AP Psych Unit 5

Recognition

A measure of memory in which the person identifies items previously learned. A multiple choice question tests your recognition. Our recognizing memory is impressively quick and vast. "Is the five-second movie clip from a film you have seen?" POINT TO REMEMBER- Tests of recognition and of time spent relearning demonstrates that we remember more than we can recall.

Recall

A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test. Retrieving information that is not currently in your conscious awareness but that was learned at an earlier time. In one experiment, people who had graduated many 2 decades earlier were not able to recall many of their classmates. They could recognize names and pictures but were unable to recall.

Caitlin, a fifth grader, is asked to remember her second-grade teacher's name. What measure of retention will Caitlin use to answer this question?

Recall

Order of three-stage memory model: long-term memory, sensory memory, and working/short term memory (these are listed in alphabetical order NOT in the order of the three-stage model.)

Sensory memory, working/short term memory, long-term memory.

Notes for Three stage model

Specific memories arise from particular activation patterns within these networks. Everytime you learn something new, your brain's neural connections change, forming and strengthening pathways that allow you to interact with and learn from your constantly changing environments.

Sensory Memory

The immediate very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system. 1. We first record to -be- remembered information as a fleeting sensory memory.

short-term memory

Activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as digits of a phone number while calling, before the information is stored and forgotten. 2. From there, we process information into short-term memory, where we encode it through rehearsal. This stage is not just a temporary storage for holding incoming information, it's an active scratchpad where your brain actively processes information by making sense of new input and linking it with long term memories. (now working memory)

Working Memory

A newer understanding of short-term memory that adds conscious, active processing, of incoming auditory and visual information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory. You use your working memory to link new information you're reading with your previously stored information. Without focused attention memory often fades.

long-term memory

The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences. 3. Information moves into long-term memory for later retrieval.

In history class, James is effortfully connecting the new material to what he has learned in the past. This making of connections in the moment best describes James

working memory

Two basic function of working memory

active processing of visual and auditory information and focusing our spotlight of attention

Atkinson-Shiffrin's three memory stages-which stage would iconic and echoic memory occur?

We first record to-be- remembered information as fleeting sensory memory

From there, we process information into short-term memory where we encode it through rehearsal

Finally, information moves into long-term memory for later retrieval.

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, and iconic memory, a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second

iconic and echoic memory

They both happen in the first stage

Iconic memory

is visual

Echoic memory

is auditory

Long-term potentiation

An increase in a cell's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; a neural basis for learning and memory.

In experiments with people, rapidly stimulating certain memory-circuit connections has increased their sensitivity for hours or even weeks to come. The sending neuron now needs less prompting to release its neurotransmitter, and more connections sexist between the neurons. This increased efficiency of potential neural firing, called long-term potential, provides a neural basis for learning and remembering associates.

experiments for long term potentiation

Evidence that confirmed that LPT is a physical basis for memory

Drugs that block LTP interfere with learning

- Drugs that mimic what happens during learning increases LPT

- Rats given a drug that enhanced LPT learning a maze with half the usual number of mistakes.

- After LTP has occurred, passing an electric current through the brain won't disrupt old memories. But the current will wipe out very recent memories.

Long-term potentiation (LTP) is best described as follows:

These synaptic changes allow for more efficient transfer of information.

Serial position-

Our tendency to recall best the last (recency effect) and first (primacy effect) items in a list.

Explains why we may have large holes in our memory of a list of recent events

You've spent more time rehearsing the earlier terms than the later ones and you will better recall the earlier terms later on.

Which of the following is an example of the serial position effect?

Remembering the beginning and end of your grocery list, but not the items in the middle

Which of the following illustrates the serial position effect?

Alp is unable to remember the middle of a list of vocabulary words as well as he remembers the first or last words in the list.

Three ways of forgetting

encoding failure, storage decay, retrieval failure

encoding failure

unattended information never entered our memory system.

storage decay

information fades from our memory

retrieval failure

we cannot access stored information accurately, sometimes due to interference or motivated forgetting.

Muhammad has been in his school cafeteria hundreds of times. It is a large room, and there are nine free-standing pillars that support the roof. One day, to illustrate the nature of forgetting, Muhammad's teacher asks him how many pillars there are in the cafeteria. Muhammad has difficulty answering the question, but finally replies that he thinks there are six pillars. What memory concept does this example illustrate?

encoding failure

What does Hermann Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve show about the nature of storage decay?

A rapid initial decline followed by a leveling off

Why do we repress memories, according to Freud.

-Freud believed that we repress unacceptable memories to minimize anxiety.

- Freud proposed that painful or unacceptable memories are blocked from consciousness through a mechanism called repression

- In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defensive mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety- arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories.

Sternberg's components of creativity(5)-

Expertise, a venturesome personality, imaginative thinking skills, Intrinisic motivation, a creative enviroment

creativity

the ability to produce new and valuable ideas

Expertise

well developed knowledge furnishes the ideas, images, and phrases we use as mental building blocks. "Chance favors only the prepared mind" The more blocks we have, the more chance we have to combine them in novel ways.

imaginitive thinking skills

provide the ability to see things in new ways, to recognize patterns, to make connections. Having mastered a problem's basic elements, we can redife or explore it in a new way.

A venturesome personality

seeks new experiences, tolerates ambiguity and risk, and preserves in overcoming obstacles rather than "following the pack" Wiles said he labored in near isolation from the mathematics community party to stay focused and avoid distractions. Such determination is an enduring trait.

intrinisic motivation

is the quality of being driven more by interest, satisfaction, and challenge than by external pressures. Creative people focus less on extrinsic pressures, meeting deadlines, impressing people, or making money, than on the pleasure and stimulation of the work itself.

A creative enviroment

sparks, supports and refines creative ideas. Creatively-fostering environments support innovation, team building, and communication. They also minimize anxiety and foster contemplation.

Algorithm

A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrates with the usually speedier, but also more error prone- use of heuristics.

Step by step procedures that guarantee a solution.

A methodical, logical rule that guarantees solving a particular problem is called a(n)

Algorithm

Insight

A sudden realization of a problem's solution; contrasts with strategy- based solutions.

Brain scans show bursts of activity associated with sudden flashes of insight. At the instinct of discovery, there was a burst of activity in the right temporal lobe, just above the ear.

Intuition

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

Fast, automatic, unreasoned feelings and thoughts based on your experience; huge and adaptive but can lead you to overfeel and underthink. (another definition)

Powers- Is based on our experiment; huge and adaptive

Perils- Can lead us to over feel and overthinking

Intuition is recognition born of experience

We see this ability to size up in a situation and react in an eyeblink in chess masters playing speed chess, as they intuitively know the right move

We see it in the smart and quick judgements of experienced nurses, firefighters, art critics and car mechanics.

We see it in skilled athletes who react without thinking.

Heruistic

A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently: usually speedier but also more error prone than an algorithm. ((p. 370)

Simple thinking shortcut that enables quick and efficient decisions but puts us at risk for errors. (another definition)

Powers- Lets us act quickly and efficiently

Perils- Requiring time and effort

Representativeness heuristic

Estimating the likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information.

EXAMPLE: Imagine someone who is short, slim, and likes to read poetry. Is this person more likely to be an Ivy League university English professor or a truck driver? Many people guess English professor- because the person better fits their prototype of a nerdy professor than of a truck driver. In doing so, they fail to consider the base rate number of Ivy league English professors (fewer than 400) and truck drivers (3.5 million in the United States alone). Thus, even if the description is 50 times more typical of English professors than of truck drivers, the fact that there are about 7000 times more truck drivers means that the poetry reader is many times more likely to be a truck driver.

EXAMPLE: Consider the reaction of some non-Arab travelers soon after 9/11, when a young male of Arab descent boarded their plane. The young man fit (represented) their "terrorist" prototype, and the representativeness heuristic kicked in. His presence evoked anxiety among his fellow passengers- even though nearly 100 percent of those who fit this prototype are peace-loving citizens.

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.

Operates when we estimate how common an event is based on its mental availability.

Anything that makes information pop into mind- its vividness, recency, or distinctiveness- can make it seem commonplace.

EXAMPLE: (^refer above) Casinos know this. They entice us to gamble by broadcasting wins with noisy bels\ls and flashing lights. The big losses are soundlessly invisible.

EXAMPLE: If people from a particular ethnic or religious group commit a terrorist act, as seen in pictures of innocent people about to be beheaded, our readily available memory of the dramatic event may shape our impression of the whole group. Terrorists aim to evoke excessive terror. If terrorists were to kill 1000 people in the United States this year, Americans would be mighty afraid. Yet they would have reason to be 30 times more afraid of homicidal, suicidal, and accidental death by guns, which take more than 30,000 lives annually.

After seeing a news story about a kidnapping, we are more afraid of kidnapping, even though it is a very rare occurrence. Which of the following is the term for this phenomenon?

Availability heuristic

Deciding that a new kid in school is a nerd because he looks like a nerd is an example of...

representative heuristic

Using three dramatic news reports of corporate fraud to estimate how often business fraud occurs is an example of

heuristic

Fixation

Inability to view problems from a new angle; focuses thinking but hinders creative problem solving. (another definition)

Powers- Focusing thinking on familiar solutions

Perils- Hinders creative problem solving

Scott gets soaked in the rainstorm because he does not think of using his backpack to shield himself from the rain. Which barrier to problem solving is evidenced here?

Fixation

Confrimation bias

A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence. (p.371)

Tendency to search for support for your own views and to ignore contradictory evidence. (another definition)

Powers- Lets us recognize supporting evidence

Perils- Hinders recognition of contradictory evidence

Thom believes that his congresswoman is an honest woman. He looks for examples of her giving to charity and ignores her ethics violations, which have recently been in the news. Thom is being affected by.

confirmation bias

Overconfidence

The tendency to be more confident than correct- to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments. (pg. 375)

Overestimating the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments; allows you to be happier and to make decisions more easily, but puts you at risk for errors. (another definition)

Those who are wrong are especially vulnerable to overconfidence

EXAMPLE: If 60 percent of people correctly answer a factual question, such as "Is absinthe a liqueur or a precious stone?: they will typically average 75 percent confidence

Powers- Allows us to be happy and to make decisions easily

Perils- Puts us at risk for errors

EXAMPLE: One experiment gave students various physics and logic problems. Students who falsely thought a ball would continue following a curved path when rolling out of a curved tube were virtually as confident as those who correctly discerned that the ball, like water from a curled hose, would follow a straight path

Alice significantly underestimated how long it would take to write her term paper because of

Overconfidence

Producing valuable and novel ideas best defines which of the following?

creativity

Powers- Produces new insights and products

May distract from structures, routine work

Creativity components

Framing

Wording a question or statement so that it evokes a desired response; can mislead people and influence their decisions. (another definition)

Powers- Can influence others decisions

Perils- Can produce a misleading result

Powerful tool of persuasion

EXAMPLE: Choosing to live or die- Imagine two surgeons explaining the risk of an upcoming surgery. One explains that during this type of surgery, 10 percent of people die. The other explains that 90 percent survive. The information is the same. The effect is not. In real-life surveys, patients and physicians overwhelmingly say the risk is greater when they hear that 10 percent die.

EXAMPLE: Becoming an organ donor- In many European countries, as well as in the United States, people renewing their driver's license can decide whether to be an organ donor. In some countries, the default

Definition of Framing

The way an issue is posed; how an issue is worded can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

Many people prefer meat that is 80 percent lean instead of 20 percent fat, even though they are the same thing. Which concept is being used when the same information is presented in a more desirable way?

Framing

People are more concerned about a medical procedure when told it has a 10 percent death rate than they are when told it has a 90 percent survival rate. Which psychological concept explains this difference in concern?

Framing

Belief perseverance

Clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited. (p.376)

Holding on to your beliefs even after they are proven wrong; closing your mind to new ideas. (another definition)

Powers- Supporting our enduring beliefs

Perils- Closes our mind to new ideas

EXAMPLE: A classic study of belief perseverance engaged people who opposing views of capital punishment. After studying two suppudly new research findingd, one supporting and the other refuting the claim that the death penalty deters crime, each side was more imporessed by the study supporting its own beliefs. And groups the same mixed evidence actually increased their disagreement. Rather than using evidence to draw conclusions, they used their conclusions to assess evidence- a phenomenon also known as motivated reasoning.

Thom still believes that the congress woman is an honest person even after she is arrested and sent to jail. Thom is now experiencing...

belief perseverance

Broca's area

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

Wernicke's area

A brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe.

Which of the following can be used to demonstrate that only about 2 percent of the population scores at least two standard deviations above the mean on an intelligence test?

normal curve

According to Charles Spearman and others, _____ underlies specific mental abilities and is measured by every task on an intelligence test.

general intelligance

aptitude

capacity for learning

Aptitude test-

A test designed to predict a person's future performance

Sherjeel takes the ACT for college admission is an example of an

aptitude test

Three areas psychological test must meet:

standardized, reliable, valid

FRQ: How can the terms overconfidence, mental set and confirmation bias explain a teacher's continued false belief in a student cheating?

Overconfidence is the tendency to be more confident than correct or to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs and judgements. The teacher may be confident that the student is a cheater, even though she might be incorrect because of a lack of information, which overconfidence tends to stem from.

Mental set is a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past. The teacher may believe, for example, that a student using their phone during a test is a clear sign that they were cheating because she caught somebody cheating in this way in the past. However, it could be possible that the student could be using his phone because they were worried about family affairs.

Confirmation bias is a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence. If the teacher strongly believes that the student is a cheater, she will find evidence that points to this conclusion as more compelling than evidence that exonerates him.