Cognition & Learning - AP Psychology

for the cognition AP psych Ehret test

Cognition is:

the study of mental activities (thinking, remembering, & communicating)

Cognitive Psychologists study:

• concept formation}  meta-cognition: 

• problem-solving}      “thinking about

• decision-making}        our

• judgement formation}  thinking”

Thinking:

Prototype

Concept/Category

Concepts

Prototype:

a mental image of best example of a category

ex: draw a flower

Concept/Category:

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

ex: think about the Nile

Spreading Activation:

thinking about a concept will activate, or prime, all of the other items linked to it

Priming:

the first concept that starts the spread of activation

Executive Functions:

high level cognitive abilities that collectively allow us to solve problems & make decisions effectively

Problem Solving:

there are two main methods to solving problems:

• Algorithms

• Heuristic

Algorithms:

trying EVERY possible solution; step-by-step methodical process that WILL yield a solution

Heuristic

(the short cut!)

strategies for simplifying a problem & generating a satisfactory guess (may not give a solution)

2 main types of heuristics:

• Representative

• Availability

Representative Heuristic:

judge the likelihood of things based on how well they represent particular prototypes that a person holds

Availability Heuristic:

judging a situation based on examples of similar situations that initially come to mind (vivid example in the news often cause an availability heuristic)

Belief Perseverance:

maintaining a belief even after it has been proven wrong

Belief Bias:

people will tend to accept any conclusion that fit in with their systems of belief, without challenge or any deep consideration of what they’re actually agreeing with

Hurdles to problem-solving:

Perceptual set

Mental Set

Sunk Cost Effect

Gambler’s Fallacy

Perceptual Set:

a predisposition to perceive things in a certain way, influencing your behavior and thinking

Mental Set:

a tendency to rely on familiar ways

• functional fixedness: the inability to see a new use for an object

Sunk Cost Effect:

tendency to stick with something because you’re already spent time & money

Gambler’s Fallacy:

belief that if a particular outcome has not occurred for a while, its turn has come

Confirmation Bias:

we look for evidence to confirm our beliefs & ignore evidence that contradicts them

ex: snow forecasts

Framing Effect:

the way a problem is presented can dramatically affect the way we see it

ex: “90% of people will be saved with this drug…10% will die”

Absentminded Behavior:

Action Slips

Action Slip - Capture Error:

these occur when an activity that’s frequently done captures the less frequently occurring “intended” behavior

Action Slip - Description Error:

these occur when an action is performed on the wrong object, b/c it’s like the intended object

ex: milk in pantry, cereal in fridge

Action Slip - Associative Activation Error

these occur when internal thoughts or automatic associations trigger an inappropriate response

Action Slip - Loss of Activation Error

this occurs when you walk into a room and have no idea what your purpose was

Creativity & Thinking:

Convergent Thinking

Divergent Thinking

Convergent Thinking:

coming up with THE BEST idea

Divergent Thinking:

coming up with AS MANY ideas as you can to solve the problem

ATTENTION:

the tendency to focus on/respond to one stimulus while ignoring others

Two methods of paying attention:

Preattentive Process

Attentive process

Preattentive Process:

if something stands out immediately, we don’t have to shift attention from one object to another

Attentive Process:

process that requires searching through items in a series, grid-by-grid

Limits to Attention:

Change Blindness/Intentional Blindness

Selective Attention/Shifting Attention

Attentional Blink

Change Blindness/Intentional Blindness:

inability to see changes in your environment

Selective Attention/Shifting Attention:

the process of focusing on a particular object in the environment while ignoring everything else

Attentional Blink:

during a brief time after perceiving one stimulus, it is difficult to attend to something else (time in between = a black hole)

LANGUAGE - Components

Phoneme

Morpheme

Phoneme:

smallest distinctive sound unit (basic unit of speech)

• the sounds the letters make (CATS = 4)

• varies by language

Morpheme:

smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (CATS = 2; CAT - think, s - plural)

Grammar(rules):

Syntax

Semantics

Syntax:

sentence structure

Semantics:

set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences

Language Acquisition:

all (healthy) humans are born with the ability to learn language…BUT…there is a “window of opportunity” to learn language (Critical Period)

Critical Period:

a window for learning language (starts closing between 2-7 years

NOAM CHOMSKY:

Famous Linguist (b. 1929)

Believed in Inborn Universal Grammar

Language Acquisition STAGES:

1. Babbling (3m-1yr)

2. Holophrastic: one word (9-18m)

3. Telegraphic Speech: two words (18 m-3yrs)

   1. Overgeneralization (2.5-3yrs)

4. Full Adult Competency (by age FOUR)

Biology of Language:

Broca’s Area

Wernickes’s Area

Broca’s Area:

Left Temporal Lobe

Speak but can’t comprehend

Wernicke’s Area:

Nonsensical speak

Lack of comprehension