sparse recollection of episodic experiences that occurred before age 10.