AP Psyc Unit 2: Cognition
Perception is influenced by whether one primarily relies on external sensory information (bottom-up processing) or internal prior expectations (top-down processing).
An example of this is:
If I am driving, bottom-up processing includes processing information about the road, other cars, and traffic signals.
Top-down processing involves using prior knowledge and experience to make decisions, such as knowing to brake when approaching a red light.
Schemas and perceptual sets are internal factors that filter perceptions of the world.
Schemas are cognitive frameworks or concepts that help organize and interpret information.
A perceptual set refers to a predisposition to perceive things in a certain way.
Contexts, experiences, and cultural experiences and expectations are external factors that filter perceptions of the world.
Perceptual principles proposed by Gestalt psychology (closure, figure and ground, proximity, and similarity) help explain how humans organize their perceptual world.
Attention is an interaction of sensation and perception that is affected by internal and external processes.
Some experiences of attention can be selective, such as with the cocktail party effect, where people attend to mentions of their names or specific topics in loud or distracting environments.
Inattention can lead to a type of “blindness” to aspects of the environment.
Change blindness occurs when changes to the environment are not perceived due to inattention.
Binocular depth cues of retinal disparity (the difference between the images projecting onto the retina) and convergence (the merging of the retinal images by the brain) utilize images from each eye to provide the perception of depth.
In convergence, the brain merges the images from both retinas. This provides the perception of depth. Both of your eyes need to look inward together.
Monocular depth cues (relative clarity, relative size, texture gradient, linear perspective, and interposition) give the illusion of depth on flat or two-dimensional surfaces.
With relative clarity, hazy objects are further away than sharp, clear objects because the light from distant objects has to pass through more atmosphere.
In relative size, objects that appear larger are closer to your retina. Those that are smaller are farther away.
Smaller objects that are more thickly clustered appear farther away than objects that are spread out in space due to texture gradient.
Linear perspective consists of parallel lines that seem to converge in the background.
Interposition is when one object overlaps another, the partially covered object is further away.
Visual perceptual constancies maintain the perception of an object even when the images of the object in the visual field change. There is shape constancy, size constancy, colour constancy and brightness constancy.
Apparent movement can be visually perceived even when objects are not actually moving.
Concepts form the basis of thought.
Prototypes are the ideal example for any concept.
People form and modify schemas, or frameworks for thinking, through assimilation (taking in new information but not changing the schema in light of it) and accommodation (taking in new information and changing the schema to incorporate the new information).
Algorithms address problems by attempting all possible solutions until the correct one is found. Using algorithms, a step-by-step process is completed the same way every time.
One such algorithm might be tying your shoes.
Another is solving a mathematical equation. If we can complete something using a step-by-step approach, then we can solve it using an algorithm.
Heuristics address problems by using mental shortcuts to make judgments.
Using heuristics can lead to errors in judgment when decisions are made according to prior expectations or stereotypes (representativeness heuristic) or recalling the first or most vivid example that comes to mind (availability heuristic).
We have limited cognitive resources, we categorize people based on our schemas and prototypes and we overestimate how important similarity is.
In the availability heuristic, certain events stand out in our minds more than other events. It could be because it is something you recently learned, it concerns an event that had a significant impact on you, something you think about frequently, or is easier to remember.
Decision-making can be influenced by prior experiences that were successful (mental set) or circumstances surrounding a decision (priming and framing).
In priming, the introduction of a stimulus influences how people respond to a subsequent stimulus.
If I give you the word “yellow” and then a list of other words, you will be likely to remember words that you associate with yellow, such as banana or submarine.
In framing, you make a decision based on whether it has been put into positive or negative connotations.
Cognitive processes such as gambler’s fallacy and sunk-cost fallacy can hinder people from making good decisions.
In the gambler’s fallacy, we believe that the probability of a random event occurring in the future is influenced by previous instances of that type of event.
In the sunk-cost fallacy, we tend to follow through with something that we have already invested heavily in (whether it is time, money, effort, or emotional energy), even when giving up is clearly a better idea.
Executive functions are cognitive processes that allow individuals to generate, organize, plan, and carry out goal-directed behaviours and experience critical thinking.
Convergent thinking focuses on reaching one well-defined solution to a problem.
Divergent thinking is the process of creating multiple, unique ideas or solutions to a problem that you are trying to solve.
Lateral thinking is a form of ideation where designers approach problems by using reasoning that is disruptive or not immediately obvious.
Memories for learned knowledge, events, and experiences are differentiated by how they are processed by, stored in, and retrieved by the brain.
Explicit memory is a type of memory that is more easily described or explained to others. Types of explicit memory include episodic and semantic.
An episodic memory is a memory of a specific event. This is what most people call a memory.
In semantic memory, this is the knowledge that you have accumulated over your lifetime.
Implicit memory is more challenging to describe or explain to others.
Procedural memory is a type of implicit memory for procedures and processes.
Prospective memory is a type of memory related to future actions.
Long-term potentiation, a process by which synaptic connections between neurons become stronger with frequent activation, is a biological process for memory.
The working memory model examines how our primary memory system—working memory—engages in a dynamic international with several components, namely the central executive, phonological loop, and visuospatial sketchpad, to process information into long-term memory.
The central executive is responsible for controlled processing in working memory, including, but not limited to, directing attention, maintaining task goals, decision-making, and memory retrieval.
The phonological loop is the speech and sound-related
component of working memory and holds verbal and auditory information.
The visuospatial sketchpad refers to our ability to temporarily hold visual and spatial information, such as the location of our parked car, or the route from home to the grocery store.
The multi-store model proposes three interacting systems (sensory memory [including iconic and echoic memory], short-term memory, and long-term memory) that information must pass through to be remembered. The model focuses on the impact of automatic and effortful processing on memory encoding, storage, and retrieval.
The levels of processing model proposes that memory is encoded on three levels from shallowest to deepest: structural, phonemic, and semantic.
Structural: How is the word formed; Is it written in capital letters?
Phonemic: How does it sound; Does the word rhyme with mouse?
Semantic: What is the word describing; Is it something people can live in?
Encoding involves processes and strategies to get information into memory. How information is encoded can determine how effectively information is stored and retrieved.
Mnemonic devices are processes that aid in encoding information into working and long-term memory.
Visualization
Story Telling
Acronyms
Songs and Rhymes
Acrostics
Chunking
Method of Loci
Encoding can be improved by the process of grouping information together into meaningful chunks (“chunking”), categories, or hierarchies.
The spacing effect is a process that can cause significant differences in encoding and memory consolidation depending on whether the information is encoded all at once (massed practice) or distributed over time (distributed practice).
Encoding processes can be affected by the order of how the information is presented, called the serial position effect. The serial position effect predicts that information presented at the beginning of a list (primacy effect) or at the end of the list (recency effect) will be more memorable than information presented in the middle of a list.
Sensory memory, short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory are processes that differ in storage duration, capacity, and content.
Sensory memory has five types-haptic (touch), echoic (hearing), iconic (seeing), olfactory (smell), and gustatory (taste).
There is a huge capacity for iconic memory (seeing), but it declines rapidly (about half a second).
Echoic memory (hearing) lasts several seconds.
Haptic memory (touch) last for about two seconds.
Olfactory memory (smell) is powerful due to the strong links between olfaction and emotion/memory in the brain.
As gustatory memory (taste) is linked to olfactory memory, there is also a strong emotional component here as well.
Short-term memory (STM) has a duration between 15 and 30 seconds, with a capacity of 7 ± 2 items (Miller, 1956).
With working memory, the information is either encoded into long-term memory or decays or is replaced. It has a duration of about 10-15 seconds unless it is rehearsed or we attend to it. The capacity of working memory is the amount we can attend to.
Long-term memory (LTM) may last for months, years, or decades. Its capacity is considered unlimited.
Storage may be prolonged by rehearsing information over time (maintenance rehearsal). Rehearsing information over time in ways that promote meaning (elaborative rehearsal) helps with memory retention.
Some people demonstrate highly superior autobiographical memory which may indicate that there are biological processes for superior memory storage.
Autobiographical memory may also explain why memories connected to our own lives or selves are more memorable.
Storage processes may be negatively affected by physical impairment and developmental limitations, such as amnesia (retrograde and anterograde), Alzheimer’s disease, and infantile amnesia.
Retrograde and anterograde amnesia commonly occur at the same time. This is what usually happens in dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
Anterograde ammensia:
Inability to form new memories or retain new information after the onset of amnesia.
Not able to create new memories.
Can recall previously formed memories.
Caused by damage to the medial temporal lobe and medial diencephalon
Can be treated by learning through repetition, practice, and with proper cues.
Can be temporary or permanent.
Retrograde Amnesia:
Inability to recall memories and events that occurred before the onset of amnesia.
Able to encode new information.
Cannot recall past memories.
Caused by damage to areas adjacent to the hippocampus.
This can be treated by exposing lost memories.
Usually temporary in nature.
Adults have difficulty remembering episodic experiences that occurred from (generally) ages 0-3 years and only have sparse recollection of episodic experiences that occurred before age 10. It is believed to occur because the brain of the child is still developing (the hippocampus) which would make memory consolidation difficult with deficits in memory retrieval.
Perception is influenced by whether one primarily relies on external sensory information (bottom-up processing) or internal prior expectations (top-down processing).
An example of this is:
If I am driving, bottom-up processing includes processing information about the road, other cars, and traffic signals.
Top-down processing involves using prior knowledge and experience to make decisions, such as knowing to brake when approaching a red light.
Schemas and perceptual sets are internal factors that filter perceptions of the world.
Schemas are cognitive frameworks or concepts that help organize and interpret information.
A perceptual set refers to a predisposition to perceive things in a certain way.
Contexts, experiences, and cultural experiences and expectations are external factors that filter perceptions of the world.
Perceptual principles proposed by Gestalt psychology (closure, figure and ground, proximity, and similarity) help explain how humans organize their perceptual world.
Attention is an interaction of sensation and perception that is affected by internal and external processes.
Some experiences of attention can be selective, such as with the cocktail party effect, where people attend to mentions of their names or specific topics in loud or distracting environments.
Inattention can lead to a type of “blindness” to aspects of the environment.
Change blindness occurs when changes to the environment are not perceived due to inattention.
Binocular depth cues of retinal disparity (the difference between the images projecting onto the retina) and convergence (the merging of the retinal images by the brain) utilize images from each eye to provide the perception of depth.
In convergence, the brain merges the images from both retinas. This provides the perception of depth. Both of your eyes need to look inward together.
Monocular depth cues (relative clarity, relative size, texture gradient, linear perspective, and interposition) give the illusion of depth on flat or two-dimensional surfaces.
With relative clarity, hazy objects are further away than sharp, clear objects because the light from distant objects has to pass through more atmosphere.
In relative size, objects that appear larger are closer to your retina. Those that are smaller are farther away.
Smaller objects that are more thickly clustered appear farther away than objects that are spread out in space due to texture gradient.
Linear perspective consists of parallel lines that seem to converge in the background.
Interposition is when one object overlaps another, the partially covered object is further away.
Visual perceptual constancies maintain the perception of an object even when the images of the object in the visual field change. There is shape constancy, size constancy, colour constancy and brightness constancy.
Apparent movement can be visually perceived even when objects are not actually moving.
Concepts form the basis of thought.
Prototypes are the ideal example for any concept.
People form and modify schemas, or frameworks for thinking, through assimilation (taking in new information but not changing the schema in light of it) and accommodation (taking in new information and changing the schema to incorporate the new information).
Algorithms address problems by attempting all possible solutions until the correct one is found. Using algorithms, a step-by-step process is completed the same way every time.
One such algorithm might be tying your shoes.
Another is solving a mathematical equation. If we can complete something using a step-by-step approach, then we can solve it using an algorithm.
Heuristics address problems by using mental shortcuts to make judgments.
Using heuristics can lead to errors in judgment when decisions are made according to prior expectations or stereotypes (representativeness heuristic) or recalling the first or most vivid example that comes to mind (availability heuristic).
We have limited cognitive resources, we categorize people based on our schemas and prototypes and we overestimate how important similarity is.
In the availability heuristic, certain events stand out in our minds more than other events. It could be because it is something you recently learned, it concerns an event that had a significant impact on you, something you think about frequently, or is easier to remember.
Decision-making can be influenced by prior experiences that were successful (mental set) or circumstances surrounding a decision (priming and framing).
In priming, the introduction of a stimulus influences how people respond to a subsequent stimulus.
If I give you the word “yellow” and then a list of other words, you will be likely to remember words that you associate with yellow, such as banana or submarine.
In framing, you make a decision based on whether it has been put into positive or negative connotations.
Cognitive processes such as gambler’s fallacy and sunk-cost fallacy can hinder people from making good decisions.
In the gambler’s fallacy, we believe that the probability of a random event occurring in the future is influenced by previous instances of that type of event.
In the sunk-cost fallacy, we tend to follow through with something that we have already invested heavily in (whether it is time, money, effort, or emotional energy), even when giving up is clearly a better idea.
Executive functions are cognitive processes that allow individuals to generate, organize, plan, and carry out goal-directed behaviours and experience critical thinking.
Convergent thinking focuses on reaching one well-defined solution to a problem.
Divergent thinking is the process of creating multiple, unique ideas or solutions to a problem that you are trying to solve.
Lateral thinking is a form of ideation where designers approach problems by using reasoning that is disruptive or not immediately obvious.
Memories for learned knowledge, events, and experiences are differentiated by how they are processed by, stored in, and retrieved by the brain.
Explicit memory is a type of memory that is more easily described or explained to others. Types of explicit memory include episodic and semantic.
An episodic memory is a memory of a specific event. This is what most people call a memory.
In semantic memory, this is the knowledge that you have accumulated over your lifetime.
Implicit memory is more challenging to describe or explain to others.
Procedural memory is a type of implicit memory for procedures and processes.
Prospective memory is a type of memory related to future actions.
Long-term potentiation, a process by which synaptic connections between neurons become stronger with frequent activation, is a biological process for memory.
The working memory model examines how our primary memory system—working memory—engages in a dynamic international with several components, namely the central executive, phonological loop, and visuospatial sketchpad, to process information into long-term memory.
The central executive is responsible for controlled processing in working memory, including, but not limited to, directing attention, maintaining task goals, decision-making, and memory retrieval.
The phonological loop is the speech and sound-related
component of working memory and holds verbal and auditory information.
The visuospatial sketchpad refers to our ability to temporarily hold visual and spatial information, such as the location of our parked car, or the route from home to the grocery store.
The multi-store model proposes three interacting systems (sensory memory [including iconic and echoic memory], short-term memory, and long-term memory) that information must pass through to be remembered. The model focuses on the impact of automatic and effortful processing on memory encoding, storage, and retrieval.
The levels of processing model proposes that memory is encoded on three levels from shallowest to deepest: structural, phonemic, and semantic.
Structural: How is the word formed; Is it written in capital letters?
Phonemic: How does it sound; Does the word rhyme with mouse?
Semantic: What is the word describing; Is it something people can live in?
Encoding involves processes and strategies to get information into memory. How information is encoded can determine how effectively information is stored and retrieved.
Mnemonic devices are processes that aid in encoding information into working and long-term memory.
Visualization
Story Telling
Acronyms
Songs and Rhymes
Acrostics
Chunking
Method of Loci
Encoding can be improved by the process of grouping information together into meaningful chunks (“chunking”), categories, or hierarchies.
The spacing effect is a process that can cause significant differences in encoding and memory consolidation depending on whether the information is encoded all at once (massed practice) or distributed over time (distributed practice).
Encoding processes can be affected by the order of how the information is presented, called the serial position effect. The serial position effect predicts that information presented at the beginning of a list (primacy effect) or at the end of the list (recency effect) will be more memorable than information presented in the middle of a list.
Sensory memory, short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory are processes that differ in storage duration, capacity, and content.
Sensory memory has five types-haptic (touch), echoic (hearing), iconic (seeing), olfactory (smell), and gustatory (taste).
There is a huge capacity for iconic memory (seeing), but it declines rapidly (about half a second).
Echoic memory (hearing) lasts several seconds.
Haptic memory (touch) last for about two seconds.
Olfactory memory (smell) is powerful due to the strong links between olfaction and emotion/memory in the brain.
As gustatory memory (taste) is linked to olfactory memory, there is also a strong emotional component here as well.
Short-term memory (STM) has a duration between 15 and 30 seconds, with a capacity of 7 ± 2 items (Miller, 1956).
With working memory, the information is either encoded into long-term memory or decays or is replaced. It has a duration of about 10-15 seconds unless it is rehearsed or we attend to it. The capacity of working memory is the amount we can attend to.
Long-term memory (LTM) may last for months, years, or decades. Its capacity is considered unlimited.
Storage may be prolonged by rehearsing information over time (maintenance rehearsal). Rehearsing information over time in ways that promote meaning (elaborative rehearsal) helps with memory retention.
Some people demonstrate highly superior autobiographical memory which may indicate that there are biological processes for superior memory storage.
Autobiographical memory may also explain why memories connected to our own lives or selves are more memorable.
Storage processes may be negatively affected by physical impairment and developmental limitations, such as amnesia (retrograde and anterograde), Alzheimer’s disease, and infantile amnesia.
Retrograde and anterograde amnesia commonly occur at the same time. This is what usually happens in dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
Anterograde ammensia:
Inability to form new memories or retain new information after the onset of amnesia.
Not able to create new memories.
Can recall previously formed memories.
Caused by damage to the medial temporal lobe and medial diencephalon
Can be treated by learning through repetition, practice, and with proper cues.
Can be temporary or permanent.
Retrograde Amnesia:
Inability to recall memories and events that occurred before the onset of amnesia.
Able to encode new information.
Cannot recall past memories.
Caused by damage to areas adjacent to the hippocampus.
This can be treated by exposing lost memories.
Usually temporary in nature.
Adults have difficulty remembering episodic experiences that occurred from (generally) ages 0-3 years and only have sparse recollection of episodic experiences that occurred before age 10. It is believed to occur because the brain of the child is still developing (the hippocampus) which would make memory consolidation difficult with deficits in memory retrieval.
