AP Psych 2nd unit

Perception

The active process of organizing and interpreting sensory information.

Bottom-up Processing

An approach where perception starts by noticing individual elements of stimuli before understanding the whole.

Top-down Processing

An approach where perception is guided by existing expectations and knowledge, moving from general concepts to specific details.

Schema

A mental framework for organizing and understanding experiences.

Assimilation

Integrating new information into an existing schema without changing it.

Accommodation

Modifying an existing schema to incorporate new information.

Perceptual Set

Tendencies to perceive one aspect of a stimulus and not another, influenced by expectations.

Gestalt Principles

The rules by which our mind organizes stimuli into patterns to perceive them as a whole.

Closure (Gestalt Principle)

The tendency to perceive incomplete objects as complete by filling in gaps.

Selective Attention

The process of focusing on a specific stimulus while ignoring others, such as in the cocktail party effect.

Inattentional Blindness

Failing to notice visible changes in the environment when attention is focused elsewhere.

Depth Perception

The ability to see the world in three dimensions and judge distance.

Binocular Depth Cues

Clues about distance based on the differing views from each eye.

Monocular Cues

Depth cues that use only one eye, providing information about distance.

Visual Perceptual Constancies

Perceptions of an object remain the same even when aspects of the image change.

Cognition

The act of thinking, encompassing reasoning, abstract thinking, and problem solving.

Concepts

Mental groupings that help us organize and make sense of our experiences.

Critical Thinking

The ability to analyze evidence and evaluate the validity of information.

Trial and Error

A problem-solving method involving multiple attempts until one solution works.

Insight

An understanding of a cause-and-effect relationship, often described as an 'aha' moment.

Heuristic

Mental shortcuts used to simplify decision-making and judgments.

Representativeness Heuristic

A mental shortcut that relies on stereotypes to make decisions about categories.

Availability Heuristic

Making decisions based on the immediate examples that come to mind.

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions.

Functional Fixedness

The tendency to see objects as only working in a particular way, hindering creative problem-solving.

Gambler’s Fallacy

The mistaken belief that past random events can influence the outcome of future random events.

Sunk-cost Fallacy

The tendency to continue an endeavor once an investment in money, effort, or time has been made.

Explicit Memories

Memories that require conscious thought, such as episodic or semantic memories.

Implicit Memories

Memories that do not require conscious thought, such as procedural memories.