Cognitive Psychology Vocab and People

13-17% of AP

Memory

the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information

Automatic processing

unconscious encoding of incidental info

Effortful processing

encoding that requires conscious effort and attention

Deep processing

encodes something according to its semantics (meaning)

Shallow processing

unsuccessful

memorization based on looks and sounds, not on meaning

Selective Information

allows for the tuning out of insignificant information, directing awareness to relevant stimuli

Divided attention

multi-tasking

mental focus is on multiple things

Three box - information processing model

Atkinson and Shiffring

Sensory Memory

A quick, fleeting memory that is activated by the five senses. This information will leave the brain if we don’t pay attention to it.

• George Sperling

Iconic Memory

visual stimuli, lasts a split second

Echoic Memory

auditory stimuli (echo), lasts 3-4 seconds

Short Term Memory-Working memory

• limited capacity (7 items)

• limited duration (very vulnerable to interruption and interference)

  located in frontal lobe

George Miller

The Magic Number 7, plus or minus 2

Long Term Memory

limitless and permanent storehouse

located in cerebral cortex

Episodic Memory

Memories of specific events, stored in a sequential series of events

Semantic Memory

general knowledge, stored in facts or meanings

Procedural Memory

skills and how to preform them

Implicit memory

how-to memories you didn’t have to think about

goes through cerebellum

Explicit memory

memories of facts and experiences, “declarative memory”

goes through hippocampus

Eidetic memory

photographic memory

• Alexander Luria

Noam Chomsky

Argued that young children possess an innate capability to learn and produce speech

• language acquisition device

Hermann Ebbinghaus

forgetting curve

Primacy effect

person is more likely to recall items presented first in a list

Recency effect

recalling information at the end off a list

Serial Position Effect

tendency to forget information in the middle of the list

Elizabeth Loftus

The Misinformation effect

• Refers to how people's memories may be
  changed by what they are told.

Constructed Memory

recalling false detail of an evet that happened or creating a new memory

Proactive Interference

Old information interferes with the new learned information

OLD blocks NEW

Retroactive Interference

learning new info in interfering with past information

NEW blocks OLD

Anterograde Amnesia

cant encode new memories

• can learn skill but wont remember where it was learned

Retrograde Amnesia

unable to recall past memories

Phonemes

The smallest distinctive units of sound used in a language

Morphemes

The smallest units of meaning in a language

Overregularization or overgeneralization

misaplication of grammar rules

Algorithm

A logical, step-by-step procedure that, if followed correctly, will eventually solve a specific problem

Heuristic

general rule-of-thumb or shortcut that is used to reduce the number of possible solutions to a problem

Availability Heuristic

judging a situation based on similar situations that come to mind, personal expirences-news

Representative Heuristic

judging situation based on similar aspects to a protype person has in mind

Mental set

The tendency to continue using belief systems and
problem-solving strategies that have worked in the past, even though it may not be working now

Functional Fixedness

The tendency to think of an object as
functioning only in its usual way o

• Limits creativity

Confirmation bias

believing what fits your own beliefs

Framing

Posing a question or wording a phrase in such a way to persuade someone’s thoughts.

Wolfgang Kohler

“a-ha” moment

researching chimpanzees retrieving banana

Convergent Thinking

Using logic and algorithms to solve problems, there is only one answer, doesn’t see things
from various perspectives.

Divergent Thinking

type of thinking in which problem solvers devise a number of possible alternative approaches to problems

• more creative

Broca’s Area

production of speech functions

• producing complete sentances

Wernicke’s Area

region in brain that is important for language development

Skinner’s Theory of Language Acquistion

he believed children learned language through receiving rewards for using language in functional manners

Francis Galton

pioneer in the study of human intelligence and testing

Reliability

the consistency of the test

Split-half reliability

dividing test into two halves to then test persons performance on two different halves

Test-retest reliability

group of people take test twice

Validity

accuracy of test, measures what its supposed to

Content validity

test samples the behavior that is of interest

Predictive validity

test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict

Aptitude test

measures ability or potential

Achievment test

measures what one has learned or accomplished

Fluid intelligence

our ability to solve abstract
problems and pick up new information.

• decreases with age

Crystalized intelligence

using knowledge accumulated over time

• holds steady or even increases with age

Charles Spearman

argued intelligence could be expressed by a single factor

Howard Gardner

multiple intelligences

Daniel Goleman

EQ, emotional intelligence

Robert Sternberg

Sternberg’s triarchic theory: \analytic, practical, and creative intelligence

Alfred Binet

designed tests to asses mental ages of children to place them ahead or behind peers

Lewis Terman

Stanford-Binet IQ test

IQ

mental age / chronological age x 100

David Wechsler

Wechsler Intelligence Scales (WAIS)

• designed to measure intelligence in adults and teenagers

Flynn Effect (James Flynn)

Increase in IQ scores