Exam #4 Flashcards
cognition
all forms of knowing and awareness, such as perceiving, conceiving, remembering, reasoning, judging, imagining, and problem-solving
thinking
act of manipulating (processing) mental representations (information about the world).
priming
the facilitation of a response to a stimulus based on past experience with that stimulus or a related stimulus
analogical representations
have some of the physical characteristics of objects, e.g., images; faster to be processed (needs no decoding)
symbolic represnetations
are abstract, with no resemblance to objects e.g., words; slower to be processed (requires decoding)
Representing verbal info–retain gist vs. exact wording
Easily able to remember aspects of story versus the exact wording used
Representing visual-spatial info as propositions (verbal statements) or as visual images
- Scanning and mental rotation experiments; eidetic imagery
- Rotating objects take the longest at 180 degrees of rotation from normal, longer when mirrored as well
Editetic Imagery
long-lasting and detailed images of a visual scene. Can be scanned or “looked at”
Prototype models
categorization proposing that people form an average of the members of a category and then use the average as a prototype for making judgments about category membership. Subjects rate certain members of categories as more typical than other members.
For example, robin and bluebird are typical birds; chicken and penguin are atypical birds. People identify typical examples more quickly.
exemplar models
all members of a category that you have
experienced from the concept (ex. The entire category of birds).
Networks of Association
cognitive models that incorporate long-known principles of association to represent key features of human memory. When two things (e.g., “bacon” and “eggs”) are thought about simultaneously, they may become linked in memory.
Spreading Activation
a hypothetical process in which the activation of one neuron is presumed to spread to connected neurons
Hierarchical model of semantic (i.e., conceptual) memory => there is a “basic” level of the hierarchy (can form prototypes of basic level categories)
- Long-term storage may also be hierarchical, which is a streamlined way of representing information.
- each category has properties which are stored as high as possible in the hierarchy. Lower categories inherit the properties of the higher categories to which they belong
- Efficient, can make inferences
Why are having categorical representations useful
Rapid organization, classification, and prediction of aspects of experience.
Also, helps in reasoning and communicating about the world.
schemas
Mental representations of how objects, events and behaviors
are organized.
Benefits of schemas
Helps us perceive, organize, and use information. Provides context that allows us to process information more easily and respond more quickly.
Downsides of schemas
Inaccuracies in one’s schemas, or the application of schemas too broadly, can lead to negative stereotypes. Can lead to inaccurate perceptions and false memories.
Scripts
A schema that guides a sequence of behaviors in time, as relevant in different situations, is called a script
Forgetting
forgetting curves – due to decay, interference, and lack of appropriate retrieval cues
Retroactive interference
Inhibitory effect of new information on old information (ex: learning a new phone # makes it harder to remember an old one)
Longterm Retrieval cues:
Recall and Recognition
Recall: No stimulus present to help
Recognition: Stimulus is there providing retrieval cues
Recognition is much easier, especially if a long time has pasted since learning. Information is harder to access with time; need more retrieval cues
Proactive interference
interference that occurs when prior information inhibits the ability to remember new information (e.g., initially learning how to
pronounce a word wrong – “colonel” – affects ones ability to do it right in the future)
Encoding specificity principle
Cues present during the initial encoding of a LTM will be most useful for its retrieval
Context-dependent memory
when the recall situation is similar to the encoding situation (ex: better recall of words underwater if initially learned underwater)
state-dependent memory
When a person’s internal states match during encoding and recall (ex: take a test while high if studied high)
False memories can be created by
*top-down processing “filling in the blanks”
*long-term memory just stores the “gist” of the scene, not the details
Repressed memories
suppressed memories of traumatic events (such as childhood physical or sexual abuse) that resurface later in life.
“False memory syndrome”
Loftus and others question the accuracy of repressed memories,
especially those that are recovered during psychotherapy
Memories may be reconsolidated every time they are retrieved, during which time they can be updated, changed, or forgotten
We can misattribute, or misremember, the time, place or person involved, or how we learned about an event.
Bartlett’s work on story recollection and serial reproduction of pictures
Change and simplify story to fit own assimilated cultural knowledge
Remembering/reproducing pictures can totally change what the object is
Suggestibility means that providing misleading information may modify people’s memories or even create new ones.
Accuracy of repressed memories vs. continuous memories of traumatic events In-class 60 min video – what did it demonstrate?
Memories can be influenced by the knowledge/experience we bring to a situation – e.g., Bartlett’s experiments.
If new information is provided that is similar to the original memory, it can modify/distort the original memory.
New (false) information can also provide alternative or competing information to the original memory.
New information generally does not completely erase/replace the original memory
Long-term potentiation (LTP)
a mechanism by which synaptic connections are strengthened, so that the post synaptic neuron is more easily activated by the presynaptic neuron (Potentiation = to strengthen or make more potent).
Hebb rule
“Neurons that fire together wire together”
The correlated firing of a pre-and post-synaptic cell strengthens the synapse between them so that the pre-synaptic cell becomes more effective (produces larger EPSPs) in firing the post-synaptic neuron
synaptic plasticity Brain basis/systems
working memory (prefrontal cortex)
fear learning (Amygdala)
explicit/declarative memory (medial temporal lobe + Hippocampus),
implicit/procedural memory (Basal Ganglia + Cerebellum)
Anatomy of the sensory systems: Primary sensory areas => Sensory cortex <=> MTL structures
Damage to inferior temporal cortex (IT) = visual agnosia (difficulty in pattern recognition)
Damage to Medial Temporal Lobe (MTL) structures (hippocampus and medial part of temporal lobe) result in retrograde and anterograde amnesia
Anterograde amnesia
difficulty establishing new memories
Retrograde Amnesia
difficulty in retrieving memories formed just before the onset of amnesia, in other words, loss of old memories
case study of hm
Suffered from severe epilepsy
Everyday he suffered from grand mal seizures
Seizures originated in the temporal lobes and radiated from there
Surgery was a suggested treatment option. The thinking behind this was that if the area causing the seizures was removed, the seizures would stop.
Doctors removed portions of his temporal lobes including the hippocampus.
The surgery stopped the seizures but prevented HM from remembering new information for more than a few seconds.
He could still remember his childhood, showing his long term memory remained intact.
But he could still hold regular conversations, showing he could remember things for just a few seconds.
It was established that he suffered from retrograde amnesia.
Research found that he could still learn new things even if he did not know how he learned them.
HM research showed: that temporal lobe structures, specifically the hippocampus, is important in the storage of new experiences in life that can be consciously expressed. That the temporal lobe is involved in being able to say you remember what happened, rather than motor skills.
language
Children do not learn by imitation, they learn by discovering the rules of language
Creative
a limitless # of thoughts can be expressed in a limitless # of ways
Structured: sounds are combined into words, and words into sentences according to rules
Meaningful
ideas are conveyed by individual words and how they are organized into sentences
