AP Psychology Unit 7a: Cognitive Psychology

Memory

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

Encoding

The processing of information into the memory system (extracting meaning, understanding)

Storage

The retention of encoded information over time

Retrieval

The process of getting information out of memory storage

Parallel Processing

the processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. Contrasts with the step-by-step (serial) processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving.

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

Long-Term Memory

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

Working Memory

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

Explicit Memory

Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare" (Also called declarative memory)

Effortful Processing

Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

Automatic Processing

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

Implicit Memory

Retention independent of conscious recollection (Also called nondeclarative or procedural memory)

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

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units, often occurs automatically

Mnemonics

memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices

Spacing Effect

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

Flashbulb Memory

A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.

Long-Term Potentiation

an increase in a synapse's firing potential after a brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.

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

Mood-Congruent Memory

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

Serial Position Effect

our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list

Amnesia

the loss of memory

Proactive Interference

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

Repression

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

Misinformation Effect

incorporating misleading info into one's memory of an event

Déjá Vu

that eerie sense that "I've experienced this before". Cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience

Source Amnesia

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

Cognition

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

Concept

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

Prototype

a mental image or best example of a category

Creativity

the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas

Algorithm

a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem...slow but accurate

Heuristic

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

Insight

a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to the problem; it contrasts with strategy based solutions

Confirmation Bias

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

Mental Set

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

Intuition

an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning

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

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

Overconfidence

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

Belief Perseverance

clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited

Framing

the way an issue is posed, how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgements

Phoneme

in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

Morpheme

in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or part of a word (prefix)

Grammar

in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others

Babbling Stage

beginning about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language

One-Word Stage

the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words

Two-Word Stage

beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements

Telegraphic Speech

early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram- "go car" - using mostly nouns and verbs

Linguistic Determinism

Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think

Syntax

the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language

Functional Fixedness

the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving

Priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response

Language

our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways combine them to communicate meaning

Semantics

is the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning

rehersal

the conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage

visual encoding

the encoding of picture images

acoustic encoding

the encoding of sound, especially the sound of words

imagery

mental pictures; a powerful aid to effortful processing, especially when combined with semantic encoding

fixation

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