Unit 5: Cognition & Language Flashcards
Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon
Failing to retrieve a memory with the feeling that the retrieval is imminent
Flashbulb memories
A vivid, enduring memory associated with a personally significant and emotional event
- amygdala
Must be consequential and biologically significant
(prone to error)
What are the stages of automatic processing?
(stages of memory)
sensory input –> sensory memory –> short term memory -(selective attention + rehearsal)-> long term memory
What is forgetting?
difference between short term and long term
STM: failure to encode properly (decay)
LTM: failure to retrieve or gradually decay
Short Term Memory (STM)
memory that holds meaningful information (from sensory input) for a short period of time –> holds 7+/- 2 items for about 30 seconds
Long term memory (LTM)
memory that stores information on a relatively long term basis (limitless capacity)
Types of LTM
Implicit (nondeclarative) and Explicit (declarative)
Implicit memories
memories that are automatically encoded
ex. procedural, conditioning, space/time/frequency
The individual is unaware that the learning has occurred
Explicit memories
(both types)
memories that require effortful processing to encode
2 types:
semantic: facts, meanings
episodic: information about recent or past events and experiences
List the Effortful Processing strategies
Chunking
Mnemonics
Rehearsal
Hierarchies
Deep Processing
Shallow processing
Mnemonics
Examples
Peg words, imagery, rhymes, songs, acronyms
Shallow processing
rote repetition, focusing on structure/appearance
Deep Processing
Semantic: meaning (of a word)
acoustic: sound
imagery
Describe the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve
Memory starts to decay quickly then starts to slowly decline after a while (even out)
can be combatted by distributed practice
Anterograde amnesia
No new explicit memories
have the ability to recall old events but nothing after that
Retrograde amnesia
Inability to recall old events, but maintain the ability to remember new ones
Prospective memory
Memory of a future event (“I need to do this…”
Parts of the Brain
What deals with implicit memories?
Basal ganglia (two arms w/ amygdala) = procedural memories
Cerebellum = conditioning
What part of the brain deals with explicit memories?
Hippocampus + Limbic (reward) system
Infantial amnesia: hippocampus not fully developed until age 3.
Long-Term Potentiation
- biological basis for LTM formation
- neurons strengthen their synaptic connections as they signal eachother –> as they are more frequent signals, the post-synaptic neuron becomes more and more sensitive to signals from the presynaptic neuron
Types of memory retrieval
Recall
Regonition
Relearning
Things that affect memory retrieval
- Priming: unconscious associations that help retrieve memories
- Context dependence: easier to recall things in the same place you learned it
- State dependence: easier to recall things while in the same mental state you learning it
- Mood-Congruent Memory: recall memories that are consistent with your current mood (happy = recall happy memories)
- Serial Position Effect
Serial Positioning effect
Tendency to recall first and last items from a list, and forget the middle
- Primacy effect: when recalling things later, we remember the last items (the last things in out minds)
- Spacing effect: forgetting curve, distributed learning
Proponents of forgetting
- Failure to encode (STM)
- failure to retrieve (LTM)
- Storage decay: can be physical phenomenon, or the result of not accessing a memory for a long time
- Interference
- Repression (Freud)
Types of Interference
Retroactive: new interferes with old
Proactive: old interferes with new
False/Constructed memories
Loftus experiment: smashed vs hit
certain things (like framing) can cause people to recollect events with incorrect details
Mental Activities
- Mental Imaging
- Creativity
- Concepts: mental groupings of similar objects/ideas/events (can be used to make hierarchies)
- Creativity
- Problem Solving
Creativity
Creating ideas that are novel/unique and worthwhile
requires divergent thinking
Strategies for problem solving
- trial and error
- algorithm: applying the same method to several scenarios until it works
- Heurisitcs: short cuts/thinkig strategies –> rule of thumb
- Insight
Impediments to problem solving
7 items
- Confirmation bias: tendency to only look for/remember information that is in line with you existing beliefs
- Belief perseverance: tendency to maintain beliefs even in the face of contradictory evidence
- Metal set: approach problems using methods that have worked in the past.
- Functional fixedness: tendency to think only of familiar functions of an object (not creative)
- Misuse of (representative) heuristics: making quick judgements based on mental prototypes
- Overconfidence
- Framing: decisions are influenced by how the problem is presented
Availability heuristic: making judgements based on what comes to mind first (available information)
What are the 4 basic elements of language
- Phoneme: smallest unit of sound
- Morpheme: smallest unit of meaningful sound (ex. words, suffixes, prefixes)
- Grammar: syntax and semantics
- Prosody: how tone/inflection influences meaning of words in a sentence (ex. I didn’t kill him.)
Syntax: the order words are spoken in
Semantics: meaning of words
What are the 4 stages of language acquisition?
- Babbling
- Holophrastic speech(~12 months) - one word stage – one word can hold the meaning of an entire sentence
- Telegraphic stage(~18-24 months)
- Sentences
Language acquisition is univeral across languages
Babbling
(4-12 months) - meaningless syllables but babies can differentiate between phonemes until 10 months old
Holophrastic speech
(~12 months) - one word stage – one word can hold the meaning of an entire sentence
Telegraphic stage
(18-24 months) - two-word stage
Overgeneralization
Children apply grammar rules inappropriately (to all cases)
Universal Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
Humans are biological programmed to acquire language
note that grammar exists in all languages
Critical Period
If a child isn’t exposed to language by 7, they will never acquire language afterward
Case study: Genie
Linguistic determinism
Language may influence thought but not dtermine it (ex. Russians and blue
Benjamin Whorf was wrong
