Unit 5- Cognitive Psychology (13-17%) Flashcards
Belief perseverance
The tendency to cling to our beliefs in the face of contradicting evidence
Intuition
Effortless, immediate, feeling or thought
Overconfidence
Tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our knowledge and judgements
Flashbulb Memories
A vivid, enduring memory when one learns about a surprising or shocking event
Retroactive Interference
A phenomenon that occurs when newly learned information interferes with and impedes the recall of previously learned information
Proactive Interference
(Forward acting) when previous information learned disrupts your recall of something you experience later
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Ebbinghaus focused on how fast we forget and how much we forget. He created a forgetting curve that is know as Ebbinghaus curve. This showed that knowledge fades quickly and than levels out.
Mental Set
A tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.
Functional Fixedness
The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.
Representativeness Heuristic
Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent or match particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information.
Availability Heuristic
Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are common.
Encoding
The processing of information into the memory system- for example, extracting meaning.
Storage
The retention of encoded information over time.
Parallel processing
The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. Contrast with step by step processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving.
Automatic processing
Unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well learned information, such as word meaning.
Effortful processing
Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.
Fixation
The inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.
One-word Stage
The stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words.
Two-word Stage
Beginning at about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in 2 word statements.
Telegraphic Speech
Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram-“go car”- using mostly nouns and verbs.
Linguistic Determinism
Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think.
Babbling Stage
Beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household sounds.
Spacing effect
We retain information better when our rehearsal is distributed over time
Testing effect
Helps to rehearse the material and figure out what you do not know
Recognition
a measure of memory in which the person need only iden- tify items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test.
Recall
a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve in- formation learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test.
Rehearsal
the conscious repetition of information, either to main- tain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage
Source Amnesia
Attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined.
Prototype
A mental image or best example of a category.
Algorithm
A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.
Heuristic
A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently.
Confirmation Bias
A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.
Source Amnesia
Attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined.
Prototype
A mental image or best example of a category.
Algorithm
A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.
Heuristic
A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently.
Mood-congruent memory
the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current good or bad mood.
Phonemes
In language, the smallest distinctive sound unit
Memory
the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information.
Structural encoding
The encoding of pictures and images
Phonemic encoding
the encoding of sound, especially the sound of words.
Mnemonic Devices
memory aids, especially those tech- niques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices.
Semantic encoding
the encoding of meaning, including the meaning of words.
Serial position effect
our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list.
