WC3 Perception and Cognition

Cognition

The mental processes involved in acquiring, processing, storing, and using info

Metacognition

Thinking about our thinking

Concepts

Mental groupings of similar things

Prototype

Most typical example

Schema

A mental framework that helps you organize and interpret information. A collection of basic knowledge about a concept or entity that serves as a guide to perception, interpretation, imagination, or problem solving

Assimilation

Adding additional info into a schema

Accomodation

When new information forces you to change your schema

Algorithms

Step-by-step procedures that guarantee a solution

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts that save time but don’t always lead to the right answer

Representativeness Heuristic

We judge how likely something is based on how well it matches a prototype

Availability Heuristic

We judge the likelihood of an event based on how easily examples come to mind

Mental Set

Using the same solutions that worked before, even if they’re not effective now

Priming

Exposure to one thing influences your response to another.

Repetition Priming

It is easier (and often quicker) to recognize a face or a word if you have recently seen that same face or word

Semantic Priming

Where being exposed to one word or concept facilitates a faster or more accurate response to a related word or concept

Framing

How info is worded affects choices

Divergent Thinking

Generating multiple solutions to a problem

Convergent Thinking

Narrowing down options to find the single best solution

Functional Fixedness

Seeing objects as having only their usual function

Gambling Fallacy

Believing that past events affect future outcomes

Sunk-cost Fallacy

Sticking with a bad choice bc you’ve already invested time, money or effort

Sensation

THe process of detecting, converting, and transmitting raw sensory info from the external and internal environments to the brain

Perception

The process of selecting organizing and interpreting sensory information

Top-down processing

Info processing guided by high-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on put experience and expectations

Bottom-up processing

Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information

Perceptual Set

A readiness to perceive a stimulus in a particular way; the perceptual set creates bias in how someone interprets sensory input

Selective Attention

The ability to focus on one stimulus while excluding other stimuli that are present.

Cocktail Party Effect

The ability to focus one’s listening attention on a single talker among a mixture of conversations and background noises

Inattentional blindness

The failure to notice the existence of an unexpected item.

Change blindness

Failure to notice obvious change

Stroboscopic Movement

The apparent motion of a series of separate stimuli occurring in close consecutive order, as in motion pictures

Phi Phenomenon

Apparent motion resulting from an orderly sequence of stimuli without any actual motion being presented to the eye

Gestalt Psychology

Perception, the whole may exceed the sum of its parts.

Figure-ground

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

Continuity

We perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones

Closure

We fill gaps to create a complete, whole object

Proximity

We group nearby figures together

Depth Perception

The ability to perceive the relative distance of objects in one’s visual field

Monocular Depth Cues

depth cues available to each eye seperatley

Binocular Depth Cues

depth cues that require two eyes

Retinal Disparity

Slight difference between the right and left retinal images. The two images are automatically compared and, if sufficiently similar, are fused, providing an important cue to depth perception

Convergence

The rotation of the two eyes inward toward a light source so that the image falls on corresponding points on the foveas

Relative Size

If seperate objects are expected to be of the same size the larger ones are seen as closer

Interposition

When two objects are in the same line of vision and the closer objects, which is fully in view, conceals the farther object

Relative Height

We perceive objects higher in out field of vision as farther away. Lower part of a figure-ground illustration is perceived as closer.

Relative Clarity

The relative clarity of objects under varying atmospheric conditions. Nearer objects are usually clearer in detail, whereas distant objects are less distinct and appear bluer

Texture Gradient

The progressive decline in the resolution of textures as the viewer moves away from them

Linear Perspective

The size of an objects visual image is a function of its distance from the eye. Two objects appear closer together as the distance from them increases and appear to converge on the horizon.

Perceptual Constancies: Size

Perceived size of an object remains constant despite changes in the size of the retinal image of the object. 

Perceptual Constancies: Shape

Perceived shape of an object remains constant despite changes in the size of the retinal image of the object. 

Perceptual Constancies: Brightness

Tendency to perceive a familiar object as having the same brightness under different conditions of illumination

Perceptual Constancies: Color

Perceive a familiar object as having the same color under different conditions of illumination