A
Cognitive process that generates creative, novel ideas by exploring many possible solutions
Divergent thinking (Creativity)
Perception guided by higher-level cognitive processes, such as prior knowledge, experience, and expectations or schemas to interpret sensory information.
Top-down processing
Cognitive process where individuals incorporate new information or experiences into existing schemas without changing them (Piaget)
Assimilation
Repetition (rote memorization) to keep information in short-term memory or connects new information to existing long-term memories
Rehearsal (maintenance vs elaborative)
Old memories hinder the learning of new information
Proactive interference
Object partially covering another is perceived as closer
Monocular depth cues : interposition
Tend to continue an endeavor, such as a project, relationship, or investment, solely because of previously invested resources—time, money, or effort—even when continuing is detrimental.
Sunk-cost fallacy
Fail to notice unexpected, fully visible objects or events in their visual field because their attention is focused on a demanding primary task
Inattention blindness
How the presentation or wording of information, choices, or questions influences decisions and judgments.
Framing
Long-term implicit memory responsible for knowing "how" to do things—skills, habits, and motor actions (e.g., riding a bike, typing)—without conscious thought
Procedural memory
Consistency, stability, and replicability of a research study or testing instrument, ensuring that the same results are produced under similar conditions
Reliability
Test-retest
Split Half
Able to focus auditory attention on a single stimulus—like one conversation—while filtering out a range of other stimuli in a noisy environment.
Cocktail party effect
Test or assessment accurately forecasts future performance, behaviors, or outcomes
Predictive validity
Improved recall of information when the context (environment, location, or surroundings) at the time of retrieval matches the context present during encoding
Context-dependent memory
Brain's ability to maintain a stable, consistent perception of familiar objects even thou change sensory input, such as shifting distances, viewing angles, or lighting conditions.
Constancy
Mental shortcuts that allow for quick, efficient, and often automatic decision-making and problem-solving
Heuristic
(Availability vs representativeness)
Modifying existing cognitive schemas or creating new ones to incorporate new information that does not fit into existing ones.
Accommodation
Mental predisposition or tendency to perceive some aspects of sensory data while ignoring others, heavily influenced by expectations, experiences, motivations, and culture
Perceptual set
Cognitive understanding that objects and people continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched
Object permanence
Able to reason, think abstractly, and solve new, unfamiliar problems quickly without relying on prior knowledge, speed
fluid intelligence
Tend to recall the first (primacy effect) and last (recency effect) items in a list better than middle items.
The serial position effect
Inable to form new long-term declarative memories after a traumatic brain injury, while past memories remain intact
Anterograde Amnesia
Cognitive bias where individuals wrongly believe that future independent events are influenced by past outcomes
Gambler’s fallacy
"Thinking about thinking", aware and self-regulation of one’s own cognitive processes. Monitoring understanding, planning learning strategies, and evaluating cognitive performance to improve memory and problem-solving
Metacognition
visual information taken in by two eyes that enable us to perceive depth and distance
Binocular depth cues