Cognitive Psych Exam 4
Chapter 6:
Terms to Know:
● Memory strategy = mental activities that can help to improve your encoding and retrieval ● Elaboration = concentrating on the specific meaning of a particular concept ● Rehearsal repeating the information you want to learn or remember
● Distinctiveness = one memory trace should be different from all other memory traces ● Self-reference effect = you enhance long-term memory by relating the material to your own experiences
● Encoding Specificity = recall is often better if the context at the time of encoding matches the context at the time when your retrieval will be tested
● Total time hypothesis = The amount you learn depends on the total time you devote to learning.
● Distributed practice effect = You will remember more material if you spread your learning trials over time.
○ Spaced learning = spread your learning trials over time
○ Massed learning = learning the material all at once
● Desirable difficulty = a learning situation that is somewhat challenging, but not too difficult
● The testing effect = being tested on material also boosts your long-term recall for that material.
● Mnemonics = mental strategies designed to improve your memory
○ Keyword method = you identify an English word (the keyword) that sounds similar to the new word you want to learn.
○ Chunking = combine several small units into larger meaningful units
○ Hierarchy Technique =organize items in a series of classes from general to specific
○ first -letter technique = compose a word or sentence using the first letters of the words you are trying to remember
○ Narrative technique = make up stories that link a series of words together ● Retrospective memory = remembering information you acquired in the past ● Prospective memory = remembering that you need to do something in the future ● External memory aids = any device, external to yourself, that facilitates your memory in some way
● Metacognition = your knowledge and control of your cognitive processes ● Metamemory = people’s knowledge, monitoring, and control of their memory ● Metacomprehension = your thoughts, knowledge, monitoring, and control of your language comprehension
● Foresight Bias = when people overestimate the number of answers that they will supply on a future test
● Tip-of-the-tongue effect = Subjective experience of knowing the target word for which you are searching, but cannot recall it right now; generally an involuntary effect ○ Tip of the finger effect = the subjective experience of knowing the target sign, but that sign is temporarily inaccessible
● Feeling-of-knowing effect = subjective experience of knowing some information, but cannot recall it right now; more conscious experience
Theories to Understand and be Able to Compare and Contrast:
● The testing effect
● Mnemonic techniques
● Prospective and retrospective memory
● Metamomory and effects
Other Things to Understand:
● Memory improvement strategies
Chapter 11:
Terms to Know:
● Problem representation = the way you translate the elements of the problem into a different format
● Matices = a grid showing all possible combinations of items
● Diagrams = a representation of abstract information in a concrete fashion ● Hierarchical Tree Diagram = a figure that uses a tree-like structure to show various possible options in a problem. This kind of diagram is especially helpful in showing the relationship between categorized items
● Situated cognition approach = We often use helpful information in our immediate environment to create spatial representations; importance of external situation/context. ● Embodied cognition approach = We often use our own body and our own motor actions, in order to express our abstract thoughts and knowledge; importance of own body as context.
● Algorithm = a well-defined procedure or set of rules that is used to solve a problem or accomplish a task or that is used for conducting a series of computations ● Exhaustive search = try all possible answers till you get the correct answer ● Heuristic = general rule/strategy in which you ignore some alternatives and explore only those alternatives that seem especially likely to produce a solution
● Analogy approach = using a solution to a similar, earlier problem to help in solving a new problem
● Problem Isomorphs = a set of problems that have the same underlying structures and solutions, but different specific details.
● Surface Features = such as the specific objects and terms used in the question
● Structural Features = the underlying core that they must understand in order to solve the problem correctly.
● Means-Ends heuristic = divide the problem into subproblems and try to reduce the difference between the initial state and the goal state for each of the subproblems ● Hill climbing heuristic = When you reach a choice point, choose the alternative that seems to lead most directly toward your goal.
● Expertise = consistent exceptional skill and performance on representative tasks for a particular area
● Mental set = using the same solution from previous problems, even though the problem could be solved by a different, easier method
● Fixed Mindset = you believe that you possess a certain amount of intelligence and other skills, and that no amount of effort can help you perform better
● Growth Mindset = you believe that you can cultivate your intelligence and other skills ● Functional fixedness = we assign stable/fixed uses to an object
● Stereotype threat = If you belong to a group that is hampered by a negative stereotype, and you think about your membership in that group, then your performance may suffer. ● Insight problems = a problem that seems impossible until sudden solution appears; light bulb, “aha”
○ Non-insight problems = a problem that you solve gradually
● Creativity = finding solutions that are novel and useful
● Divergent production = a measure of creativity in terms of the number of different responses made to a test item
● Extrinsic motivation = desire to work on a task to earn a promised reward ● Intrinsic motivation = motivation to work on a task for its own sake, because you find it interesting, exciting, or personally challenging
Theories to Understand and be Able to Compare and Contrast:
● Theories of problem solving
● Problem solving strategies
● The Analogy approach
● Factors that influence problem solving
● Insight vs non-insight problems
Other Things to Understand:
● Stereotype threat effects
● Factors that influence creativity
Chapter 12:
Terms to Know:
● Deductive reasoning = given some specific premises, judge whether those premises allow you to draw a particular conclusion, based on the principles of logic
● Syllogism = two statements that we must assume to be true, plus a conclusion; ● Propositional Calculus =a system for categorizing the four kinds of reasoning used in analyzing propositions/statements
○ Propositions = statements
○ Antecedent = the first proposition or statement; the antecedent is contained in the “if. . .” part of the sentence
○ Consequent = the proposition contained in the “then. . .” part of the sentence. ● Belief Bias Effect = when people make judgments based on prior beliefs and general knowledge, rather than on the rules of logic
● Confirmation Bias = People tend to try to confirm or support a hypothesis rather than try to disprove it.
● Decision Making = assessing and choosing among several alternatives ● The Representativeness Heuristic = People judge that a sample is likely if it is similar to the population from which the sample was selected.
● Small sample fallacy = we assume a small sample will be representative of the population from which it was selected
● Base rate = how often an item occurs in the population
○ Base-rate fallacy = emphasizing the representativeness and under-emphasizing important information about base rates
● Conjunction Rule = The probability of the conjunction of two events cannot be larger than the probability of either of its constituent events.
○ Conjunction Fallacy = when people judge the probability of the conjunction of two events to be greater than the probability of a constituent event
● Availability Heuristic = We tend to estimate frequency or probability in terms of how easy it is to think of relevant examples
● The Recognition Heuristic = When comparing the relative frequency of two categories, if people recognize one category and not the other, they conclude that the recognized category has the higher frequency.
● Illusory correlation = People believe that two variables are statistically related, even though there is no real evidence for this relationship.
● Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic = When making an estimate, people begin with a first approximation (anchor) and then make adjustments to that number on the basis of additional information.
● Confidence Interval = a range within which we expect a number to fall a certain percentage of the time
● Ecological rationality = People create a wide variety of heuristics to help them make useful, adaptive decisions in the real world.
● Default heuristic = If there is a default option, then people will generally be more likely to choose it.
● Framing effect = the outcome of a decision can be influenced by: the background context of the choice and the way in which a question is worded
● Overconfidence = Confidence judgments are higher than they should be, based on actual performance.
● My-side bias = Overconfidence that one’s own view is correct in a confrontational situation; often results in conflict; cannot even consider the possibility that their opponent’s position may be at least partially correct.
● Planning Fallacy = people tend to underestimate the amount of time (or money) required to complete a project
● Hindsight = judgments about events that already happened in the past ○ Hindsight bias = judging an event as inevitable, after the event has already happened;
● Maximizers = judging an event as inevitable, after the event has already happened; ● Satisficers = people who tend to settle for something that is satisfactory (satisficing decision-making style)
Theories to Understand and be Able to Compare and Contrast:
● The 4 kinds of conditional reasoning outcomes
○ Affirming the Antecedent
○ Affirming the Consequent
○ Denying the Antecedent
○ Denying the consequent
● Dual Process Theory
● The Representativeness Heuristic examples
● Availability Heuristic examples
● Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic
● The Recognition Heuristic
● Default Heuristic
Other Things to Understand:
● Difficulties with Linguistically Negative Information
● Difficulties with Abstract Reasoning Problems
● Strategies for completing projects on time