Cognition
How perception organizes raw sensation, how people solve problems and make decisions, how memory encodes and sometimes distorts experience, and how intelligence is defined and measured.
Developing Understanding
Unit 2 picks up where sensation leaves off. Once raw sensory information reaches the brain, perception organizes it into something meaningful, cognition uses it to think and solve problems, and memory determines what is kept, changed, or lost. The unit closes with how psychologists try to measure a trait as complex as intelligence.
What you need to know for Unit 2
These groupings follow the order terms are introduced in the course. Be ready to explain and apply each one, not just define it.
From Sensation to Perception
Bottom-up processing builds perception from raw sensory data; top-down processing uses expectations and experience to interpret it. Selective attention directs conscious focus, which can cause inattentional blindness, and a perceptual set primes people to perceive things a certain way.
Gestalt Principles and Depth Perception
Gestalt principles — figure-ground, proximity, similarity, and closure — describe how the mind organizes sensory elements into wholes. Depth perception relies on binocular cues (using both eyes) and monocular cues (available to one eye alone).
Problem Solving and Decision-Making
Algorithms guarantee a solution but can be slow; heuristics are faster mental shortcuts that can introduce error, such as the availability and representativeness heuristics. Confirmation bias, functional fixedness, and framing effects all shape how people reason and choose.
Memory: Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval
Memory requires encoding, storage, and retrieval. Working memory actively holds and manipulates information, while long-term memory splits into explicit memory (episodic and semantic) and implicit memory (including procedural memory). Long-term potentiation is the biological basis of lasting memory, and chunking increases effective capacity.
Improving and Distorting Memory
The spacing effect and testing effect both improve long-term retention, while the serial position effect describes stronger memory for the first and last items in a list. Context- and state-dependent memory link retrieval to the original setting or internal state, and proactive interference, retroactive interference, the misinformation effect, and source amnesia all explain how memory can fail or be distorted.
Intelligence and Testing
Good psychological tests need reliability (consistency) and validity (measuring what they claim to measure), established through standardization against a normal distribution and evaluated with correlation coefficients. Intelligence itself is defined and measured in multiple ways, including achievement tests and aptitude tests.
Unit 2 Vocabulary
All 47 terms for this unit, grouped to match the key concepts above. Prefer flashcards? Use the flashcard tool filtered to Unit 2.
From Sensation to Perception
Bottom-Up Processing
Perception that begins with incoming sensory information and builds toward recognition.
Top-Down Processing
Perception guided by expectations, experience, context, and prior knowledge.
Selective Attention
Focusing conscious awareness on some information while filtering other information.
Inattentional Blindness
Failing to notice a visible stimulus because attention is directed elsewhere.
Perceptual Set
A readiness to perceive something in a particular way based on expectations or experience.
Gestalt Principles and Depth Perception
Figure-Ground
The perceptual organization of a focal object against its background.
Proximity
The Gestalt tendency to group nearby items together.
Similarity
The Gestalt tendency to group similar items together.
Closure
The Gestalt tendency to fill gaps and perceive complete forms.
Depth Perception
The ability to perceive the world in three dimensions and judge distance.
Binocular Cue
A depth cue that depends on information from both eyes, such as retinal disparity.
Monocular Cue
A depth cue available to either eye alone, such as relative size or linear perspective.
Problem Solving and Decision-Making
Algorithm
A step-by-step procedure that guarantees a solution when applied correctly.
Heuristic
A quick mental shortcut that is efficient but can produce errors.
Availability Heuristic
Judging likelihood based on how easily examples come to mind.
Representativeness Heuristic
Judging category membership by similarity to a prototype, sometimes ignoring base rates.
Confirmation Bias
Seeking or interpreting information in ways that support existing beliefs.
Functional Fixedness
Difficulty seeing an object as useful in a new way beyond its usual function.
Framing
The effect of how information is worded or presented on judgments and decisions.
Memory: Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval
Encoding
Getting information into memory.
Storage
Retaining encoded information over time.
Retrieval
Accessing stored information.
Working Memory
A limited-capacity system for actively holding and manipulating information.
Explicit Memory
Conscious memory for facts and experiences.
Episodic Memory
Explicit memory for personally experienced events.
Semantic Memory
Explicit memory for facts, meanings, and general knowledge.
Implicit Memory
Memory expressed without conscious recollection, such as skills or conditioned associations.
Procedural Memory
Implicit memory for learned skills and procedures.
Long-Term Potentiation
A lasting increase in synaptic strength after repeated stimulation, linked to learning and memory.
Chunking
Organizing information into meaningful units to increase effective working-memory capacity.
Improving and Distorting Memory
Spacing Effect
Better long-term learning when study is distributed over time rather than massed.
Testing Effect
Improved long-term retention produced by actively retrieving information.
Serial Position Effect
Tendency to remember items at the beginning and end of a list better than middle items.
Context-Dependent Memory
Improved retrieval when the external context resembles the context in which learning occurred.
State-Dependent Memory
Improved retrieval when a person's internal state matches the state present during learning.
Proactive Interference
Old information disrupts learning or recall of newer information.
Retroactive Interference
New information disrupts recall of older information.
Misinformation Effect
Memory distortion caused by misleading information introduced after an event.
Source Amnesia
Remembering information but misremembering or forgetting where it came from.
Intelligence and Testing
Reliability
The consistency of a measurement or test.
Validity
The degree to which evidence supports the intended interpretation or use of a measure.
Standardization
Using uniform procedures and comparing performance with an appropriate reference group.
Normal Distribution
A symmetrical bell-shaped distribution in which many scores cluster near the mean.
Correlation Coefficient
A value from -1 to +1 describing the direction and strength of a linear relationship.
Intelligence
The capacity to learn from experience, solve problems, and adapt, defined and measured in multiple ways.
Achievement Test
A measure intended to assess what a person has already learned.
Aptitude Test
A measure intended to predict capacity to learn or future performance.
AP-Style Practice Questions
Try these multiple-choice questions drawn from the Unit 2 question bank. Click "Show Answer" to check your work and read the explanation. Want more? Build a full set on the Practice Exam page.
A psychology student is reviewing the idea of bipolar disorder. Which statement most accurately describes this concept?
- A. Marked, persistent fear of a specific object or situation that is disproportionate to actual danger.
- B. A mood disorder involving episodes of mania or hypomania, usually along with depressive episodes.
- C. A disorder involving obsessions, compulsions, or both that cause significant distress or impairment.
- D. Exposure paired with relaxation, usually moving gradually through a fear hierarchy.
A psychology student is reviewing the idea of stressor. Which statement most accurately describes this concept?
- A. Therapy emphasizing empathy, acceptance, self-awareness, and personal growth.
- B. Medication commonly used to reduce psychotic symptoms.
- C. A disorder involving recurrent unexpected panic attacks and concern or behavior changes related to future attacks.
- D. An event or condition that can trigger a stress response.
A psychology student is reviewing the idea of encoding. Which statement most accurately describes this concept?
- A. Perception that begins with incoming sensory information and builds toward recognition.
- B. Getting information into memory.
- C. A symmetrical bell-shaped distribution in which many scores cluster near the mean.
- D. The ability to perceive the world in three dimensions and judge distance.
A psychology student is reviewing the idea of validity. Which statement most accurately describes this concept?
- A. The degree to which evidence supports the intended interpretation or use of a measure.
- B. Memory expressed without conscious recollection, such as skills or conditioned associations.
- C. A limited-capacity system for actively holding and manipulating information.
- D. Judging likelihood based on how easily examples come to mind.
A psychology student is reviewing the idea of neurotransmitter. Which statement most accurately describes this concept?
- A. A parietal-lobe region processing touch and body sensations.
- B. A chemical messenger released by neurons into a synapse.
- C. A fatty covering that speeds neural transmission along many axons.
- D. The peripheral division involved in voluntary skeletal-muscle control and sensory information.
A psychology student is reviewing the idea of long-term potentiation. Which statement most accurately describes this concept?
- A. Difficulty seeing an object as useful in a new way beyond its usual function.
- B. A readiness to perceive something in a particular way based on expectations or experience.
- C. A lasting increase in synaptic strength after repeated stimulation, linked to learning and memory.
- D. Organizing information into meaningful units to increase effective working-memory capacity.
A psychology student is reviewing the idea of rods. Which statement most accurately describes this concept?
- A. Retinal receptors especially useful for dim light and peripheral vision.
- B. A cortical lobe involved in hearing, language, object recognition, and aspects of memory.
- C. An approximately 24-hour biological cycle regulating sleep-wake patterns and other functions.
- D. A neurotransmitter involved in mood, sleep, appetite, and other functions.
A psychology student is reviewing the idea of posttraumatic stress disorder. Which statement most accurately describes this concept?
- A. Therapy aimed at identifying and changing maladaptive patterns of thinking.
- B. A mood disorder involving a persistent period of depressed mood or loss of interest plus additional symptoms that impair functioning.
- C. Attempting to reduce emotional distress rather than directly changing the stressor.
- D. A trauma-related disorder involving persistent symptoms after exposure to a traumatic event.
A psychology student is reviewing the idea of aptitude test. Which statement most accurately describes this concept?
- A. The Gestalt tendency to fill gaps and perceive complete forms.
- B. Seeking or interpreting information in ways that support existing beliefs.
- C. A value from -1 to +1 describing the direction and strength of a linear relationship.
- D. A measure intended to predict capacity to learn or future performance.
A psychology student is reviewing the idea of authoritative parenting. Which statement most accurately describes this concept?
- A. Demonstrating a behavior that another person may imitate.
- B. A parenting style combining warmth and responsiveness with clear, consistent expectations.
- C. Reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response after a pause.
- D. Adding a desirable consequence to increase a behavior.
How to Study This Unit
Heuristic vs. Bias
Know the difference between a general shortcut (heuristic) and a specific error pattern (like confirmation bias or the fundamental attribution error from Unit 4) — they're often confused on the exam.
Match the Memory Type to the Example
Practice identifying whether a described memory is episodic, semantic, or procedural before you look at the answer choices.
Reliability Is Not Validity
A test can be reliable (consistent) without being valid (accurate). Learn a concrete example of each so you can spot the distinction quickly.