AP Psychology Unit 2 Cognition (updated for 24/25 SY)
Decoding the Mind: A Student's Guide to Sensation,
Perception, Memory, and Cognition
This guide breaks down key concepts in sensation, perception, memory, and
cognition, making them easy to understand and remember. Let's dive in!
I. Sensation and Perception: How We Experience the World
1. Bottom-up processing: Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and
works up to the brain's integration of sensory information.
2. Top-down processing: Information processing guided by higher-level
mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our
experience and expectations.
3. Schema: A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
4. Perceptual Set: A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not
another.
5. Gestalt psychology: A psychological approach that emphasizes that we
often perceive the whole rather than the sum of the parts.
, Study Tip: Think of a melody – you recognize it even if played in a
different key or by different instruments. That's the "whole" being more than
the individual notes.
6. Closure: The tendency to complete figures that are incomplete.
7. Figure and ground: The organization of the visual field into objects (the
figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground).
8. Proximity: The way relationships are formed between things close to one
another.
9. Similarity: The tendency to perceive things that look similar to each
other as being part of the same group.
II. Attention: Focusing Our Mental Spotlight
10.Attention: Focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events.
11.Selective attention: The ability to focus on only one stimulus from among
all sensory input.
12.Cocktail party effect: Ability to concentrate on one voice amongst a
crowd.
13.Inattentional blindness: Failing to see visible objects when our attention is
directed elsewhere.
Decoding the Mind: A Student's Guide to Sensation,
Perception, Memory, and Cognition
This guide breaks down key concepts in sensation, perception, memory, and
cognition, making them easy to understand and remember. Let's dive in!
I. Sensation and Perception: How We Experience the World
1. Bottom-up processing: Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and
works up to the brain's integration of sensory information.
2. Top-down processing: Information processing guided by higher-level
mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our
experience and expectations.
3. Schema: A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
4. Perceptual Set: A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not
another.
5. Gestalt psychology: A psychological approach that emphasizes that we
often perceive the whole rather than the sum of the parts.
, Study Tip: Think of a melody – you recognize it even if played in a
different key or by different instruments. That's the "whole" being more than
the individual notes.
6. Closure: The tendency to complete figures that are incomplete.
7. Figure and ground: The organization of the visual field into objects (the
figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground).
8. Proximity: The way relationships are formed between things close to one
another.
9. Similarity: The tendency to perceive things that look similar to each
other as being part of the same group.
II. Attention: Focusing Our Mental Spotlight
10.Attention: Focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events.
11.Selective attention: The ability to focus on only one stimulus from among
all sensory input.
12.Cocktail party effect: Ability to concentrate on one voice amongst a
crowd.
13.Inattentional blindness: Failing to see visible objects when our attention is
directed elsewhere.
