Unit 2A: Perception, Thinking, Problem Solving, Judgments, and Decision-Making

sensation vs perception

• sensation: process by which our senses detect stimulus from environment

• perception: process of brain organizing, interpreting, experiencing, making sense of external stimuli

selective attention

the focusing of awareness on particular stimulus while ignoring other stimuli

cocktail party effect

example of selective attention, ability to focus hearing on one thing when there is noise all around you

inattentional blindness

example of selective attention, failing to see visible object when our attention is directed elsewhere

change blindness

example of inattentional blindness, missing visible changes that happen right in front of us

bottom-up processing

using parts to understand the whole (ex: sounding out a word)

top-down processing

relying on our previous experience and expectations to process information

perceptual set

a temporary readiness to perceive certain objects or events rather than others

Gestalt Psychology principles

Gestalt = whole, our brain may sense parts, but then perceives holes

• closure

• figure and ground

• proximity

• similarity 

depth perception

turning a 2D retinal image into a 3D perception 

binocular cues

depth perception using both eyes

• retinal disparity

• convergence

retinal disparity 

the left eye retina and the right eye retina detect different images at different angles. the brain calculates the difference to determine distance (greater distance = closer)

convergence

as an object moves closer, both eyes move inwards to focus on it. the brain uses the muscle movement to calculate distance

monocular cues

depth perception using one eye

• relative clarity

• relative size

• texture gradient

• linear perspective

• interposition

motion parallax

closer objects appear to move faster across our field of vision than distant objects as we move through space

phi phenomenon

perceptual illusion in which people see motion that is produced by a succession of the same immobile lights

stroboscopic effect

appearance of motion (or lack of motion) occurs when stimuli are viewed distinct separate stages (ex: flipbooks)

perceptual constancy

recognizing objects as consistent without being deceived by changes in shape, color, size, or illumination

concept

the building blocks of thinking, a mental grouping of similar things, events and people that is used to remember and understand what things are, what they mean and what categories or groups they belong to (superordinate vs subordinate concepts)

prototypes

the best example of a concept in your mind

metacognition

thinking about thinking

schema

a person's collection of existing knowledge about a concept that guides perception, interpretation, decision making, or problem solving

assimilation

making information fit an existing schema

accomodation

when information changes a schema or creates a new schema

algorithm

step by step procedure that leads to a solution

heuristics

mental shortcuts used to make a quick decision

availability heuristic 

how quick something comes to mind influences how common you think something is

representativeness heuristic

decisions are made according to prior expectations, prototypes, stereotypes, leads to base rate fallacy

base rate fallacy

when we ignore statistics

mental set

relying on past experiences of familiar ways of solving a problem

priming

what information is presented can unconsciously affect decisions and judgements 

framing

how information is presented can affect decisions and judgements (ex: half full vs half empty, 90% people survive survey vs 10% people die)

sunk-cost fallacy

the belief that one is better off continuing to invest more resources (time,money, effort) because “I’ve invested so much already”

gamblers fallacy

tendency to assume that one is “due” for success after previous failures

overconfidence

tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs and judgements

hindsight bias

after something happens you think its outcome was obvious

convergent thinking

taking logical steps to find a single solution to a problem, uses functional fixedness

divergent thinking

capacity to generate creative ideas by exploring multiple solutions, overcomes functional fixedness

functional fixedness

tendency to only think of familiar functions for objects without thinking of alternative uses