Cognition Flashcards
Internal factors (Perception)
Attention, expectations, and emotions can influence how we perceive based on past experiences.
Ex - Someone afraid of dogs may see a friendly dog as a threat.
External Factors (Perception)
External factors like recognizing a traffic sign, involve processing sensory input to form immediate perceptions.
Cocktail Party Effect
Refers to our ability to selectively attend to a single conversation in a noisy environment, like a crowded party, even with multiple conversations happening simultaneously.
Principle of Figure-Ground
Refers to how people segment visuals into two components: figure and ground. The figure is the object or person that is the focus and the ground is the background. This results in the interpretation of different images.
Ex - 2 face one vase
Principle of Proximity
Suggests that we tend to see closed-set objects as being in a group.
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Principle of Similarity
Theorizes that we mentally group objects that look alike.
Ex - You see alternating rows rather than a block of symbols.
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Principle of Continuity
We perceive objects arranged in continuous lines or curves as more related than elements on a jagged or broken line.
Ex - Seeing two overlapping lines, not four meeting in the middle in the letter X.
Principle of Closure
States that even if an image is missing parts, your brain will fill in the blanks and perceive a complete image.
Principle of Connectedness
Proposes that visually-connected objects are more related than objects with no connection.
Ex - We see square-circle pairs as more strongly related because the line visually connects them.
Selective Attention
The cognitive process by which our awareness focuses on a specific aspect of our environment, like a spotlight.
Inattentional Blindness
It can significantly impact our perceptions by causing a type of “blindness” to certain aspects of our environment.
Change Blindness
A common occurrence stemming from inattention, where changes in the environment go unnoticed. When our attention is focused elsewhere, we may experience inattentional blindness, leading us to overlook visible objects.
Depth Perception
Our ability to see objects in three dimensions (Images are 2-d when they strike the retina). Helps judge distances and is crucial for out survival skills, like avoid falling off a cliff.
Binocular cues
Allows to see depth by using both eyes.
Retinal (Binocular) Disparity
States that our brain receives two different images since our two eyes are a few inches apart. When the two images are quite different, we see them as being close to us, and the opposite for two same images.
Convergence
It states that as an object gets closer to us, we must strain our eyes to stay focused on it. So, the more significant the muscle strain, the closer the object is to us.
Monocular Cues
Depth cues that depend on one eye.
Relative Clarity
Objects that appear clearer and more detailed are perceived as being closer, while blurry images are seen further away.
Interposition
If overlap or one image blocks another, it is perceived as closer.
Relative Size
if we know that two images are around the same size, the smaller one is perceived as further away.
Texture Gradient
As texture extends into the background, it becomes hazy or less clearly defined.
Relative Height
Objects higher in our visual field are perceived as further away.
Relative Motion (Motion Parallax)
Closer objects appear to move more quickly.
Linear Perspective
Parallel lines converge with distance into a vanishing point.
Stroboscopic Movement
When we view a film, our brain seamlessly combines a rapid succession of slightly different images into continuous movement, rather than perceiving individual frames.
Phi Phenomenon
When two stationary lights flicker rapidly, our brain merges them into a single light moving back and forth.
Ex - observing a series of synchronized fireworks in the night sky that create the illusion of a dancing dragon
Autokinetic Effect
Highlights how fixating on a stationary light in a dark room can cause it to seem in motion due to our natural eye movements.
Perceptual Constancy
It involves recognizing objects without being deceived by changes in their color, brightness, shape, or size, regardless of the viewing angle, distance, making it possible to make quick and accurate judgments.
Color Constancy
Where we perceive familiar objects as having consistent color regardless of changes in illumination that may alter the wave-lengths reflected by the object.
Ex - We see a ripe banana as yellow whether it is under bright sunlight or artificial indoor lighting.
Brightness Constancy (Lightness Constancy)
Allows us to perceive an object as having constant brightness even as the lighting conditions around it change.
Ex - We can recognize a white shirt as white whether it is in dim lighting or bright daylight.
Shape Constancy
Allows us to see familiar objects as having a constant shape, regardless of how the images on our retinas change.
Ex - Even as we view a book from different angles, we still recognize it as a rectangular object.
Size Constancy
Enables us to perceive an object as maintaining a constant shape, regardless of our distance from it.
Perceptual Adaptation
Involves adjusting to changes in sensory input.
Ex - Imagine wearing glasses that flip everything you see upside down. Initially the world around you would appear completely disorienting, but over time, your brain would adapt to the new visual world.
Metacognition
It goes beyond simple cognition and involves thinking about our thinking process.
Ex - Reflecting on study sessions.
Prototypes
These are mental representations of the typical characteristics of a particular category.
Ex - when we think of a “bird”, our prototype might be a sparrow.
Schemas
As we grow and learn, our brains create mental frameworks or concepts to make sense of the world around is.
Imagine a child who has a schema for a dog. Initially they might think that all four-legged animals are dogs. As they encounter new animals like cats or cows, they adjust their schema.
Assimilation
Fitting new info into existing schemas.
Accommodation
Modifying existing schemas to incorporate new info.
Convergent Thinking
Essential in assessments like the SAT, requiring individuals to provide a single correct answer.
Divergent Thinking
Emphasizes creativity tests, which involves considering multiple possibilities and thinking unconventionally.
Functional Fixedness
A cognitive bias that limits a person’s ability to use an object in a new or innovative way.
Venturesome Personality
Characterized by a willingness to take risks, try new experiences, and persist in overcoming obstacles.
Intrinsic Motivation
The drive to engage in an activity for its own sake because it’s interesting or enjoyable, rather than for external rewards.
Executive Functions
Guide us through our daily tasks and helping us make decisions.
Strong executive functions allow us to prioritize our time effectively, set goals, manage our schedules, and resist distractions.
Algorithms
Systematic procedures that guarantee a solution when followed correctly.
Trial and Error
Solutions are discovered by trying different approaches until one works.
Heuristics
Mental shortcuts or simplified strategies that enable us to make quick decisions and solve problems effectively.
Insight
A problem solving strategy that involves sudden realization or understanding of a solution without conscious thought.
Confirmation Bias
When individuals tend to seek out information that confirms their existing beliefs rather than considering evidence that contradicts them.
Mental Set
Causes individuals to rely on strategies that have been successful in the past, even if they are bot suitable for the current problem at hand.
Gambler’s Fallacy
Occurs when someone believes past outcome influence future probabilities, leading to risky decision making.
Ex - “Third time is the charm”
Sunk-Cost Fallacy
Involves sticking to a course of action because of the investments made, even if it no longer serves the best interests.
Intuition
Refers to understanding or knowing something immediately without conscious reasoning.
Availability Heuristics
Occurs when we base our judgement on how easily we can bring instances to mind.
Representativeness Heuristic
Involves categorizing things based on their similarity to a typical case.
Overconfidence
The tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our knowledge and judgements.
Planning Fallacy
When we underestimate the time needed to complete a task and end up running late or missing deadlines.
Belief Perservance
Our natural inclination to maintain our beliefs even when faced with contradicting evidence.
Framing
Refers to how we present info, impacting how we interpret and respond to it.
Explicit Memory
The conscious recollection of info that can be easily articulated, such as facts or events.
Implicit Memory
Involves the unconscious retention of skills, habits, or experiences, influencing our behavior without conscious awareness.
Prospective Memory
Involves remembering to perform tasks or actions in the future, like remembering to attend a scheduled meeting or complete a hw assignment.
Encoding
Involves transforming info into a format suitable for storage.
Storage
Information moved to storage phase where it is retained for future retrieval.
Retrieval
The process of accessing stored information when needed, bringing it back to conscious awareness.
Structural Encoding
Involves the physical appearance of a stimulus.
Phonemic Encoding
Delves into the sound of words or stimuli.
Semantic Encoding
Focuses on the meaning and relevance of information.
Three-Stage Multi-Store Model
Depicted memory processing through the stages of sensory memory, short-term memory, and a long-term memory.
Maintenance Rehearsal (Baddley’s Model)
Which involves repeating information over time.
Elaborative Rehearsal
Focuses on associating new information with existing knowledge.
Neurogenesis
Our flexible brains are constantly adapting and evolving, with neural interconnections forming, strengthening, and even the formation of new neurons through neurogenesis.
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)
Experiments involving the rapid stimulation of certain memory circuit connections have shown that there is an increase in sensitivity that can last for hours or even weeks. This heightened efficiency in neural firing is LTP.
Explicit (Declarative) Memories
The facts and experiences that we continuously know and can declare, such as recalling historical dates or reciting a poem from memory.
Implicit (Non-Declarative) Memories
Memories which are formed through automatic processing without our awareness like riding a bike.
Effortful Processing
A type of encoding that requires conscious attention and effort to process information into memory.
Sensory Memory
An initial stage for capturing fleeting sensory impressions before they transfer to working memory.
Iconic Memory
Captures visual stimuli for a split second, similar to when you glance at a photograph.
Echoic Memory
Holds auditory information for 3-4 seconds and allows you to recall the sound of someone’s name even if your attention is elsewhere.
Chunking
Involves grouping information into familiar or manageable units.
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Mnemonics
Memory aids that leverage vivid imagery and organizational devices to facilitate the recall of new information, such as using acronyms or visualization techniques.
Hierarchies
Where information is structured into a few broad categories that are further divided and subdivided into narrower concepts and facts.
Spacing Effect
Distributing study sessions results in better retention of information.
Testing Effect
Form of repeated self-testing.
Shallow Processing
Encoding based on the structure or appearance of words.
Ex - Recognizing “DOG” since it’s in caps.
Deep Processing
Encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the words; tends to yield the best retention.
Ex - Understanding and relating it to similar concepts.
Social Position Effect
This effect states that, information presented at the beginning of a list tends to be more memorable (primary effect), as does information presented at the end of a list (recency effect).
Method of Loci
Involves mentally associating pieces of information with specific places or location familiar to us. (Memory Palace)
Retrieval Cues
Help us remember information. They can be prompts clues, or hints that help recall stored memories.
Autobiographical Memory
Part of our memory that stores information related to our own experiences and personal identity.
Retrograde (Amnesia)
Difficulty recalling memories.
Anterograde (Amnesia)
Difficulty in forming new memories.
Alzheimer’s Disease
A progressive neurological disorder, can also impact memory storage by affecting cognitive functions.
Infantile Amnesia
The ability to recall cognitive functions.
Priming
The activation of specific associations in our memory, often without conscious awareness.
Context-Dependent Memory
When we learn new info, our brain makes connections not only to the info itself but also to the context in which it was learned.
Ex - If you studied with in the library, then by returning to that same environment you could recall info better.
State-Dependent Memory
When our memory recall is influenced by external cues or the state we were in when we learned the info.
Ex - Recreating environment during tests to better recall info.
Mood-Congruent Memory
A phenomenon that reflects memory-state dependence, where in emotions experienced during the past events serve as retrieval cues.
Interleaving
A learning technique that involves mixing different topics or types of problems within a single study session, rather than focusing on just one type.
Encoding Failure
Occurs due to the inability to encode the information into long term memory in the first place.
Divided Attention (Absent-mindedness)
If you are not paying attention to info as it is being presented, you will likely forget it.
Decay Theory (Storage Decay)
States that we forget memories because we do not use them, and they fade away over time.
Retrieval Failure
Happens when you cannot access a previously encoded and stored memory. Forgetting is caused by one memory competing with or being replaced by another.
Proactive Interface
The disruption of prior learning on the recall of added info.
Retroactive Interference
The disruption of new learning on the recall of old information.
Tip-of-the-Tounge Phenomenon
Occurs when you know that you know a piece of info, but you just can’t seem to recall it at the moment.
Repression
Our memory systems actively censor certain info to shield our self-image, also known as ego, from painful or unacceptable memories. Helps minimize anxiety etc.
Misinformation Effect
Occurs when a memory becomes distorted or altered by misleading info.
Source Amnesia
Where we misattribute the origin of a memory, leading to faulty recollection of how or where the info was learned.
Deja Vu
Arises when an individual senses that the current situation has been previously encountered.
Memory Consolidation
The process by which the brain transforms short-term memories into stable long-term memories.
Imagination Inflation
Occurs when imagining an event that never actually happened can lead to the individual believing it did, blurring out the lines between real and false memories.
General Intelligence (g)
Charles Spearman proposed that all cognitive abilities are interconnected and stem from this single underlying factor. He believed individuals’ performance in one location indicates their overall intelligence level.
Fluid Intelligence (Cattle-Horn-Carroll Intelligence Theory)
Refers to the ability to think quickly and abstractly when tackling logic puzzles and problems.
Crystallized Intelligence (Cattle-Horn-Carroll Intelligence Theory)
Reflects our accumulated knowledge, vocab, and skills that we have gained over time.
Gardener’s Multiple Intelligences
Proposes that individuals possess different types of intelligence beyond academic abilities measured by IQ tests
1) Logical-Mathematical
2) Linguistic
3) Musical
4) Spatial
5) Bodily-Kinesthetic
6) Interpersonal
7) Intrapersonal
8) Naturalistic
9) Existential ?
Savant Syndrome
Characterized by exceptional abilities in a specific areas, but poor in others.
Sternberg’s Intelligence (Analytical)
Problem solving and critical thinking skills.
Sternberg’s Intelligence (Creative)
Related to innovation and thinking outside the box.
Sternberg’s Intelligence (Practical)
Applying knowledge to real-life situations.
Emotional Intelligence
Involves understanding and managing emotions.
1) Perceiving
2) Understanding
3) Managing
4) Using effectively
Achievement Tests
Measure what you have learned. (Ap exams)
Aptitude Tests
Measure a person’s potential or capacity to benefit from education or training.
Lewis Terman’s Stanford-Binet Intelligence
Emphasized the measurement of innate intelligence and introduced the IQ score to identify gifted people.
Standardized Tests
This means that if the test is given to many subjects, it must first be piloted with a smaller but representative subgroup under the same conditions.
Extreme (IQ test)
Low: Test score 70 or below.
High: Test score 135 or above.
Reliability (Tests)
Refers the the ability of a good test to consistently produce similar scores on separate occasions.
Validity (Tests)
In a test means that the test has achieved measuring what it is supposed to measure
Evolutionary Perspectives
Suggest that differences in societies where girls excel in spelling, vocab, reading, and object location tasks, may have developed due to the differing roles in historically assigned to men and women, while social expectations and opportunities shape and reinforce these gender distinctions.
Stereotype Lift
An increase in a group’s test performance due to not being part of a negative stereotype.
Ex - Men might perform better at math tests if they are primed on the stereotype that men are better than women at math.
