Lecture Notes on Sensation, Perception, Memory, Cognition, Language, and Intelligence

Flashcards in vocabulary style derived from lecture notes on sensation, perception, memory, cognition, language, and intelligence.

Sensation

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

Perception

Process by which the brain organizes and interprets sensory input.

Bottom-up processing

Starts at sensory receptors and works up to higher levels of processing.

Top-down processing

Constructs perceptions from sensory input by drawing on experience and expectations.

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; a form of inattentional blindness.

Transduction

Process of converting one form of energy into a form that our brain can use.

Psychophysics

Studies the relationships between the physical energy we can detect and its effects on our psychological experiences.

Absolute threshold

Minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time.

Subliminal

Stimuli that you cannot consciously detect 50% of the time.

Priming

Activating associations nonconsciously, predisposing one's perception, memory, or response.

Difference threshold

Minimum stimulus difference a person can detect 50% of the time.

Weber's Law

For an average person to perceive a difference, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage.

Sensory adaptation

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.

Perceptual Set

Mental predisposition to perceive one thing or another.

ESP (Extrasensory perception)

Perception that can occur apart from sensory input.

Parapsychology

Study of paranormal phenomena like ESP and psychokinesis.

Hue

The color experienced, determined by light wavelength.

Intensity

Amount of energy in a light wave; influences brightness.

Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory

The retina contains three different types of color receptors (one sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue), which when stimulated in combination can produce the perception of any color.

Opponent-process theory

Opposing retinal processes (red-green, blue-yellow, white-black) enable color vision.

Feature Detectors

Nerve cells in the occipital lobe’s visual cortex that respond to a scene’s edges, lines, angles, and movements.

Parallel Processing

Processing many aspects of a problem simultaneously.

Gestalt

Integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.

Figure-ground

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

Binocular Cues

Depth cues that depend on the use of both eyes.

Monocular Cues

Depth cues available to each eye separately.

Retinal Disparity

Binocular cue for perceiving depth; By comparing retinal images from the two eyes, the brain computes distance.

Phi Phenomenon

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

Perceptual Consistency

Perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent color, size, brightness, shape, and size).

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.

Memory

Persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information.

Atkinson-Shiffrin Model

A model of memory that proposes three stages: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Iconic Memory

A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second

Echoic Memory

A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds

Effortful Processing

Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.

Automatic Processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information.

Implicit Memories

Retention of learned skills or classically conditioned associations independent of conscious recollection..

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically.

Mnemonics

Memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices.

Self-reference effect

enhanced semantic encoding of information that is relevant to one's self

Long term potentiation

Increase in a synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation.

Hippocampus

Loading dock of memory where explicit memories are created.

Flashbulb memories

A clear, sustained memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.

Infantile Amnesia

The inability of adults to retrieve episodic memories (memories of situations or events) before the age of 2–4 years, as well as the period before age 10 of which adults retain fewer memories than might otherwise be expected given the passage of time.

Context dependent memory

Encoding not only material but context.

Encoding specificity principle

The idea that cues and contexts specific to a particular memory will be most effective in helping us recall it.

State dependent memory

Encode material but the state you are in as well: mood matters.

Deja vu

Mind confused between reality and past memory and interprets as deja vu.

Primacy and Recency Effect (Serial position effect)

Recall best the last and first items on the list.

Retrograde amnesia

Inability to recall everything that happened in the past from a certain point.

Anterograde amnesia

Inability to form new memories following event which caused amnesia.

Proactive interference

Disruptive effect of prior learning on recall of new information.

Retroactive interference

Disruptive effect of new learning on recall of old information.

Misinformation Effect

Occurs when misleading information has distorted one’s memory of an event.

Source Amnesia

Faulty memory for how, when or where information was learned or imagined.

Cognition

All mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Concepts

Mental groupings of similar objects, ideas, or people, to simplify and understand the world around us.

Prototypes

Best examples of a category.

Creativity

Ability to produce novel and valuable ideas supported by a certain level of aptitude.

Convergent thinking

Ability to provide one correct answer.

Divergent thinking

Ability to consider various options and think in novel ways.

Algorithm

Methodical, logical rule or procedure.

Heuristic

Simple thinking strategy that is quicker than algorithm but more mistakes prone.

Insight

Sudden flash of inspiration that solves a problem.

Overconfidence

Leads to overestimate accuracy of our beliefs.

Belief Perseverance

When a belief we have formed and explained has been discredited, this makes us cling to that belief.

Framing

The way a question or statement is presented; subtle differences in presentation can dramatically alter responses.

Language

Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.

Phonemes

Smallest distinctive sound unit.

Morphemes

Smallest language units that carry meaning.

Grammar

Language’s set of rules that people use to communicate.

Receptive Language

Ability to understand what is said to or about you.

Productive language

The ability to produce words.

Broca's area

Region in the left temporal lobe that controls language reception and assists with expression.

Wernicke's area

Region in the left temporal lobe that controls language reception and assists with expression.

Linguistic Determinism

Language defines thought.

Intelligence

The ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.

General Intelligence (g)

According to Spearman and others, underlies all mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test.

Factor analysis

Statistical analysis procedure that identifies clusters of related items which are called factors.

Savant Syndrome

Inability but exceptionally good at one skill.

Emotional intelligence

Aspect of social intelligence; ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions.

Intelligence test

Mental aptitude using numeric scores.

Aptitude Tests

Predict ability to learn a new skill.

Achievement Test

Reflect what you have learned

Standardization

Establishes a base for meaningful score comparisons by giving a test to a representative sample of future test-takers.

Reliability

Extent to which test yields consistent results.

Validity

Whether many trails are run; content validity (if it samples the pertinent behavior); predictive validity (if it predicts a behavior it was designed to predict).

Fluid intelligence

Ability to reason speedily and abstractly (decreases with age).

Crystallized intelligence

Accumulated knowledge and verbal skills (tends to increase with age).

Heritability

The proportion of variation among individuals that can be attributed to genes.

Stereotype threat

Self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype affects performance on all kinds of tests.