What is psychology?

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

What is cognition?

Mental processes used to acquire, process, store, and use information.

What is cognitive psychology?

The scientific study of mental processes such as attention, perception, and thinking.

What is a reductionistic approach?

Breaking complex mental processes into simpler parts to understand them.

Why does cognitive psychology study everyday processes?

To understand mental processes people use in normal daily life.

Why does cognitive psychology use lab research?

It allows researchers to control variables and test mental processes.

What is empiricism?

Knowledge should be based on observation and evidence.

What is determinism?

Behavior and mental processes have identifiable causes.

What is testability?

Scientific ideas must be capable of being tested with evidence.

What is basic research?

Research mainly conducted to increase knowledge and understanding.

What is applied research?

Research designed to solve practical, real-world problems.

What is internal validity?

How confidently a study shows that the IV caused changes in the DV.

What is external validity?

How well findings can generalize beyond the study.

What is a case study?

An in-depth investigation of one person, group, or unusual case.

What is an advantage of a case study?

It provides detailed information about rare or unusual cases.

What is a disadvantage of a case study?

The results may not generalize to other people.

What is correlational research?

Research that measures whether two variables are related.

Can correlation prove causation?

No. A relationship does not prove that one variable caused the other.

What is experimental research?

Research that manipulates an IV and measures its effect on a DV.

What is an independent variable (IV)?

The variable the researcher manipulates.

What is a dependent variable (DV)?

The outcome the researcher measures.

What is a confound?

An uncontrolled variable that could provide another explanation for the results.

Why should researchers eliminate confounds?

So changes in the DV can be attributed to the IV.

What is a quasi-experiment?

An experiment without full random assignment or manipulation.

What is visual pattern recognition?

The process of interpreting and identifying what we see.

What is bottom-up processing?

Processing that begins with sensory information from the environment.

What is template matching?

Recognizing a stimulus by comparing it with a stored mental template.

What is feature detection?

Recognizing something by identifying its basic features.

What is top-down processing?

Using context, knowledge, experience, and expectations to interpret information.

What is the difference between bottom-up and top-down processing?

Bottom-up uses sensory input; top-down uses knowledge, context, and expectations.

What is auditory pattern recognition?

The process of interpreting and identifying what we hear.

What is the problem of invariance?

The same sound can vary across speakers or situations but still be recognized.

What are segmentation errors?

Errors caused by incorrectly deciding where one spoken word ends and another begins.

Is auditory perception highly bottom-up or top-down?

Highly top-down because context and prior knowledge strongly affect what we hear.

What did Pollack & Pickett (1964) demonstrate?

Speech is harder to identify without its normal conversational context.

What did Warren & Warren (1970) demonstrate with the cough experiment?

Context can make the brain perceptually restore a missing speech sound.

What are William James' three main types of attention?

Input attention, selective attention, and divided attention.

What is input attention?

Attention being captured by incoming information.

What is an orienting response?

Automatically directing attention toward a new or important stimulus.

What is habituation?

Responding less to a repeated, familiar stimulus over time.

What is selective attention?

Focusing on one source of information while withdrawing attention from others.

What do early-selection models propose?

Unattended information is filtered early in processing.

What do late-selection models propose?

Information is processed for meaning before selection occurs.

What do middle-selection models propose?

Selection occurs after some processing but before full processing.

What did Cherry (1953) study?

Selective attention using dichotic listening and shadowing.

What did Cherry's research show?

People can focus on one message while knowing little about the unattended message.

What did Moray (1959) find?

Important information, such as your name, can break through unattended input.

What did Treisman (1960) propose?

Unattended information is weakened rather than completely blocked.

What is inattentional blindness?

Failing to notice a visible stimulus because attention is focused elsewhere.

What is change blindness?

Failing to notice a change in a visual scene.

What is divided attention?

Trying to attend to multiple objects, thoughts, or tasks at the same time.

Can we attend to two aspects of a situation at once?

Usually yes, depending on their cognitive demands.

What did Allport (1971) examine?

Divided attention and whether people can process multiple inputs at once.

What did Duncan (1984) examine?

Limits on attending to multiple features or objects simultaneously.

What is visual search?

Searching a visual display for a particular target.

What did Treisman & Gelade (1980) study?

Visual search and the difference between feature and conjunction searches.

What is a disjunction or feature search effect?

A target with one unique feature can often pop out quickly.

What is a conjunction search effect?

Targets defined by combined features require more focused attention.

Can we usually perform two demanding tasks at once?

No. They often compete for limited cognitive resources.

What did Strayer & Johnston (2001) examine?

How cell-phone conversations interfere with driving performance.

What did Cooper & Strayer (2008) examine?

Attention limits involved in driving while talking on a cell phone.

What are cognitive resources?

The limited mental capacity available for processing information and performing tasks.

When is multitasking difficult?

When two tasks compete for the same limited cognitive resources.

What does modality-specific theory propose?

Different sensory or processing systems have partly separate resource pools.

What does modality-general theory propose?

Different tasks compete for one shared general pool of cognitive resources.

What three features distinguish automatic and controlled processing?

Intention, awareness, and cognitive resources.

What is controlled processing?

Intentional processing that requires awareness and cognitive resources.

What is automatic processing?

Processing requiring little intention, awareness, or cognitive capacity.

How does a controlled process become automatic?

Through lots and lots of practice.

What happens to cognitive capacity as a task becomes automatic?

The task requires less cognitive capacity.

Can an automatic process become controlled again?

Yes. Certain situations can make an automatic skill require conscious attention again.

What did Spelke, Hirst & Neisser (1976) study?

Reading short stories while taking dictation, followed by extensive practice.

What was the main result of Spelke, Hirst & Neisser (1976)?

Practice greatly improved performance when doing the two tasks together.

What did Schneider & Shiffrin study?

How practice and mapping conditions contribute to automatic processing.

What is consistent mapping?

Targets and distractors keep the same roles across trials.

What is varied mapping?

Items can switch between being targets and distractors across trials.

Which mapping is more likely to produce automaticity?

Consistent mapping.

What is the Stroop effect?

Automatic word reading interferes with intentionally naming the ink color.

What is a congruent Stroop trial?

The word meaning and ink color match.

What is an incongruent Stroop trial?

The word meaning and ink color conflict.

Why are incongruent Stroop trials slower?

Automatic reading competes with controlled color naming.

What does the Stroop effect demonstrate?

Automatic processes can occur involuntarily and interfere with controlled processing.

What is one disadvantage of automaticity?

Overlearned automatic responses can sometimes cause mistakes.

Why can too much automaticity cause errors?

A practiced response may occur even when the situation requires a different response.