Unit 1 AP Psych

Selective Attention

The ability to focus consciousness on one specific stimuli and ignoring all the other ones.

Inattentional Blindness

The failure to see a unexpected stimulus that is fully visible as attention is focused else where

Change Blindness

The failure to notice an a significant change in the visual environment when attention is directed elsewhere

Perceptual Set

Tendency to perceive things by factors such as experiences, motivation, emotions, context

Gestalt

The human brain unifies the visual elements and perceive patterns instead of isolated parts.

Figure-ground

Gestalt principle that describes how the human brain differentiate the object and the surrounding areas

Grouping

The process of the brain organizing the stimuli into pattern or groups.

Depth Perception

The ability for humans to see objects in 3D and judge their distances

Visual Cliff

A experiment that is used to see the depth perception of babies, where most of them would not cross the “cliff“

Binocular Cues

Depth cues that requires two eyes, this is used to determine depth perception

Convergence

A binocular cue where the eyes turn and focus on a specific object, this is used so that both eyes could be integrated and form an image

Retinal Disparity

Our eyes being located far apart provides slightly different images, this is used to calculate the distance of objects where the greater difference image the closer the object is.

Monocular Cues

Visual cues that is only perceived with one eye.

Stroboscopic Movement

The illusion of perceived motion that occurs when a rapid succession of images are shown

Phi Phenomenon

Optical illusion where rapid lights flash and create an illusion of movement

Autokinetic Effect

Stationary point of light that appear to move in a dark room 

Perceptual Constancy

We perceive objects to have constant properties despite changes in the sensory information

Color Constancy

The perceptual of objects having the same colors despite the changes in lighting

Perceptual Adaption

The brain adjusting and adapting to different sensory inputs

Cognition

Different mental processes that involves acquiring, processing, and information

Metacognition

The awareness of our thinking process, this allows us to evaluate different

Concepts

Mental groups of different things, used to help us understand and categorize the world around us

Prototype

The mental image for the best example of the category and used to help up sort new information quickly

Schemas

Cognitive structure that is used organize and interpret new information based on past experiences

Assimilate

A process where new information is incorporated into schemas (framework) without changing them

Accommodate

The process of adjusting schemas (framework) to incorporate new information that does not fit any current schemas

Creativity

The ability to produce new and original ideas that are used to solve a problem.

Convergent Thinking

The process of applying existing knowledge to solve a task, these tasks often have a specific outcomes

Divergent Thinking

The process of generating a wide range of solutions rather than one single solution

Executive Functions

High level cognitive abilities that allow the ability to plan, organize, manage attention, control impulses and others

Algorithm

A specific step by step procedure that is used to find a solution to a problem, it might not be the most efficient but it is guaranteed to work

Heuristic

Mental “rules of thumb“ and we often focus on one aspect of an issue and ignores all the other ones (ie. only focusing on the planes crashing without understanding its safer than driving)

Insight

A sudden and clear realization in a problem or situation

Confirmation Bias

A bias where people will often remember, seek out and interpret information that agrees with their beliefs and ignore the condrictions

Fixation

The inability to see the problem in a different perspective

Mental Set

Approaching a problem in a specific way based on past experiences, even though it might be wrong

Intuition

Understanding immediately without conscious analysis and its called “gut feeling“

Representative Heuristic

A mental shortcut that is used to make judgements, shows the best example of a category

Availability Heuristic

A mental shortcut that is used to make judgements, it uses the frequency of event

Overconfidence

The overestimation of ones ability and knowledge and making decision without considering the outcomes

Belief Perseverance

The tendency to maintain beliefs

Nudge

Positive reinforcement and indirect suggestions can influence the behaviors

Memory

persistence learning over time through storage and retrieval of information

Recall

Cognitive process of retrieval of information without any cues or prompts

Recognition

A type of recall where something that is seen before is identified

Relearning

A measurement of memory that assesses the speed of information that was previously learned was learned again

Encode

Sensory information is converted into a format that brain is able to save

Store

Retention of encoded information over time

Retrieve

The process of accessing or recalling previously stored information from the long-term memory

Parallel Processing

The brain’s ability to process multiple pieces of information at the same time

Sensory Memory

Brief storage of sensory information in the brain

Short-term Memory

Storage of information in the brain that only lasts for a short period of time and doesn’t involve manipulating that information

Long-term Memory

Final stage of memory storage, this holds information indefinitely and has unlimited space

Working Memory

Brain holds temporality information and process using that information

Central Executive

The control center of the working memory, used to direct all kinds of information such as attention, information flow, working memory, phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad

Phonological Loop

A component of working memory that is used to hold and process verbal information

Visuospatial Sketchpad

A component of working memory that is used to hold and process visual and spatial information

Neurogenesis

The way for new neurons to be created

Long-term Potentiation

The strengthen of neurons based on recent patterns of activity and is used to learn and make memories

Explicit Memories

The conscious recall of facts, experiences and events

Implicit Memories

The unconscious retention of information that influences behaviors such as skills, habits and responses

Effortful Processing

Mental activity of encoding information that requires deliberate effort and attention

Automatic Processing

Unconscious encoding of information such as space and time without constant effort

Iconic Memory

Brief sensory information of a visual stimuli

Echoic Memory

Brief memory that holds sounds and words for a few seconds

Chunking

Strategy where individual pieces of information are grouped into one large chunk to improve retention

Mnemonics

Memory aid or other techniques to improve the memory and recall by assigning hard to remember information to familiar cues

Spacing Effect

The phenomenon where learning and long-term retention are improved when study sessions are spread out over time

Testing Effect

The retrieval of information from memory strengthens that memory than passively reviewing it.

Shallow Processing

The encoding of information that focuses on sensory information rather than meaning

Deep Processing

A way of processing information that involves focusing on the meaning and connects which results in stronger and longer-lasting memories

Semantic

Memories that are facts, knowledge and concepts

Episodic

Memories that are personal and experienced based

Hippocampus

A part of the brain that is crucial for memory used to form and retrieve long-term memories and others

Memory Consolidation

The process where short-term memories are turned into long-term memories

Flashbulb Memories

A vivid, clear memory of a significant event, these often include the event and other things around it

Priming

Exposure to one stimulus alters a person’s response to another stimulus without knowing consciously understanding that

Encoding Specificity Principle

Memory recall is enhanced when context and cues are the same when encoding of that information happens

Mood Congruent

The tendency to recall memories that are the same as the current mood

Serial Position Effect

The tendency to remember first and last items in the list the best, while having troubles for the rest.

Interleaving

A study strategy where multiple topics are studied and mixed together

Anterograde Amnesia

The inability to form memories after an event happens, while memories in the past are able to be remembered

Retrograde Amnesia

The inability to recall memories that happened before a specific event

Proactive Interference

Old information disrupts the newly learned information

Retroactive Interference

New information disrupts the old information

Repress

Defense mechanism where people pushes unwanted thoughts and memories away from them from distress

Reconsolidation

Memories are unstable for a brief period of time which causes the information to be modified before being stored again

Misinformation Effect

The tendency for memories to be altered by misleading information after an event.

Source Amnesia

Phenomenon where people is able to remember information but unable to remember where that information was from

Deja Vu

The sensation that something happened before despite knowing that its impossible

Intelligence

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

General Intelligence

A single ability that influences everything from reasoning to problem solving

Factor Analysis

A statistical techniques that is used to identify the clusters of related items into groups

Fluid Intelligence

The ability to solve reason, solve problems and think abstractly without relying on previously known knowledge

Crystallized Intelligence

The accumulated knowledge and verbal skills that is acquired as people grow older 

Cattell-Horn-Carroll Theory

The theory that intelligence is based on G as well as other specific abilities like Fluid Intelligence and Crystallized Intelligence

Savant Syndrome

Mental disability (such as autism) exhibits extraordinary abilities

Grit

The passion and perseverance that is used to achieve long term goals

Emotional Intelligence

The ability to recognize, understand, manage own emotions and other emotions

Achievement Tests

A test that is used to determine skill, knowledge that a student has acquired during a time period