Cognition

1. Cognition

2. Memory • Memory – An system – human, animal, or machine – that encodes, stores, and retrieves information.

3. Information Processing Model • Information Processing Model – A cognitive understanding of memory, emphasizing how information is changed when it is encoded, stored, and retrieved.

4. Memory’s Three Basic Tasks • Encoding – On of the three basic tasks of memory, involving the modification of information to fit the preferred format for the memory system.

5. Memory’s Three Basic Tasks • Storage – One of the three basic tasks of memory, involving the retention of encoded material over time.

6. Memory’s Three Basic Tasks • Retrieval – The third basic task of memory, involving the location and recovery of information from memory.

7. Eidetic Imagery • Eidetic Imagery – An especially clear and persistent form of memory that is quite rare. • AKA – Photographic Memory

8. How do we form memories? • 3 Stages • Sensory Memory • Working Memory • Long-term Memory

9. How do we form memories? • Sensory Memory – The first of three memory stages, preserving brief sensory impulses of stimuli

10. How do we form memories? • Working Memory – The second of three memory stages, and the most limited in capacity. • It preserves recently perceived events or experience for less than a minute without rehearsal.

11. Working Memory • Chunks and Chunking • Organizing pieces of information into a smaller number of meaningful units (or chunks) – a process that frees up space in working memory.

12. Working Memory • The Role of Rehearsal • Maintenance Rehearsal – A working memory process in which information is merely repeated or reviewed to keep it from fading while in working memory. • Maintenance rehearsal involves no active elaboration.

13. Working Memory • The Role of Rehearsal • Elaborative Rehearsal – A working memory process in which information is actively reviewed and related to information already in LTM.

14. Working Memory • Acoustic Encoding – The conversion of information, especially semantic information, to sound patterns in working memory.

15. Working Memory • Levels of Processing in Working Memory • Levels of Processing Theory – The explanation for the fact that information that is more thoroughly connected to meaningful items in long-term memory (more “deeply” processed) will be remembered better.

16. How do we form memories? • Long-term Memory – The third of three memory stages, with the largest capacity and longest duration. • Long term memory stores material organized according to meaning.

17. Long-term Memory • Procedural Memory • A division of LTM that stores memories for how things are done.

18. Long-term Memory • Declarative Memory • Declarative Memory – A division of LTM that stores explicit information; also known as fact memory. • Has two subdivisions: • Episodic Memory • Semantic Memory

19. Long-term memory • Declarative Memory • Episodic Memory – A subdivision of declarative memory that stores memory that stores memory for personal events, or “episodes.”

20. Long-term Memory • Declarative Memory • Semantic Memory – A subdivision of declarative memory that stores general knowledge, including the meanings of words and concepts.

21. Long-term Memory • The Biological Basis of Long-term Memory • Engram – The physical changes in the brain associated with a memory. • AKA a memory trace.

22. Anterograde Amnesia • Anterograde Amnesia – The inability to form memories for new information.

23. Retrograde Amnesia • Retrograde Amnesia - As opposed to retrograde amnesia, which involves the inability to remember information previously stored in memory.

24. Consolidation • Consolidation – The process by which short-term memories are changed to long-term memories over a period of time.

25. Flashbulb Memories • Flashbulb Memory – A clear and vivid long-term memory of an especially meaningful and emotional event.

26. Implicit and Explicit Memory • Implicit Memory – A memory that was not deliberately learned or of which you have no conscious awareness. • Explicit Memory – A memory that has been processed with attention and can be consciously recalled.

27. Retrieval Cues • Retrieval Cues – Stimuli that are used to bring a memory to consciousness or into behavior.

28. Retrieval Cues • Priming – A technique for cuing implicit memories by providing cues that stimulate a memory without awareness of the connection between the cue and the retrieved memory.

29. Retrieval Cues • Recall – A retrieval method in which one must reproduce previously presented information. • Recognition – A retrieval method in which one must identify present stimuli as having been previously presented.

30. Other Factors Affecting Retrieval • Encoding Specificity Principle – The doctrine that memory is encoded and stored with specific sues related to the context in which it was formed. • The more closely the retrieval cues match the form in which the information was encoded, the better it will be remembered.

31. Other Factors Affecting Retrieval • Mood-Congruent Memory – A memory process that selectively retrieves memories that match (are congruent with) one’s mood.

32. Other Factors Affecting Retrieval • TOT Phenomenon – The inability to recall a word, while knowing that it is in memory. • Often described as “on the tip of the tongue.”

33. Why does Memory Sometimes Fail Us? • Transience – The impermanence of a long-term memory. • Based on the idea that long-term memories gradually fade in strength over time.

34. Why does Memory Sometimes Fail Us? • Transience • Forgetting Curve – A graph plotting the amount of retention and forgetting over time for a certain batch of material, such as a list of nonsense syllables. • The typical forgetting curve is steep at first, becoming flatter as time goes on.

35. Why does Memory Sometimes Fail Us • Absent Mindedness – Forgetting caused by lapses in attention.

36. Why does Memory Sometimes Fail Us? • Blocking – Forgetting that occurs when an item in memory cannot be accessed or retrieved. • Blocking is often caused by Interference.

37. Why does Memory Sometimes Fail Us? • Proactive Interference – A cause of forgetting by which previously stored information prevents learning and remembering new information.

38. Why does Memory Sometimes Fail Us? • Retroactive Interference – A cause of forgetting by which newly learned information prevents retrieval of previously stored material.

39. Why does Memory Sometimes Fail Us? • Serial Position Effect – A form of inference related to the sequence in which information is presented. • Generally, items in the middle of the sequence are less well remembered than items presented first or last.

40. Memories in the Wrong Context • Misattribution – A memory fault that occurs when memories are retrieved but are associated with the wrong time, place, or person.

41. Suggestibility: External Cues Distort or Create Memories • Suggestibility – The process of memory distortion as the result of deliberate or inadvertent suggestion.

42. Memory Distortion • Misinformation Effect – The distortion of memory by suggestion or misinformation.

43. Bias: Beliefs, Attitudes, and Opinions Distort Memories • Expectancy Bias – In memory, a tendency to distort recalled events to make them fit into one’s expectations.

44. Bias • Self-Consistency Bias – The commonly held idea that we are more consistent in our attitudes, opinions, and beliefs than we actually are.

45. Persistence: When we Can’t Forget • Persistence – A memory problem in which unwanted memories cannot be put out of mind.

46. Improving Memory • Mnemonics – Techniques for improving memory, especially by making connections between new material and information already in long-term memory.

47. Improving Memory • Method of Loci – A mnemonic technique that involves associating items on a list with a sequence of familiar physical locations.

48. Improving Memory • Natural Language Mediators – Words associated with new information to be remembered.

49. What are the Components of Thought? • Concepts – Mental representations of categories of items or ideas, based on experience. • Natural Concepts – Mental representations of objects and events drawn form our direct experience. • Artificial Concepts – Concepts defined by rules such as word definitions and mathematical formulas. • Concept Hierarchies – Levels of concepts, from most general to most specific, in which a more general level includes more specific concepts – as the concept of “animal” includes dog, giraffe, and butterfly.

50. Schemas & Scripts • Schema – A knowledge cluster or general conceptual framework that provides expectations about topics, events, objects, people, and situations in one’s life. • Example – Might have schemas for “college” or “music.” • Script – A cluster of knowledge about sequences of events and actions expected to occur in particular settings. • Example – Have a script for going to the library to check out a book, or going to the movie theatre to see a new movie.