AP Psychology Cognition

A comprehensive set of flashcards for key terms related to cognition in AP Psychology.

Constructive Memory

False memory or recollection.

Primacy Effect

Ability to recall the first item learned.

Serial Position Effect

Poor recall for items in the middle of the list; better recall for items at the beginning and end.

Spacing Effect

We retain information better when we rehearse over time.

Iconic Memory

Visual sensory memory from visual icons.

Retroactive Interference

Effects of new learning on old information recall.

Proactive Interference

Effects of old learning on new information recall.

Retrieval Cues

Associations that help retrieve memory.

Forgetting Curve

Poor durability of stored memories leads to their decay.

Tip of the Tongue

Retrieval failure phenomenon where you can't recall something but can recall similar things.

Eidetic Memory

Remembering visual stimuli over a long period of time, also known as photographic memory.

Sensory Memory

Includes iconic, echoic, and eidetic memory.

Memory

Process by which we recollect prior experiences, information, and skills learned in the past.

Semantic Encoding

Forming meaning from information.

Semantic Memory

Memory of general knowledge.

Echoic Memory

Auditory sensory memory, or sound traces.

Episodic Memory

Memory of a specific event.

Implicit Memory

Unconscious memory of skills you have learned.

Three Stage Model

Includes sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Automatic Processing

Implicit encoding that happens without our awareness.

Effortful Processing

Explicit encoding that requires conscious effort and attention.

Explicit Memory

Facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare.

Recognition

Identifying objects or events encountered before.

Recall

Retrieving information using effort.

Next in Line Effect

Forgetting what the person in front of you says due to anxiety.

Encoding

The translation of information into a form that can be stored in memory.

Maintenance Rehearsal

Practicing what you just learned every so often.

Context Dependent Memories

Information best remembered in the same situation or place learned.

Mood Congruent Memories

Tendency to recall experiences consistent with one's mood.

State Dependent Memories

Information best remembered in the same emotional state learned.

Infantile Amnesia

Forgetting childhood memories.

Elaborative Rehearsal

Making information meaningful by relating it to something already known.

Retrograde Amnesia

Forgetting memories up to the present.

Anterograde Amnesia

Unable to form new memories.

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units.

Algorithms

Methodical, logical rules guaranteeing a solution to a particular problem.

Deductive Reasoning

Conclusion is true if the premises are true.

Divergent Thinking

Thought process generating multiple solutions to problems.

Convergent Thinking

Thought limited to available facts.

Gambler's Fallacy

Misconception that probabilities will revert to a mean.

Means-End Analysis

Knowing certain actions will have certain results.

Anchoring Heuristic

Making choices based on particular ideas or standards held.

Representative Heuristic

Judging likelihood based on resemblance to a prototype.

Concept

Mental groupings.

Availability Heuristic

Decision-making based on readily available information.

Incubation Effect

Tendency to find a solution after time away from the problem.

Conjunction Fallacy

Estimating the odds of two uncertain events as greater than either event.

Long-Term Potentiation

Strengthening of synapse connections between neurons with frequent use.

Method of Loci

Visualization of environment as a memory strategy.

Repression

Defense mechanism banishing anxiety-arousing thoughts and memories.

Short-Term Memory

Also known as working memory.

Long-Term Memory

Relatively permanent storage of information.

Framing

The way an issue is posed.

Source Amnesia

Attributing an event to the wrong source.

Priming

Associations in memory, often unconsciously.

Encoding Failure

Failure to process information into memory.

Misinformation Effect

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

Prototype

A mental image or best example of a category.

Mental Set

Tendency to approach a problem in one particular way.

Functional Fixedness

Tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions.

Procedural Memory

Implicit memory involving motor skills and behavioral habits.

Structural Encoding

Processing what things look like.

Sunk Cost Fallacy

Tendency to follow through with something heavily invested in.

Metacognition

Ability to monitor, interpret, and control one's own thoughts.

Imagination Inflation

Falsely remembering something as seen or done when it was only imagined.

Central Executive

Monitors and coordinates all other mental functions in working memory.

Memory Consolidation

The neural storage of a long-term memory.

Distributed Practice

Spacing out study time.

Massed Practice

Cram studying.

Working Memory Model

Three-part memory system including central executive, visuospatial sketch pad, phonological loop, and episodic buffer.

Autobiographical Memory

Memory of one's own personal events.

Inductive Reasoning

Drawing conclusions from specific points to generalizations.

Accommodation

Adapting current understandings to incorporate new information.

Assimilation

Interpreting new experiences in terms of existing schemas.