Cognitive Science Flashcards
Accommodation
a principle of piaget’s theory of cognitive development. it occurs when cognitive structures are modified because new info or new experiences do not fit into existing cognitive structures
Afterimage
a visual sensation that appears after prolonged or intense exposure to a simulus
Agnosia
impairments in perceptual recognition
Analogy of inoculation
mcguire’s analogy that people can be psychologically inoculated against the “attack” of persuasive communications by first exposing them to a weakened attack
anterograde amnesia
memory loss for new info following brain injury
Apparent motion
an illusion that occurs when two dots flashed in different locations on a screen seconds apart are perceived as one moving dot
assimilation
a principle of piaget’s theory of cognitive development. it is the process of understanding new info in relation to prior knowledge, or existing schemata
Atkinson-Shiffin Model
a model of memory that involves three memory structures (sensory, short-term, long-term) and the processes that operate these memory structures
Autokinetic effect
an illusion that occurs when a spot of light appears to move erractically in a dark room, simply because there is no frame of reference
availability heuristic
a decision-making shortcut that people tend to use when trying to decide how likely something is based on how easily similar instances can be imagined
Binocular disparity (stereopsis)
a cue for depth perception that depends on the fact that the distance between the eyes provides two slightly disparate views of the world that, when combined, give us a perception of depth
Boomerang Effect
in theories of attitude persuasion, it is an attitude change in the opposite direction of the persuader’s message
Bottom-up processing (data-driven processing)
info processing that occurs when objects are recognized by the summation of the components of incoming stimulus to arrive at the whole pattern
Brightness contrast
in brightness perception, it refers to when a particular luminance appears brighter when surrounded by a darker stimulus than when surrounded by a lighter stimulus
Classical Conditioning
also known as respondent conditioning, it is a result of learning connections between diff events
Clustering
a technique to enhance memory by organizing items into conceptually related categories
cognitive dissonance theory
leon festinger’s consistency theory that people are motivated to reduce dissonant elements or add consonant elements to reduce tension
cognitive map
a mental representation of a physical space
Color constancy
refers to the fact that the perceived color of an object does not change when we change the wavelength of the light we see
conditioned response
in classical conditioning, it is the learned response to a conditioned stimulus
conditioned stimulus
in classical conditioning, it is a neutral stimulus that has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response
connectionism
also called parallel distribution processing, it is a theory of info processing that is analogous to a complex neural network
crystallized intelligence
proposed by raymond cattell, it is a type of intell that uses knowledge acquired as a result of schooling or other life experiences
decay theory
a theory that holds that if the info in long-term memory is not used or rehearsed, it will eventually be forgotten
declarative memory
sometimes called fact memory, it is memory for explicit info
dissonance theory
the tendency to change thoughts or behavior in response to perceived inconsistencies
echoic memory
auditory memory
eidetic memory
memory for images
elaborative rehearsal
the process of organizing info and associating it with what you already know to get info into long-term memory
Emmert’s law
a law describing the relationship between size constancy and apparent distance–the farther away the object appears to be, the more the scaling device in the brain will compensate for its retinal size by enlarging our perception of the object
episodic memory
a type of declarative memory, episodic memory refers to memories for particular events, or episodes, from personal experience
extinction
in operant conditioning, it is when a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly not reinforced and as a result, the conditioned response is no longer produced as consistently
extrinsic motivation
behavior that is motivated by some external reward
fixed action pattern
a behavior that is relatively stereotyped and appears to be species-specific
fluid intelligence
proposed by raymond cattell, it is a type of intelligence that has the ability to quickly grasp relationships in novel situations and make correct deductions from them
Generation-recognition model
model that proposes that recall tasks tap the same basic process of accessing information in memory as recognition tasks, but also require an additional processing step
ground
a concept in visual perception that refers to the background against which the figures appear
iconic memory
visual memory
induced motion
an illusion of movement occurring when everything around the spot of light is moved
intrinsic motivation
motivation by some reward that is inherent to the task
isomorphism
a theory that suggests there is a one-to-one correspondence between the object in the perceptual field and the pattern of stimulation in the brain
language acquisition device (LAD)
proposed by noam chomsky, this is innate, biologically based mechanism that helps us understand rule structures in language
law of closure
from gestalt psychology, it is the tendency for people to perceive complete figures even when the actual figures are not complete
law of effect
proposed by E.L. Thorndike, the law holds that if a response is followed by an annoying consequence, the animal will be less likely to emit the same response in the future
law of good continuation
from gestalt continuation psychology, it is the tendency for elements appearing to follow in the same direction (such as a straight line or a simple curve) to be grouped together
law of proximity
from gestalt psychology, it is the tendency for similar objects to be grouped together
levels of processing theory (depth of processing theory)
proposed by craik and lockart, the theory suggests that there is only one memory system, and that items entering the memory are analyzed in one of three stages: physical (visual), acoustical (sound), or semantic (meaning)
lightness constancy
refers to the fact that, despite changes in the amount of light falling on an object (illumination), the apparent lightness of the object remains unchanged
linear perspective
a cue for depth perception that refers to the perception of parallel lines converging in the distance
long-term memory
the memory system that holds a permanent sore of information
maintenance rehearsal
the process of rehearsing info so that items remain in short-term memory for a longer duration than usual
metacognition
the ability to think about and monitor cognition
metamemory
the ability to think about and monitor memory
motion parallax
a cue for depth perception that occurs during movement when objects that are closer appear to move
negative reinforcement
the probability that the desired response will be performed is increased by removing something undesirable whenever the desired response is made
operant conditioning
instrumental conditioning, reward learning, is based on learning the relationship between one’s actions and their consequences
opponent process theory of color vision
ewald hering’s theory that there are four primary colors in additive color mixing (red, blue, green and yellow) and that the primary colors are arranged in opposing pairs
paivio’s dual code hypothesis
according to this theory, info can be stored or encoded in two ways: visually and verbally. abstract info tends to be encoded verbally, whereas concrete info tends to be encoded visually and verbally
positive reinforcement
increasing the probability that a desired response will be performed by reinforcing that response when it does occur
procedural memory
memory for how things are done
relative size
a cue for depth perception that occurs when as an object gets farther away and its image on the retina gets smaller. people can tell how far away something is relative to another object by comparing the size of the images on the retina with what is known about actual sizes
semantic memory
a type of declarative memory, semantic memory has to do with remembering general knowledge, especially the meanings of words and concepts
sensory memory
part of the stage theory of memory that contains the fleeting impressions of sensory stimuli
short-term memory
a memory system that has a limited capacity and a relatively short duration
size constancy
when an object appears to retain its size despite the fact that its image on the retina has changed its size
theory of multiple intelligences
howard gardner’s theory that there are seven intelligence factors: linguistic ability, logical-mathematical, spatial ability, musical ability, bodily ability, interpersonal ability, interpersonal ability
top-down processing
from object recognition theory, it refers to when people recognize objects by using conceptual processes such as memories and expectations about the whole object
triarchic theory
robert sternberg’s theory of intelligence that suggests that there are three aspects to intelligence: componential (performance on tests), experiential (creativity), and contextual (street smarts)
unconditioned response
in classical conditioning, it is a response that occurs w/o any behavioral conditioning–reflex
unconditioned stimulus
in classical conditioning, it is a stimulus that elicits an unconditioned response, without any behavioral conditioning
