Sensation and Perception
The process of converting physical stimulus energy (like light or sound waves) into neural impulses.
What is transduction?
A form of learning in which behaviour is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer and weakened if followed by a punisher.
What is operant conditioning?
The mental processes involved in acquiring, organising, remembering and using knowledge—essentially “thinking.”
What is cognition?
The three basic functions of memory: getting information in, maintaining it over time, and getting it back out when needed.
What are encoding, storage, and retrieval?
When you study for an exam by spacing your review sessions over several days instead of cramming the night before, you’re using this memory principle.
What is the spacing effect?
The minimum amount of stimulus energy that must be present for a stimulus to be detected about 50 % of the time.
What is the absolute threshold?
The process in classical conditioning when the conditioned response decreases and eventually disappears because the unconditioned stimulus no longer follows the conditioned stimulus.
What is extinction?
The theory proposed by Howard Gardner that suggests there are multiple types of intelligence (e.g., linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, interpersonal).
What is the multiple intelligences theory?
The model (often called the three-box model) that proposes information flows from sensory memory → short‐term memory → long‐term memory.
What is the Atkinson-Shiffrin model of memory?
You get a text notification “ding,” and automatically reach for your phone—an example of this type of conditioning used in app design.
What is classical conditioning?
A set of principles that describe how we tend to organise visual elements into a whole rather than just as separate parts (for example, figure-ground, closure).
What are the Gestalt principles of perception?
A neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus by being paired repeatedly with an unconditioned stimulus, causing a conditioned response. This was famously demonstrated by Pavlov’s dogs.
What is classical conditioning?
The test developed by David Wechsler still widely used today for measuring adult intelligence (WAIS) and children’s intelligence (WISC).
What is the Wechsler Intelligence Scale?
The brain structure crucial for encoding new explicit (declarative) memories—damage to this structure often causes inability to form new long-term memories.
What is the hippocampus?
Rewarding yourself with a coffee after finishing a chapter of homework is an everyday example of this learning concept.
What is positive reinforcement?
In hearing, the structure filled with fluid and hair‐cells that responds to vibrations and sends auditory information to the brain.
What is the cochlea?
Learning by watching the behavior of others and then imitating or modeling what is seen.
What is observational learning (or modeling)?
The cognitive obstacle where you only see things in terms of their usual functions, limiting creativity—for example, seeing a brick only as something to build with rather than a paper‐weight.
What is functional fixedness?
The type of forgetting where newer learning interferes with the retrieval of older information (for example, learning a new phone number makes you forget the old one).
What is retroactive interference?
Your favorite restaurant changes its lighting, menu layout, and music to influence how you perceive the dining experience. They’re manipulating this psychological process.
What is perception (in sensation and perception research)?
The phenomenon by which we become less sensitive to a constant, unchanging stimulus (for example, you stop noticing the sound of the air‐conditioner).
What is sensory adaptation?
A schedule of reinforcement where a behaviour is rewarded after a set number of responses (for example, every 5th correct response).
What is a fixed-ratio schedule?
Problem‐solving strategy where you systematically try every possible solution until you find the correct one.
What is trial and error?
The memory system that includes skills and procedures (e.g., how to ride a bike), often without conscious awareness.
What is implicit (procedural) memory?
Understanding that people interpret the same event differently depending on past experience, expectation, and emotion applies this psychological idea.
What is top-down processing?