cognition and memory

schema

a preexisting mental

concept that helps people to

organize and interpret

information

script

a schema for an event

Retroactive interference

a phenomenon that occurs when newly learned

information interferes with and impedes the recall of previously learned

information

Proactive interference-

material that was learned earlier disrupts the recall of material that was learned later

Decay theory-

when we learn

something new a neurochemical

memory trace forms, but over time

this trace disintegrates

Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

-confident that

we know something, but

cannot pull it out of memory

cognition

way in which information

is processed and manipulated in

remembering, thinking, and knowing

Memory:

Retention of

information or experience over

time

Encoding-

how info gets in

Storage-

where info goes

Retrieval

how info gets out

Selective Attention:

involves

focusing on a specific aspect of

experience while ignoring others

Divided Attention:

involves

concentrating on more than one

activity at the same time

Sustained attention:

is the

ability to maintain attention to

a selected stimulus for a

prolonged period of time

Level of processing:

refers to a

continuum from shallow to intermediate

to deep, with deeper processing

producing better memory

Elaboration

-refers to the formation of a

number of different connections around a

stimulus at any given level of memory

encoding

Self-reference:

relating material to

your own experience

Imagery:

Used mental imagery to recall enormous amounts

of information

Levels of processing Model-

We remember things we spend more

cognitive time and energy processing

Three Box Model/ Information-Processing Model

Memory storage involves three stages that

information passes through before it is stored

• Sensory memory

• Short-term memory

• Long-term memory

Sensory Memory:

Holds information from the

world as an exact copy for ½ to 3

seconds

Echoic memory

-auditory

sensory memory 2-4 seconds

Iconic memory

-visual

sensory memory <1sec

Short-term memory/ Working memory:

A limited-capacity memory system

Retained for 10-30 seconds

Rehearsal-

conscious repetition of information

Chunking

-grouping information

Long-term memory:

Relatively permanent type of

memory that stores huge

amounts of information for a

long time

Explicit memory (declarative memory)

conscious recollection of information

Episodic memory-

memories of specific events

Semantic memory-

a person’s knowledge about the world- facts

Implicit memory (non-declarative

memory)

-memory in which behavior

is affected by prior experience without

conscious recollection of that experience

Procedural memory

-involves memory for skills

Priming

-is the activation of

information that people already

have in storage to help them

remember new information better

and faster

concepts

-mental categories that are

used to group objects, events, and

characteristics

superordinate

most general concept

subordinate

most specific concept

Prototype

-emphasizes that when

people evaluate whether a

given item reflects a certain

concept, they compare the

item with the most typical

item in that category and

look for a “family

resemblance” with that

item’s properties

Heuristics

-are such shortcut strategies or

guidelines that suggest a solution to a problem

but do not guarantee an answer

Algorithms-

strategies that guarantee a

solution to a problem

Inductive reasoning

-involves

reasoning from specific observations to

make generalizations

Deductive reasoning

reasoning

from a general case that we know to be

true to a specific instance

Functional fixedness

-occurs when

individuals fail to solve a problem

because they are fixated on a thing’s

usual functions

Availability heuristic

-refers to a

prediction about the probability of an

event based on the ease of recalling or

imagining similar events

Belief bias:

we make illogical conclusions in order to confirm our preexisting beliefs

Belief perseverance:

our tendency to maintain a belief even after the evidence we used to form the belief is contradicted.

framing

an example of

cognitive bias, in which people react to a

particular choice in different ways

depending on how it is presented;

Confirmation bias

-is the tendency to

search for and use information that

supports our ideas rather than refutes

them

Hindsight bias

-our tendency to look

back at an event that we could not

predict at the time and think the

outcome was easily predictable.

Divergent thinking

-thinking that produces

many solutions to the same problems

Convergent thinking

-thinking that produces

the single best solution to a problem

Phonology

-a language's sound system

Morphology-

language’s rules for word formation

Syntax

-a language’s rules for combining words to form acceptable phrases and sentences

Semantics

-the meaning of words and sentences in a particular language

Pragmatics

useful character of language and the ability of language to

communicate even more meaning than is said

Theory of linguistic relativity:

not all cultures share the same words

Language acquisition

devices

Young children possess an innate capacity to

learn and produce speech

overgeneralize-

a child uses a word for too many different cases

underextension

child doesn't use a word for enough particular cases