Cognition

Memory - an indication that learning has persisted over a period of time through the storage and retrieval of

Recognition - Given possible answers and you have to select the correct one

Recall - you must generate possible solutions and then identify correct answers

information

Encoding - getting info to the brain

Automatic (processing) encoding – requires no effort (what did you have for breakfast?)

Effortful (processing) encoding – requires attention (school work)

Self-referent encoding – we better remember what we’re interested in (you’d remember someone’s phone number who you found extremely attractive)

Storage - retain the information

Retrieval - getting info back out of the brain

Encoding failure - we don’t encode everything, we only encode the important things to us (Ex: don’t encode a penny’s features)

Flashbulb memories - Emotionally significant memories (people remember what they were doing when 9/11)

Three Box/Information processing model:

Sensory memory - immediate recording of info in the memory system; split-second holding tank for incoming information; most sensory information is not encoded

Iconic memory (eye-conic) - fleeting photographic memory

Echoic memory (echo-ic) - fleeting auditory memory

Short-term memory (storage) - memory that holds only a small amount of info; limited capacity; temporary storage

George Miller The magic number seven- Capacity in short-term memory is limited to around seven items (plus or minus two)

Capacity could be increased through mnemonics, chunking, and rehearsal

Long-Term Memories - “Permanent” storage but memories can fade

Explicit memory (aka declarative) - conscious recall (ex. you consciously have to remember math equations)

Implicit memory (aka non-declarative) - without conscious recall; unlimited capacity (ex. you can sing the lyrics to a song w/o thinking)

Episodic Memory (explicit) – the memory of specific events, stored in a sequential series. Ex. – 1st date

Semantic Memory (explicit) – General knowledge, facts, and meaning, stored in categories Ex. Who was the President during WW2

Procedural Memory (implicit) – Memory of how to perform skills, stored in sequential series. Ex. How to ride a bike. Similar to muscle memory.

Levels of Processing model - Memories are not short or long-term; rather they are either deeply or shallowly processed; we remember things that we spend more time cognitively processing (aka Elaborative Rehearsal)

Retrospective memory - remembering things that you have done in the past

Prospective memory - remembering what you are supposed to do (ex: filling out a college application)

Types of Encoding

Visual encoding - the encoding of picture images

Imagery - mental pictures

Eidetic (photographic) memory - powerful memory of visual images

Acoustic encoding - the encoding of sound

Semantic encoding- the encoding of meaning

Mnemonic devices - memory aids, especially if imagery and organization is involved

Method of Loci- picturing items or words at certain locations in a familiar place

Chunking - mnemonic device, divide items or numbers into chunks

Spacing effect - we retain info better when rehearsal is distributed over a period of time

Cramming =massed practice; low number of sessions, long sessions

Tip of the tongue phenomenon - trying to remember a person’s name (already in LTM) by listing things about their appearance/personality or going through the alphabet

Peg-word system - an object or image is visualized which holds or 'pegs' the information that needs to be recalled and makes it easier to remember; one bun, two shoe, three tree

Smell - sense that is strongest/most associated with memory, olfactory nerves are connected to the hippocampus (part of brain used to form new memories).

Serial position effect - The tendency to be more/less likely to recall items/names/events etc based on the position of when they fall.

Primacy effect - tendency to recall first item

Recency effect - tendency to recall last item

Déjà vu (already seen) – cues (associations) from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience

Priming - the activation of particular associations in memory

Mood-congruent memory - when depressed, more likely to remember memories when you were sad AND more likely to perceive previous memories with negative emotions

State-dependent memory - recalling events encoded while in a particular state of consciousness

Ex: intoxication, drunk, caffeine

Context-dependent memory - the more closely retrieval cues (the sights, smells, etc) match the external environment (the context) in which the encoding of the memory took place the greater the chance of recalling the information

Retrieval failure

Proactive interference - old (interferes) information keeps you from recalling information learned more recently

Retroactive interference - new (interferes) information keeps you from recalling old information

Mnemonic: PORN

Proactive Interference = Past interference

Retroactive Interference = Recent interference

Storage decay

Ebbinghaus Forgetting curve → forget info rapidly if we don’t recall

Neuroscience- Hippocampus

Damage to the left hippocampus – trouble remembering verbal information\

Damage to the right hippocampus – trouble recalling visual images and locations

Amnesia - the loss of memory

Anterograde amnesia – inability to encode new memories, caused by damage to the hippocampus

Retrograde Amnesia - inability to recall past events/ memories

Infantile Amnesia- inability to recall anything before the age of 3

Long-term potentiation - neurons strengthen connections between each other through repeated firing. This is association with the formation of memories

Constructive memories - memories and recollections of events, memories are distorted by adding or changing details; feel like accurate memories

Misinformation effect - incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event

Elizabeth Loftus and the misinformation effect - showed people a film of a traffic accident and then asked “How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” or “How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”

Source amnesia - attributing the wrong source to an event we have experienced

Memory storage

Acetylcholine neurons in the hippocampus for most memories

Cerebellum for procedural memories

Repressed memories - unconsciously buried memories – are unreliable

Encoding specificity principle - the more closely retrieval cues match the way we learned the info, the better we remember the info (like state dependent memory)

Alzheimer's Disease - caused by destruction of acetylcholine in hippocampus

Inductive reasoning - data-driven decisions, specific to general

Deductive reasoning - driven by logic, general to specific

Storage - the retention of encoded information over time

Elaborative rehearsal - A memory technique that involves thinking about the meaning of the term to be remembered, as opposed to simply repeating the word to yourself over and over.

Maintenance rehearsal - practice of saying some information to be remembered over and over in one's head in order to maintain it in short-term memory

THINKING

Cognition - all mental activities that are associated with processing, knowing, remembering, understanding, and communicating

Metacognition - thinking about one’s thinking

Concepts - mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, and people; you can form concepts through prototypes

Prototypes - a mental image or best example of a category

Insight - a sudden realization to the solutions of a problem

Fixation - the inability to see a problem from a new perspective

Functional fixedness - the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions (not thinking about using your jacket as a pillow)

Algorithm - the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; often takes a lot of time but 100% works.

Heuristic – a simple thinking strategy (rule of thumb, shortcut) that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently. Heuristics are speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms

Representativeness heuristic – judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to match particular prototypes (A person that you meet is short, slim and likes to read poetry - prob a harvard student)

Availability heuristic – we base our judgments on the availability of information in our memories. We assume information and experiences that are readily available in our minds are common.

Confirmation bias - tendency to search for information that confirms our preconceptions

Framing - the way an issue is posed; framing can greatly affect our decisions →

and judgments

Belief bias - tendency to evaluate arguments based on whether they align with one's pre-existing beliefs, rather than on the logic or evidence presented

Belief perseverance - tendency to maintain one's beliefs even in the face of contradictory evidence

Ethnocentrism - belief that one’s culture (sometimes included in race or national heritage) is superior to others

Mental set (rigidity) - tendency for people to fall into established thought patterns or ways of solving problems using methods that have worked in the past (a child pushes all doors thinking they will open after he pushed a “push door”; sticks to pushing rather than pulling the doors)

False consensus effect - tendency for people to overestimate the number of people who share their beliefs and values

Divergent thinking - ability to think about many different things at once (creative)

Convergent thinking - limits creativity – one answer

Language

Phonemes - the smallest, distinctive sound unit in spoken language w/o meaning

Ex: A/a/b/k/d

Morpheme – the smallest unit in language that carries meaning; maybe a word or

part of a word (pre-)

Grammar - rules that enable communication

Syntax (Surface structure) – the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.

Semantics (Deep Structure) – set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes/words/sentences

Children’s language development moves from simple to complex

Babbling stage (4 months) - infants spontaneously utter sounds

One-word stage (1 year) - “juice” means I am thirsty)

Two-word stage (2 years) - combination of a verb and a noun “no milk”

Telegraphic speech - two-word sentences that contain the most necessary words “Mommy speak”

Deep and Surface Structure (Chomsky)

According to Chomsky, every sentence in a language has both a deep structure and a surface structure. The deep structure is the underlying structure of a sentence that reflects its meaning, while the surface structure is the actual form of the sentence that is produced by the speaker or writer.

BF Skinner - operant learning (children learn to speak through imitation, association, and reinforcement)

Imitation – saying words as mom and dad say them

Association – associating sound with pictures

Reinforcement – hugs, smiles, high fives

Noam Chomsky – language is almost entirely inborn, children are “prewired” to learn language

Children acquire untaught words and grammar rules quickly

Critical period - a period of time where something must be learned or else it cannot ever happen (language must be learned young – Genie the Wild Child did not learn until age 13)

Evidence to support Chomsky

Ex. – incorrectly adding –ed (Cindy hitted me)

Overgeneralization (overregularization) – the misapplication of grammar rules

Children have a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) that allows them to extract the basic rules of grammar. (aka language acquisition or the nativist theory)

Linguistic determinism hypothesis (aka linguistic relativity hypothesis) – Benjamin Whorf theorized that language can control or limit our thinking