AP Psychology Unit 5 - Thinking and Cognition

Memory

Learning that has persisted over time, information that has been stored and can be retrieved (“I remember when…”

Recall

Being able to access information without being cued (e.g. filling in the blanks for a test)

Recognition

Identifying information after experiencing it again (e.g. the multiple choice section of a test)

Relearning

Learning something for the second time, usually faster than the first (e.g. relarning terms you already know for a test)

Information-Processing Model

Three stages of your memory : econding, storage, and retrieval

Encoding

Putting/getting information into your brain

Storage

Creating a space for that information to stay, you retain it (goes through the hippocampus, but is stored in the Limbic system)

Retrieval

Calling forward information on demand when you need it

Parallel Processing

The brain’s ability to understand several different stimuli simultaneously

Sensory Memory

External events/things in our environment, that we encode through our senses (e.g. perceiving the brightness of a room) Includes the iconic, echoic, and haptic memory

Iconic Memory

Any sensory input that goes through our visual system, lasts less than a second (e.g. perceiving the color of a table)

Echoic Memory

Any sensory input that goes through our auditory system, lasts for about 3-4 seconds (e.g. the sound of a pencil dropping)

Haptic Memory

Any sensory input that goes through our touch system, lasts for ~2 seconds (e.g. the feeling of the AC on our arms)

Short-Term Memory

The information we are currently aware about (comes from paying attention and thinking about sensory memory, e.g. thinking about what you’re hearing)

Long-Term Memory

Any and all of our memoires that we’ve stored (these memories can last forever, and there is an unlimited amount of space in this memory)

Massed Practice

Trying to encode the information all at once (e.g. cramming for a test)

Distributed Practice

Encoding information over multiple time periods (e.g. going over these terms everyday)Spacing Effect

Spacing Effect

When you encode information over time results in it being stored in your long-term memory (and staying there) vs. if you try to memorize and encode the information all at once you won’t retain it in your long-term memory

Testing Effect

Retrieving information for assessments (restudying/rereading)

Serial Position Effect

The items in the list that are in the middle are LEAST remembered

Regency Effect

The last items in a list are most remembered, but you aren’t likely to retain it

Primacy Effect

The first items in a list are most remembered and you are likely to retain them in your long-memory

Chunking

Grouping things into units to help make memorization easier and more efficient (e.g. grouping numbers into dates)

Mnemonics

Memory devices to help you remember things (e.g. acronyms, key words, songs)

Hierarchies

Creating categories with subdivisions

Overlearning

When you continue to practice something you’ve learned in order to retain it better (e.g. folding all the laundry after learning how to do it)

Priming

When something you perceive activates a memory and causes an association with something you already know (can happen unconsciously) e.g. driving by a cupcake shop and now you see cupcakes everywhere

Context-Dependant Memory

When you revisit a location and it serves as a cue for you to remember something (e.g. you’re at your desk and realize you need a scissors so you go to the kitchen but forget what you needed. You go back into your room and remember that you wanted scissors)

State-Dependant Memory

When you’re experiencing something in the moment, you will remember whatever you were doing at that time when you experience that thing again (e.g. if you chew the same gum while studying and taking the test, you may remember the topics better for when you take the test)

Mood Congruent Memories

A subcategory of the state-dependant memories, where emotion serves as cues and you may remember something if you are in the same mood)

Short-Term/Working Memory

A space where you hold a small amount of information for a short time ~20-30 seconds

• Vulnerable to disruptions

Baddeley’s Working Memory

A system in your brain where you can manipulate the information you have in your short-term memory (e.g. you can do math in your head) Like being in an “active state”

Memory Span

The number of items you can remember and repeat back almost immediately (George Miller)

George Miller

Conducted experiments involving the short-term memory and found the capacity of your short-term memory is 7± 2

Memory Consolidation

The process in our brains that converts short-term memories to long-term memories

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

The strengthening of a synaptic connection that happens when the synapse of one neuron repeatedly fires and excites another neuron (biological basis) occurs in the hippocampus

• e.g. if you are swimming in a swamp you’ll find a less swampy area after a while, but after repetition, you will find the less swampy area faster

Storage Decay & Hermann Ebbinghaus

Used himself to experiment on the short-term memory (Forgetting Decay)

Forgetting Decay

The exponential loss of information shortly after learning it (~70 percent of information is forgotten within 24 hours of initial learning)

Trace Decay Theory

Overtime, our memories will (biologically) decay and degenerate

Amnesia

When you have full or partial loss of your memories (usually caused by injury to the brain)

Retrograde Amnesia

When you can’t remember the things that happened before an injury

Anterograde Amnesia

After an amnesia-inducing event, you are unable to form new memories

• “H.M. was suffering from anterograde amnesia due to surgery conducted to cure his epilepsy”

Source Amnesia

When you can’t remember the source of a memory but you can remember the information (e.g. I told my mom a joke, and she tells me the joke later, forgetting I had been the one to tell her the joke)

Retrieval Failure “Why We Forget”

When we fail to recall memories because of missing stimuli or cues that were present when we encoded the information

Tip-of-the-Tongue State

When you can’t quite remember something, but it feels like it’s right there

• Usually occurs when trying to remember a name

Encoding Failure

When you fail to absorb/form a memory (e.g. “in one ear and out the other”)

Interference Theory

When you get different memories confused (forgetting in long-term memory) e.g. mixing up what you did in history on Friday and what you did on Wednesday

Proactive (Previous) Interference

Similar to interference theory, when you have older memories that interfere with the retrieval of new memories (e.g. writing the wrong address for the high school)

Retroactive (Recent) Interference

When newer memories interfere with the retrieva; of old memories (e.g. learning new songs on the guitar, but having trouble retrieving the information for how to play songs you knew previously)

Flashbulb Memory

Memories you have that are vivid and detailed that are created during times of personal tragedy, accident, or emotionally significant world events (e.g. 9/11)

Memory Reconstruction

An approach to understanding memory: the cognitive process and the errors that occur in it

• “We often construct our memories as we encode them, and we may also alter our memories as we withdraw them from our memory bank”

• “People update their memories with logical processes, reasoning, new information, perception, imagination, beliefs, and cultural biases”

Pseudo-Memories

Memories you believe are true, but they are actually false (e.g. a witness of a car accident may recall seeing a female driving the car that crashed, but it was a male)

Elizabeth Loftus

Did extensive research on memory construction and false memories  and how memory is changeable, it is not always accurate (a lot about eyewitness statements)

Cognitive Psychology

The study of internal mental processes (all the things that go on inside your brain)

• Perception, thinking, memory, attention, language, problem-solving, and learning

Metacognition

When we think about ourselves thinking, being aware of your own thoughts and actively controlling them (e.g. solving a problem & making a decision)

Concepts “Organization”

Mentally grouping similar objects, events, ideas, animals, etc. (e.g. Psychology —> behavioral, social, & biological)

Prototype “First Think Of”

The first and best image you have of a specific category (e.g. seeing a cat-like animal and comparing it to the first image you picture when you think of a cat)

• The more closely something matches our prototype of a concept, the easier we will recognize it as an example of the concept

• Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories

Convergent Thinking “Logic”

The type of thinking where you come up with a single exact answer (limits creativity)

Divergent Thinking “Imagination”

The type of thinking where you come up with many creative ideas for a solution to something

Problem Solving

Literally just solving problems (involves Trial and Error (Mechanical Solution), where you go through different options to see what is the best, learning from the mistakes along the way)

Algorithms

The set of step-by-step procedures that provide the correct answer to a particular problem (e.g. mathematical formulas)

Heuristics “Rules of Thumb”

Educated guesses based on prior experiences that help narrow down possible solutions for a problem (e.g. it’s raining outside so you grab an umbrella)

• Mental Shortcuts, effort reduction, keep it simple, fast

Representativeness Heuristic

When you compare something to the stereotype you have set in your mind (e.g. someone is holding a briefcase and is wearing a suit, so you immediately think they are a lawyer)

Availability Heuristic

Making a judgement/basing your decisions (standpoints) on past experiences that are the easiest to recall (e.g. “Oh sharks are so deadly, they kill so many people”—but they don’t)

Insights “The Aha! Moment”

A sudden/new realization of the answer to a problem’s solution (e.g. “I need to get a ride to school tomorrow but no one can drive me” “Oh wait, I can drive myself)

Wolfgang Kohler

Researched insights with an experiment on chimpanzees trying to get bananas and they had to find a solution to get them

Mental Set

When you tend to only use solutions that have worked in the past and don’t attempt any new solutions (inflexible/rigid thinking) e.g. a doctor tries the same old procedures on someone who. is sick, but misses out on new, possibly better, treatments

Functional Fixedness

The tendency to view problems only in their customary manner (e.g. viewing a thumbtack as something that only holds paper up)

• Prevents people from fully seeing all of the different options that might be available to find a solution

Confirmation Bias

When we search for information that supports our preconceptions and ignore or distort contradictory evidence

Overconfidence

When we overestimate our own knowledge, skill, or judgment

Hindsight Bias"I-knew-it-all-along" Phenomenon

When you believe you knew something the whole time after it’s revealed (e.g. “I knew that character was going to die)

Framing (Cognitive Bias)

The presenting of an issue or question, the way something is framed can affect decisions and judgements made (e.g. 90% of people die from this surgery vs. 10% of people survive)

Anchoring Effect (Cognitive Bias)

When you favor the first information told to you and ignore any other information (e.g. when you choose the first topic you think of for your college essay and don’t explore any other ideas)

Self-Serving Bias

When you take credit for something good but not for something bad (e.g. giving yourself the credit for getting a good test grade but blaming the teacher when you get a bad grade)

Belief Perseverance “Denial”

When you hold onto your beliefs when there has been evidence against your beliefs, making the wrong (e.g. you’re convinced everyone like pineapple on pizza but many people have explained they don’t like it)

Intelligence

The ability to learn from your experiences, acquire knowledge, and use resources effectively in adapting to new situation or solving problems

Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale (1905)

Binet and his colleague Theodore Simon developed a series of tests designed to assess mental abilities (the basis for modern intelligence tests)

Mental age

Based on what you know/can do at a specific age

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test:

Lewis Terman modified the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale tests for the United States, broadened the audience/test subjects

Intelligence Quotient

William Stern created a formula to determine IQ: [taking the mental age (provided by the exam) and dividing it by the chronological age] * 100

Charles Spearman & General Intelligence (g factor)

Believed intelligence is a general cognitive ability that can be measured and numerically expressed

• Factor analysis: people who perform well on one cognitive test tend to perform well on other tests

John Horn & Raymond Cattell

Determined that Spearman’s “g” should be divided into two factors of intelligence: fluid and crystallized

Fluid Intelligence

The ability to reason and think flexibly, which tends to decline as you get older (e.g. solving puzzles, constructing strategies to deal with new problems, & seeing patterns in statistical data)

Crystallized Intelligence

Gathering/accumulating knowledge, facts, and skills throughout your life, tends to increase with age (e.g. older people are considered wise because of what they know)

Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

A theory that describes eight distinct types of intelligence based on skills and abilities → musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, naturalistic, intrapersonal, & visual-spatial

• Suggests IQ tests aren’t an accurate representation of someone’s abilities

Savant Syndrome

A condition where you may be limited in mental abilities but you have an exceptional specific skill (e.g. you can’t get dressed or eat but you can paint amazingly)

• Supports Gardner’s theory that IQ doesn't fully represent someone’s abilities

Robert Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Believes Gardner's types of intelligence are better viewed as individual talents and thinks there are three different factors to intellignece→ analytical, practical, & creative

Analytical Intelligence

Solving well-defined questions with single answers

Creative Intelligence

Coming up with many creative ideas to adapt to situations

Practical Intelligence

An experimental style leads to specific learning (e.g. street smarts)

Emotional Intellignce

The ability to perceive, control, understand, manage, use, and evaluate emotions

Wechsler Intelligence Scales (WAIS)

An intelligence test that was published in 1955 and designed to measure intelligence in adults and older adolescents

• Believed intelligence was made up of a number of different mental abilities rather than a single general (g) intelligence factor

Heritability

The portion of variation among individuals in a population that results from genetic causes

• “Heritability for intelligence estimates range from 50 to 75 percent”

• “Genetic makeup determines the upper limit for an individual’s IQ (attained in an ideal environment), the lower limit from impoverished environment”

James Flynn’s Flynn Effect

IQ scores have been rising worldwide

• Believes better nutrition early in life (early brain development), better health care, advances in technology, smaller families, better parenting, increased access to educational opportunities affects this upward trend

Psychometricians “Measurement Psychologists”

Focuses on methods for acquiring and analyzing psychological data

• Include tests of abilities, interests, creativity, personality, and intelligence

• Discovers individual differences

Standardization

The two-part test development procedure (e.g. the SATs)

Aptitude Tests

Designed to assess what a person is capable of doing or to predict what a person is able to learn or do, often used to assess academic potential or career suitability

Norms

Each test taker completes the test under the same conditions as all other participants in the sample group

Achievement Tests

Designed to measure a person's level of skill, accomplishment, or knowledge in a specific area (e.g. being tested on the latest chapter of math you learned)

• Achievement tests are not used to determine what you are capable of; they are designed to evaluate what you know and your level of skill at a given moment

Group Tests

Standardized tests administered in groups, widely used & efficient (e.g. MCAS)