Psychology: Sensory Perception, Processing, and Problem Solving

Perception

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.

Bottom-Up Processing

Analysis that begins with the sense receptors & works up to the brain's integration of sensory information.

Top-Down Processing

Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes.

Perceptual set

A tendency to perceive or notice some aspects of the available sensory data and ignore others.

Schemas

Mental filters or maps that organize our information about the world.

Context Effects

States that the context (environmental factors) that surrounds an event affects how an event is perceived and remembered.

Selective Attention

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.

The Cocktail Party Effect

Phenomenon of being able to focus one's auditory attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli.

Gestalt

An organized whole; psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.

Proximity

Objects close together will be viewed together visually.

Closure

The brain is good at filling in gaps to create a whole.

Similarity

Two items that share attributes will be visually grouped together.

Figure & Ground

People instinctively perceive objects as either being in the foreground or the background.

Inattentional Blindness

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.

Change Blindness

Failing to notice change in the environment around us.

Binocular Cues

Depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the use of two eyes.

Retinal Disparity

A binocular cue for perceiving depth: by comparing images from the retinas in the two eyes, the brain computes distance.

Convergence

When two eyes move inward to see near objects and outward to see faraway objects.

Monocular Cues

Depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone.

Relative Size

If two objects are similar in size, we perceive the one that casts a smaller retinal image to be farther away.

Interposition

Objects that occlude (block) other objects tend to be perceived as closer.

Relative Clarity

Because light from distant objects passes through more light than closer objects, we perceive hazy.

Linear Perspective

Parallel lines, such as railroad tracks, appear to converge in the distance.

Texture Gradient

Indistinct (fine) texture signals an increasing distance.

Perceptual constancy

Our ability and need to perceive objects as unchanging even as changes may occur in distance, point of view, and illumination.

Apparent motions

An optical illusion that makes a stationary object appear to move.

Concept

Mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

Prototype

Mental image or best example of a category.

Assimilation

The process of absorbing new information into an existing schema.

Accommodation

The process of adjusting old schemas or developing new ones to incorporate new information.

Algorithm

Methodical, logical rules or procedures that guarantee solving a particular problem.

Heuristic

Simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently.

Representative heuristic

When we judge how something represents, or matches, certain prototypes we have.

Availability heuristic

Likelihood of event based on their availability in memory.

Mental Set

A tendency to approach a problem in one particular way.

Priming

A technique whereby exposure to one stimulus influences a response to a subsequent stimulus.

Framing

The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

Functional Fixedness

Inability to perceive a new use for an object associated with a different purpose.

Gambler's Fallacy

A fallacy that can impede a person's ability to make decisions based on accurate reasons.

Sunk Cost Fallacy

A cognitive bias that causes people to continue investing in something even when it's no longer beneficial.

Creativity

Ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

Convergent thinking

Narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution.

Divergent thinking

Expands the number of possible problem solutions.