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Perception is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, allowing us to understand and interact with the environment.
Bottom-up processing relies on prior knowledge and expectations to interpret sensory information.
Top-down processing relies on prior knowledge and expectations to interpret sensory information.
Schemas are cognitive frameworks based on past experiences that help organize new information.
Perceptual sets refer to a readiness to perceive stimuli in a particular way, influenced by expectations and context.
Context, personal experiences, and cultural background shape how we perceive objects and events.
Key Gestalt principles include figure-ground, proximity, similarity, continuity, closure, and simplicity. These principles help organize visual information into meaningful patterns.
Selective attention refers to the capacity to focus on specific stimuli while filtering out others; it is demonstrated in phenomena like the cocktail party effect.
Inattentional blindness occurs when one fails to notice visible but unexpected objects while focusing on something else.
Change blindness occurs when one fails to detect changes in the environment due to a lapse in attention.
Depth perception cues include binocular cues and monocular cues. Binocular cues require both eyes. Monocular cues use one eye.
Perceptual constancies allow objects to be recognized as stable in shape, size, color, and brightness despite changes in sensory input.
Cognition is the process of understanding, problem-solving, and decision-making.
Concepts are mental categories for grouping similar items.
Prototypes are the best example or “ideal” concept of a category.
Schemas are mental frameworks that organize knowledge and expectations.
Assimilation involves incorporating new information into existing schemas.
Accommodation involves modifying schemas when new information doesn’t fit.
Problem-solving strategies include trial and error, algorithms, heuristics, and insight.
Trial and error involves trying different solutions until one works.
Algorithms are step-by-step methods that guarantee a solution.
Heuristics are shortcuts or rules of thumb that may not guarantee solutions.
Insight refers to the sudden realization of a solution (the “aha” moment).
Common obstacles to problem-solving include functional fixedness, mental sets, and making assumptions.
Functional fixedness occurs when one sees objects only for their typical uses.
Mental set is the tendency to stick to familiar solutions even when they are ineffective.
Making assumptions involves incorrectly adding constraints to problems.
Decision-making biases include the framing effect, priming, confirmation bias, belief perseverance, the overconfidence bias, and the sunk-cost fallacy.
Framing effect occurs when people’s decisions are influenced by how information is presented.
Priming is when exposure to certain stimuli influences future choices unconsciously.
Confirmation bias is the tendency to favor information that supports existing beliefs.
Belief perseverance is the tendency to cling to beliefs even when they’re discredited.
Overconfidence is being too certain of one’s judgments or views.
Sunk-cost fallacy is the tendency to continue with a decision due to prior investment.
Heuristics in decision-making include the availability heuristic and representativeness heuristic.
Availability heuristic involves judging the probability of events based on how easily examples come to mind.
Representativeness heuristic is judging probabilities based on how well something matches an existing prototype.
Gambler’s fallacy is the mistaken belief that past random events affect future ones.
Executive functions are high-level processes that help people set goals, solve problems, and make decisions.
Critical thinking involves analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing information objectively.
Creativity relies on divergent thinking, which is thinking in various directions to find multiple solutions.
Convergent thinking involves narrowing down options to find a single correct answer.
The three processes involved in memory are encoding, storage, and retrieval.
Encoding is putting information into memory and includes structural, phonemic, and semantic encoding.
In storage, information is maintained in a three-stage process involving sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
Working memory is an active system that allows people to remember, manipulate, and store information.
Long-term memory is organized into categories as well as by familiarity, relevance, and relationship to other memories.
Retrieval is the process of getting information out of memory. Retrieval cues are stimuli that help get information out of memory.
Retrieval cues include associations, context, and mood.
Implicit memory is unconscious retaining of information, whereas explicit memory is conscious, intentional remembering.
Declarative memory is recall of factual information, whereas procedural memory is recall of how to do things.
Semantic memory is recall of general facts, while episodic memory is recall of personal facts.
Hermann Ebbinghaus was the first researcher to conduct scientific studies of forgetting. Using himself as a subject, he discovered that much information is forgotten within a few hours after learning it.
Retention is the proportion of learned information that is remembered.
Researchers use three methods to measure forgetting and retention: recall, recognition, and relearning.
Causes of forgetting include ineffective encoding, decay, interference, retrieval failure, and motivated forgetting.
Memory is enhanced by rehearsal, overlearning, distributed practice, minimizing interference, deep processing, organizing information, mnemonic devices, and visual imagery.
The hippocampus is involved in long-term memory. Memories may be stored in different areas of the brain. There may specific neural circuits for particular memories.
Memories are reconstructed in many ways after events happen, which makes them prone to distortion.
Memories can be distorted by schema, source amnesia, the misinformation effect, the hindsight bias, the overconfidence effect, and confabulation.
Intelligence is the capacity to acquire and apply knowledge.
Intelligence includes the ability to benefit from experience, act purposefully, solve problems, and adapt to new situations.
Charles Spearman proposed a general intelligence factor, g, that underlies all intelligent behavior.
Howard Gardner proposed that there are eight domains of intelligence.
Robert Sternberg distinguished among three aspects of intelligence.
Emotional intelligence helps people to perceive, express, understand, and regulate emotions.
The most commonly used individual tests of intelligence are the Binet-Simon scale, the Stanford-Binet Scale, and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale.
The Binet-Simon scale yielded scores in terms of mental age.
The original Stanford-Binet test yielded scores in terms of intelligence quotient, or IQ.
The Wechsler test yields scores based on a normal distribution.
Although the term IQ is still used, current intelligence tests present scores based on a normal distribution.
Group intelligence tests are often used in educational settings.
Some researchers have suggested that there are biological indices of intelligence, such as reaction time and perceptual speed.
Many psychologists believe that cultural bias affects intelligence tests.
Some characteristics of IQ tests are standardization, norms, percentile scores, standardization samples, reliability, and validity.
There is dispute about how and how much heredity and environment affect intelligence.
Evidence for hereditary influences come from family studies, twin studies, and adoption studies.
Heritability estimates for intelligence vary depending on the method used for estimation.
Evidence for environmental influences comes from adoption studies, studies of environmental deprivation, and the Flynn effect.
There is probably a reaction range for IQ. Reaction range refers to limits set on IQ by heredity. Environment determines where IQ will lie within these limits.
There is a discrepancy in IQ scores between whites and some minority groups. There are both hereditary and environmental explanations for this discrepancy. The higher IQ test scores and better school performance of Asian Americans may be due to cultural factors.
