Vocab Terms
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
Cognition
When you look at a desk, you see it as a desk rather than a seat, legs, and top. What does this show?
Gestalt
After spending several hours without eating, Lauren walks through the school cafeteria and notices the smell of pizza almost immediately. Her friend, who just finished eating lunch, barely notices the smell. Is this context, emotion, or motivation?
Motivation
our ability to produce new and valuable insights
Creativity
expanding the number of possible problem solutions; creative thinking that diverges in different directions
What type of thinking is this?
Divergent Thinking
failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere and/or failing to notice changes in the environment
Inattentional Blindness and/or Change Blindness
In class, you think you can answer a text message while still listening to your teacher's lecture. In reality, your brain can only put conscious awareness towards one thing at a time. This concept shows which psycological concept?
Selective Attention
Rachel receives an unexpected text from her best friend that says, “We need to talk.” Emma is already upset after having a difficult day, so she interprets the message as a sign that her friend is angry with her. Later, she learns that her friend simply wanted to tell her some exciting news. Is this an example of context, emotion, or motivation?
Emotion - Rachel is being driven by her emotions from earlier in the day, so she percieves the text as negative.
a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people
Concept
cognitive skills that work together, enabling us to generate, organize, plan, and implement goal-directed behavior
Executive Functions
a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another
Perceptual Set
When you are riding in the car, you fix your eyes on an object. The objects beyond the fixation point appear to move with you, and objects in front of the fixation point appear to move backwards. What is this concept called?
Relative Motion
A student sees the word “B _ N K” on a page. When the word appears next to pictures of money, the student is more likely to perceive the missing letter as A and read “BANK.” When it appears next to pictures of a river, the student is more likely to perceive it as I and read “BINK.” Is this context, emotion, or motivation?
Context - The image next to the word gives the students a perception based on what is being shown
a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
Schema
the sudden realization of the solution to a problem
Insight
our inability to see a problem from a new perspective
Fixation
During a crowded school dance, several students are talking loudly around Jenna. Even though she is focused on a conversation with her friend, she suddenly notices someone across the room say her name. She immediately turns toward the speaker. What concept best explains Jenna’s ability to notice her name despite the surrounding noise?
The Cocktail Party Effect
Two students are waiting for their teacher to return their test grades. One student is hoping for an A, while the other expects to have failed. When the teacher walks into the room, both students interpret the teacher's neutral facial expression differently. Is this context, emotion, or motivation?
Motivation - The students have specific goals and expectations, so the teacher's facial expression connects to the student's motives about their test.
interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas
Assimilation
estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory
Availability Heuristic
a metal image of the best example of a category
Prototype
While walking through the school library, Simone notices a quiet student wearing glasses and reading a physics textbook. She assumes the student is a physics major because the student matches her mental image of what a physics major “looks like,” even though she has no other information about the student. What concept does this show?
Representativeness Heuristic
While walking into a dark room, Maria sees a shadowy shape in the corner. Because she had just been told that someone had seen a person hiding in the building, she initially perceives the shape as a person. When she turns on the light, she realizes it is a coat hanging on a chair. Is this context, emotion, or motivation?
Context - Maria has context to what the dark shape could be, so she perceives it as a person
adapting our current schemas to incorporate new information
Accommodation
a methodical, logical, rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem
Algorithm