Unit 2 Terms

Perception

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information.

Bottom-Up Processing

Processing that begins with sensory input, building up to the final perception.

Top-Down Processing

Processing that begins with the brain and uses expectations and prior knowledge to interpret sensory information.

Schemas

Cognitive structures that help organize and interpret information.

Perceptual Set

A mental tendency to perceive one thing and not another.

Attention

The process of focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli.

Selective Attention

The process of focusing on a particular object in the environment for a certain period.

Cocktail Party Effect

The ability to focus one's attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli.

Inattentional Blindness

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

Depth Perception

The ability to perceive the distance of objects and the three-dimensionality of the world.

Visual Cliff

A laboratory device used to test depth perception in infants and young animals.

Binocular Cues

Depth cues that rely on the use of both eyes.

Convergence

The degree to which the eyes converge inward to focus on an object.

Retinal Disparity

The difference between the images projected onto each eye.

Monocular Cues

Depth cues available to either eye alone.

Relative Clarity

A monocular cue for perceiving depth; hazy objects are perceived as farther away.

Relative Size

A monocular cue that causes objects that are larger to be perceived as closer.

Texture Gradient

A monocular cue; as texture becomes denser, it is perceived to be further away.

Change Blindness

The phenomenon of not noticing changes in a visual stimulus.

Gestalt Psychology

A school of thought that emphasizes the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Closure

The tendency to perceive a complete image even when part of it is missing.

Figure and Ground (figure-ground)

The organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground).

Grouping

The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups.

Proximity

A Gestalt principle where objects that are close together are grouped together.

Similarity

A Gestalt principle where items that are similar are perceived as a group.

Linear Perspective

A monocular cue where parallel lines appear to converge in the distance.

Interposition

A monocular cue where one object blocks another, indicating that it is closer.

Perceptual Constancies

Perceiving objects as unchanging despite changes in sensory input.

Color Constancy

The ability to perceive colors consistently across different lighting conditions.

Perceptual Adaptation

The ability to adjust to an altered visual field.

Apparent Motion

The perception of movement when there is none.

Stroboscopic Movement

The perception of motion caused by a series of images presented in rapid succession.

Phi Phenomenon

The illusion of movement that occurs when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession.

Autokinetic Effect

The perception of motion in a stationary point of light in a dark environment.

Cognition

The mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge, including thinking, memory, and problem-solving.

Metacognition

Awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes.

Concept

A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

Prototype

A mental image or best example of a category.

Executive Functions

Higher-level cognitive processes such as decision-making, problem-solving, and planning.

Algorithm

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

Heuristic

A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently.

Representativeness Heuristic

Judging the likelihood of things based on how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes.

Availability Heuristic

Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory.

Mental Set

A tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, often based on past experiences.

Priming

The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations in memory.

Framing

The way an issue is posed; framing can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

Nudge

A subtle policy shift that encourages people to make decisions that are in their broad self-interest.

Gambler’s Fallacy

The belief that past events can affect the probabilities of future events in independent random events.

Sunk-Cost Fallacy

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

Functional Fixedness

The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions.

Insight

The sudden realization of a problem's solution.

Intuition

An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought.

Overconfidence

The tendency to be more confident than correct; to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs.

Creativity

The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

Divergent Thinking

The ability to generate multiple unique solutions to a problem.

Convergent Thinking

The ability to find the single best solution to a problem.

Memory

The persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information.

Explicit Memory

Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously recollect.

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

An increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; believed to be a neurological basis for learning.

Working Memory

A short-term memory system that actively holds and processes information.

Episodic Memory

A type of explicit memory that involves the recollection of specific events.

Visuospatial Sketchpad

The component of working memory that processes visual and spatial information.

Semantic Memory

A type of explicit memory that involves the recall of facts and general knowledge.

Long-Term Memory

The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system.

Implicit Memory

Unconscious memories such as skills and conditioned responses.

Multi-Store Model

A model that proposes three distinct memory stores: sensory, short-term, and long-term memory.

Procedural Memory

A type of implicit memory that involves skills and procedures.

Sensory Memory

The immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the memory system.

Prospective Memory

Remembering to perform a planned action in the future.

Neurogenesis

The process by which new neurons are formed in the brain.

Encode

The process of transforming information into a form that can be stored in memory.

Mnemonic Devices

Techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices to assist in memory.

Method of Loci

A memory technique that involves associating items to be remembered with specific locations.

Chunking

The process of grouping items into smaller, more manageable units.

Categories

Groups or classes of items based on shared characteristics.

Hierarchies

Systems of organizing information into levels, prioritizing more general to more specific.

The Spacing Effect

The phenomenon where distributed practice results in better retention than massed practice.

Massed Practice

Cramming all practice of material into a short time period.

Distributed Practice

Spreading out study or practice sessions over time.

Serial Position Effect

The tendency to recall best the first and last items in a list.

Primacy Effect

The tendency to remember the first items presented in a series.

Recency Effect

The tendency to remember the last items presented in a series.

Short-Term Memory

Activated memory that holds a few items briefly before the information is stored or forgotten.

Memory Consolidation

The process of stabilizing a memory after its acquisition.

Maintenance Rehearsal

The process of repeatedly verbalizing or thinking about information.

Elaborative Rehearsal

A memory technique that involves thinking about the meaning of the term and its relationships to other terms.

Autobiographical Memory

A type of explicit memory that involves recollecting specific experiences from one's own life.

Flashbulb Memory

A clear and vivid long-term memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.

Retrograde Amnesia

An inability to retrieve information from one's past.

Anterograde Amnesia

An inability to form new memories after an injury.

Infantile Amnesia

The inability to retrieve memories from early childhood.

Retrieval

The process of getting information out of memory storage.

Recall

A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier.

Recognition

A measure of memory in which the person must identify items previously learned.

Relearning

The ability to learn something more quickly when you learn it a second time.

Retrieval Cues

Stimuli that help you retrieve a certain memory.

Encoding Specificity Principle

The idea that cues and contexts specific to a particular memory will be most effective in aiding recall.

Context-Dependent Memory

The improved recall of specific information when the context present at encoding and retrieval are the same.

Mood-Congruent Memory

The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current mood.

State-Dependent Memory

The phenomenon where information learned in one state is easier to recall when in that same state.