Unit 5 - Cognitive Psychology Flashcards
1
Q
Memory
A
The persistence of learning over time through the encoding. storage, and retrieval of information.
2
Q
Encoding
A
The processing of information into the memory system - for example, by extracting meaning.
3
Q
Storage
A
The process of retaining encoded information over time.
4
Q
Retrieval
A
The process of getting information out of memory storage.
5
Q
Parallel Processing
A
The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions.
6
Q
Sensory Memory
A
The immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system.
7
Q
Short-Term Memory
A
Activated memory that holds a few items briefly before the information is forgotten.
8
Q
Long-Term Memory
A
The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.
9
Q
Working Memory
A
A newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory.
10
Q
Explicit Memory (Declarative Memory)
A
Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and “declare.”
11
Q
Effortful Processing
A
Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.
12
Q
Automatic Processing
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Unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings.
13
Q
Implicit Memory (Nondeclarative Memory)
A
Retention independent of conscious recollection.
14
Q
Procedural Memory
A
Specific implicit memories consisting of motor skills and habits.
15
Q
Emotional Memory
A
Memory for events that evoke a learned emotional response to a stimuli.
16
Q
Episodic Memory
A
Memories for personal events in a specific time and space.
17
Q
Semantic Memory
A
Memory for facts not linked to a date in your life.
18
Q
Context Dependent Memory
A
Tendency to recall experiences/information better when in the same location or consistent with one’s mood as it was learned.
19
Q
Iconic Memory
A
A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second.
20
Q
Echoic Memory
A
A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds.
21
Q
Chunking
A
Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically.
22
Q
Rote Rehearsal
A
The process of repeatedly saying or thinking about a piece of information.
23
Q
Mnemonics
A
Memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices.
24
Q
Spacing Effect
A
The tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice.
25
Elaborative Rehearsal
Relating new information to information that is already stored in long term memory.
26
Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve
"Forgetting" material begins in the first days after initial encoding but rate decreases over time.
27
Retrieval Cue
A clue or stimuli that assists in memory retrieval.
28
Testing Effect (Retrieval Practice Effect / Test-Enhanced Learning)
Enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information.
29
Shallow Processing
Encoding on a basic level based on structure or appearance of words.
30
Deep Processing
Encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the words; tends to yield the best retention.
31
Hippocampus
A neural center located in the limbic system; helps process explicit memories for storage.
32
Flashbulb Memory
A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.
33
Prospective Memory
Memory related to future actions.
34
Schema
Concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
35
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)
An increase in a cell's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.
36
Recall
A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test.
37
Recognition
A measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test.
38
Relearning
A measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material again.
39
Priming
The activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory.
40
Mood-Congruent Memory
The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood.
41
Serial Position Effect
Our tendency to recall best the last (a recency effect) and first items (a primacy effect) in a list.
42
Anterograde Amnesia
An inability to form new memories.
43
Retrograde Amnesia
An inability to retrieve information from one's past.
44
Proactive Interference
The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information.
45
Retroactive Interference
The disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information.
46
Eidetic Memory
Ability to recall images from memory with high precision.
47
Repression
In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories.
48
Misinformation Effect
Incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event.
49
Source Amnesia
Attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined. Source amnesia, along with the misinformation effect, is at the heart of many false memories.
50
Déjà Vu
That eerie sense that "I've experienced this before." Cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience.
51
Cognition
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
52
Concept
A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
53
Prototype
A mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories.
54
Creativity
The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.
55
Convergent Thinking
Narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution.
56
Divergent Thinking
Expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions).
57
Algorithm
A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.
58
Heuristic
A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually more error-prone than algorithms
59
Insight
A sudden realization of a problem's solution; contrasts with strategy-based solutions.
60
Confirmation Bias
A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.
61
Hindsight Bias
Tendency to convince oneself after an event that they accurately predicted it before it happened
62
Overconfidence
Tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.
63
Belief Perseverance
Tendency to cling to our beliefs in the face of contrary evidence.
64
Stereotype Threat
Concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype that contributes to worse performance.
65
Fixation
Tendency to get stuck in one way of thinking.
66
Mental Set
A tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.
67
Intuition
An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or through, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning.
68
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.
69
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.
70
Overconfidence
The tendency to be more confident than correct - to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.
71
Belief Perseverance
Clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.
72
Framing
The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.
73
Intelligence
Mental quality consisting of the ability to learn form experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.
74
Intelligence Test
A method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores.
75
General Intelligence (g)
A general intelligence factor that, according to Spearman and others,underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test.
76
Factor Analysis
A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person's total score.
77
Savant Syndrome
A condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing.
78
Grit
In psychology, grit is passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals.
79
Emotional Intelligence
The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and us emotions.
80
Thurstone's Primary Mental Abilities
Our intelligence may be broken down into seven primary mental factors; word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial ability, perceptual speed, numerical ability, inductive reasoning, and memory.
81
Gardner's Multiple Intelligences
Our abilities are best classified into eight independent intelligences which include a broad range of skills beyond traditional school smarts.
82
Sternberg's Triarchic Theory
Our intelligence is best classified into three areas that predict real world success: analytical, creative, and practical.
83
Mental Age
A measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance.
84
Stanford-Binet
The widely used American revision of Binet's original intelligence test.
85
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
Defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 times. On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100, with scores assigned to relative performance above or below average.
86
Achievement Test
A test designed to assess what a person has learned.
87
Aptitude Test
A test designed to predict a person's future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn.
88
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
The WAIS is the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance subtests.
89
Flynn Effect
Standardized tests need to be constantly updated because intelligence performance has increased.
90
Standardization
Defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group.
91
Normal Curve
The symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes. Most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lies near the extreme.
92
Reliability
The extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves on the test, on alternate forms of the test, or on retesting.
93
Validity
The extent to which a test measures of predicts what it is supposed to.
94
Content Validity
The extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest.
95
Criterion-Related Validity
Correlation between score to other measures of the same material.
96
Predictive Validity
The success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior.
97
Cohort
A group of people(studies) from a given time period.
98
Crystallized Intelligence
Our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age.
99
Fluid Intelligence
Our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood.
100
Intellectual Disability
A condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life.
101
Down Syndrome
A condition of mild to severe intellectual disability and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21.
102
Heritability
The proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. The heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied.
103
Language
Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.
104
Phoneme
In a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.
105
Morpheme
In a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word.
106
Grammar
In a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others. In a given language, semantics is the set of rules for deriving meaning form sounds, and syntax is the set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.
107
Semantics
Rules for the meaning we derive from sentences.
108
Syntax
Rules for the arrangement of sentences.
109
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 language.
110
One-Word Stage
The stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words.
111
Two-Word Stage
Beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements.
112
Telegraphic Speech
Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram using mostly nouns and verbs.
113
Aphasia
Impairment of language, usually caused by left-hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding).
114
Broca's Area
Controls language expression - an area of the frontal love, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech.
115
Wernicke's Area
Controls language reception - a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe.
116
Linguistic Determinism
Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think.
117
Critical Period Hypothesis
There is a limited time when one must be exposed to certain experience to develop properly(language)
118
Universal Inborn Language
Chomsky - Language is entirely innate.
