ATTENTION MATTERS
This type of attention allows you to focus on your friend's voice at a loud concert while ignoring all the other noise.
Answer: What is selective attention?
This problem-solving method guarantees you'll find the solution but might take forever—like trying every possible locker combination until you find the right one.
Answer: What is an algorithm?
This bias occurs when you judge someone based on stereotypes—like assuming a thin, quiet person who loves books must be a librarian rather than a truck driver, even though there are way more truck drivers.
Answer: What is the representativeness heuristic?
According to Gestalt psychology, your brain automatically does this—separating objects (the figure) from their surroundings (the background).
Answer: What is figure-ground?
If you hear a teacher is super strict, you'll walk into class expecting harsh rules and might notice when they correct someone but miss when they make a joke. This influence on perception is called this.
Answer: What are expectations?
When participants in the famous gorilla experiment failed to notice a person in a gorilla suit walk through a basketball game, they experienced this phenomenon.
Answer: What is inattentional blindness?
Question: This is a mental shortcut based on experience that helps you solve problems quickly but is more prone to errors than algorithms.
Answer: What is a heuristic?
After seeing several news stories about shark attacks, you think sharks are extremely dangerous, even though cows kill more people annually. You're using this heuristic.
Answer: What is the availability heuristic?
This Gestalt principle explains why you perceive items sitting close together—like students at a lunch table—as belonging to the same group.
Answer: What is proximity?
A McDonald's ad looks way more appealing when you haven't eaten because this internal drive affects what you notice and how you interpret things.
Answer: What is motivation?
This is what happens when you don't notice that your friend got a dramatic new haircut, even though you saw them multiple times.
Answer: What is change blindness?
When the solution to a problem suddenly appears in your mind without consciously working through the steps—like when you figure out an essay thesis in the shower—this is called this type of learning.
Answer: What is insight (or the "Aha!" moment)?
When you only look for information that supports what you already believe and ignore evidence that contradicts it—like staying in echo chambers on social media—you're experiencing this bias.
Answer: What is confirmation bias?
When you see the NBC peacock logo or Apple logo with parts missing but your brain automatically "fills in" the gaps, you're using this Gestalt principle.
Answer: What is closure?
When you're scared, you might think wind in the house is someone breaking in, or a dark figure is a person instead of a coat on a chair. This feeling is influencing your perception.
Answer: What is emotion (or fear)?
When you try to study while watching Netflix and texting friends, you're attempting this, which your brain is actually terrible at doing.
Answer: What is divided attention (or multitasking)?
Question: In the ping-pong ball launch activity, when students could only think of the cup as a container and the rubber band as something that holds things together, they were experiencing this mental block.
Answer: What is functional fixedness?
After watching a movie with a twist ending, you think "I knew that was going to happen! It was so obvious!" even though you didn't predict it beforehand. This is an example of this bias.
Answer: What is hindsight bias?
If one object partially blocks your view of another object, you automatically know the blocking object is closer. This monocular depth cue is called this.
Answer: What is interposition (or overlap)?
In Western culture, being quiet in a social setting might be seen as negative, but in Eastern culture it's a sign of respect. This demonstrates how this broader influence shapes perception differently across groups.
Answer: What is culture (or cultural context)?
This type of attention requires you to maintain focus over an extended period, like staying focused during an entire 90-minute class or movie.
Answer: What is sustained attention?
DAILY DOUBLE (For 1000 points): In the number sequence 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, ?, you assumed the answer was 12 based on the pattern of even numbers. However, you ignored other possibilities like any number bigger than the previous.
Name TWO biases you experienced in this example.
Answer: What are confirmation bias (ignoring other possibilities once you assumed even numbers) and overconfidence bias (being very sure your answer was correct)?
When you finish a difficult test and tell your friend "I definitely got at least a 95%!" but then get your test back with a 78%, you experienced this bias where you were too confident in your judgment.
Answer: What is overconfidence bias?
Railroad tracks appear to meet at the horizon even though they remain parallel. This monocular depth cue that uses converging parallel lines is called this.
Answer: What is linear perspective?
The word "Sure" can sound friendly in a fun conversation but sarcastic in an argument. This factor—the situation or environment—is influencing how you interpret the word.
Answer: What is context?