Selecting (or not) Information
The ability to focus on one stimulus while ignoring others—like listening to one conversation in a noisy room.
What is selective inattention?
This school of thought emphasizes that we perceive objects as whole forms rather than as a collection of parts.
What is gestalt psychology?
A mental grouping of similar objects, events, or ideas.
What is concept?
Type of thinking that narrows down possible solutions to find one correct answer—used in multiple-choice tests.
What is convergent thinking?
Judging the likelihood of events based on how easily examples come to mind—like fearing plane crashes after hearing about one.
What is availability heuristic?
Failing to see visible objects because attention is focused elsewhere, as in the “gorilla basketball” study.
What is inattentional blindness?
The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent sets, such as similarity, proximity, and continuity.
What is grouping?
The best example or mental image that represents a category, like “robin” for the concept “bird.”
What is prototype?
A step-by-step procedure that guarantees a solution.
What is algorithm?
The tendency to search for or favor information that confirms one’s preconceptions.
What is confirmation bias?
Failing to notice changes in their environment, such as when one person is swapped for another in a conversation.
What is change blindness?
A binocular cue for depth perception in which the eyes move inward to focus on a near object.
What is convergence?
A mental framework that helps organize and interpret information.
What is schema?
A sudden realization of a problem’s solution—an “aha!” moment.
What is insight?
The inability to see a problem from a new perspective.
A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another, often shaped by expectations and experience.
What is perceptual set?
The difference between the images from the two eyes, which the brain uses to judge depth.
What is retinal disparity?
Interpreting new experiences in terms of existing schemas.
What is assimilation?
A simple thinking strategy that allows quick problem-solving, though it may be prone to errors.
What is heuristic?
The way an issue is presented, which can significantly affect decisions and judgments.
What is framing?
The organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings.
The illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession.
Adjusting existing schemas or creating new ones to incorporate new information.
What is accommodation?
Creative thinking that produces many possible solutions to a problem.
What is divergent thinking?
Judging the probability of something based on how well it matches a prototype.
What is representativeness heuristic?