exam 3 study guide exp3604

Distinguish between schemas and scripts. Explain how the two are connected.

- A script is a well-structured series of steps that we are familiar with in certain settings. It is a type of schema - Schema is our generalized information about events, people, or objects

Differentiate between abstraction and verbatim memory. When might it be important to use each?

- Abstraction takes the gist of the meaning of a message whereas verbatim memory takes it word-for-word.

Which level category out of the 3 stated in the previous question is most likely to produce the semantic priming effect? Why?

- Basic level category because priming with basic-level names (apple) is more specific than superordinate names (fruit) but not too specific like subordinate (green apple)

Provide your own explanation for the exemplar approach with your own exemplars.

- Birds: penguin vs robin (bad and good)

What cognitive skills might experts take advantage of more than non-experts when faced with problems?

- Experts use the means-end heuristic more effectively - Experts are able to identify the structural features more effectively. - Experts use parallel processing much more effectively - Experts can monitor their problem-solving time more effectively and can judge how hard it is.

How is attention and problem-solving interrelated when understanding problems?

- In order to understand and properly represent a problem, you have to use your attention to decide what information from the problem is important. Divided attention can cause issues with problem solving since there are distractors

Differentiate between insight and non-insight problems.

- Insight problems are solved spontaneously and does not benefit from top-down processing whereas non-insight is gradual and benefits from top-down processing.

Explain how overactive top-down processing could occur when solving problems.

- Mental set: we keep using the same problem-solving skills as before even though they're not as efficient or superior to the alternative

How might our life experiences, values, and culture create biased schemas? What implications might this have on our memory integration?

- Our experiences, values, and culture causes us to encode information that benefits and supports our previous experiences, etc. so that it is schema consistent. We tend to want everything to relate to ourselves so we encode things that fit our beliefs and attitudes even if it's not the truth

How can gender stereotypes influence one's implicit memory? Think about other stereotypes and their influence on implicit memory as well.

- Stereotype inconsistent words trigger changes in ERPs and stereotype consistent pairing are done faster than stereotype-inconsistent pairings in the IATS

What purpose do schemas serve?

- They act as a way for us to efficiently organize and apply information about our world so that we can recall information easier when its consistent with our schema

How can schemas lead to errors?

- They can be overgeneralized and biased so people are likely to make schema-consistent errors or encode things a different way based on their schema

What contribution did Gestalt psychologists make in the area of insight problems.

- They emphasized insight problems because they emphasize the whole not the parts.

How do schemas held us encode new information?

- We encode generic stuff about situations and use it to remember new examples of a schema - People also tend to remember schema-consistent information rather than schema-inconsistent information

Describe hill-climbing heuristic in your own words.

- When we are faced with two solutions to a problem, we tend to think that the most direct one is the right solution even though the indirect one may be the one that is the most beneficial in the long term.

Explicit memory task

- a memory task where participants know that the goal is to test their memory recall

Schema

- a mental framework used for organizing and interpreting generalized knowledge about a situation, event, or person

Insight problem

- a problem where it seems impossible until you suddenly get the solution

Noninsight problem

- a problem where the solution is found gradually or step by step

Problem isomorphs

- a set of problems that have the same underlying structures and solutions but different details

exemplar

- a specific example of a concept

Algorithm

- a step-by-step problem solving technique that always finds an answer but could be inefficient

Script

- a type of schema that describes series of steps in a well-structured sequence associated with a familiar event

Node

- a unit or concept located in semantic memory - when a node is activated, it spreads to other nodes

Functional fixedness

- assigning a stable use to an object and failing to realize that the object can be useful for other purposes

Top-down processing

- cognitive processing that occurs with an emphasis of expectations, concepts, and memory

Bottom-up processing

- cognitive processing that occurs with an emphasis of sensory stimuli

Expertise

- consistent exceptional performance on representative tasks in a particular area

Understanding

- constructing a mental representation of the problem based on the info you're given and ur own experience

Means-end heuristic

- dividing a problem into subproblems that can reduce the distance between the initial state and the goal state - identifies the ends and the means it takes to reach it - sometimes has to go backwards before forward

family resemblance

- each example has at least one attribute in common with some other example of a concept

Problem solving

- finding away around an obstacle to reach a certain goal but the solution is not immediately obvious

Heuristic

- general rule where you ignore some alternatives and only explore alternatives likely to produce a solution

Heuristic

- general rule/shortcut that can typically be accurate - ie: schema

Gender stereotypes

- generalized beliefs about the characteristics of males and females

Thinking

- going beyond the information given to reach a certain goal like a solution, decision, or belief

Abstraction

- memory process where we store the meaning of a message rather than word for word (the gist)

basic-level categories

- moderately specific categories that is most preferred when describing something

Surface features

- most obvious elements that make up a problem, doesn't lead to the solution - ie: looking at the behaviors of a liar

subordinate-level categories

- most specific level of categorization that activates the parietal region

episodic memory

- our knowledge about events that happen to us

prototype

- our mental image of an idealized/best example of a representative of a category (can be nonexistent)

concept

- our mental representation (knowledge and ideas) about a category - ie: fruits are sweet.

semantic memory

- our organized knowledge about the world (encyclopedic knowledge)

Boundary extension

- our tendency to remember seeing the full picture even when there were some objects not visible to us

Constructive model of memory

- people integrate information from individual sentences in order to combine them into larger ideas - issue is that we cant untangle each idea once we combine them

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

- people mentally pair related words together much easier than unrelated words - ie: we pair stereotypes together closer

semantic priming effect

- people respond faster to an item if they were shown an item that had a similar meaning - prototypes are judged more quickly - ie: red swatch before different shades of red (some prototypical, some not) - ie: family feud: stars leads to space, etc.

Pragmatic view of memory

- people tend to pay attention to the most important aspects of a message

category

- physical group where we place related items together like fruits or furniture

Network Models

- proposes that our semantic memory is a netlike organization of concepts with many connections - the meaning of a concept can activate other concepts that its connected to

inference

- refers to logical interpretations and conclusions that we make that goes beyond the information we are given

Matrix

- representation of the problem where all possible combinations are put on a grid

graded structure

- some members of a group are more prototypical than others

exemplar approach

- states that we have stored a bunch of different examples (good and bad) of a category and compare new objects in order to classify them **** exemplars exist

prototype approach

- states that we organize what belongs to a category based off of an idealized or best example of what an item in a category looks like - we then compare an object/concept to our idealized version of an object in the category to determine if it fits

Hill-climbing heuristic

- states that when we reach a choice point, we tend to choose the alternative that seems to go most directly to the goal state (good for short term) - less directive alternative may have better long-term benefits

Fixed mindset

- stuck in a mindset where you dont consider alternatives outside your mindset

proto-typicality

- the degree that an object fits into and represents a category

Stereotype threat

- the phenomenon in which a stereotype about the group a person belongs to affects their performance

Goal state

- the point where you reach the solution to a problem

Initial state

- the point where you recognize there is a problem

Problem representation

- the process of translating elements of the problem into different formats: choosing an appropriate representation to make the solution more likely (symbols, diagrams, matrix, etc.)

Structural features

- the underlying, fundamental elements that make up a problem, leads to the solution - ie: difference between a lie and a truth

Schema therapy

- therapy targeted at altering negative schemas into positive schemas - transforms illogical schemas to positive schemas

Obstacles

- things that get in the way of you solving a problem

Growth mindset

- thinking outside the box and thinking of alternatives outside one mindset

Exhaustive search

- trying to find all possible answers

Analogy approach

- using a solution that worked to a similar, earlier problem to help solve a new problem - emphasizes that we have to look at the structural features

Mental set

- using the same solution from previous problems even though the problem can be solved by an easier method

superordinate-level categories

- very broad form of categorization that activates the pre-frontal cortex

Spreading activation

- when information from one node excites or activates a chain reaction of related nodes

Implicit memory task

- when memory is measured in a subtle way where the participant doesnt know their memory is being observed

Memory integration

- when our background knowledge encourages us to take in new information in a way that fits our pre-existing schemas - ie: sports games

False alarm

- when people "remember" an item that was not originally present (think office schema)

typicality effect

- when we are judging an item based on whether it fits in a category, we judge typical items a lot faster than atypical items

Verbatim memory

- when we store things word-for-word for recall

Gender stereotypes

- widely shared beliefs about characteristics of males and females

Explain possible advantages/disadvantages of using a heuristic to solve a problem vs using an algorithm.

An algorithm is guaranteed to come up with a solution but it is very inefficient. A heuristic often leads to quick solutions but it can have errors

How is bottom-up processing and top-down processing both used when solving problems?

Bottom-up processing is used with algorithms and the sensory part of reading the problem whereas the use of heuristics is part of top-down processing

Distinguish between a category and a concept. Explain how they are connected

Category is the physical category that we place objects in that are related to each other whereas concepts are the attributes or mental representation we have of a category. We use concepts to place things into categories

How can diagrams be useful for representing problems? What other methods are useful for representing problems? Think about which types of methods would be most appropriate for different types of problems.

Diagrams are useful to clearly represent a large amount of information. For instance, a line graph can allow us to see at what point two lines intersect.

Provide an example of a subordinate-level category and a superordinate category for each basic-level word: guitar, tree, car.

Guitar *Superordinate category: Instrument *Subordinate category: Acoustic Guitar Tree *Superordinate category: Plant *Subordinate category: Palm tree Car *Superordinate category: Vehicle *Subordinate category: Honda

To avoid the social desirability bias and assess participants' true stereotypes, which memory task might be more useful? Implicit or explicit? Why?

Implicit because people can sometimes catch onto explicit memory tasks being used to measure stereotypes and make their answer more socially desirable.

Why is it important for us to categorize things and make inferences in our daily lives?

It helps us understand our world and makes us more efficient at identifying objects without having to use bottom up processing for everything.

What are some important characteristics of prototypes? How are prototypes affected by semantic priming?

Prototypes are our idealized, best example of an object in a category that we use to compare and identify items that belong in a category. They are sometimes non-existent and often share attributes in Prototypes are more easily identifiable when we have information that primes us towards identifying them.

Differentiate between semantic memory and episodic memory

Semantic memory is our "encyclopedia" type memory as it consists of our organized knowledge about the world whereas episodic memory is our memory about events in our life

Give an example of the anology approach. Explain how isomorphs could occur and why.

The Wright brothers used the analogy of a bird to invent the plane. Problem isomorphs are a set of problems with the same underlying structures and solutions but have different details just like that of a bird and a plane.

Compare and contrast the exemplar approach and prototype approach. How might these two approaches coexist? Discuss possible advantages/disadvantages of each

The exemplar approach considers both the most prototypical examples and nonprototypical examples that are realistic whereas the prototype approach uses the most idealized example that may not be realistic. They may coexist bc different categories require different strategies (with few members = exemplar). Advantages/Disadvantages of Exemplar: Good bc it considers both typical and atypical members of a group, but may overpopulate our minds with numerous exemplars Advantages/Disadvantages of Prototype: Good because it doesn't overload your mind but it discards important characteristics of categories

What are some advantages the network models have over the exemplar and/or prototype approach?

The network model combines a variety of approaches like behavioral and neural. It is much more flexible than the exemplar or prototype approach and can determine how you get to a decision.

What do the network models propose?

They propose that our semantic memory is structured in an interconnecting and branching fashion where one thought can activate many other thoughts about a concept.

Describe how family feud illustrates spreading of activation.

When you think about one certain concept, your brain is more activated to start thinking about a chain of similar concepts. ie: stethoscope triggers microscope, telescope, etc.