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Unit 1 COGNITION—overview and review of concepts and terms (not ALL)
INTRODUCTION to MEMORY
Memory -- process by which we encode, store and retrieve information…an indication learning has
persisted over time
 Encoding: how information is initially recorded in a form usable to memory
 Storage: maintenance of material saved in the memory system
 Retrieval: material in memory is located, brought into awareness and used
How does information enter our memory?
3-Stage Processing Model of Memory – Atkinson & Shiffrin
1. Sensory Memory – initial, momentary storage of information – lasts only an instant (approximately a
second)
o Allows us to take in all information and decide if it is important enough for us to pay attention
o If information is not passed on, it is lost
Short-term Memory – memory that holds meaningful information for a relatively short period of
time, usually less than 30 seconds
o Has a limited capacity of 7 (+/- 2) items
 Can store more than that if information is “chunked”
o Information will leave ST memory if it is not rehearsed
 Rehearsal (repetition of information) will keep information in the ST memory and is necessary for
information to be transferred into long-term memory
2.
3.
o
o
Long-term Memory – memory that stores information on a relative permanent basis
Has an apparently limitless capacity
Information in LT memory is filed and coded so we can retrieve it when needed
New theories incorporated ST memory into working memory
 Working Memory: an active “workspace” in which information is retrieved and manipulated, and in
which information is held through rehearsal
o There is a “central executive” that is involved in making decisions and reasoning – it
coordinates two distinct storage-rehearsal systems:
 Visual store – specializes in visual and spatial information
 Verbal store – responsible for material related to speech, words and numbers
ENCODING
How do we get information into our memory?
2 types of encoding…
1. Automatic – happens unconsciously (or it occurs with little or no effort)
 Automatically encode information related to:
o Space
o Time
o Frequency
 Difficult to shut off because not really even aware that we are doing it
2.

Effortful – requires attention and conscious effort
Usually requires rehearsal

Memory effects
o
o
o
Next-in-line effect
Spacing effect
Serial position effect

What we encode

Ways to increase our effortful encoding (in other words, ways to get more/better information into
our memories)
o Mnemonic devices
 Method of loci
 Peg-word
o Chunking
 Acronym
MEMORY – Storage
Where are memories stored?
o Memory Trace – the physical record of memory in the brain
 Changes occur in the synapses to “form” memories…the synapses become more
efficient at transmitting signals which strengthen the message
o
Memories do not exist in ONE place in the brain, but reside all over the brain
 It depends upon the nature of the material being learning…information storage appears
to be linked to the sites in the brain where the processing of that information occurs
o
Certain structures of the brain do play vital roles in memory
 Hippocampus aids in the initial encoding of information, especially explicit
memories…it then passes it along to the cerebral cortex

Amygdala too plays a role in emotionally-charged memories -- seems to boost activity
in brain’s memory-forming areas
Types of memories
o Implicit: memories that you are not consciously aware of
o Explicit: intentional or conscious recollection of information
o Procedural: memory for skills and habits
o Declarative: memory for factual information like names, faces, dates, etc.
 Semantic – memory for general knowledge and facts about the world

Episodic – memory for the biographical details of our individual lives
Memory -- Retrieval
Retrieving Memories
o Retrieval cues: stimuli that help people get information from long-term memory
o
o

Remember…retrieval cues are only as good as the memory itself
 If you want to store new information in your long-term memory, you must make
it meaningful while it is in your working memory…or else you won’t be able to
retrieve it later

Types of retrieval
 Recall – ability to retrieve information with no or small cues

Recognition – ability to retrieve information by identifying if you have been
exposed it before

Relearning – when re-exposed to information, we will relearn it faster
Priming – use words or concepts to help you recall related information activation
 “memoryless memory” -- priming is often done without our conscious awareness, yet it
predisposes us to interpret or recall information in a certain way
Other factors influencing retrieval
 Context

Mood

TOT (tip-of-tongue) phenomenon – inability to recall a word, while knowing it is in
memory
FORGETTING and MEMORY CONSTRUCTION
Why do we forget?
 Encoding failure
 Storage decay
 Retrieval failure
 The memories are there…just cannot get them out
 Interference – learning of one item displaces or blocks out other information
o Proactive interference: old information interferes with remembering new
information
o

Retroactive interference: learning of new information interferes with recall of
older information
Motivated forgetting – we don’t remember items we don’t want to remember
o Repression: basic defense mechanism in which anxiety-producing thoughts and
feelings are banished from consciousness
Amnesia
 Partial or complete loss of memory
 Causes
 Physiological
 Psychological

Types

Anterograde amnesia - Inability to remember ongoing events after the item that caused
the amnesia
Retrograde amnesia - Inability to remember events that occurred before the item that
caused the amnesia
Memory Construction
o memories are often influenced by the meaning that we give to events – they are not always 100%
accurate


Misinformation effect: incorporating misleading information into ones memory of an event

Source amnesia: attributing to the wrong source an event that we have experienced, heard about,
read about or imagined

We can’t always be 100% sure of a memory by how real it feels…often times false memories feel like
real memories…our brain can tell the difference, but we can’t

Eye-witness testimony (Elizabeth Loftus) – often full of errors
o One reason is that the specific wording of police or attorneys can affect the way
the person recalls information (priming)…children are especially vulnerable to
the influence of others
o Does this mean you should NEVER trust eye-witness testimony???
Ways to improve memory
o Study repeatedly to boost LT recall
o Spend more time rehearsing or actively thinking about material
o Make material personally meaningful
o To remember lists, use mnemonic devices
o Refresh memory by activating retrieval cues
o Recall events while fresh
o Minimize interference
o To test knowledge, rehearse it and determine what you don’t know
THINKING
How do we think?
o Concepts: mental groupings of objects, events or people that are similar
 Allow us to classify newly encountered objects on the basis of our past experience
 Prototypes: typical, highly representative example of a concept

Concepts are tend to be mentally represented as schemas (generalizations developed about
categories of objects, events and people)
 Schemas help us understand what the concept is and often cause us to generate
expectations about what that concept does
How do we solve problems?
o Algorithm – a rule that, if applied properly, guarantees a solution to a problems
o
Heuristic – a cognitive shortcut that MIGHT lead to a solution
 Enhance the likelihood of success, but cannot assure it
o
Insight – sudden awareness of how items are related and seeing the solution to the problem
 You often need some prior experience and initial trial-and-error to gain insight
Obstacles to solving problems/making decisions
o Mental set: tendency for old patterns of problem solving to persist, and make it impossible for us to
see new ways to solve the problem
 Functional fixedness – tendency to think of an object only in terms of its typical use
o Confirmation bias: the want to confirm rather than refute the ideas that we already have
o
o
While a heuristic often helps us solve problems, it can also bias our judgment
 Representativeness heuristic -- cognitive shortcut for judging the how well an item fits its
prototype
 It allows people to make quick judgments…but those judgments are often wrong as you
often ignore all other relevant information
 Availability heuristic -- cognitive shortcut in which the probability of an event by how easily the
event can be brought to mind
 You choose the alternative that is most mentally “available”
Overconfidence: the tendency to be more confident than correct
 People often overestimate the accuracy of their own beliefs or decisions – it happens all the
time in many different situations
o
Framing: the way an issue is presented
 Can have a profound effect on judgment
o
Belief perseverance: clinging to one’s initial beliefs even when presented with contrary evidence
LANGUAGE and THOUGHT
Building blocks for language
1. Phonemes – set of basic sounds, smallest distinct sound unit
Morphemes – smallest unit of language that carries meaning
2.
o
Grammar – system of rules for a language
Semantics: rules governing meaning of words and sentences
o
Syntax: rules that indicate how words and phrases can be combined to form sentences
3.
Language acquisition
o Babbling stage – usually begins around 3-4 months
 Make speech-like but meaningless sounds
o One-word stage – usually around a year
 Begin saying actual words…in English, they are typically short words that start with a
consonant like b, d, m, p or t
 HOWEVER…children are capable of understanding quite a bit of the language they hear
at and before this stage
o Two-word stage (telegraphic speech) – usually around two years old
 Children begin to produce short sentences, usually consisting of a noun and a verb
Explaining language acquisition
o Skinner – learning-theory approach
 Learn to talk through operant conditioning – children learn to speak by being rewarded for
making sounds that approximate speech with language ultimately sounding more and more
like adult speech
o Chomsky
 Believes that humans are born with an innate linguistic capability
 Supports this idea with the idea that languages have a universal grammar (similar
underlying structure of all world languages)
 And believes in the presence of a language acquisition device (a neural system of the
brain for understanding language) that is “switched on” by exposure to language in our
environment
Language and Thinking – Which comes first?
o
Benjamin Whorf
 linguistic relativity hypothesis – language shapes the way we think and perceive the
world
o
Yet we also think without using language at all (mental images/cognitive maps)…so most
psychologists believe that it is probably our thoughts that influence our language