Unit 3: Cognitive Approach

Cognition

The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through, thought, experiences and the senses

Cognitive approach assumptions

Information processes (like computers), Cognitive processes should be scientifically studied, We are cognate misers (cognitively lazy), and cognitive processes influence our behavior

Sensory storage

Memory of sight, sound, touch, hear, smell and taste

Attention 

Adds to short term storage 

Rehearsal

Of the short term storage (STM) - to add to the long term storage

Short term storage (STM) 

Your short term memory, less than 30 seconds, and about 7 items  

Long term storage

Consolidation from short term storage (lasts forever)

Retrieval (cue)

Memory and thoughts can be brought back from the long term storage

Semantic memory

Factual knowledge

Episodic Memory 

Autobiographical memory, memories of events or experiences 

Procedural Memory

Muscle Memory, how to do a task

Facial recognition

Recognizing the faces of who you are communicating with

Working memory model

Suggests that STM is not a solo story but a number of different stores, and dual task ability

WMM component: Central executive

Directs attention to tasks and picks whats important

WMM component: Visual Spatial sketchpad

Visual storage, color, shape etc. the “inner scribe”

WMM component: Phonological loop

Deals with auditory information, hearing and language (written, spoken and thought) 

WMM component: Episodic buffer

Back up, communicates with LTM and working memory - links information across components

Schema theory

theorizes that people organize knowledge into mental frameworks and sectors called schemas

Scripts

Schemas for events in time- behavioral memories for events in life 

Assimilation  

What you add to a schema that already exists

Accommodation

When and existing schema is replaced

Reconstructive memory

Based on the idea that memories are not saved as complete, constant wholes→ rather in separate segments patched together by and from schemas

Flashbulb memory 

Created when a surprising event occurs → associated with a strong emotion 

Special Mechanism hypothesis

‘old’ hypothesis, arguing biomecahism triggered by extreme surprise, and a permanent episodic memory

Importance Driven Model

‘new’ hypothesis, personal consequence element, and intense emotional rection→ still eposodic

Amygdala

Part of the brain in charge of fear and stress response, moving STM to LTM, emotional significance.

Dual processing theory (DPT)

The brain has 2 systems, 

System 1 (DPT)

Cognitive Miser: Decisions on past experiences, quick- error prone, shortcuts or Heuristics, operates ‘automatically’

System 2 (DPT)

Concentration and effort, abstract concepts,, works through logic, conscious reasoning.

Cognitive Bias

Mental shortcut, think snap assumption

CB: Anchoring 

Tendency to rely on the first piece of information provided when making a decision  

CB: Framing Effect

Positive vs. Negative framing effect on decisions; choosing risk over certainty in each situation