Unit 5: Cognitive Psychology Flashcards
Cognition
The mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension
+ Thinking
+ Knowing
+ Remembering
+ Judging
+ Problem-solving
Explicit memory
Declarative memory we work to remember
Subtypes:
Semantic (meaning)- Earth is the 3rd rock(planet) from the sun
Episodic- Remembering getting my first dog as a pet
Implicit memory
Non -declarative memory
Subtype:
Procedural- ability to perform certain tasks without conscious awareness
Memory
The persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information
Measures of explicit memory
+Recall
+Recognition
+Relearning
Memory process
Encode -> Storage -> Retrieval
+ Getting information in
+ Retaining encoded information
+ Get info out of memory
The Attkinson-Shiffrin
Three-stage model of memory includes
a) sensory memory
b) short term memory
c) long-term memory
Sensory Memory
+ Iconic- fleeting photographic visual (1/2 of asec)
+ Echoic- fleeting auditory (3-4 secs)
Properspective Memory
The memory for tasks to be completed in the future
+ Ex. Sending an email, paying a bill, taking a medication
Dependent on short and long term memory
Automatic processing
Unconscious encoding of incidental information such as…
+ Space
+ Time
+ Frequency (how often)
Parallel processing
Ability to deal with multiple stimuli simultaneously
Effortful processing
Encoding that requires attention & conscious effort
+ Spacing effect (over time..)
(aka distributed practice)
+ serial position effect (recall tendency to remember the first and last items in a list better than those in the middle, primacy and recency effects)
Semantic memory
Conscious long-term memory for meaning, understanding, and conceptual facts about the world
Ex. Remembering the meaning of a situation rather than specific details
George Miker
The number of ____ humans can hold in their working memory
+ 7 digits
+ 6 letters
+ 5 words
Hippocampus and frontal lobe
Processes explicit memories for storage
+ sematics (facts)
+ episodics (experienced events)
Cerebellum and basal
Ganglia- implicit memories
+ skills, procedures
+ associations (classical conditioning)
Amygdala
flashbulb memories
involved with the experiencing of emotions.
+ Anger, aggression, fear, and stress are all common emotional triggers.
- Long-term potetiation (LTP)
- Block LTP
- Mimic LTP
- increase in synaptic firing
- limit learning
- increase learning (more rehearse, more you’ll learn)
Context dependent memory
Remembering is dependent upon enviroment
State dependent memory
+ Mood congruent
ex. If bad mood then recall bad events, if good mood then recall good events
Retrograde amnesia
ANterog`+ cannot retrieve past information
+ what people usually think of as amnesia
Anterograde Amnesia
+ cannot form new memories
BUT!
+ Non-verbal tasks- remembers where to find waldo
+ Procedural skills - how to use a new smartphone
Encoding Failure
the information doesn’t get into memory. Encoding failures can occur because of inattention to the target information or interference when the target information is presented.
Retrival failure
Ever had something at the tip of your tongue?
Proactive interference
Prior learning disrupts recall of new info
+ ex. guy confusing gf’s name with his old ex’s
Retroactive interference
New learning disrupts the recall of old learning
How to remember ?
Procative
Old disrupts new
Retroactive
New disrupts old
Motivated forgetting
+ Repression: banish uncomfortable memories
+ Reality- likely uncommon
EMOTIONAL EVENTS POWERFUL
Construction errors
Reconsolidation: retrieved memories are altered
Misinformation effects
Misleading info distorts one’s memory of an event
+ ex. “About how fast were the cars going when they smashed into eachother”
+ “About how fast were the cars going when the accident occured”
Source Amnesia
Faulty memory for when or how the info was learned or imagined
+ex. comedian accidentally stealing a joke
Source monitoring
Keeping track of where you learned something
Internal source monitoring failure
Ex. confusing dreams for reality
source monitoring failure
Inaccurately identifying the source of the info
Concept
categories of ideas, objects, events with common properties
x Helps us organize info in our brains, but concepts also influence our thoughts and behaviors
Protypes
+ Best examples of a category
+ More than just visual:
+ prejudice
+ ex. heart attack symptoms wrongfully identified
Convergent thinking
Narrow down to best solution
+ ex. SAT, ACT
Divergent thinking
consider new ideas, options
+ creativity
+ frontal lobe
Creativity
+ expertise
+ imaginative
+ venturesome
+ intrinsically motivated
+ enviroment
algorithm
A step by step procedure to find a solution
+ex. find all the words in the group of letters
SLOYOCHPYG
Heuristic
Instead of algorithm
+ thinking strategy for quick judgements and problem solving
+ ex. ch usually together while yy is not
Insight
The act or result of apprehending the inner nature of things or of seeing intuitively
+ frontal lobe activity
confirmation bias
choosing only to see what we believe
+ fixation: cannot change perception
Belief perseverance
Clinging onto belief even after shown that they’re wrong
Mental set
Usage of the same approach to problems (problem solving)
Intuition
Data isn’t always followed when solving problems
Automatic, no conscience thought
Representativeness heuristic
When you erroneously think that two events or objects are more correlated than they actually are
Availability heuristic
Estimating likehood of an event based upon mental availability
+ ex. ppl fear terrorist attacks (readily available image)
+fear of flying - reality: cars are more dangerous
Common uses for heuristics
+ reduces mental effort
+ simplify complex or difficult questions
+ help with problem solving
The dunning-krugger
The tendency for unskilled individuals to overestimate their own ability, and the tendency for experts to underestimate themselves
Framing
Drawing different conclusions from the same information, depending on how it is presented
+ex. “undocumented workers” vs “illegal aliens”
+ WORDING MATTERS
Predictable world bias
tendency to perceive order where no order exist
+ ex. gambling
reality: its just chance
Just world hypothesis
Assumption that people get what they deserve
+ based on the belief that the world is fair
Phoemes
smallest unit of sounds
+ ex. BAT - b,a,t
+ THAT - th, at
Morpehemes
smallest unit with meaning
+ ex. readers - “read” + “er” + “s”
Noam Chomsky Theory
Language is a trait that has survival advantage
+ all humans are predisposed to learn language/grammar
+ all languages have nouns, verbs, adjectives
+ all children start speaking nouns
Receptive language
ability to understand
(lot of it is latent)
Critical language learning period
+ No language before age 7 cannot master any language
+ exposure to “low quality” language = less language skill
+ ex. 4yr olds in classroom with 3 yr olds
What is language perceived as?
Indivisible - : consisting of one whole whose parts cannot be divided or treated individually
Reality: parallel processing
Sapir whorf hypothesis
the grammatical and more verbal structure of a person’s language influences how they perceive the world
Linguistic relativism
languages shapes basic ideas
+ hard: language determines how you think
+ ex. some indigenous languages have no past tense
+ soft: languages influences how you think
+ ex: English has one word for love, ancient Greek - six words
Linguistic influence
languages affect our thinking
+ bilingualism:
+different language, different test results
+different emotions, different language
Fluid intelligence
+ global capacity to reason
+ ability to learn new things
+ think abstractly to solve problems
Crystallized intelligence
+ prior learning and past experiences
+ based on facts
+ increases with age
Intelligence
Ability to learn from experiences, solve problems, use knowledge to adapt to new situations
Charles spearman
General intelligence: underlies all mental abilities, measured in any intelligence test called g
+ single intelligence score
+based upon factor analysis
Goal of factor analysis
To model the interrelatioships among items
L.L Thurnstone
+ skeptical of single intelligence score
+ Used 56 tests to identify 7 primal mental abilities
+results: scoring high on 1 test = high scores on all tests
Howard Gardner
+ multiple intelligences
+ eight-semi independent intelligence
+do not have to exist together can be individual
Robert Sternberg
Three intelligences (triarchic)
+ analytical - intelligence tests, predict school grades well
+ creative- innovation, ability to adapt to new situations, create more ideas
+ practical- everyday tasks, negotiating with a salesperson
Criticism of multiple intelligences
+ Research has confirmed g
+ high cognitive ability predicts academic achievements
BUT!
+ success equals intelligence and grit
Savant Syndrome
+ limited mental ability-low intelligence score
+specific skill-genius
+ most are men
+ many have ASD
Aquired savant syndrome
the presentation of (often extraordinary) scholarly skills that can emerge after a non-disabled individual suffers a traumatic brain injury or illness
Emotional intelligence
Understanding and navigating social situations
not really an intelligence
Aptitude test
predict future performance, capacity to learn
Achievement test
show what you have learned
+ ex. AP test
Alfred Binet
Predicting school achievement
+ assumed that all children have same intelligence development
+ score = mental age: measure of intelligence based on development
+ ex. A “bright” 8yr old might have a mental age of 10
+ measured: aptitude
Lewis Terman
published the individual intelligence test widely used in the United States, the Stanford-Binet test.
IQ equation
10 = mental age/chronological age x 100
David Wechler
Wechsler viewed intelligence as an effect rather than a cause, and asserted that non-intellective factors, such as personality, contribute to the development of each person’s intelligence.
+ WAIS intelligence score for adults
+ WISC intelligence score for children
Standardization
+ uniform procedures
+ comparison with a pre-test group
Normal deviation
+ aka bell curve
+ average IQ always 100
+ 2 standard deviations covers 70-130
Reliability
How consistent results are
Constant validity
Does the test measure what it is supposed to?
Predictive validity
does the test predict future behaviour
IQ test validity
+ relatively
+ more predictive of young children
+ correlation weakens with age
Executive functioning
working memory + decision making ( frontal lobe )
+ think CEO = chief executive officer
priming
exposure to one stimulus influences a response to a subsequent stimulus, without conscious guidance or intention
+ ex. When you hear the word “chair,” you might start to feel tired.
interpersonal
relating to relationships or communication between people:
intrapersonal
occurring within the individual mind or self
