Psychology Flashcards: Memory, Perception, Cognition, and Intelligence

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts of memory, processing, cognition, perception, depth cues, problem-solving, intelligence, testing, and mindsets.

Explicit memory

Memories you consciously remember and can explain.

Episodic memory

Memory of specific personal events or experiences.

Semantic memory

Memory of facts, meanings, and knowledge.

Implicit memory

Memory that affects you without conscious awareness.

Procedural memory

Memory of how to do skills, like riding a bike.

Prospective memory

Remembering to do something in the future.

Long-term potentiation

Strengthening of neural connections through repeated activity, helping learning and memory.

Working memory

Temporarily holding and using information in your mind.

Phonological loop

Working memory system that temporarily holds sounds and spoken words.

Sensory memory

Very brief memory of sensory information.

Iconic memory

Very brief visual memory.

Echoic memory

Very brief auditory/sound memory.

Short-Term memory

Holds a small amount of information briefly.

Long-Term Memory

Stores information for long periods of time, potentially a lifetime.

Automatic processing

Encoding information without conscious effort.

Effortful processing

Encoding information that requires attention and effort.

Encoding

Getting information into memory.

Storage

Keeping information in memory.

Retrieval

Getting information out of memory.

Levels of processing model

The deeper you process information, the better you remember it.

Shallow encoding

Processing information based on appearance or sound.

Deep encoding

Processing information based on its meaning.

Mnemonic devices

Memory tricks that make information easier to remember.

Method of loci

Remembering information by visualizing it in familiar locations.

Chunking-Grouping

Combining information into smaller, meaningful groups.

Hierarchies-Grouping

Organizing information from general categories to specific details.

Spacing effect

You remember better when studying is spread out over time.

Memory consolidation

The process of stabilizing a memory so it can be stored long-term.

Massed practice

Studying information all at once; "cramming."

Distributed practice

Studying information over several sessions.

Serial position effect

We tend to remember the beginning and end of a list best.

Primacy effect

Better memory for items at the beginning of a list.

Recency effect

Better memory for items at the end of a list.

Maintenance rehearsal

Repeating information over and over to keep it in memory.

Elaborative rehearsal

Connecting new information to meaning or existing knowledge.

Memory retention

The ability to keep information in memory.

Autobiographical memory

Memory of events and experiences from your own life.

Retrograde amnesia

Losing memories from before a brain injury or event.

Anterograde amnesia

Difficulty forming new memories after a brain injury or event.

Alzheimer's disease

A progressive brain disease causing memory and thinking problems.

Infantile amnesia

Inability to remember most experiences from early childhood.

Recall

Remembering information without being given choices.

Recognition

Identifying information you have seen or learned before.

Retrieval cues

Hints or clues that help you remember something.

Context-dependent memory

Remembering better when you're in the same environment where you learned it.

Mood-congruent memory

Your current mood makes you more likely to remember similar-feeling memories.

State-dependent memory

Remembering better when your physical or mental state matches when you learned it.

Testing effect

Testing yourself improves your ability to remember information later.

Metacognition

Thinking about your own thinking and learning.

The forgetting curve

We forget information quickly at first, then forgetting slows down.

Encoding failure

Information never gets properly stored in memory in the first place.

Perception

The brain's process of organizing and interpreting sensory information.

Bottom-up processing

Building perception from sensory information first.

Top-down processing

Using past knowledge and expectations to interpret information.

Schema

A mental framework that helps you organize and understand information.

Perceptual set

A tendency to perceive something based on expectations or experiences.

Gestalt psychology

The idea that we perceive things as organized wholes, not just separate parts.

Closure

Filling in missing parts to see a complete object.

Figure and ground

Separating the main object (figure) from its background (ground).

Proximity

Objects close together are perceived as belonging together.

Similarity

Objects that look alike are perceived as belonging together.

Attention

Focusing your mental resources on specific information.

Selective attention

Focusing on one thing while ignoring distractions.

Cocktail party effect

Noticing something important, like your name, even while focused elsewhere.

Inattentional blindness

Failing to notice something visible because your attention is elsewhere.

Change blindness

Failing to notice changes in your environment.

Binocular depth cues

Depth cues that require both eyes.

Retinal disparity

Each eye sees a slightly different image, helping us judge depth.

Convergence

Your eyes turn inward more when looking at something close.

Monocular depth cues

Depth cues that can be used with one eye.

Relative clarity

Hazy objects seem farther away than clear objects.

Relative size

If two objects are similar, the smaller-looking one seems farther away.

Texture gradient

Nearby textures look more detailed, while distant textures look smoother.

Linear perspective

Parallel lines appear to come together as they get farther away.

Interposition

If one object blocks another, the blocking object seems closer.

Perceptual constancies

Recognizing objects as stable even when their appearance changes.

Apparent movement

Seeing movement when nothing is actually moving, like in a movie.

Prototypes

Mental examples of the most typical member of a category.

Assimilation

Adding new information to an existing schema.

Accommodation

Changing an existing schema to fit new information.

Algorithms

Step-by-step methods that guarantee a solution.

Heuristics

Quick mental shortcuts used to make decisions.

Representativeness heuristic

Judging something based on how much it matches a typical example.

Availability heuristic

Judging something based on how easily examples come to mind.

Mental set

Using a previously successful strategy to solve a new problem.

Priming

Being influenced by previously encountered information.

Framing

How the way information is presented affects decisions.

Gambler's fallacy

Believing a random event is "due" because of past outcomes.

Sunk-cost fallacy

Continuing something because you've already invested time, money, or effort.

Executive functions

Mental skills used to plan, focus, control impulses, and make decisions.

Creativity

The ability to produce new and useful ideas.

Divergent thinking

Generating many possible solutions to a problem.

Convergent thinking

Narrowing choices to find the best single solution.

Functional fixedness

Difficulty seeing new uses for familiar objects.

Intelligence

The ability to learn, solve problems, and adapt.

g (general intelligence)

The idea that one general mental ability influences many intellectual tasks.

Multiple intelligence

The theory that intelligence includes different types of abilities.

Intelligence quotient (IQ)

A score used to compare intellectual performance with others of the same age.

Mental age

The age level that a person's test performance corresponds to.

Chronological age

A person's actual age in years.