Unit 8: Cognitive Psychology - Memory & Thinking Flashcards
1
Q
What is prospective memory?
A
Remembering to do things in the future
2
Q
What are various kinds of prospective memory tasks?
A
Habitual tasks, event-based tasks, and time-based tasks
3
Q
What is retrospective memory?
A
Recalling information that has been previously learned
4
Q
What are kinds of retrospective memory tasks?
A
Episodic, semantic, and procedural
5
Q
Explicit memory contains what two kinds of retrospective memory tasks?
A
Episodic and semantic
6
Q
What is explicit memory?
A
Information that you have to consciously work to remember – memory for specific information
7
Q
What are episodic memories?
A
Memories of things that happen to us or take place in our presence
8
Q
What are examples of episodic memories?
A
What you ate for breakfast or what your professor said in class this afternoon
9
Q
What are semantic memories?
A
General knowledge
10
Q
What is an example of a semantic memory?
A
You can remember that the US has 50 states, even though you never personally visited each one
11
Q
What is implicit memory?
A
Information that you remember unconsciously and effortlessly
12
Q
What is procedural memory?
A
Memory involving how to do certain things that become automatic
13
Q
What are examples of procedural memory?
A
Riding a bike, driving a car, and tying shoes
14
Q
What are explicit and implicit memories classified as?
A
Long-term memory
15
Q
What is memory?
A
The persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information
16
Q
Describe Atkinson and Shiffrin’s (1968) 3 stage model of information processing.
A
- Stimuli causes sensory store
- Attention causes the sensory store to turn into short term memory
- Rehearsal keeps that memory in short term memory
- Short term and long term memory are involved in the transfer and retrieval of information
17
Q
Describe the simple information processing model of memory.
A
Encoding –> Storage –> Retrieval
18
Q
What are the objects that can be reflected by the simple information processing model?
A
Keyboard (encoding) –> Disk (storage) –> Monitor (retrieval)
19
Q
What is an encoding failure?
A
When information we don’t need to “know” never gets encoded
20
Q
How is sensory store lost?
A
Through decay
21
Q
How is short term memory lost?
A
Through displacement or decay
22
Q
How is long term memory lost?
A
Through decay, retrieval failure, or interference
23
Q
Regarding sensory memory, what are the two types of sensory register?
A
Iconic memory and echoic memory
24
Q
What type of information is received in iconic memory?
A
Visual information
25
What type of things does iconic memory pick up?
Shape, size, and color
26
How long are icons stored?
1/3 to 1/2 of a second
27
What type of encoding is iconic memory?
Visual encoding
28
What type of information is received in echoic memory?
Auditory information
29
What type of thing does echoic memory pick up?
Echos
30
How long can echoic memories be stored?
3-4 seconds
31
What type of encoding is echoic memory?
Acoustic encoding
32
What are the 3 types of encoding?
Visual encoding, acoustic encoding, and semantic encoding
33
What is visual encoding?
Mental images (structural)
34
What is acoustic encoding?
Series of sounds (phonetic)
35
What is semantic encoding?
Making information meaningful
36
Is semantic encoding different from semantic memory?
Yes, semantic memory is factual information (but meaning impacts both)
37
What type of encoding is the best?
Semantic encoding --> make info personally meaningful (connections)
38
What is an engram?
A hypothetical change in neural tissue postulated in order to account for persistence of memory (memory trace)
39
What is eidetic imagery?
A subjective visual phenomenon in which a person claims to continue to “see” an object that is no longer objectively present
40
What is short term memory?
Our working memory that holds all info currently in use
41
What impacts our short term memory?
Attention span
42
What is our immediate memory span?
The max number of items we can perfectly recall after one presentation
43
Immediate memory spans are often used with older adults to look for what signs?
Signs of Alzheimer's Disease or concussions
44
What is memory's magic number?
7 plus or minus 2 bits of info in the STM
45
Who discovered the magic number for short term memory?
George Miller
46
What is chunking?
Organizing random bits of info into more meaningful groups
47
What is levels of processing?
A view of learning suggesting that the more deeply information is processed, the more meaningful it becomes
48
Describe the levels of processing model.
Structural (looks like) --> shallow
Phonetic (sounds like) --> STM
Semantic (means) --> deep
49
What are the 2 types of rehearsal for the levels of processing?
Maintenance and Elaborative Rehearsal
50
What is maintenance rehearsal?
Repeating info over and over again without thinking deeply about ut
51
How effective is maintenance rehearsal?
It is not very effective in forming lasting memories because it is shallow processing
52
What is elaborative rehearsal?
Actively thinking about how new material relates to already known info
53
How effective is elaborative rehearsal?
It is effective because it is making info more meaningful through deep processing
54
What is short term memory limited by?
The Serial Position Effect
55
What is the serial position effect?
The tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a series best, and the middle items worst
56
What is Loci?
Loci are the locations such as door, closet or driveway.
57
What are the 3 steps of Loci?
1. Identify the Loci and arrange them in a familiar sequence
2. Create images of the to be recalled (TBR) items that are then associated with the Loci
3. Recall by mentally revisiting the Loci which will cue the TBR
58
Decay vs displace.
Decay is forgetting over time, while displace is new memory traces erasing the old ones
59
What are mnemonic devices?
It can be images, acronyms, rhymes, and chunking that help us remember phrases
60
What are schemas?
The mental frameworks or templates we develop for objects, people, or situations / a cluster of inter-related concepts that tell us about how things function in the world
61
What are cultural schemas?
Cognitive structures that contain knowledge for face-to-face interactions in a person's cultural environment
62
What did Sir Frederic Bartlett (1932) say about his experiment "The War of the Ghosts"?
Memory is an active process of construction, guided by schemas
63
How did cultural schemas affect the way students at USC re-told the story?
It made the unfamiliar, oddly structured Native American story difficult to remember because we deleted, modified, or added aspects of the story to fit what we know
64
Who is Elizabeth Loftus?
A distinguished professor (considered the #1 female psychologist of the 20th century) who was the leading researcher in reconstructive memory
65
What is the misinformation effect?
Incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event
66
How did the misinformation effect play a role in Loftus' experiment?
People who were asked about the accident using "hit" remembered the actual accident, but the people who were asked about ut using "smashed" misremembered it
67
What do our schemas shape?
How we remember something
68
We don't replay our memories. Instead, we ...
reconstruct them (memory is fragile and malleable)
69
Injecting misinformation gets easier as memory ...
fades with time
70
Explain the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve.
It describes the decrease in ability of the brain to retain memory over time
71
Explain Scoville and Milner's 1957 Case Study on H.M.
H.M. had serious seizures so surgeons removed his hippocampus. He could recall everything about his life, but could not form new memories after his surgery
72
What is anterograde amnesia?
The inability to form or keep new memories, meaning that a person cannot transfer info from STM to LTM (nothing sticks). Caused by damage to or disease in the HIPPOCAMPUS
73
Who had the first known case of anterograde amnesia?
H.M.
74
Who had the most famous case of anterograde amnesia?
Clive Wearing -- could not remember anything because new memories only lasted a couple of seconds
75
What is retrograde amnesia?
Failure to remember events that occurred before some physical trauma -- the inability to recall THE PAST from damage
76
Who had a famous case of retrograde amnesia?
Scott Bolzan -- forgot everything from his past
77
What is retrieval?
Getting information out of storage -- can be recalled, recognized, and relearned easier
78
What are flashbulb memories?
Unusually clear memories of an emotionally significant moment or event
79
What changes help explain flashbulb memories?
Emotion-triggered hormone (adrenaline) changes
80
What is retrieval failure?
Although the information is retained in storage, it cannot be accessed -- between LTM and STM
81
What is the Tip-of-the-Tongue (TOT) theory?
A retrieval failure phenomenon
82
What is context-dependent memory?
Returning to the context where you experienced something can prime your memory of it
83
What is a famous experiment done about context-dependent memory?
Godden and Baddeley (1975) had scuba divers learn list of words on land or underwater, and the attempt to recall them in the same or different context
84
What is deja vu?
Sometimes being in a similar context to one previously experienced can trigger an eerie feeling --current situation is loaded with retrieval cues that remind us of earlier, similar experiences
85
What is state-dependent (mood congruent) memory?
We more easily recall experiences that are consistent with the current (good or bad) mood
86
What is an example of state-dependent memory?
Teen ratings of their parents are tightly linked to the teen's current mood
87
What is retroactive interference?
New information interferes with information already in memory
88
What is proactive interference?
Information already in memory interferes with new information (aka Stroop Effect)
89
Retroactive interference can be prevented by what?
Sleep -- it leads to better recall
90
Proactive interference...
OLD info gets in the way of new
91
Retroactive interference...
NEW info gets in the way of old
92
What is infantile (childhood) amnesia?
Our inability to recall events that occurred prior to about age 2 to 4 -- only emotionally charged memories stick
93
What are retrieval cues?
Memories are linked together in the brain, in a storage web of associations
94
What is relearning?
A measure of retention. Material is usually relearned more quickly than it is learned initially
95
Recall vs recognition
Recall is the retrieval or reconstruction of learned material
Recognition is involving identification of objects or events encountered before
96
What are paired associates?
Nonsense syllables presented in pairs in experiments that measure recall
97
What is retrieval?
The location of stored information and its return to consciousness; the THIRD stage of information processing
98
What is storage?
The maintenance of information over time; the SECOND stage of information processing
99
What is encoding?
Modifying information so that it can be placed in memory; the FIRST stage of information processing
100
What is thinking?
A conscious, planned attempt to make sense of things -- thinking is PURPOSEFUL!
101
What are concepts?
Mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, or people
102
Compared to concepts, schemas are more ...
complex, comprehensive concepts
103
How do we organize concepts?
into hierarchies
104
What are hierarchies?
Mental structures we use to organize concepts -- isn't neat or organized
105
When accessing a concept in our minds, we tend to think in terms of what?
Prototypes
106
What are prototypes?
A BEST example of a concept
107
What are the three problem solving approaches?
Associationist, algorithms, and heuristics
108
What are associationists?
Solving problems through TRIAL and ERROR
109
What are algorithms?
Step-by-step procedures that GUARANTEE A SOLUTION
110
What is the downside of algorithms?
They are very time consuming
111
What are heuristics?
Rule of thumb strategies that may help SIMPLIFY A PROBLEM AND SAVE US TIME, but do not guarantee a solution -- mental short-cuts
112
What is a problem with heuristics?
They can lead to mistakes and/or biases -- but they are quicker :)
113
What are the 3 cognitive traps?
Mental sets, fixation, and functional fixedness
114
What are mental sets?
A tendency to respond to a new problem with the same approach that helped solve similar problems
115
What is fixation?
An inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective
116
What is insight?
A sudden realization of the solution to a problem -- "aha experience" *** can also be in animals ***
117
What is functional fixedness?
A tendency to think only of the familiar functions of an object (close-minded perception)
118
What helps overcome fixation?
Incubation
119
What is incubation?
A hypothetical process that sometimes occurs when we stand back from a frustrating problem for a while and the solution suddenly appears
120
What is a cognitive map?
A mental picture or image of the layout of one's physical environment
121
What is the anchoring and adjustment heuristic?
A decision-making heuristic in which a PRESUMPTION serves as a cognitive anchor -- we make adjustments, but remain in the proximity of the anchor
122
Real life examples of anchoring and adjustment heuristic
Multiple unit pricing (10 for $10), purchase quantity limits, negotiations
123
What is the availability heuristic?
Estimating the frequency or probability of events based on how easy it is to think of examples -- the faster we can remember, the more we expect it to occur
124
Real life examples of availability heuristic?
- false memories
- intelligence
- divorce
- rags to riches stories
- pleading insanity
125
What is representativeness heuristic?
Judging the likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, a particular stereotype -- IMPACTED BY OUR PROTOTYPES
126
What is confirmation bias?
The tendency to favor information that confirms what we already favor or believe -- we end up ignoring evidence that contradicts our beliefs
127
What is overconfidence?
Sometimes we think we know more than we actually know
128
Overconfidence in judgments refers to our tendency to be more ...
confident than correct
129
What is the framing effect?
Our thinking is shaped by how information is framed (presented)
130
Example of framing effect
20% fat ice cream vs 80% fat-free ice cream
131
Explain Wolgang Kohler's research with Sultan in 1925?
Insight doesn't apply to only humans
132
Echo chambers are ...
seeing things that align with your beliefs
