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
Referential
refers to and describes things and events in the world (children must learn the mapping between words and things in the world)
Interpersonal/Communicative
has a social function
Competence
what one knows - implicit knowledge (plural, wordness, syntactic competence), explicit knowledge (formal rules (grammar))
Most knowledge is implicit unless you are an English major
Performance
what one does; how knowledge is used, competence is normally better than performance
~7000 different languages in the world today
Structure of Language
Sound (phonemes)
elementary sounds of speech
There are vowel (e) and constant sounds (t)
Phonemes are not letters
English has about 40 phonemes
words (morphemes)
smallest meaningful unit of language
Phonemes
elementary sounds of speech
There are vowel (e) and constant sounds (t)
Phonemes are not letters
English has about 40 phonemes
Morphemes
smallest meaningful unit of language
Word: e.g., help, love
Word stem
e.g., act (actor, acting, reenact)
prefix
e.g., dis-, re-
Suffix
e.g., -less, -ful, -ed, -s
Approximately 80,000 in English language
2 classes of morphemes
Content Words
Carry the main meaning of the sentence, including nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
Functional Words
grammatical words, includes articles (a, the), conjunctions (and, but), prepositions (in, of), prefixes and suffixes (re-, -ing), relative pronouns (that, which, who)
Neurological correlate in aphasia
Wernicke’s aphasia
impairment of content words, understanding words
semantic deficits => serious problems in comprehending the meaning of language; superficially fluent speech without meaning (deficient in content words but not grammatical morphemes/words) temporal lobe
Broca’s aphasia
impairment of function words, formation of words
syntactic deficits => problems interpreting and producing grammatical morphemes/words (OK with content words); trouble producing language (telegraphic speech) frontal lobe
Organizing Words into Meaningful Sentences:
in English: Sentences introduce some concept that they are about, the subject (or noun phrase) of the sentence, and then propose or predicate something about that concept, the predicate (or verb phrase) of the sentence
Spoonerisms
“slips of the tongue” errors in speech production in which 2 elements in a sentence are mistakenly interchanged in position
mixing up two morphemes or phonemes
sentences
Sentences can have the same meaning (same deep structure) but different surface phrase structures (different surface structure). => Chomsky
Ex: The boy hit the ball (active)
The ball was hit by the boy (passive)
a sentence can be grammatical even if it doesn’t make sense (or contains non-words)
deep –> have the same meaning
passive –> they have different surface structures (ways of conveying the meaning - either passive or active) –> like sentence structure
Language Comprehension
strong bias in English to interpret sentence as: doer, act, done-to (i.e., subject, verb, object)
use grammatical morphemes to interpret sentences that don’t follow the doer, act, done-to format
Neuropsychology of Language
Language is in the left hemisphere for most people => Broca’s and Wenicke’s Areas
Language in Nonhumans: (Movie clip)
Older ape research (on chimpanzees – e.g., Washoe, Nim):
–Words? Can acquire a substantial number of “words” (e.g., Washoe) –Syntax? Typical sentences produced are jumbles of words without systematic order Research on Bonobo Chimps:
–Words? Yes (e.g., Kanzi)
–Comprehension? Responded appropriately to new sentences.
–Syntax? Limited (tend to produce action-object sequences).
Chimpanzees can learn words; but have a limited
ability to create or understand syntactic structures
Decision making
A cognitive process that results in the selection of a course of action or belief from several options
Normative decision theory
Assume that people make rational decisions that maximize expected utility (outcome value * probability of obtaining it)
Prescribe how we “should” make decisions
Descriptive decision theory
Try to account for actual behavior, posit that people are not actually rational in their decisions
Heuristics
shortcuts (rules of thumb or informal guidelines) used to reduce the amount of thinking that is needed to make decisions
Confirmation bias
people’s tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with their existing beliefs.
Hindsight bias
The tendency, upon learning an outcome of an event to overestimate one’s ability to have foreseen the outcomes
Anchoring
The tendency in making judgments, to rely on the first piece of information encountered or information that comes most quickly to mind
Framing
in decision making, an emphasis on the potential losses or gains from the alternatives
Availability heuristic
Making a decision based on the answer that most easily comes to mind
Representativeness heuristic
Placing a person or an object in a category if that person or object is similar to one’s prototype for that category categorizing based on how similar something is to a category prototype, ignoring base rate
Affective heuristic
describes how we often rely on our emotions, rather than concrete information, when making decisions. This allows us to reach a conclusion quickly and easily, but can also distort our thinking and lead us to make suboptimal choices.
Affect-as-information theory
postulating that affective feelings provide a source of information about objects, tasks, and decision alternatives
Somatic marker theory
Proposes that emotional processes guide behavior, especially decision making
Affective forecasting
Predicting how something would make you feel., People overestimate the effect that external events would have on their happiness.
Problem solving
Finding a way around an obstacle to reaching a goal
Subgoals
Breaking down big problems into smaller more manageable steps (ex: steps to becoming a doctor)
Restructuring
Representing the problem in a new way by eliminating assumed constraints
¡ ex) connect all the dots withfour straight lines
Functional fixedness
Type of mental set results from having fixed ideas about the typical functions of objects
Algorithm
A guideline that if followed correctly will always yield the correct answer (like a formula)
Working backward
Proceeding from the goal state to the initial state can help yield a solution
Appropriate analogies
Using a strategy that works in one context to solve a problem that is structurally similar.
Insight
The metaphorical mental lightbulb that goes off when you suddenly realize the solution to a problem
Paradox of choice
People want choices but too many choices leads to frustration, indecision and dissatisfaction with the eventual satisfaction
Maximizers
Seek to identify the perfect choice among all options, select the objectively best option but end up dissatisfied
Satisficers
Seek a “good enough” choice that satisfies their minimum requirements
Intelligence
The ability to use knowledge to reason, make decisions, make sense of events, solve problems, understand complex ideas, learn quickly and adapt to environmental challenges
IQ (Intelligence Quotient)
Normalized distribution of intelligence scores
Fluid Intelligence
Being able to understand abstract relationships and think logically
without prior knowledge
Involves information processing, especially in new or complex circumstances, reasoning, drawing analogies, and thinking quickly and flexibly
Decreases with aging
Crystallized Intelligence
Knowledge acquired through experiences, such as vocabulary and cultural information, and the ability to use this knowledge to solve hard problems
Increasing with aging
Analytical
problem solving, completing analogies, figuring out puzzles
Creative
The ability to gain insight and solve new problems, to think in new ways
Practical
Dealing with everyday tasks, being a good judge of people, effective leader etc.
Emotional Intelligence (EI)
Managing ones emotions, using ones own emotions to guide thoughts and actions, recognizing other’s emotions, understanding emotional language
Reaction times
Higher performance = faster reaction time
Working memory
Performance on complex memory tasks show a strong relationship with general intelligence, attention may be linked to intellegience
Genetic Factors
Twins raised apart are similar in intelligence, crystlallized (genes explains 40% of variation), fluid (genes explains 51% of variation)
Socioeconomic Status (SES)
Wealth responsible for 12-18 IQ points, focus on education, enriched environments (linked to environment more than gene change as overall IQ is increasing - Flynn effect)
Group Differences: Sex
No significant overall differences
* Females tend to get better grades and perform better in writing and language
Usage * Males tend to score higher on standardized math tests and visuospatial processing
Group Differences: Race
Whites tend to score higher, but doesn’t necessarily mean smarter * Environment, treatment, and stereotype threat
