Cognition

What this unit covers

The topics below follow the published Psychology course framework for Unit 2. This unit is worth 15–25% of the exam, so budget your time against that rather than against how long the unit takes to teach.

Lessons in this unit

• Memory: Encoding & Storage14 min · 3 objectivesDescribe the three-stage information-processing model of memory · Distinguish the ways information is encoded and the systems where it is stored · Explain the serial-position effect and levels of processing
• Retrieval & Forgetting13 min · 3 objectivesDistinguish recall, recognition, and the role of retrieval cues · Explain the major causes of forgetting, including interference · Describe how memories can be reconstructed and distorted
• Thinking, Problem Solving & Decision Making13 min · 3 objectivesDistinguish algorithms from heuristics in problem solving · Identify common cognitive biases that distort judgment · Explain how framing and fixation influence decisions
• Intelligence & Language14 min · 3 objectivesCompare major theories of intelligence and how it is measured · Explain reliability, validity, and standardization in testing · Describe the stages of language development and key theoretical debates

Every term in Unit 2

All 28 terms we publish for Cognition, with definitions. Reading them through is the fastest way to find the ones you cannot define — then drill those in cram mode until you can produce them without the prompt.

Sensation vs perception

Sensation is detecting physical energy; perception is organizing and interpreting it. The same sensation can yield different perceptions.

Bottom-up vs top-down processing

Bottom-up builds perception from raw sensory data; top-down uses expectation and experience to interpret it. Reading messy handwriting relies on top-down.

Perceptual set

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another, shaped by context, expectation and culture.

Gestalt principles

The mind organizes stimuli into wholes using proximity, similarity, closure, continuity and figure-ground.

Depth cues

Binocular cues (retinal disparity, convergence) need both eyes; monocular cues (relative size, interposition, linear perspective, texture gradient) need only one.

Perceptual constancy

Perceiving objects as unchanging in size, shape and color despite changing retinal images — a door stays rectangular as it swings.

Selective attention

Focusing conscious awareness on one stimulus. The cocktail party effect shows unattended channels are still monitored for relevance.

Inattentional blindness

Failing to see a visible object because attention is elsewhere — the invisible gorilla experiment. Attention is a bottleneck, not a spotlight that misses nothing.

Working memory model

Short-term memory as an active workspace with a phonological loop, a visuospatial sketchpad and a central executive, rather than a passive store.

Encoding, storage, retrieval

Getting information in, holding it, and getting it out. Most "forgetting" is retrieval failure rather than loss from storage.

Chunking

Grouping items into meaningful units to get past the roughly seven-item limit of short-term memory — a phone number as three chunks, not ten digits.

Levels of processing

Deep semantic processing (what a word means) produces stronger memories than shallow structural processing (what it looks like).

Spacing effect

Distributed practice produces far better long-term retention than the same total time massed together. The single most useful finding for a student.

Testing effect

Retrieving information strengthens memory more than re-reading it. Self-testing is studying, not just checking.

Serial position effect

Better recall for the first (primacy, rehearsed into long-term memory) and last (recency, still in short-term) items in a list.

Explicit vs implicit memory

Explicit is consciously recalled facts and events (hippocampus); implicit is skills and conditioned responses (cerebellum and basal ganglia).

Retroactive vs proactive interference

Retroactive: new learning disrupts old. Proactive: old learning disrupts new. Both are interference, differing only in direction.

Misinformation effect

Post-event information reshapes memory. Loftus showed the verb in a question ("smashed" vs "hit") changed reported speeds and even memory of broken glass.

Algorithm vs heuristic

An algorithm guarantees a solution but is slow; a heuristic is a fast shortcut that usually works and sometimes fails predictably.

Availability heuristic

Judging likelihood by how easily examples come to mind, which is why vivid rare events like plane crashes feel more probable than common ones.

Representativeness heuristic

Judging likelihood by resemblance to a prototype while ignoring base rates — assuming a quiet reader is a librarian rather than a salesperson.

Confirmation bias

Seeking and weighting evidence that supports an existing belief while discounting evidence against it.

Framing

The same information influences decisions differently depending on presentation — "90% survival" is accepted more often than "10% mortality".

Functional fixedness

Inability to see an object used in a new way, a specific form of mental set that blocks problem-solving.

Anchoring

Over-relying on the first number encountered when estimating, so an arbitrary anchor drags the final judgement toward it.

Convergent vs divergent thinking

Convergent narrows to one correct answer; divergent generates many possibilities and underlies creativity.

Language acquisition

Babbling, then one-word, then telegraphic speech, on a consistent timetable across cultures — evidence for a biological predisposition.

Linguistic relativity

Whorf's hypothesis that language influences thought. The strong form is rejected; a weaker influence on categorization and attention is supported.

What examiners penalize here

• Sort long-term memory quickly on the exam: **explicit** = "can declare it" (facts = semantic, events = episodic); **implicit** = "can’t easily state it" (skills = procedural, conditioned responses). A skill like typing is always implicit/procedural.
• When a question describes leading questions, false details, or unreliable eyewitnesses, the answer is almost always **Loftus / the misinformation effect** and memory as **reconstruction**. Confidence does not equal accuracy — a favorite exam point.
• On FRQs, tie each bias to a one-line trigger: availability = vivid/easily recalled examples, representativeness = matches a stereotype, confirmation bias = only seeking supporting evidence, framing = same facts worded differently. Naming the trigger nails the definition point.
• For intelligence theorists, keep a one-liner each: Spearman = **g** (one general factor), Gardner = **multiple intelligences**, Sternberg = **analytical/creative/practical**. For language, remember the debate: **Skinner (learning/reinforcement)** vs. **Chomsky (inborn LAD)**.

Practice Psychology

Our practice bank is drawn from across the whole course rather than filtered to one unit, which is closer to how the exam asks anyway — it will not tell you which unit a question is testing.

Questions about this unit

All 5 units of AP Psychology

1. Unit 1 · Biological Bases of Behavior
2. Unit 2 · Cognition
3. Unit 3 · Development & Learning
4. Unit 4 · Social Psychology & Personality
5. Unit 5 · Mental & Physical Health