Cognition

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Cognition

The mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. It encompasses various functions like perception, attention, memory, reasoning, and decision-making.

Sensation

The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.

Perception

The interpretation of sensory information, allowing us to understand and make sense of our environment.

Top-down Processing

The cognitive process that starts with the brain interpreting and organizing information before it is processed through sensory input, relying on previous knowledge and experiences.

Bottom-up Processing

The cognitive process that begins with sensory input, where perceptions are formed from the smallest pieces of sensory information, building up to a complete perception.

Perceptual Set

A predisposition to perceive things in a certain way, influenced by expectations, experiences, and context.

• rabbit vs. duck

Selective Attention

The cognitive process of focusing on specific stimuli while ignoring distractions. This allows for enhanced processing of relevant information and aids in the perception of important details.

Divided Attention

The ability to distribute attention across multiple tasks or stimuli simultaneously, often leading to reduced focus and performance on individual tasks.

Cocktail Party Effect

A phenomenon where individuals can focus on a single conversation in a noisy environment, while filtering out other surrounding sounds.

Inattentional Blindness

a psychological phenomenon where an individual fails to perceive an unexpected stimulus in plain sight due to focused attention on another task or object.

Change Blindness

the failure to notice substantial changes in a visual scene, often because attention is directed elsewhere.

Gestalt Principles

a theory in psychology that explains how people organize visual elements into groups, patterns, configurations, or unified wholes when certain principles are applied.

• closure

• proximity

• similarity

• figure ground

Closure

a Gestalt principle where individuals perceive incomplete shapes or figures as complete by filling in missing information.

Proximity

a Gestalt principle stating that objects that are close to each other tend to be grouped together by the observer, influencing perception.

Similarity

a Gestalt principle which suggests that elements that are similar in appearance are perceived as part of the same group, influencing how individuals organize visual information.

Figure Ground

a Gestalt principle that describes the visual relationship between an object (the figure) and its background (the ground), helping individuals distinguish between them.

Depth Perception

the ability to perceive the world in three dimensions and judge distances, crucial for spatial awareness and navigation.

Binocular Depth Cues

visual information processed from both eyes

• retinal disparity

• convergence

Retinal Disparity 

the difference in right and left retinal images received by each eye due to their horizontal separation, contributing to depth perception.

Convergence

the inward turning of the eyes when focusing on a nearby object, which helps the brain gauge distance.

Monocular Depth Cues

visual cues that can be perceived by one eye

• interposition

• relative clarity

• relative size

• texture gradient

• linear perspective

Interposition

the overlapping of objects, which allows us to perceive depth by determining which object is in front of the other.

Relative Clarity

the perception that objects closer to us appear clearer and more detailed than those farther away.

Relative Size

if separate objects are expected to be of the same size, the larger one is seen as closer.

Texture Gradient

the progressive decline in resolution of textures as the viewer moves away from them, the perception that objects with coarse texture appear closer and those with finer texture appear farther away.

Linear Perspective

is a depth cue that involves the convergence of parallel lines toward a vanishing point on the horizon, making objects appear smaller as they recede into the distance.

• two objects appear closer as distance from viewer increases

Perceptual Constancy

is the tendency to perceive objects as unchanging, with constant attributes, despite changes in sensory input

• size

• shape

• brightness

• color

Apparent Movement

is the perception of motion in stationary objects due to changes in visual elements, if they are viewed in quick succession or in relation to moving objects

• stroboscopic movement

• phi phenomenon

Stroboscopic Movement

is the illusion of motion perceived when a series of slightly different images are presented in rapid succession, creating the impression of continuous movement.

Phi Phenomenon

is the perceptual phenomenon where two or more adjacent lights blinking on and off in succession are perceived as a single light moving back and forth.

Concept

basis of thought, a mental representation or idea that helps in organizing experiences and knowledge.

• folder

Prototype

best example of a concept, a cognitive representation that embodies the most typical features of a category, serving as a mental standard for comparison.

• cover picture

Schema

cluster/group of related concepts, mental framework that organizes and interprets information, helping individuals understand the world based on previous experiences.

• mental file cabinet

Assimilation

the process by which individuals incorporate new information into existing cognitive schemas, enhancing understanding without altering the structure of those schemas.

Accommodation

the process of adjusting cognitive schemas to fit new information, leading to a change in understanding.

Algorithm

a step-by-step procedure or formula for solving a problem or completing a task, every possible option, solution guaranteed

Heuristic

a mental shortcut that allows people to make decisions quickly and efficiently using previous experience/knowledge, often bypassing systematic reasoning.

Representativeness Heuristic

a mental shortcut used to judge the likelihood of an occurrence based on how much it resembles a typical case/prototype, often leading to biases.

Availability Heuristic

estimate the likelihood or importance of something based on how easily we can think of an example, often influenced by recent information or experiences.

Mental Set

a cognitive bias that involves approaching a problem in a particular way, often based on past experiences, which may hinder the ability to see alternative solutions.

Priming

the activation, often unconsciously of particular associations in memory

Framing

the way information is presented can influence decision-making and judgment, highlighting specific aspects while downplaying others.

Gambler’s Fallacy

the mistaken belief that past events can influence future random events, making them more of less likely, leading individuals to think that a win or loss is due based on prior outcomes.

Sunk-Cost Fallacy

the tendency to continue an endeavor once an investment in money, effort, or time has been made, despite new evidence suggesting that the cost of continuing is greater than the expected benefit.

Executive Function

Refers to a set of cognitive processes that enable individuals to plan, think critically, focus attention, remember instructions, and manage multiple tasks effectively.

Creativity

the ability to generate original ideas or solutions, often involving divergent thinking and innovation.

Divergent Thinking

is a creative thought process used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions. It fosters brainstorming and open-ended problem solving using strategies which deviate from the norm

Convergent Thinking

is a cognitive process that involves bringing together multiple perspectives or pieces of information to find a single, best solution to a problem, narrow down options to find one right answer

• like math

Functional Fixedness

is a cognitive bias that limits a person to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used, hindering creative problem solving, a form of mental set.