Chap 7: Cognition

Sensory Memory

First stop for external events. It is a split-second holding tank for incoming sensory information.

George Sperling

Flashed a grid of letters to participants for 1/20th of a second. Participants were asked to recall either the top, middle, or bottom row immediately after the grid was flashed at them.

* The participants could recall any of the rows perfectly. This experiment demonstrated that the entire grid must be held in sensory memory for a split second (iconic/photographic memory)

Iconic (photographic) Memory

A split-second perfect photograph of a scene

Echoic Memory

A brief (3-4 seconds) memory of sounds

Selective Attention

We encode what is important to us (determines which sensory messages get encoded)

Short-term (working) Memory

These are memories we are currently working with and are aware of in our consciousness.

George Miller

Conducted the “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two” experiment which determined that our capacity in short-term memory is limited on average to around 7 items

Chunking

The process by which the mind divides large pieces of information into smaller units (chunks) that are easier to retain in short-term memory

Mnemonic Devices

Any device or technique used to assist memory, usually by forging a link or association between the new information to be remembered and information previously encoded.

Rehearsal

The repetition of information in an attempt to maintain it longer in memory (not as effective)

Long-term Memory

Our permanent storage of memory

Episodic Memory

\n Memories of specific events, stored in a sequential series of events.

* Example: Remembering the last time you went to the mall

Semantic Memory

General knowledge of the world, stored as facts, meanings, or categories rather than sequentially.

* Example: What is the difference between “effect” and “affect”?

Procedural Memory

Memories of skills and how to perform them. These memories are sequential but might be too complicated to describe in words.

* Example: How to throw a curveball

Explicit (declarative) Memories

* What we usually think of first
* Conscious memories of facts or events we actively tried to remember

Implicit (non-declarative) Memories

Unintentional memories that we might not even realise we have

Eidetic (photographic) Memory

A clear, specific, high-quality mental image of a visual scene that is retained for a period (seconds to minutes) after the event.

Alexander Luria

Studied eidetic (photographic) memory

Levels of Processing Model

The theory that encoding into memory and therefore subsequent retention depend on the depth of cognitive elaboration that the information receives and that deeper encoding improves memory.

* Memories are either deeply (or elaborately) processed or shallowly (or maintenance) processed.

Recognition

The process of matching a current event or fact with one already in memory

Recall

Retrieving a memory with an external cue

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Established that the order of items in a list is related to whether or not we will recall them

Primacy effect

More likely to recall items presented at the beginning of a list

Recency effect

Ability to recall items at the end of a list

Serial Position Effect

Primacy + Recency effects

Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon

Temporary inability to remember information

Semantic Network Theory

This theory states that our brain might form new memories by connecting their meaning and context with meanings already in memory

* May explain TOT phenomenon

Flashbulb Memories

* A vivid, enduring memory associated with a personally significant and emotional event, often including such details as where the individual was or what he or she was doing at the time of the event.
* Some studies show the flashbulb memories can be inaccurate → we tend to construct parts of the memory to fill in gaps in our stories

Mood-Congruency Memory

Greater likelihood of recalling an item when our mood matched the mood we were in when the event happened

State-Dependent Memory

Memory for a past event is improved when the person is in the same biological or psychological state as when the memory was initially formed

Recovered Memory

Claim to suddenly remember events they have repressed for years, often during the process of therapy

Elizabeth Loftus

Showed that many of these memories may be constructed or false recollections of events

Constructed Memory

Can report false details of a real event or might even be a recollection of an event that never occured

Relearning Effect

A way of measuring retention by measuring how much faster one relearns material that has been previously learned and then forgotten

Interference

Some other information in your memory competes with what you are trying to recall (retroactive or proactive)

Retroactive Interference

Learning new information interferes with the recall of older information.

E.g. If you study psychology at 3:00 and your sociology at 6:00, you might have trouble recalling the psychology information on a test the next day.

Proactive Interference

Older information learned previously interferes with the recall of information learned more recently.

E.g. If a researcher reads you a list of items in a certain order, then rereads them differently and asks you to list the in the new order, the old list proactively interferes with recall of the new list.

Anterograde amnesia

* Individuals with damage to the hippocampus who cannot encode new memories, but they can recall events already in memory
* They can learn new skills, although they will not remember learning them

→ Indicates that the memory for these skills, or procedural memory, is stored elsewhere in the brain

Long-Term Potentiation

* Studies show that neurons can strengthen connections between each other.
* Through repeated firings, the connection is strengthened and the receiving neuron becomes more sensitive to the messages from the sending neuron

→ This strengthened connection might be related to the connections we make in our long-term memory

Phonemes

Smallest units of sound used in language

Morphemes

Smallest unit of meaningful sound

Syntax

Phonemes put together become morphemes, which make up words. These words are then spoken or written in a particular order, called syntax.

Holophrastic stage

During this time, babies speak in single words (holophrases)

Telegraphic speech

Toddlers will combine the words they can say into simple commands. Meaning is usually clear at this stage, but syntax is absent.

E.g. “No book, movie!”

Overgeneralization (Overregulation)

Misapplication of grammar rules

E.g. “Marky hitted my head so I throwed the truck at him.”

Noam Chomsky

Created the Navist theory of language acquisition + theorized the critical period for language acquisition

* Pointed to retarded development of language in cases of children deprived of exposure to language during childhood

Critical Period

A window of opportunity during which we must learn a skill, or our development will permanently suffer

Language Acquisition Device

The ability to learn a language rapidly as children

Benjamin Whorf

Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis → Theorized that the language we use might control, and in some ways limit, our thinking

Concepts

We each have cognitive rules we apply to stimuli from our environment that allow us to categorize and think about the objects, people, and ideas we encounter. These rules are concepts.

Prototypes

What we think is the most typically example of a particular concept

Images

Mental pictures we create in our minds of the outside world

Algorithm

A rule that guarantees the right solution by using a formula or other foolproof method

Heuristic

Rule of thumb → a rule that is generally, but not always, true that we can use to make a judgement in a situation

Availability Heuristic

Judging a situation based on examples of similar situations that come to mind initially. This heuristic might lead to incorrect conclusions due to variability in personal experience.

For example, a person may judge his or her neighbourhood to be more dangerous than others in the city simply because that person is more familiar with violence in his or her neighbourhood than in other neighbourhoods.

Representativeness Heuristic

Judging a situation based on how similar the aspects are to prototypes the person holds in his or her mind.

For example, a person might judge a young person more likely to commit suicide because of a prototype of the depressed adolescent when, in fact, suicide rates are not higher in younger populations.

Overconfidence

* Our tendency to overestimate how accurate our judgements are
* How confident we are in a judgement is not a good indicator of whether or not we are right

Belief Bias

Occurs when we make illogical conclusions in order to confirm our pre-existing beliefs

Belief Perseverence

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

Rigidity (Mental Set)

* The tendency to fall into established thought patterns
* Most people will use solutions or past experience to try to solve novel problems

Functional Fixedness

The inability to see a new use for an object

Confirmation Bias

We tend to look for evidence that confirms our beliefs and ignore evidence that contradicts what we think is true

Framing

* Refers to the way a problem is presented
* Presentation can drastically change the way we view a problem or an issue

Convergent Thinking

Thinking pointed towards one solution

Divergent Thinking

* Thinking that searches for multiple possible answers to a question
* More closely associated with creativity