Ap Pscyh Unit 7 (Cognition)

Memory

The persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage and retrieval of information

Alzheimer’s disease

Begins as difficulty remembering new information and progresses into an inability to do everyday tasks

Recall

Retrieving information not currently in your conscious awareness but learned at an earlier time ex. fill in the blank 

Recognition  

Identifying items previously learned ex. multiple choice questions 

Relearning

Learning something more quickly when you learn it a second/later time ex. studying for a final exam 

Herman Ebbinghaus

Randomly selected syllables, practiced and tested himself on them, he could recall few, but the more he read them aloud on day 1, the less time it took him to re learn on Day 2 

• test of recognition and of time spent re learning demonstrate that we remember more than we recall

Encoding

Getting information into your brain and memory system

Storage

Process of retaining information over time

Retrieval

Process of getting information back out of the memory system

Parallel processing

Processing many aspects of a problems simultaneously; the brains natural mode of info processing for many functions

Connectionism

Multi track processing, views memories as products of interconnected neural networks

Richard Atkinson and Richard shiffrin

Proposed 3 stage model for the memory forming process

Includes -

Sensory memory (1)

Short term memory (2)

Long term memory (3)

Sensory memory

Immediate very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system

Short term memory

Activated memory that holds few items briefly, before the information is stored or forgotten (encoded through rehearsal)

Long term memory

Relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of memory systems, for later retrieval

Includes - Knowledge, skills and experiences

Working memory

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

Central executive

Coordinates selective attention

Explicit memories ( Declarative memories )

Facts and experiences we can consciously know and declare

Effortful processing

Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

• this is how we encode explicit memories 

Automatic Processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time and frequency of well learned information such as word meaning 

Implicit memory (nondecleration memory)

Retention of learned skills or classicling conditioning association independent of conscious recollection 

Examples of things you automatically process

1. Space - when you recall information you may visualize its location

2. time - going through your day, you unintentionally note the sequence of its events

3. Frequency - unintentionally keep track of how many times things happen

Retention curve

Shows memory retention, how much info stays in memory over time

• Herman ebbinghaus

Forgetting curve

This curve shows that we forget new information rapidly at first, then more slowly over time

• within a day, initial drop off of remembered info

• Herman ebbinghaus

Iconic memory

A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a picture image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second

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

George Miller

Magic number 7, proposed we can store about 7 pieces of info in short term memory

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically and naturally

Mneomics

Memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices

Peg word system

Type of mneomic , memorize a jingle

Acronym

Creating word from first letters of the to be remembered items

Hiearchies

Composing few broad concepts divided and subdivided into narrow concepts and facts

Spacing effect

The tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice

testing effect

enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply re reading info. Also sometimes referred to as a retrieval practice effect or test enhanced learning

Shallow processing

Encoding on a basic level, based on the structure or appearance of words

Deep processing

Encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the words; tends to yield the best retention

Self reference effect

When asked how well adjectives describe us, we often remember them

Semantic memory

Explicit memory of facts and general knowledge; one of our two conscious memory systems

Episodic memory

Explicit memory of personally experienced events; one of our two conscious memory systems

Where in the brain are semantic memory and episodic memory happening?

Frontal lobe + hippocampus

Working memory process

Past experience to input to prefrontal cortex

left frontal lobe vs right frontal lobe

• Process different memories

left frontal lobe = recalling a password and holding it in working memory

right frontal lobe = Calling up a visual party scene

Hippocampus

Neural center in limbic system, helps process explicit ( conscious) memories of facts and events for storage

• temporarily holds info, not permanently stored

damage?

left - trouble remembering verbal info but can recall visual designs and locations

right -can remember verbal info but can not recall visual designs and locations

Memory consolidation

Neural storage of a long term memory

• sleep supports this

Cerebellum

implicit memory formation needs this, when damaged you can not develop certain conditioned reflexes

Basal ganglia

Facilitate formation of procedural memories for skins ( motor )

Infantile amnesia

As a adult, our first four years pretty blank from our conscious memory BECAUSE many language young children cant process and hippocampus is one of the last structures to mature ( hippocampus plays crucial role in conscious (explicit ) memories )

Flashbulb memories

A clear, sustained memory of an emotionally significant moment or event

Eric kandel and James Schwartz

Observed synaptic changes during learning in the neurons of Cali sea slug (alpysia) 20k large and accessible nerve cells

• when learning occurs the slug realses more of the neurotransmitter serotonin into certain neurons

• learning and experience can increase the number of synapses in slugs

Long term potentiation

An increase in a cells firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; a neural basis for learning and memory

• drugs that block this interfere with learning

Electroconclusive therapy

Passing an electric current through the brain wont disrupt old memories

Implicit (Automatic)

• without conscious recall

• cerebellum

• basal ganglia

Explicit ( effortful )

• with conscious recall

• hippocampus

• frontal lobes

Retrieval cues

Things around you, to associate with the memory to later access info

Priming

The activation, often unconsciously, of a particular association in memory ( one stimulus triggers related concepts )

• William James

• implicit (unconscious)

• example - hearing the word doctor makes you recognize the word nurse faster

Encoding specificity principle

The idea that cues and contexts specific to a particular memory will be most effective n helping us recall

• memories are context dependent

State dependent memory

When you learn something it is easier to remember in that state (drunk/sober/high)

Mood congruent memory

The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with ones current mood

Serial position effect

Our tendency to recall best the last and first memory items in a list

• last = recency effect

• first = primacy effect

What would happen if someones hippocampus was removed?

Inability to form new conscious memories

Anterograde amnesia

An inability to form new memories

• recall past, no new memories

Retrograde amnesia

An inability to retrieve information from one’s past

• can learn non-verbal tasks but do them with no awareness of learning them

Alzehimer’s patients

Explicit memories for new people/events are lost, but they can form new implicit memories

Encoding failure

Many of what we sense, we never notice, and what we fail to encode, we will never remember

Storage decay

memories being inaccessible ( stored memories that decay)

Forgetting curve

The curve of forgetting is initially rapid, then levels off with time

Retrieval failure

Forgetting is not fading, but often unretrieved memories (important/rehearsed info is what is in long term memory)

Proactive (forward acting) interference

The forward-acting disruptive effect of older learning on the recall of new information

Example - Buying a new combination lock, your well-rehearsed old combo may interfere with your retrieval of the new one

Retroactive (backward acting) interfernce

The backward-acting, disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old info

Example - You hear new lyrics to an old song, you may have trouble remembering the old words

Positive transfer

Old and new language do not always compete with each other

(latin and french)

Motivated forgetting

memory is unreliable

Repression

In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from conscious anxiety arousing thoughts, feelings and memories

• repressed memories liger, often brought out by retrieval cues or in therapy

• most memory researchers think repression rarely occurs

• UNCONCIOUS!!!!!!!!

Reconsolidation

A process in which previously stored memories, when retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again

Elizabeth loftus

Showed pairs of faces ( to identify later ) as they would appear on a police line-up, then showed 2 faces and asked people to identify which they had seen ( one pair had two new faces, one being a face seen like one earlier ), most people wrongly identified the face as one previously seen, then showed wrong and right face, most chose wrong face (false memory)

Mis information effect

Occurs when misleading information has distorted one’s memory of an event

• mis information and imagination effects activate similar brain areas

Imagination influence

Digitally altered photos produce this

Source amnesia ( source misattribution )

Faulty memory for how, when, or where information was learned or imagined ( heart of many false memories)

Deja vu

The eerie sense that “Ive experienced this before” cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience

Where does the experience of familiality come from?

Temporal lobe processing

Where do consciously remembered details come from?

Hippocampus/frontal lobe processing

Hindsight bias

People tend to recall having always felt as they did today

looking back and thinking it was obvious

Ways to improve memory

• Rehearse repeatedly

• Make material meaningful

• Active retrieval cues

• Use mnemonic devices

• Minimize proactive and retroactive interference

• Sleep more

• Test your own knowledge ( to rehearse, find out what you do not know)

Supression

• Similar to selective attention

• conscious / voluntary

• acknowledges as important cognitive process

Foresight bias

“Oh, that will be easy to remember, not effortful but automatic processing, autopilot, selectively attend to something else (in moment)

Prospective memory

Remembering to complete a future task

“remembering to remember”

Cognition

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating

Concepts

Mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas and people

Prototypes

Mental image/ best example of category, matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories ( dependent on experience)

example - chair is prototype for furniture, robin is a prototype for bird

Creativity

Ablity to produce new and valuable ideas

Convergent thinking

Narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution

• short cut, takes less time

example - the keys, sorting and only trying a certain amount rather than trying every single one

Divergent thinking

Expanding the number of possible problem solutions; creative thinking that diverges in dif solutions

• takes more time

example - the keys, trying every single one till you get to the right one

Robert steinbergs 5 components for creativity

1. expertise

2. imagintive thinking skills

3. a venturesome personality

4. instristic motivation

5. creative enviorment

What part of the brain, if damaged, can destroy imagination?

Frontal lobes

Metacogntion

Thinking about thinking

Algorithm

A methodical, logical role or step by step, procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

• prefrontal cortex thinking

• conscious decision making

Heuristic

A Simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems, usually speedier but also more error prone than algorithmsn

Insight

Subconscious/unconscious, sudden realization

• strikes suddenly, no getting “warmer”

• Before getting the aha moment, the frontal lobes were active

• at instant of discovery there was a burst of activity in the right temporal lobe

3 Obstacles of problem solving

1. confirmation bias - tendency to search for info that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

2. Functional fixations - inability/difficulty in looking at everyday objects in new ways ex. coat is only smth that keeps you warm but could be a pillow

3. fixation : mental set

System 1 thinking

Quick, intuitive, and effortless

• first initial thought

System 2

Slow, analytic, and effortful

• more thought through