IB PSYCHOLOGY (COGNITIVE)

DEFINE cognition

DEFINE cognition

the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge through thoughts, experiences and senses.

What is cognitive psychology?

the study of the mind as a brain processor

What do cognitive psychologists do?

they build models of information processing that goes on in peoples minds,including perception,attention,memory and consciousness.

what does memory include?

encoding,retrieval and storing

Define encoding

registration of information

Define retrieval

the process of recall/recollection

define storage

a permanent record of encoded information

who created the multi store model?

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)

what does the multi store model include?

-sensory register
-short term memory
-long term memory

whats in sensory register?

so it goes from sensory register to short term memory by attention and sensory register includes decay.

what does the short term memory include?

it goes from short term to long term memory by rehearsal and involves retrieval and short term memory involves decay and displacement

what does long term memory include?

it goes from long term memory to short term memory by retrieval and long term memory involves:
-interference
-retrieval failure
-decay

whats duration of sensory register?

less than half a second

what is the capacity of the sensory register?

very high

what does the sensory register encode?

iconic memory-visual info
-ecnoic memory -sound is coded acoustically

whats the duration short term memory?

around 30 seconds

what is the capacity of stm?

on average 7+/-2

what does stm encode?

coded acoustically

what is the duration of long term memory?

its unlimited(lasts for a long time)

whats the capacity of ltm?

unlimited

what does ltm encode?

it is coded semantically

define encoding?

when information comes into our memory system(from sensory input) it needs to be changed into a system the brain can cope with.

3 main ways in which information can be encoded

-visual
-acoustically(sound)
-semantic(meaning)

what are the strengths of the msm?

-historical importance-it gave psychologists a way to begin to research memory and the research followed was based off that model

-testable-the model is testable as different parts of the msm are defined.

-application-the model can be used in the classroom to teach students revision techniques.

what are the weaknesses of the msm?

-low construct validility-there is evidence that stm and ltm have different stores.(it does not explain why things we learned with minimal rehearsal whilst items we rehearse a lot are not always rembered.

-low predictive validilty-it only predicts how typical memory is processed it does not take into account more complex memory(i.e emotional memories)

What is the serial position effect?

the tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a series best, and the middle items worst

what does the serial position effect consist of?

-it is compromised of the primary effect and the recency effect.

whats an alpha bias?

where they exaggerate the differences between males and females

whats a beta bias?

minimised sex differences where they assume the findings from males apply to females.

define memory?

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

what is matched pairs?

people with the same characteristics

there are 3 types of long term memory?

1.procedural
2.semantic
3.episodic

What is procedural memory?

type of memory that stores how to do things

what is semantic memory?

type of memory that stores information about the world.

what is episodic memory?

type of memory that is for special events. i.e first day of school

what is teacup in terms of strengths and weaknesses?

T=testable
E=empirical support
A=application
C=construct validility
U=unbiased
P=predicts behaviour

what is the working memory model?

........

Define the working memory model?

-it is about the structure of the short term memory
- The model refers to the part of the memory that you use when working on a complex task which requires you to store and remember information as you go
-it involves sensory register

who created the working memory model?

-badelly and hitch(1974)

whats the central executive?

-its in charge of working out what the task is and which store is needed.
-its an attentional process-it monitors incoming data makes decisions and allocates the systems to tasks.

whats the weakness of the central executive?

it has limited processing capacity meaning it cannot attend to many things at once.

what is phonological loop divided into?

-phonological store and articulatory process

define phonological loop

-deals with auditory information

whats phonological store?

inner ear

whats articulatory process?

inner voice

weaknesses of phonological loop?

-it has limited capacity
-it has limited processing
-limited storage

whats visuospatial sketchpad?

"inner eye"

define visuospatial sketchpad?

-holds visual and spatial information

if we split visuo and spatial what does it mean?

-visual-what things look like
-spatial=the relationship between objects

what is stored in visuo-spatial sketchpad?

-visuo and/or spatial information is temporarily stored here.

weaknesses of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

-it has limited capacity
-it has limited processing

whats the episodic buffer?

it acts as temporary and general store for both acoustic and visual information.
-it also provides a bridge between working memory model and long term memory.

weaknesses of episodic buffer?

it has limited capacity

what are the strengths of the working memory model?

-high construct vadility:
it has higher construct vadility than the MSM as it explores short term memory in detail and explains why we are able to do more than one short term memory task at once

-Application:
it was used in alloway(2006)
ADHD can relate to impairments with the WMM.We can develop methods to help focus on the task at hand i.e break instructions into individual steps

what are the weaknesses of the working memory model?

Testability:
-whilst some components of the model are easy to test others are not.i.e the episodic buffer we only know little about the workings.

-it only takes into account short term memory and not other memory structures like long term memory and sensory memory.