Unit 7 Flashcards
Explicit/Declarative memory
Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare
Ex: Recalling phone numbers.
Completing an exam.
Remembering items on a list.
Birth dates.
Important event dates.
Names.
Locations.
Echoic memory
A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within three or four seconds
Ex: Rose was daydreaming when the principal made an announcement over the loudspeaker. When her friend asked what she said, Rose could remember what was said in the previous few seconds.
Episodic memory
involves the ability to learn store and retrieve info about unique personal experiences that occur in daily life
Ex: Your first kiss, first day of school, a friend’s birthday party, and your brother’s graduation
Iconic memory
A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a picture imagine memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second easily forgotten. Type of shallow processing
Ex: when you see a car passing by on the highway, and for a brief moment you can picture the car after it is gone.
Memory
The persistence of learning overtime through the encoding, storage & retrieval of information
Information processing model
Encoding ➡️ storage ➡️ retrieval
Encoding
Get info in your brain/processing of information into the memory system
example: extracting meaning of words
Automatic processing
Unconscious encoding of incidental info such as space, time, and frequency and well learned info such as word meaning
Ex: If someone asks you what you ate for lunch today, more than likely you could recall this information quite easily.
Effortful processing
Encoding that requires attention & conscious effort
Storage
The process of retaining encoded info overtime
Retrieval
The process of getting information out of memory storage
Ex: A smell can act as a reminder of a favourite childhood meal; a song on the radio can trigger a memory from a special occasion.
Recall
A mesure in which the person must retrieve info learned earlier
Ex: fill in the blank test
Recognition
A measure of memory in which the person only identify items previously learned; mental familiarity
Ex: Recognizing a familiar face without being able to recall the person’s name
Multiple choice test
Recollection
The ability to remember things
Ferguson Craik & Robert Lockhart’s level of processing model
Shallow & deep processing
Shallow processing
Encoding on a basic level based on the structure or appearance of words
Ex: repeating words to remember them
Deep processing
Encoding semantically based on the meaning of the words tends to yield the best retention
Atkinson-shiffrin three stage model of memory
To be remembered info- sensory memory
Process info into STM- encoded through rehearsal
Moves into LTM for later retrieval
Haptic memory
Info that can be recalled that was originally collected by the sense of touch
example: when you feel a raindrop on your skin, your haptic memory records that sensation, helping you recognize what ‘s happening
Short term memory
Activated memory that holds a few things briefly often thought to be about 7±2 items.
Ex: the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the info is stored or forgotten
Long term memory
The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of memory system. Includes knowledge skills and experiences
Baddeley’s working memory
Memories that are still forming
Memory span
The number of items usually words that a person can retain and recall
Chunking
Organizing items into familiar manageable units; often occurs automatically
if you’re trying to memorize a long phone number like 555-1234: digits of a debit card
Maintenance rehearsal
Repeating items over and over to maintain them in short term memory
Semantic memory
Memory for general facts and concepts not linked to a specific time
Ex: the names of colors, the sounds of letters, the capitals of countries and other basic facts acquired over a lifetime
Implicit/non-declarative memory
Retention independent of conscious recollection
involves “knowing how” to do things
Ex: knowing how to play the piano, ride a bike, tie your shoes, and other motor skills
Eidetic memory
Photographic memory ability to recall an image from memory with high precision
Memory consolidation
The process through which a memory becomes stable in the brain and does not have to do with iconic or Echoic memory
Ex: if you study the same material regularly over a long period, the pathways involved in remembering that information becomes stronger.
Long term potential
An increase in a cells firing potential after brief rapid stimulation believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory
example: if a mouse is placed in a pool of murky water, it will swim about until it finds a hidden platform to climb out on
Amygdala
Two Lima bean sized neural clusters in the limbic system; linked to emotion
Cerebellum
The “little brain” at the rear of brain stem functions include processing sensory input coordination movement output end balance and enabling nonverbal learning and memory
Basal Ganglia
Deep brain structures involved in moter movement facilitate formation of our procedural memories for skills
Storage decay, Herman Ebbinghans, Forgetting curve
Storage decay: how Info stored in the brain gradually fades away
Herman ebbinghans: discovered forgetting curve
Forgetting curve shows Storage decay
Trace Decay Theory
All memories fade automatically as a function of your time.
You need to follow a certain path or trace to recall a memory
Amnesia
Occurs when a person experience the full or partial loss of memory, injury or trauma can create problems with various brain functions
Anterograde amnesia
When your brain can’t form new memories from what your experiencing rn
Serial position effect
Tendency to remember the first and last items in a list better than those in the middle
Primary effect
Tendency to recall info presented at the start of a list better than info at the middle or end
Recency effect
Cognitive bias in which these items ideas or arguments that came last are remembered more than those that came first
Cognitive psychology
The scientific study of all the mental activities associated with thinking knowing remembering and communicating
Metacognition
Thinking about your own thinking-what you learned experienced challenges it can improve application of knowledge skills and character qualities
Ex: if an individual knows that they have difficulty reading a map, they might ask their spouse to navigate
Concepts “organization”
A mental grouping of similar objects events ideas or people
Prototype
An mental image or best examples of a category matching new items to put a type, provides a quick and easy message for sorting items into categories
Ex:bird=pigeon
Convergent thinking
Narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution
Ex: Deciding if you should use a spoon or a fork to eat your meal.
Divergent thinking
Expands the number of possible problem solutions
creative thinking that diverges in different directions
Ex: Wondering how many ways you can use a fork
Algorithm
Solve a problem one step at a time
Step by step
Heuristics “rules of thumb”
A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently
Ex: if someone is shopping for a new laptop, they might use a rule of thumb like “more expensive = better quality” to make a quick decision without doing hours of research
Representativeness heuristic
Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they represent particular prototypes
Ex: guy running from the cops people think must be a criminal
Availability heuristic
Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory, if instances come readily to mind or presume, such events are common
Ex: if Sarah were to see consistent news clips about people losing their jobs, she would likely be more scared of losing her own job in the following days
Insights the “aha moment”
A sudden realization of a problems solution
Wolfgang Kohler
Cofounder of Gestalt psychology which criticizes behaviorism and outlines essential elements of the Gestalt position and approach.
Mental set
A tendency to approach a problem in one particularly way, often a way that has been successful in the past
Ex: You pull on a door handle to open it. The door doesn’t open. You pull on it a few more times before you try to push, failing to notice the “push” sign on the door.
Functional fixedness
A cognitive bias, that limits a person to use an object only in the way it’s traditionally used
Confirmation bias
The tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and ignores/distort contradictory evidence
Ex: a police detective may identify a suspect early in an investigation, but then may only seek confirming rather than disconfirming evidence
Belief perseverance “denial”
Clinging to one’s initial conception, after the bias, on which they formed has been discredited
Ex: a person who believes that smoking does not cause cancer despite the abundance of evidence that shows that smoking does cause cancer
Overconfidence
The tendency to be more confident and correct
to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments
Hindsight bias, “I knew it all along” phenomenon
The tendency to believe after an outcome that one would have foreseen it
Example: after attending a baseball game, you might insist that you knew that the winning team was going to win beforehand
Framing (cognitive bias)
The way an issue was posed how an issue is framed, can significantly affect decisions and judgments
Example: people might favor a vaccine effective in 90% of people, but become hesitant if the same vaccine is advertised as not effective in 10% of people.
Anchoring effect (cognitive bias)
the common human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of info offered (anchor) when making decisions
Ex: If a customer first sees a product at its original, non-discounted price, this number will become an anchor. If they subsequently see a discount offer, they will evaluate this as a great deal!
Language
Are spoken, written, or signed words in the ways we can combine them to communicate meaning
Phonemes
Are the smallest distinctive sound units in a language
Ex: s/ is pronounced ‘ssssss’ and not ‘suh’ or ‘es’.
Morphemes
The smallest unit that carries meaning, maybe a word or part of a word
Ex: prefix
Grammar
System of rules that enable us to communicate with one another
Grammatical, rules guide us in delivering meaning, from sounds and ordering words into sentences
Babbling stage
Beginning at four months, the stage of speech development, which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first related to the household language
Ex: ma-ma
One word stage
Stage of speech development from about age 1 to 2 playing with a child speaks, mostly in single words
Ex: kitty
Two word stage
Beginning about age 2, the child in speech development, during which a child speaks mostly in two word statements
Ex: get ball
Full sentences
Children begin speaking long phrases by early elementary school they are employing humor
Skinners theory of language acquisition
A child imitates the language of his parents
successful attempts are rewarded
Noam Chomsky inform universal grammar
All languages share some basic elements which he calls, universal grammar
Wernicke’s Area
Controls language reception, a brain area, involved in language, comprehension, and expression usually in the left temporal lobe
Broca’s area
Controls language expression, an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere that directs the muscle movement in speech
Critical periods for language
When you’re a child
Childhood window for language learning gradually closes in early childhood
Linguistic, determinism “language and thought”
Wharf’s hypothesis that language determine the way we think
Proactive interference
occurs when a person is not able to remember new information because old information stops the retrieval of new information
Ex: when you can’t remember your new password and continue to write your old one
Retroactive interference
when the learning of new information interferes with the recall of old information from long-term memory.
Ex: once you have learned a new mobile number, it is often very difficult to recall your old number.
misinformation effect
when our memory for past events is altered after exposure to misleading information
