CLoA Review, #4-7 (Memory & Emotion/Culture, Decision Making Models/Biases)

Cognition

The mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Schema

A mental framework (or category) by which we interpret incoming sensory information -- interconnected thoughts/memories/concepts related to -- helps guide our subsequent behavior(s)

Schema theory

Idea that all our stored information/memory is organized in categories, which provide explanatory "guidelines" for how we interpret all incoming new information -- and those categories themselves are sometimes modified BY incoming new information

Memory

The persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information that has previously been encoded

Encoding

the inital getting of information into the brain

Storage

the retention of information over time

Retrieval

the ability to take information back out of storage

Cole & Scribner (1974)

Three subject groups -- students in a U.S. school, students in a Liberian school, and unschooled/illiterate children from the Kpelle tribe in Liberia -- each group given word/object lists organized into categories (words and categories were relevant to their cultures) -- on free recall, both student groups did equally well, while unschooled tribal children did worse -- on the story-based part, tribal children did equally well -- shows that memory is heavily influenced by culture, ways of remembering are culturally bound

Emotion

Something that moves a person in response to an external stimulus -- results in behavior

Theory of appraisal

Idea that we initially cognitively consider a stimuli, THEN our body responds - based on how we THINK about it -- so, what we call "emotion" has both a cognitive, and a biological, component

Flashbulb memory

A vivid, detailed memory of an event that seems particularly resistant to forgetting -- controversial, as not all agree that FBM's are a separate, distinct "category" of memory

Neisser & Harsch (1992)

Challenged Brown & Kulik's theory with their "Challenger Disaster Study" -- researchers gave a questionnaire to individuals immediately after the event, and then three years later -- found that individuals' accounts had changed considerably --

yet they felt very confident their memory was accurate -- concludes that confidence in no way correlates with accuracy of a memory -- and so challenges the idea that FBM's are more accurate than "regular" memories

Thinking

Changing and reorganizing the information stored in memory to create new information

Decision-making

Cognitive process by which we select one of the possible beliefs or actions available

Damasio, et al (1997)

Participants, some with healthy brains and some with damaged ventromedial prefrontal cortices, asked to play a gambling game -- healthy-brained people more likely to make choices that slowly built up "money" over time, while damaged-brained people kept making "high risk" choices that promised big rewards yet more typically led to big losses -- researchers concluded VPC damage correlates with more impulsive, quick, instinctual decision-making -- supports Dual-Processing model of decision-making

Dual Processing model

The idea that two modes of thinking (two systems) exist within the human mind -- one that allows for quick, subconscious, intuitive, emotional responses, and another that allows for conscious, controlled, logical reasoning

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts or "rules of thumb" that often lead to a solution (but not always) -- part of the Dual Processing model of decision making

Algorithms

A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem accurately -- part of the Dual Processing model of decision making

Cognitive biases

Errors in memory or judgment that are caused by the inappropriate use of cognitive processes -- e.g. confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance

Confirmation bias

The tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions, and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence -- an example of a cognitive bias

Cognitive dissonance

Unpleasant mental experience of tension resulting from two conflicting thoughts or beliefs -- we seek to resolve the tension by changing one or the other -- an example of a cognitive bias

Freedman and Fraser (1966)

Aimed to study cognitive dissonance -- One group of participants was asked to sign a petition on the issue of safe driving; other group, not asked -- Two weeks later, both groups asked to put a big sign on their front lawn reading, "Drive Carefully" -- Fewer than 20% of the group that had not signed the petition agreed to post the sign -- Over 55% of those who had signed agreed -- Shows that once a behavior is demonstrated, a behavior-belief discrepancy may occur -- And shows that to avoid this dissonance, subjects tried to adjust their initial beliefs

Wason (1960)

Participants asked to identify a rule that explained a sequence of three numbers -- once participants had done so, they stopped considering other possible explanations or asking further questions -- researchers concluded that people don't try to TEST/CHALLENGE their beliefs, but rather to confirm them, due to not wanting to be wrong (and/or being cognitively lazy)