Cognition Final

a cumulative exam including exam conent 1, 2 and final lectures

what is the forgetting curve

• Ebbinghaus memorised a list of nonsense syllables and tested his own retrieval  of the syllables at different intervals

• Retrieval decreased as the delay between encoding and retrieval increased, with the greatest forgetting occurring early on

what is the spacing effect

The spacing effect (ebbinhaus) states that learning is better when study (encoding) and retrieval opportunities are spaced out over time

what is the decay account for forgetting

Thordike says that memory traces weaken over time when they are not used. this is supported by forgetting curve

What is the interference account for forgetting

split into proactive interference (new info interferes with previously stored information) and retroactive interference (previously stored information interferes with new information)

what is the retreival failure theory for forgetting

Sometimes we know something but can't access it at the moment, meaning that forgetting is a failure of retrieval rather than the memory disappearing. creates tip of the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

what is the misinformation effect

Participants’ answers differ about how fast cars are going depending on the adjective researchers used ie shamed vs. contacted

This even went so far as to impact their memory of the event days later (make up false information about the event to make it more extreme if used smashed)

What are false memories and how do they prove a falliable memory

• Words surrounding sleep were listed, and then given a list of words and asked to select all the ones that were presented, but most people also said the word sleep as well as others were presented when they weren't due to the related words being repeatedly activated

• The lure of sleep fits the semantic theme

What is the Gambler’s fallacy?

we expect the previous independent outcome to influence the probability of the next outcome

Representativeness heuristic

• how similar is the presented information to my personal idea of the category (typical event/object)

Availability heuristic

information that is recent, familiar, or easy to recall biases our estimate of probability

Illusory correlations

a correlation appears to exist, but either does not exist or is much weaker than assumed

Spurious correlations:

there is a correlation, but it is driven by another factor

Anchoring bias

we rely too heavily on the first piece of information that we encounter when making judgements

Framing effect

the same information, presented in different ways, can influence our judgments 

what is problem solving adn how is it different then reasoning

• Problem solving: involves finding a path from current state to a goal state

  • Goal-oriented

  • How do we achieve an outcome

  • Focuses on reaching a solution

• Reasoning: helps draw conclusions and make inferences by applying logical rules

  • Conclusion-oriented

  • What follows from information available

  • Focuses on evaluating the evidence and logic

what is trial and error as a problem solving stratigy

 try possible solutions and learn from the outcomes; this is useful when there are relatively few possible options

what are algorithms as a problem solving stratagy

 systematic procedure for reaching a solution. Reliable but can be time-consuming

what are heuristics as a problem solving stratigy

Mental shortcuts/ rules of thumb/ faster but doesn't guarantee solution

what is insight as a problem solving stratagy

AKA eureka moment. Sudden restructuring of the problem produces a solution. Efficient but difficult to generate deliberately. 

inductive vs deductive reasoning

• Inductive reasoning: making generalised conclusions based on examples or previous experience

  • Assumes the future will resemble the past 

  • Can generate probable predictions but cannot guarantee conclusions

  • All seagulls are aggressive

• Deductive reasoning: using a set of premises to reach a conclusion that must be true if the premises are true

  • If the premises are nonsense, this type of reasoning will generate nonsense

modus ponen vs modus tolllens

• Modus ponens: mode of affirming

  • If A, then b

  • A 

  • Therefore b

• Modus tollens

  • If a then b

  • Not b

  • Therefore a

psycholinguistics

The relationship between linguistic behavior and psychological processes

Describe the key properties and basic components of language

• Key properties 

  • Communicative

  • Arbitrarily symbolic

  • Regularly structured

  • Contains multiple levels of structure

  • Generative, productive

  • Dynamic

• Basic components

  • Phonemes: smallest units of sound spoken 

  • Morphemes: smallest units of meanings

  • Syntax: rules for combining words to convey meaning

  • Semantics: literal meaning

  • Pragmatics: meaning in context. What the speaker intends

what is speech segmentation

no reliable physical boundry between words

what is coarticulation

one sound affects neighboring sound

How does linguistic context influence speech perception and word recognition: phenomic restoration

How does linguistic context influence speech perception and word recognition: syntactic context

How does linguistic context influence speech perception and word recognition: word frewuency effect

what is the word frequency effect and how could reponce bias explain it

what is the mcgurk effect

What is a garden path sentence, and what does it demonstrate about language comprehension