Cognitive Approach Flashcards
Sensory Memory
5 stores for each one of our senses
capacity is very high
STM
Lasts up to 30 seconds
5-9 items
Encoding is mainly aucostic
LTM
Lasts up to a lifetime
Unlimited capacity
Encoding mainly semantic
What is remembering?
Recall and recognition
Free recall
Retrieve it from a memory store without any assistance
Cued Recall
Shows we have more in our memory than we can usually access. We assume we have forgotten it until the cue appears
Recognition
Demonstrates that we store more in our LTM than we can usually retrieve
Reconstructive Memory
Suggests that in the absence of all information we fill in the gaps to make more sense
Schema
using our previous knowledge and experience of a situation to complete the memory
Confabulation
Use schemas to fill in gaps of memory without intentionally trying to deceive
Rationalisation
Add details to a story so they fit in with our schema
Shortening
Leaving out information that doesnt fit in with our schema
Encoding
Visual (picture)
Acoustic (sound)
Semantic (meaning)
What is cognitive priming?
Priming is a phenomenon that is influential in everyday life but we are usually unaware of it
Cognitive Scripts
Used to describe what we have learned e.g. how to behave in a restaurant.
- Learned through experience
Repetition Priming
The impact that previous exposure to an event has on later test performance
Semantic Priming
When two stimuli mean the same thing or have similar features
Associative Reasoning
The prime and the later stimulus are related but not necessarily semantically
e.g. fish and chips are often paired
Cognitive bias
Error in how we process information
Gets in the way of logical thinking
Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)
E.g. situations where you hold the victim responsible for their pain and suffering
Hostile Attribution bias
Helps us understand why some people are aggressive
Confirmation Bias
Helps explain why some behaviour can be “tribal” e.g. sport, politics
Only seek behaviour that supports our current preferences
Key assumptions
Behaviour is a product of information processing
The brain can be compared to a computer
Miller (1956)
Magic number 7+/-2
