Cognitive Psychology

Memory

Long-term memory - the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system

• knowledge, skills, & experiences
• Working memory - conscious, active processing of incoming sensory info & similar info in long-term memory

Short-term Memory - activated memory that holds a few items briefly

• 7-digit numbers while dialing but is shortly forgotten

Explicit memory - facts & experiences that we can consciously know and describe

• remember dates in history

Implicit memory - information that skips encoding and goes straight to storage

• knowing how to play an instrument

Iconic memory - a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli

• quick flash of letters and you can still remember them

Echoic memory - a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli

• knowing a song based on the first few seconds

Flashbulb memory - a clear memory of emotionally significant moment/event

• Where you were when a celebrity died

Locus of Control (Fate)

Internal locus of control - the perception that you control your own fate

External locus of control - the perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate

Often produces learned helplessness - the hopelessness and passive resignation someone learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events

• giving up trying to escape

Motivation

Intrinsic motivation - a desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake

• Playing music because you like it

Extrinsic motivation - a desire to perform a behavior to reduce promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment

• Getting good grades b/c your parents will pay you for them

Concepts & Creativity

Concept - mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, and people; concepts simplify our thinking and we do this without realizing it

• ex. chair could mean baby chair, dentist chair, etc

Prototype - our example of the best representation of a concept

• ex. an eagle for most people is a better prototype of a bird than an ostrich

5 components of Creativity:

1. Expertise - a well-developed base of knowledge in a particular area
2. Imaginative thinking - the ability to see things in new ways and not get locked in one way of thinking
3. Adventurous personality - a willingness to try new solutions and take risks
4. Intrinsic motivation - highly creative people get satisfaction from the process of creating without the need for reward
5. Creative environment - surrounding yourself with people who can support your efforts and whose ideas you can build on

Thinking

Convergent thinking - narrowing down the possible solutions to a problem until a single correct answer is found

• ex. scientific experiments

Divergent thinking - expanding the number of possible different solutions to a problem (more creative)

• ex. wondering how many different ways you can use a fork

Heuristics

Algorithm - a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

Heuristic - a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently (faster but more inaccurate than algorithms)

Mental set - a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past (can get stuck on one particular approach)

Representativeness heuristic - judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information (snap judgments about how well something fits a concept)

Availability heuristic - estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common (overestimating the likelihood of events)

• ex. scared to go on a plane because of potential crashes even though cars have more accidents

Confirmation bias - a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

Belief perseverance - holding onto a certain belief even after proven false

Intuition - an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning

Language

Phoneme - the smallest distinct sound units in a language

Morpheme - the smallest units that have meaning in a language

Grammar - the system of rules in a language that facilitates communication

Acquisition

Babbling stage - ~4 months, uttering sounds unrelated to home language

One-word stage - ~1 year use inflection and tone to get across the meaning

Two-word stage - ~2 years

• Telegraphic speech - simple two-word phrases (noun + verb)

Biology & Cognition

Broca’s Area - controls language expression/production—an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech

Wernicke’s Area - controls language reception/comprehension—a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe

Linguistic determinism - Whorf’s hypothesis that our internal thoughts and dialogue are solely based on language

Outcome simulation - has been shown to have a small positive impact on results

• ex. imagining yourself getting an A on a test
• ex goal: I want to lose 10 lbs by the end of August

Process simulation - has been shown to have a greater positive impact on results

• ex. imaging yourself studying hard
• ex goal: I want to go on a 20 min run 3x week

Language Disorders

Broca’s and Wernicke’s Aphasia

• Broca’s - Difficulty producing grammatically correct sentences, difficulty finding the right sounds or words, tend to be able to read but have difficulty writing
• Wernicke’s - Inability to comprehend words; only has speech issues unlike Schiz

Dyslexia - Difficulty knowing what something is but can’t comprehend, with whole word and letter recognition

Agraphia - The loss of the previous ability to write, handwriting may be fine but can’t spell understandable words

Apraxia - (similar to dysarthria) difficulty getting your mouth to produce words, brain struggles to create words

Dysarthria - difficulty producing speech as a result from physical injuries in the face

Schizophasia - aka word salad, incoherent words that only make sense to the speaker; almost never diagnosed by itself