Final Exam 1: Language / Creativity

Question 1

Proactive Interference

Answer 1

Something learned in the past interferes with the ability to learn something new (ex year change, you keep writing 2022 even though its 2023)

Question 2

Retroactive Interference

Answer 2

something recently learned interferes with something learned in the past (ex you don’t remember your old schedule because you know the new one so well)

Question 3

repression

Answer 3

in psychoanalytic theory, the defense mechanism that pushes anxiety producing memories into the unconscious

Question 4

Retrograde Amnesia

Answer 4

loss of memory of past events

Question 5

Anterograde Amnesia

Answer 5

inability to form or store new memories

Question 6

Lashley

Answer 6

spent 30 yrs training animals to run mazes then cutting out parts of their brain to see where memory was stored. never got an answer.

Question 7

location of memories (humans)

Answer 7

most in the cerebral cortex, but complex memories have no specific location. sensory memories are stored where that sensory input is processed. classical conditioning is cerebellum.

Question 8

hippocampus

Answer 8

involves in consolidating memories from STM to LTM

Question 9

Long Term Potentiation (LTP)

Answer 9

Synapses become more efficient with learning. Inc. in neurotransmitters, synaptic vesicles, and release. Inc. in receptors in postsynaptic cell. Inc. in dendrites (size + number)

Question 10

Protein/DNA Changes

Answer 10

first evidence came from cannibalistic transfer of memory. recent evidence comes from epigenetic effects on memory.

Question 11

McConnell

Answer 11

cannibalistic transfer of memories (doesn’t work on mammals)

Question 12

Metacognition

Answer 12

thinking about your own thoughts/thinking. psych encourages this.

Question 13

what is thinking

Answer 13

The creation and manipulation of mental representation of the external world (units: images, concepts, language)

Question 14

mental images

Answer 14

visual or auditory. some also have images for movement, touch, taste, smell, pain. can be used in many ways: make decisions, solve problems, change feelings, improve skills, aid memory.

Question 15

synesthesia

Answer 15

rare form of mental imagery where senses overlap

Question 16

concept

Answer 16

generalized idea of a class of objects of events (like a schema but less complex, part of a schema). developed through trial and error.

Question 17

prototype

Answer 17

best example of a concept. developed from experience, organized in hierarchies.

Question 18

language

Answer 18

system of communication composed of symbols and the rules for combining them. encodes with symbols for easy mental manipulation.

Question 19

symbolic reference

Answer 19

word and its referent do not need to resemble each other, can change over time. spam meat/mail.

Question 20

productivity

Answer 20

with limited number of symbols, can express infinite number of ideas

Question 21

displacement

Answer 21

able to communicate about the “not here” and “not now”

Question 22

phoneme

Answer 22

basic speech sounds

Question 23

morpheme

Answer 23

smallest meaningful unit of speech

Question 24

grammar

Answer 24

set rules for making sounds into words and words into sentences

Question 25

syntax

Answer 25

rules used to combine words and phrases to generate sentences

Question 26

semantics

Answer 26

study of meanings in words and language. context changes meaning. “which word doesn’t belong”

Question 27

problem

Answer 27

discrepancy between one’s present state and one’s perceived goal state and no readily apparent way to get from one to the other.

Question 28

components of a problem

Answer 28

initial state, goal state, and strategies

Question 29

Algorithm

Answer 29

takes a long time. strategy that explores and evaluates all possible situations in a systemic way until the correct solution is found. guarantees success.

Question 30

Heuristic

Answer 30

informal, rule of thumb strategy of generating and testing solutions. no guarantee of success. most used.

Question 31

barriers to problem solving

Answer 31

solving problems requires that we use our memories, however there are times when memories create difficulty in problem solving.

Question 32

mental set

Answer 32

tendency to perceive or respond to something in a given way

Question 33

functional fixedness

Answer 33

inability to discover an appropriate new use for an object because of experience using the object for some other purpose

Question 34

available heuristic

Answer 34

assumption that things that readily come to mind are more common than things that do not come to mind easily

Question 35

representative heuristic

Answer 35

assumption that judgements about the most prototypical member of a category will hold for all members of the category

Question 36

positive test strategy

Answer 36

strategy that claims if something works, don’t drop it to try something else

Question 37

confirmation bias

Answer 37

tendency to search for information that confirms an initial belief.

Question 38

creativity

Answer 38

the potential to produce novel ideas that are task appropriate and of high quality

Question 39

divergent thinking

Answer 39

starting with one idea and generating a number of new ideas

Question 40

convergent thinking

Answer 40

taking many ideas and reducing them to just one solution

Question 41

increasing creativity

Answer 41

allow time for reflective thinking, promote collaboration, allow free brainstorming, provide time for play and exploration