Attention

Regardless of what we may think, we are incapable of multitasking. If our brains paid attention to all the information we are exposed to every second of the day, we’d probably go insane. Frankly, some information isn’t important. Therefore, we rely on selective attention, or focusing our conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.

Another example of selective attention can be seen in the cocktail party effect or phenomenon. The cocktail-party effect refers to the ability to focus one's attention a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli (i.e., noise). 

For example, you’re in a crowded room in the middle of a conversation with someone else. You can focus on the conversation you’re having and ignore those going on around you.

While we need selective attention to maintain focus, it can cause us to miss things that are important because our awareness is focused elsewhere. Failing to see visible objects when are attention is focused elsewhere is known as inattentional blindness. Failing to notice changes in the environment is known as change blindness.

Influences on Perception

• Expectations: Through experience, we come to expect certain results. Those expectations may give us a perceptual set - a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.

• Context: External factors can impact how we perceive information

• Motivation: Like research bias, we see what we want to see.

• Emotion: Our feelings at the time can alter what we experience.

Visual Processing

From two-dimensional objects falling on our retinas, we somehow organize three-dimensional perceptions that allow us to estimate that object’s distance from us. This ability is known as depth perception. 

• Depth perception was studied in a number of visual cliff experiments by Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk. Infants were coaxed to cross what appeared to be drop, most of whom refused to do so, indicating that they understood depth.

• A monocular cue is a depth cue that is available to either eye:

  • • Linear Perspective

    • Interposition

    • Relative Size

    • Relative Height

    • Relative Clarity

    • Light/Shadow

• A binocular cue is a depth cue that depends on the use of two eyes. Retinal disparity is a binocular cue for perceiving depth by comparing the retinal images from each eye and computing the distance between the two images - the greater the difference between each image, the closer the object is.

Perception of Motion:

• Stroboscopic Effect: a rapid series of slightly varying images perceived as moving images (flip book, “old” movies)

• Phi Phenomenon: illusion of movement created when two or more-lights next to each other blink on and off

• Autokinetic Effect: perceptual phenomenon where a stationary point of light appears to move in a dark environment due to small eye movements

Perceptual constancy is the ability to perceive objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change. For example, when you look out the window of a plane, you know that you aren’t seeing tiny cars on tiny highways, but rather that the cars are normal size and just very far away. Regardless of our view of them, objects maintain the same:

• • • Color

    • Shape

    • Size

    • Brightness 

Figure-ground is the organization of the visual field into objects (figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the background). 

Gestalt Psychology

Early in the 20th century, a group of German psychologists noticed that people who are given a cluster of sensations tend to organize them into a gestalt, a German word meaning a “form” or a “whole.” As we look straight ahead, we cannot separate the perceived scene into our left and right fields of view (each as seen with one eye closed). Our conscious perception is, at every moment, a seamless scene—an integrated whole.

• Proximity: group objects that are close together as being part of same group

• Similarity: objects similar in appearance are perceived as being part of same group

• Continuity: objects that form a continuous shape are perceived as same group

• Connectedness: elements tend to be grouped together if they are connected by other elements and viewed as a single unit.

• Closure: like top-down processing, we fill gaps in if we can recognize it

Memory

Memory is the persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information.

• Encoding: the process of getting information into the memory system

• Storage: the process of retaining information over time

• Retrieval: the process of getting information out of memory storage

Imagine your brain is a filing cabinet (or a memory drive if you’re too tech savvy for paper files). Encoding is creating the file, storage is putting the file in a notable location, and retrieval is being able to find that file again when you need to. 

To a psychologist, evidence that learning persists includes these three retention measures:

• recall—retrieving information that is not currently in your conscious awareness but that was learned at an earlier time. 

  • A fill-in-the-blank question tests your recall.

• recognition—identifying items previously learned. 

  • A multiple-choice question tests your recognition.

• relearning—learning something more quickly when you learn it a second or later time. 

  • When you study for a final exam or engage a language used in early childhood, you will relearn the material more easily than you did initially.

Terms about Memory

• Parallel processing - processing many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions → sensation

• Sensory memory - the immediate very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system → spots in your vision after flash photography

• Short-term memory - activated memory that holds a few (5-9) items briefly (10-30 seconds) before the information is stored or forgotten → digits of a phone number

• Long-term memory - the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system

• Working memory - a newer understanding of short-term memory that adds conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory → sight-reading music

• Explicit or declarative memory involves the retention of facts and experiences that one can consciously know. We encode explicit memories through effortful processing, which requires attention and conscious effort. 

• Implicit or non-declarative memory involves retention of learned skills or classically conditioned associations independent of conscious recollection. We encode implicit memories through automatic processing, which is the unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and meaning.

Memory & the Brain

Several brain regions are dedicated to the encoding and storage of memory.

• Hippocampus & Frontal Lobes

  • Memory consolidation: the neural storage of long term memory, allows for more to be stored by only keeping the most crucial details

  • Explicit memories

  • Semantic: facts and general knowledge

  • Episodic: experienced events

• Cerebellum & Basal Ganglia

  • Coordinated movements

  • Procedural memory

• Amygdala

  • Emotional memories

    • Flashbulb memories are clear, sustained memories of an emotionally significant moments or events. These can be personal, such as the moment you learned a loved one had passer, or generational, like the memories of watching the towers fall on 9/11.

Long-Term Potentiation

When first learning how to write, the neural connections between your brain and hand are slow and inefficient. But as you spent more time writing, it got better. Now, you can write legibly without even looking, because those neural connections are stronger, faster, and more efficient. Practice makes perfect, or rather practice makes permanent.

This phenomenon is called long-term potentiation (an increase in a cell’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation) and is the neural basis for learning and memory. 

How does sensory memory work?

Sensory memory feeds our active working memory, recording momentary images of scenes or echoes of sounds. When George Sperling flashed a group of letters similar to this for one-twentieth of a second, people could recall only about half the letters. But when signaled to recall a particular row immediately after the letters had disappeared, they could do so with near-perfect accuracy. He also found that people were more likely to remember letters when he played one of three tones (each tone corresponding with a row of letters). 

• Iconic memory: momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli

• Echoic memory: momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli

Levels of Processing

Shallow processing encodes on an elementary level, such as a word’s letters or, at a more intermediate level, a word’s sound. Thus we may type “there” when we mean “their”, “write” when we mean “right”, and “two” when we mean “too”. Deep processing encodes semantically, based on the meaning of the words. The deeper (more meaningful) the processing, the better our retention. This explains why information that is meaningful to us is retained longer. 

Effortful Processing Strategies

George Miller proposed that we can store about seven pieces of information (give or take two) in short-term memory. Without rehearsal, the information will be lost in 15-30 seconds. 

Several effortful processing strategies can boost our ability to form and retain new memories. Later, when we try to retrieve a memory, these strategies can make the difference between success and failure.

• Chunking: organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically → 1492177618121941 = 1492, 1776, 1812, 1941

• Mnemonics: memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices → PEMDAS (*x/+-

• Spacing effect: the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through mass study/practice  → studying a little each night is more effective than cramming

• Testing effect: enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading information → test yourself with flash cards

Unconscious Associations & Retrieval Cues

• Priming: the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory → after seeing a poster for a missing child, you often interpret ambiguous child-adult interaction as possible kidnapping

• Encoding Specificity Principle: the idea that cues and contexts specific to a particular memory will be most effective in helping us recall it

• Interleaving:

• State-Dependent Memory: the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with the state in which a person was at the time of encoding → if you study while drunk, you’ll be more likely to remember the content while drunk

• Context-Dependent Memory: the activation of memory when one returns to the setting of the original encoding → forgetting what you came to the kitchen for, returning to your room and remembering you needed to add an item to the grocery list

• Mood-Congruent Memory: the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current good or bad mood

• Serial position effect: our tendency to best remember the items at the beginning and end of a list

  • Recency effect: only remembering the end of the list

  • Primacy effect: only remembering the beginning of the list

Forgetting

Hermann Ebbinghaus showed response speed when recalling or recognizing information indicates memory strength over a century ago, using nonsense syllables. He randomly selected a sample of syllables, practiced them, and tested himself. To get a feel for his experiments, rapidly read aloud, eight times over, the following list, then look away and try to recall the items: JIH, BAZ, FUB, YOX, SUJ, XIR, DAX, LEQ, VUM, PID, KEL, WAV, TUV, ZOF, GEK, HIW.

The day after learning such a list, Ebbinghaus could recall few of the syllables. But they weren’t entirely forgotten. The more frequently he repeated the list aloud on Day 1, the less time he required to relearn the list on Day 2. Additional rehearsal of verbal information can produce overlearning, which increases retention—especially when practice is distributed over time. For students, this means that it helps to rehearse course material even after you know it.

Why do we forget?

• Encoding failure: didn’t pay attention well enough to properly create the memory

• Storage decay: memory has faded over time

• Retrieval failure: the memory is there but you can’t find it

• Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon:

• Motivated forgetting → repression: purposely losing a memory

• Interference → competing information

• Amnesia: memory loss due to brain damage/injury

Amnesia

Sometimes, forgetting happens due to injury or illness.

• Amnesia: memory loss, often due to brain damage

  • Anterograde amnesia: an inability to form new memories

    • Ante = after, grade = grate (like cheese)

  • Retrograde amnesia: an inability to recall past memories

    • Retro = old, grade = grate

• Other types of amnesia:

  • Traumatic Amnesia – caused by a severe, non penetrative blow to head (car accident, sports injury); can lead to anything from loss of consciousness to coma.

  • Hysterical or Fugue Amnesia – linked to severe psychological trauma; usually temporary and linked to a traumatic event the mind cannot deal with.  Memory often returns, although the memory of trauma may remain incomplete.

  • Childhood or Infantile Amnesia – inability to recall events from early childhood, could be linked to language development or immature brain 

In 1953, the removal of H.M.’s hippocampus at age 27 ended his seizures, but also ended his ability to form new explicit memories. H.M. could learn new skills, procedures, locations of objects, and games, but had no memory of the lessons or the instructors. Why? These are implicit memories and automatic processing-processed in other areas of the brain. H.M. also retained memories from before the surgery.

Retrieval Failure & Interference

Sometimes information is encoded and stored, but cannot be retrieved.

• Interference: inability to recall memories due to competing information

  • Proactive Interference: the forward acting disruptive effect of older learning on the recall of new information

    • Ex. Calling your teacher by her maiden name when she has recently married

  • Retroactive Interference: the backward acting disruptive effect of newer learning on old information

    • Ex. Failing to remember your old address after you moved

Remember PO/RN - 

Proactive, Old interferes with New

Retroactive, New interferes with Old

(Giggle all you want - you will remember it!)

Influences on Memory Construction

Memory is not precise. Our memories are dependent on our attention to be encoded properly, and once stored, they are constantly being updated and revised by new information. 

Elizabeth Loftus did a series of experiments to test the concept of the misinformation effect - a phenomenon that occurs when misleading information has distorted one’s memory of an event. Just by changing the wording of a question, witnesses to the same staged car crash reported differing speed estimates, because the word altered their memory of the event. 

Since memory is reconstruction as well as reproduction, we can’t be sure whether a memory is real by how real it feels. Much as perceptual illusions may seem like real perceptions, unreal memories feel like real memories. Because the misinformation effect and source amnesia (impaired memory for how, where, or when information was learned despite good memory for the information itself) happen outside our awareness, it is hard to separate false memories from real ones. Other things that can challenge, change, or alter our memories include:

• Imagination

• Reconsolidation

• Deja vu: the eerie sense that you have experienced something before; cues from a current experiences may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience

• accommodation: in Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the process of modifying existing cognitive structures in response to new information or experiences.

• achievement test: test designed to assess what a person has learned or accomplished in a particular area, such as academic subjects or job-related skills.

• Alfred Binet: French psychologist known for developing the first intelligence test, which aimed to measure children's mental abilities and predict their academic success.

• algorithm: step-by-step procedure or formula for solving a problem, often involving repetitive operations.

• Alzheimer's Disease: A progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by memory loss, language deterioration, and impaired ability to mentally manipulate visual information.

• amnesia: A significant memory loss that is too extensive to be due to normal forgetting.

• Amos Tversky: cognitive psychologist known for his collaboration with Daniel Kahneman on decision-making and heuristics.

• anterograde amnesia: type of memory impairment characterized by the inability to form new memories after a specific event or injury, while memories from before the event remain intact.

• aptitude test: test designed to assess a person's potential for learning or ability to perform in a particular area, such as intelligence tests or vocational aptitude tests.

• assimilation: in Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the process of incorporating new information or experiences into existing cognitive structures or schemas.

• attention: The cognitive process of selectively focusing on a specific aspect of information while ignoring other perceivable information.

• autobiographical memory: A person's memory for events and issues related to oneself.

• autokinetic effect: perceptual phenomenon where a stationary point of light appears to move in a dark environment due to small eye movements.

• automatic processing: the unconscious processing of information that requires minimal attention and effort, such as routine tasks or well-learned skills.

• availability heuristic: mental shortcut where people make judgments based on the ease with which examples come to mind, often leading to overestimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory.

• belief perseverance: the tendency to maintain one's beliefs even in the face of contradictory evidence.

• binocular cues: depth cues that rely on information from both eyes to perceive depth and distance, such as retinal disparity and convergence.

• bottom-up processing: An approach to perception that starts with incoming stimuli and builds up to a final perception; involves analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information.

• Carol Dweck: psychologist known for her research on motivation and mindset, particularly the concepts of fixed mindset and growth mindset.

• Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory: contemporary theory of intelligence proposing that intelligence is composed of multiple distinct abilities, including fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence, and various specific cognitive skills.

• central executive: In Baddeley's model of working memory, the component responsible for coordinating and controlling cognitive processes, including attention, planning, and decision-making.

• change blindness: A phenomenon in visual perception where changes in a visual stimulus are not noticed by the observer.

• Charles Spearman: British psychologist known for his work on intelligence and the development of factor analysis, which identified a general factor of intelligence (g factor) underlying performance on cognitive tasks.

• chunking: organizing information into smaller, more manageable units or chunks to improve memory and processing efficiency.

• cocktail party effect: The phenomenon of being able to focus one's auditory attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli, like hearing your name in a noisy room.

• cognition: the mental processes involved in acquiring, processing, storing, and retrieving information, including perception, thinking, memory, and problem-solving.

• cohort: group of individuals who share a common characteristic or experience, such as age or generation, and are studied over time in longitudinal research.

• color constancy: the perceptual phenomenon where the perceived color of an object remains relatively constant under different lighting conditions.

• concept: mental category or representation of objects, events, or ideas that share common features or characteristics.

• confirmation bias: the tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses while ignoring or discounting contradictory evidence.

• constructive memory: The process of constructing a memory by integrating new information with existing knowledge.

• construct validity: the extent to which a test or measure accurately assesses the theoretical construct or concept it is intended to measure.

• content validity: the extent to which a test or measure adequately samples the domain of interest and includes all relevant aspects of the construct being assessed.

• context-dependent memory: The improved recall of information when the context present at encoding and retrieval are the same.

• convergence: binocular depth cue where the eyes turn inward or converge to focus on nearby objects.

• convergent thinking: a type of thinking characterized by narrowing down possible solutions to find a single correct answer, often associated with traditional problem-solving tasks.

• creativity: the ability to generate novel and valuable ideas, solutions, or products that are meaningful or useful in a particular context.

• cross-sectional study: research design that compares different groups of individuals at a single point in time to examine age-related differences.

• crystallized intelligence: acquired knowledge and skills accumulated over a lifetime, often measured by vocabulary tests and general knowledge assessments.

• Daniel Kahnman: psychologist known for his work on decision-making, heuristics, and biases, particularly in collaboration with Amos Tversky.

• David Weschler: American psychologist known for developing intelligence tests, including the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC).

• deep processing: type of encoding that involves elaborative rehearsal and meaningful analysis of information, leading to better long-term retention.

• deja vu: feeling of familiarity or recognition of a current situation or experience as if it has been previously experienced, even though it is objectively new or unfamiliar.

• depth perception: the ability to perceive the distance and three-dimensional spatial relationships of objects in the environment.

• distributed practice: A practice schedule that involves intervals of rest between sessions of learning.

• divergent thinking: A thought process used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions.

• echoic memory: the sensory memory system responsible for the temporary storage and processing of auditory information, often referred to as "echoes" of sounds.

• effortful memory: the intentional and conscious processing of information to encode, store, and retrieve it from memory, requiring cognitive effort and attention.

• Elizabeth Loftus: cognitive psychologist known for her research on eyewitness memory, misinformation effect, and false memories.

• emotional intelligence: the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions effectively in oneself and others.

• encoding: the process of transforming sensory input into a form that can be stored in memory.

• encoding failure: The failure to process information into memory.

• encoding specificity principle: the principle that retrieval of information is most effective when the conditions at encoding and retrieval are similar.

• episodic memory: type of long-term memory that involves the recollection of specific events, situations, and experiences with associated contextual details.

• Eric Kandel: American neuroscientist known for his research on memory, particularly synaptic plasticity and the cellular basis of learning and memory.

• executive functions: higher-level cognitive processes involved in goal setting, planning, problem-solving, decision-making, and self-regulation.

• explicit memory: memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously recall and declare, also known as declarative memory.

• factor analysis: statistical technique used to identify and analyze the underlying structure of correlations between variables, often used to identify the factors underlying intelligence.

• figure-ground: gestalt principle of perception where we perceive objects as distinct from their background.

• fixation: in problem-solving, the inability to see a problem from a new perspective, often due to mental set or functional fixedness.

• fixed mindset: the belief that intelligence, abilities, and talents are fixed traits that cannot be changed or developed.

• flashbulb memory: vivid and detailed memory of a significant and emotionally charged event, often recalled with high confidence and accuracy.

• fluid intelligence: the ability to think logically and solve problems in novel situations, independent of acquired knowledge and experience.

• Flynn effect: the observed trend of increasing average intelligence test scores over time, named after psychologist James Flynn.

• forgetting curve: A graph showing the decline of memory retention over time.

• framing: the way information is presented or framed can influence decision-making and judgment by highlighting certain aspects of the information while downplaying others.

• Francis Galton: British scientist known for his contributions to the study of individual differences and intelligence testing, as well as his work in eugenics.

• functional fixedness: A cognitive bias that limits a person to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used.

• gambler's fallacy: The mistaken belief that if something happens more frequently than normal during a given period, it will happen less frequently in the future, or vice versa.

• general intelligence: hypothetical construct representing the general intelligence factor underlying performance on various cognitive tasks.

• George A. Miller: American psychologist known for his contributions to cognitive psychology, including research on memory, language processing, and information processing.

• gestalt: German word meaning "form" or "pattern," referring to the perceptual tendency to organize sensory information into meaningful wholes.

• grit: a personality trait characterized by passion, perseverance, and a strong motivation to achieve long-term goals.

• grouping: the perceptual tendency to organize elements into meaningful groups or categories based on similarity, proximity, continuity, or closure.

• growth mindset: the belief that intelligence, abilities, and talents can be developed through effort, practice, and learning.

• Hermann Ebbinghaus: German psychologist known for his pioneering research on memory, particularly the forgetting curve and the spacing effect.

• heuristic: mental shortcut or rule of thumb that simplifies problem-solving and decision-making, often leading to efficient but not always accurate judgments.

• hippocampus: brain structure located in the limbic system, involved in memory consolidation, spatial navigation, and learning.

• Howard Gardner: American psychologist known for his theory of multiple intelligences, which proposes that intelligence consists of distinct abilities across various domains.

• iconic memory: the sensory memory system responsible for the temporary storage and processing of visual information, often referred to as "iconic" images.

• implicit memory: memory of skills, procedures, or associations that are expressed through performance or behavior without conscious awareness.

• inattentional blindness: the failure to notice unexpected objects or events when attention is focused elsewhere.

• infantile amnesia: The inability to retrieve memories from much before age 3.

• insight: the sudden realization or understanding of a problem's solution that contrasts with more incremental problem-solving methods.

• intelligence: mental ability consisting of the capacity to learn from experience, solve problems, adapt to new situations, and use knowledge to achieve goals.

• intelligence quotient: numerical score derived from standardized intelligence tests, typically representing a person's relative intelligence compared to others of the same age group.

• intelligence test: standardized assessment designed to measure a person's cognitive abilities, including reasoning, problem-solving, memory, and verbal comprehension.

• interleaving: learning technique that involves mixing or alternating different types of practice or study tasks to enhance learning and retention.

• intuition: the ability to understand or know something immediately without conscious reasoning or analysis.

• Jean Piaget: Swiss psychologist known for his influential theory of cognitive development, which describes the stages of intellectual growth in children.

• L. L. Thurstone: American psychologist known for his contributions to psychometrics and the development of factor analysis, as well as his critique of Charles Spearman's theory of general intelligence.

• Lewis Terman: American psychologist known for his work on intelligence testing, particularly his adaptation of Alfred Binet's intelligence test into the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales.

• long-term memory: the relatively permanent storage of information, including facts, experiences, and skills, with potentially unlimited capacity and duration.

• long-term potentiation (LTP): process of strengthening synaptic connections between neurons, believed to be a cellular mechanism underlying learning and memory.

• longitudinal study: research design that follows the same individuals or groups over an extended period to examine changes or development over time.

• massed practice: A practice schedule in which studying continues for long periods, without interruption.

• memory: the ability to retain and retrieve information over time, involving encoding, storage, and retrieval processes.

• memory consolidation: the process of stabilizing and strengthening newly acquired memories over time through the reorganization of neural circuits.

• mental age: measure of intellectual development based on performance relative to average performance for a given chronological age, often used in intelligence testing.

• mental set: tendency to approach problems in a particular way, often based on past experiences or familiar strategies, which may impede problem-solving.

• metacognition: awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes, including knowledge about when and how to use particular cognitive strategies.

• method of loci: A mnemonic technique involving the visualization of familiar spatial environments to enhance the recall of information.

• misinformation effect: the distortion of memory caused by exposure to misleading information after an event, leading to inaccuracies or false memories.

• mnemonics: memory aids or techniques used to improve encoding and retrieval of information, such as acronyms, rhymes, or visual imagery.

• monocular cue: depth cues that require only one eye to perceive depth and distance, such as relative size, interposition, and linear perspective.

• mood-congruent memory: the tendency to recall information or experiences that are consistent with one's current mood or emotional state.

• multistore model of memory: A model proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin, describing memory as consisting of three stores: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

• neurogenesis: the formation of new neurons, particularly in the hippocampus, believed to play a role in learning, memory, and mood regulation.

• normal curve: a bell-shaped curve representing the distribution of scores or measurements in a population, with the majority of scores clustered around the mean.

• nudge: a subtle suggestion or reinforcement designed to influence people's behavior or decisions without restricting their freedom of choice.

• overconfidence: the tendency to overestimate one's abilities, knowledge, or judgment, often leading to errors in decision-making or problem-solving.

• parallel processing: the simultaneous processing of multiple aspects of a stimulus or problem, allowing for efficient cognitive functioning and perception.

• perception: The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.

• perceptual adaptation: the ability to adjust to changed sensory input, such as adapting to new eyeglasses or a reversed visual field.

• perceptual constancy: the perceptual phenomenon where an object is perceived as maintaining its size, shape, color, or brightness despite changes in the sensory input.

• perceptual set: a mental predisposition or expectation that influences perception, often based on prior experiences, motives, or context.

• phi phenomenon: the illusion of movement created by the sequential flashing of lights in adjacent locations.

• phonological loop: a component of working memory responsible for the temporary storage and rehearsal of verbal and auditory information.

• predictive validity: the extent to which a test or measure accurately predicts future performance or outcomes.

• primacy effect: The tendency to remember the first items in a series better than the middle items.

• priming: the activation of particular associations in memory, often unconsciously, which can influence subsequent behavior or cognition.

• proactive interference: the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information.

• procedural memory: A type of long-term memory involving how to perform different actions and skills.

• prospective memory: Remembering to perform a planned action or recall a planned intention at some future point in time.

• prototype: a mental image or representation of the typical features or essential characteristics of a category or concept.

• psychodynamic theory: A view developed by Freud that emphasizes unconscious psychological processes and contends that childhood experiences are crucial in shaping adult personality.

• psychometrics: the field of study concerned with the theory and techniques of psychological measurement, including the development and validation of psychological tests.

• recall: the retrieval of previously learned information without the aid of external cues, often tested by free recall or cued recall tasks.

• recency effect: The tendency to remember the most recently presented information best.

• recognition: the identification of previously encountered information from among alternatives, often tested by multiple-choice or matching tasks.

• reconsolidation: the process by which previously consolidated memories may be modified or altered when retrieved and then stored again.

• rehearsal: The conscious repetition of information to encode it for storage.

• relearning: the process of learning something again more quickly or efficiently after it has been previously learned and forgotten.

• reliability: the consistency or stability of a measurement or test over time or across different administrations.

• representativeness heuristic: mental shortcut where judgments or decisions are based on how well an individual or event matches a particular prototype or stereotype.

• repression: defense mechanism involving the unconscious exclusion or suppression of anxiety-provoking thoughts, memories, or impulses from conscious awareness.

• retinal disparity: binocular depth cue resulting from the slightly different images projected onto each retina, allowing for depth perception and stereoscopic vision.

• retrieval: the process of accessing and bringing into consciousness previously stored information from memory.

• retrieval cues: Stimuli that help you retrieve a certain memory.

• retroactive interference: the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information.

• retrograde amnesia: memory loss for events that occurred before a specific event, injury, or trauma.

• Richard Atkinson: American psychologist known for his work on memory, particularly the development of the modal model of memory with Richard Shiffrin.

• Richard Shiffrin: American psychologist known for his contributions to memory research, particularly the development of the modal model of memory with Richard Atkinson.

• Robert Sternberg: American psychologist known for his research on intelligence, creativity, and love, particularly his triarchic theory of intelligence.

• savant syndrome: rare condition in which individuals with developmental disorders such as autism display exceptional abilities or talents in specific areas, such as music, art, or mathematics.

• schema: cognitive framework or mental structure that organizes and interprets information about the world, guiding perception, memory, and problem-solving.

• selective attention: the ability to focus awareness on a particular stimulus or aspect of the environment while ignoring others.

• semantic encoding: the process of encoding the meaning or significance of information into memory, leading to better retention and recall.

• sensation: The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.

• sensory memory: the brief and initial stage of memory processing where sensory information is briefly registered and preserved in its original sensory form.

• serial position effect: the tendency to recall items from the beginning (primacy effect) and end (recency effect) of a list more accurately than items from the middle.

• shallow processing: type of encoding that involves surface-level processing of information based on its physical characteristics, leading to poor retention.

• short-term memory: the temporary storage system responsible for holding and manipulating information for brief periods, typically lasting seconds to minutes.

• source amnesia: forgetting the source of a memory, such as where or how the information was acquired, while retaining the memory itself.

• spacing effect: the phenomenon where information is better remembered when it is distributed over time with intervals between study sessions, compared to massed practice or cramming.

• split-half reliability: The internal consistency of a test, assessed by comparing the results of two halves of the test.

• standardization: the process of establishing uniform procedures for administering and scoring a test to ensure its reliability and validity.

• Stanford-Binet: widely used intelligence test originally developed by Lewis Terman at Stanford University, now in its fifth edition (SB-5).

• state-dependent memory: The improved recall of information when the individual is in the same state of consciousness as they were when the memory was formed.

• stereotypes: Oversimplified and generalized beliefs about a particular group of people.

• stereotype threat: the phenomenon where individuals feel at risk of conforming to negative stereotypes about their social group, leading to decreased performance on tasks requiring intellectual ability.

• Steven Pinker: Canadian-American cognitive psychologist known for his research on language, cognition, and evolutionary psychology, as well as his popular science books.

• storage: the retention of encoded information over time in memory.

• stroboscopic movement: perceptual phenomenon where a rapid series of slightly different images or frames create the illusion of continuous motion, as seen in motion pictures.

• sunk cost fallacy: The fallacy of making decisions based on past investments (time, money, resources) rather than on current and future benefits and costs.

• testing effect: the finding that retrieval practice, or actively recalling information from memory, enhances long-term retention more effectively than simply re-studying the material.

• test-retest reliability: The consistency of a measure when the same test is administered to the same people at two different points in time.

• tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon: The experience of knowing that we know something but being unable to access the information at that moment.

• top-down processing : An approach to perception that is guided by higher-level knowledge, experience, expectations, and motivations; involves the use of contextual information in pattern recognition.

• validity: the extent to which a test or measure accurately assesses the construct or concept it is intended to measure.

• visual cliff: an experimental apparatus used to test depth perception and visual-motor coordination in infants and animals, typically consisting of a glass-covered platform with a drop-off.

• visuospatial sketchpad: component of working memory responsible for the temporary storage and manipulation of visual and spatial information.

• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale: widely used intelligence test designed for adults, assessing various cognitive abilities including verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory, and processing speed.

• Wolfgang Kohler: German psychologist known for his research on problem-solving and insight learning with chimpanzees on the island of Tenerife.

• working memory: limited-capacity system responsible for the temporary storage and manipulation of information needed for complex cognitive tasks, often referred to as the "mental workspace."