Unit 2: Cognition

Study Guide for Unit Test

Memory

Encoding, storage, retrieval

Explicit (declarative) and Implicit (procedural) memory

Semantic versus episodic memory

• Episodic: memory for events in one's life

• Semantic: memory for facts and general knowledge

Flashbulb memory - clear memory of emotionally significant moment or event

Biological processes & memory: Long-term potentiation, brain structures (hippocampus, cerebellum, amygdala, basal ganglia)

• LTP: a persistent strengthening of synapses based on patterns of activity

Working memory: central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad

• CE - coordinates processing of memory through the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad

• Phonological loop - holds auditory memory in short-term memory

• Visuospatial sketchpad - holds memory about appearance and location

Multi-store memory: sensory (iconic versus echoic), short-term (7 plus or minus 2), working, long-term

• Sensory:

  • Iconic - sight (less than 1 sec)

  • Echoic - sound (3-4 sec)

Deep versus shallow processing

• Deep - processing words through their meaning

• Shallow - processing words by shape and general appearance

Mnemonic devices, chunking, hierarchies, spacing effect

• Mnemonic devices - creating associations between hard-to-remember information and easy-to-remember information (ROYGBIV, PEMDAS)

• Chunking - taking individual elements of a large list and grouping them together into elements with related meaning (phone numbers grouped into 3 or 4)

• Hierarchies - organization of information through subdividing

• Spacing effect - humans more easily remember items when they are spaced out over a long period of time as opposed to studied in a short period of time

Serial positioning (recency versus primacy)

• Recency - remembering best the last items in a list initially

• Primacy - remembering best the first items in a list after a delay

Amnesia (retrograde versus anterograde)

• Retrograde amnesia - inability to remember anything that occurred before a certain time

• Anterograde amnesia - inability to form new memories

• Certain memories are easier to retrieve when in a similar context or a certain mood

Types of interference (proactive vs. retroactive)

• Proactive - occurs when old information or knowledge interferes with the learning of new information

• Retroactive - occurs when newly acquired information inhibits our ability to recall previously acquired information

Misinformation effect - the tendency for the information you learned after an event to interfere with your original memory of what happened

Intelligence

General abilities theories (Spearman, CHC)

• Spearman - G and S factors, G is general S is specific

• CHC - fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence

Multiple abilities theories (Sternberg, Gardner)

• Sternberg - analytical, practical, creative

• Gardner - 8 different intelligences

Intelligence quotient (IQ), Mental age

Intelligence tests - WAIS, Weschler, Stanford-Binet

Psychometric principles - standardization, reliability, validity, factor analysis, Flynn effect

Socioculturally responsive tests, stereotype threat, sociocultural biases

Fixed versus Growth mindset

• Fixed mindset - believing intelligence is biologically set unchanging

• Growth mindset - believing intelligence is changeable

Perception

Bottom-up versus Top-down processing

• Bottom-up processing - done through external sensory system

• Top-down processing - done through interpretation, based on prior contexts, experiences, expectations

Internal factors influencing perception (schema & perceptual set)

External factors influencing perception (contexts, experiences, expectations)

Gestalt principles (closure, figure-ground, proximity & similarity)

Attention - inattentional blindness, change blindness

Binocular versus monocular depth cues (see handout from class)

Motion perception - stroboscopic movement, phi phenomenon, autokinetic effect

Visual perceptual constancies & apparent movement

Thinking/Problem-solving

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

Prototypes - a representation of the best image or example of a broad category

Heuristics - any approach to problem solving

• Representativeness - when you judge something based on how they match your prototype / stereotypes

• Availability - judging the likelihood of an event based on how easily examples or instances come to mind

Decision-making (mental set, priming, framing)

• Mental set - fixating only on solutions that have worked in the past

• Priming - exposure to one stimulus influences a response to a subsequent stimulus, unconsiously (automatic processing)

• Framing - the way that a problem is presented to someone, and it can drastically change that person's view or reaction to the problem

Gambler’s fallacy & Sunk-cost fallacy

• Gambler's fallacy - the belief that the chances of something happening with a fixed probability become higher or lower as the process is repeated

• Sunk-cost fallacy - the idea that one is obligated go through with something or continue one's investment even if it is hopeless or detrimental to oneself

Divergent versus convergent thinking

• Divergent thinking - "thinking outside of the box," and tends to involve the free-flow of concepts and spontaneous ideas

• Convergent thinking - the process of finding a single best solution

Science Practices

Experimental Methods

Independent & dependent variables, confounding variables

Random assignment

Operational definitions

Sample population

Generalizability

Control group & experimental group

Ethical Procedures

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

Informed consent

Protection from harm

Debriefing

Memory

Info

Cognition - All mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, communicating

• Cognitive Revolution - 1960s-1970s after Behaviorism's reign in psychology

• Famous influential figures - Ulric Neirsser, Noam Chomsky, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, George Miller, Hermann Ebbinghaus, Elizabeth Loftus

Memory - Learning that persists over time; information that has been acquired and stored and retrieved

Retention measures:

• Recall - retrieving information learned at an earlier time (fill-in-a-blank test)

• Recognition - identifying items already learned (multiple choice test)

• Relearning - assesses the amount of time saved when learning material again; revisit

Memory Models

Information-processing Model (memory processes)

• Encoding - get info into brain

• Storage - retain information

• Retrieval - later get the information out of storage

Multi-store Model (types of memory)

• Sensory memory - immediate/brief recording of sensory info

  • Iconic v Echoic

• Short-term memory - briefly activated memory of a few items later stored or forgotten

• Long-term memory - relatively permanent/limitless archive of knowledge, skills, experience

Working Memory

Processing of both incoming sensory info and retrieved info from long-term memory

• Stage where short-term and long-term memories combine

• Conscious active "scratch pad"

• Brain actively processes important info by linking our new experiences with

Three components of Working memory

• Central Executive - coordinates the focused processing & activities of phonological loop & visuospatial sketchpad

• Phonological loop - holds auditory info in short term memory

• Visuospatial sketchpad - briefly holds info about objects’ appearance & location in space

Information-processing Model

Encoding

Getting information into the brain

Effortful v Automatic processing

• Effortful processing - requires attention & conscious effort

  • Chunking - organizing items into familiar, manageable units

  • Mnemonics - memory aids, techniques that use vivid imagery and organization

  • Hierarchies - organizing information, grouped into categories, outlines, etc

  • Spacing effect - tendency for distributed study/practice to yield better long-term retention than through massed study/practice

• Automatic processing - unconscious encoding or incidental info & familiar/well-learned content like sounds, smells, meanings

  • EX: Classical conditioning, learning locations, things about people and their personality

Explicit (declarative) v Implicit (procedural) memories

• Explicit/declarative - facts/experiences consciously known & declared

  • Usually through effortful processing

  • EX: vocab definitions

• Implicit/procedural - learned skills/conditioned associations, not conscious recalled

  • Usually through automatic processing

  • EX: skills like playing instruments or sports

Iconic v Echoic memories

• Iconic - momentary sensory visual memory, picture/image, <1 second

• Echoic - momentary sensory auditory memory, sounds/words, <3-4 seconds

Shallow v Deep processing

• Shallow - encoding on a basic level, based on structure/appearance of words

• Deep - encoding on semantics, based on the meaning of words (better!)

Storage (& Biology)

Retaining the information

Explicit (declarative) memories - facts you can recite

• Conscious recall (effortful processing)

• Semantic v episodic

  • Semantic - facts & general knowledge

  • Episodic - personal experiences

• Hippocampus & frontal lobes

  • Long-term memory consolidation moves into the cortex

Implicit (procedural) memories - skills you know

• Without conscious recall (automatic processing)

• Conditioning & motor skills

• Cerebellum - forming & storing memory for classical conditioning

• Basal ganglia - motor movement memory for skill development

Other terms

Biology & emotions - excitement/stress trigger hormones to signal the brain

Amygdala - emotion-processing area of limbic system

Flashbulb memories - mental snapshot of exciting or shocking or emotional events

Long-term potentiation - increase in a nerve cell's firing potential after a brief, rapid stimulation; this is a neural basis for learning and memory

Retrieval

Context-dependent memory / state-dependent memory - What we learn in onee state may be more easily recalled when we are again in that state

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 items in a list initially (recency effect) and the first items in a list after a delay (primary effect)

Forgetting

Encoding failure

Storage failure

• Amnesia

  • Retrograde - inability to remember anything that occurred before a certain time

  • Anterograde - inability to form new memories

• Source amnesia

Retrieval failure

• Interference

  • Pro-active

  • Retro-active

Memory construction errors

• Reconsolidation -

• Misinformation effects -

Intelligence

Defining intelligence

• Culturally specific construct

• Difficult to measure

• Can have bias

Theories of Intelligence

General Ability theories

Charles Spearman

• Focuses on correlations between cognitive tasks

  • General (core) intelligence - ability that influences performances across all cognitive tasks

    • “G” factor is a predictor of important life outcomes: education, employment, etc

  • Specific ability - skills that are unique to a specific task

    • “S” factor can be too specific to tasks and cannot be applied to broader

Cattell-Horn-Carroll

• Model of human cognitive abilities denoted by G-code

• Subject to cultural biases

  • Fluid intelligence - ability to solve new problems, use logic in new situations, identify patterns

  • Crystallized intelligence - ability to use learned knowledge and experience

Multiple Ability theories

Sternberg’s Three Intelligences

• Analytical - providing a clear problem with one correct answer

• Creative - ability to adapt to new situations and make new ideas

• Practical - demonstrated in everyday tasks that may be unclear and have multiple answers

Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

• Background in teaching children

  • Allows for personalized education, rather than standardized testing

• Disregards correlations between the different categories

• 8 different intelligences

  • Linguistic - capacity to use language to express your thoughts and understand people

  • Logical-mathematical - above average logical-mathematical skills

  • Spatial - capacity to represent spatial world; painters, sculptors, architects

  • Bodily-kinesthetic - using body parts to create/solve something; athletes, dancers

  • Music - heightened ability to hear, recognize, and remember patterns

  • Interpersonal - ability to detect others’ moods, intentions, and desires

  • Intrapersonal - enables people to anticipate how they would react to experiences and choose experiences that may be beneficial

  • Naturalist - heightened ability to classify plants, minerals, animals, and rocks

Emotional Intelligence

• How emotional information can be used to navigate social situations

  • Predicts academic success, social and work relations, positive intimate relationships, and emotional health

• Mayers’ Four Branch Model

  • Perceive: identify emotions in facial expressions, art, music, etc

  • Understanding: Distinguishing related emotions like like and love, and understanding how some emotions are likely to lead to another, such as feeling angry can lead to feeling shame

  • Managing: Staying open to feeling both positive and negative emotions, while still being able to detach and monitor one’s own emotions, and regulating others’ emotions

  • Using: Using certain emotional states, such as happiness or contentment, to facilitate better, more productive thinking

History of Assessing Intelligence

Eugenics

• Francis Galton

• Measuring how human traits are passed down, weeding out of “lesser” intelligence

  • Discrimination embedded in the theory

• Inspired by Charles Darwin’s theory on natural selection and survival of the fittest

• “Inheritance of genius”

• Began assessment of intelligence

Lewis Terman, William Stern, IQ

• William Stern

  • Found that each student develops at different rates (mental age)

  • Athletic, memory, and vocabulary skills

• Lewis Terman

  • Adapting Stanford-Binet scale

• IQ

Alfred Binet & Mental Age, Stanford-Binet

Weschler & WAIS

• People 16 or older / Children

• Verbal and performance subtests

  • Perceptual organization, working memory, verbal comprehension, and processing speed

  • Similarities, vocabulary, block design, letter-number sequencing

Modern Assessment of Intelligence

Psychometrics - field of study that focuses on psychological development

• Validity - assess whether test results are accurate

• Reliability - consistency of test results across different populations

• EX: SAT, personality tests, IQ test

Standardization - setting clear standards and consistent ways to give and score tests

• Representative sample, uniform testing procedures

Defining normal curve - statistical idea of measuring human characteristics and intelligence and ability

Factor analysis - method used for psychology to figure out relationships between variables, used for more abstract concepts such as intelligence

• EX: MBTI, Enneagram

Flynn effect - phenomenon that determined the average IQ of humans steadily increases over time

• Increases 0.33 points per year, or 3.3 points per decade

Sociocultural factors & bias - factors that influence a person's behavior, attitude, and overall expectations due to what culture they grew up in

• Race, gender, socioeconomic status, etc.

• Confirmation bias, cultural bias, implicit bias, stereotype bias

• Affects how certain groups percieve and interact with one another and how they score on intelligence tests

Perception

Perception - the impression we make about the world around us, based on the info processed from the senses

• Sensations: vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch

Internal factors influencing perception

• schema - cognitive framework that helps organize and interpret information

• perceptual sets - a predisposition that influences you to perceive and might keep you from seeing something else

Top-down processing (interpretation) - relies on internal prior expectations, involves experiences, expectations, and motives to fill in the gaps and complete a perception

External factors influencing perception

• contexts

• experiences

• expectations

Bottom-up processing (sensory system) - relies on external sensory info

Attention

• Selective attention - the act of focusing on a particular object, while simultaneously ignoring distractions and irrelevant info; brain's

  • Cocktail party effect - ability to focus on one person's voice/story, while engaged in conversation

• Change blindness / Inattentional blindness - phenomenon that happens when we don't notice change that happens right in front of you; failing to see fully visible but unexpected stimuli

Rules of perceptual organization

Gestalt principles - German for "whole,” emphasizing our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes

• In perception, the whole may exceed the sum of its parts

• Helps us with both form perception and depth perception

Figure-ground - one way humans perceive images, by separating it into objects (figures) that stand out from their surroundings (ground)

Grouping -

• Closure - tendency to see whole pictures, even though there are gaps

• Proximity - tendency to group nearby figures together

• Similarity - tendency to group objects according to how similar they are

Depth perception & visual cliff

Binocular depth cues - ability to perceive depth, depending on the use of BOTH eyes

• Retinal disparity

• Convergence

Monocular depth cues - available to either eye alone

• Relative clarity

• Relative size

• Texture gradient

• Linear perspective

• Interposition

Motion perception - provides info about object movement

• Stroboscopic Movement - rapid projection of slightly changing pictures

• Phi Phenomenon - an optical illusion that causes one to see several still images in a series as moving

• Autokinetic Effect - a visual phenomenon where a stationary light in a dark room appears to move

Visual perceptual constancy - the ability of an observer to perceive familiar objects as unchanging even when observed from various angles, distances, and/or lighting

• Shape

• Size

• Brightness

• Color

Apparent movement - perceiving movement of a still object