AP Psych: Unit 2

from the myers textbook. 2.1 Perception - 2.8 Intelligence and achievement

Selective Attention

Focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Inattentional Blindness

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Change Blindness

failing to notice changes in the environment

Perceptual Set

mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

experience → expectations

gestalt

A german word for ‘organized whole’

Tendency for people to integrate information into meaningful wholes.

Figure-ground

Organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings

Grouping

Perceptual tendency to group stimuli into coherent groups

depth perception

ability to see objects in three dimensions; although the image in the retina is 2D; It allows us to judge distance

Visual cliff experiment

Experiment on infants in a lab where there was a ‘visual cliff’ that imitated depth, the toddlers were coaxed by their parents into going towards them however many of them refused to do so, indicating that they had depth perception

Cocktail party effect

Ability to attend to only one voice as opposed to many when focused on a conversation, for example you are able to single out someone calling your name whilst talking to someone

Binocular cues

A depth cue, depends on the use of both eyes

Retinal disparity

Cue for percieving depth, by comparing both retinal images, the brain computes the distance. The greater the difference between two images, the closer the object is.

Convergence

A cue to nearby objects’ distance, enabled by combining both retinal images

Monocular cues

Depth cues available to each eye seperately

Stroboscopic movement

an illusion of continuous moving images experienced when viewing a rapid series of images

Phi phenomenon

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

Autokinetic effect

Illusory movement of a still spot of light in a dark room

Perceptual constancy

Perceiving objects as unchanging (color, brightness, shape, size) even as illumination and retinal images change

Color constancy

Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color even in different illumination that alters the wavelength

Perceptual adaptation

Ability to adjust to changed sensory input

Cognition

Focus on mental activities like thinking, knowing, remembering, memorizing

Metacognition

‘beyond cognition’ Cognition of our cognition; keeping track of and evaluating our mental processes.

Students that keep monitor and track their learning do better in school.

Concepts

Mental groupings of similar objects, events, people, ideas

Prototype

mental image or best example of a category

E.g: Which is more birdlike, a crow or penguin?

Schemas

Jean Piaget’s proposal, a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information

Assimilate

Interpreting new experiences in terms of existing experiences

Accomodate

Adjusting current schemas to incorporate new information

Creativity

ability to create new and valuable ideas

Convergent thinking

narrowing available problem solutions to determine the single best

E.g: SATs

Divergent thinking

Ability to consider many different options, creative thinking that can diverge into many ways

Executive functions

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

Algorithms

methodical, logical procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

Heuristics

Simpler thinking strategy, allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently.

E.g: experiences and knowledge from past give you a solution quicker

Insight

Sudden realization of a problem’s solution

Confirmation bias

Tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore contradictory evidence

Fixation

Inability to see a problem from another perspective, obstacle to problem solving

mental set

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

Intution

effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought in comparison to conscious reasoning.

Represantativeness heuristic

judging the likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent or match certain prototypes. May lead us to ignore relevant information

Avaliablity heuristic

judging likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; when instances come suddenly to mind, we think they are more common than we think.

Overconfidence

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

Belief perseverance

persistence of own initial conceptions even when it’s basis is discredited

Framing

The way an issue is posed; affects decisions and judgments

Nudge

framing choices in a way so people make beneficial decisions

Memory

persistence of learning over time through, encoding, retrieving and storage of information

Recall

Retrieving information from earlier (fill in the blank questions)

Recognition

Identifying items previously learned (multiple choice question)

Relearning

Learning something more quickly, saving time when learning something again

Hermann Ebbinghaus created experiment about relearning using nonsense syllables

Encoding

Getting information into the brain

Storage

retaining encoded material

Retrieval

getting memory out of storage

Parallel processing

processing multiple aspects of stimuli

Sensory memory

immediate and brief recording sensory information in the memory system

(first step of Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin three stage memory model)

Short-term memory

brief activated memory of a few items that are later forgotten or stored

George A. Miller proposed that people can remember seven items at a time, like the 7 seas, 7 colors,

Long-term memory

Relatively permanent archive of the memory system, like knowledge, experience and skills

working memory

newer understanding of short-term memory: active processing of incoming sensory information and information retrieved from long-term memory.

Central executive

coordinated activities like phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad

Phonological loop

briefly holds auditory information

Visuospatial sketchpad

briefly holds information about objects’ appearance and location in space. (mental maps, where you parked car, route from home to school)

Neurogenesis

formation of new neurons

Eric Kandel researched about this on sea slugs

Long-term potentiation

increase in nerve cell firing potential after brief stimulation. (neural basis for learning + memory)

Explicit memories

retention of facts and experiences that we consciously know

Effortful processing

Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

Automatic processing

unconscious encoding of information, e.g space, time, location, familiar info

Implicit memories

retention of learned skills and classically conditioned associations independent of conscious recollection (riding a bike)

Iconic memory

Encoding visual information

Echoic memory

Encoding auditory information

Chunking

Organizing information into familiar, managable units; happens automatically (recalling phone numbers)

Mnemonics

memory aid, vivid imagery and organizational devices (never eat soggy waffles= N E S W)

Spacing effects

tendency for distributive study or practice to yield better results than massed study and practice.

(so don’t and study for 5 hours straight because you will not retain the information, sorry.)

Testing effect

enhanced memory after retrieving rather than simply rereading (repeated self testing after learning new information)

Shallow processing

encoding on a basic, elementary level based on structure of word

Deep processing

encoding semantically, based on meaning of the word.

(best for retention of information)

Semantic memory

Explicit memories of facts or general knowledge

Episodic memory

explicit memories of experiences events

Hippocampus

part of the limbic system, processes explicit memories for storage

Memory consolidation

neural storage of long-term memory

Flashbulb memory

a clear memory of emotionally significant events

Priming

Activation (usually unconsciously) of certain associations predisposing one’s memories or response.

Encoding specificity principle

idea that cues and contexts specific to a memory will be most effective in recalling it.

Mood-congruent memory

tendency to recall experiences that connect to current mood; either good or bad.

Serial position effect

Tendency to recall last few items in a list initially than the first few after a delay.

Interleaving

retrieval practice strategy involves mixing the study of different topics

(switch between study topics so that you’re not bored C:)

Anterograde amnesia

Inability to form new memories after an event

E.g: When someone can’t remember anything after a car accident but can recall past events

Proactive interference

Difficulty in learning new information due to old information interfering

E.g: Struggling to remember a new phone number because you keep recalling an old one

Retrograde interference

Difficulty in retrieving old information due to new information learned

E.g: Forgetting names of old classmates after learning the names of new classmates.

Repression

Unconsciously blocking out painful memories or traumatic event

Reconsolidation

The process of stabilizng a memory after it is recalled

E.g: When recalling a past experience, the memory may change slightly each time.

Misinformation effect

Tendency for memories to be corrupted by misleading information

Source amnesia

Faulty memory of how, when and where information was obtained or learned

Déjà vu

Eerie sense of “i’ve experienced this before”

Cues from current situation might unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience

Intelligence

A person’s ability to learn from experiences, solve problems and use knowledge to adapt to new social situations

General intelligence (g)

Idea by Charles Spearman, that a person’s intelligence is measured by every task on an intelligence test and contains all mental abilities.

Factor analysis

Statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items on a test. Identifies different dimensions of performance that underlie a person’s total score.

Fluid intelligence (gf)

our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease with age, especially during late adulthood.

Crystallized intelligence (gc)

our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age.

Cattell-Horn-Caroll (CHC) Theory

the theory that our intelligence is based on g as well as specific abilities, bridged by Gf and Gc.

Savant syndrome

a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing.

grit

Passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals.

emotional intelligence

the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions.