Unit 5: Cognitive Psychology

Algorithm

Every possible option - solution guranteed

Amygdala

A limbic system structure involved in memory and emotion, particularly fear and aggression.

Anterograde Amnesia

Inability to create new memories

Automatic Processing

Minimal concious effort on the task (ex.Driving)

Availability Heuristic

Most mentally "avaliable" based on memory

B.F. Skinner

Who believed language is learned through nurture? (association, imitation, reinforcement)

Belief Perseverance

When beliefs are challenged by contrary evidence, but the beliefs are maintained

Cerebellum

Part of brain that stores implicit memories

Chunking

organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

Cognition

All forms of knowing and awareness

Confirmation Bias

Selectively seeking and recalling information to support one's existing beliefs

Consolidation

When memories are processed from short to long term

Context Effects

The ability to better recall information in the same location it was learned

Convergent Thinking

"There is one correct solution"

Critical Period

The optimal time to develop a skill

Deep Processing

Meaningful properties rather than characteristics

Deep Processing Examples

Elaborative Rehearsal - pleasentness, definition, relationship to other things

Déjà Vu

The feeling of experiencing something again

Divergent Thinking

Thinking outside of the box - multiple solutions

Divided Attention

Ability to respond to more than one stimulus

Effortful Processing

Needing to rehearse and connect information (ex. Remembering new information)

Elaborative Rehearsal

An encoding strategy linking new information to what one already knows (connection)

Elizabeth Loftus

Her research on memory construction and the misinformation effect created doubts about the accuracy of eye-witness testimony (car crash study, application)

Encoding

Bringing information into our awareness

Encoding Failure

Occurs when a memory was never formed in the first place

Episodic Memory

(explicit) memories of events related to own life

Explicit Memory

Concious effort to retrive

Fixation

Preoccupation with a current mental set, inability to solve a problem through a new perspective

Flashbulb Memories

Memories that are linked to strong emotions

Framing

How something is presented can influence how it is perceived

Functional Fixation

Inability to consider a new function for an item

Gambler's Fallacy

Belief that the probability of a random event is influenced by similar past events

George Miller and the "magical number 7"

Theorized that people tend to have 7 (+/- 2) memories in their short-term storage

Herman Ebbinghaus

He was a German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory, and is known for his discovery of the forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He was also the first person to describe the learning curve.

Heuristic

Shortcut - will not try every possible solution

Hippocampus

Part of brain that routes explicit memories for storage

Implicit Memory

Unconscious retrieval

Insight

The sudden realization to a solution for a problem

Intution

Gut feeling/instinct

Language Aquisition Device

idea by Chomsky that all humans have an inborn ability to learn language

Language Development

Stages of this include: Receptive and productive

Linguistic Determinism/Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis

Language determines thinking (limitations on grammar/vocab alter our world perspective

Long-Term

Duration - unlimited

Capacity - unlimited

Long-Term Potentiation

A neuron's enhanced firing capacity due to rehearsal (stronger connections)

Maintenance Rehearsal

Repetition that maintains short-term memories until information is use

Mental Set

Temporary readiness based on past success

Metacognition

Thinking about thinking

Method of Loci

A mnemonic technique that involves associating items on a list with a sequence of familiar physical locations

Misinformation Effect

Incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event

Mnemonics

any device or technique used to assist memory, usually by forging a link or association between the new information to be remembered and information previously encoded.

Mood-Congruent Memory

The ability to better recall information in the same emotional state as when it was learned

Morphemes

Smallest unit of a meaningful sounds (prefixes/suffixes)

Motivated Forgetting

A memory lapse motivated by a desire to avoid a 'painful' recollection

Noam Chomsky

Who believed language is a natural human ability?

Overconfidence

An overestimation of what you know or what you can do

Overgeneralization/overregularization

application of grammatical rules without making appropriate exceptions (goed, doed)

Overlearning

Practice that continues beyond expected use of information

Phonemes

smallest unit of sound in a language

Primacy Effect

Easily remembering items first on a list

Priming

(implicit) An unconscious or automatic process that can influence our thinking later

Proactive Interference

When old, previously recorded memories intrude with the recall of new memories

Procedural Memory

(implicit) memories related to tasks ex. muscle memory

Prospective Memory

Remebering to do something in the future

Prototype

A sterotypical example of something

Recall

pulling information out of brain without any retrieval aid

Recency Effect

Easily remembering items last on a list

Recognition

Recall WITH the use of a recall cue

Representative Heuristic

Stereotyping based on prototype

Repression

Defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness

Retrieval

Recalling information out of stored memory

Retrieval Failure

Forgetting due to breakdowns in the process of retrieval

Retroactive Interference

Current memories/info. get in the way of retrieving old information

Retrograde Amnesia

Inability to retrieve past memories

Selective Attention

Concentration on certain stimuli and not others

Self-Refernce Effect

Making information meaningful to you

Semantic Memory

(explicit) meanings, definitions, general knowledges

Semantics

The set of rules which we derive meaning (s=plural ed=past tense)

Sensory

Capacity - unlimited

Duration - 0.5 sec.-a couple sec.

Sensory Memory - Echoic

memory of audio information

Sensory Memory - Haptic

memory of 'touch' information

Sensory Memory - Iconic

memory of visual information

Serial Position Effect

The effect of an item's position on a list as to how well it's recalled

Shallow Processing

Superficial, perceptual characteristics

Shallow Processing Examples

Repetition and maintence rehearsal

Short-Term

Capacity - 7(+/- 2)

Duration - 20 sec.-20 min.

Source Amnesia (failure of source monitoring)

Unable to determine the source/origin of a memory, knowledge, beliefs, information, etc.

Spacing Effect/Distributed Rehearsal

Spreading studying out over time (brain is recalling info. more often)

State-Dependent Memory

The ability to better recall information in the same physiological state as when it was learned

Storage

Ability to maintain information over time

Storage Failure

The decay of memory with time

Sunk-Cost Fallacy

Continued behavior based on investment or commitment

Syntax

The rules of grammar

Testing Effect

Testing = restudying for rentention

The Forgetting Curve

A graph showing retention and forgetting over time.

Trial & Error

Learning from mistakes until something works

Visual, audio and semantic

Types of information humans encode