psych knowt 2

Cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating (basically thinking)

Metacognition

"Thinking about thinking"

concept

Knowing that you have your own thought process and knowing how it will relate to learning and problem solving.

Concept

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people

prototype

a mental image or best example of a category (ie thinking about a chair and this pops up)

Schema

a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information from past experiences (ie organizing people and things or ideas into mental "boxes")

Assimilation

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas (ie taking in new info and incorperating it into our exisiting boxes)

Accomodation

adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information (ie expanidng or creating new schemas based onnew info)

Executive Functions

higher order thinking processes that include planning, organizing, inhibition, and decision-making (The prefrontal cortex is where this function in held)

Algorithm

a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem

Heuristic

a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms

representativeness heuristic

judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information (ie stereotyping something or someone based on what you might see)

availability heuristic

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common (ex reading about shark attacks and being afraid even though they're uncommon)

Mental set

a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past (ex punching a tree in a new game because you did it in minecraft)

Priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory (ie sensing something thats familiar and it influencing future decisions, usually a implicit form of memory aswell)

Framing

the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments. (ex comparing the responces after saying "the car was wrecked" and "the car was damaged")

Nudge

framing choices in a way that encourages people to make beneficial decisions

Gamblers Fallacy

the belief that the odds of a chance event increase if the event hasn't occurred recently (flipping a coin and landing heads 3 times in a row. thinking it will land on tails but its still a 50% chance)

sunk cost fallacy

a framing effect in which people make decisions about a current situation based on what they have previously invested in the situation (ex putting time and effort into something that might be bad and not redoing it)

Functional Fixedness

the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving (ex using cooking pots to store legos)

Insight

a sudden realization of a problem's solution

Confirmation Bias

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

Fixation

the inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set

Intuition

the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning. (ie gut feeling)

Over Confidence

the tendency to be more confident than correct-to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements

Belief Perseverence

clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited (ie Ms Armstrongs date with the holohoax)

Creativity

the ability to produce new and valuable ideas

Divergent thinking

expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions)

Convergent thinking

narrowing down the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution

Memory

the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information

Explicit memory (and its three types)

the act of consciously or intentionally retrieving past experiences

--Episodic

--Semantic

--Prospective (potentially its own category)

Episodic Memory

the collection of past personal experiences that occurred at a particular time and place

Semantic Memory

a network of associated facts and concepts that make up our general knowledge of the world (ex knowing the states and their capitals)

Propspective Memory

remembering to do things in the future or thinking about the future (could be considered its own category of memory)

Implicit memory

Memories we don't deliberately remember or reflect on consciously

procedural memory

a type of implicit memory that involves motor skills and behavioral habits

Neurogenesis

the development of new neurons

long term potentiation (LTP)

a process whereby communication across the synapse between neurons strengthens the connection, making further communication easier

Working memory

a newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory

Visuospatial Sketchpad

A component of working memory where we create mental images to remember visual information

Long term memory

the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Multi store model

An explanation of memory based on three separate memory stores, and how information is transferred between these stores. (ie Sensory memory - short term- long term)

Central Executive

the part of working memory that directs attention and processing

Phonological loop

the part of working memory that holds and processes verbal and auditory information

iconic memory

a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second

echoic memory

a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds

shallow processing

encoding on a basic level based on the structure or appearance of words

deep processing

encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the words; tends to yield the best retention

automatic processing

unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings

effortful processesing

encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

encoding

the processing of information into the memory system—for example, by extracting meaning.

storing

The storage of memory

retrieval

the process of getting information out of memory storage

structural processing

Words are learned by remembering their physical features, such as whether they were in upper or lower case, started with a vowel or consonant, or were long or short.

phonemic processing

remembering the word by the way it sounds

semantic processing

Thinking about the meaning of words to be learnt

Mnemonic devices

techniques for using associations to memorize and retrieve information

Method of Loci

A mnemonic technique that involves associating items on a list with a sequence of familiar physical locations

chunking

organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

categories

groups or classes of things

hierarchies

Complex information broken down into broad concepts and further subdivided into categories and subcategories

the spacing effect

the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice

massed practice

a practice schedule in which studying continues for long periods, without interruption

distributed practice

spacing the study of material to be remembered by including breaks between study periods

serial position effect

our tendency to recall best the last (a recency effect) and first items (a primacy effect) in a list

Primacy effect

tendency to remember words at the beginning of a list especially well

recency effect

tendency to remember words at the end of a list especially well

Sensory Memory

the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system

Short Term Memory

activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten

Memory consolidation

the gradual, physical process of converting new long-term memories to stable, enduring memory codes

Maintanence rehearsal

a system for remembering that involves repeating information to oneself without attempting to find meaning in it

Elaborative Rehearsal

a method of transferring information from STM into LTM by making that information meaningful in some way

Autobiographical Memory

the memory for events and facts related to one's personal life story

FlashBulb Memory

a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event

retrograde amnesia

an inability to retrieve information from one's past

anterograde amnesia

an inability to form new memories

Alzheimer's disease

a progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and, finally, physical functioning

infantile amnesia

the inability to remember events from early childhood

Recall

A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test.

Recognition

a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test

Relearning

a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time

Retrieval Cues

Stimuli that are used to bring a memory to consciousness or into behavior

encoding specificity principle

the idea that cues and contexts specific to a particular memory will be most effective in helping us recall it

Context dependent memory

The theory that information learned in a particular situation or place is better remembered when in that same situation or place.

Mood congruent memory

the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood

State dependent memory

The theory that information learned in a particular state of mind (e.g., depressed, happy, somber) is more easily recalled when in that same state of mind.

Testing effect

enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information

Interleaving

a retrieval practice strategy that involves mixing the study of different topics.

The forgetting curve

a graphic depiction of how recall steadily declines over time

Encoding failure

failure to process information into memory

Proactive Inteference

the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information

Retroactive Interference

the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information

Tip-of-the-tounge Phenomenon

the temporary inability to remember something you know, accompanied by a feeling that it's just out of reach

Ego

the largely conscious, "executive" part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. The ego operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id's desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.

Repression

in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

reconsolidation

a process in which previously stored memories, when retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again

Misinformation effect

incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event