Unit 1: Cognition

Cognition and Memory

Achievement Test

A test designed to assess what a person has learned.

A test that measures what you have ALREADY ACHIEVED.

• Achievement = Score

• Standardized Testing

Algorithm

**A methodical, logical rule, or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.**

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Logical step-by-step model of solving a problem.

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* Multiplication Algorithm
* ex. trying to break a passcode by trying every single combination possible in a row

Alternate-forms reliability

Different forms of the same assessment yield similar results.

Are these alternate versions reliable in giving the same results?

• Versions of AP tests

• taking the SAT multiple times

Amygdala

**Two lima-bean sized neural clusters in the limbic (instinct, mood, memory) system; linked to emotion.**

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Part of the brain that, when provoked by stress horomones (emotion), can increase memory activity.

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* stress = amygdala provoked = flashbulb memory
* traumatic experience = amygdala in action

Anchoring Effect

Cognitive Bias in which people tend to “anchor” their guesses on the first piece of information given to them.

An “Anchor” or reference point in which people try to make reasonable guess.

• Is the Mississippi river shorter or longer than 30,000 miles?

• References ANCHORS your guesses to a certain range

Anterograde Amnesia

**An inability to form new memories.**

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Being able to remember old memories but not being able to create new memories.

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* H.M had hippocampus removed and had ______
* Opposite of RETROgrade amnesia

Aphasia

impairment of language, usually caused by left-hemisphere damage either to Broca’s area (impaired speaking) or to Wernicke’s area (impairing understanding)

Having Aphasia means that you cannot express or comprehend language properly.

• -phasia = speech

• Broca’s Area or Wenicke’s Area

Aptitude Test

A test designed to predict a person’s future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn

A test that measure’s ability to learn a new skill or their future performance.

• College SAT measures how well you can do college work

• Scores can be improved

Artificial Concept

**A perfect example; defined by a specific set of characteristics**

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A concept that is universally defined among all people

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* ex. It is a a fact that triangles always have 3 sides and 3 angles
* Concepts normally have small differences between people while artificial concepts do not.

Automatic Processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings.

The encoding of location, time, and frequency and implicit memories (learned skills and conditioned associations) without knowing about it.

• ex. remembering that I saw my teacher 4x today without trying to remember that

• Automatic = not trying; unconscious

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.

Seeing very vivid things in images or videos and thinking that they’re much more common than in reality because we remember them more.

• Being scared of the Ocean due to the availability of vivid images of shark attacks even though attacks are extremely rare

• Not being scared of car crashes even though crashes are extremely common due to low availability of vivid crashes

Basal Ganglia

Deep brain structures involved in motor movement, facilitate formation of our procedural memories for skills

Basal Ganglia is a cluster of frontal lobe neurons involved in processing implicit memories, especially procedural memories and habit formation. Works with Cerebellum.

• Basal GANGlia - Gang are people that move together - controls motor movement

• BAS(E)al ganglia - base of where implicit memories are processed

Belief Perseverance

Clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.

Having a preconception about something and when facing contradicting information, the preconception still remains.

• Perseverance = sticking to something

• Type of Cognitive Bias

Broca’s Area

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

Broca’s area is an area in the brain that controls the muscle movements of the mouth and tongue in order to facilitate speech.

• Broca → Broccoli → Can’t SPEAK if there’s lots of broccoli in your mouth

• Broca’s Area = language expressions WHILE Wernicke’s Area = language comprehension

Cerebellum

the “little brain” at the rear of the brain stem; functions include processing sensory input, coordinating movement output and balance, and enabling nonverbal learning and memory

A small part of the brain, near the brain stem, that processes sensory information, coordinates movement, and nonverbal memories/learning.

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• Cere - BELL - um; use bells to walk across a tightrope = motor activity

Cohort

A group of people from a given time period.

• COVID-19: Cohort A or B

• COhort = multiple people

Confirmation Bias

A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

Only taking in information that confirms your already established beliefs and ignoring evidence that contradicts those beliefs.

• Only taking in news from certain “faithful” newspapers

• Congress

Construct Validity

The extent to which a test measures the construct (trait, attribute, ability, or skill) that it’s intended to measure.

The plan for how to define and measure a concept.

• MEASURABLE method

• Construct = system = measurable

Content Validity

The extent to which a test samples the behavior (criterion) that is of interest.

• Driver’s Test is comprised of info all about driving; HIGH content validity

• CONTENT = what the test is about

Context-dependent Memory

The retrieval of memories by putting yourself back in the context where you experienced it (location of encoding).

• Forgetting why you walked into a room and remembering when you come back

• Context = surroundings

Convergent Thinking

Narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution.

Thinking that “converges” or comes to a singular correct answer.

• Math Problems

• What is the answer to 1 + 1?

Criterion/Concurrent Validity

Test results match the results of other tests or an outside measure.

Does this test produce results that match the approximate results of other unaffiliated tests?

• Criterion: the specified or pertinent behavior that a test is trying to measure

• Concurrent = happening at the same time = TWO things being compared

Cross-sectional Study

A study in which people of different ages are compared with one another

A study that “crosses sections” of different groups of people and groups.

• Early intelligence vs. age studies used cross-sectional which showed that mental ability declines as one gets older

• Cross section = cross GROUPS = COMPARE groups

Crystallized Intelligence

Our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age.

The type of intelligence that remains over one’s life; includes wisdom, verbal skills, and social reasoning

• Crystallized = preserved in time

• Opposite is fluid intelligence which “leaks” away

Deductive Reasoning

Logical approach where researchers start with a general statement or hypothesis and examines possibilities in order to reach a specific conclusion.

Making specific conclusions FROM facts.

• Deduct = taking away = taking away the main idea from something

• Inductive reasoning is opposite; attempting to make generalizations from specific occurrences

Deep Processing

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

Actually understanding the meaning behind a memory (ex. vocab word) and not just from recognition or by it’s appearance

• Deep = BEST retention!

• Shallow Processing is opposite; encoding only based on structure/appearance of words

Divergent Thinking

Expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions).

Thinking to create many answers or solutions to a problem.

• Diverge = to split apart = many parts

• Opposite to convergent thinking

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.

• ECHOic = sound

• ECHO = sound repeats back = recalled for longer than I(EYE)CONIC memory

Effortful Processing

Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

ACTIVELY trying to remember something specific or a past experience

• EFFORTFUL = you have to be trying to remember

• ex. encoding the quadratic formula which needs memorization

Eidetic Memory

When a person has visual images clear enough to be retained for 30+ seconds that are vivid and realistic, occurs most in children and disappears in adolescene.

Basically, an iconic memory that last for way longer and is highly precise

• ei (EYE) detic = visual memory or image in mind

• Eidet (dead) ic = things stay dead forever (long period of time) = longer retention

Elaborative Rehearsal

Linking new information to existing memories in long-term memory, to better move information to long-term memory

Active thinking about new information and it’s relationship with existing memories; not just rereading

• Active recall is better for retaining info than rereading notes

• Mind Maps

Emotional Intelligence

The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions.

• Being able to identify emotions from facial expressions = HIGH _______

• Being able to know what to say to someone who’s having a bad day

Encoding Failure

Failure to process information into the memory system.

• Not paying attention to class and “not hearing” when Oedipus notes were due :(

• Type of forgetting

Encoding Specificity Principle

Retrieval is more successful when cues available during recall are similar to those present when the material was first committed to memory.

Principle that demonstrates that retrieval of information is more likely to be successful if you are in the same state, context, and or mood.

• State-dependent Memories

• Specificity = Specific cues that signify certain memory

Episodic Memory

Memories of personal experiences and their context in terms of time, place, associated emotions, etc.

• Episod(e)ic = long-term memory of an experience like an episode of a TV show

• Episodes are long = long-term memory

Exemplar

A great example from experience, which may be similar to prototype

An example or “prototype” which is the mental image or best example of a category or “concept”

• Blue Jay matches prototype of a “bird” more than penguins

• Stereotypes about ethnicities, professions, etc.

Explicit / Declarative Memory

Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and “declare.” (Also called declarative memory)

The information that you know you know.

• are processed with effortful processing

• age, height, etc.

Factor Analysis

A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person’s total score

method of observing relationships between variables in a test.

• Intelligence Test may have factors such as emotional, analytical, verbal, spatial, etc.

• Factor = component of a test

Face Validity

A test appears to the test-taker to measure what it says it should.

Does this test look like what I expected it to look like?

• Face = appearance

• Is this AP GOV exam look like it’s measuring GOV knowledge?

Fixation

The inability to see problems with a fresh perspective

• Being “fixated” on trying to solve a problem in one way while ignoring all other methods

• Type of Cognitive Bias

Flashbulb Memory

A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.

An exceptionally clear recollection of an event because it is associated with high emotions or trauma

• Amygdala triggers memory zones which leads to ______

• Traumatic experiences (9/11)

Fluid Intelligence

Our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood

Thinking speedily, abstractly, and logically

• Hard for seniors to adapt to new technologies because their ability to reason speedily has decreased

• Fluid = liquid = not-permanent

Flynn Effect

The tendency for intelligence test performance to increase worldwide as time goes on.

• James FLYNN first calculated magnitude of increasing scores worldwide

• Flynn = rapunzel = climbing up her hair = scores increasing

Framing

The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgements

How a question is asked can change the answers of bystanders.

• did the car crash? vs. did the car bump?

• opt IN vs. opt OUT

Functional Fixedness

Cognitive bias that limits a person’s ability to use an object in more ways than it is traditionally used

Not being able to be creative and see a way in which an item can be used outside of it’s normal context

• math problems using matches

• using a fork as a hairbrush by Ariel

General (g) Intelligence

A general intelligence factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test.

The singular factor that is measured by every question on an intelligence test. Those who score high in one area tend to score high in others.

• developed by Spearman; reinforced by Thurstone

• Gardner’s eight intelligence is opposite

Heritability

The proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. The heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied.

• Height has a heritability of 0.95

• Higher heritability = more impact that genes have in proportion of variation rather than environmental

Heuristic

A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms.

A mental shortcut to solving problems.

• If you lose you phone, retracing your steps instead of searching the entire house

• If password is forgotten, using birthdays and other codes that you would have likely used

Hippocampus

A neural center located in the limbic system; helps process explicit memories for storage.

The brain structure that “saves” explicit memories of names, images, and events for temporary storage

• hippoCAMPUS = college campus = have to actively remember lots of stuff = explicit memories

• during deep sleep, hippocampus processes memories and transfers them to the cortex

Iconic Memory

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

Sensory memory of visual info that only lasts for extremely little

• EYEconic memory = visual

• Eidetic Memory is very long and precise version of Iconic Memory

Imagination Effect

Incorporating imaginary information into one’s memory of an event; leading questions “bias” memory.

• Imagination = fake = fake info in memories

• Unable to tell which parts of memory is imagined or not

Implicit/nondeclarative memory

Retention independent of conscious recollection.

Procedural Memory, conditioned associations, space, time, frequency

• ex. remembering how to ride a bike but no specific memory

• Made with automatic processing

Inductive Reasoning

The form of reasoning in which inferences and general principles are drawn from specific observations and cases

General principles based on SPECIFIC observations

• One day of school is hard = all days of school are hard

• INductive = bring in

Insight

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

• AHA! moment

• cannot be prompted; hard to measure

Intelligence Quotient

Defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 (thus, IQ = ma/ca × 100). On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100, with scores assigned to relative performance above or below average.

• commonly abbreviated to IQ

Interrater Reliability

2+ Graders of the test should give it the same score

Are graders of a test consistent?

• INTERrater = among people = among graders

Intuition

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

helps form everyday judgements; common sense

• when something is intuitive, it means that it is simple and not complicated

• algorithms and heuristics are conscious reasoning

Justification of Effort

a phenomenon whereby people come to evaluate a particular task or activity more favorably when it involves something that is difficult or unpleasant

When somethings takes a lot of effort, people are more favorable towards it when it is completed

• enjoying running a 5K

• taking hard classes

Long-Term Memory

the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.

• How to walk

• How to speak

Long-term Potentiation (LTP)

an increase in a cell’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.

The more you use information, the easier it is to recall it and connections between neurons become more efficient

• LTP = neuron = brain efficiency

• serves as neural basis for learning + memory

Linguistic Determinism

Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think.

language CONTROLS the way we think

• DETERMINISM = predetermined

• Linguistic = language

Linguistic Influence/relativity

Language influences the way we think and AFFECTS thought

• less extreme than linguistic determinism

• Only influence

Longitudinal Study

research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period.

• very difficult and takes long time to conduct

• showed that intelligence remains stable until decline in late life

Maintenance Rehearsal

Maintenance Rehearsal is the process of repeatedly verbalizing or thinking about a piece of information.

Repeating a list out loud to keep it in short-term memory.

• Grocery lists

• MAINTENANCE = maintain the info in brain by rehearsing

Memory Consolidation

the process by which the brain turns short-term memories into long-term memories

• Consolidate = to bring together

• short→long

Mental Set

A tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.

Mental obstacle to solving problems.

• Mental SET = a SET way to approaching problems

• similar to fixation

Misinformation Effect

incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event.

• ex. misremembering a childhood sorry from it being told to you in a certain way

• ex. misremembering the speed of a car crash

Mnemonics

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

Methods that can be used to improve memory recall.

• PEMDAS

• the quadratic formula song

Mood Congruent Memory

the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current good or bad mood.

Being more likely to recall memories that match you current mood and feelings.

• ex. Being sad makes you more likely to recall other sad memories from the past

• ex. mood CONGRUENT = mood EQUAL

Morphemes

in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).

The smallest units of sound in a language that carry meaning.

• -ed

• MOR(e) phemes = more meaning

Motivated Reasoning

Reasoning processes (information selection and evaluation, memory encoding, attitude formation, judgment, and decision-making) are influenced by motivations or goals.

Cognitive bias where people have a tendency of letting their own motivations and goals influence reasoning processes to confirm them.

• smokers ignoring info that says that smoking is bad for health

• Motivated!!

Negative Transfer

the interference of the previous knowledge with new learning, where one set of events could hurt performance on related tasks

Old learning interferes with learning new information which leads to decreased performance.

• NEGATIVE Transfer = decreased performance

• opposite to positive transfer

Normal Curve

(normal distribution) a symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data; most scores fall near the mean (about 68 percent fall within one standard deviation of it) and fewer and fewer near the extremes.

The typical curve in which scores fall.

• does the test have a curve?

• NORMAL = standard

Overgeneralization of Grammar

In linguistics, overgeneralization is the application of a grammatical rule in cases where it doesn't apply.

• ex. non-native english speakers adding -s to all words

• ex. a child saying he “goed” to the store.

Parallel Processing

the processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. Contrasts with the step-by-step (serial) processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving

The processing of multiple pieces of information at the same time unconsciously.

• multi-tasking

• singing while washing the dishes

Phonemes

in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.

The smallest units of sound in a language that doesn’t carry meaning.

• -ah

• -th

Planning Fallacy

cognitive bias that causes people to underestimate the time, costs, and risks of completing a project while overestimating the benefits.

Cognitive bias where people tend to think that in the future, they will have more time, money, etc.

• Planning to study more even though you don’t have enough time right now

• Fallacy = faulty reasoning

Positive Transfer

the facilitation, in learning or performance, of a new task based on what has been learned during a previous one.

Old learning helping the learning of new information.

• POSITIVE transfer = increased performance

• biology helping with chemistry

Predictive Validity

the success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion (pertinent) behavior. (Also called criterion-related validity.)

How well a test predicts results in the future.

• Intelligence Tests have high predictive validity because scores are relatively stable.

Prefrontal Cortex

The prefrontal cortex enables judgement, planning, and processing of new memories.

• Located in the forward part of the frontal lobes

• One of the last areas to fully mature; its why children have bad judgement

Primacy Effect

the tendency to recall information presented at the start of a list better than information at the middle or end.

• Dad giving me a grocery list and me only remembering the first 3 items.

• Primacy = First

Priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s perception, memory, or response.

Questions asked before something can influence one’s memory of something.

• having students read the class agenda before starting the lesson

• reading the rubric before starting an assignment

Proactive Interference

the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information.

Old learning interferes with being able to recall new information.

• PROactive = right now = information learned “right now” cannot be recalled

• Opposite is retroactive interference.

Procedural Memory

long-term memory for the skills involved in particular tasks.

• how to ride a bike

• how to swim

Prospective Memory

Prospective memory is remembering to perform an action at a certain time

A memory to do something in the future.

• Prospect = something in the future

• ex. placing backpack near the door in the morning

Prototype

A mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin).

Similar to Exemplar.

• Prototype of a truck driver is male, middle aged, etc.

• Prototype of teacher is female, white, etc.

Recall

a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test.

• opposite to recognition

• NO prompting

Recency Effect

The recency effect is a cognitive bias in which those items, ideas, or arguments that came last are remembered more clearly than those that came first.

Remembering things last in a list better.

• After a few days, only remembering the last items of a list

• Opposite to Primacy Effect

Recognition

a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test.

• Multiple-choice

• Process of Elimination

Reconsolidation

We often construct our memories as we encode them, and every time we "replay" a memory, we replace the original with a slightly modified version,.

Every time a memory is recalled, it is changed slightly.

• Childhood stories become more inaccurate over time

• RE-consolidation = memories are CHANGED

Reductionism

Reductionism is a theory in psychology centered on reducing complex phenomena into their most basic parts.

Taking abstract concepts and reducing them to very simple ideas that are measurable.

• Intelligence is reduced and measured in Intelligence Tests

• Meaning and Nuance is lost

Reliability

the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternate forms of the test, or on retesting.

How much a test is consistent in its results.

• Similar to validity

Representative Heuristic

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

• Who’s more likely to be the college professor?

• Bias and stereotypes

Retrieval Failure

Failure in getting information out of memory storage.

• Knowing where you wrote something but not what you actually wrote

• Obstacle to accessing information

Retroactive Interference

the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information.

• New learning disrupts the recall of old information

• RETRO-active = OLD info is interfered with

Retrograde Amnesia

an inability to retrieve information from one’s past.

• RETROgrade = OLD/PAST info

• Amnesia = cannot remember

Risk/Loss Aversion

Individuals have a tendency of avoiding risks or loss more than they are incenitivized towards rewards.

• Someone being scared to invest in stocks

• Feeling worse when you get a bad grade than a good grade

Savant Syndrome

a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing.

When people have a high intelligence in a certain area but low intelligence in all others.

• Evidence for Gardner’s 8 intelligence

• Disputes Spearman’s general (g) intelligence

Self-Reference Effect

The self-reference effect is a tendency for people to encode information differently depending on whether they are implicated in the information

The tendency to encode memories differently if you the one actually playing a role in it.

• bystander effect

• type of cognitive bias

Semantic memory

Semantic memory is the ability to remember factual information or meanings.

• Algebra (math)

• Opposite to sensory memories