Chapter 7: Cognition

**information-processing model**

The principal model of memory is the three-box model, also called the

**sensory memory**

The first stop for external events is

**George Sperling**

demonstrated this in a series of experiments in which he flashed a grid of nine letters, three rows and three columns, to participants for 1/20th of a second.

**Iconic memory**

a split-second perfect photograph of a scene.

**Echoic memory**

an equally perfect brief (3–4 second) memory for sounds.

**Selective attention**

Sometimes selective attention is not as controlled.

**working memory**

Short-term memory is also called **__** because these are memories we are currently working with and are aware of in our consciousness.

**Long-Term Memory**

is our permanent storage.

**Explicit memories**

(also called declarative memories) are what we usually think of first.

**Implicit memories**

(also called nondeclarative memories) are unintentional memories that we might not even realize we have.

**Alexander Luria**

studied a patient with eidetic memory who could repeat a list of 70 letters or digits.

Levels of Processing Model

This theory explains why we remember what we do by examining how deeply the memory was processed or thought about.

**Recognition**

is the process of matching a current event or fact with one already in memory (e.g. “Have I smelled this smell before?”).

**Recall**

is retrieving a memory with an external cue (e.g. “What does my Aunt Beki’s perfume smell like?”).

**Hermann Ebbinghaus**

(1850–1909) established that the order of items in a list is related to whether or not we will recall them.

**primacy effect**

predicts that we are more likely to recall items presented at the beginning of a list.

**recency effect**

is demonstrated by our ability to recall the items at the end of a list.

**serial position effect** (also called **serial position curve**)

Together the primacy effect and recency effect demonstrate the

**tip-of-the-tongue** **phenomenon**

This temporary inability to remember information is sometimes called the

**semantic network theory**

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

**flashbulb memories**

are powerful because the importance of the event caused us to encode the context surrounding the event.

**mood-congruent memory**

or the greater likelihood of recalling an item when our mood matched the mood we were in when the event happened.

**State-dependent memory**

refers to the phenomenon of recalling events encoded while in particular states of consciousness.

Constructive Memory

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can report false details of a real event or might even be a recollection of an event that never occurred.

**interference**

Another factor that causes forgetting is

**Retroactive interference**

Learning new information interferes with the recall of older information. If you study your 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. If a researcher reads you a list of items in a certain order, then rereads them differently and asks you to list them in the new order, the old list proactively interferes with recall of the new list.

**anterograde amnesia**

they cannot encode new memories

**long-term ­potentiation**

At the neurological level, researchers focus on a process called

Language

is intimately connected to cognition.

Phonemes

are the smallest units of sound used in a language.

morpheme

is the smallest unit of meaningful sound.

**holophrastic stage** or **one-word stage**

During which babies speak in single words (holophrases) is sometimes called the

**telegraphic speech** or **two-word stage**

The next language acquisition stage occurs at around 18 months and is called

**overgeneralization** or **overregularization**

This misapplication of grammar rules is called

**language acquisition device**

the ability to learn a language rapidly as children (this is also called the **nativist theory of language acquisition**).

**Benjamin Whorf**

theorized that the language we use might control, and in some ways limit, our thinking.

Describing Thought

Descriptions are thoughts, so we are attempting to describe thought using thought itself.

**Concepts**

are similar to the schemata

**images**

are the mental pictures we create in our minds of the outside world.

Problem Solving

Many researchers try to study thought by examining the results of thinking.

**algorithm**

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

**heuristic**

is a rule of thumb—a rule that is generally, but not always, true that we can use to make a judgment in a situation.

**Availability heuristic**

Judging a situation based on examples of similar situations that come to mind initially.

**Representativeness heuristic**

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

**Overconfidence**

is our tendency to overestimate how accurate our judgments are.

**Belief bias**

occurs when we make illogical conclusions in order to confirm our preexisting beliefs.

**Belief perseverance**

refers to our tendency to maintain a belief even after the evidence we used to form the belief is contradicted.

**Framing**

refers to the way a problem is presented.

**convergent thinking**

thinking pointed toward one solution,

**divergent thinking**

thinking that searches for multiple possible answers to a question.