Cog Psych Ch. 2 Key Terms

Question 1

Blindsight

Answer 1

stimulus produces accurate response, but there’s a complete lack of subjective awareness of it.
ability to perceive some aspect of a presented stimulus while being unaware that it had been presented

Question 2

Bottom-up (data-driven) processing

Answer 2

flow of info from stimulus & spreading neural activity that results.

Question 3

Closure

Answer 3

tendency to complete the incomplete-Gestalt principle

Question 4

Common Fate

Answer 4

tendency to group elements together if they are moving in the same direction or at the same speed-Gestalt Principle

Question 5

Consciousness

Answer 5

awareness of internal and external events

Question 6

Constructive view (of perception)

Answer 6

Top-down processing, emphasizes active construction and interpretation

Question 7

Direct view (of perception)

Answer 7

Bottom-up processing, what we perceive about the environment is picked up directly from the environment

Question 8

Element connectedness

Answer 8

tendency to group elements if they are connected to other elements- Gestalt Principle

Question 9

Figure-ground

Answer 9

tendency to segregate visual scenes into a background and figure-groud-Gestalt principle

Question 10

Global precedence effect

Answer 10

tendency to perceive the global rather than local - Gestalt principle

Question 11

Good continuation

Answer 11

tendency to perceive lines as flowing naturally in a single direction - Gestalt principle

Question 12

McGurk Effect

Answer 12

occurs when we see the mouth produce one sound, but the actual sound we hear is not the same sound we see. end result is blended version of both sounds

Question 13

Objective threshold

Answer 13

the condition that truly had subliminal processing

Question 14

Objective threshold

Answer 14

point at which subjects do not know that a stimulus was presented

Question 15

Priming

Answer 15

one word activates all words that can be associated with initial word. (dog primes mind, identifies cat as a real word faster)

Question 16

Principles of visual organization (Gestalt Principles)

Answer 16

Proximity, similarity, good continuation (continuity), closure, common fate, common region (enclosure), synchrony, element connectedness (connection), figure-ground, global precedence

Question 17

Proximity

Answer 17

tendency for objects that are near one another to be grouped together

Question 18

Response bias

Answer 18

decision process whereby we determine if a stimulus was actually perceived

Question 19

Schema

Answer 19

pattern of thought or behavior that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them

Question 20

Sensation

Answer 20

Physiological processes associated with the intake of sensory information; physical intake of external information

Question 21

Signal Detection Theory

Answer 21

Approach to psychophysics that characterizes perceptual experiences as the combination of sensitivity and response bias

Question 22

Similarity

Answer 22

tendency for objects that are similar to be grouped together - Gestalt principle

Question 23

Subjective threshold

Answer 23

point where subjects do not know that they know a stimulus was presented

Question 24

Subliminal perception

Answer 24

purported tendency to be influenced by stimuli presented below the level of awareness

Question 25

Subliminal semantic activation

Answer 25

the finding that meaningful processing can be performed on stimuli presented below the level of awareness

Question 26

Sensitivity

Answer 26

stimulus fall within a range at which you're physically able to sense it

Question 27

Supraliminal

Answer 27

Above the threshold of conscious awareness

Question 28

Synchrony

Answer 28

tendency to group elements that occur at the same time - Gestalt principle

Question 29

Synesthesia

Answer 29

conscious experience in multiple modalities (i.e. sound experienced as color or sensation in body)

Question 30

Top-down (conceptually driven) processing

Answer 30

processing that involves prior knowledge and experience. interpretation is influenced by expectations, knowledge, context

Question 31

Ventriloquist effect

Answer 31

sound comes from somewhere other than speaker.

Question 32

Grouping

Answer 32

ability to sort things in our environment so that the percept is a neat, orderly package rather than a jumbled mess of randomly arranged stimulus patterns