Awarded if you provided an example that explains how selective attention is often not deliberate. Some
aspect of our consciousness that we are not aware of often determines what we pay attention to, and
consequently what information is encoded into memory through selective attention.
POINT 3
Definition, Cognitive Dissonance
Awarded if you defined cognitive dissonance as the tension that exists when our attitudes do not match
our behaviors.
POINT 4
Description, Cognitive Dissonance
Awarded if you provided an example that describes how we are not aware of cognitive dissonance and
its subsequent effects on our attitudes and behaviors. The example must clearly show that we are not
consciously aware of either the tension created by cognitive dissonance or how we change our attitudes
or behavior to relieve the dissonance.
POINT 5
Definition, Fundamental Attribution Error
Awarded if you defined the fundamental attribution error as the tendency to overestimate the importance
of dispositional (such as personality) factors and underestimate the role of situational factors when we
judge the behaviors of others. Both dispositional and situational factors need to be referred to in the
definition.
POINT 6
Description, Fundamental Attribution Error
Awarded if you provided an example that shows we are not consciously aware of attributing behavior
to being caused by inner dispositions rather than being caused by the situation. The example must clearly
show how this error is not purposeful or a matter of choice. The error occurs and we are not consciously
aware of having committed it.
POINT 7
Definition, Perceptual set
Awarded if you defined perceptual set as a predisposition to perceiving sensations in a certain way.
Valid definitions must include the words or appropriate synonyms for perception and sensation.
POINT 8
Description, Perceptual set
Awarded if you provided an example that shows how perceptual sets determine how we perceive
sensations without our choice or conscious awareness of their effects. The example must clearly show
how perceptual sets create perceptions out of sensations instead of a conscious choice about how to
perceive sensations.
POINT 9
Definition, Sensory Memory
Awarded if you defined sensory memory as the split-second holding area for incoming sensory