Unit 2: Memory & Intelligence
From AP Psychology Unit 2 - Cognition:
You’ll examine the complex nature of how memory, intelligence, and other mental processes impact human behavior.
What is Memory?
Memory is the basis for knowing your friends, neighbors, language, national anthem, and yourself. It is defined as the persistence of learning over time that is able to be recalled.
Types of Memory
Procedural memory - what you learn by doing
Soccer, volleyball, certain ways you do actions
Visual memory - what you experience
Everything you see in life; hurricane
Declarative/semantic - what you learn by studying/knowledge
How to remember: “Declaring” information; Semantics are words
Takes the most effort & repetition
Episodic memories - big events in our lives; our personal hisory
Some experiences are so dramatic and emotional, we develop “flashbulb” memories of them
It’s like a flash, sticks very intensely
Sometimes not accurate, can change over time
Memory exercise: Name the Seven Dwarfs - Sleepy, grumpy, droopy, grouchy, smiley, doc
Knowing the first five is recall, the 2nd step of giving a list of names is like multiple choice or matching.
Stages of Memory
Atkinson-Schiffrin (1968) Model
Sensory input
Working (short-term) memory
Long-term memory
Example of Atkinson-Shiffrin approach to an image
Three stores of memory
Events go into sensory memory. Then, the sensory memory is encoded into the working memory. Working memory is encoded into long-term memory.
Once you get events into long-term memory, there doesn’t seem to be any problem of storage capacity. Estimates on capacity range from 1000 billion to 1,000,000 billion bits of information
Problems with the Model
Some information skips the first two stages and enters long-term memory automatically—without us even knowing
We select information though attention that is important to us
The nature of short-term memory is more complex
Encoding and retaining
Automatic
route to school
what you ate for breakfast
space, time, frequency
Effortful
phone numbers
parts of the brain
nonsense syllables
Explicit and Implicit Memories
Eplicit memories are stored in a different location than implicit memories. Explicit memories are facts and experiences (episodic memory) you consciously know, whereas implicit memories are learning an action, like brushing your teeth (procedural memory), which goes into your cerebellum.
Effortful learning usually requires rehearsal or conscious repetition.
Primacy and Recency
The first and the last are always recalled
Also known as Serial positioning effect
Memory exercise: 12 days of Christmas
a partridge in a pear tree
2 turtle doves
3 french hens
4 dancing
5 golden rings
6 leaping lepoards
The repetition of the first five days makes them more memorable. The 12th day has no repetition in the song.
Memory exercise: Which presidents can you name?
John F Kennedy, George Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Garfield, Ulysses Grant, John Adams, Jimmy Carter, James Madison, Rutherford B Hayes, Teddy Roosevelt
Mnemonics
Techniques to help us remember things
Associations
Rhymes (ABCs)
“Peg” strategies
Jingles
Acronyms
Order
Method of loci (location
This method associates items with locations
charcoal — backyard
pens — office
bedsheet — bedroom
hammer — garage
Link Method
Form a mental image of items to be remembered that links them together
Chunking
We can remember more information if we organize it into meaningful units; block numbers/scenes together
Hierarchy
Breaking complex information into broad concepts, categories, and subcategories
Example of hierarchy and mapping
Some Important Terms
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)
Refers to synaptic enhancement after learning. An increase in neurotransmitter release or receptors on the receiving neuron indicates strengthening of synapses.
Researches want to find a synthetic way of inducing LTP
Heightened Emotions
Stress-related (or otherwise) events make for stronger memories
Continued Stress
May disrupt memory and learning
Relearning
The individual shows how much time (or effort) is saved when learning material for the second time
Second trial time takes much less the first time in order to learn the material
Retrieval
How do we retrieve memories?
Memories are held in storage by a web of associations. These associations are like anchors that help retrieve memory.
Why concept maps are so effective
Priming
To retrieve a specific memory from the web of associations, you must first activate on elf the strands that leads to it.
Think of synonyms or things that you’re familiar, in order to learn terms that are unfamiliar
Emotions and moods can serve as retrieval clues
Context
Where we learn material, we better recall it; cues, things we see, etc.
Scuba divers study - recall more words in the context they learned them
Déja Vu
Means “I’ve experienced this before.” Cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger a retrieval of an earlier similar experience.
Forgetting
Why do we forget things?
Storage Decay
First three years is the worst retention drop, then levels off
Retrieval failure
“Tip of the tongue”
Exists, but retrieval failure leads to forgetting
Anterograde/Retrograde
H.M. suffered anterograde amnesia. Could remember things before the surgery but could not form new memories
Brain injuries can lead to retrograde amnesia, where individual loses memories a period before the injury
Loftus’ research shows that if false memories (lost at the mall or drowned in a lake) are implanted in individuals, they construct (fabricate) their memories.
Intelligence
What are prominent views of intelligence?
Prominent Views of Intelligence
Charles Spearman
Believed that we have one general intelligence “g”
Helped develop factor analysis - found people who score high in one area (such as verbal) typically score higher than average in others
If you did well in one area of school, you likely did well in other areas; the opposite is true
L.L. Thurstone
Disagreed with Spearman; said that there was some level of general intelligence, but argued that you could succeed in some areas but not be as proficient in others
Focused on 7 primary mental abilities
Word Fluency
Verbal comprehension
Spatial ability
Perceptual speed
Numerical ability
Inductive reasoning
Memory
Howard Gardner (1945-present)
Believes people and be exceptional in different ways (savants)
Developed the theory of multiple intelligences
Robert Sternberg (1949-present)
Suffered from test anxiety as a child
Wanted to develop new ways to measure intelligence
Proposed a triarchic theory (3 intelligences)
Analytical - academic problem solving
Creative - generating novel ideas
Practical shrewd ability, street smarts
Strategies for solving problems
Trial and error - trying answers until you land on the correct answer
Algorithms - a way to guarantee solving a difficult problem (logic)
Heuristics - a way to solve problems using existing knowledge
easier to have bias
Insight - the sudden realization of a correct answer
less reliable
Heuristics
Heuristics are mental shortcuts in response to our environment
Representativeness heuristic
We categorize a situation, event, or person based on our experience with similar ones in the past - “you know what happens”
When you come to school to take a test and expect it to be bad, but the experience may or may not fit that expectations
Availability heuristic
We base our judgements on how mentally available information is
Not moving to Florida because of hurricanes and all the information on the news about hurricanes
Creativity
Creativity is a special kind of thinking. It’s not necessarily the same as intelligence. It requires divergent thinking. People who are creative tend to be able to analyze themselves well.
Metacognition: thinking about how we think
Unusual Activities test - paperclip
Group papers together
Use it as a tie for cords/cables
Use it as a metal conductor for electricity
use it as a scraper
use it to punch a hole in something
use it to reset a calculator
use it to build a mini Eiffel tower
Robert Steinberg identified five components of creativity
Expertise
Imaginative thinking skills
A venturesome personality
Intrinsic motivation
A creative environment
Flaws in thinking
Functional fixedness - think of ways it has always been used not outside of the box
Misusing heuristics - jump to conclusions
Overreliance on intuition - we assume we “think correctly”
Framing effects/anchoring - “how presented” changes how we look at events
Gambler’s fallacy - trying to find patterns for decisions
Sunk-cost fallacy - “I’ve already started”, I must finish this
Language
Characteristics shared by all languages
Semanticity - sounds have meaning
Arbitrariness - words not inherently related to what they represent
Flexibility - constantly being invented
Building blocks of all languages
Phonemes - separate sounds
Morphemes - smallest unit with meaning
Grammar - the rules
Semantics - rules to help derive meaning from words
Syntax - rules to put words in order
Later research has indicated critical periods in language acquisition.
Children who have not been exposed to a language before age 7 gradually lose the ability to master any language
Testing & Individual Differences
What is intelligence?
IQ test, integrity, critical thinking, problem-solving
During World War I, psychologist Lewis Terman helped the U.S. government develop tests to evaluate the intelligence of new immigrants and 1.7 million army recruits.
Testing
Reliability - means a test would yield consistent scores if re-used
Inter-rater: different researchers conduct the same measurement or observation on the same sample. Then you calculate the correlation between their different sets of results
“Test, re-test”: Seeing improvement on the same test after learning more
“Split-half”: each half of the test seems to yield similar scores - questions don’t get harder (except for informed cases of graduated tests)
Validity - means a test measures what it promises to measure
Content Validity: the content fits the test (essential and relevant questions)
Predictive Validity (Criterion-related validity): How well are you prepared to participate in the field being test. (”Will you be an expert in the area?”)
Alfred Binet
Hired to help schools objectively identify children who needed special help.
Assumed all children followed the same intellectual development - but at different speeds
Introduced the concept of the mental age
A 9-year-old with lower than average abilities might be assigned a mental age of 7
He did not believe he was measuring innate intelligence, but worried that some schools would believe so
Was afraid the tests he developed would be used to exclude some children from opportunity
Lewis Terman
Adapted the Binet test to try and measure inherited intelligence, becoming known as the Stanford-Binet intelligence test
William Stern then added the IQ equation
IQ = \frac{mental\;age}{chronological\;age} \cdot 100
Modern Intelligence Tests
Aptitude or capacity to learn v. Achievement or what has been learned
AP Tests
SAT - Aptitude
ACT - Aptitude
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - Achievement
Principles of Test Construction
Standardization - gives score which are comparable with similar people; “same” everything
Reliability
Validity
Normalization - bell shaped comparison of results
What do IQ scores below 100 mean?
<aside> 📈
Scores have been rising over time - called the Flynn Effect
</aside>
Fun facts about IQ
Correlates with school attendance
Not influenced by birth order
Is influenced by breast-feeding
Siblings’ IQ scores become more similar over time
Correlated with head size
Is predictive of future income
Can be influenced by what you eat
Heritability
If genetic factors are identical, any variation must be environmental. If all environmental factors are identical, any variation must be genetic.
Other Capacities of Intelligence
Crystallized Intelligence - accumulated knowledge, vocabulary, facts - increases as we age
Fluid Intelligence - ability to reason quickly and abstractly - decreases as we age
Important Questions
Can parents and schools teach skills to help children improve their intelligence?
Walter Mischel - marshmallow experiment
Resisting temptation age 4 had total SAT scores 200 points higher
Parents can teach self-discipline, one of the best predictors of academic success
How does culture impact intelligence?
Intelligence is culturally defined - WWI IQ test
Stereotype threat - existing cultural biases or fears about testing bias can become a self-fufilling prophesy
Unit 2: Memory & Intelligence
From AP Psychology Unit 2 - Cognition:
You’ll examine the complex nature of how memory, intelligence, and other mental processes impact human behavior.
What is Memory?
Memory is the basis for knowing your friends, neighbors, language, national anthem, and yourself. It is defined as the persistence of learning over time that is able to be recalled.
Types of Memory
Procedural memory - what you learn by doing
Soccer, volleyball, certain ways you do actions
Visual memory - what you experience
Everything you see in life; hurricane
Declarative/semantic - what you learn by studying/knowledge
How to remember: “Declaring” information; Semantics are words
Takes the most effort & repetition
Episodic memories - big events in our lives; our personal hisory
Some experiences are so dramatic and emotional, we develop “flashbulb” memories of them
It’s like a flash, sticks very intensely
Sometimes not accurate, can change over time
Memory exercise: Name the Seven Dwarfs - Sleepy, grumpy, droopy, grouchy, smiley, doc
Knowing the first five is recall, the 2nd step of giving a list of names is like multiple choice or matching.
Stages of Memory
Atkinson-Schiffrin (1968) Model
Sensory input
Working (short-term) memory
Long-term memory
Example of Atkinson-Shiffrin approach to an image
Three stores of memory
Events go into sensory memory. Then, the sensory memory is encoded into the working memory. Working memory is encoded into long-term memory.
Once you get events into long-term memory, there doesn’t seem to be any problem of storage capacity. Estimates on capacity range from 1000 billion to 1,000,000 billion bits of information
Problems with the Model
Some information skips the first two stages and enters long-term memory automatically—without us even knowing
We select information though attention that is important to us
The nature of short-term memory is more complex
Encoding and retaining
Automatic
route to school
what you ate for breakfast
space, time, frequency
Effortful
phone numbers
parts of the brain
nonsense syllables
Explicit and Implicit Memories
Eplicit memories are stored in a different location than implicit memories. Explicit memories are facts and experiences (episodic memory) you consciously know, whereas implicit memories are learning an action, like brushing your teeth (procedural memory), which goes into your cerebellum.
Effortful learning usually requires rehearsal or conscious repetition.
Primacy and Recency
The first and the last are always recalled
Also known as Serial positioning effect
Memory exercise: 12 days of Christmas
a partridge in a pear tree
2 turtle doves
3 french hens
4 dancing
5 golden rings
6 leaping lepoards
The repetition of the first five days makes them more memorable. The 12th day has no repetition in the song.
Memory exercise: Which presidents can you name?
John F Kennedy, George Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Garfield, Ulysses Grant, John Adams, Jimmy Carter, James Madison, Rutherford B Hayes, Teddy Roosevelt
Mnemonics
Techniques to help us remember things
Associations
Rhymes (ABCs)
“Peg” strategies
Jingles
Acronyms
Order
Method of loci (location
This method associates items with locations
charcoal — backyard
pens — office
bedsheet — bedroom
hammer — garage
Link Method
Form a mental image of items to be remembered that links them together
Chunking
We can remember more information if we organize it into meaningful units; block numbers/scenes together
Hierarchy
Breaking complex information into broad concepts, categories, and subcategories
Example of hierarchy and mapping
Some Important Terms
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)
Refers to synaptic enhancement after learning. An increase in neurotransmitter release or receptors on the receiving neuron indicates strengthening of synapses.
Researches want to find a synthetic way of inducing LTP
Heightened Emotions
Stress-related (or otherwise) events make for stronger memories
Continued Stress
May disrupt memory and learning
Relearning
The individual shows how much time (or effort) is saved when learning material for the second time
Second trial time takes much less the first time in order to learn the material
Retrieval
How do we retrieve memories?
Memories are held in storage by a web of associations. These associations are like anchors that help retrieve memory.
Why concept maps are so effective
Priming
To retrieve a specific memory from the web of associations, you must first activate on elf the strands that leads to it.
Think of synonyms or things that you’re familiar, in order to learn terms that are unfamiliar
Emotions and moods can serve as retrieval clues
Context
Where we learn material, we better recall it; cues, things we see, etc.
Scuba divers study - recall more words in the context they learned them
Déja Vu
Means “I’ve experienced this before.” Cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger a retrieval of an earlier similar experience.
Forgetting
Why do we forget things?
Storage Decay
First three years is the worst retention drop, then levels off
Retrieval failure
“Tip of the tongue”
Exists, but retrieval failure leads to forgetting
Anterograde/Retrograde
H.M. suffered anterograde amnesia. Could remember things before the surgery but could not form new memories
Brain injuries can lead to retrograde amnesia, where individual loses memories a period before the injury
Loftus’ research shows that if false memories (lost at the mall or drowned in a lake) are implanted in individuals, they construct (fabricate) their memories.
Intelligence
What are prominent views of intelligence?
Prominent Views of Intelligence
Charles Spearman
Believed that we have one general intelligence “g”
Helped develop factor analysis - found people who score high in one area (such as verbal) typically score higher than average in others
If you did well in one area of school, you likely did well in other areas; the opposite is true
L.L. Thurstone
Disagreed with Spearman; said that there was some level of general intelligence, but argued that you could succeed in some areas but not be as proficient in others
Focused on 7 primary mental abilities
Word Fluency
Verbal comprehension
Spatial ability
Perceptual speed
Numerical ability
Inductive reasoning
Memory
Howard Gardner (1945-present)
Believes people and be exceptional in different ways (savants)
Developed the theory of multiple intelligences
Robert Sternberg (1949-present)
Suffered from test anxiety as a child
Wanted to develop new ways to measure intelligence
Proposed a triarchic theory (3 intelligences)
Analytical - academic problem solving
Creative - generating novel ideas
Practical shrewd ability, street smarts
Strategies for solving problems
Trial and error - trying answers until you land on the correct answer
Algorithms - a way to guarantee solving a difficult problem (logic)
Heuristics - a way to solve problems using existing knowledge
easier to have bias
Insight - the sudden realization of a correct answer
less reliable
Heuristics
Heuristics are mental shortcuts in response to our environment
Representativeness heuristic
We categorize a situation, event, or person based on our experience with similar ones in the past - “you know what happens”
When you come to school to take a test and expect it to be bad, but the experience may or may not fit that expectations
Availability heuristic
We base our judgements on how mentally available information is
Not moving to Florida because of hurricanes and all the information on the news about hurricanes
Creativity
Creativity is a special kind of thinking. It’s not necessarily the same as intelligence. It requires divergent thinking. People who are creative tend to be able to analyze themselves well.
Metacognition: thinking about how we think
Unusual Activities test - paperclip
Group papers together
Use it as a tie for cords/cables
Use it as a metal conductor for electricity
use it as a scraper
use it to punch a hole in something
use it to reset a calculator
use it to build a mini Eiffel tower
Robert Steinberg identified five components of creativity
Expertise
Imaginative thinking skills
A venturesome personality
Intrinsic motivation
A creative environment
Flaws in thinking
Functional fixedness - think of ways it has always been used not outside of the box
Misusing heuristics - jump to conclusions
Overreliance on intuition - we assume we “think correctly”
Framing effects/anchoring - “how presented” changes how we look at events
Gambler’s fallacy - trying to find patterns for decisions
Sunk-cost fallacy - “I’ve already started”, I must finish this
Language
Characteristics shared by all languages
Semanticity - sounds have meaning
Arbitrariness - words not inherently related to what they represent
Flexibility - constantly being invented
Building blocks of all languages
Phonemes - separate sounds
Morphemes - smallest unit with meaning
Grammar - the rules
Semantics - rules to help derive meaning from words
Syntax - rules to put words in order
Later research has indicated critical periods in language acquisition.
Children who have not been exposed to a language before age 7 gradually lose the ability to master any language
Testing & Individual Differences
What is intelligence?
IQ test, integrity, critical thinking, problem-solving
During World War I, psychologist Lewis Terman helped the U.S. government develop tests to evaluate the intelligence of new immigrants and 1.7 million army recruits.
Testing
Reliability - means a test would yield consistent scores if re-used
Inter-rater: different researchers conduct the same measurement or observation on the same sample. Then you calculate the correlation between their different sets of results
“Test, re-test”: Seeing improvement on the same test after learning more
“Split-half”: each half of the test seems to yield similar scores - questions don’t get harder (except for informed cases of graduated tests)
Validity - means a test measures what it promises to measure
Content Validity: the content fits the test (essential and relevant questions)
Predictive Validity (Criterion-related validity): How well are you prepared to participate in the field being test. (”Will you be an expert in the area?”)
Alfred Binet
Hired to help schools objectively identify children who needed special help.
Assumed all children followed the same intellectual development - but at different speeds
Introduced the concept of the mental age
A 9-year-old with lower than average abilities might be assigned a mental age of 7
He did not believe he was measuring innate intelligence, but worried that some schools would believe so
Was afraid the tests he developed would be used to exclude some children from opportunity
Lewis Terman
Adapted the Binet test to try and measure inherited intelligence, becoming known as the Stanford-Binet intelligence test
William Stern then added the IQ equation
IQ = \frac{mental\;age}{chronological\;age} \cdot 100
Modern Intelligence Tests
Aptitude or capacity to learn v. Achievement or what has been learned
AP Tests
SAT - Aptitude
ACT - Aptitude
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - Achievement
Principles of Test Construction
Standardization - gives score which are comparable with similar people; “same” everything
Reliability
Validity
Normalization - bell shaped comparison of results
What do IQ scores below 100 mean?
<aside> 📈
Scores have been rising over time - called the Flynn Effect
</aside>
Fun facts about IQ
Correlates with school attendance
Not influenced by birth order
Is influenced by breast-feeding
Siblings’ IQ scores become more similar over time
Correlated with head size
Is predictive of future income
Can be influenced by what you eat
Heritability
If genetic factors are identical, any variation must be environmental. If all environmental factors are identical, any variation must be genetic.
Other Capacities of Intelligence
Crystallized Intelligence - accumulated knowledge, vocabulary, facts - increases as we age
Fluid Intelligence - ability to reason quickly and abstractly - decreases as we age
Important Questions
Can parents and schools teach skills to help children improve their intelligence?
Walter Mischel - marshmallow experiment
Resisting temptation age 4 had total SAT scores 200 points higher
Parents can teach self-discipline, one of the best predictors of academic success
How does culture impact intelligence?
Intelligence is culturally defined - WWI IQ test
Stereotype threat - existing cultural biases or fears about testing bias can become a self-fufilling prophesy
