AP psychology unit 2A: Perception and cognition

Selective Attention

Focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Inattentional blindness

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is 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

Gestalt

an organized whole. Psychologists emphasize our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes

Figure-ground

The organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from the surroundings

Grouping

the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

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 object’s 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 between the two images the closer the object

Monocular cues

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

Stroboscope movement

an illusion of continuous movement 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, 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

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

Concepts

A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas or people

Prototype

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

Schemas

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information

assimilate

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas

accomodation

adapting our current cheas to incorporate new information

creativity

the ability to produce new and valuable ideas

Convergent thinking

Narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution

divergent thinking

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

Executive functions

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

algorithims

a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees a solution to a particular problem

Heuristics

a simple thinking strategy-a mental shortcut-that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficentlyefficiently

insight

a sudden realization of a problems solution

fixation

The inability to see a problems from a new perspective; an obstacle to problem solving

mental set

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

intuition

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

representative heuristics

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

availability heuristics

judging the likelihood of events based in their availability in memory

Gamblers fallacy

the belief that past independent events can influence future outcomes

sunk-cost fallacy

The investment of time, money, or effort into a failing project or decision because of past investments

Bottom-up processing

analysis of the stimulus progresses from the sense receptors to the brain and to the mind

Top-down processing

information processing guided by higher-level mental process such as experience and context

Linguistic determinism

Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think

Linguistic relativism

The idea that language influences the way we think

Relative size

if we assume two objects are similar in size, most people perceive the one that casts the smaller retinal images as farther away

relative clarity

Because more light passes through objects that are farther away we perceive these objects as hazy

Texture gradient

moving toward or away from an object changes our perception of it’s smoothness or texture

Linear perspective

The sharper the angle of convergence the greater the perceived distance is

Interposition

if one object partially block our view of another we perceive it as closer

cocktail party effect

the ability to focus auditory attention on a single speaker or sound in a noisy environment while filtering out other competing background noise

closure

The mind naturally fills in missing gaps or incomplete information in a visual or auditory stimulus to perceive a complete whole object or pattern

Proximity

a principle of perceptual grouping where objects or people that are physically close to one another are perceived as being a single group

similarity

the principle that people tend to group together objects, people or ideas that share common characteristics such as color, shape or beliefs

selective attention

the cognitive ability to focus on one specific stimulus while ignoring others

inattention

the difficulty focusing, concentrating or sustaining awareness on a specific task or stimulus often leading to careless mistakes

Perception

the crucial process where your brain organizes, interprets and gives meaning to the raw sensory information received from your environment

visual perception

the brains active process of organizing, interpreting and making sense of visual information to make meaningful understandings

Framing

the way an issue is presented or posed which can significantly affect descisions and judgements

priming

when exposure to one stimulus unconsciously influences your response