AP Psychology Unit 2: Cognition and Language

Encoding

The processing of information into the memory system.

Visual Encoding

The encoding of a picture.

Acoustic Encoding

The encoding of sound.

Semantic Encoding

The encoding of meaning.

Hippocampus

Processes explicit memory for storage.

Effortful Processing

Encoding that requires conscious effort and attention.

Ex: learning class material, learning a name.

Automatic Processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information and of well-learned information.

Ex: reading an article, knowing where you ate yesterday.

Rehearsal

Conscious repetition of information.

Mnemonics

Memory aids, usually used as organizational devices.

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar units.

Spacing Effect

Information is better retained when learned over a period of time rather than all at once.

Serial Position Effect

Our tendency to recall best the last (recency effect) and first (primary effect) items on a list.

Primary Effect

Remembering the first items on a list.

Recency Effect

Remembering the last items on a list.

Storage

The retention of encoded information over time.

Sensory Memory

The immediate, initial recording of sensory memory information in the memory system.

Iconic Memory

Momentary visual sensory memory; lasts no more than a few tenths of a second.

Echoic Memory

Momentary auditory sensory memory; sounds and words can be recalled within 3-4 seconds if attention is diverted.

Short-Term Memory (Working)

Activated memory that holds a few items briefly before the information is stored or forgotten. Lasts about 20 seconds; can contain 7 +/- 2 items.

Long-Term Memory

The relatively permanent and unlimited storehouse of the memory system.

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

Increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; the neural basis for learning and memory.

Flashbulb Memory

A clear memory of an emotionally significant event.

Explicit Memory

Memory of facts (declarative memory) and experiences (episodic memory) that one can consciously know and declare.

Ex: stating how old you are.

Implicit Memory (Procedural Memory)

Retention without conscious recollection.

Ex: knowing how to talk.

Retrieval

The process of getting information out of memory storage.

Priming

The activation of particular associations in memory.

Ex: "when I hear ___, I think of ___.

Hear the school bell -> get up to leave.

Context Effects

We remember better when we are in the same context as when we originally learned the information.

Ex: Go to your old house; old memories come back.

Mood-Congruent Memory

The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's mood.

Recall

A measure in which a person must retrieve information learned earlier without reference.

Ex: listing the presidents,

Essay and short answer questions.

Recognition

A measure of memory in which one need only identify items previously learned.

Ex: multiple choice questions.

Failure to Encode

Sometimes we fail to encode because there is just too much information and we don't notice small details.

Curve of Forgetting

Subjects learned lists of nonsense syllables (dan, max, etc.) then measured how many were remembered from 20 minutes to 30 days later.

Findings: We lose a lot of memory over the first 24 hours, then loss levels out over days.

Amnesia

The loss of memory.

Anterograde Amnesia

Inability to create new memories.

Retrograde Amnesia

Inability to recall old memories.

Proactive Memory Interference

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

Ex: you call your new girlfriend your old girlfriend's name.

Retroactive Memory Interference

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

Ex: you cal your old girlfriend your new girlfriend's name.

Repression

A basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness.

Misinformation Effect

Incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event.

Imagination Effect

Repeatedly imagining nonexistent actions and events can create false memories.

Polygraphs

Compare physiological responses between "control" and "relevant" questions. Effective 2/3 of the time.

Source Amnesia

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

Phoneme

The smallest distinctive sound unit.

Morphemes

The smallest unit that carries meaning, may be a word or part of a word (suffix, prefix, or stem).

Grammar

A system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.

Semantics (deep)

The set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a giving language.

Ex: adding "-ed" to the end of a word means it happened in the past.

Syntax (surface)

The rules for combining word into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.

Ex: all adjectives come before nouns.

Babbling Stage of Language Development

First occurs around 4 months of age. The infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language. babbling begins to resemble household language and dialect round 10 months of age.

One-Word Stage of Language Development

First occurs around 12 months of age. The child speaks mostly in single words.

Ex: a child saying "doggy" may mean "look at the dog over there."

Two-Word Stage of Language Development

First occurs around 24 months of age. The child speaks mostly in two-word statements. After this stage, the child will rapidly begin to formulate sentences.

Noam Chomsky's Theory of Inborn Universal Grammar

Believed humans had a "language acquisition device" (biological predisposition) to develop language (NATURE).

B.F. Skinner's Theory of Operant Learning

Believed humans learn language though operant conditioning and social learning (NURTURE).

Whorf's Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis (Linguistic Determinism)

The idea that language determines the way we live.

Ex: the Hopi tribe has no past tense in their language, so they do not think of the past.

Cognition

The mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communication.

Metacognition

The ability to analyze your own thoughts.

Concept

A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

Prototypes

A mental image or best example of a concept.

Algorithm

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

Ex: going down every single aisle in the grocery store to find what you're looking for.

Heuristics

A rule-of-thumb strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently.

Ex: taking a best guess as to where the item you need is in the grocery store.

Insight

A sudden and novel realization of the solution to a problem (aha! moment).

Artificial Intelligence

A science of designing computer systems to preform operations that mimic human thinking.

Hindsight Bias

The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it. The "I knew it all along" phenomenon.

Confirmation Bias

A tendency to search for information that confirms one's perceptions.

Fixation

The inability to see a problem from a new perspective.

Mental Set

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

Functional Fixedness

The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions.

Framing

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

Ex: 90% survival rate vs. 10% death rate.

Belief Perseverance

Clinging to initial conceptions after the basis on which there were formed has been discredited.

Overconfidence

The tendency to be more confident than correct.

Barnum Effect

The tendency for people to believe very vague of general characterizations of themselves and take them to be accurate.

Ex: believing horoscopes fit.

Representativeness Heuristic

A rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of things in terms go how well they seems to represent or match particular prototypes.

Availability Heuristic

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