ap psych unit 2

Influences behavior and mental processes in perception

Cultural norms, expectations, circumstances, and cognitive biases.

Bottom-up processing

Processing driven by external sensory input.

Top-down processing

Processing driven by internal expectations and prior knowledge.

Schemas

Mental frameworks that organize and interpret information.

Perceptual set

A mental expectation that shapes how we perceive sensory input.

Gestalt principles

Closure, figure and ground, proximity, similarity.

Closure principle

The tendency to fill in gaps to perceive a whole image.

Figure-ground principle

Distinguishing the main object (figure) from the background.

Proximity principle

Grouping nearby items together.

Similarity principle

Grouping similar-looking items together.

Attention

The interaction of sensation and perception influenced by internal and external factors.

Selective attention

Focusing on specific stimuli while ignoring others.

Cocktail party effect

Hearing relevant information (like your name) in a noisy environment.

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts used to make quick judgments.

Representativeness heuristic

Judging based on how well something matches a prototype or stereotype.

Availability heuristic

Judging based on the first, most vivid, or most recent example that comes to mind.

Main types of memory

Explicit, implicit, prospective memory.

Working memory

The active processing system that holds and manipulates information.

Systems in the multi-store model

Sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory.

Types of sensory memory

Iconic (visual) and echoic (auditory).

Multi-store model

The role of automatic and effortful processing in encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Levels of processing model

Memory is encoded at structural, phonemic, and semantic levels.

Structural encoding

Shallow processing based on appearance.

Phonemic encoding

Intermediate processing based on sound.

Semantic encoding

Deepest processing based on meaning.

Encoding

Putting information into memory.

Storage

Keeping information in memory over time.

Retrieval

Accessing stored information.

Forgetting

Loss or failure to retrieve stored information.

Interference theory

Forgetting occurs because memories disrupt one another.

Interference (when it occurs)

During encoding, when information becomes confused or combined.

Proactive interference

Old information disrupts learning new information.

Proactive interference (example)

Old phone number interferes with learning a new number.

Retroactive interference

New information disrupts recall of old information.

Retroactive interference (example)

Learning a new phone number makes you forget the old one.

Interference is likely when…

memories are similar.

Chandler (1989) on interference:

Students studying similar subjects simultaneously experience more interference.

IQ

A measure of intelligence comparing an individual to the population.

Flynn effect

The rise in IQ scores across generations due to environmental improvements.

Systematic issues in intelligence testing

Biases that affect how quantitative scores and qualitative interpretations are used.

Academic achievement vs intelligence

Achievement measures learned knowledge; intelligence measures cognitive potential.

Anterograde amnesia

inability to form new memories.

Retrograde amnesia

inability to recall old memories.