Cognition memory thinking_language

Editor's Notes

• #4: (1) F (2) T (3) F (4) F (5) F (6) T (7) T (8) F
• #5: Memory is the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information. In some ways, our memory is like a computer’s information-processing system.
• #6: Information must be encoded, stored, and retrieved. Psychologists have offered several information-processing models of memory. One is connectionism, which views memories as emerging from interconnected neural networks. Encoding - the set of mental operations that people perform on sensory information to convert that information into a form that is usable in the brain’s storage systems. Storage - holding onto information for some period of time. Retrieval - getting information that is in storage into a form that can be used.
• #7: The Atkinson-Shiffrin three-stage processing model states that we first record to- be-remembered information as a fleeting sensory memory, from which it is processed into short- term memory, where we encode it through rehearsal for long-term memory and later retrieval. This model is limited and fallible because we sometimes bypass the first two stages and process some information automatically and directly into long-term memory without conscious awareness.
• #8: The Atkinson-Shiffrin three-stage processing model states that we first record to- be-remembered information as a fleeting sensory memory, from which it is processed into short- term memory, where we encode it through rehearsal for long-term memory and later retrieval. This model is limited and fallible because we sometimes bypass the first two stages and process some information automatically and directly into long-term memory without conscious awareness.
• #10: Also, working memory is a newer and better understanding of short-term memory because it emphasizes a more active role in the second processing stage in which information is rehearsed, new stimuli are associated with existing memories, and problems are solved. The working-memory model includes the processing of incoming visual-spatial and auditory information.
• #11: automatic processing occurs without our awareness and without interfering with our thinking about other things. Some forms of processing, such as learning to read or drive, require attention and effort when we first perform them but with practice become automatic. Automatic processing occurs unconsciously; effortful processing requires attention and effort. For example, our memory of names will disappear unless we rehearse them.
• #12: serial position effect is our tendency to remember the last and first items in a long list (for example, a grocery list) better than the middle items. Immediately after learning, we remember the last items best (the recency effect); after a delay, we remember the first items best (the primacy effect).
• #13: The spacing effect is our tendency to retain information more easily if we distribute our rehearsal than if we practice in one long session
• #15: Encoding Test in 30 seconds Read the story about washing the clothes from the book When processing verbal information for storage, we usually encode its meaning. For example, we associate it with what we already know or imagine. Research indicates that semantic encoding (of meaning) yields better memory of verbal information than acoustic encoding (of sound) or visual encoding (of an image). We are particularly likely to remember words we can meaningfully relate to ourselves, called the self-reference effect. This research also highlights the futility of trying to remember words we do not understand and the benefits of rephrasing what we read and hear into meaningful terms.
• #16: Show Feats of Memory (Parts I & II) In a variety of experiments, researchers have documented the benefits of mental imagery. For example, we remember concrete words that lend themselves to picture images better than we remember abstract, low-imagery words. We remember concrete nouns better than abstract nouns because, for example, we can associate both an image and a meaning with fire but only a meaning with process. Imagery is at the heart of many memory aids, or mnemonics. For example, in the peg-word system, people remember new items by using a visual as well as an acoustic code. When we organize information into meaningful units, we recall it more easily. In chunking, we cluster information into familiar, manageable units, such as words into sentences. Chunking occurs so naturally that we often take it for granted. When people develop expertise in an area, they often process information in hierarchies composed of a few broad concepts divided and sub- divided into lesser concepts and facts. In this way, experts can retrieve information efficiently.
• #18: XIBMCIAFBICBSMTV
• #19: XIBMCIAFBICBSMTV
• #24: C, D
• #27: Information first enters the memory system through the senses. Iconic memory is a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli, a photographic or picture-image memory lasting for a few tenths of a second. Echoic memory is a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli. Even if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds. Activity: Sensory Memory Test, Demo: Hands in Front of Face (many fingers)
• #28: Activity: 5, 7, 10, 12 Numbers and Recall Activity: Farmer’s Recall Our working/short-term memory span for information just presented is very limited—a seconds- long retention of up to about seven items, depending on the information and how it is presented. Short-term recall is slightly better for random digits than for random letters, and slightly better for what we hear than what we see. Without rehearsal, most of us retain in short-term memory only about four information chunks.
• #29: Most people can recall with a line, but not the whole thing.
• #30: Most people can recall with a line, but not the whole thing.
• #33: At the neurological level, researchers focus on a process called long-term potentiation. Studies show that neurons can strengthen connections between each other. Through repeated firings, the connection is strengthened and the receiving neuron becomes more sensitive to the messages from the sending neuron. This strengthened connection might be related to the connections we make in our long-term memory. hippocampus, a limbic system structure, plays a vital role in the gradual processing of our explicit memories into long-term memory. The hippocampus is lateralized. Damage to one or the other seems to produce different results. With left-hippocampus damage, people have trouble remember- ing verbal information. With right-hippocampus damage, they have trouble recalling visual designs and locations. The hippocampus is not the permanent storehouse, but a loading dock that feeds new information to the cortex for permanent storage. Implicit memories are processed by the cere- bellum. Research with rabbits in which different parts of the neural pathway were temporarily deadened during eye-blink training pinpointed implicit memory in the cerebellum at the back of the head. Our dual-memory system helps explain infantile amnesia. Video: Clive Wearing Discuss Antrograde and Retrograde Amnesia
• #35: The naturally stimulating hormones that we produce when excited or stressed make more glucose energy available to fuel brain activity, signaling the brain that something important has happened. The amygdala, two emotion-processing clusters in the brain’s limbic system, arouses brain areas that process emotion. These emotion-triggered hormonal changes help explain our flashbulb memories of surprising, significant events. Emotionless events mean weaker memories.
• #36: Studies of brain-damaged patients who suffer from amnesia reveal two types of memory. Implicit memory (nondeclarative memory) is retention without conscious recollection. Explicit memory (declarative memory) is the memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and “declare.”
• #37: Rajan Video & Counting Pi
• #38: Memories of episodes of our lives. Example: Going on a date Getting hurt while doing an activity Graduation Accidents
• #42: Recall is a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test. Recognition is a measure in which a person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test.
• #45: We can think of a memory as held in storage by a web of associations. Retrieval cues are bits of related information we encode while encoding a target piece of information. They become part of the web. To retrieve a specific memory, we need to identify one of the strands that leads to it, a process called priming. Activating retrieval cues within our web of associations aids memory. Such activation may occur without our awareness.
• #46: assasin
• #49: State-dependent memory is the tendency to recall information best in the same emotional state as when the information was learned. Memories are somewhat mood-congruent. While in a good or bad mood, we often retrieve memories consistent with that mood. For example, research suggests that currently depressed people recall their parents as rejecting, punitive, and guilt-promoting, whereas formerly depressed people describe their parents much as do those who have never suffered depression. Moods also prime us to interpret others’ behavior in ways consistent with our emotions. Sexual jealousy Activity: Sleep, Awake, Aardvark, Etc… Activity: Priming Tripoli or A Hair/Hare Activity: Remember details better if you have an expectation (kites) Activity: Polly-Anna Principle (if time allows)
• #57: D, A
• #61: Curve of Forgetting - Ebbinghaus found that his recall of words from his memorized word lists was greatest immediately after learning the list but rapidly decreased within the first hour. After the first hour, forgetting leveled off. Memories may fade after storage. From his research on learning and retention, Ebbinghaus found that forgetting occurs rapidly at first, then levels off. This principle became known as the forget- ting curve. Storage decay may reflect a gradual fading of the physical memory trace. Another pos- sible explanation is that we simply can’t retrieve the information.
• #62: Memories may fade after storage. From his research on learning and retention, Ebbinghaus found that forgetting occurs rapidly at first, then levels off. This principle became known as the forget- ting curve. Storage decay may reflect a gradual fading of the physical memory trace. Another possible explanation is that we simply can’t retrieve the information.
• #63: Tied to Short term One explanation for forgetting is that we fail to encode information for entry into our memory system. Without effortful processing, much of what we sense we never notice or process. For example, most people in the United States have looked at thousands of pennies. However, when tested on specific features, they have difficulty recognizing the real thing.
• #64: Tied to Short term
• #65: Long tern Trace decay Memory trace - physical change in the brain that occurs when a memory is formed. Decay - loss of memory due to the passage of time, during which the memory trace is not used. Disuse - another name for decay, assuming that memories that are not used will eventually decay and disappear.
• #66: Retrieval failure can occur if we have too few cues to summon information from long-term memory. It may also happen when old and new information compete for retrieval. In proactive interference, something we learned in the past interferes with our ability to recall something we have recently learned. In retroactive interference, something we have recently learned interferes with something we learned in the past. Proactive interference - memory retrieval problem that occurs when older information prevents or interferes with the retrieval of newer information. Retroactive interference - memory retrieval problem that occurs when newer information prevents or interferes with the retrieval of older information.
• #67: Proactive and Retroactive Interference If a student were to study for a French exam and then a Spanish exam, interference can occur in two directions. When taking the Spanish exam, the French information studied first may proactively interfere with retrieval of the Spanish information. But when taking the French exam, the more recently studied Spanish information may retroactively interfere with the retrieval of the French information.
• #69: With his concept of repression, Sigmund Freud proposed that our memories are self-censoring. To protect our self-concepts and to minimize anxiety, we may block from consciousness painful memories. In Freud’s view, this motivated forgetting submerges memories but leaves them available for later retrieval under the right conditions. Increasing numbers of memory researchers think repression rarely, if ever, occurs. More typically, we have trouble forgetting traumatic experiences.
• #70: With his concept of repression, Sigmund Freud proposed that our memories are self-censoring. To protect our self-concepts and to minimize anxiety, we may block from consciousness painful memories. In Freud’s view, this motivated forgetting submerges memories but leaves them available for later retrieval under the right conditions. Increasing numbers of memory researchers think repression rarely, if ever, occurs. More typically, we have trouble forgetting traumatic experiences.
• #71: With his concept of repression, Sigmund Freud proposed that our memories are self-censoring. To protect our self-concepts and to minimize anxiety, we may block from consciousness painful memories. In Freud’s view, this motivated forgetting submerges memories but leaves them available for later retrieval under the right conditions. Increasing numbers of memory researchers think repression rarely, if ever, occurs. More typically, we have trouble forgetting traumatic experiences.
• #74: Memories are not stored as exact copies, and they certainly are not retrieved as such. Rather, we construct our memories, using both stored and new information. In many experiments around the world, people have witnessed an event, received or not received misleading information about it, and then taken a memory test. The repeated result is a misinformation effect: After exposure to subtle misinformation, many people misremember. Asking leading questions can plant false mem- ories. As people recount an experience, they fill in their memory gaps with plausible guesses. Other vivid retellings may also implant false memories. Even repeatedly imagining and rehearsing nonexistent events can create false memories, called imagination inflation.
• #76: Our memory for the source of an event is particularly frail. In source amnesia, we attribute to the wrong source an event that we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined. Thus, we may recognize someone but have no idea where we have seen the person. Or we imagine or dream an event and later are uncertain whether it actually happened.
• #81: Because memory involves reconstruction as well as reproduction, we are unable to tell whether a memory is real by how real it feels. False memories created by suggested misinformation and mis- attributed sources may feel as real as true memories and may be very persistent. Just as perceptual illusions may seem like real perceptions, false memories may feel like real memories. However, memories we derive from experience have more detail than memories we derive from imagination.
• #85: Thinking (cognition) - mental activity that goes on in the brain when a person is organizing and attempting to understand information and communicating information to others. Cognition refers to the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. Cognitive psychologists study these activities including the logical and illogical ways we create concepts, solve problems, make decisions, and form judgments.
• #86: To think about the countless events, objects, and people in our world, we organize them into mental groupings called concepts. To simplify things further, we organize concepts into category hierarchies. Concepts - ideas that represent a class or category of objects, events, or activities. Superordinate concept - the most general form of a type of concept, such as “animal” or “fruit.” Basic level type - an example of a type of concept around which other similar concepts are organized, such as “dog,” “cat,” or “pear.” Subordinate concept – the most specific category of a concept, such as one’s pet dog or a pear in one’s hand.
• #87: Formal concepts - concepts that are defined by specific rules or features. Natural concepts - concepts people form as a result of their experiences in the real world. Prototype - an example of a concept that closely matches the defining characteristics of a concept.
• #88: developing a prototype, a mental image or best example of a particular category. For example, a robin more closely resembles our “bird” category than does a penguin. The more closely objects match our prototype of a concept, the more readily we recog- nize them as examples of a concept. Once we place an item in a category, our memory of it later moves in the direction of the category prototype.
• #89: Divergent thinking: Thinking in different directions- What is half of 13?; How many uses can you think of for a brick Convergent thinking: Creating Multiple solutions trying to find the right one
• #90: We approach some problems through trial and error, attempting various solutions until stumbling upon one that works. For other problems, we may follow a methodical rule or step-by-step proce- dure called an algorithm. Because algorithms can be laborious, we often rely instead on simple thinking strategies called heuristics. Speedier than algorithms, heuristics are also more error- prone. Problem solving - process of cognition that occurs when a goal must be reached by thinking and behaving in certain ways. Trial and error (mechanical solution) – problem-solving method in which one possible solution after another is tried until a successful one is found. Algorithms - very specific, step-by-step procedures for solving certain types of problems. Heuristic - an educated guess based on prior experiences that helps narrow down the possible solutions for a problem. Also known as a “rule of thumb.” Means–end analysis - heuristic in which the difference between the starting situation and the goal is determined and then steps are taken to reduce that difference. Insight - sudden perception of a solution to a problem.
• #92: Sometimes, however, we are unaware of using any problem-solving strategy; the answer just comes to us as a sudden flash of insight. Researchers have identified brain activity associated with insight.
• #93: Functional fixedness - a block to problem solving that comes from thinking about objects in terms of only their typical functions. Mental set - the tendency for people to persist in using problem-solving patterns that have worked for them in the past. Confirmation bias – the tendency to search for evidence that fits one’s beliefs while ignoring any evidence that does not fit those beliefs. A major obstacle to problem solving is our eagerness to search for information that confirms our ideas, a phenomenon known as confirmation bias. This can mean that once people form a wrong idea, they will not budge from their illogic. Another obstacle to problem solving is fixation—the inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective. The tendency to repeat solutions that have worked in the past is a type of fixation called mental set. It may interfere with our taking a fresh approach when faced with problems that demand an entirely new solution. Our tendency to perceive the functions of objects as fixed and unchanging is called functional fixedness. Perceiving and relating familiar things in new ways is an important aspect of creativity. Mental set: Assume that you are the engineer of a passenger train. (bolt resources p.12)
• #94: Answer: 59th day
• #95: 1. Back to back, 2. all in a row, 3. yy = two wise, 4. $20
• #99: The representativeness heuristic involves judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes. If something matches our mental representation of a category, that fact usually overrides other considerations of statistics or logic.
• #101: Heuristics worksheet: more The availability heuristic operates when we base our judgments on the availability of information in our memories. If instances of an event come to mind readily, perhaps because of their vividness, we presume such events are common. Both heuristics enable us to make snap judgments. However, these quick decisions sometimes lead us to ignore important information or to underestimate the chances of something happening. to die from.
• #102: Overconfidence, the tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our knowledge and judgments, can have adaptive value. People who err on the side of overconfidence live more happily, find it easier to make tough decisions, and seem more credible than those who lack self-confidence. At the same time, failing to appreciate one’s potential for error when making military, economic, or political judgments can have devastating consequences.
• #103: OBJECTIVE 8| Explain how our preexisting beliefs can distort our logic.
• #104: We exhibit belief perseverance, clinging to our ideas in the face of contrary evidence, because the explanation we accepted as valid lingers in our minds. Once beliefs are formed and justified, it takes more compelling evidence to change them than it did to create them. The best remedy for this form of bias is to make a deliberate effort to consider evidence supporting the opposite position. Although human intuition is sometimes perilous, it can be, whether conscious or unconscious, remarkably efficient and adaptive. Moreover, it feeds our expertise, our creativity, our love, and our spirituality. Smart intuition is born of experience. As we gain expertise in a field, we become better at making quick, adept judgments. Experienced nurses, firefighters, art critics, hockey play- ers, and anyone who develops a deep and special knowledge learn to size up a situation in an eye- blink. Intuition is powerful, but sometimes perilous, and especially so when we overfeel and underthink, as we do when judging risks. So, we need to check our intuitions against reality.
• #105: The same issue presented in two different but logically equivalent ways can elicit quite different answers. This framing effect suggests that our judgments and decisions may not be well reasoned and that those who understand the power of framing can use it to influence important decisions— for example, by wording survey questions to support or reject a particular viewpoint.
• #106: 1) B 2) A
• #109: 10 months – about 18 months lose all phonemes Language is our way of combining words to communicate meaning. Spoken language is built from basic speech sounds, called phonemes; elementary units of meaning, called morphemes; and words. Finally, language must have a grammar, a system of rules that enables us to communicate 10 months – about 18 months lose all phonemes with and understand others. Semantics refers to the rules we use to derive meaning from the mor- phemes, words, and sentences; syntax refers to the rules we use to order words into grammatically sensible sentences. In all 6000 human languages, the grammar is intricately complex.
• #110: Children’s language development moves from simplicity to complexity. Their receptive language abilities mature before their productive language. Beginning at about 4 months, infants enter a babbling stage in which they spontaneously utter various sounds at first unrelated to the household language. By about age 10 months, a trained ear can identify the language of the household by listening to an infant’s babbling. Around the first birthday, most children enter the one-word stage, and by their second birthday, they are uttering two-word sentences. This two-word stage is characterized by telegraphic speech. This soon leads to their uttering longer phrases (there seems to be no “three-word stage”), and by early elementary school, they understand complex sentences.
• #112: Representing the nurture side of the argument, behaviorist B. F. Skinner argued that we learn language by the familiar principles of association (of sights of things with sounds of words), imitation (of words and syntax modeled by others), and reinforcement (with success, smiles, and hugs after saying something right). Challenging this claim, and representing the nature side of the debate, Noam Chomsky notes that children are biologically prepared to learn words and use grammar (they are born with what Chomsky called a language acquisition device already in place). He argues that children acquire untaught words and grammar at too fast a rate to be explained solely by learning principles. Moreover, there is a universal grammar that underlies all human language. Cognitive neuroscientists suggest that the statistical analysis that children perform during life’s first years is critical for the mastery of grammar. Skinner’s emphasis on learning helps explain how infants acquire their language as they interact with others. Chomsky’s emphasis on our built- in readiness to learn grammar helps explain why preschoolers acquire language so readily and use grammar so well. Nature and nurture work together. Childhood does seem to represent a critical (or “sensitive”) period for certain aspects of learning. Research indicates that children who have not been exposed to either a spoken or signed language by about age 7 gradually lose their ability to master any language. Learning a second language also becomes more difficult after the window of opportunity closes. For example, adults who attempt to master a second language typically speak it with the accent of their first. Con against Skinner: How can children make up new sentences without hearing them first? Con against Chomsky: How does the LAD work, where is it located?
• #113: Although Benjamin Whorf’s linguistic determinism hypothesis suggests that language determines thought, it is more accurate to say that language influences thought. Language expresses our thoughts, and different languages can embody different ways of thinking. Many bilinguals report that they have a different sense of self, depending on which language they use. We use language in forming categories, and words can influence our thinking about colors. Perceived differences grow when we assign different names to colors. Given the subtle influence of words on thinking, we ought to choose our words carefully. Studies of the effects of the generic pronoun he and the abili- ty of vocabulary enrichment to enhance thinking reveal the influence of words. We might say that our thinking influences our language, which then affects our thoughts.
• #119: The shooting of the psychologist was terrible.