study guide for cognitive psychology Flashcards
vbc n bv§What are Implicit memories
They are memories we do not put into words
i.e, such as riding a bike ( you don’t tell your brain to ride a bike)
What are the brain systems that mediate associative, implicit memories?
They usually depend on the nature of the association. ( basal ganglia, amygdala, cerebellum.
What are the types of implicit memories
- Priming
- Procedural
- classical conditioning
- non asscoativelearning
How are implicit memories expressed
- through actions and reactions
What is non-associative learning
it represents another type of implicit memory that depends on the changes in the responsiveness of neurons involved in receiving the repeated stimulus.
Procedural memory
It involves skills and habits For example, when you drive while daydreaming) you use your implicit memory not to crash the car.
What do procedural memories include
goal-oriented behaviors
- motor skills( muscle movements)
- cognitive skills and habitual behaviors ( ability to read)
What is priming divided into
- perceptual
- conceptual
What is perceptual priming
A response in which a related stimulus is facilitated, i.e., HM with temporal lobe damage was able to recall the words that flashed on the screen. while the L.H. guy with occipital lobe injury was unable to
What is conceptual priming
a response to a conceptually related stimulus is facilitated. I.e H.M was not able to recall the words from earlier while L.H guy was able to.
Explicit memories can be declared
can be declared
- they are usually called declarative memory because I can declare that I know them.
What are the two types of explicit memory
- Episodic
- Semantic
What does episodic memory consist of
- A person’s memory of past expirences that can be identified as occurring at a time and place. ( I can remember the episode of when it happened)
What does semantic memory consist of
- is knowledge of concepts, categories and facts independent of personal experience.
- i.e random facts about capitals of countries and jello
within the medial temporal lobes, which is the brain part that is thought to be responsible for episodic memories
- hippocampus
- but after H.M.’s case, it’s figured out that the hippocampus appears to be necessary for forming new episodic memory but not for retrieving older memories.
The long-term storage of episodic memories include what
The reactivation of the cortical brain region that relates to the memory being recalled
i.e, if you are recalling something that’s being heard,dyour temporal lobe will be activated
If you recall something you have seen, your cortical areas are involved in visual perception.
Although the hippocampus is responsible for acquiring episodic memories, there is evidence that other medial temporal lobe regions play a role in the acquisition of semantic memory
The three brain-damaged kids are the evidence of this study
in which the injury was localized into parts of the hippocampus and did not extend to other parts of the brain. Not H.M’s case, tho
What are the 3 stages of memory processing
Encoding -
storage
- retrieval
What is encoding
The process in which the perception of stimulus is changed into memory
Encoding starts with what
attention
You are most likely to remember something you paid attention to
Some words or concepts may have more extensive representation in the brain
True
What is dual coding hypothesis
it’s a theory by which it’s assumed that words that can be both verbalized and visualized are most likely to be remembered .
i.e dog or keep is easier toremeber
answer dog because you can both visualize and verbalize it
what other ways enhance memory encoding in the brain
- semantic processing
- Acoustic processing
- visual processing
What is Semantic processing
The more meaning an item has, the more deeply it’s encoded into the brain
what is Rehearsal processing
there are two types of rehersal
- maintenance rehearsal
- elaborative rehearsal
What is maintanece rehearsal
- words are repeated over and over again.
what is elaborative rehersal
- encodes the information in more meaningful ways, such as thinking of the meaning conceptually.
Brain images show something about semantic memory encoding
It shows that the semantic encoding activates more brain regions than shallow encoding and that greater brain activity is associated with better memory.
What is schemas
These cognitive structures in semantic memory help us perceive, organize, and understand information by filling in holes within existing memories.
Organization affects memory encoding
true
What are the methods of organizing information during encoding
Chunking and mnemonics
What is chunking
the process of breaking down information into meaningful units
i.e, if you are presented with 20 words and you recognize some of them fall into a category, you can sort them into the categories.
Another method of organizing information into the brain is mnmemonics
learning aids or strategies that improve recall through the use of retrival cues.
what is a method of loci
its a method of associating the things that you want to remember with places
I.e if you want to remember names sara , Ben josh and john you can say sara is on my bed john is behind the door and josh is sleeping under the bed
What are the two types of mnmneoics
- method of loci or memories palace
- pegs
What is the method of peg
- establish sereies ofmetal pegs to hang memories on
i.e BUn, trees and shoes
and you want to remember milk and eggs, so you can say imagine a hamburger bun soaked in the milk or you can say imagine cracking eggsinto your shoes.
What are the three memory storage systems that was suggested by Atkinson and Shriffin
-sensory memory
- short-term memory
- long-term memory
What is sensory memory
Unattended information gets lost if you pay a little attention, it turns into short-term memory
What is short-term memory
Unrehearsed information is lost short term; lost info can be regained through maintenance rehearsal, it gets encoded and becomes a long-term memory
What is long-term memory
- some information may be lost over time but can be retrieved
Sensory memory is
a temporary memory system closely tied to the sensory systems.
what are the two types of sensory memories
- iconic
-echoic
Iconic memory
is when you are able to recall the details of something that was flashed at you for few seconds
echoic memory
is when you are able to recall something someone said even though you weren’t fully paying attention
What is short-term memory usually referred to as
- it’s refered to as working memory because it’s always active and transforming information in our brain.
for how long information can be stored in short-term/working memory
for about 20-30 sec. if you can remember it more than then, it’s probably encoded into your long term memory. chunking helps working memory.
In what ways is long term memory different from working memory
- it has a longer duration
- far greater capacity
Evidence supporting that working memory and long-term memory use separate storage
the research that required people to recall long lists of words
What is serial position effect
The finiding that the ability to recall items from a list depended on the order of presentatinsuch that items presented early or late in the list are remember better than those in the middle.
What is the primacy effect
better memory that people have for itmes presented at the beginning
What is the recency effect
better memory that people have for the most recent item
What did Donald Hebb suggest about long-term memories
He proposed that memory results from alternations in synaptic connections. He basically said that memories are stored in multiple regions of the brain
How are memories retrieved
Reteival is an indication of memory being encoded and stored
What determines which memory is retrieved at any time
a retreival cue
A reteival cue is
anything that helps a person recall a memory.
one factor that has been proposed to influence memory reteival is
Encoding specificity principle
i.e when you encode a memory you are storing not just the item also speceific aspects of the encoding context such as the room
what is encoding specificty
the idea that any stimulus that is encoded along with an exipernce can later trigger a memory of the exipernce
What is context dependent memory
memory enhanecment when the recall situation is similar to the encoding situation
I.e scuba divers exiperment where they were testeted to recall words under water and land they were able to do it better underwater where they first retrieved the information
What affects the recover of information
physical contect, internal cues
What is state dependednt memory
memory can be enhanced by the persons internal states
i.e you are likely to remeber good times when you in good mood and bad times when you are in bad mood. might apply for when you. are drunk too
What is prospective memory
remembering to do something at some future time. remmebring the future is more challenging than rembering the past
i.e alarm, calcandar
In general retreival and rehersal lead to better memory in the future
but in some case retrival induced forgetting can happen
what is the best way to ace your exam
- prepare and attend class
- distribute learning
- Elaborate on material
- practice retreival
- overlearn
- Use verbal mnemoics
- use visial imagery
what is proactive memory
interference that occurs when prior information inhibits the ability to remember new inforamtion
I.e studying psychology then anthropology info thats already known in psyc might interfere with the ability torember new info
What is retroactive interference
- occurs when new info inhibits the ability to remeber old information.
Blocking
- The temporary inabilty to rember something
I.e you can not recall the name of your favorite song
Absent mindeness
- results from shallow encoding of events major cause of it is not paying attention
i.e yoyoma left his 2.5 million dollar cello in a cab. parents leave their children inside a car
Persistence
is when you rember unwanted memories
I.e embarassing memories and imagine you walk up to your locker and you remember the combo to all the locks you have ever used.
What psycological disorder is casued by persistence
PTSD
Memory bias
is when people reconstruct events to be consistent. its the changing of memoris over time so that they become more consistent with current beleifs, knowledge and attitudes
i.e a bully in highschool become antibully activist they might remeber theis bullying behaviors as less negative imapct
people make source misattributions
- Is when people misremebr information teh time, place and person or circumstances involved with a memory
Source amnesia
is a form of misattribution that occurs when you remember an event but not where you encountered it
What is cryptoamnesia
It’s a type of source misattribution where people think that they came up with a new idea, but they are only talking about information stored in their brain, and their brain fails to attribute to the correct source.
I.e student plagrizing
What is suggestibility?
- it is the development of biased memories from misleading information
i.e, the experiment where the researchers were basically suggesting ideas or hints to purposefully see how the human brain can develop biased memories, the red car research ( Loftus et. al 1978) have you seen the red car stop at the stop light even though it was a yield sign.
How do false memories develop
- people imagine an event happening, and they later confuse that mental image with a real memory.
repressed memory
is a memory of a traumatic event naturally blocked from our consciousness because of its distressing nature. The concept suggests that the mind suppresses painful experiences as a defense mechanism, making them inaccessible until they are triggered or recovered later, often through therapy or specific cues.
Many people think that they were abused by a cult member of a family member.
How are repressed memories usually triggered
By therapist
What is one major problem with eye witness
People tend to remember the things that align with their beliefs.
Confirmation bias
is basically when people become biased because of their belief
i.e, they might think someone is more likely to commit a crime than the other person
If an eyewitness is overly confident about details
There is a high chance of them not being credible
What is thinking tied to
language and intellegince
What is congiition psychology
It’s the study of mental functions such as intelligence.
What is cognitive psychology based on
- Knowledge about the world is stored in the brain in representation and
Thinking is the mental manipulation of these representations
I.e, a road map represent streets - a many represent food
What are the two mental representations that we use?
- analogical representation
- symbolic representation
Analogical Representations
- Mental representations that have some of the physical characteristics.
I.e have characteristics of what they represent
Symbolic representation
Abstract mental representations that do not correspond to the physical features of objects or ideas.
I.e the word violin stands for a musical instrument there is no correspondence between what a violin looks like and what it sounds like.
What is catergorization
Grouping things based on their shared properties
- it reduces the amount of details we have to remember
A concept
- a category or class of related items
What is a prototype model
- within the category, there is a best example, a prototype for that category
What is an exemplar model
- a way of thinking about concepts all members of a category are examples together; they form the concept and determine the category.
What is conceptual thinking in the brain
-is related to brain activity within the specific brain region
What is schemas
They organize useful information about enviroment
What are sterotypes
cognitive schemas that allow for easy fast processing of information about people based on their membership in certain groups.
I.,e children drawing a scientist as man for the first time and later on after interacting with a woman scinitist they drawing a woman scientist when they were asked again
why are schemas and scripts probelmatic
because they usually work well. The shortcuts enable us to minimize paying attention in familiar environments.
Why does decision-making often use Heurstic
- Because they reduce the amount of thinking that is needed to make a decision.
What are heurstic
shortcuts that reduce the amount of thinking one does while making
decisions
Anchoring
- making a decision based on the first thing that’s said or the first piece of information.
For example, if you get 85 and u hear the average is 75, you will feel much better, but if the average is 95, you will feel bad.
Framing
In decision-making, an emphasis on potential gain and loss
I.e, if you choose the class, there is a 70% passing rate
- if you choose the class, there is a 30% failing rate.
Availability heuristic
is making decisions based on the easiest explanation that comes to mind.
I.e, which word comes to mind more easily
—-r—— or r—–
That’s because you know a lot of words that start with an r
Representative Heuristic
When we place a person or an object in a category, that person or object is in a category if that person or object is similar to one prototype for that category.
We usually ignore the base rate when we make decisions.
Ignoring base rates when making decisions.
happens often than you think
Why would someone be inclined to buy an expensive item when it’s on sale
because of the anchor effect
Another thing that can bias decison
emotion
Affective Forecasting
There is a tendency for people to overestimate how events will make them feel in the future.
Affective states incidentially Bias dicisions
like snapping at someone and not knowing why.
functional fixedness
in problem solving having fixed ideas about the typical functions of objects.
