Perception Quiz

selective attention

focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.

cocktail party effect

your ability to attend to only one voice within a sea of many as you chat with a party guest

inattentional blindness

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

change blindness

failing to notice changes in the environment; a form of inattentional blindness.

perceptual set

a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.

affects top-down; hear, taste, feel, see

schemas

concepts we form through experience; organizes and interprets unfamiliar info; assimilate and accommodate

context

“eel is on the orange” we perceive the first word as peel

motivation

gives us energy as we work toward a goal; walking destination seems longer when tired

emotion

sad music playing = perceive sad meaning in homophones; die rather than dye

gestalt

an organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.

figure-ground

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

grouping

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

depth perception

the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance.

visual cliff

a laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals.

binocular cues

a depth cue, such as retinal disparity, that depends on the use of two eyes.

convergence

a cue to nearby objects’ distance, enabled by the brain combining retinal images.

retinal disparity

a binocular cue for perceiving depth. By comparing retinal images from the two eyes, the brain computes distance — the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object.

monocular cues

a depth cue, such as interposition or linear perspective, available to either eye alone.

stroboscopic movement

an illusion of continuous movement (as in a motion picture) experienced when viewing a rapid series of slightly varying still images.

phi phenomenon

an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession.

autokinetic effect

the illusory movement of a still spot of light in a dark room.

perceptual constancy

perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent color, brightness, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change.

color constancy

perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object.

brightness constancy

perceive an object as having constant brightness even as its illumination varies

relative luminance

the amount of light an object reflects relative to its surroundings

shape constancy

we perceive the form of familiar objects as constant even while our retinas receive changing images of them

ex: a door looks trapezoidal as it opens, we perceive it as rectangular

size constancy

we perceive an object as having an unchanging size even while our distance from ti varies

ex: we assume a far away bus is large enough to carry people

critical period

an optimal period when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences is required.

perceptual adaptation

the ability to adjust to changed sensory input, including an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field.

cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

metacognition

cognition about our cognition; keeping track of and evaluating our mental processes.

our thinking when planning and assessing our understanding and performance; monitor and evaluate learning

concepts

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people; simplifies our thinking

ex: concept chair includes many items: high chair, reclining chair, dentist chair

ex: without concepts we can’t say “I want to earn money” because ppl aren’t born w a concept of earn or money

prototype

birdiest bird

a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a crow).

when smth fails to match prototype, we are slower to recognize the category

assimilate

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas; before accommodating

accommodate

as we interact with the world, we adjust our schemas to incorporate information provided by new experiences

ex: child learns that original dog schema is too broad and __ by refining the category

creativity

the ability to produce new and valuable ideas.

aptitude

ability to learn; creativity is supported by a certain level

convergent thinking

narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution.

divergent thinking

expanding the number of possible problem solutions; creative thinking that diverges in different directions.

functional fixedness

occurs when our prior experiences inhibit our ability to find creative solutions

ex: bricklayers may only see a brick as part of a home raither than as a possible doorstep

expertise, imaginative thinking skills, a venturesome personality, intrinsic motivation, creative environment

five components of creativity

expertise

well developed knowledge; furnished ideas, images and phrases we use as mental building blocks

the more blocks = more chances to combine them in new ways

imaginative thinking skills

ability to see things in new ways, recognize patterns, and make new connections

venturesome personality

seeks news experiences, tolerates ambiguity and risk, and perseveres in overcoming obstacles

intrinsic motivation

quality of being driven more by interest, satisfaction, and challenge than by external pressures

focus less on extrinsic motivators: meeting deadlines, impressing people, or making money — than on the pleasure and stimulation of the work itself

creative environment

sparks, supports, and refines creative ideas; most eminent inventors were mentored, challenged, and supported by their colleagues; supports innovation, team building, and communication

develop expertise, time for incubation, set aside time for the mind to roam freely, experience other cultures and ways of thinking

ways to boost the creative process

executive functions

cognitive skills that work together, enabling us to generate, organize, plan, and implement goal-directed behavior.

trial and error

ex: Thomas Edison tried thousands of light bulb filaments before stumbling upon one that worked

no method or system

algorithm

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

heuristics

a simple thinking strategy — a mental shortcut — that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than an algorithm.

insight

a sudden realization of a problem’s solution; contrasts with strategy-based solutions.

before, the problem solvers’ frontal lobes were active; at the instant of discovery, there was a burst of activity in the right temporal lobe

confirmation bias

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

fixation

in cognition, the inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an obstacle to problem solving.

mental set

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

predisposes us to how we think

intuition

an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning.

representative heuristic

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

stereotype

a prototype of members of certain racial groups; may unconsciously use the representativeness heuristic when judging individuals. The result is racial bias

gambler’s fallacy

If people observe random events happening repeatedly (flipping a coin and having it land on heads eight times in a row), they may unconsciously use the representativeness heuristic when judging the likelihood of future events (assuming the coin will surely land on tails the next time)

availability heuristic

judging 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.

overconfidence

the tendency to be more confident than correct — to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

belief perseverance

the persistence of one’s initial conceptions even after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.

motivated reasoning

Rather than using evidence to draw conclusions, they used their conclusions to assess the evidence

framing

the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

nudge

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

planning fallacy

overestimating our future leisure time and income

sunk-cost fallacy

we stick to our original plan because we’ve invested our time, even when switching to a new approach could save us time