psych 1 midterm 2 gade sp25

Hermann Ebbinghaus

1850-1909; work aimed to prove we could examine memory scientifically

- used himself as subject

- used nonsense syllables

- focused on how we acquire and forget information

nonsense syllables

one syllable word-ish things that have no meaning; control for stimulus differences

free recall test

also known as Ebbinghaus' test, type of memory test involving recalling given information without any hints

cued recall test

type of memory test involving hints/cues that can lead participants to easier recall; example of recalling states with a map provided

recognition test

test involving a list of potential answers to a question where participants just need to recognize which ones in that list are in their memory

saving test

memory tests involving the ability to relearn something previously memorized

explicit memory

type of memory that can be articulated or described

implicit memory test

memory test linked to bodily reactions, classically conditioned actions, and learned motor skills

implicit memory

type of memory linked to kinesthetics and bodily reactions like in classical conditioning

anterograde amnesia

inability to form new memories; can usually remember things prior to brain damage

star tracing task

implicit memory test involving participants with anterograde amnesia and tracing star through mirrored view of paper; successive iterations over multiple days showed those with amnesia would forget but relearn the task readily and do just as well as control subjects

encoding

the process of converting information into a form that will allow us to retrieve that information later

storage

the process of retaining critical information for later use

retrieval

the process of accessing the stored information that we have encoded in order to use it in a situation

temporal memory stages

external events --> sensory memory --> short-term memory --> long-term memory

sensory memory

the immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the memory system

- large capacity but short lived

- involves all of our senses

George Sperling

psychologist associated with early research into the capacity of sensory memory (1960)

sensory memory experiment

study involving participants memorizing a 3x4 array of letters and numbers; found that ppl could not memorize all 12 things at once but could do one row at a time accurately

short term memory (STM)

memory system in which information is held for brief periods before being either forgotten or placed in long-term memory

- info deemed relevant in the moment

- stored between 10 seconds to a few days

short-term memory capacity

7 +/- 2 items

long term memory (LTM)

memory system containing information from STM that was deemed important and that we had the ability + time to store; is more or less permanent

declarative memory

things you know that you can tell others

episodic memory

memory of specific personal events tagged with information about time

semantic memory

general knowledge

non-declarative memory

things you know that you can show by doing

skill learning

type of non-declarative memory involving learned motor skills

priming

type of non-declarative memory involving an often unconscious recall of something; being more likely to use a word you heard recently

conditioning

type of non-declarative memory learned by previous associations

primacy effect

tendency to remember information at the beginning of a body of information better than the information that follows; less distractions in the beginning with no other info presented yet

recency effect

tendency to remember recent information easier than info presented earlier

overconfidence bias

tendency in studying to overestimate how much you remember from end of a chapter/class

interference effects

information can be lost or less accurate due to an overlap of similar information; brain struggling to keep things separate

proactive interference

new material is lost (not easily stored) due to old material

retroactive interference

old material is lost (forgotten) due to new material

reconstruction effect

tendency when we find connections b/w things to try and simplify them into one thing that makes coherent sense

- often unconscious

- leads to inaccurate info placed into memory to "fill the gaps"

- can cause us to recall things that never occurred

War of the Ghosts

unusual and nonsensical story that readers will construe in a way to make sense of it; will then retell a story completely different than the original

Elizabeth Loftus

studied memory reconstruction and how you can distort someone's memory through specific questioning methods

- findings applied in court trials and eyewitness interviews

- involves memory-specific events and thoughts/feelings about memories

hindsight bias

tendency to think we had more intuition in something than we actually did; overestimate of knowledge to reconfigure our memories to what we experience

levels of processing

successful conversion of info from STM to LTM is highly impacted by one's approach to make sense of information on a deep or shallow level

deep processing

level of processing that involves greater assessment and connections and thus leads to greater retention of information

shallow processing

surface level processing of information that lacks connections or assessment and thus leads to less retention

memory dependence work

we're more likely to recall information when in a condition that resembles the condition we were in when we learned the information

language studies

example of memory dependence work; french list --> french test is better to show knowledge than french list --> english test

situation dependency

increasing chance of remembering information if you're tested on something in the same room you learned it; involves internal and external cues of the environment

state dependency

a memory is easier to retrieve when you are in the same conscious state when you encoded it; study with caffeine and take test with caffeine

classroom memory tricks

increased number of learning sessions (breaks) and mnemonic devices

mnemonic devices

encoding/storage techniques that aid in the process of info retrieval

- acronyms

- phrases

- chunking

- method of loci

chunking

organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

method of loci

technique that involves associating items on a list with a sequence of familiar physical locations; pair something familiar with something new

algorithms

evidence based problem-solving strategy best for finding one specific + correct answer

- mechanical

- procedural

- accurate

- time-consuming

heuristics

problem-solving strategy based on experiences and that employs shortcuts

- prone to human error and implicit biases

- quick

- rule of thumb idea

maximizing

form of heuristics in search of the best possible choice

- often unsatisfied with choices

satisficing

form of heuristics in search of the first satisfactory choice

- may regret choice if presented with more info

representative heuristic

cognitive error involving the assumption that an item that resembles members of some category is probably also in that category

- whatever comes to mind first must fit the best

base-rate information

information about the relative frequency (commonality) of events or of members of different categories; representative heuristic makes us ignore this

types of info available when using a representative heuristic

generic info about how common the event/category is and specific info about the case in question

example of representative heuristic

- if it has big grey ears and a thin tail it must be a

availability heuristic

cognitive error involving the assumption that if we can easily think of examples of a category then that category must be common; overestimating importance of info that comes to mind easily

examples of availability heuristic

- do more words start with R or have R as the 3rd letter?

- spike in lottery ticket purchase after someone wins

- gambling disorder after winning big in the past

confirmation bias

cognitive error involving the tendency to accept a hypothesis and then look for supportive evidence rather than consider other possibilities or disconfirming info

example of confirmation bias

- those with trauma and/or PTSD hold assumption that world is dangerous

- functional fixedness

functional fixedness

tendency to adhere to a single approach or way of using items; opposite of divergent thinking

why do we use heuristics if they lead to mistakes?

they are adaptive/helpful/easier most of the time as compared to algorithims

london cab driver

example of importance of expertise - change in brain via experience of learning entire map of London; larger hippocampus than the average person

heuristics and expertise

heuristics often more accurate for someone with years of experience and expertise

limits of transfer

expertise in one area doesn't make you an expert in all areas

how to be a problem-solver

- find balance b/w algorithm and heuristics and b/w maximizing and satisficing

- think outside the box and weigh all info

- give yourself time and patience

- become an expert

- recognize what you don't know and where heuristics can't be trusted

intelligence

the ability to solve problems and adapt and learn from the environment; definition is up for debate due to its limitations

Charles Spearman

creator of "g-factor", argued that intelligence is environmentally dependent; tackled debate purely from data

g factor

quantified overall/general intelligence

- overlap between diff aspects of intelligence like verbal, mechanical, numerical, and spatial

- correlated to environmental factors

Robert Sternberg

devised the triarchic theory of intelligence; his work started movement to look at intelligence in a more multifaceted way

triarchic theory of intelligence

Sternberg's theory of three main unique intelligence types: mathematical, verbal, and spatial

- factors tended to correlate with each other

- seemed to provide proof for g factor

Howard Gardner

came up with theory of multiple (8) intelligences; at the forefront of rethinking intelligence and learning

theory of multiple intelligences

Gardner's intelligence theory that proposes that there are eight distinct spheres of intelligence

- linguistic/language

- musical

- logical mathematical

- spatial

- bodily kinesthetic

- naturalistic (ability to recognize and classify objects)

- interperonsal

- intrapersonal

intelligence tests

established techniques that allow researchers to compare an individual to their age and cultural equivalent peers in order to determine how much more or less "intelligent" a person is

Alfred Binet

1857-1911; one of the first psychologists to scientifically explore intelligence

- tasked by French Ministry of Education in 1904 to find way to help kids that couldn't profit from a traditional education

Theodore Simon

student of Binet that worked with him to create the Binet-Simon test examining basic mental skills

basic mental skills tested in Binet-Simon test

- sentence generation

- naming body parts

- remembering number strings

Binet-Simon test

first intelligence test which compared children of diff ages by how well they performed basic and complex mental skills

- was not meant to look at kids with advanced intelligence

Stanford-Binet IQ test

intelligence test based on Binet-Simon test that looked at more ages and measured more topics; included idea of intelligence quotient

Lewis Terman

designed the Stanford-Binet test at Stanford; was proponent of eugenics and sterilization of people with low scores on this test

intelligence quotient

MA/CA x 100

mental age (MA)

Binet-Simon test's measure of the age that the child's responses were most indicative of

chronological age (CA)

actual age of the child

eugenics

science of "improving" a population by controlled breeding to increase occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics; based in idea that certain people have superior biological predispositions

Wechsler scales

IQ tests commonly used today with:

- improved and standardized scoring system

- ability to hone in on individual intelligences

- tasks/questions that broke intelligence down into diff dimensions

- attempt to minimize cultural and language biasing

David Wechsler

1896-1981; developed Wechsler Scales

WAIS

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (16 and up)

WISC

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children

new intelligence tests trying to account of cultural/language issues

- Raven's progressive matrices tests

- Kohs block design tests

heritability

the proportion of a characteristic that can be attributed to biology/genetics

nature

the amount of a characteristic that can be attributed to our biology; high heritability

nurture

the amount of a characteristic that can be attributed to our environment (low heritability)

sibling studies

have revealed a very high level of genetic heritability in the area of intelligence

Flynn effect

worldwide increase in intelligence test performance over several decades

- started slowing around mid-2000s and dipped down for the first time in 2010 (and still is)

schooling lapse

prolonged disruption in schooling correlates with lower intelligence test scoring

Jean Piaget

1896-1980; Swiss developmental psychologist who proposed a four-stage theory of cognitive development based on the concept of mental operations; believed that children are constantly adapting to their environment through the demands put on them

schema

a concept or mental framework that organizes and interprets info in the world; rules to navigate the world

equilibrium

a cognitive state of mind that comes from harmony b/w a child's environment and present schema

disequilibrium

a cognitive state of mind caused when new info contradicts current schemas