Unit 5 - Cognitive Psychology Flashcards
Priming
The activation, often unconsciously of particular association in memory.
Context - Dependent Memory
Individuals remember information better when they are placed in the same place in which the information was learned or experienced.
State - Dependent Memory
Information is best recalled when an individual is in the same physical state as when the information was learned or experienced.
Example: If you have a class in the morning, and your final exam is in the afternoon, you may be in a different physical state than when you actually learned that information. It's best to test under the same physical conditions that you learned the information.
Mood - Congruent Memory
The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current mood.
Example -
- Angry: Remembering the times you were angry in.
- Happy: Remembering the times you were enjoying yourself.
Serial Position Effect
Our tendency to recall the last and first items on a list, but find it hard to recall the things in the middle.
Retrieval Cue
A clue or prompt that is used to trigger the retrieval of long-term memory.
Small things that help you remember a certain memory.
What is the capacity of long-term memory?
Our long-term memory capacity is essentially unlimited.
Are our long-term memories processed and stored in specific locations in our brain?
No, memories are not stored intact in the brain in single spots. Many parts of the brain interact as we form and retrieve memories.
Explicit Memory
Involves the recall of previously learned information that requires conscious effort to receive.
What parts of the brain help form explicit memories?
The -frontal lobes- and -hippocampus- are parts of the brain network dedicated to explicit memory formation.
Implicit Memory
Implicit memory is referred to as unconscious memory or automatic memory.
What parts of the brain help form implicit memories?
The -cerebellum- and -basal ganglia- are parts of the brain network dedicated to implicit memory formation.
Hippocampus
The hippocampus, with the help of surrounding areas of cortex, registers and temporarily holds elements of explicit memories before moving them to other brain regions for long-term storage (memory consolidation).
Cerebellum
The cerebellum is important for storing classically conditioned memories.
Basal Ganglia
The basal ganglia are involved in responsible primarily formotor control, as well as other roles such as motor learning, executive functions and behaviors, and emotions.
Long-term potentiation (LTP)
The neural basis for learning and memory.
In LTP, neurons become more efficient at releasing and sensing the presence of neurotransmitters, and more connections develop between neurons.
External cues
Activate associations that help us retrieve memories; this process may occur without our awareness, as it does in priming.
Sensory memory
Sensory memories are stored for a few seconds at most.
They are then reprocessed and associated with a memory that may store in your short-term memory.
Short-term memory
Short-term memory is the capacity to store a small amount of information in mind and keep it readily available for a short period of time.
Long-term memory
Long-term memory refers to the storage of information over an extended period.
Long-term memory can be further subdivided into two different types: explicit (conscious) and implicit (unconscious) memory.
Shallow Processing
Little elaboration with focus on superficial and/or perceptual elements.
Ex: Remembering a word by its font style.
Deep Processing
Focus on the meaning with deeper elaboration.
Ex: Remembering (Encoding) a word by it’s meaning and connecting it pervious things that you’ve learned for easier recognition.
Visual Encoding
Remembering by visual elements.
Example: Remembering a word by it’s color or font.
Acoustic Encoding
Remembering with sound.
Ex: Remembering a word because it rhymed with another word.
Semantic Encoding
Remembering by it’s meaning.
Example: What category does this word belong word?
Which type of encoding would be used in deep processing?
Semantic Encoding
Massed Practice
When we try to encode information all at once.
Example: Cramming while the studying the night before a test.
Distributed practice
When we encode over multiple time periods; the longer the better!
Example: Daily review sessions.
Spacing Effect
Distributed practice –> long-term retention vs. massed practice
Testing Effect
Retrieving information for assessment > Restudying or rereading
Recency Effect
The last items in a list are remember best immediately after presentation.
Primacy Effect
The first items in a list are remembered best in the long-term.
Parallel Processing
Multiple tracks of brain processes occurring at the same time.
EX: When you see a bus coming towards you, you see its color, shape, depth, and motion all at once. If you had to assess those things one at a time, it would take far too long.
Dual-track Memory System
Effortful Processing - Explicit memories
Automatic Processing - Implicit memories
Storage Decay
A type of forgetting that occurs when memories fade over time.
This does NOT apply to Long Term Memory, but rather sensory storage and Short Term Memory.
Retrieval Failure
Stored information that sometimes cannot be accessible.
Can affect retrospective memory (looking back at pervious info)
Perspective memory
- Memory to do with something in the future
- May be assisted with retrieval cues
EXAMPLE : Remembering to take the medicine when entering the bathroom with the medicine cabinet.
Proactive Interference
Occurs when you cannot learn a new task because of an old task that had been learnt is interfering with your learning.
EXAMPLE: Confusing old and new telephone numbers.
Retroactive Intereferance
New learning disrupts recalling old information.
EXAMPLE: , a musician might learn a new piece, only to find that the new song makes it more difficult to recall an older, previously learned piece.
Retrograde Amnesia
Inability to remember past information or experiences.
Anterograde Amnesia
A condition in which a person is unable to create new memories after an amnesia-inducing event.
Involves the hippocampus
Source Amnesia
He inability to recall where, when, or how one has learned knowledge that has been acquired and retained.
Can also lead people to forget whether a statement is true.
EXAMPLE: Telling a joke to someone who told it to you last week. Because you forgot they told it to you.
Long-term Potentiation (LTP)
Long-lasting enhancement in signal transmission between neurons after repeated stimulation. Happens in the hippocampus (stores only useful memories).
DISCOVERY: BLISS AND LOMO (1973)
A process by which synaptic connections between neurons become stronger with frequent activation.
LTP is thought to be a way in which the brain changes in response to experience, and thus may be an mechanism underlying learning and memory.
Flashbulb Memory
A deeply emotional memory that is more resistance to decay.
Concept
A cluster of cognitive raw materials.
Very difficult to have a piece of cognitive raw material by itself. You will either forget it or it will join with another piece of cognitive information.
Protype
“a great, abstract example” not a perfect one, but a great one.
EXAMPLE- Think of a dog: Labrador retriever
Examplar
“a great example of experience” but experience is limited
EXAMPLE- think of a dog: A Labrador retriever that you’ve met
Artificial Concept
A perfect example, geometry, rare in life.
Informal Reasoning
Fast thinking
But not so sure answer.
FUNCITON THAT ARE USED UNDER THIS INFLUENCE:
Heuristics Top-Down Processing Schema Mental Set Mental Model
Formal Reasoning
Slow thinking
But a much reasonable answer.
FUNCITON THAT ARE USED UNDER THIS INFLUENCE:
Algorithm Bottom-up Processing Syllogism Diagnosis Artificial Intelligence
Heuristics (Informal Reasoning)
“Short cuts” often based on experience, usually work, fast and efficient.
EXAMPLE: Finding your keys
Top-Down Processing (Informal Reasoning)
Already having the gist of a situation or concept before having all of the details.
EXAMPLE: How do you know that that new weird chair is really a chair?
Schema (Informal Reasoning)
A set of ideas or set of concepts that can be used to view a problem.
EXAMPLE: I’m a teacher, so if I encounter a problem, I think like a teacher.
Mental Set (Informal Reasoning)
Similar to schema. It is a way of thinking that has worked before.
Mental Model (Informal Reasoning)
A way of assuming/thinking about how things might interact.
EXAMPLE: Glass vs. Glass window
Algorithm (Formal Reasoning)
Step by step process. 2 + _ = 10
EXAMPLE: Your trying to find your keys so you’ll search your house from every corner.
Bottom-Up Processing (Formal Reasoning)
Gathering as many bits of data as possible before making a conclusion.
Syllogism (Formal Reasoning)
Using logic.
Difficult skill, but it’s a skill that can be improved.
EXAMPLE: If A = B, B = C, then A = C
Diagnosis (Formal Reasoning)
Eliminating all the wrong answers which will then leave you with the right answer.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) (Formal Reasoning)
Similar to Algorithm. Facial recognition, auto-complete, or self driving cars use step-by-step processes to find patterns.
Cognitive Biases
The result of using an imperfect thinking strategy.
These results can then be used to create even more wrong answers.
Representativeness Heuristic (Stereotyping)
Thinking that a new thing that has a few characteristic of a schema, will then fit nicely into that schema.
Example: You see a person with red hair so you assume that that person is Irish.
Availability heuristic
When a strategy easily comes to mind.
Many students when they are stuck, use study that easily pop up into their mind and they don’t think of other study strategies.
Anchoring Bias
A powerful or emotional thought weighs down the rest of the mind.
EXAMPLE: Every mom ever when reading an article about teens.
Confirmation bias
The tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values.
Fixedness
Not being able to see a problem from a different point of view.
EXAMPLE: A teacher who sees disobedience as a challenge not as a cry for help or maybe there’s something going on with the student.
Framing Effect
How a problem is presented influences how we think.
EXAMPLE: Have a nice day! Sounds better than see you after 24h .`
Functional Fixedness
Not being able to see that an object can be used many different ways.
Belief perseverance
Is maintaining a belief despite new information that firmly contradicts it.
Operational Definition
A clear, concise detailed definition of a measure.
Psychometric
Measuring the mind
The Flynn Effect
Over time, (decade) the average IQ of a given society rises.
Presuming you have near average intelligence, if you were to take an intelligence test a decade ago with that time’s criteria, you are most likely score noticeably high.
Each generation is getting smarter.
What are the four types of validity?
Construct validity - Defines how well a test or experiment measures up to its claims.
Content validity - Refers to how accurately an assessment or measurement tool taps into the various aspects of the specific construct in question.
Criterion validity - Does it correlate to an outside measure?
Predictive validity - How well a test predicts future performance
Secondary Language Acquisition
Is learning a second language after a first language is already established.
Naom Chomsky
Stated that humans MUST learn (or even develop their own) language.
He called this ability or process the Language Acquisition Device
Linguistic Determinism
The concept that language and its structures limit and determine human knowledge or thought.
