AP Psychology: Cognition, Problem Solving, and Memory

Selective attention

Focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Inattentional blindness

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Perceptual set

a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Executive functions

cognitive processes for planning and decision-making.

Algorithm

a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem

Heuristic

a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms

Insight

a sudden realization of a problem's solution

Confirmation Bias

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

Fixation

being unable to see a problem from a new perspective

Mental set

A tendency to approach a problem in one way, often a way that has been successful in the past

Intuition

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

Representativeness heuristic

judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information

Availability heuristic

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness),we presume such events are common

Heuristic Overconfidence

being more overconfident than you should be

belief perseverance

clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited

Framing

how information is presented

nudge

framing choices in a way that encourages people to make beneficial decisions

explicit memory

memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare"

effortful processing

encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

Automatic processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and familiar or well-learned information, such as sounds, smells, and words

Implicit memory

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

iconic memory

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

echoic memory

a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds

Chunking

organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

memories

persons, things, or events that you can remember

spacing effect

information is retained better if there is a longer period of time between sessions or relearning

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 the words; tends to yield the best retention

Semantic memory

memory of general knowledge

Episodic memory

Memory of personal experiences and events

Hippocampus

A neural center located in the limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage.

Memory consolidation

The process of making memories more stable and storing them long-term

Flashbulb memory

a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event