Psych: chapter 8

components of memory: encoding (taking in a memory), storage (storing memory), retrieval (recalling memory)

automatic processing: familiar stimuli and their space (location and surroundings), time (when something happened), and frequency (# of times something has happened)

cognitive maps: mental representation of one’s environment, connected to learning and latent learning

effortful processing: requires attention → rehearsal, the spacing effect (spreading out info over time), maintenance rehearsal (simple repetition, ineffective), elaborative rehearsal (connect to existing knowledge, effective)

shallow processing: structural encoding (physical structure)

Intermediate processing: phonetic encoding (phonetic sounds)

Deep processing: semantic encoding (meaning)

Self-referent encoding: deciding how or whether the information is personally relevant

Combining visual imagery with meaning: easier to form images of concrete objects than abstract concepts which affect memory

Mnemonic devices: acronyms (SOH CAH TOA), acrostics (Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally), method of loci (associating items with places and memory palaces)

Serial position effects: primacy and recency, we can remember certain things more than others because of order

Primacy: tendency to recall stimuli introduced first

Recency: tendency to recall most recently introduced stimuli

Memory storage: sensory input → sensory register (forgetting) → short term memory + rehearsal (forgetting) → long-term memory (after 20 seconds)

sensory memory: preservation of memory in its original sensory for a fraction of a second, haptic (touch), echoic (sound), iconic (sight), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste)

short-term memory: working memory, lasts 20 seconds, small capacity (7 items, increased by chunking)

chunking: grouping familiar stimuli together

prospective memory: remembering to do something, a flaw of short term memory that makes this hard

Flashbulb memories: unusually vivid and detailed recollections of momentous events, long-term memories (LTM) permanence

Long-term memory: unlimited capacity, explicit/declarative and implicit, LTM

Explicit and declarative memory: long-term, hippocampus, general knowledge/semantic memory and personal events/episodic memory

Implicit memory: long-term, cerebellum, skills and procedures/procedural memories and conditioning

hierarchal theory of memory storage: memories are stored in superordinate (broad) and subordinate (narrow) categories

long-term potentiation: memories exist in neural connections, and repeatedly activating neurons strengthens their connections and improves memories, LTP

Memory trace: physical evidence of memory, eric Kandel’s sea slug study found that CREB and serotonin are linked to long-term memory

retrieval: getting information out of long-term memory, the measure of retrieval ability → recognition, recall

Context-dependent memory: Baddeley and Godden, memory is enhanced when we encode and retrieve info in the same place/context

State-dependent memory: encoding and retrieving in the same “state of mind“ and mood enhances memory

schemas: an organized cluster of knowledge about a particular object/event based on previous experience

Confirmation bias: Brewer and Treyens, people are more likely to remember things consistent with their schemas and expectations

Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon: evidence of memory stored but not retrieved, retrieval failure

Storage decay: memory loss over time, forgetting is initially rapid, but levels off with time (Herman Ebbinghaus)

Retroactive interference: new information interferes with the ability to retrieve old information, (ex: forgetting geometry because you’re learning calculus)

Proactive interference: old information interferes with the ability to retrieve new information (ex: having trouble with learning guitar chords because you still remember ukulele chords)

retrograde amnesia: trouble remembering the past, could result from a stroke

anterograde amnesia: difficulty making new memories and absorbing new information

Infantile amnesia: can’t remember events prior to age 3-4

Eyewitness memory: Elizabeth Loftus and the misinformation effect

the Misinformation effect: recall of episodic events changes after post-event information is presented, often caused by leading questions or framing

source amnesia: attributing an event to the wrong source

Metacognition: thinking about thinking, solving problems, and making decisions

Prototype: the visual mental image of a concept, speeds up thinking

algorithms: step-by-step procedures that lead to a solution

Heuristics: mental shortcuts used to make a quick decision

insight: a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem

confirmation bias: when solving problems and making judgments, we tend to search for information that confirms our beliefs instead of evidence that disproves them, can lead to belief perseverance, ex: the 2, 4, 6 experiment

convergent thinking: taking logical steps to find a single solution to a problem, might lead to fixation (inability to approach a problem from a new perspective)

divergent thinking: capacity to generate creative ideas by exploring multiple solutions

functional fixedness: tendency to only think of familiar functions for objects without thinking of alternative uses

representativeness heuristic: similarity to a prototype dictates a decision, leads to base rate fallacy (ignoring statistics)

The availability heuristic: basing judgments on information that is more readily available in our memory, explains the fear factor

Framing: cognition fallacies, the way something is proposed/framed can affect decisions and judgments

The sunk cost fallacy: the false belief that one is better off continuing to invest more resources (time, money, effort) in a cause that one has already invested in

The gambler’s fallacy: the tendency to assume that one is “due” success after previous failures

Risks: people avoid risks when seeking gains but take risks when avoiding loss

Overconfidence: cognition fallacy, the tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs and judgments, made worse by hindsight bias (“I knew it all along”)

Prelinguistic events: receptive language → babbling stage (phonemes) → one-word stage (morphemes) → two-word stage

Receptive language: 4 months, understanding but not speaking

Babbling stage: 4-12 months, sounding but not speaking words, using phonemes

Phonemes: smallest unit that makes a sound

One-word stage: 12-18 months, small words with few syllables, morphemes

Morphemes: smallest unit that carries meaning (word or prefix/suffix)

two-word stage: 2 years, a few words spoken, telegraphic speech

Wernickes area: understanding language

Broca’s area: producing language

Aphasia: impairment of language due to damage in either area

B.F. Skinner: language acquired by operant conditioning

Noam Chomsky: Inherent language device, universal grammar rules

Eric Lenneberg: critical period hypothesis, birth-puberty

Syntax: rules of grammar used in sentences, children often exhibit overregulation and overgeneralization of grammar rules, Noam Chomsky’s belief that our brains are wired for this

Surface vs deep: the actual words versus their meaning, transformation is essential and happens around age 3

Benjamin Whorf: language=thinking, linguistic determinism

Linguistic determinism: language can limit or enhance human knowledge and thought

Psychometrics: field in psychology devoted to testing, measurement, and assessment of personality and intelligence

Personality assessments: objective tests (ex: the big 5), projective tests (ex: Rorschach inkblot test)

Projective test: psychologists use them to analyze hidden emotions, attitudes, feelings, rorsarch ink blots, and thematic apperception tests

General intelligence: overall intelligence, those who score highly in certain areas (math) tend to score high in others (verbal), Charles Spearman

Savant Syndrome: contradicts general intelligence, an individual of overall limited intelligence has a single, exceptional ability

Phrenology: 1700s-1800s, bumps on the head reveal traits and intelligence

Alfred Binet: 1905, the first intelligence test to identify mentally deficient children in schools

Stanford-Binet test: Lewis Terman, 1916, first IQ test

The Flynn effect: IQ scores have increased from one generation to the next for all the countries for which data existed, the largest gains appear in fluid intelligence

Howard Gardner: critic of “traditional” notions of intelligence, believed in multiple intelligences (MI)

Robert Sternberg: multiple intelligence, analytical intelligence, practical intelligence, creative intelligence

Emotional intelligence: self awareness, empathy, motivation, self regulation, social skills