AP Psych Unit 5: Cognitive psychology

Confirmation bias

: tendency to search for info that supports our preconceptions and ignore contradictory info.

Stereotype threat

: tendency to perform worse when conscious of being in a group stereotyped as performing poorly.

Cognition

: another term for thinking, knowing, and remembering.

Emotional Intelligence

(EG): ability to perceive, express, understand and regulate emotions.

Kohlers Chimpanzees

: exhibited that chimps can problem solve.

Alan Baddeley

Working memory: , newer understanding of ST memory that focuses on conscious, active processing and info retrieval from LT memory.

Retrieval cues

: things that help us remember.

Representativeness heuristic

: judging a situation based on how similar the aspects are to the prototype the person

holds in their mind.

Serial position

effect: our tendency to recall the last and 1st items in a list.

Creativity

: ability to produce new and value ideas.

BF Skinner

Social learning theory: , if they are reinforced theyll keep saying the word, where if they are punished theyll stop saying the word.

Grammar

: a system of structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in a language.

STM

Encoding failure: not getting info from or LTM.

Prototype

: a mental image or best example of a category.

Achievement

: tests that measures what youve learned.

everyday tasks

Practical: required for where multiple solutions exist.

Von Restorff

effect: something unique in the middle of a list causes a spike in memory.

Semantics

: the set of rules by which we derive meaning in language.

Insight intuition

: a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem.

Mnemonic devices

: memory aids, the peg- word and loci method.

William Stern

derived the famous formula for I.Q.

Misinformation effect

: incorporating misleading info into ones memory of an event.

Memory

: Ability to remember things we have experienced, imagined, or learned.

Validity

: measure what its supposed to measure.

Concepts

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

Intellectual disability

: a condition of limited mental ability (70 IQ + below)

Reliability

: consistent results over time.

Source amnesia

(misattribution): the inability to remember when, where or how previously learned info has been acquired, while retaining the factual knowledge.

Availability Heuristics

: availability; judging a situation based on examples of similar situations that initially come to mind.

Morphemes

: the smallest unit of meaningful sound.

Rehearsal

is the most common effortful processing technique.

Implicit memory

: retention of learned skills.

Divergent thinking

: expanding the number of solutions.

Language

: can be spoken, written or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.

Syntax

: the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.

Recall

: retrieving info not currently in conscious awareness.

Recognition

: identifying items previously learned.

Aptitude

: measure ability or potential.

Convergent thinking

: narrowing solutions to determine single best one.

Algorithms

: a methodical, logistical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.

Genetic influence

: intelligence is 50 % inherited.

Information Processing Model

Memory is often seen as (IPM)

Flashbulb Memory

: clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.

Proactive

: Old info blocks out new info.

Nativist theory

: Noam Chomsky; we learn language too quickly for it to be "learned through reinforcement and punishment.

Retrospective memory

: things from the past.

Retrieval Failure

: The memory was encoded and stored but sometimes you just cant access the memory.

Mood

- congruent memory: tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with ones current good or bad mood.

Wechsler Intelligence Tests

: separate scores of separate skills.

Linguistic determinism Hypothesis

: Whorf; the idea that language determines the way we think.

Memory

Ability to remember things we have experienced, imagined, or learned

There are three stage model

sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory

Sensory memory

record info as fleeting

Short-term memory

where we encode memory thru rehearsal

Long-term memory

moves here for later retrieval

Recall

retrieving info not currently in conscious awareness

Recognition

identifying items previously learned

Relearning

learning something more quickly when learning it for a 2nd time

Working memory

Alan Baddeley, newer understanding of ST memory that focuses on conscious, active processing and info retrieval from LT memory

Focused Attention

also called selective attention

Divided Attention

split focus losing info from both producers

Retrospective memory

things from the past

Prospective memory

things in the future

encoding

The process of into the memory system

storage

the retention of encoded material over time

retrieval

the process of getting the info out of memory storage

Chunking

organizing items into familiar, manageable units

Mnemonic devices

memory aids, the peg-word and loci method

Rehearsal

repetition

Explicit memories

memory of facts and experience

Implicit memory

retention of learned skills

Primacy effect

1st things on a list

Recency effect

last things on a list

Von Restorff effect

something unique in the middle of a list causes a spike in memory

Long-term Potentiation

strengthening of neural pathways

Short term memory hold about 7(+ or

2) items for about 20 seconds

Long-term memory

unlimited storehouse of info

Flashbulb Memory

clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event

Retrieval cues

things that help us remember

Priming

the activation of associations in our memory

Context dependent memory

can prime memory retrieval

Encoding specificity principle

the idea that cues and context specific to a particular memory will be most effective in helping us recall it

State dependent memory

what we learn in one state (i.e

Serial position effect

our tendency to recall the last and 1st items in a list

Frontal lobe and Hippocampus

storing explicit memories

Damage hippocampus

disrupt memory

Cerebellum

implicit memory

Encoding failure

not getting info from STM or LTM

Retrieval Failure

The memory was encoded and stored but sometimes you just cant access the memory

Retroactive

new info blocks out old info

Proactive

Old info blocks out new info

Repression

a defense mechanism where we forget things we dont want to remember

Misinformation effect

incorporating misleading info into ones memory of an event

Source amnesia (misattribution)

the inability to remember when, where or how previously learned info has been acquired, while retaining the factual knowledge

Deja vu

eerie sense that "Ive experience this before."

Strategies to improve memory

rehearse repeatedly, make the material meaningful, activate retrieval cues, use mnemonic devices, minimize interference, sleep more and test your knowledge

Language

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

Phonemes

smallest distinctive sound

Morphemes

the smallest unit of meaningful sound

Grammar

a system of structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in a language