Module 5 - Comprehensive Psychology and Neuroscience Core Concepts

Bottom-Up Processing

Processing driven entirely by incoming environmental energy hitting sensory receptors, building from sensory input up to perception.

Top-Down Processing

Processing driven by memory, expectations, prior knowledge, and cultural models to interpret sensory information.

Gestalt Principles

Innate tendencies of the human mind to organize chaotic physical arrays into structured, useful imagery.

Figure-Ground

The structural split of an image into a high-priority focal object and an underlying background field.

Proximity

The perceptual grouping of items that are physically close to one another into structural units.

Similarity

The perceptual classification of items together when they display matching physical features like color or size.

Closure

The mental tendency to fill in missing segments of broken contours to perceive a continuous, whole object.

Good Continuation

The perception of intersecting or interrupted lines as continuing along a smooth, uninterrupted trajectory.

Common Fate

The perceptual grouping of disconnected items as a single operational unit when they move along a synchronized trajectory.

Cones

Photoreceptors active primarily in high

Rods

Photoreceptors highly sensitive in low

Ventral Stream

The visual pathway routing into the temporal lobe that processes object identity, features, and naming.

Dorsal Stream

The visual pathway routing into the parietal lobe that analyzes spatial orientation, location, and motion tracking.

Place Theory

The proposition that the brain extracts specific pitch profiles based on the exact anatomical location that vibrates along the basilar membrane.

Frequency Theory

The proposition that pitch tracking is dictated by the global rate of neural firing cascading along the auditory nerve.

The McGurk Effect

A phenomenon where conflicting auditory and visual stimuli interact to produce a completely different perceived sound.

Retinotopic Organization

Mapping that preserves the spatial layout of the retina within the visual processing areas of the brain.

Tonotopic Organization

Mapping that preserves the frequency spectrum of sound within the auditory processing areas of the brain.

Optic Chiasm

The crossover point for visual pathways where nasal fibers route visual information to the opposite side of the brain.

Absolute Threshold

The baseline energetic intensity required for a stimulus to be explicitly registered by an observer exactly 50% of the time.

Difference Threshold (jnd)

The minimal alteration in an existing baseline stimulus value needed to register a perceptible deviation 50% of the time.

Weber's Law

The principle that the difference threshold is strictly proportional to the intensity of the baseline stimulus, rather than a fixed amount.

Signal Detection Theory

A framework for quantifying an individual's sensory sensitivity separately from their cognitive response bias in conditions of uncertainty.

Hit

A correct behavioral identification of a stimulus when the stimulus is actually present.

False Alarm

Incorrectly identifying a stimulus as present when it is physically absent.

Miss

Failing to identify or detect a stimulus that is physically present.

Correct Rejection

Correctly identifying that a stimulus is absent when it is not there.

Gate-Control Theory

A framework explaining pain modulation through the competitive interaction of small and large nerve fibers opening or closing a neural gate.

Kinesthetic Sense

The sensory system that utilizes receptors inside muscles and joints to inform the brain about body position, limb orientation, and movement.

Vestibular Sense

The sensory system that tracks balance, equilibrium, and spatial orientation using structures in the inner ear.

Mental Set

A fixed cognitive mindset or framework where a person approaches a problem using formulas or strategies based exclusively on past interactions.

Functional Fixedness

A cognitive bias characterized by an inability to recognize an object's utility beyond its highly conventional use.

Algorithms

Systematic, precise step-by-step procedures that guarantee a correct solution to a problem if followed correctly.

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts or informal rules of thumb that simplify decision-making and prune search trees to preserve cognitive energy.

Dual-Process Theory

A framework stating human judgment is dictated by a competitive, overlapping architecture of two distinct cognitive systems.

System 1

An automatic decision

System 2

A deliberate decision

Availability Heuristic

The cognitive tendency to estimate the frequency or likelihood of an event based on how easily examples can be recalled from memory.

Representative Heuristic

The cognitive tendency to guess the likelihood of an item or event by directly comparing it to an internal prototype or stereotype.

Confirmation Bias

The natural cognitive inclination to hunt for and favor evidence that proves a theory right while ignoring disconfirming data.

Framing Theory

The framework explaining how the specific way options or information are presented heavily influences an individual's final choices and judgments.

Productivity

The unique operational ability in communication to fuse entirely discrete pieces of information to formulate novel messages and conceptual understandings.

Critical Period

An early, absolute biological window during which environmental stimulation is mandatory for normal language development to occur.

Sensitive Period

A developmental window extending from early childhood up to puberty where the ease of effortless language mastery gradually tapers off.

Broca's Area

A region in the lower left frontal lobe that orchestrates the physical motor production of speech.

Wernicke's Area

A region in the posterior left temporal lobe that serves as the command center for language comprehension and meaningful semantic organization.

Broca's Aphasia

A type of non-fluent aphasia characterized by highly disrupted, broken, and uncoordinated speech production, while comprehension remains largely preserved.

Wernicke's Aphasia

A type of fluent aphasia where speech remains fluid and structurally rapid but sentences completely lack cohesive semantic meaning or comprehension.

Linguistic Relativity (Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis)

The proposal that the structural differences and boundaries of a specific language alter and shape its speakers' perception of reality.

General Intelligence Factor (g)

A foundational, domain-general cognitive processor underlying performance across all diverse mental capabilities.

Fluid Intelligence (Gf)

The raw, unlearned capacity to manage novelty, solve abstract puzzles, and execute flexible reasoning independently of education.

Crystallized Intelligence (Gc)

The accumulation of formal data, structural vocabulary, and explicit mechanical tools derived from environmental education and experience.

Triarchic Theory

Robert Sternberg's framework establishing that intelligence operates across three core axes: analytical, creative, and practical capabilities.

Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner's proposal that intelligence is split into distinct, structurally isolated modular pluralities like musical or bodily-kinesthetic skills.

Mental Age

A psychometric measure of a child's cognitive trajectory quantified by comparing their performance against the average baseline performance of chronological age groups.

Deviation IQ

An intelligence score calculated by mapping an individual's raw performance onto a standardized normal curve based on standard deviations from the population mean.

Flynn Effect

The long-term phenomenon where environmental complexity and modernization shift human cognition from concrete experience toward abstract classification systems over generations.

Stereotype Threat

A situational pressure where anxiety about confirming negative group stereotypes temporarily impairs an individual's performance on cognitive tests.