AP Psychology Unit VII: Cognition

Memory

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

Encoding

Getting information to your brain.

Storage

Retaining information in your brain.

Retrieval

Getting the information back out of your brain.

Parallel processing

The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously.

Connectionism

Views memories as products of interconnected neural networks. Specific memories arise from specific activation patterns.

Sensory memory

Very brief recording of sensory information.

Short-term memory

Holds things briefly, such as a phone number before dialing. Info is either stored or forgotten.

Long-term memory

Relatively permanent and limitless. Storehouse of skills, knowledge, and experiences.

Working memory

Proposed by Alan Baddeley. Never understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming information retrieved from long term-memory. IE: linking information you’re reading to previously stored information.

Allanson and Shiffrin’s model

Sensory memory → short-term memory → long-term memory.

Explicit memories

Memories of facts and experiences that you can consciously “know” and declare. IE: the capital of New York.

Effortful processing

How we encode explicit memories. Requires attention and conscious effort.

Automatic processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information and of well-learned information such as word meanings. Produces implicit memories.

Implicit memories

Memories we are unable to consciously “know” or declare.

Procedural memories

Memories of automatic skills and classically conditioned associations. Space, time, frequency, etc.

Iconic memory

Momentary visual memory of a visual stimuli.

Echoic memory

Momentary sensory memory of a auditory stimulus.

Chunking

Effortful processing strategy where you organize items into familiar, manageable units.

Mnemonic

Effortful processing strategy that involves memory aids that use vivid imagery and organization.

Hiearchies

Effortful processing strategy of organizing information into categories and sub-categories.

Spacing effect

Tendency for distributed practice to yield better long-term retention than cramming.

Testing effect

Enhanced memory after retrieving information, rather than simply rereading information.

Shallow processing

Encoding on a basic level based on structure or appearance of words.

Deep processing

Encoding of words semantically.

Frontal lobes and hippocampus

Networks that process and store explicit memories.

Cerebellum

Plays a large role in forming and storing implicit memories created by classical conditioning.

Basal ganglia

Deep brain structures involved in movement, facilitate formation of procedural memories.

Flashbulb memory

Clear memory of an emotionally significant event.

LTP/Long-term pollination

Increase of a cell’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Neural basis of learning and memory.

Recall

Retrieving information that is not currently in your conscious awareness. Fill in the blank test.

Recognition

Identifying items previously learned. Multiple choice tests.

Relearning

Learning something more quickly when you learn it for the second time. We remember more than we can recall.

Priming

Associations we form when we encode a memory. Activation of particular associations in memory.

Context dependent memory

Putting yourself back in the context where you experienced the memory to encourage its retrieval.

Mood congruent memory

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

Serial position effect

Our tendency to recall best the first and last names on a list.

Anterograde amnesia

The inability to form new memories.

Retrograde amnesia

The inability to retrieve information from one’s past (usually before a head injury).

Encoding failure

What we fail to encode, we will never be able to remember. Affected by age.

Storage decay

Gradual fading of physical memory trace.

Retrieval failure

Inability to retrieve information that is stored. EX: “tip of the tongue”.

Proactive interference

Past learning affecting current learning.

Retroactive interference

New learning affecting past learning.

Positive transfer

Previously learned information facilitating our learning of new information.

Misinformation effect

Incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of events.

Source amnesia

Attributing to the wrong source an event we experienced, heard about, or imagined.

Cognition

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

Concept

Mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or issues. Gives us a lot of information with little cognitive effort.

Prototypes

A mental image or best example of a category or concept. Quick and easy method of sorting into categories.

Creativity

The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

Convergent thinking

Narrows available problem solutions to determine a single best solution. EX: math test.

Divergent thinking

Expands number of solutions. Creative thinking that diverges in different directions. EX: how many uses for a brick?

Components of creativity

Expertise, imaginative thinking skills, venturous personality, intrinsic motivation, creative environment.

Algorithim

Methodical, logical rule or procedure that gurantees solving a particular problem. EX: trying every key on your key ring to open a door.

Heuristic

Simple thinking strategy that allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently. EX: dog food will be in pet aisle of a grocery store you’ve never been to.

Insight

Sudden realization of a problem’s solution.

Mental set

Tendency to approach a problem in one particular way that has been successful in the past.

Intuition

Effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought.

Representative heuristic

Judging the likelihood of things based on how well they match the prototype in our head. Basically, stereotyping.

Availability heuristic

Estimating likelihood of events based on their availability in our memory.

Belief perserverence

Clinging to one’s initial conceptions after they have been proven wrong.

Framing

The way an issue is posed— can significantly impact decisions and judgments.

Language

Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.

Phonemes

Smallest distinctive sound units in a language. EX: b-a-t, ch-a-t.

Morphemes

Smallest unit that carries meaning. Prefixes and suffixes. EX: pre-view, adapt-ed.

Grammar

Rules that allow us to communicate. Semantics = meaning, syntax = order of words.

Receptive language

Ability to understand what is said to and about an infant.

Productive language

Ability to produce words of an infant.

Babbling stage

Beginning at about 4 months, stage of speech development where the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to household language.

One word stage

Stage in speech development, from 1 to 2, where a child speaks mostly in one word.

Two word stage

Beginning at about age 2, child speaks mostly in 2 word sentences. EX: “want juice” ← telegraphic speech.

Aphasia

Impairment of language. Usually caused by left-hemisphere damage to Broca or Wernicke’s area.

Broca’s area

Langauge expression. Left hemisphere.

Wernicke’s area

Langauge comprehension. Left temporal lobe.

7 plus 2 minus 2

The capacity of short-term memory. Proposed by George Miller.

The method of Loci

strategy for memory enhancement, which uses visualizations of familiar spatial environments in order to enhance the recall of information

Lateral inhibition

Phenomenon in which a neuron’s response to a stimulus is inhibited by the excitation of a neighboring neuron.

Predictable world bias

The inclination to perceive order and/or reason when there is none/no evidence.

Consolidation

The process of short-term memories forming long-term memories.