Cognition Flashcards
Describe the different areas that make up sensory memory.
Iconic (visual) and Echoic (Auditory senses)
- Visual (what is seen), Accoustic (what is heard), Semantic (meaning of things), tactile (what is felt psychically), olfactory (what is smelt), gustatory (what is tasted).
Describe the difference between procedural, episodic, and semantic memory.
All forms of Long Term Memory
- Procedural: unconscious memory about how to perform different actions
- Episodic: Memory about events involving personal experiences, about the context and state you were in.
- Semantic: General knowledge and facts about the world. Stored without the information about where or when you remembered them.
Research has determined that culture helps shape memory. Describe two examples of how culture influences what is remembered and how it is learned.
- Examples could include Aboriginal history being passed verbally through dreamtime stories, or European history being written and passed on through writing. Could also discuss how different ‘sides’ will pass on their own version of events (eg German history tells war events differently).
Describe how mnemonic strategies can be used to improve memory.
Any strategy or learning technique that aids in information retention or retrieval.
- Linked to elaborative encoding eg: BEDMAS for remember order of operations, DRSABCD for First Aid response etc.
How is memory different from learning?
Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge, where memory is the process of recording, storing and retrieving the information.
Learning allows for concepts to be applied to different contexts where memory is pure facts.
Learning occurs slowly, has long term retention, utilized in practical applications.
memory occurs quicky, short of long term retention, expressed or regurgitated.
Name and describe the three stages of memory
- Encoding, storage and retrieval
- Encoding: Information coming in is converted into a form that the brain can accept and use
- Storage: Information is stored in the brain, generally in a system that is categorised like a library
- Retrieval: Process of locating and recalling information stored in memory so that we are consciously aware of it. Involves both recall and recognition.
You have just started working at a local McDonalds. On your first day you are introduced to 15 other employees, one after the other. Explain, using appropriate psychological terms, which names you are likely to remember and why.
You are most likely to remember the first 2-4 and the last 2-4 names you are provided due to the serial position effect. Primacy effect describes that the first names you hear may have enough time to be moved into Long Term Memory so you are more likely to remember them. The brain also places more importance on remembering the first information in a situation. The last names on the list are better able to be recalled ude to the recency effect. They are still likely in Short Term Memory which has a capacity of 7 + or- 2 pieces of information.
Describe the process of ‘chunking’ and how it is used in memory.
Clustering of smaller bits of information into larger, more meaningful chunks so that more information can be stored in Short term memory at once.
What is the definition of memory?
- The process of recording, storing, and retrieving information.
What are the differences between memory recall and recognition?
- Both are part of the process of retrieval.
- Recall is when information is retrieved from memory with little to no cues
- Recognition is when you are able to correctly identify or select previously learned information from a set of alternatives.
How is maintenance rehearsal different from elaborative rehearsal?
Maintenance rehearsal: Repeating information over and over without adding new meaning e.g. repeating a phone number
- Elaborative rehearsal: Reorganizing new and existing information in a meaningful way to aid retrieval e.g learning definitions before a test using cue cards.
What is the capacity of short term memory compared to long term memory?
- Short Term: 7 + or –
- Long Term: limitless capacity
Explain the concept of Serial Position Effect.
You area more likely to recall information at the beginning of a list due to the primacy effect. There has been enough time to move them into Long Term Memory. The items at the end of the list are also likely to be higher than others due to the recency effect. They are still in short term memory.
Fill in an Atkinson and Shiffrin’s model of memory.
Sensory memory - A
Short-term memory - D
Rehearsal loop - C
Long-term memory - B
what is cognition
mental processes associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating.
what are concepts
they act as mental filing cabinets where ideas are stores. they can be emotions, objects, people.
what are the two types of concepts and what are they
formal concepts: have clearly defined characteristics and agreed upon rules governing what is included in that concept. e.g. triangles, elements, animals
natural concepts: do not have clearly defined characteristics no agreed upon rules of what is included in the concept. e.g. chair, mum, anger.
what are prototypes
a mental image or best example of a concept. has all of the most typical features of an item within a concept.
what are exemplars
any example of an item within an overarching concept. robins, blue jays, penguins, for bird.
what is memory
the ability to take in information, store it and recall it later.
what is the modal model of memory
a model that proposed that memory consists of three stores- sensory, short term, memory and long-term memory.
what is the capacity, duration and function of memory
capacity: how much information can be stored
duration: how long information can be stored for
function: what is done with this stored information
how does memory work
sensory memory- stores incoming raw sensory info for a few seconds enough for us to pay attention to it
STM- if we pay more attention to sensory inputs, information is transferred here and is stored for about 20 seconds, unless we consciously try to keep it longer.
LTM- info is transferred here to for permanent storage and also receives information from LTM for temporary use.
what is iconic memory
stores visual images in their original sensory form for about 1/3 of a second
what is echoic memory
auditory sensory information memory- stores sounds in their raw form for about 2-4 seconds
how can we increase the capacity of STM
through chunking
what is the duration of STM
unrehearsed info can be held for 20 seconds. when you are not able to rehearse information, you lose it.
what can LTM be spilt into
explicit memory- conscious
goes to declarative memory
goes to episodic and semantic
implicit memory- unconscious
goes to procedural memory
what is proceduarl memory
how to perform different actions and skills- ability to remember how something is done. eg. send a text- mostly unconscious.
what is declarative memory
facts or event we can consciously recall, used to identify number of legs on spider or colour of the rainbow. brought to conscious awareness.
what is episodic memory
memory systems that store events involving personal experiences. specific memories that store info about the context and the state you were in at the time
what is semantic memory
stores information about the world- general knowledge and facts. you can store them without remembering how or when you learned them.
what is clustering
a way of organising info in LTM. organising items into related groups or clusters during recall.
what is association
a way of organising information in LTM. different bits of info in LTM are associated like associating anger with red.
what is the semantic network theory
it proposes that information is stored as groups of concepts or nodes that are meaningfully linked and form parts of overlapping networks. make associating between concepts like a sun is round.
what are some theories of forgetting
- proactive and retroactive interference
- displacement theory
- trace decay theory
- retrieval failure theory of forgetting
- consolidation theories
what is the interference theory
forgetting occurs because recall of information interferes with the recall of other information. like if you have to remember a letter combination then asked to count backwards, backwards counting acts as interfering information preventing you from rehearsing the initial information.
what is proactive interference
occurs when you cannot learn a new task because of an old task that had been learnt. when what we already know interferes with what we are currently learning, old memories disrupt new memories.
why does older adults have trouble learning new things
proactive inference. older adults have so much previously learned information that it interferes greatly with the newly learned information, so they tend to forget it shortly after encoding it.
what is retroactive interference.
it occurs when you forget a previously learned task due to the learning of a new task. later learning interferes with earlier learning- new memories disrupt old memories.
what is overlearning
rehearsal of new information
what is the displacement theory
it describes how forgetting works in STM. STM has a limited capacity and can only hold a small amount of information. once memory is full, new info will replace the old info. when learning a list, the info in the middle would not go from the rehearsal loop into LTM but was replaced by new information in the loop and forgotten.
what is a retrieval cue
any stimulus that aids the process of locating and recovering information stored in memory. a retrieval cue could be a model of a brain when trying to remember the part of the brain.
what is the retrieval failure theory
it occurs when we are unable to access info from the LTM because we fail to use the right or effective retrieval cue.
what is the trace decay theory
states that forgetting occurs as a result of the automatic decay or fading of the memory trace. it focusses on time and the limited duration of STM. it suggests that STM can only hold info for 15-30 seconds unless rehearsed.
what is the consolidation theory
physical changes in brain neurons occur following learning to consolidate new info in memory. if this process is interfered with during the consolidation phase of memory formation, memory loss with occur.
what is the famous curve called
Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve.
what does damage to the hippocampus do
can result in a person having a normally functioning STM, but inability to transfer info to LTM. can recall events that occurred in their lives before brain damage but are unable to recall events that occur after brain damage.
what is dementia
an umbrella term for a number of disorders that can affect the brain and the way a person thinks and behaves.
it is thought to occur as a result of nerve cell damage in brain.
what diseases fall under dementia
Alzheimer’s disease
vascular dementia
frontotemporal dementia
Lewy Body dementia
what is Alzheimer’s disease and its cause
a type of dementia which results in memory loss that disrupts a person’s daily life.
cause is the progressive damage to brain cells leading to a slow decline in memory.
how does Alzheimer’s effect memory
it impacts STM in initial stages. starts in hippocampus, which is responsible for storing new memories. STM don’t make it to LTM and is forgotten forever. disease can progress to affect temporal lobe where we process speech and words. then is deteriorates prefrontal cortex which is responsible for judgement and decision making.
who can suffer from Alzheimer’s
more common in people over 65. young onset occurs in people under 65. 5% of AD patients have young onset AD.
what are oral traditions
oral transmissions of stories, histories, lessons and other knowledge to maintain a historical record and sustain their cultures.
how is knowledge passed down through first peoples cultures
oral tradition. this includes oral narratives that are used to teach skills, transmit cultural value, convey news, record family and community histories and explain the natural world. specific stories also provided a record of literal truths as narratives were passed unchanged
what is a yarning circle
an important process within aboriginal culture that has been used by these people around the world for centers to learn from a collective group, build respectful relationships and to preserver and pass on cultural knowledge.
