AP Psych U2: Cognition

Perception: The process by which individuals interpret and organize sensory information to understand their environment. It involves recognizing, organizing, and making sense of sensory input.

Cognition: The mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge and understanding.

Information is processed in stages – Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval

Encoding: Transforming sensory input into a form that can be stored,

which is crucial for effective decision-making.

Storage: Maintaining information over time to ensure that it is

accessible for future judgments.

Retrieval: Accessing stored information when needed aids in resolving

problems and making decisions based on past experiences.

Sensory Memory: Brief storage of sensory information helps in quick evaluations.

Short-term Memory: Limited capacity for holding and manipulating information aids in immediate problem-solving.

Long-term Memory: Permanent storage of knowledge informs decisions and

judgments based on previous learning.

Working Memory: A crucial tool that allows individuals to hold and manipulate information temporarily, aiding in problem-solving by maintaining essential data at hand.

Confirmation Bias: A tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information that confirms existing preconceptions can lead to flawed judgments.

Heuristics: Mental shortcuts or rules of thumb used to make decisions can streamline the process but may also lead to misconceptions or errors.

Memory storage: The second stage in the Information Processing Model, where encoded information is maintained over time.

Schema: Mental frameworks for organizing information.

Functional Fixedness: The inability to see an object as having a function other than its usual one.

Bottom-up processing: analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information

Top-down processing: information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectation

Gestalt psychology: a psychological approach that emphasizes that we often perceive the whole rather than the sum of the parts

Closure: the tendency to complete figures that are incomplete

proximity: the way relationships are formed between things close to one another

similarity: the tendency to perceive things that look similar to each other as being part of the same group

binocular depth cues: clues about distance based on the differing views of the two eyes

retinal disparity: a binocular cue for perceiving depth by comparing images from the retinas in the two eyes, the brain computes distance—the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object.

algorithms: very specific, step-by-step procedures for solving certain types of problems

availability heuristic: estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common

representativeness heuristic: a mental shortcut whereby people classify something according to how similar it is to a typical case

sunk-cost fallacy: people make decisions about a current situation based on what they have previously invested in the situation

divergent thinking: expands the number of possible problem solutions

convergent thinking: narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution

Method of loci: A mnemonic technique that involves associating items on a list with a sequence of familiar physical locations

Chunking: organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

Categories: clusters of interrelated concepts

Memory consolidation: the gradual, physical process of converting new long-term memories to stable, enduring memory codes

Serial position effect: our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list

Intelligence: mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

g (general intelligence): hypothetical factor that accounts for overall differences in intellect among people

IQ: Intellignce Quotient… mental age/chrnological age x 100

Mental age: a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance

Chronological age: Age as measured in years from date of birth

Standardization: defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group

Validity: the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to

Construct validity: The extent to which there is evidence that a test measures a particular hypothetical construct.

Predictive validity: The success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior.

Reliability: the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternate forms of the test, or on retesting

Flynn effect: The rise in average IQ scores that has occurred over the decades in many nations

Achievement tests: tests designed to assess what a person has learned.

Aptitude tests: tests designed to predict a person's future performance; or the capacity to learn

Fixed mindset: the idea that we have a set amount of an ability that cannot change

Growth Mindset: The idea that our abilities are malleable qualities that we can cultivate and grow