Download Unit 5 Review Memory Thinking and Language

Unit 5 Review Sheet
Memory & Thinking and Language
Memory
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Flashbulb memory- a clear moment of an emotionally significant moment or event.
encoding – get info into the brain
o iconic or visual encoding
o echoic or acoustic encoding
o semantic encoding – encoding meaning
o automatic processing – unconscious encoding of information about space, time, and frequency that occurs without
interfering with our thinking about other things
o effortful processing – encoding that requires attention
Examples of how to help/hurt this:
 Rehearsal
 Next in line effect
 Info presented about an hour before sleep is remembered well (not minutes before though)
 Spacing effect - we retain better when our rehearsal is distributed over time
 Serial position effect- we remember items at the beginning and end of a list better
Storage– retaining information
Retrieval – get info back later on after it has been stored
Short term memory or working memory – can only hold a limited amount (7 +/- 2) of information for about 30 seconds. You
can hold it longer if you rehearse. We can increase the capacity of STM by chunking (grouping information in meaningful units)
Long term memory – unlimited and relatively permanent. Divided into two parts
o Explicit or Declarative – Long term memory of facts and experiences we consciously know and can verbalize
 processed by the hippocampus
o Implicit or Non-declarative – LTM for skills and procedures to do things.
 classical and operant conditioning effects (automatic associations between stimuli) – processed by
the cerebellum
Visual encoding: We tend easily remember mental pictures. Mnemonic devices – memory aids that especially use vivid imagery
and organizational devices (peg words)
Retrieval cues: reminders associated with information we are trying to get out of memory – aid in remembering
Brain areas and memory:
o Hippocampus: new explicit memories of names, images, and events are laid down here (damage here can hurt
memories learned about a month prior but long term memories are still intact).
o Cerebellum: processed new memories for skills and conditioned associations.
o Amygdala: emotional memories
o Frontal Lobe- short term memory
Proactive interference – occurs when something you learned earlier disrupts your recall of something you experience later
(forward acting)
Retroactive interference – occurs when new info makes it harder to recall something you learned earlier (backward acting)
Mood congruent memory– we recall experiences better that are consistent with our moot at retrieval (you remember happy
memories when you are happy better)
Context Effect – being in the environment in which you learned something helps you to remember
Misinformation effect– occurs when we incorporate misleading information into or memory of an event - Elizabeth Loftus
(page389)
Source Amnesia - Attributing a memory to the wrong source.
Retrograde and Anterograde Amnesia
LANGUAGE:
 Building blocks
o Phonemes: basic sound unit - example: CAT has 3; STAY has 3; COIN has 3; WHERE has 2 (see phonemes
handout from earlier in the year)
o Morphemes: smallest meaningful unit s of speech (words, prefixes, suffixes, etc.) – examples: apple = 1;
apples = 2; previewed = 3; subway = 2
 Grammar: rules that determine how sounds and words can be combined and used to communicate meaning
o Syntax: the set of rules that regulates the order in which words can be combined into grammatically
sensible sentences. Example: does the verb come before or after the adjective?
o Semantics: the set of rules that enables us to drive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences.
Example: we know that adding “ed” to the end of the word makes it past tense.
 Language Development:
o Babbling Stage: starting at 3-4 months, the infant makes spontaneous sounds. Not limited to the
phonemes of the infant’s household language.
o One-word stage: 1-2 years old, uses one word to communicate big meanings.
o Two word stage: at age 2, uses two words to communicate meanings- called telegraphic speech.
o Overgeneralization or overregulation: when kids apply grammatical rules without making appropriate
exceptions. Example: “I tooked a cookie.”
 Language Acquisition: Nature vs. Nurture
o Biological predisposition argument (the Nature side): Chomsky argued that kids are prewired to learn
language. He says that overgeneralization is proof b/c kids say all kinds of sentences that they have never
heard before so it can’t be simply repetition of others. He also believes in a critical period for language
development. He believes that kids have to be exposed to language before adolescents to be able to learn a
language
o Behaviorists’ argument (the Nurture side): Skinner said kids learn language through association,
reinforcement, and imitation. He said that anytime kids utter a phoneme that is close to a word, they get
reinforced for that and so SHAPING takes place.
 Linguistic relativity hypothesis: Whorf said that our language guides and determines our thinking. He thought
different languages can cause people to view the world very differently. Example: Hopi tribe has no past tense so
they rarely think of the past. This idea has been somewhat disproven. He says your environment affects how you
use language.
 Language disorders
o Aphasia: absence of some part of the ability to use language
o Broca’s Aphasia: inability to produce fluent speech
o Wernicke’s Aphasia: inability to comprehend speech
THINKING
 Metacognition: thinking about how you think
 Categorizing:
o Concepts: A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas or people. Concepts are similar to Piaget’s
idea of schemas. (These are all dogs even though they are different sizes and look very different)
o Prototype: A mental image or best example of a category. The closer something is to our prototype the
easier it is to recognize it. Example: it is hard to think of a tomato as a fruit b/c it doesn’t fit our prototype.
 Problem-Solving:
o Algorithm: slow, step by step procedure used to solve problems. It usually guarantees a solution but it takes
a long time.
o Heuristic: mental shortcuts to solve problems.
o Insight: sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem
 Obstacles to Problem Solving:
o Fixation: an inability to look at a problem from a fresh perspective.
 Mental set: a kind of fixation. It is a tendency to approach the problem in the same way that has
been successful previously
 Functional fixedness: The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions.
o Heuristics:
 Availability heuristic: estimating the probability of certain events in terms of how readily they come
to mind. Example: more people are afraid of airplanes than cars but you’re much more likely to be
in a car accident than a plane accident
 Representative heuristic: a mental shortcut by which a new situation is judged by how well it
matches a stereotypical model or a particular prototype. Example: this lady loves books and hates
loud noises so most people assume she is a librarian but chances are she is a beautician b/c there
are many more beauticians than librarians.
o Framing: refers to the way a problem is posed. How an issue is framed can significantly affect people’s
perceptions, decisions, and judgments
 Biases:
o Confirmation Bias: tendency to search for and use information that supports our preconceptions and ignore
information that refutes our ideas
o Belief Perseverance: A tendency to hold on to a belief after the basis for the belief is discredited
o Belief Bias: the tendency for our preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning, making illogical conclusions
seem valid or logical conclusions seem invalid.
o Hindsight Bias: a tendency to falsely report, after the vent, that we correctly predicted the outcome of an
event.
o Overconfidence bias: a tendency to underestimate the extent to which our judgments are erroneous
(wrong)
 Reasoning:
o Inductive Reasoning: the construction of conclusions from particular examples
o Deductive Reasoning: Deciding whether a conclusion can be drawn from the premises or facts.