AP Psych Unit 5

Metacognition

Thinking about the way you think

Semantic Memory

Knowledge, facts, general information

Episodic Memory

Experiences or events

Explicit Memories

Memories that are consciously made

Implicit Memories

Memories that are unconsciously made and learned without an individual’s awareness

Parallel Processing

Brain processes variety of things simultaneously, brain’s normal mode of information processing when dealing with multiple bits of information

Effortful Processing

Intentional processing, memories we consciously work to make such as explicit memories

Automatic Processing

Constantly without an individual trying, implicit memories

Deep Processing

Individual encodes information based on meaning of information, better for retention of information, takes new info and connects to old

Shallow Processing

Individual encodes information on basic level, focus is on appearance of words or basis of structures of information, little to no focus on meaning

Atikinson and Shiffrin Three-Stage Model

Sensory Memory—→ Working/Short Term Memory——→ Long Term Memory

Iconic Memory

Visual information for a couple of seconds, very little time

Echoic Memory

Auditory information for a couple seconds, just a little longer than iconic, very little time

Maintenance Rehearsal

Continuously go over information to try and keep it in your working memory, shallow processing

Elaborative Rehearsal

Make associations between information you already know and information you are trying to learn, deep processing

Noam Chomsky

Believed individuals were born with universal grammar and individuals naturally learn to speak, Language Acquisition Device

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Experiment in which random syllables and try to memorize them, expanded memory theory and relearning work

Wolfgang Kohler

Helped create Gestalt Psychology and one of the first to explore insight learning

Elizabeth Loftus

Understanding memory, memories are not always accurate and how brain can create false memories

George A. Miller

Proposed 7 plus or minus 2 rule in which is the amount of piece of information that can be stored in a person’s short term memory

Encoding

Initial learning of information, information being moved from working memory into long-term memory

Visual

Visual information is observed

Acoustic

Different sound elements

Tactile

Feeling of touch

Organizational

Information is learned in terms of a specific sequence

Elaborative

Pairing new information with prior information

Semantic

Focus on meaning or context of the information

Mass Practice

Encode information all at once

Distributed Practice (Spacing Effect)

Encoding is distributed over period of time

Testing Effect

Individual takes an assessment it helps improve their memory and shows understanding of material

Role Rehearsal

Individual continuously repeats information to remember the information

Chunking

Organizing information into meaningful groups (acronyms)

Mnemonic Devices

Individual uses a technique to link information they are trying to learn with information they already know so that it is more easily retrieved

Flashbulb Memories

Very specific and clear and very traumatic, stressful or emotional memories

Recall

Coming up with information without any prompts

Recognition

See information and identify correct answer

Retrieval Cues

Information previously learned and paired with new info

Encoding Specificity Principle

Certain memories are linked to the context in which they are created

Mood-congruent Memory

Consistency between one’s mood and emotional context of memories recalled

State-dependent Memory

Memories created in one state, such as being healthy or sick and being able to remember more easily in that state

Serial Position Effect

More likely to remember information at the beginning and at the end rather than the middle

Reconsolidation

Individual’s memories are retrieved and altered before stored again

Misinformation Effect

Change or alter memory when accessed with misleading info, distorting original memory

Retrieval Failure

Person has stored memory in long-term memory but unable to properly retrieve it

Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve

Individual will first forget quite a bit of info, but with use of distributed practice, same amount of time would be decreased to learn something

Proactive Interference

New information is hard to access due to OLD information

Retroactive Information

Old information is hard to access due to NEW information

Anterograde

Can no longer form new memories, something in hippocampus

Retrograde

Can no longer retrieve past information because of blow to person’s head

Source

Person can not remember where they heard the information from

Long Term Potentiation

Repeated stimulation of one nerve cell triggers stimulation of next, which leads to memory formation

Cognition

Forms of knowing and awareness, such as perceiving, conceiving, remembering, reasoning, judging, etc.

Prototype

Mental images created to illustrate different concepts

Anchors

Information that can be used to make judgments about new information

Informal Reasoning

Extremely fast thinking, brain uses shortcut to speed up processing

Formal Reasoning

Slower thinking focused on details

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts based on past experience

Schema

Cognitive framework that helps a person organize and understand world around, based on experiences and guided with perceptual set

Mental Set

Person focuses on solution that have worked in the past to be applied to similar situations in future

Syllogism

Utilizes logic to try and solve a problem

Convergent Thinking

Takes problem and narrows down to single best solution

Divergent Thinking

Considers variety of possibilities and expands on solutions to problem

Sternberg’s Components of Creativity

Expertise, Imaginative thinking skills, venturesome personality, intrinsic motivation, creative environment

Cognitive Bias

Error in thinking when brain tries to simplify different information

Availability Heuristic

Uses information accessible right away

Representativeness Heuristic

New information does not match with schema, so information is put into a existing prototype that may not match

Confirmation Bias

Person seeks for information that validates their point of view and dismisses challenges

Hindsight Bias

Tendency to believe one anticipated the outcome of an event or experiment after it happened

Framing

The way you word a question

Fixedness

Person is not able to see problem, information, and/or topic from a different perspective

Belief Perseverance

Even though information contradicts one’s belief, the person still holds onto them

Illusory Correlation

Different events or items happen near each other and person thinks they are connected

Functional Fixedness

Sees certain objects/items in a certain way

Fluid Intelligence

Ability to quickly reason and breakdown abstract problems, decrease as we age

Crystallized Intelligence

Accumulated knowledge and skills, increase as we age

Charles Spearman

Have one general intelligence and can be measured with single score

Howard Gardner

Eight different intelligences

Robert Sternberg

Three categories of multiple intelligences

Alfred Binet

Expanded intelligence into groundwork for education system

Francis Galton

Believed we can quantify intelligence, people are naturally born with high ability

Lewis Terman

Modified Binet’s work to get Stanford-Binet intelligence scale

David Wechsler

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, provide overall and individual intelligence

Stereotype Threat

Impact person’s ability to perform due to treating them differently from other individuals

Psychometric

Branch of psychology focusing on quantification of mental attributes

Split-half Method

Reliability test to see if test takers do better on one part of the test compared to the other part

Content

Extent to which test inquires about information or behaviors of interest

Construct

Degree in which a test can measure in a specific trait or concept

Criterion

See if test correlates with any outside variables or measures, if low test may not be valid

Predictive

Predicts future performance, validity can only be used when large data set

Phonemes

Basic sounds, often sounds infant makes

Morphemes

Smallest unit of meaning, at least minimum 2 phonemes

Grammar

Rules a language follows

Syntax

Rules to order words in a sentence

Linguistic Determinism

Structure of a particular language determines how mental categories of the language are structured

Linguistic Relativism

How language differs depending on context, shapes an individual’s thoughts and understanding of concepts

Crucial Period

Time which person must learn information, if not plasticity is severely limited

Sensitive Period

Where brain is best able to do something

Babbling

Start speech development, making consonant vowel sounds

Holophrase

Child is able to say one word but word has larger meaning

Telegraphic Speech

Two-word phrases