Unit 2 Flashcards
Selective Attention
Book: Focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.
IMOW: Focusing on one thing while ignoring other things around you.
Inattentional Blindness
Book: Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.
IMOW: Not noticing something right in front of you because you’re focused on something else.
Change Blindness
Book: Failing to notice changes in the environment; a form of inattentional blindness.
IMOW: Failing to notice big changes in something when you’re distracted.
Perceptual Set
Book: A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.
IMOW: Expecting something to be a certain way, so you see it that way.
Gestalt
Book: An organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate.
IMOW: The idea that we see things as a whole shapes or patterns, not just parts.
Figure-Ground
Book: The organization of the visual field into the objects that stand out from their surroundings.
IMOW: The ability to focus on an object and separate it from the background.
Grouping
Book: The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups.
IMOW: Organizing objects or information into groups based on similarity.
Depth Perception
Book: The ability to see objects in three dimensions, although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance.
IMOW: The ability to see how far away things are.
Visual Cliff
Book: A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals.
IMOW: An experiment showing that babies can perceive depth and fear falling.
Binocular Cue
Book: A depth cue, such as retinal disparity, that depends on the use of two eyes.
IMOW: Clues about depth that involve both eyes working together.
Convergence
Book: A cue to nearby objects’ distance, enabled by the brain combining retinal images.
IMOW: The way our eyes turn inward to focus on objects that are close.
Retinal Disparity
Book: A binoculars cue for perceiving depth. By comparing retinal images from the two eyes, the brain computes distance - the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object.
IMOW: The difference in images seen by each eye that helps us judge distance.
Monocular Cue
Book: A depth cue, such as interposition or linear perspective, available to either eye alone.
IMOW: Clues about depth that can be seen with just one eye.
Stroboscopic Movement
Book: An illusion of continuous movement experienced when viewing a rapid series of slightly varying still images.
IMOW: Seeing motion when a series of still images are shown quickly.
Phi Phenomenon
Book: An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession.
IMOW: The illusion of movement when lights blink on and off in a sequence.
Autokinetic Effect
Book: The illusory movement of a still spot of light in a dark room.
IMOW: The illusion of a stationary light moving when you stare at it for long time.
Perceptual Constancy
Book: Perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change.
IMOW: Adjusting to changes in what you see, like when glasses distort vision.
Color Constancy
Book: Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object.
IMOW: Recognizing that the color of an object stays the same, even in different lighting.
Perceptual Adaptation
Book: The ability to adjust to changes sensory input, including an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field.
IMOW: Adjusting to changes in what you see, like when glasses distort vision.
Cognition
Book: All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
IMOW: The mental process of thinking, understanding and remembering.
Metacognition
Book: Cognition about our cognition; keeping track of and evaluating our mental processes.
IMOW: Thinking about your own thinking or being aware of how you learn.
Concept
Book: A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
IMOW: A mental category or idea that helps you group things together.
Prototype
Book: A mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method of sorting items into categories.
IMOW: The best example or typical member of a category.
Schema
Book: A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
IMOW: A mental framework or structure for understanding the world.
Assimilation
Book: Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.
IMOW: Adding new information into an existing schema.
Accommodation
Book: Adapting our current schemas to incorporate new information.
IMOW: Changing your schema to fit new information.
Creativity
Book: The ability to produce new and valuable ideas.
IMOW: Coming up with new and original ideas or solutions.
Convergent Thinking
Book: Narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution.
IMOW: Finding one correct solution to a problem.
Divergent Thinking
Book: Expanding the number of possible problem solutions; creative thinking that diverges in different directions.
IMOW: Thinking in many different ways to solve a problem.
Algorithm
Book: A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier - but also more error prone - use of heuristics
IMOW: A step-by-step process for solving a problem that guarantees the right answer.
Heuristic
Book: A simple thinking strategy - a mental shortcut - that often allows us to make judge, ends and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than an algorithm.
IMOW: A quick strategy or rule of thumb for solving problems, but not always accurate.
Insight
Book: A sudden realization of a problems solution; contrasts with strategy-based solutions.
IMOW: A sudden and clear understanding of a problem or solution.
Confirmation Bias
Book: A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.
IMOW: The tendency to look for information that supports your beliefs, ignoring information that contradicts them.
Fixation
Book: In cognition, the inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an obstacle to problem solving.
IMOW: Being stuck on one way of thinking about a problem.
Mental Set
Book: A tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.
IMOW: using the same approach to solve a problem bascule it worked before.
Intuition
Book: An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning.
IMOW: Understanding something without needing to think it through logically.
Representatives Heuristic
Book: Judging the likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information.
IMOW: Judging something based on how similar it is to a prototype or stereotype.
Availability Heuristic
Book: Judging the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; id instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are common.
IMOW: Judging how likely something is based on how easily examples come to mind.
Overconfidence
Book: The tendency to be more confident than correct - to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements.
IMOW: Believing you know more Regan you actually do.
Belief Perseverance
Book: The persistence of one’s initial conceptions even after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.
IMOW: Holding onto beliefs even when evidence shows they’re wrong.
Framing
Book: The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgements.
IMOW: The way information is presented, which can influence decisions and judgements.
Nudge
Book: Framing choices in a way that encourages people to make beneficial decisions.
IMOW: A subtle way of guiding people’s decisions without realizing it,
Memory
Book: The persistent of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information.
IMOW: The process of storing and recalling information.
Recall
Book: A measure of memory in which the person must receive information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test.
IMOW: Recalling information from memory without any hints.
Recognition
Book: A measure of memory in which the person identifies items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test.
IMOW: Identifying something you’ve seen before.
Relearning
Book: A measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material again.
IMOW: The process of learning something again that you’ve already learned.
Encoding
Book: The process of getting information into the memory system - for example, by extracting meaning.
IMOW: The process of process of putting information into your memory.
Storage
Book: The process of retaining encoded information over time.
IMOW: Keeping information in your memory over time.
Retrieval
Book: The process of getting information out of memory storage.
IMOW: Getting information back from your memory.
Parallel Processing
Book: Processing multiple aspects of a stimulus or problem simultaneously.
IMOW: The ability to process multiple pieces of information at the same time.
Sensory Memory
Book: The immediate very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system.
IMOW: A very brief memory of sensory information, like sights or sounds.
Short-Term Memory
Book: Briefly activated memory of a few items that is later stored or forgotten.
IMOW: A memory system that holds a small amount of information for a short time.
Long-Term Memory
Book: The relatively permanent and limitless archive of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.
IMOW: Memory that stores large amounts of information for a long time.
Working Memory
Book: A newer understanding of short-term memory; conscious, active processing of both incoming sensory information and information retrieved from long-term memory.
IMOW: The system that actively holds and manipulates information we need right now.
Central Executive
Book: A memory component that coordinates this activities of the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad.
IMOW: The parts of working memory that controls attention and organizes tasks.
Phonological Loop
Book: A memory component that briefly hold the auditory information.
IMOW: A part of working memory that deals with sounds and language.
Visuospatial Sketchpad
Book: A memory component that briefly holds information about objects’ appearance and location in space.
IMOW: A part of working memory that helps you work with images and space.
Neurogenesis
Book: The formation of new neurons.
IMOW: The process of creating new neurons.
Long-Term Potential LTP
Book: An increase in a nerve cell’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; a neural basis for learning and memory.
IMOW: The strengthening of connections between brain cells that makes learning easier.
Explicit Memory
Book: Retention of facts and experiences that we can consciously know and declare.
IMOW: Memory of facts and events that you can consciously recall.
Effortful Processing
Book: Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.
IMOW: Encoding that requires a lot of effort and attention.
Automatic Processing
Book: Unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of familiar or well-learned information, such as sounds, smells, and word meanings.
IMOW: Encoding that happens without conscious effort.
Implicit Memory
Book: Retention of learned skills or classically conditioned associations independent of conscious recollection.
IMOW: Unconscious memory, like how to ride a bike.
Iconic Memory
Book: A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second.
IMOW: A very brief memory of images.
Echoic memory
Book: A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds.
IMOW: A very brief memory of sounds or what you’ve heard.
Chunking
Book: Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically.
IMOW: Grouping new information into larger, more manageable units.
Mnemonics
Book: Memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery ad organizational devices.
IMOW: Memory aids, like acronyms or rhymes, to help remember things.
Spacing Effect
Book: The tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice.
IMOW: The idea that spreading out learning over time helps improve memory.
Test Effect
Book: Enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information.
IMOW: The idea that testing yourself improves memory more than just studying.
Shallow Processing
Book: Encoding on a basic level, based on the structure or appearance of words.
IMOW: Remembering something based in surface details, like its appearance.
Deep Processing
Book: Encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the word; tends to yield the best retention.
IMOW: Remembering something based on its meaning and understanding.
Semantic Memory
Book: Explicit memory of facts and general knowledge; one of our two concious memory systems.
Memory: Memory of facts and general knowledge.
Episodic Memory
Book: Explicit memory of personally experienced events; one of our two conscious memory systems.
IMOW: Memory of personal experiences and events.
Hippocampus
Book: A neural center located in the lambic system; helps process explicit memories - of facts and events - for storage.
IMOW: A brain part involved in forming new memories.
Memory Consolidation
Book: The neural storage of a long-term memory.
IMOW: The process of stabilizing and storing memories.
Flashbulb Memory
Book: A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.
IMOW: A vivid and detailed memory of a significant event.
Priming
Book: The activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory.
IMOW: The effect where exposure to one stimulus influences how you respond to another.
Encoding Specificity Principle
Book: The idea that cues and contexts specific to a particular memory will be most effective in helping us recall it.
IMOW: The idea that memories are easier to retrieve when the context is similar to when they were encoded.
Mood-Congruent Memory
Book: The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current good or bad mood.
IMOW: Remembering information that matches your current mood.
Serial Position Effect
Book: Our tendency to recall best the last items in a list initially, and the first items in a list after a delay.
IMOW: The tendency to remember the first and last items in a list better than the middle.
Interleaving
Book: A retrieval practice strategy that involves mixing the study of different topics.
IMOW: Mixing up different topics when studying to improve learning.
Anterograde Amnesia
Book: An inability to form new memories.
IMOW: A brain injury that stops the ability to make new memories.
Retrograde Amnesia
Book: An inability to remember information from one’s past.
IMOW: The inability to remember the past.
Proactive Interference
Book: The forward-acting disruptive effect of older learning on the recall of new information.
IMOW: When old memories make it harder to learn new information.
Retroactive Inerference
Book: The backward-acting disruptive effect of newer learning on the recall of old information.
IMOW: When new information makes it harder to remember old memories.
Repression
Book: In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banished from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories.
IMOW: The unconscious blocking of painful memories.
Reconsolidation
Book: A process in which previously stored memories, when retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again.
IMOW: The process of re-storing memories after retrieving them.
Misinformation Effect
Book: Occurs when a memory has been corrupted by misleading information.
IMOW: When false information leads to incorrect memories.
Source Amnesia
Book: Faulty memory for how, when, or where information was learned or imagined. It is at the heart of many false memories.
IMOW: Forgetting where a memory came from.
Deja Vu
Book: That eerie sense that “I’ve experienced this before.” Cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience.
IMOW: The feeling that you’ve experienced something before, even when it’s new.
General Intelligence
Book: According to Spearman and others, underlies all mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test.
IMOW: The idea that intelligence is a single, overall ability.
Factor Analysis
Book: A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person’s total score.
IMOW: A method of analyzing data to identify different factors of intelligence.
Fluid Intelligence (Gf)
Book: Our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease with age, especially during late adulthood.
IMOW: The ability to think quickly and solve new problems.
Crystallized Intelligence (Gc)
Book: Our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age.
IMOW: The knowledge and skills you gain over time.
Cattell-Horn-Carrol (CHC) Theory
Book: The theory that our intelligence is based on g as well as specific abilities, bridged by Gf and Gc.
IMOW: A theory that intelligence includes both general and specific abilities.
Savant Syndrome
Book: A condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing.
IMOW: A condition where a person with a developmental disorder has an exceptional ability in a specific area.
Grit
Book: In psychology, passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals.
IMOW: The passion and perseverance to achieve long-term goals.
Emotional Intelligence
Book: The ability you perceive, understand, manage and use emotions.
IMOW: The ability to understand and manage your own emotions and others’ emotions.
Intelligence Test
Book: A method for assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores.
IMOW: A test designed to measure a person’s mental abilities.
Achievement test
Book: A test designed to assess what a person has learned.
IMOW: A test that measures what you’ve learned.
Aptitude Test
Book: A test designed to predict a person’s future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn.
IMOW: A test that measures your potential to learn or do something in the future.
Mental Age
Book: A measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the level of performance typically associated with children of a certain chronological age. Thus, a child who does as well as an average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age of 8.
IMOW: The age at which a person performs mentally, based on an intelligence test.
Stanford-Binet
Book: The widely used American revision of Binet’s original intelligence test.
IMOW: An intelligence test developed by Terman based on Binet’s test.
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
Book: Defined originally as the ratio of mental age to chronological age multiplied by 100. On contemporary intelligence test, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100.
IMOW: A score derived from standardized tests meant to measure intelligence.
Wechlsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
Book: It is most widely used intelligence test; they contain verbal and performance subtests.
IMOW: A test that measures adult intelligence.
Psychometrics
Book: The scientific study of the measurement of human abilities, attitudes, and traits.
IMOW: The science of measuring mental abilities, traits, and attitudes.
Standardization
Book: Defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group.
IMOW: Ensuring that a test is given and scored the same way for everyone.
Normal Curve
Book: The bell shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes. Most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes.
IMOW: The bell-shaped curve that represents how most people score on intelligence tests.
Flynn Effect
Book: The rise in intelligence test performance over time and across cultures.
IMOW: The observation that intelligence scores have been rising over time.
Reliability
Book: The extent on which a test yield consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternative forms of the test, or on retesting.
IMOW: The consistency of a test’s results.
Validity
Book: The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to.
IMOW: How well a test measures when it’s supposed to measure.
Content Validity
Book: The extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest.
IMOW: The extent of which a test covers all aspects of the topic it’s mean to measure.
Construct Validity
Book: how much a test measures a concept or trait.
IMOW: How well a test measures the concept it’s intended to measure.
Predictive Validity
Book: 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 criterion behavior.
IMOW: How well a test predicts future performance.
Cross-Sectional Study
Book: Research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time.
IMOW: A study that compares different groups at one point in time.
Longitudinal Study
Book: Research that follows and retests the same people over time.
IMOW: A study that follows the same group over a long period of time.
Cohort
Book: A group of people sharing a common characteristic, such as being from a given time period.
IMOW: A group of people studied over time, often in a longitudinal study.
Growth Mindset
Book: A focus on learning and growing rather than viewing abilities as fixed.
IMOW: The belief tat abilities can improve with effort and learning.
Fixed Mindset
Book: The view that intelligence, abilities, and talents are unchangeable, even with effort.
IMOW: The belief that abilities are fixed and cant change much.
Stereotype Threat
Book: A self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype.
IMOW: The fear of confirming a negative stereotype about your group, which can affect performance.
Jean Piaget
Book: A developmental psychologist who studied the development of cognition in children, argued that our intellectual progression reflects an unceasing struggle to make sense of our experiences.
IMOW: A psychologist who studied how children’s thinking develops over time.
Robert Sternberg
Book: Him and his colleagues believe creativity has five components; Expertise, imaginative thinking skills, a venturesome personality, intrinsic motivation, and a creative Environment.
IMOW: A psychologist known for his theory of intelligence, including analytical, creative and practical types.
Executive Functions
Book: Cognitive skills that work together, enabling us to generate, organize, plan, and implement goal-directed behavior.
IMOW: mental skills that help you plan, focus, remember things, and manage time.
Wolfgang Kohler
BOOK: Showed that humans are not the only creatures to display insight. He placed a piece of fruit and a long stick outside the cage of a chimpanzee named Sultan, beyond his reach. Inside the cage, Köhler placed a short stick, which Sultan grabbed, using it to try to reach the fruit. After several failed attempts, the chimpanzee dropped the stick and seemed to survey the situation. Sultan jumped up and seized the short stick again. This time, he used it to pull in the longer stick which he then used to reach the fruit.
IMOW: A psychologist who studied insight and problem-solving in animals.
Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman
Book- Cognitive psychologists that showed some intuitive mental shortcuts - the representativeness and availability heuristics - can lead even the smartest people to make dumb decisions.
IMOW: Psychologists that studied decision-making and cognitive biases.
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Book: Pioneering memory researcher that showed relearning in the nineteenth century using nonsense syllables. He randomly selected a sample of syllables, practiced them, and tested himself. To get a feel for his experiments, rapidly read aloud, eight times over, the following list of syllables then he looked away and try to recall the items.
IMOW: A psychologist known for studying memory and the forgetting curve.
Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffron
Book: Proposed the three-stage multi-store model: We first record to-be-remembered information as a fleeting sensory memory. From there, we process information into short-term memory, where we encode it through rehearsal. Finally, information moves into long-term memory for later retrieval.
IMOW: Psychologists who helped develop the model of memory that includes sensory, short-term, and long-term memory.
Eric Kandel and james Schwartz
Book: Searched to understand the physical basis of memory and how it goes embedded in the brain matte. They got a California sea slug. cells. It learns to reflexively withdraw its gills when squirted with water, much as a soldier traumatized by combat might jump at the sound of a firecracker. The researchers discovered, the slug releases more of the neurotransmitter serotonin into certain neurons. These cells’ synapses then become more efficient at transmitting signals. Experience and learning can increase — even double — the number of synapses, even in slugs.
IMOW: Neuroscientists who helped develop studied how memories are formed in the brain.
George A. Miller
Book: Proposed that we can store about seven pieces of information (give or take two) in short-term memory. Miller’s magical number seven is psychology’s contribution to the list of magical sevens — the seven wonders of the world, the seven seas, the seven deadly sins, the seven colors of the rainbow, the seven-note musical scale, the seven days of the week — seven magical sevens.
IMOW: A psychologist known for his work on short-term Emory and the “magic number 7.”
Elizabeth Loftus
Book: Showed attendees a handful of individual faces to later identify, as if in a police lineup. She then showed pairs of faces one face seen earlier and one not and asked us to identify the one we had seen. But one pair she had slipped in included two new faces, one of which was rather like a face we had seen earlier. Most wrongly identified this face as one previously seen. She showed the originally seen face and the previously chosen wrong face, and asked to choose the original face we had seen. Again, most picked the wrong face. As a result of memory reconsolidation, they had replaced the original memory with a false
IMOW: A psychologist who studied how memories can be altered or distorted.
Intelligence
Book: The ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.
IMOW: The ability to learn, understand, and solve, problems.
Charles Spearman
Book: Believed humans have general intelligence.
IMOW: A scientist who believed intelligence is a general ability.
L.L. Thurstone
Book: Gave 56 different tests to people and mathematically identified seven clusters of primary mental abilities (word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial ability, perceptual speed, numerical ability, inductive reasoning, and memory). He didn’t rank people on a single scale of general aptitude, but when other investigators studied these profiles, they detected a persistent tendency: Those who excelled in one of the seven clusters generally scored well on the others. There was still some evidence of a g factor.
IMOW: A psychologist who proposed that intelligence is made up of several abilities.
Howard Gardner
Book: identified eight relatively independent intelligences, including the verbal and mathematical aptitudes assessed by standardized tests . Thus, the app developer, the poet, the street-smart adolescent, and the basketball team’s play-making point guard exhibit different kinds of intelligence (Gardner, 1998). Gardner (1999) has also proposed a ninth possible intelligence — existential intelligence — defined as the ability “to ponder large questions about life, death, existence.” Gardner’s notion of multiple intelligences continues to influence many educators’ belief that children have different “learning styles,” such as visual and auditory.
IMOW: A psychologist who proposed the theory of multiple intelligences.
Frances Galton and Charles Darwin
Book: Cousins that proposed the idea of natural ability and eugenics.
IMOW: Psychologists who studied the genetics of intelligence.
David Wechsler
Book: Created the most widely used individual intelligence test, the WAIS. The 2008 edition of the WAIS consists of 15 subtests, including: similarities, vocabulary, block design, and Letter-number sequencing.
IMOW: A psychologist who created intelligence tests like the WAIS.
Steven Pinker
Book: Argued for the evolutionary perspective - that biology affects gender-related differences in life priorities (women’s greater interest in people versus men’s emphasis on money), in risk taking (with men being more reckless), and in math reasoning and spatial abilities. Such differences are, he noted, observed across cultures, stable over time, influenced by prenatal hormones, and observed in genetic boys raised as girls. But social expectations and opportunities also construct gender by shaping interests and abilities
IMOW: A psychologist known for his wok on language and human behavior.
