Perception is Reality
This type of perception relies on prior knowledge and expectations to interpret sensory information, like recognizing your friend’s face in a crowd even when it’s partially obscured
Top-Down processing
A child calling every four-legged animal a “dog” shows this process of fitting new information into existing schemas
Assimilation
The process of transforming sensory input into a form that can be stored in memory, such as turning spoken words into a mental image or concept
Encoding
When you’re certain you know a word but can’t quite recall it, you’re experiencing this common retrieval failure
Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon
Charles Spearman proposed this single underlying factor that influences performance across various mental abilities
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This type of processing starts with the sensory input itself, such as detecting a new song’s rhythm before knowing the lyrics or artist.
Bottom-Up processing
When the a child learns to distinguish dogs from cats and updates their understanding, they’re using this cognitive process
Accommodation
Remembering the name of your first-grade teacher relies on this process of bringing stored information back into conscious awareness
Retrieval
Believing you read a fact online when you actually heard it from a friend illustrates this type of memory error
Source Amnesia
A test that yields consistent results each time it’s taken demonstrates this key psychometric property
Reliability
hen focused on counting basketball passes, a person fails to notice a gorilla walking through the scene, demonstrating this perceptual phenomenon.
Inattentional Blindness
Being unable to see that a coin could be used as a screwdriver shows this problem-solving barrier
Functional fixedness
Using the acronym “HOMES” to remember the Great Lakes is an example of this memory aid
Mnemonic Device
When new information, like your new locker combination, makes it harder to remember your old one, this type of interference occurs
Retroactive Interference
If an intelligence test truly measures reasoning ability rather than memorization, it possesses this important quality
Validity
When someone expecting to see a snake mistakes a coiled hose for one, their expectation illustrates this mental predisposition to perceive something in a certain way.
Perceptual set
Assuming someone is a librarian because they’re quiet and bookish demonstrates this mental shortcut based on how well something fits a stereotype
Representative Heuristic
Cramming all night for a test instead of spacing out study sessions is an example of this ineffective learning method
Massed Practice
When your old password keeps popping into mind and makes it difficult to remember your new one, this is an example of this memory obstacle
Proactive Interference
When awareness of a negative stereotype causes someone to underperform on a task, they are experiencing this psychological effect
Stereotype Threat
Animated films appear to move smoothly because the brain perceives continuous motion from rapidly changing still images through this illusion.
Stroboscopic motion
After seeing several news stories about plane crashes, a person overestimates the danger of flying due to this cognitive bias
Availability Heuristic
Repeating a phone number to yourself until you can dial it uses this component of working memory that temporarily holds verbal information.
Phonological Loop
After a head injury, a man can remember his past but can’t form new memories, showing this type of amnesia
Anterograde Amnesia
The observation that average IQ scores have risen over the past century describes this global trend
Flynn Effect