Cognition Flashcards
Baddeley’s model of working memory
Sought to better define short-term memory which he renamed working memory. his model working memory consists of four components. A phonological loop, a visuospatial sketchpad and episodic buffer, and a central executive.
Phonological Loop-allows us to repeat verbal information to help us remember it
Visuospatial sketch pad-use of mental images
Episodic buffer- where information in the working memory can interact with information and long-term memory.
Central executive-The overseer of the entire process and orchestrates the process by shifting and dividing attention.
Information processing models
Focus on what happens between the ears. These models have a few basic assumptions. They assume that information is taken from the environment is processed through a series of steps including attention perception and storage into memory along the way information is systematically transformed. Therefore our minds are like mental computer programs or assembly lines that change store use and retrieve information.
Jean Piaget
One of the first developmental psychologists who studied cognitive development in children and fought against the notion that children are much like miniature adults in their abilities. He thought cognitive development involves forming schemas or mental frameworks that shape and are shaped by experiences. As we encounter new experiences Piaget believe that we either assimilate those experiences by conforming them into our existing schemas or we accommodate by adjusting our schemas to take into account the new experiences
Piaget’s theory stage 1
- Sensorimotor stage:from birth to roughly 82 babies and young infants experience the world through their senses and movement such as looking touching mouthing and grasping. During this time they learn about objects permanence the understanding that things continue to exist when they’re out of sight. They also demonstrate stranger anxiety: distress when confronted with an unfamiliar person
Piaget’s theory stage 2
- Preoperational stage. Roughly from ages 2 to 7. During this time children learn that things can be represented through symbols such as words and images. This accompanies her learning during pretend play and development of language but they still lack logical reasoning they also are egocentric meaning they do not understand that others have different perspectives
Piaget’s theory stage 3
- Concrete operational stage. Roughly from age 7 to 11. Children learn to think logically about concrete events. This helps them learn the principle of conservation: the idea that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape. They also grasp mathematical concepts during this time
Piaget’s theory stage 4
- Formal operational stage: roughly from age 12 through adulthood. People learn abstract reasoning hypothesizing and moral reasoning.
Cognitive changes in late adulthood
- Show some memory declines in recall while the recognition abilities remain relatively intact. Recall involves retrieving information from the memory without any clues, while recognition involves retrieving information from memory with clues
- Time-based tasks such as regimen involving… medication taken so many times a day.
- Slower information processing abilities slower reaction times and speech
Role of culture in cognitive development
The developing individual in the environment are in a reciprocal relationship in which the social context can shape thinking and behavior. For example the expression of thoughts is limited by the thinkers language. Furthermore internalize Speacht is only developed after child speaks out loud and receives feedback from others in the environment. As you can imagine different languages result in different ways of thinking. Multilingual people have even been shown to perform differently on personality testing depending on in which language the test is given
Influence of heredity and environment on cognitive development
Neither nature nor nurture may be sufficient to explain the developmental path of an individual it may instead be explained by their complex interaction.
Biological factors that affect cognition
The frontal lobe play a role in executive functions including planning organizing inhibiting impulses inflexible thinking. The hippocampus has been shown to be involved in the formation of new memories. Emotional arousal is necessary to provide the motivation and alertness necessary to complete tasks in is managed by the amygdala in the rest of the limbic system.
Problem-solving and problem-solving approaches
Strategy of trial and error, a step-by-step procedure or algorithm, mental shortcuts called heuristics.
Insight is a sudden flash of inspiration
Confirmation bias
A tendency to search only for information that confirms our preconceived thinking rather than information that might not supported. This can prevent you from approaching a problem from multiple perspectives because you’re more likely to view it from one way your way
Fixation
The second obstacle to problem-solving is fixation-inability to see the problem from a fresh perspective. At times this fixation results from the existence of a mental set- a tendency to fixate on solutions that worked in the past though they may not apply to the current situation.
Functional fixedness a tendency to perceive the functions of objects as fixed and then changing. Thus one may search high and low to find a box cutter to open a package, when a readily available key would work just as well
Representativeness heuristic
A tendency to judge the likelihood of an event occurring based on our typical mental representations of those events. For example we may think that one is more likely to die from shark attack than from being crushed by a vending machine because an animal attack is more representative of a cause of death in our schema.
