Test 4 Flashcards
What is memory?
System by which we retain information and bring it to mind
What is the process of memory?
Encoding, Storage, Retrieval
Define Encoding
putting information into memory acoustically, visually, and semantically
What are retrieval cues?
Remembering something specific by retracing steps
Difference between sensory, short term, and long term memories
Short term: 30 seconds, acoustic
Long term: lasts days to a life time
Sensory: less than 4 seconds
Types of sensory memory
Iconic- mental visual representations
Echoic- metal represations of sound
Eidetic- recall visual images
Maintenance vs. Elaborative rehearsal
Maintenance: repeating information inside the head or to yourself
Elaborative: Things like mnemonic devices
Declarative vs Procedural knowledge
Declarative: facts and figures, recalled with conscious effort
Procedural: Habits and motor behaviors, recalled without conscious effort
What is consolidation?
a permanent memory is formed following a learning experience
Semantic vs Episodic memory
Semantic: factual
Episodic: picture
Retrospective vs Prospective
Retrospective: past
Prospective: Future
Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon
a state in which one cannot quite recall a familiar word but can recall words of similar form and meaning.
Constructionist Theory
Brain pieces together stored memories
What are false memories?
Cases in which people remember events differently from the way they happened
What are flashbulb memories?
Intense personal or historical event that is highly detailed. A lasting memory
What is the misinformation effect?
Demonstrates how easily memories can be influenced.
What are some factors that affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony?
Speed/ease of recall
Confidence level
Subject knowledge
Racial identification
Facial features
What are repressed memories?
Rare to forget like childhood trauma
Decay Theory
Hermann Ebbinghaus, forgetting curve where we are more likely to forget information in the first hours of memory
Interference Theory
Other memories blocking a particular memory.
Include Proactive (blocks new memories) and Retroactive (blocks previous learned) memory
Primary vs. Recency Effect
Primary Effect: items near the beginning are more easily remembered
Recency Effect: Items near the end are more easily remembered
Retrieval Theory
Forgetting is due to a failure to access stored material
Recall vs Recognition Memory
Recall: fill in the blank, essay
Recognition: multiple choice
What is the definition of amnesia?
Partial or total loss of memory
Retrograde Amnesia
Loss of memory of past events
Anterograde Amnesia
Can’t form or store new memories
Dissociative Amnesia
May be too emotionally troubling to remember
What is long-term potentiation?
A process involving persistent strengthening of synapses that leads to a long-lasting increase in signal transmission between neurons
Karl Lashley
Studied rats brains to see where certain memories are stored in the brain
Erik Kandel
Studied snails and long term memory to see biochemical changes at synaptic level
Thinking
Representing and manipulating information
Concepts of thinking
Logical: clearly defined rules
Natural: poorly defined rules
Problem Solving
Insight: sudden realization of an answer
Algorithm: Step by step problem solving
Heuristic: rule of thumb
Mental Roadblocks to problem solving
Functional Fixedness: inability to discover a new use for an object
Mental set: assumptions or past solutions get in the way of new solutions
Roadblocks in Decision Making
Confirmation bias: looking for information that supports our initial beliefs or ideas
Representative Heuristic: sample behavior representative of larger population
Availability Heuristic: base decisions on examples that we can easily bring to mind.
Divergent vs Convergent Thinking
Divergent: many possible solutions
Convergent: Rules and logical reasoning
Benjamin Whorf
Language doesn’t determine thought, but influences it
Binet and Simon’s Test
measured a child’s IQ by mental age/chronological age
What is stress?
Pressures placed upon an organism to adjust or adapt to its environment
Difference of stress between men and women?
Women: nuture, check on things
Men: aggressive, attack the source
Sources of stress
Hassles
Frustration
Life events
Acculturative Stress-pressure
Types of Conflict
Approach-Approach: Choose between 2 good things
Avoidance-Avoidance: Choose between 2 negative things
Approach-Avoidance: One goal with positives and negatives
Multiple Approach-Avoidance: 2 or more options with positives and negatives
General Adaptation Syndrome
Alarm Stage: action
Resistance Stage: higher arousal
Exhaustion Stage: reserve energy
PTSD
Life threatening events that can reappear
Personality A vs Personality B
A: Highly competitive, achievement orientated, impatience–High blood pressure, anxiety–
B: Easy going, relaxed, comfortable
Psychological Hardiness
Social Support: commitment
Self-Efficacy: open to challenge
What is personality?
Relatively stable set of psychological characteristics and behavior patterns that make people unique and account for behavioral tendencies
Frued’s Psychoanalytic Theory
Behavior determined by subconscious
Id, Ego, Superego
Id: pleasure principle “it”
Ego: reality principle
Superego: Right and wrong
Defense mechanisms of Psychoanalytic theory
Repression: expulsion from awareness of unacceptable behaviors
Displacement: transfer of unacceptable impulses away from original object to safer one
Reaction Formation: behaving in a way opposite of one’s true feelings to hide them
Rationalization: Self-Justification to explain poor decisions or behavior
Jung
Analytical Psychology: emphasis on present than past
Adler
Individual Psychology: inferiority complex
Horney
feminine psychology
Trait Theory
the idea that people differ from one another based on the strength and intensity of basic trait dimensions
