Cognition, Memory, Perception, and Intelligence Vocabulary

Comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering terms, theories, and concepts in perception, memory, cognition, intelligence, and psychological testing.

Accommodation

Changing an existing schema or creating a new one to fit new information.

Achievement test

Assessment designed to measure what a person has already learned.

Algorithms

Step-by-step procedures that guarantee a solution when followed correctly.

Alzheimer's Disease

A progressive brain disease that causes worsening memory loss and cognitive decline.

Amnesia

Partial or complete loss of memory.

Anterograde amnesia

Inability to form new long-term explicit memories after an injury or event.

Apparent movement

Perceiving movement when there is no actual continuous movement, usually because still images or lights are presented rapidly in sequence.

Aptitude test

Assessment designed to estimate a person's potential to learn or perform in a particular area.

Assimilation

Interpreting new information by fitting it into an existing schema.

Attention

Focusing conscious awareness on specific information or stimuli.

Automatic Processing

Unconscious encoding of information without deliberate effort, such as familiar routines or spatial information.

Availability heuristic

Judging likelihood based on how easily examples come to mind.

Binocular depth cues

Depth cues that require both eyes to judge distance.

Bottom-up processing

Building perception from sensory information coming in from the environment.

Central executive

Directs attention and coordinates the activities of working memory.

Change blindness

Failing to notice a change in the environment.

Chunking

Organizing information into smaller, meaningful groups to make it easier to remember.

Closure

The tendency to fill in missing information to perceive a complete object.

Cocktail party effect

The ability to focus on one conversation among many, while still noticing personally important information such as your name.

Concepts

Mental categories used to group similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

Construct validity

Extent to which a test accurately measures the psychological concept it is intended to assess.

Constructive memory

Process of rebuilding memories using stored information, expectations, and experiences, sometimes creating errors.

Context-dependent memory

Improved recall when the external environment matches the environment where information was learned.

Convergence

The inward turning of the eyes when focusing on a nearby object; more turning indicates a closer object.

Convergent thinking

Narrowing possibilities to find one best solution.

Creativity

The ability to produce new and useful ideas or solutions.

Discrimination

Unfair treatment based on group membership that can limit educational opportunities and outcomes.

Distributed practice

Studying information in shorter sessions spread over time to improve retention.

Divergent thinking

Generating many possible solutions or ideas.

Echoic memory

Brief sensory memory of auditory information, lasting a few seconds.

Educational inequalities

Unequal access to educational resources, instruction, and opportunities that can influence academic performance.

Effortful Processing

Encoding information through conscious attention and deliberate effort, such as studying vocabulary.

Elaborative rehearsal

Connecting new information to existing knowledge or meaningful associations to improve long-term retention.

Encoding

The process of getting information into memory.

Encoding failure

Failure to store information because it was not sufficiently processed or attended to.

Episodic memory

Explicit memory of personally experienced events.

Executive functions

Higher-level mental skills used for planning, decision-making, attention, and self-control.

Explicit memory

Memories of facts and experiences that can be consciously recalled.

Factor analysis

Statistical method used to identify underlying factors that explain patterns of relationships among test scores.

Figure and ground

Organizing visual information into a main object and its background.

Fixed Mindset

The belief that abilities and intelligence are largely unchangeable.

Flynn Effect

Historical increase in average intelligence test scores across generations in many populations.

Forgetting Curve

Model showing how memory retention decreases over time, especially without review.

Framing

The way information is presented or worded influences decisions.

Functional fixedness

Difficulty seeing an object as having a use other than its usual purpose.

Gambler’s fallacy

The mistaken belief that past random events affect future random events.

General Intelligence

Spearman's idea that a single underlying mental ability contributes to performance across different intellectual tasks.

Gestalt psychology

The idea that we tend to perceive whole patterns or forms rather than separate parts.

Growth Mindset

Belief that abilities and intelligence can develop through effort, effective strategies, and learning.

Heuristics

Quick mental shortcuts used to make decisions or solve problems.

Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM)

A rare ability to recall an unusually large number of personal life events with exceptional detail.

Iconic memory

Brief sensory memory of visual information, lasting only a fraction of a second.

Imagination Inflation

Imagining an event increases the belief that the event actually occurred.

Implicit memory

Memory that influences behavior without conscious awareness.

Inadequate Retrieval

Difficulty accessing stored information because effective retrieval cues are unavailable.

Inattentional blindness

Failing to notice a visible object because attention is focused elsewhere.

Infantile amnesia

The inability to consciously recall most events from the first few years of life.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

Standardized score intended to represent performance on measures of cognitive ability relative to a reference group.

Interference

A theory of forgetting that happens when similar memories compete with each other, making it difficult to store new information or retrieve older information.

Interposition

When one object blocks another, the blocking object is perceived as closer.

IQ testing

Use of standardized assessments to measure specific cognitive abilities and overall intellectual functioning.

Level of processing model

Theory that deeper, more meaningful processing of information leads to better long-term retention.

Linear perspective

Parallel lines appear to come closer together as distance increases.

Long term memory

Relatively permanent storage of information, knowledge, and experiences with a large capacity.

Long term potentiation

A lasting strengthening of connections between neurons following repeated stimulation; a neural basis for learning and memory.

Maintenance Rehearsal

Repeating information to keep it in short-term memory and potentially help store it long-term.

Massed practice

Studying information in one long session, often called cramming.

Memory consolidation

Process of stabilizing and strengthening memories over time for long-term storage.

Mental age

Age level that corresponds to a person's performance on an intelligence test, based on historical norms.

Mental set

The tendency to approach a problem using a strategy that worked in the past.

Metacognition

Thinking about and monitoring one's own thinking, learning, and understanding.

Method of loci

A mnemonic technique that associates information with familiar physical locations to aid recall.

Misinformation Effect

Misleading information received after an event changes a person's memory of that event.

Mnemonic device

Memory strategies that use associations, patterns, or imagery to help remember information.

Monocular depth cues

Depth cues that can be perceived using just one eye.

Mood-Congruent Memory

Tendency to recall memories that match one's current emotional state.

Multi-store model

A model proposing that information moves through sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Multiple Intelligences

Gardner's theory that intelligence consists of several relatively independent abilities rather than one general ability.

Original IQ calculation

mental age / chronological age x 1--

Perceptual set

A mental tendency to perceive something in a particular way based on expectations or experience.

Phonemic encoding

Processing information based on how it sounds.

Phonological loop

Temporarily holds and rehearses verbal and auditory information.

Poverty

Limited economic resources that can affect access to educational opportunities and conditions supporting cognitive development.

Predictive validity

Extent to which test scores accurately predict future performance or outcomes.

Primacy effect

Better recall of items presented at the beginning of a list.

Priming

Exposure to one stimulus influences how you respond to a later stimulus.

Proactive interference

Old information makes it difficult to remember new information.

Procedural memory

Implicit memory for skills and how to perform actions, such as riding a bike.

Prospective memory

Remembering to perform an action in the future.

Prototypes

The best or most typical example of a category.

Proximity

The tendency to group nearby objects together.

Psychometrics

Characteristics.

Recall

Retrieving previously learned information without being given the answer.

Recency effect

Better recall of items presented at the end of a list.

Recognition

Identifying information that has been previously learned when it is presented.

Relative clarity

Clearer objects are perceived as closer, while hazier objects appear farther away.

Relative size

When two objects are assumed to be similar in size, the one producing the smaller retinal image appears farther away.

Reliability

Consistency of scores produced by a test or measurement.

Representativeness heuristic

Judging something based on how closely it matches a typical example or stereotype.

Repression

Proposed unconscious defense mechanism that keeps distressing memories or thoughts out of awareness.