Psychology Unit 5: Cognitive

Memory

the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information

Encoding

the processing of information into the memory system

Storage

the retention of encoded information over time

Retrieval

the process of getting information out of memory storage

parallel processing

the processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. Contrasts with the step-by-step (serial) processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving. For example, when you see a bus coming towards you, you see its color, shape, depth, and motion all at once.

Sensory Memory

the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system. Examples of Sensory memory include seeing a dog, feeling gum under a chair, or smelling chicken noodle soup. Our eyes, nose, and nerves send that information to the brain

Short Term Memory

activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten

Long Term Memory

the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Working Memory

active maintenance of information in short-term storage; For example, trying to remember a phone number while a toddler is shouting for attention, or trying to remember a shopping list when you bump into an old friend. Children use working memory in the classroom.

Explicit Memory

memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare". n. Examples include recalling your memories of events from your life, remembering information you have learned when taking a test, and recollecting upcoming appointments.

Effortful Processing

encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

automatic processing

unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings

Implicit Memory

unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings. Some examples of implicit memory include singing a familiar song, typing on your computer keyboard, and brushing your teeth. Riding a bike is another example. Even after going years without riding one, most people are able to hop on a bike and ride it effortlessly.

Iconic Memory

a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second

Echoic Memory

a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds

Chunking

organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

Mnemonic Devices

techniques for using associations to memorize and retrieve information

Spacing Effect

the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice

Testing Effect

enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information

Shallow Processing

encoding on a basic level based on the structure or appearance of words

Deep Processing

encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the words; tends to yield the best retention

Hippocampus

A neural center located in the limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage.

Flashbulb Memory

a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event

long-term potentiation

an increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.

Recall

A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test.

Recognition

a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test

Relearning

a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time

Priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response

Mood Congruent Memory

the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood

Serial Position Effect

our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list

Anterograde Amnesia

an inability to form new memories

Retrograde Amnesia

an inability to retrieve information from one's past

Proactive Interference

the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information

Retroactive Interference

the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information

Repression

in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

Misinformation Effect

incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event

source amnesia (source misattribution)

attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined

deja vu

that eerie sense that "I've experienced this before." Cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience.

Declarative Memory

the cognitive information retrieved from explicit memory; knowledge that can be declared

nondeclarative memory

A subsystem within Long term memory which consists of skills we acquire through repetition and practice (e.g., dance, playing the piano, driving a car)

Information Processing Model

model of memory that assumes the processing of information for memory storage is similar to the way a computer processes memory in a series of three stages

Procedural Memory

the gradual acquisition of skills as a result of practice, or "knowing how" to do things

Peg word system

A mnemonic in which the items in a list to be remembered are associated with the sequential items in a memorized jingle and then the list is retrieved by going through the jingle and retrieving the associated items.

Hierachies

broad concepts divided and subdivided into narrower concepts and facts

Semantic Encoding

the encoding of meaning, including the meaning of words

Self reference effect

tendency to better remember information relevant to ourselves

infatile amnesia

forgetting of early events

state dependent memory

The theory that information learned in a particular state of mind (e.g., depressed, happy, somber) is more easily recalled when in that same state of mind.

recency effect

tendency to remember words at the end of a list especially well

Primacy effect

tendency to remember words at the beginning of a list especially well

Tip of the tongue

the feeling that a memory is available but not quite retrievable

Positive Transfer

when old information facilitates the learning of new information

Reconsolidation

a process in which previously stored memories, when retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again

Imagination Inflation

a memory phenomenon in which vividly imagining an event markedly increases confidence that the event actually occurred

Hermann Ebbinhaus

first person to study memory scientifically; established the forgetting curve (rapid loss of meaningless info followed by gradual decline of the rest)

Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin

Proposed a model to explain our memory forming process

Elizabeth Loftus

Her research on memory construction and the misinformation effect created doubts about the accuracy of eye-witness testimony

George A.Miller

founder of cognitive psychology

Cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Concept

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people

Protoype

a mental image or best example of a category

Creativity

the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas

Convergent Thinking

narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution

Divergent Thinking

expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions)

Algorithm

A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.

Heuristic

a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms

Insight (Wolfgang Kohler)

sometimes we are unaware of using problem-solving...answer just comes as inspiration

confirmation bias

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

Mental set

a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past

Intuition

an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning

Representative Heuristic

judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes

availability heuristic

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common

Overconfidence

the tendency to be more confident than correct—to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

belief perseverance

clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited

Framing

the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

Language

our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

Phoneme

in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

Morpheme

in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix)

Grammar

in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others

Babbling Stage

beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language

One word stage

the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words

Two word stage

beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements

Telegraphic speech

early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs.

Aphasia

impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding).

Lingusitc Determinism

Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think

Broca's area

Controls language expression - an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech.

Wernicke's area

controls language reception - a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe

Fixation

according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved

Semantics

the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning

Syntax

Sentence structure

Receptive Language

ability to comprehend speech

Productive Language

ability to produce words

Universal Grammar (Chomsky)

A linguistic theory that the ability to learn language is innate, distinctly human and distinct from all other aspects of human cognition.

Critical Period

an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development

Functional Fixedness

the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving

Belief Bias

the tendency for one's preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning, sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid, or valid conclusions seem invalid

Overgeneralizing

generalizing from too few examples

Intelligence

mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

Intelligence Test

a method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores