PSYC213 - Cognition 2

Decay Theory

Forgetting is time-dependent → Memory fades due to the mere passage of TIME.

Overt Rehearsal

Rehearsing an event by talking it out with others (ie. gossiping with friends about the latest tabloids).

Motor-only Performance Feedback (Imagery and Memory)

**By taking away different types of feedback, we can measure the ability of imagery to compensate. Play through the piece of music without hearing the performance → Imagine what it sounds like.

Prosopagnosia

"Face blindness", due to damage to the fusiform face area (FFA).

Patient 'Tan': Broca's Aphasia

- Intact mental functioning, yet could only speak one syllable → 'Tan' - Still tried to communicate, using gestures, TONE, inflection - Autopsy revealed large LESION in the posterior inferior frontal gyrus - More recent studies show this effect is NOT limited to speech → Also seen in sign language

The Misattribution Effect

A failure in source monitoring → Retrieving familiar information from the wrong SOURCE (ie. misremembering when and where you've met someone).

The Birth of the IQ Score: Simon-Binet Test

Alfred Binet developed a test in respond to the French government's request to identify children that needed SPECIAL EDUCATION. **Only later was his tool used as an INTELLIGENCE measure → He believed that intelligence wasn't something that could or should be measured, however. He viewed intelligence as important for: - Practical life - Adapting to circumstances - Judging and reasoning well **According to Binet, he didn't believe this could be captured by a simple pen and paper test.

Propositional Representation Hypothesis

All information is stored as DESCRIPTIVE statements, regardless of the content → Imagery is a by-product.

Self Estimates of Intelligence

American university students estimated their IQ scores and their parents IQ scores: - Compared to males, females UNDERESTIMATED their own IQ scores - Both males and females gave higher IQ estimates to their fathers than mothers **This represents gender bias in how intelligence is viewed → In America, it is viewed as a 'masculine' trait.

Prototype Theory of Category Learning

An approach that is NOT rule-based → Conceptual knowledge and categories are defined by a 'MORE OR LESS' principle. Concepts are formed from EXPERIENCE, by the way we interact with information (Elanor Rosch).

Recognition Heuristic

An easily accessed cue, something that is well RECOGNIZED and will GUIDE choosing between two outcomes → ie. If one object is recognized, but not the other, then go with the recognized object (similar to the availability bias). For example, name recognition of cities can be used to predict population size → Which one is a more populated city between Montreal or Moosejaw → Most say Montreal because it is more recognizable, and this leads to the CORRECT answer.

Relational Concept

An instance must have attributes RELATE to be a concept member → ie. Marriage is defined by the link between two people. **Larger, above, left, North are all relational concepts because they relate two individual concepts to one another.

Conjunctive Concept

An instance must hold ALL the attributes to make it a concept member → ie. A mother is defined as a female AND having a child. ie. Baseballs all have to be round, white and have stitches.

Analogical Problem Solving Examples

Applying the fortress story to the radiation problem → Use low intensity rays and bombard the tumor from multiple directions.

Prospect Theory

Birth of behavioural economics → Two major contributions: - Shape of utility function (how do people understand losses vs. gains) - Shape of probability weighting function (how do people process unlikely vs. likely events) **Describes how people DO act and not how they SHOULD act.

Prototype Theory

Categories are formed from the OVERLAP of concept exemplars extracted from experience. - Each category has a member that is a PROTOTYPE ('best example of a concept') - Items are included in a category around that prototype by RESEMBLANCE - There are NO required features to be a category member (unlike the rule-based approach) The prototype is the 'CLEANEST' example of a category and other category exemplars resemble the prototype → The more OBSCURE exemplars are farther away from the prototype in the network. The TYPICALITY EFFECT is a preference for processing prototypical items compared to more obscure category members. **For example, it's faster to recognize a chick-a-dee as a bird, compared to a penguin (more prototypical).

Sensory Functional Theories

Different concepts are supported by different EMBODIED cognitive processes because of the DEFINING feature. - Living things → visual features (when you think about living things, you activate the visual cortex within your brain) - Inanimate objects → functional features (non-living categories activate motor cortex areas in the brain)

Means-Ends Strategy (Heuristic)

Involves both forward AND backward movements and constantly evaluating the DIFFERENCE between current and goal states → Problem is officially solved once there is no longer a difference between the current and goal state. - Looks for the greatest reduction in this difference while considering the FULL problem space **This is the MOST studied and applicable heuristic.

Linda the Bank Teller Example - Representativeness Bias

Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations. - People often assume Linda is a bank teller AND is active in the feminist movement, due to description provided (instead of merely a bank teller) - However, this violates a basic fundamental rule of probability → In both cases, she's a bank teller, so being MORE specific is false **Conjunction fallacy → A false assumption that more SPECIFIC facts are more likely than general facts (ie. the conjunction of two conditions is more likely than either single condition).

Mental Rotation

Manipulating a mental image in space, in our mind's eye. **People are quite accurate at identifying one object as the same as another through mental rotation. **The speed at which people perform mental rotations depends on how far the object must be rotated. **Although there is suggestion that mental rotation may primarily involve the right hemisphere (images), this may not be entirely supports (ie. just different pattern of activation).

Eye Movements During Reading

One of many ways to measure mental PROCESSES during reading. Participants read sentences naturally while eye movements are monitored: - Eye movements during reading NOT smooth - Eye makes short FIXATIONS separated by jumps (SACCADES) and backtracking (REGRESSIONS) - Eye movements track variables associated with COMPREHENSION ease or difficulty → Fixations increase with word length and decrease with word frequency **Not ALL words are read → We normally fixate about 80% of content words (much lower proportion function words and speed-reading decreases these proportions even more).

Method of Loci (Memory)

Place objects in unexpected locations to remember them better → Imagine yourself walking through the location, "picking them up" along the way. **This makes the objects distinct, bizarre, or humourous among common items.

Chunk Decomposition

SEPARATE a problem into chunks that belong together. **General parts technique.

Embodiment

Simulation is important for CONCEPTUAL processing. Conceptual knowledge is stored as SENSORIMOTOR representations in the brain.

Ill-Defined Problems

Situations that have NO CLEAR PATH or way to move from the problem to the goal state → Goals are a little fuzzy and not completely known. **These are problems that often occur in social scenarios (ie. which courses to take next year or why your friend is upset). - There are FEW task constraints and limitations for how to solve the problem - There can be MULTIPLE solutions

Memory Schemas

Stored INFORMATION extracted from OVERLAPPING experiences → Helps organize information at quick retrieval.

Schemas Impair Veridical Memory

Study scenes associated with a schema, with some schema-consistent items REMOVED (ie. classroom without a chalkboard). Auditory word recognition test for: - Studied items → Student desks - Not studied but are schema-related lures → Chalkboard - Not studied and non-schema-related items → Ball **Although the chalkboard was missing in the scene, almost the same number of participants mentioned its presence as the desks, due to their schematic interpretation.

Verbal Paraphasia

Substitutes a WORD with something semantically related. - Shares meaning with intended word - For example, swapping the term brother with sister

Neologism Paraphasia

Substitutes with a MADE-UP word. - For example, the term webinar used for an online seminar - Another example, pointing to shoes and patient labels them as 'feet-houses'

Phonemic Paraphasia

Substituts or adds speech SOUNDS. - Also called LITERAL - Shares sounds with intended word - For example, calling crab salad: Sad cralad

State-Dependent Learning (EXTERNAL context)

Tested deep sea divers in two encoding conditions and two retrieval conditions (matched and mismatched states, learning either in the water or on land). **Those in matched states had better memory recall. **Context takes up a lot of space in our memories, making it a really good queue to help trigger remembering.

Surface Similarity

The SURFACE details of a problem (specific elements) are similar → The parts of the problem look the SAME. For example, two people with similar haircuts. **Both surface and structural similarity can facilitate problem solving, however this type of similarity will facilitate it to a greater degree (easier to see the links).

Tip of the Finger Phenomenon

The TOT phenomenon can always occur in SIGN language. Deaf signers asked to name famous faces or countries → The signers reported knowing the name, but not remembering the full sign. **The signers could remember some components of the sign (ie. shape of the hands, but not how to orient them).

Limited Transfer Between Domains

The ability to chunk information is RESTRICTED to what the individual is an expert in. For example, just because Snoop Dogg is an expert lyricist, does not mean he is an expert baker.

Bilingualism

The ability to communicate in any TWO languages. It entails: - Full proficiency in all aspects of both languages, such as reading, writing, speaking and listening - Regular use of the two languages - Minimum proficiency in another language **It depends on the person classifying bilingualism, as it can change amongst individuals.

Psycholinguistics

The branch of cognitive psychology interested in how we comprehed, produce, acquire and represent LANGUAGE.

Hot-Hand Belief - Gambler's Fallacy

The hot-hand belief is thinking that a person who experiences success will keep having success, despite the behaviour actually being random → "On a roll", "winning streak". ie. The assumption that a basketball player who just made a basket is more likely to make the next basket. Experiment: - Shooting patterns among NBA players analyzed and found making a basket is RANDOM, with no evidence of winning streaks - Also surveyed basketball fans about player's shooting abilities and found 91% of fans thought that a player is more likely to make a shot after making 2 shots than after missing a shot - Just because something FEELS true, doesn't mean it is true

Anterograde Amnesia

The inability to form NEW episodic memories → Therefore, information can not be moved from short-term to long-term memory.

Childhood Amnesia

The inability to retrieve memories before an early age in childhood. Freud's view → Memories are repressed and transformed. The language hypothesis → Language is critical for organizing personal memories (however not developed in children until later) Immature brain hypothesis → Hippocampus and prefrontal structures are not yet fully developed (necessary for formation of episodic memories).

Forming a Prototype

Training phase → Participants asked to classify patterns of dots that were variants of a prototype (however not the actual prototype). Test phase → Classify studied patterns, new variations and the prototype variants. **During the test, participants were WORSE at classifying new variations → However, prototype patterns were just as easily classified as the previously studied patterns (proof that prototype had been formed in their heads, without having seen it).

Flashbulb Memories

VIVID memories of SIGNIFICANT events (ie. emotionally arounsing or shocking) → Ability to remember specific details when hearing specific news. For example, where were you, and what were you wearing, when you heard news of the 9/11 attack? **This type of memory, however, can CHANGE over time subconsciously (ie. one year you remember wearing a green shirt, then the next you say it was white). **This type of memory contains a prediction error, as these events are unexpected.

Do Gestures Affect the Way People Mentally Represent Concepts?

i) Learn the tower of hanoi test → Move disks from one peg to another ii) Explain and perform gestures of the solution → How exactly they moved the pegs from one to another, using hand gestures (EMBODIMENT) iii) Re-do the tower of hanoi test with a set that matched or mismatched gestures → Using same or different-weighted disks (not matching initial gestures) Results: - If gestures did NOT match how to solve the second trial of the tower of hanoi (ie. disks were heavier), performance was IMPAIRED - People 'STORED' their solutions in the gestures used to describe them → Gesturing grounds people's mental representations in ACTION

Professor François Grosjean (Bilingualism)

"A bilingual is not the sum of two complete or incomplete monolinguals. Rather, he or she has a unique and specific linguistic configuration." - Same fundamental MILESTONES for bilinguals as monolinguals (ie. babbling) - Current views about code-switching → Actually requires high PROFICIENCY in both languages to switch seamlessly (ie. Franglais) - Cognitive abilities help separate two languages, or exploit overlap

Intelligence According to Einstein

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowing, but imagination" → According to Einstein, intelligence is a measure of CREATIVITY and not just a stockpile of what you know.

Amusia

"Tone deafness", due to anomalies in the superior temporal gyrus (STG). **People with amusia have been shown to also have deficits in visual/spatial imagery → Therefore, imagery in different sensory domains may interact with one another.

Auditory-only Performance Feedback (Imagery and Memory)

**By taking away different types of feedback, we can measure the ability of imagery to compensate. Hear the piece of music only → Imagine what the movements feel like.

No Performance Feedback (Imagery and Memory)

**By taking away different types of feedback, we can measure the ability of imagery to compensate. Imagine what the piece of music sounds like, and what the movements feel like.

Normal Performance Feedback (Imagery and Memory)

**By taking away different types of feedback, we can measure the ability of imagery to compensate. Play normally through the piece of music.

Defining a Problem: Expertise Study

- 80 participants → Four groups defined by area of study (art or science) and expertise level (critically acclaimed or not) - All were given ambiguous problems to solve - The experts devoted more time to DEFINING the problem, compared to the non-experts, who spent more time trying to develop a solution Conclusion → Experts DIFFER in general problem-solving, as they spend more time defining a problem before actually solving it.

Hill Climbing Strategy (Heuristic)

- A DIFFERENCE REDUCTION strategy - Select the operation that would bring you closer to the end goal without examining the WHOLE problem space → Only focusing on one step at a time, with the goal state in mind - Look for the operator in your problem space that is closest to the goal → Move in that same direction (ie. goal to get to top of the hill, just move UP - same direction) - Foothill problem → Since you don't consider the FULL problem space, you may think you have reached your goal but it is merely a 'local maxima' **When solving a problem, it's not always linear, there are some ups and downs → The hill climbing strategy does NOT take this into account.

Ad-hoc Categories

- A category invented for a SPECIFIC purpose, occasion or goal **For example, "think of something that can catch on fire" → Not typically thought of, but can search for an example in conceptual knowledge - Similar characteristics (ie. graded structure) to other basic prototype categories - Indicates we can use concepts flexibly → Think creatively

Prospect Theory - Real-life Example

- At a pizza parlor, ready to eat pizza - You can map pizza to satisfaction you get from it (utility function) - Being given 1 pizza slice is worth more to you when you had none than when you have 12 - Happiness (utility) of receiving a slice of pizza is LESS than the sadness (disutility) after giving a slice away → Loss looms larger than gains

Concept Formation - Probability-Based Approaches

- Concepts and categories are formed through EXPERIENCE - The prototype theory

Perceptual Symbols System

- Concepts are NOT amodal representations, meaning they're not common across multiple senses - Perception and concept formation work together - 'Perceptual SYMBOLS' are the way we use our brains to retrieve knowledge - ACTIVATING a concept will engage senses/perceptions to simulate the concept based on goals of the current task Property verification tasks → Verify if the perceptual property FITS with the object/concept. **People are faster if a previous trial was in the same modality → Evidence that we recruit concept attributes based on senses/perceptions. ie. Rusting of leaves → Loud blender vs. Green apple → Loud blender.

Concept Formation - Rule-Based Approaches

- Concepts are collections of necessary and sufficient FEATURES related to a category Bruner's approach: - Concepts result from LOGICAL inferences (ie. learning rules) - These rules describe concepts as made up of ATTRIBUTES → Attributes are features that are expressed as different values by category members **For example, if fur is an attribute for a dog, and you see something with fur, it may or may not be a dog. **First, establish a concept by forming hypotheses about the combination of attributes defining a concept → Next, refine hypotheses with test results.

Embodied View of Concepts

- Concepts are formed as function of the ENVIRONMENT and GOALS → They are not abstract understandings, they are embodiments - Concepts are STORED within sensory-MOTOR, emotional, and other, cognitive processes

Some Problems with Prototypes

- Does not account for how context can determine a concept → For example, is a harmonica an instrument? Maybe by a campfire, yes, but in terms of the orchestra, no **Therefore, answering this question might depend where you are when the question is being asked.

Lexical Disadvantages of Bilingualism

- English learners of Spanish (4-5 semesters) - Immersed group (n = 25) vs. classroom group (n = 20) - Immersion helped the L2, but hindered the L1 **Possibility that application of inhibitory control to the native language impedes word production.

Soccer Field Example - Gambler's Fallacy

- Examined videos of penalty shootouts from FIFA World cup - Goalkeepers would dive to a DIFFERENT side of teh net across penalty kicks, as they anticipated a difference after a 'streak' of kicks → 70% likelihood to lean to a different side after three 'streaks'

The Levels of Concepts: Inclusivity

- General to SPECIFIC → Concept exemplars (attributes of a concept) are stored in relation to one another (along two dimensions, one among inclusivity) Favor the BASIC level of concepts: - It is how we naturally speak (ie. furniture → CHAIR → kitchen chair) - Reflects cognitive economy - A behavioural advantage for classifying at the basic level - Children learn concepts at a basic level first (SUBORDINATE level → lowest degree of concept inclusion, most specific)

Well-Defined Problem Features

- Goal directedness → The processes engaged are to achieve a PRE-SET GOAL (don't have to waste mental energy trying to figure out what the goal is) - Sequential operations → The processes engaged are done in a SEQUENCE of steps - Many cognitive operations → Distinct cognitive PROCESSES are used for these distinct steps (it's not about using memory or attention, but bringing all of these cognitive resources together) - Subgoal decomposition → There are INTERMEDIATE goals to achieve a solution or a nested structure (breaking a bigger problem into smaller ones → ie. in sudoku, start with just rows, THEN 3x3 squares)

The Life of H.M.

- He could not remember the people, places, and objects he saw, even after repeated encounters (experience of amnesia) - He forgot conversations - He could not remember what he had eaten that day, or if he had eaten at all - He had difficulty describing experiences that had occurred from his life

We Are Born Logical Reasoners

- Infants watched animations of two objects with similar tops - The two objects were placed behind a screen → One was 'scooped' up and placed in a bucket with only the top visible - The screen was lowered to show the other object → Infant should use LOGIC to infer that the non-shown object was in the bucket (the object in the bucket is the one NOT seen behind the screen) - To test this, the object in the bucket was then shown → Infants looked longer at the object during this test phase ONLY when it was inconsistent with logical deduction **Therefore, babies DO have logical reasoning abilites.

Noam Chomsky

- Language is INNATE → Children learn language quickly and easily (innateness hypothesis) - The importance of studying the structure of GRAMMAR (syntax) → "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" has the right syntax, but actually no meaning → Theory of transformational grammar

What Happens When We Categorize

- Learned categorical PERCEPTION → Perceptions become distorted, based on categorical knowledge (ie. similar impact as schemas on perception) - Categories create BOUNDARIES between groups → When categorizing, boundaries are formed between collections of instances, pushing groups apart from one another - Between-category SEPARATION → Members of different categories begin to look more distinct (ie. tropical fruits vs. forest-based fruits are seen as more distinct from one another, as the categories are listed) - Within-category COMPRESSION → Members of the same category begin to look more similar **For example, political views → Seeing someone with different political views as more different from yourself than they really are.

Theories of Deductive Reasoning

- MENTAL LOGIC (natural deduction hypothesis) → Reasoners rely on FORMAL rules to reason and make conclusions (follows the rules of Aristoles as "logical computers") - Using IF-THEN rules to guide behaviour (ie. IF I am hungry AND I have money, THEN I can EITHER go to the store OR go to a restaurant) - Context and CONTENT can affect our reasoning - MENTAL MODELS → Reasoners create a description of the world as a mental model (either real or imaginary situations), based on what is known to be true. In doing so, we bring assumptions to mind about how the world works and guide reasoning by principles (NOT rules) **"Logical skeletons of sentences" → This explains why we have problems reasoning with negative examples and why we reason differently with familiar content.

Method of Serial Reproduction (Memory Schemas)

- Participant A recalls the story to participant B - Participant B recalls the story to participant C - Continues as such... (like the game of telephone) **How does the story change across PEOPLE?

How are Flashbulb Memories Remembered?

- Participants asked about 9/11 and other autobiographical ("non-flashbulb") events after 1, 6 and 32 weeks - In terms of consistency, there was NO difference between flashbulb and everyday memories over time - In terms of accuracy and vividness (belief and recollection), the flashbulb memories had greater self-ratings compared to others, however this was not the actual case → Experience of remembering is different **Flashbulb memories feel as though they become more accurate as time passes, however, they become distorted and change just like our everyday memories.

Assessing Risk and Emotion

- Participants read newspaper stories designed to induce positive (happy) or negative (sad) affect - Then, the participants estimated frequencies of death for various causes → High risk (ie. skydiving), non-fatal risk (ie. gambling) and low risk life problems (ie. heart attack) - There were HIGHER estimates of death frequency when people were in a NEGATIVE mood compared to a positive mood

Method of Repeated Reproduction (Memory Schemas)

- Participants read the story - Story is recalled 15 minutes later - Then again, at a later time point - And again at a later time point **How does the story change across TIME?

Proof of Memory Construction

- People asked to draw a bike - These individuals would often forget pedals, how the wheels were attached etc. - This explains how our memories work → We don't store information as literal records, we have to reconstruct the information as it's being retrieved

The Building Blocks of Language

- Phonemes → Smallest linguistic UNITS that combine to form morphemes (/d/, /o/, /g/) - Morphemes → The smallest MEANINGFUL units of language (/dog/) - Syntax → Rules that govern how words are ARRANGED in a sentence - Semantics → The MEANING of words and sentences

How to Differentiate the Two Hypotheses of Interaction of Languages for Bilinguals

- Psycholinguistics came up with clever ways to "trick" participants when they are conducting language studies - In particular they manipulate cross-linguistic differences and similarities to test the consequence of knowing two languages (ie. identifying whether "chat" is a word in English or French language) - Record how these words are "processed" (ie. reaction times, accuracy)

Experiment on Forming and Breaking Habits

- Rats trained on a T-shaped maze - At the decision point, learned they would be rewarded (ie. sugar water) for turning left or right based on respective tones - When one reward was removed, rats still ran through the maze as determined by the tones - When one reward was mixed with a substance that made the rats sick, they still ran to that reward when hearing the tone → Thereby proving that habits are hard to break. **FORMING habits depends on the striatum, but BREAKING habits depends on the prefrontal cortex → Distinct mechanisms.

Four Features of Insight

- Suddenness → The solution pops into mind with SURPRISE - Ease → The solution comes QUICKLY and fluently (even if the problem is tough, the solution comes easily) - Positive in emotion → A PLEASANT experience (proud of reaching solution with insight) - Confidence → The solution is believed to be appropriate (once determined, very CONFIDENT the solution is correct)

Distortions in Flashbulb Memories

- The 1997 verdict for the O.J. Simpson murder trial was a significant public event - Participants recalled the verdict and rated emotional reaction after 1 day, 15 and 32 months - For 80%, recollection was a flashbulb memory - 50% of recollections at 15 months were inaccurate - 70% of recollections at 32 months were inaccurate - 40% of those memories contained major DISTORTIONS

Bilinguals Vary a Lot

- The abilities you need to be considered bilingual (ie. reading, writing, speaking) - Balanced vs. asymmetric bilingual (in terms of usage or proficiency → Are both languages used equally often throughout life?) Acquisition profile: - Simultaneous → Both languages learned from birth - Sequential (early vs. late) → Second language learned before 7 vs. after 18 years of age

Several Myths about Bilingualism

- Too difficult - Can't separate → Mixing is bad - "Semi-lingualism" (partial knowledge) - Bilingual = Two monolinguals **However, as you gain proficiency in a language, the conceptual LINK becomes stronger (better production of terms in second language) and there is less INTERFERENCE of primary language.

...But We Aren't Always Logical

- We act in a manner that defies logic, failing to use it in everyday decisions and judgements we make → ie. People still text and drive, even knowing the risks - We can make faulty links between events (ie. correlation does not equal causation) - We consider complex ideas/thoughts as 'this' or 'that' → We see things as black and white even if we know this is not how thinking or behaviour works (ie. boiling down COMPLEX preferences - "Do you like cats or dogs")

Rule-Based Approaches: Some Issues

- We don't always explicitly test rules → Some concepts are learned IMPLICITLY - There are not always explicit rules to define a concept → These can change in certaion situations (ie. Professor is not a student in class, but a student in Tai Chi) **Some concepts are 'kind of' part of a category. - Concept rules are too simplistic → Not accurate for complex categories

Structural Level (Shallow Processing)

The physical presentation of a word. **This form of processing doesn't take into account the concept of what's being studied.

Means-End Strategy Steps

1. Set up a GOAL. 2. Look for the DIFFERENCE between that goal and current state, when there is no difference, problem solved! 3. Figure out how many states of differences there are. If there are multiple differences, select the LARGER one to achieve (X). 4. Find the operator or route in problem space that will reduce the differences between X and current state. 5. Repeat steps 1 through 4, until final goal is achieved. For example: - Current state is home alone - Goal state is being with mom at a café - Pick the larger difference (company) and figure out how to reduce other differences (location) - Walk to a café → Condition that the café is walkable will be your new SUBGOAL

Weschler Intelligence Scales

14 separate tests total to compute the FSIQ (full-scale IQ). VIQ (verbal IQ) → Similarities (ie. explain what two words have in common) and vocabulary (ie. define words). PIQ (performance IQ) → Picture completion (ie. determine what is missing from a picture) and picture arrangement (ie. organize pictures in a logical order). **You can compare performance of these subscales to see if one domain outperforms the other (ie. learning disabilities).

Fake News

500 Democrats and Republicans viewed images of real and fake political events. - Democrats had false memories to the fake images of President Bush doing something controversial (republican) - Republicans had false memories to the fake image of President Obama doing something controversial (democrat) **False memories occur more to FAMILIAR information that fits with existing ATTITUDES (biases source judgments) → Therefore, sources are not monitored very well.

Other Means of Distorting Memories

A FAMILIAR feeling can lead to incorrect associations (ie. "false memories"). During memory construction, details can be ADDED to memories while in the process of recollection.

Sternberg's Theory of Intelligence

A PROCESS view of intelligence → The belief that intelligence is not a system or structure that is pre-defined. Intelligence is the mental capacity to AUTOMATIZE information processes (our mental capacity to process particular types of information automatically) → It is using processes in appropriate SETTINGS.

Transformational Grammar

A THEORY that describes linguistic competence, how language is structured and processed by a system of formal rules. We have a FINITE set of grammatical rules that can produce an infinite set of sentences → Application of a set of words to a string of language, altering the meaning. **Sytax rules are often described in tree diagrams. **Finite state grammar is the theory that preceeded this.

Analytic Intelligence

A form of intelligence that involves such mental processes as abstract planning, strategy selection, focused attention, and information processing, as well as verbal and logical skills → Mental steps or "components" used to solve problems. **It is very close to the understanding of G factor.

Reaction Against the Practice Hypothesis

A meta-analysis examples examining the effect of deliberate practice on performance (multiple types of expertise) → Determined the percent of variation in performance that was accounted by practice as very LITTLE. Conclusion → Other factors MUST also determine expertise.

Savant Syndrome

A person who is otherwise limited in mental ability but has exceptional SPECIFIC skills (ie. artistic skills or mathematical ability). **Highly intelligent in one context but not another.

Memory Traces

A physical REPRESENTATION in the brain, of an encountered event → The substrate of a memory. **A hypothetical permanent change in the nervous system, brought about by memorizing something.

What is a Problem?

A problem is when a GOAL has not yet been reached (ie. math problems or real world scenarios). Problems can be defines as a function of how the goal is described → Well-defined vs. ill-defined problems.

Mental Scanning

A process of mental imagery in which a person scans a mental image in his or her mind → Similar to mental rotation, the further the scanning distance, the longer the reaction time.

Finite State Grammar

A rule system for STRINGING together words that operates one word by one word in ONE direction. - There are a finite number of states and transitions between words - Limits the choices for the next state **Modelling this for all the language that we know would be highly INEFFICIENT → Lead to the development of transformational grammar (language represented at different levels).

Synesthesia

A sensory experience in which a stimulus in one sensory modality also invokes a response in one or more other sensory modalities. **Chromesthesia is the most common experience among synethetes → "Hearing colour". **Synesthesia may aid MEMORY in specific cases → ie. Participants with chromesthesia and absolute pitch have reported that their condition aids their memory for specific pitches and music (through association of colour).

The Definition of Language

A shared symbolic system for communication, which allows us to translate thoughts to the public. - SYMBOLIC → Units referencing something else - SHARED → Common among a group of people - Used to COMMUNICATE → Translates thoughts

The Reappearance Hypothesis

A single memory trace is recalled EXACTLY the same way at each retrieval → These traces are stored in fixed forms (memories of unchanging information). In PTSD, recurrent memories are thought to be reinstated unchanged from the original event → Suggests this happend most for highly EMOTIONAL memories. **This is NOT well supported.

Social Contract Theory

A social contract specifies the COSTS and BENEFITS of an arrangement that are used to make deductions. This 'contract' includes a cheat-detection module that is hard-wired (universal) → We use social information to detect cheating and violations in the world, through the implementation of logical reasoning. For example, an under-age person drinking a beer violates a social contract.

Semantic Remembering

A tendency to recall facts and the GENERAL 'idea' or impression of the past → Knowing what happened, but not forming an image of it.

Alternative Uses Test

A test that asks people to list uncommon uses for common objects. **For example, name all the uses for a brick → Door stop, weapon → SCORE them for individuality to determine how CREATIVE an individual's conceptual knowledge is.

Language and Thought are Independent (Nativist View)

A theory that describes the separation between: - Internal speech to monitor private thoughts - External speech to communicate thoughts **External speech is internalized, becomes inner speech in development in which words act as SYMBOLS for thought around age 2 → As a child, these two are independent, then later become DEPENDENT due to internalization. **Language and thought become independent again at age 7, when language aids internal thought, becoming egocentric speech.

Reasoning

A thought process that brings us to a CONCLUSION, whereby we make choices or decisions about something based on INFORMATION presented to us or that we have in our minds. **An assumption is that we reason or judge based on facts and LOGIC. **Reasoning is INFLUENCED by ideas about how things work and our beliefs, even if they might not be correct.

Dissociative Amnesia

A very rare psychiatric disorder that varies in presentation. Commonly RETROGRADE amnesia (for episodic and identity autobiographical information), in response to psychological and/or physical trauma. - Not from brain injury - Not malingering (lying) **This leads to shifts in lifestyle such as moving to a new place, assuming a new identity. - This is a RETRIEVAL deficit, not a storage issue - HYPOMETABOLISM in the prefrontal cortex - Psychological STRESS effects on the frontal executive system that affects access to memory

How to Become an Expert

A view that the most important determinant of expert performace is PRACTICE. The 10-year rule is that it takes roughly 10 years (or 10,000 hours) of intense practice to become an expert in a domain → HOWEVER, many psychologists are against the 10-year rule. "Deliberate practice may be correlated with success because it is a proxy for ability: We stop doing what we do not do well and feel unrewarded for".

Differences in Resting State Connectivity

ANTERIOR middle temporal lobe network → Semantic > episodic. POSTERIOR middle temporal lobe network → Semantic < episodic.

Practical Intelligence

Ability to read and adapt to the CONTEXTS of everyday life → Applying useful knowledge to complete tasks in a particular context. It is situation SPECIFIC → For example, a delivery person can intelligently navigate routes, despite them maybe not having a high IQ score. **Adapting, changing or moving to a new environment to meet one's goals. **What we consider practically intelligent in one culture, may not be considered as such in another → Must take into account the context at multiple levels.

The Weschler Tests

Acknowledges different types of ABILITY that might reflect intelligence, however affected by someone's language ability (solution is Raven's matrix test). SEPARATE intelligence scales for children and adults → WISC (Weschler intelligences scale for children) and WAIS (Weschler adult intelligence scale). Also separate SUBSCALES to measure different types of intelligence → Designed a test to appreciate how complex intelligence really is.

Spreading Activation

Activation in a semantic network spreads from an activated concept (unit) to other semantically-related or INTERCONNECTED units. **For example, if 'Calvin' is brought up, you might think of Hobbs. The more active a unit (concept), the easier related concepts can be processed → SEMANTIC priming. **A lexical decision to a second semantically-related concept is FASTER (primed) than when made after a non-semantically related concept.

Habits (Implicit Memory)

Activities that initially rely on declarative (explicit) memory, but with TRAINING/exposure become habitual and implicit (no longer having to think about completing the task). ie. MOTOR action sequences (remembering phone password by moving fingers over the pad) and REPETITIVE thoughts and emotions (automatic thoughts in relation to presented information). **Habitual acts are related to conditions like obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and addiction.

The Flynn Effect

American's IQ scores INCREASED by three points per decade over the last 100 years → The underlying cause is something that is questioned, as it's likely due to multiple ENVIRONMENTAL factors. These environmental FACTORS could include: - Education → With an increase in educational opportunities, there is also an increase in IQ - Diet and health → Healthier diets lead to better brain HEALTH which leads to increased intelligence (ie. the Mediteranean diet - plant foods and fish, low intake of meat and dairy) → Associated with lower cognitive DECLINE with age (less atrophy in the aging brain with this diet) - Environmental complexity → Post-industrialization focus on abstract and critical THINKING (much more stimulation in the environment nowadays - ie. more options for learning, leading to better IQ scoring) → Socio-environmental improvements that lead to opportunities for learning (ie. video games) → ... and MONEY (Flynn effect is stronger in wealthier countries).

Disjunctive Concept

An instance must hold only ONE attribute to be a concept member → ie. Fame can be defined in different ways (singer vs. actor), an 'either-or' concept. ie. For a strike in baseball, you can either swing and miss OR hit it out of the park.

Analogies in the Real World

Analogies work by making unfamiliar problems become FAMILIAR (form of creativity). They can: - Lead to NEW solutions and creations by drawing parallels between things - Help us navigate new scenarios For example, Steve Jobs used a 'desktop' as an analogy to create the personal computer.

Korsakoff's Syndrome

Antero/retrograde amnesia due to damaged mammillary bodies of the HYPOTHALAMUS (which is connected to the hippocampus). - Chronic alcoholism leads to thiamine deficiency - Personality changes, apathy, and other behaviour changes - Prone to confabulation → Fabrication of memories without awareness ("made-up stories")

Language and Lateralization

Aphasias indicate that language is supported by distributed cerebral network that have functional SPECIALIZATION → This network is LEFT LATERALIZED, as aphasias typically result from left hemisphere damage. - Up to 70% of left-handed people demonstrate left hemisphere language DOMINANCEC - Broader aspects of language are supported by the RIGHT hemisphere, such as speech prosody and pitch to convey intonation, mood, attitude, gestural communcation

Implanting Memories

Asked people to recall childhood experiences recounted by their parents over three experimental sessions → A FALSE memory was added to the list of experiences by the experimenter. "Was there a nurse during your overnight stay in the hospital?" → First couple of times, participants said no, but by the end of the experiment, 20% had changed their answer to "yes".

Framing in Real Life

At an economics conference, PhD students either got: - An early bird discount - Or a late registration penalty fee - 93% of students signed-up early when they were told they would pay a penalty fee - However, only 67% signed-up early when told they would get a discount

Maxim of Relation (Grice's Cooperative Principle)

Attempt to be RELEVANT to the conversation → Therefore, a professor should not discuss pudding preferences during a lecture on language.

Maxim of Manner (Grice's Cooperative Principle)

Avoid ambiguity, be CLEAR and brief → Therefore, we try not to be overly wordy.

Bilingual

Bilingual is any individual who uses TWO languages, to some degree. **Individual bilinguals will DIFFER with respect to which domains (oral/written) they are proficient in.

Bilingual Advantage

Bilinguals have been shown to be better able to IGNORE irrelevant information. - Suggests a bilingual cognitive advantage to general-domain executive functions (language abilities conferring BENEFITS in non-language cognition) - The bilingual advantage may even help protect COGNITION in aging → Cognitive reserve

The Bilingual Lexicon

Bilinguals often have more than one word to express the same meaning → Translation EQUIVALENTS. **For example, dog and chien both represent the same animal in the mind of an individual who speaks both French and English (language-unique). **Another example, coin, piano and dent are all words that describe different things in English vs. French.

Dual-Coding Theory

Break down the MENTAL REPRESENTATION of events into two categories: Verbal and non-verbal systems.

The 9 Dot Problem: Progress Monitoring Theory

CRITERION FAILURE emerges at fourth and final move if a non-insight approach is taken → This can be avoided by providing a diagonal line as a 'hint', allowing people to seek alternative solutions.

Bilingualism of Canada

Canada has official English-French bilingualism → Although, Quebec is essentially a monolingual french area. **However, 56% of the Montreal population DO speak both French an English.

Acquired Savants

Case examples of people who ACQUIRE specific skills, for example: - An individual developed exceptional piano skills after being struck by lightning - After a stroke, a non-artistic man became an avid painter and poet **To COMPENSATE for damage, other areas of the brain will be 'rewired' via neuroplasticity and induces savant-like capabilities.

The Functions of Categorization

Categorizing allows us to do "the right thing with the right kind of thing" → They're used to know what to expect from SIMILAR objects or experiences. - Material for thoughts - The basis of communication → ie. Language categories - Generalizations to guide behaviour and made predictions **Stereotypes are social concepts gone wrong.

What is Cognitive Load?

Cognitive load is the AMOUNT of information that your working memory system can HOLD at one time, as it is LIMITED. The lack of SCHEMAS to reduce working memory capacity means that ill-defined problems have an increased cognitive load demand → More need to organize cognitive processes due to the fact that there are no constraints. **There are no scripted solutions for ill-defined problems, so you have to create task rules for yourself.

Evidence FOR Color Language

Colors that are more easily named are REMEMBERED better. **For the Berinmo tribe in Papua New Guinea, there are only five color terms and the color boundary between English blue and green does not exist. **For English speakers, the color boundary for Berinmo words nol and wor do not exist. **Language shapes the QUALITY of color memory → Berinmo tribe members were worse at picking the studied color from the blue/green pair and English speakers were worse to pick the studied coor from the nol-wor pair.

Wittgenstein: Family Resemblance

Concepts are better understood as CLUSTERS of attributes → However, not ALL attributes need to be present in every concept category member. **All members RESEMBLE each other in some way → We use similarities between things rather than explicit rules to figure out a concept. **For example, A and B might overlap, B and C might overlap, but A and C do NOT have to overlap (no logical inference).

Wittgenstein: What is a Game?

Concepts do NOT have rules, a 'single essence' or collection of features. What is common among the concept 'games' → No single attribute defines a game, but there is a 'family RESEMBLANCE' among what we categorize as a game. **For example, all games have different equipment, different players, different sizes → No common attribute, but there IS similarity.

Gestalt and Insight

Concerned with the conscious WHOLE experience rather than the sum of parts. BI-STABLE figures demonstrate Gestalt switches (all-or-none fashion) → The experience of having a sudden switch in how you see something. **This is similar to the experience of INSIGHT problem solving, as all of the sudden you see a whole new solution to a problem (restructured).

Wason's Four Card Task - 'Realistic' Version

Conditional statement → If a person is drinking a beer (P), then the person is over 21 years old (Q). - Cards have age on one side and beverage on the other - Amongst the cards "drinking a beer", "22 years old", "drinking a coke" and "16 years old" → Flip first (what if P) and last (what if not Q) **Conditional reasoning depends on the information (CONTENT) of the task → Now people are thinking about something they know, bringing up their prior knowledge (social understanding of drinking ages), thereby enhancing logical thinking.

Grice's Cooperative Principle

Context that you're in CAN determine the language used (ie. in a board meeting vs. out with friends). - There are sets of rules that GUIDE language use in conversation - These rules are IMPLICIT and similar to the idea of schemas - We infer unspoken meaning from conversations because we expect speakers to follow these rules of conversation → They are used to guide INTERPRETATION

Parallels in Development and Loss

Controls and semantic dementia patients asked to classify: - Items at specific level (ie. golden retriever) - Items at basic level (ie. dog) - Items at general level (ie. animals) **Early on, basic level information is used more than general level information → A dog is called a dog, but not an animal. **As the disease progresses, the REVERSE is seen → More likely to call an object at general level (ie. A dog is called an animal and not a dog).

Bias

DEVIATIONS from rationality (errors) that are caused by using heuristics.

Conduction Aphasia

DISCONNECTION between Broca's and Wernicke's area. - Intact speech comprehension - Intact speech production - Impaired speech REPETITION, due to disconnection between language production and comprehension **Least common form of aphasia.

Non-Verbal System (Dual-Coding Theory)

Deals with IMAGES and their components like lines, shapes etc. **Right hemisphere (conforms to the idea of modularity).

Verbal System (Dual-Coding Theory)

Deals with WORDS and their components like letters, syllables etc. **Left hemisphere (conforms to the idea of modularity).

Spontaneous Confabulations

Describe an event that didn't happen, but using pieces from REAL memories. - Results from a failure to recognize the correct ORDER of events - Source MONITORING deficits **Made from bits of real memories, however they did not occur together.

Utility Function

Describes how people MAP money to satisfaction → The extra satisfaction earned from gaining a dollar is larger when you only have $1 vs. when you have $1M. - ASYMMETRICAL → Steeper for losses than gains ($1 lost hurts more than one dollar earned) - Losses loom larger than gains (framing effect) **This describes how people treat gains and losses.

Memory Construction in the Brain

Detailed of a memory are PROCESSED across the brain → ie. Sights processed in visual cortex and sounds in auditory. The HIPPOCAMPUS associates separate details of a memory to form coherent memory representation AS you are remembering (combines all of the individual pieces into one). **Therefore, we can recall the same past event differently depending on which DETAILS are activated and bound by the hippocampus.

Bruner's Concept Formation Test

Determining how people establish rules and what their strategies are. A deck of cards with variations in the following attributes: - Border: One, two, three - Number of objects: One, two, three - Type of objects: Square, circle, cross - Color of objects: Red, green, black i) Shown a positive or negative instance of a concept and use this knowledge to figure out a concept (ie. determine entire set of attributes). ii) Measured abstraction → What is done to determine which attributes are included and excluded when forming concept rules. iii) Learn the concept. RECEPTION task → Shown cards from a deck and the participant indicates if it was a positive or negative instance of the concept. SELECTION task → Participant picks a card from the deck and is told if it is a positive or negative instance of the concept. iv) Feedback given → If right, participants could guess. If wrong, they'd move to the next card.

Representations in the Brain: Injury

Different AREAS of the brain process different concepts → Brain injury cases of people with category-specific deficits: - Some have selective impairment in naming living things (ie. calling a giraffe a kangaroo) - Some have selective impairment in naming non-living things **Two individuals with large left-hemisphere strokes → Picture matching tasks, where individuals are asked to point to the picture, in an array, that corresponds to a spoken word → Percentage correct is significantly lower with non-living things, as opposed to living things.

Autonoetic Consciousness

EPISODIC memory ("self-knowing") → There is both awareness and personal engagement. ie. Mental time-travel. **Different divisions in long-term memory can be thought of on different levels of consciousness.

Evidence AGAINST Color Language

English language speakers: 11 words for color Dani tribe in Indonesia: 2 words for color - Named color patches (language label task) → The Dani did this differently than English-speaking participants - Matched color patches (categorize task) → The Dani performed equal to the English participants, thereby proving language and experience do NOT affect one another **Evidence that accessing color category information does not rely on spoken language.

Representativeness Bias

Error in interpretation → Using CATEGORICAL information to make judgements. - Matching what we perceive to our existing representations - Similarity- or prototype-based evaluations - Related to stereotypes, schemas, and other preexisting knowledge structures → This highlights how memory can influence reasoning in some way For example, assuming that all men named "Chris" act in the same manner.

Episodic Memory in Children

Evidence that children can form episodic memories: - Infants only a few days old prefer their mother's voice - Six-month-old children can imitate actions learned after a 24 hour delay **One study had 2 to 5 year olds experience a unique event and recalled the events either one day or six years later → After six years, many children could recall the event verbally. **Therefore, early experiences CAN be verbally recalled after long delays, and it IS possible to access memories prior to language acquisition (contrary to the belief of childhood amnesia).

Amnesia and the Case of H.M.

Experimental NEUROSURGERY to reduce seizure activity → This involved removing the bilateral medial temporal lobe, including the hippocampus. Results of H.M.: - Intact short-term memory → He could remember a short list of words for 30 seconds - Intact procedural memory → He could learn new skill-based tasks - Intact semantic memory → He could recall major historic events of childhood, good vocabulary - Profound EPISODIC memory LOSS → He couldn't learn new information and recalled past in sparse details **As amnesia is marked only by deficits in episodic memory, this shows that different forms of memories can be DISSOCIATED.

Chess Player Study: Expertise

Expert and novice chess players reconstruct a previously seen chess board displaying chess moves from memory → Expert could remember MORE of the board. **They could use their knowledge of chess positions to chunk information in their working memory, thereby freeing up memory space. HOWEVER, in another control task, the players reconstructed a shown chess board with pieces in a random layout → Experts were no different than novices. **Same thing happened when asked to reconstruct a checker board as well → The benefit of expertise was not present. Conclusion → Experts CHUNK information when encoding, based on prior knowledge.

Implications and Lessons of Encoding Specificity

Explains phenomena like why you remember more CHILDHOOD memories when visiting the house you grew up in → However, context is NOT just the external spatial environment, it can be many things such as emotion or music. **One should choose an encoding environment that is similar to where you will be when you want to remember it (this, however, will not work so well if the information is not deeply processed).

Broca's Aphasia

Expressive aphasia → Decreased FLUENCY ("effortful speech"). **Partial loss of the ability to produce language (ie. spoken, manual, or written - articulatory movements) → Although, comprehension generally remains in tact. - Damage to the LEFT inferior frontal gyrus - These deficits range from generating meaninful speech (agrammatical) to generating ALL forms of speech, depending on the amount of damage - First case discovered in 1861 was patient 'TAN'

Semantic Memory (Explicit Memory)

FACTS and acquired knowledge about the self and world → Retrieval is independent of the context of learning (ie. don't have to remember the source of the information, just something that you know). For example, knowing the fact that Paris is the capital of France. Another example, "my family and I almost always go to the cottage for New Years" → Something that happens regularly to individual → Can't pinpoint to only ONE event. **They are accumulated throughout our lifetime FROM episodic memories (with specific details removed). **Concepts are CONNECTED within a network → Therefore, accessing one concept can cause partial activation of related concepts. These concepts are stored as: - Modality specific representations - Abstract amodal ('multiple senses') representations

Vividness of Imagery

FAMILIARITY may enhance VIVIDNESS of mental images. For example, musicians seem to hear musical imagery more often than non-musicians. **High ratings of vividness does NOT necessarily lead to better memory performance (ie. eyewitness accounts).

Biases in 'Everyday' Thinking

Factors can affect how strongly we believe in the CERTAINTY of our conclusions made by inductive reasoning (there is some variability) → These are represented by biases that come from statistical heuristics created from specific observations (focus of behavioural economics research). - Biases affect how we interpret information - Biases affect howe we judge frequencies (how often something happens) - Biases affect how we make predictions

Small-Sample Fallacy

False belief that a small sample resembles the population from which they are drawn → Not actually statistically logical. - Participants asked to consider two hospitals (i) 15 babies/day ii) 45 babies/day) - "On a given day, is one hospital more likely to report more than 60% of the babies are boys" - Most participants say that both hospitals are equally likely to report this but this is INCORRECT → Assumption that the chances of having a boy vs. girl is 50:50, however, smaller samples are more susceptible to variability **Smaller samples are more prone to EXTREME proportions and larger samples better reflect TRUE proportions.

Subjective Differences of Insight

Feeling of knowing: - Predicted non-insight problem solving ability - Did not predict insight problem solving ability Metacognitive assesments (ie. what you know about what you know) of non-insight problems are accurate, but NOT for insight problems → Due to the suddeness of the solutions to these problems.

The General Problem Solver (GPS)

First computer SIMULATION of problem-solving behaviour in humans → Based on the THINKING ALOUD procedures. - Maps the operators used to move through a problem space to a goal state and used the MEANS-END strategy, as it is most commonly used - Illustrates importance of computer simulations to study COGNITION **Allan Newell and Herbert Simon.

Reading Comprehension Time-Course

First fixation duration → Very first time eye lands on word (earliest stages of cognitive processing, ie. initial lexical activation). First pass gaze duration → First few times eye lands on word. Go-past time → Time necessary to get past word. Total fixation duration → All time spent fixating on word including regressions (later stages of cognitive processing, ie. revision of an initial interpretation that was wrong).

Flashbulb Memories Change Over Time

Flashbulb memories are NOT reccurent recordings of events, so retrieval DOES change over time → They are not resistant to memory distortion, even though memory is strong for these events. **This is due to the EMOTIONAL content activating the AMYGDALA → This influences how that MEMORY is subjectively experienced, as it's located in proximity to the HIPPOCAMPUS. **We should accept the theory that memories are RECONSTRUCTED when we remember them.

Cattel-Horn Theory of Intelligence

Fluid intelligence - The capacity to acquire NEW knowledge - FLEXIBLE thinking - Similar to the concept of G - INNATE Crystalized intelligence - Knowledge and learning tha thas been acquired throughout the LIFETIME - AFFECTED by external factors like personality, motivation, education and culture **These types of intelligence are differently affected by the aging process → Crystallized increases as we age, whereas fluid declines. **This represents a theory that intelligence is a single entity.

Shallow Processing

Focus on structural or PHYSICAL characteristics of information during learning (encoding) (ie. structural, phoneme and grapheme level) → POOR retrieval. **Information stored exactly how it is seen in the moment.

Deep Processing

Focus on the MEANING of the information during learning (encoding) → GOOD retrieval. **Trying to attach value to the information, making connections. **Answering questions like "what would I use it for", "what are its features" and "is it pleasant". **Link new with old information (ie. trying to remember a person's name - Associate someone named Barry with strawberries).

Interference Theory

Forgetting (in LTM) occurs because of COMPETING information → When information that is similar in format gets in the way of information that someone is trying to recall (retroactive and proactive).

Proposals of Ebbinghaus

Forgetting curve → Decline of memory retention over time, when there is no attempt to retain it. Spacing effect → Long-term memory is enhanced when learning events are spaced apart in time. Serial position (primary and recency) effects → The tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a series.

The Start of Intelligence Testing

Francis Galton proposed that intelligence can be measured scientifically via REACTION time to identify stimuli (ie. sounds). - His purpose for measuring intelligence was questionable - Racially-motivated view of how to "improve" society by using intelligence measurements → Founded the EUGENICS movement (a dark side to intelligence testing) **He believed white upper middle-class individuals have better mental ability and that theyse are the ones who should only be able to be allowed to reproduce.

Productive Thinking: Gestalt

GENERAL principles guide thinking and are applied in new situations. - Aim is INSIGHT - Involves restructuring or RE-DEFINING how a problem is viewed rather than thinking of ways to solve it → Seeing things in new and creative ways **To become a productive thinker, you have to start with a deep appreciation or understanding of the STRUCTURE of a problem → Only then, can you see the problem in a whole new way. For example, the duck problem.

Spearman's Two-Factor Theory of Intelligence

General intelligence (G-factor, g) - DIFFERENT across people, STABLE in a person - The underbelly of all specific mental abilities or specific factors (base-trait level of intelligence) - INNATE Specific factors (s) - Related to SPECIFIC tasks - VARIES within a person - Skill that is LEARNED (ie. vocabulary skills) - AFFECTED by education and environment **This represents a theory that intelligence is a single entity.

Wason's General Rule

General logical rule to solve: "If P then Q" → Choose the P card (to see if there is a not-Q on the back) and the not-Q card (to see if there is a P on the back). **Need to test if the statement is FALSE and eliminate false statements.

Insight

Gestalt view is that insight is RESTRUCTURING a problem so you see it from a NEW perspective. It is overcoming blocks in problem solving: - Functional fixedness → Can't see beyond the common use of an object - Mental fixedness → Approach a task with rigid thinking, resulting in a mental set that is transferred to a new situation even if it's not a productive approach Insight RECRUITS different brain regions than non-insight problem solving → More RIGHT hemisphere involvement.

Ecological Rationality

Gigerenzer proposed an alternative view to heuristics called ecological rationality which sees heuristics not as a "good enough" approach to solving a problem but as the OPTIMAL approach. **Ecological rationality does NOT distinguish between how we should act and how we do act, unlike previous views on heuristics → It believes how we do act is how we SHOULD act. **Given the right environment, a heuristic can be BETTER than optimization or other complex strategies → For example, when INVESTING money with limited information about how risky each one is or the past performance, equally dividing your assets (money) among the options (1/N heuristic) has been shown to provide better results than other more complex optimization algorithms.

Levels of Representation: Transformational Grammar

Grammatical transformations are rules that convert entire string (level) between two levels of representation. Represent the same idea in different ways → Leads to FLEXIBLE language (each sentence no longer needs its own pathway). - Deep structure → The MEANING of the sentence (analysis) - Surface structure → The ORDER of the words in the sentence (interpretation) **CONVERT deep to surface structure, that is best represented by what is said → These rules are critical for interpreting AMBIGUOUS sentences.

Genetics and IQ Scores

HERITABILITY (genetic component) in IQ scores explains between 50 and 72% of score variation. TWIN studies are evidence for a LINK between genes and IQ scores. The relationship between genetic factors and general intelligence increases with AGE → iNcreases by 30% in young children, up to 80% in adults. - Brain development is linked to genetics → This influences the size of brain structures tha thave been linked to IQ scores (these changes target the frontal cortex and hippocampus, which have been linked to intelligence in adults) - Neuron repair → With age, environmental toxins damage neurons and genetically-based repair processes contribute to fixing this damage, affecting IQ scores (how well you can fix this neurona damage is related to genetics, which subsequently affects IQ score)

Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory

HSAM people can remember EVERY single day from their lives in detail (autobiographical memory ONLY). This is NOT using mnemonic skills or strategies → HSAM people can't remember a word list any better than the average person. ie. HSAM people would be able to answer questions like "describe exactly what happened on June 29th, 2007" or "when did Princess Diana die". **This particular type of recall relates to OCD symptoms → Making them able to remember facts so well due to the fact that they obsess over them. **These individuals have higher rates of ABSORPTION and CREATIVE experience → This indicates a disposition for 'total' attention (heightened processing ability when paying attention to something).

Heuristics and Biases - Reasoning

Heuristic processing is central for making INTUITIVE and rapid judgments → Despite all of this room for error, they DO serve a purpose. The OVER-APPLICATION of heuristics leads to serious errors in our judgements and reasoning → This is what potentially leads to addictions (ie. gambling). **Heuristics and biases arise from the limitations we face but can sometimes produce correct responses → However, applying heuristics too often can lead to biases. Examples of heuristics include availability, representativeness, anchoring and adjustment and regression towards the mean.

Successive Scanning

How HYPOTHESES are formed: - Form a SINGLE hypothesis about the concept - Test it by selecting instances until it is false **Only ONE attribute is changed at a time → More careful.

Simultaneous Scanning

How HYPOTHESES are formed: - Start with ALL hypotheses about the concept - Attempt to eliminate as many as possible with each instance **This relies on MEMORY and is very inefficient.

Language and Space

How does a language's way of describing space (frame of reference) affect THOUGHT and behaviour? Tested for differences between two groups: - Dutch speakers prefer a RELATIVE frame - Speakers of Tzeltal (Mayan language) only use ABSOLUTE frames, with no systematic use of left and right (relative)

Phoneme Level (Shallow Processing)

How does it sound? **This form of processing doesn't take into account the concept of what's being studied.

Conservative Focusing

How people form RULES → When you encounter a positive instance, focus on ONE attribute of this instance to create a rule and test that rule on new instances. **Helpful if a negative response given to the next instance. Not so much, if it were positive. **This might sometimes be too general, like describing Bianca as a cat.

Focus Gambling

How people form RULES → When you encounter a positive instance, you focus on ALL of the attributes of this instance to create a rule and select new instances based on the attribute combination. **Helpful if a positive response is given to tested instance. Not so much, if it were negative. **This might be too specific, like describing Bianca as a black, fluffy cat, who likes to explore.

The Levels of Concepts: Graded Structure

How well an exemplar or member REPRESENTS that concept → Some members are better examples than others. For example, a chair is a better representation of a piece of furniture, compared to a lamp (more prototypical).

Levels of Processing Theory

How well or how deeply something is processed during encoding dictates how well it is remembered → A memory trace will be stronger and more likely to be cued at retrieval as a function of the DEPTH of encoding processes.

The Innateness Hypothesis

Humans are BORN with knowledge of language. - UNIVERSAL grammar → A common underlying system of rules for all languages - Language acquisition device → An innate set of language LEARNING tools (used for ANY language) **The ability to learn grammar is WIRED into the brain → Opposite of a behaviourist view of language.

Aphasia

IMPAIRED language function from brain injury → Sub-functions of languages can be affected. **Three forms are Broca's, Wernicke's and conduction.

Anoetic Consciousness

IMPLICIT memory → No awareness of knowing or personal engagement. It does NOT require the person to consciously set out to learn, information is merely picked up without effort. **Different divisions in long-term memory can be thought of on different levels of consciousness.

Stanford-Binet Test

IQ scores are calculated with the RATIO method → (Mental age (MA)/Chronological age CA) x 100. If MA > CA, ability is ABOVE average of peers (gifted) If MA < CA, ability is BELOW average of peers (delayed) **Most people's score, however, will be 100 (mean). - Popularized the idea that we need to measure intelligence - Led to the ARMY using similar measures to recruit personnel - Poorly standardized because the comparison group used to calculate the scores was not well selected → Only about 1000 children and 400 adults initially (not representative of the population)

The Psychometrics of IQ Classification

IQ scores follow a NORMAL distribution → Mean (average) of 100 and a standard deviation (variation) of 15. The normal curve means that 95% are within two standard deviations of the mean → IQ scores between 70 and 130. **Only 2.5% silver of the population is above 130 → Near genius.

Recent Plateau of IQ Scores

IQ scores have PLATEAUED in recent years, since mid-1990s (in some places, IQ scores are reversing or dropping by 0.2 points per year) → They have NOT increased recently as much as they have in the past. Why: - Education is less STIMULATING - 'Cognitive OFFLOADING' → ie. Phones and computers to look things up and store information, less reliance on own skills

Three Main Uses of IQ Scores

Identifies intellectual DIFFERENCES amongst individuals through: - Clinical and neuropsychological assessment → Used to establish levels of functioning (ie. measure how well individuals are recovering from brain injuries, changes in cognitive function over time) - Educational placement → How well a child is learning - Career assessment → To direct somebody towards certain careers that align with their skillset

Wason's Four Card Task - Conditional Reasoning

If a card has a vowel on one side, then it has an even number on the other side → Which cards should you flip? People are terrible at following this logic: - 33% turn over only card "E" (what if P) - 46% turn over card "E" and "2" (what if P, what if Q) - Very few turned over card "E" and "5" (what if P, what if not Q) → CORRECT method **The inability to solve this correctly is because people tend to confirm what they are testing → Confirmation bias to seek out evidence for what is desired.

The Framing Effect

Imagine that the country is preparing for the outbreak of an unusual rare disease, which is expected to kill 600 people. Two alternative programs to combat the disease have been proposed. Which program would you choose? - If Program A is adopted, 200 lives being saved - If Program B is adopted, there is a 1 in 3 probability of saving 600 lives and a 2 in 3 probability of saving no lives - If Program C is adopted, exactly 400 people will die - If Program D is adopted, there is a 1 in 3 probability that nobody will die and a 2 in 3 probability tht all 600 will die The only difference between these two problems is the way it had been framed in terms of gains and losses (same numbers in the end): - People are risk-averse when the options are decribed as gains → They prefer the sure thing and go for safety (the cup is half full - do I need more?) - People are risk-seeking when the options are described as losses → They can tolerate an uncertain think and risk a game (the cup is half empty - don't take anymore away, avoid losing as much as possible)

Surface Dyslexia

Impaired at producing IRREGULAR words, like 'comb' or 'thought' → Reading happens LETTER-by-letter because of difficulty matching words to mental dictionary.

Phonological Dyslexia

Impaired at reading NON-WORDS or NEW words → Reading happens by comparing WHOLE words to mental dictionary (lexicon) because of difficulty reading letter by letter.

Representations in the Brain: fMRI

In an MRI scanner, participants passively read ACTION words that related to hand, food and mouth activities (ie. pick, kick and lick). The corresponding body part brain region was ACTIVATED during this reading of the concepts. FAMILIARITY drives concept representation: - Ballet and Capoeira dancers viewed their respective dances in an fMRI scanner - MORE motor cortex engagement when viewing familiar dances **Therefore, the more KNOWLEDGE, the better perceptual representation.

How Do Bilinguals Control Their Two Languages (Keep Them Apart)?

In order to speak the intended languages, bilinguals use EXECUTIVE control → To attend to the target language and suppress the irrelevant language. A set of cognitive processes involved in mental CONTROL and self-regulation include: - Attention - Working memory i) MEANING of the sentence can help reduce conflict from the unintended language ii) Executive CONTROL abilities can help reduce conflict from the unintended language **However, there is still facilitation due to form overlap (not completely language-selective).

Provoked Confabulations

In response to a question, false STORIES are generated. - Due to a failure to search effectively for a memory - A false memory intrudes in the search - Considered a bad form of compensation **These individuals are motivated to fill in the deficit, of which they are aware.

Intelligence Scales and Autism

Individuals with autism perform BETTER on the Raven's matrices than predicted from the WAIS or WISC. **Maybe these testes are tapping into different aspects of intelligence or that something else is affecting performance on one of these tests, in certain groups → Are we really measuring what we think we're measuring with these tests?

Representational Change Theory

Insight problem solving uses different processes that non-insight problem solving. Insight changes problem REPRESENTATIONS via: - Constraint relaxation - Chunk decomposition **Insight is different from non-insight because the problems are seen in different ways AND different processes are recruited.

Insight vs. Non-Insight

Insight problem solving → Involuntary and feels like it happens suddenly, with ease and comes with 'pleasure' (producting thinking). Non-insight problem solving → Happens gradually and there is an awareness of incremental success (reproductive thinking). After an experiment of solving five verbal insight and five non-insight math problems, the warmth of insight problems was more SUDDEN than non-sight problems. Conclusion → Insight is related to a sudden 'ILLUMINATION' of the solution.

Intelligence and Biases

Intelligence is UNRELATED to the susceptibility to biases in judgment and reasoning. For example, there is no correlation between IQ scores and the confirmation bias → Just because you're smarter doesn't mean you don't fall subject to biases as much as others.

Intelligence

Intelligence relates to efficient CRITICAL THINKING: - Learning from experience - Adapting to the environment - Acting purposefully It represents INDIVIDUAL differences in how somebody approaches thinking → Tests have been designed to measure general intelligence differences.

Linguistic Competence

Internalized system of RULES used to understand language → A mental property describing linguistic ABILITY. **Phonology, syntax, semantics. **Knowing that the word 'irregardless' is not a correct English word is determined by competence. **Transformational grammar describes the use of this.

Language and Spatial Frames of Reference

Intrinstic frame: Spatial relations described in terms of OBJECTS → ie. Tree is next to the wagon. Relative frame: Spatial relations described from an OBSERVER'S viewpoint → ie. Tree is to the left of the wagon (this can change based on where the observer is located in terms of the viewed object). Absolute frame: Spatial relations described as MAP coordinates → Tree is west of the wagon (this is invariant, as it does not change).

Risky Decision-Making

It is adaptive to be able to make decisions when there is risk. - Most people are risk AVERSE - Extremes in risk taking (high or low) can be very HARMFUL (ie. stagnant living vs. addiction and impulsivity) → Therefore must live in moderation **Risks can be framed as GAINS and LOSSES.

Logical Errors Made with Syllogisms - Particular Statements

It is more DIFFICULT to reason with 'PARTICULAR' statements (some C's are A, some C's are not A) than universal statements (all A are B, no A are B). We tend to reason according to the specific way we interpret the premises: - We often interpret "some" as "some but not all" - Logically, "some" means at least one and possibly all" - ...But this doesn't follow logic of the premises ie. "All malfunctioning machines are annoying, some things that are annoying are computers, therefore some computers are not malfunctioning machines" is an invalid syllogism → Hard to come to this conclusion logically due to the presence of "some" AND a negative statement.

Dual Process Theory

It is thought that there are TWO systems for making decisions. SYSTEM 1: Fast, effortless, automatic, intuitive and emotional - Thought to be related to the evolutionarily ANCIENT parts of the brain (common to many species) - LIMBIC system (ie. amygdala) - Heuristics and biases SYSTEM 2: Slow, deliberative, effortful, explicit, logical - Thought to be unique to humans, evolutionarily RECENT - FRONTAL cortex

Fuzzy Boundaries

Items can belong to DIFFERENT categories at the same time (ie. is a sled a toy or a vehicle?). An item's membership to a category is not all or none, but a matter of DEGREE.

Conditional Reasoning

Judge if this statement is true: "If P, then Q" → P is the antecedent and Q is the consequence. ie. If it is raining, I will get wet → This statement can be tested many ways: - What happens if Q is true? If I am wet, is it raining? - What happens if P is false? If it isn't raining, am I wet? - What happens if Q is false? If I am not wet, is it raining? **The Wason card task illustrates these 'traps' that can come from reasoning → Shown cards with a "P" statement on one side and "Q" on the other side.

Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon

Knowing you know something without being able to recall the concept. For example: - Recalling the first letter of a word you want to remember - Remembering the plot of a movie, but not the title Occurs more often with: - Low frequency terms - Proper names (ie. people or places) **This is most likely to be resolved with time away (period of incubation) → Therefore, more likely to remember the word you were previously looking for, later that day.

Libben & Titone (2009) - Study on Bilingualism

LOW constraint semantic context: - Interlingual homograph interference - all measures - Cognate facilitation - all measures **Thus, non-selective access occurs throughout time. HIGH constraint semantic context: - Interlingual homograph interference - early measures only - Cognate facilitation - early measures only **Thus, initial non-selective access stage followed by selective access stage.

Imagery and Memory Results

LOW on auditory imagery → Memory performance decreases as feedback available at practice decreases (Normal > Auditory-only > Motor-only > Covert). HIGH on auditory imagery → Auditory imagery compensates for lack of feedback → Not much of a decrease in performance.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Language INFLUENCES our experiences and perceptions → Differences between languages will be present on non-linguistic tasks **Linguistic determinism: A person's thoughts are DETERMINED by language → The Hopi Indians do not have words for airplane and insect, yet they are still able to distinguish between the two (thinking about them) **A version of linguistic relativity that states that a person's thoughts are INFLUENCED by language (not determined). **This supports the theory that thoughts ARE dependent on language.

Paraphasias

Language OUTPUT errors that occur when producing specific words → Not specific to aphasia, they can happen to anybody (but do often occur in Wernicke's). **Words are jumbled, making sentences meaningless. **Three forms include verbal, phonemic and neologisms.

Episodic and Semantic Memories Dissociate

Learning new semantic memories is BASED ON episodic memory → MEANING is extracted from episodes to acquire semantic knowledge. However, the retrieval of episodic and semantic memories is partly DISSOCIABLE, as they're processed differently in the brain, once received. **Children with hippocampal damage are impaired at episodic memory tests, but present with normal factual knowledge (semantic memory spared) → Therefore, episodic memory is fully DEPENDENT on the hippocampus.

The Birth of the IQ Score: Stanford-Binet Test

Lewis Terman (at Stanford) developed this test based on the Simon-Binet test but with new items to measure intelligence as the capacity to form CONCEPTS → The BASIS of the modern-day IQ test. Item for a 4 year old → Repeat the following numbers: 3, 6, 7. Item for an adult → Describe the difference between misery and poverty.

Illusory Correlations

Linking two CO-OCCURING events in mind and assuming a relationship. Sometimes this is correct and elads to good outcomes (ie. there are clouds, it will rain). Sometimes this leads to illusory correlations (ie. Superstitions → Growing a play-off beard or using other lucky practices because they are thought to be linked to a good outcome).

Logical Errors Made with Syllogisms - Content

Logical reasoning does not always represent what we expect → The CONTENT of a syllogism can lead to errors. **This leads to hidden premises or assumptions brought to syllogistic reasoning → If we are simply logical rule followers, these assumptions should not affect reasoning.

Analogical Problem Solving

Making COMPARISONS between situations → Applying the solution from a past situation to a current situation. Target problem → The problem the person is trying to SOLVE. Source problem → The problem that shares SIMILARITY with the target problem.

Inductive Reasoning

Making judgments from OBSERVATIONS (ie. using heuristics and biases - These biases demonstrate how our decisions are not always logical). Making GENERAL conclusions from specific observations. BOTTOM-UP reasoning → The scientific method of forming hypotheses from data. **Also known as "probably but not definitely true reasoning" → Not trying to achieve an ultimate truth, but trying to explain a variance in data that might be seen. For example, if someone went to a park everyday and saw dogs wearing top-hats. They conclude that all dogs that visit this park wear top-hats → Reasoning TOWARDS information. Another example, getting a coffee once from a café that is bad and then making the conclusion that the coffee there is always terrible (not always the WHOLE truth).

Deductive Reasoning

Making judgments through LOGIC (ie. syllogisms and Wason's four card task - conditional reasoning). The mental act of TESTING a general statement to draw conclusions → Start with a principle or truth and use that to make a logical prediction about something. TOP-DOWN reasoning → The scientific method of testing general theories. **Also known as the "complete truth". For example, all dogs have a good sense of smell. The Cog-Dog is a dog. Therefore, the Cog-Dog has a good sense of smell → Reasoning FROM logic.

Memory Traces Change with Retrieval

Memories become CONSOLIDATED as stable cortical representations of the event → Time-dependent process, as converted into long-term. **Learning stimulus → Short-term memory → Consolidation → Long-term memory.

Cases of Extreme Memory

Memory and space are intimately LINKED. 'The knowledge' of London taxi drivers → Memorize a labyrinth of 25,000 streets within a 10 km radius, leading to the formation of great SPATIAL memory. **Bus drivers follow the same route everyday, so they do not have this mental capability. **Taxi drivers have greatest posterior HIPPOCAMPUS grey matter volumes, important for spatial navigation → This amount INCREASES with years of experience, suggesting new hippocampal neurons come with experience → This, however, comes at a cost of a smaller anterior hippocampus.

Procedural Memory (Implicit Memory)

Memory for well-established PROCEDURES and skills, not requiring conscious thought (ie. riding a bike or writing). **It represents TACIT knowledge → Information that is hard to verbalize or describe. **The basal ganglia (striatum) and prefrontal cortex are important for retrieving and organizing the sequences.

Encoding Specificity Theory (Endel Tulving)

Memory retrieval is better when the context OVERLAPS between encoding and remembering → ie. Context that you're in can help reactivate a memory of a previous event in that same context. **This can explain the recency effect. **Context can mean internal state or external environment.

Memory Across the Lifespan

Memory systems develop at different RATES in children. - IMPLICIT memory develops first - EXPLICIT (episodic) memory does not emerge until ages 3 to 5 **It's had to find an individual that has memories from before age 3.

Heuristic

Mental SHORTCUT or rule of thumb that can be used to get a quick and mostly accurate response in some situations but MAY lead to errors in others.

Mental Images vs. Perception

Mental images may be serving to prepare us for the actual perception of an image. For example, when presented witha. grid and asked if the probe (black circle) falls on your mental image of the letter "F" → This would be similar in performance as if the letter was actually present.

More than Half the World's Population is Bilingual

Most people in the world speak MORE than one language → However, typically studies have been conducted on only anglophone participants, which is problematic. - 56% of the inhabitants of 25 European countries can hold a conversation in a second language - 35% of Canadian population is bilingual - 18-20% of the USA is bilingual

Tower of Hanoi

Move the three discs from peg A to C so the discs are in the same initial order. Problem constraints (rules): - No disc can lie on top of a smaller one - Only one disc can be moved at a time, and you can only move the top disc **This is solvable in a minimum SEVEN steps.

Alzheimer's Disease and Music

Music can be a memory ENHANCER in AD patients → They can learn and play songs, as well as recognize familiar ones. Explanations: - Music creates an alternate memory PATHWAY so musical mnemonics 're-awaken' a memory **It is not really clear how this happens, however it is found in locations of the brain not degenerated by the disease. - Music improves MOOD and reduces stress, which improves cognitive function

Increased Demands of Bilinguals

Must SOLVE a number of other language-related problems that monolinguals do not, such as: - How do I choose WHEN to speak in each language? - How can I recognize WHICH language is being spoken to me? - HOW do bilingual children learn that they "speak" two languages? **Therefore, while proficiency may vary for bilinguals, all of them have increased cognitive DEMANDS relative to monolinguals: - Competition and coactivation from the unintended language - Use of executive control abilities to resolve competition **This makes it hard to actually compare monolinguals and bilinguals, due to the fact that they're solving DIFFERENT language-related problems.

Language and Thought

NATIVIST views → Language and thought are independent (the language we speak does NOT affect the way we think). Linguistic RELATIVITY views → Language DOES determine how we think (the language one speaks molds their thoughts). **Proof of nativist view, there are words that don't exist in English, but can still be experienced by English speakers (ie. utepils → to sit outside enjoying a beer on a sunny day).

Unhealthy Aging: Semantic Dementia

NEURODEGENERATION that begins in the LEFT anterior temporal lobe, an area critical for meaning, concepts and facts. - Impaired semantic memory (general facts), but spared episodic memory (personal facts) - Presents as a loss of word meaning and word finding difficulties ("anomia") (ie. calling common objects 'thingys') - Difficulty describing the function of common objects - Problems categorizing and accessing fine-grained differences between objects (ie. will call all four-legged animals dogs) (ie. will draw a camel without atypical features, such as a hump) - Deficits recognizing faces of friends **For example, if you showed a patient a random teapot, they would not know how to use it → However, if you showed them one of their own teapots from the past, they would be able to explain.

Raven's Progressive Matrices

NON-VERBAL assessment of fluid intelligence → Abstract thinking (measures intelligence without the influence of an individual's linguistic ability). - Relatively free from linguistic influences - Free from CULTURAL bias Task → People are shown patterns with a missing section, then asked to determing the missing piece from a set of options.

What Are the Consequences of Bilingualism?

NONE → A lifetime of balancing two languages may lead to: - Enhanced executive FUNCTIONS across life span - Delayed symptoms of Alzheimer's disease onset by about four years **Same mean reaction time as monolinguals, however lower interference effect (ie. stroop test). **Repeated competition and employment of executive control STRENGTHENS a mental muscle.

Confabulations

Narrative story of an event that has NOT been experienced ("honest lying" → No intent to deceive). The result of deficits in monitoring processes supported by the PREFRONTAL cortex that organize memories.

Overcoming Functional Fixedness

Need to INHIBIT aspects of the normal functioning of the "human semantic, perceptual and motor systems". General parts technique: - Break down an object into the smallest components - Give each component the most generic name you can, which lifts the 'constraint' of semantic 'rigid' knowledge of that object For example, a candle can break down into wax and string components, making for something that could be used for waxing or rope-like purposes. **When people were taught this technique, participants went on to complete 67% more of the insight problems.

Stroop Effect on Control of Language

Neutral context → table (in red) Congruent context → green (in green) Incongruent context → red (in blue) Not surprising, the incongruent context is the slowest to be names correctly and results in more inaccuracies. **Conflict effect represents the measure of executive function → BETTER executive control means smaller conflict effect. **Executive function abilities (like the stroop effect) impact the degree of language CO-ACTIVATION.

Implicit vs. Explicit Memory

Non-conscious (non-DECLARATIVE) vs. CONSCIOUS (declarative) awareness. Implicit memory is separate from explicit memories in behaviour AND in the brain → ie. People with amnesia (explicit) still have implicit memories in tact. **Encoding habits (implicit) depends on the STRIATUM. **Explicit memory depends on the HIPPOCAMPUS.

Von Restorff Effect

Objects are remembered better when they are bizarre among common objects (ie. method of loci).

Domain-General Cognitive Aging Theories

Older adults have DEFICITS in general executive cognitive functions that affect memory, making it harder to learn and remember things. Older adults are: - Slower at processing information - Unable to inhibit irrelevant information → This makes it more difficult to focus their attention on the important information (more distracted)

The Associative Deficit Hypothesis

Older adults have problems encoding and retrieving ASSOCIATIONS between items → This is a key factor for episodic memory. For example: - Remembering a face and a name - Hippocampal dependent task (involves memory) **Older adults are LESS impaired at remembering single items. For example: - Recognizing a face - Non-hippocampal dependent task **In an experiment, researchers found that older adults had worse memory overall, compared to younger individuals → However, they were most impaired during the name-face associative recognition task. - Even when the younger individuals were then asked to complete the associative task using divided attention, they still OUTPERFORMED the older adults in the initial condition.

Endowment Effect

Once OWNERSHIP is established, people are averse to give it up. For example, students with the mugs were willing to sell them, on average, for $4.50, whereas students with no mugs were willing to buy them, on average, for $2.25. **These participants were reluctant to sell their mug, making the price higher → Similar to the framing effect where people don't like losing things.

Mental Fixedness

One of the reasons solving insight problems is troublesome. Tendency to rely on mental sets when solving something → Negatively transferred to a new problem (ie. getting hung up on the STANDARD way we do thing, leading to RIGIDNESS in thinking). Responding with previously LEARNED rule sequences even when they are inappropriate or less productive. Einstellung effect → The tendency to respond INFLEXIBLY to a type of problem (rigid set), maintaining the status quo. **What you know CAN hurt you. For example, the water jug problem.

Functional Fixedness

One of the reasons solving insight problems is troublesome. The inability to see BEYOND the most common use of an object → Unable to recognize that something could perform a novel function that could solve a current problem. "FIXED" on the FUNCTION for which something is designed. For example, the problem of attaching a candle to a wall using only a board, table, thumbtack, candle and box of matches → Must overcome functional fixedness to see the box of matches as a platform.

Overcoming Biases: The Pre-Mortem

One should slow down their decision-making, so they can DELIBERATE about something they're making a judgement about → Technique to offset biases. Think about a project's failure before you engage in it ("pre-mortem") → Imagine the worst outcome and generate solutions beforehand.

Kinds of Decision-Making

PERCEPTUAL decision making → Objective (EXTERNALLY defined) criterion for making your choice (there is a right or wrong answer). VALUE-BASED decision making → Subjective (INTERNALLY defined) criterion for making your choice. RISK → Taking an action despite the outcome being UNCERTAIN (specific to value-based decision making).

Concepts and Creativity

Participants completed tests of creativity and SPLIT into low and high creativity groups. - Completed a free association task → Generate as many concepts to a term - Semantic 'concept' networks were created for each person - The high creativity group had BROADER and more FLEXIBLE concept networks → This is what allows them to come up with new ideas **Low creativity → More rigid networks.

Risks as Feelings: Gains, Loss and Emotion Activation

Participants made choices between two outcomes framed as gains or losses: A RISKY (gamble) outcome or a SAFE (sure thing) outcome. Increased AMYGDALA activity for chosen SAFE outcomes for GAINS and chosen RISKY outcomes for LOSSES suggests that an emotional response may underlie the framing effect.

Evidence for Dual-Coding Theory

Participants presented with stimulus-response word pairs → Each word in the pair could be concrete or abstract.

Intelligence as Strategy Differences

Participants' IQ established with the Raven's matrices, then passively viewed videos in a PET scanner → Those with higher intellectual scores had greater ACTIVITY in the visual cortex (posterior brain regions). **Therefore, intelligence scores measure STRATEGY differences (focuses processes where they're needed and alters the way they're taking information in).

Bounded Rationality

People are thought to be bounded rational, meaning they are LIMITED by both environmental constraints (ie. time pressure) and individual constraints (ie. working memory, attention). People are satisficers, looking for solutions that are merely "good enough" → We don't care if we're wrong 1/10 times, never looking to get an optimally probabilistic result. ** "Making do" with the limitations we have as humans.

Fourfold Pattern

People tend to be inconsistent according to normative theories. Examples include: - High probability losses → Horror movie logic - High probability gains → Salary/jobs (ie. tend to stick with the job they already have vs. risking being fired for considering changing jobs) - Low probability losses → Insurance - Low probability gains → Lottery tickets

Logical Errors Made with Syllogisms - Negative Premises

People tend to have more TROUBLE reasoning with NEGATIVE than positive information, as it's difficult to imagine these scenarios in one's head. ie. "All psychology professors have PhDs, no PhD holders are human, therefore psychology professors are not human" is harder to solve compared to "all psychology professors have PhDs, all PhD holders are human, therefore psychology professors are human".

Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic

People's judgements of the magnitude of something is biased (ie. adjusted) by some INITIAL value to which they're exposed (ie. the anchor). ie. Which of the following produces a larger number: - 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 - 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 - ... Most will say the first sequence, due it it's initial value being greater, despite the resulting product being the same ie. Participants were given a random number between 0 and 100 and asked: "Is this number higher or lower than the percentage of African nations in the United Nations? Now estimate the actual percentage." → Those who were given a HIGH random number gave greater percent estimates than those given a LOW random number. **This symbolizes that we anchor estimates to unrelated information (not within conscious awareness).

Auditory Imagery vs. Perception (Brain Activation)

Perception → Sound of the instrument with its corresponding name on the screen presented to participants. Auditory imagery → Participants imagine sounds corresponding to the instrument name presented. **There ARE some similar brain areas that become activated during imagery, as during perception.

Phrase Structure Rules

Phrase structure rules CONVERT symbols to constrain language → Language will be grammatically correct when following these rules.

State-Dependent Learning (INTERNAL context)

Physiological state: Alcohol-dependent learning. Perform a memory task while sober vs. not sober → After 24 hours, memory was re-tested → Two groups of matched state (ie. previously drunk, drunk again) and two groups of mismatched states. **Those in the matched states had better memory recall.

Mood Affects Real-World Gambling

Prediction error in sports outcomes and the weather have been found to affect people's MOOD. - Positive PE increases positive affect (ie. expecting a team to lose and they win). - Negative PE increases negative affect (ie. expecting a team to win and they lose) Changes in mood PREDICT risky decision-making → When people are happy they are MORE likely to gamble.

Logical Errors Made with Syllogisms - Believability Effect

Premises that reflect content we know change the difficulty level of he syllogism → If a syllogism's conclusion is believable, people will accept it as TRUE despite logic. For example, "All students are tired, some tired people are irritable, therefore some students are irritable" → We bring assumptions of truth when deducing these inferences.

Priming (Implicit Memory)

Prior EXPOSURE facilitates information procesing without awareness. ie. Word-fragment completion test → Participants study a list of words, then complete word fragments → They are likely to use the previously studied words to complete the fragments without awareness.

Extremity of Event - Prospect Theory

Probabilities are NOT treated objectively → Extreme events tend to be rare. Individuals don't actually understand probabilities as they actually are → ie. people believe dying of cancer is more probable than dying in a car crash, due to its extremity, whereas it's the opposite. Unlikely events are OVERESTIMATED. Likely events are UNDERESTIMATED. **Availability of an option changes the perceived frequency of occurence. **Probability weighting function describe how people understand likelihoods .

Measuring Intelligence: A Standard Test

Psychometrics → The study of psychological ASSESSMENT. Standardization → Test scores are COMPARED to pre-tested 'standardization' or 'norm' groups. Normal distribution or curve → A symmetrical BELL-SHAPED curve that describes test score distribution (plot of individual differences).

Problem Spaces

Problem spaces are used to study the role of problem-solving STEPS to solve well-defined problems. They include: 1. Initial and goal states (ie. starting point and destination) 2. Intermediate states/subgoals (ie. stopping for gas) 3. Operators (transitions), actions performed to change a state 4. Task constraints (ie. must follow the roads)

Well-Defined Problems

Problems with a DEFINED goal and set CONSTRAINTS to meet that goal. We know which solution we want to get to → We also know how to reach that solution (ie. the goal for bowling is to knock down the pins, provided rules are followed and the path is given). **There is a CLEAR PATH to more from the problem to solution.

Alzheimer's Disease

Progressive neuro-degeneration that begins in the MEDIAL temporal lobes (hippocampus) → Decline in structure and function of neurons. In early stages: - Impaired EPISODIC memory, encoding and retrieval (ie. troubles re-experiencing memories from the past) - Spared SEMANTIC memory, including autobiographical knowledge In late stages: - A decline in ALL forms of memory, with changes in emotions and personality

Gender Style and Language

Pronounciation → Women have BETTER pronounciation. Vocabulary → Women use more ADJECTIVES and first person plurals than men (ie. we need to hurry). Intonation (pitch) → Women use a 'REVERSE ACCENT' more than men (ie. ending statements like questions). **IF these are due to societal influences and there is a change in society, there will be a change in language too.

Intelligence as a Single Entity (General View)

Pros - Takes a scientific approach to research - Has generated a lot of EMPIRICAL research - Differences in 'g' can account for about 50% of task peformance variability → Maybe us understanding this one thing can help us understand individual differences Cons - This reductionist approach may OVERSHADOW individual differences in sub-areas that are important - It treats an abstract concept (intelligence) as a TANGIBLE entity

Egocentric Perspective Transformations

Rather than moving an object in space as a mental rotation, egocentric perspective transformations involve moving ONESELF in space to view different objects. **People are faster at orienting things beside them, as opposed to behind them.

Language in Context: Reading

Reading is a NEWER form of language. Read printed words → Search in mental dictionary (lexicon) → Convert to speech. OR Read printed words → Grapheme-phoneme conversion (letter-by-letter) → Convert to speech.

Linguistic Performance

Real world OUTPUT → Dependent on competence mixed with cognitive factors (ie. memory) and situational factors. **Context in which we're using language. **Grammatical sentences with no meaning illustrate a violation of performance.

Anchoring in Advertising

Reason for sales is that it gets customers to buy MORE → Even though something is still more than you're typically willing to pay for, the original price acts as the anchor for the sale price.

Wernicke's Aphasia

Receptive aphasia → Decreased COMPREHENSION. **Individuals have difficulty understanding written and spoken language. - Damage to the SUPERIOR temporal lobe (boundary between temporal and parietal lobes) - Impairments understanding or comprehending speech, with intact ABILITY to produce speech - Produces random but fluent speech, referred to as "WORD SALAD", with a lot of non-words or invented words - UNAWARE of their deficit → Patients believe they're being understood, although combined words make no sense

Episodic Remembering

Recollection of autobiographical memories → A tendency to recall with VIVID and rich images of the past. **Replaying past events in the mind (image visualization).

Recollection vs. Familiarity

Recollection: - Recognize something and where you learned it - AUTONOETIC consciousness Familiarity: - Recognize something but you cannot consciously recollect anything about its actual occurrence - NOETIC consciousness - ie. "Butcher on the bus phenomenon" → Someone you've met before, however in an unexpected location, making it difficult to put your finger on where you know them from.

Episodic Memory (Explicit Memory)

Remembering SPECIFIC EVENTS and episodes → Retrieval is accompanied with remembering the encoding context (ie. recalling the what, where and when). For example, remembering the exact moment of "my delicious French dinner in Paris last Fall".

Constraint Relaxation

Remove ASSUMPTIONS that are blocking a problem solution → Taking a well-defined problem and making it moreill-defined. **Overcoming functional fixedness.

Structurally Blind (Reproductive) Thinking: Gestalt

Retrieve old HABITUAL patterns and applying them to the current situation → Engage our cognitive processes by reproducing what has worked for us in the past, to a new problem. - Aim is EFFICIENCY - Can lead to a 'strong but wrong' pattern of thought For example, used to use a certain filter for coffee, but now with a new coffee machine, which requires new filters, the individual still doens't switch due to habits formed (not functioning).

In the Brain: A Right Hemisphere Bias

Right hemisphere involvement, specifically the anterior temporal lobe, more active for INSIGHT problem solving. **Supports forming new connections between concepts → This part of the brain is used for accessing broad and alternate meanings of information.

Risk

Risk preferences are not themselves irrational → The problems come when people develop INCONSISTENCIES in their behaviour. Classic (rational) economic theories (ie. expected utility theory) can account for individuals' risk PREFERENCES → However, it has been empirically observed that people are INCONSISTENT in their preferences which has been taken as a bias. **These inconsistencies cannot be explained using rational economic theories (how SHOULD people act) → Birth of behavioural economics (how DO people act).

Risk Attitude Profiles

Risk premium → DIFFERENCE between expected gains of a risky option and a certain option. Risk AVERSE → Decision maker has a POSITIVE risk premium (ie. need a chance at winning a lot more than a certain option to select the risky option). Risk NEUTRAL → Decision maker has ZERO risk premium (ie. no difference in the options). Risk SEEKING → Decision maker has NEGATIVE risk premium (ie. doesn't need the chance at winning more than the certain option to gamble).

Noetic Consciousness

SEMANTIC memory → Awareness of knowledge, but no personal engagement (ie. no need to recall place of learning). The object on which judgment is made has to mental and internal, rather than physically present → In other words, it allows an organism to be consciously aware of objects and events, even in their absence. **Different divisions in long-term memory can be thought of on different levels of consciousness.

The Now Print Theory

SIGNIFICANT experiences (ie. flashbulb memories) are immediately "PHOTOCOPIED" and preserved in long-term memory. **These memories are allowed to be remembered in an UNCHANGED state, as they're so important. **These memory triggers come as a SURPRISE (prediction error) and are personally RELEVANT to the individual (consequential).

Our Culture Determines Concepts

STABILITY in the prototype structure across a culture, emerging from experience. If people are asked to make TYPICALITY ratings of items → There is a near perfect correlation (0.9) amongst members of the same culture. For example, "Good example of furniture - chair, desk and rug".

Working Backward Strategy (Heuristic)

START with your goal state in mind and work back to your current state → NOT useful when the goal of a problem is unknown (ie. ill-defined problem).

Utility

SUBJECTIVE value assigned to an object (ie. satisfaction) → CONTEXT dependent. For example, choosing between a diamond and a water bottle in normal life OR while in the desert (not absolute, DEPENDENT on what is happening in the moment). Utility is assigned to a MONETARY amount as a function of someone's current state (reference point) and not in absolute value → DEVIATIONS from the reference point will determine risk preference. **ANCHOR and adjustment heuristic → Anything above will be gained, anything below will be losses (ie. an individual considers $100 as the neutral point, determining subsequent gains or losses).

Interlingual Homograph Pairs

Same orthographic form for words, DIFFERENT meaning. **For example, coin in english is a word for money, whereas coin in french is a word to describe a point at which walls meet.

Cognate Pairs

Same orthographic form for words, SAME meaning. **For example, piano in english describes the same instrument as piano in french does.

Maxim of Quantity (Grice's Cooperative Principle)

Say NO MORE than is necessary, but not too little → Therefore, we try to provide the right amount of information.

Maxim of Quality (Grice's Cooperative Principle)

Say what is TRUTHFUL → Therefore, we believe what people say (most people find it difficult to lie when asked a direct question).

Conclusions About Schemas

Schemas are the SCAFFOLDING that we use to interpret events → They facilitate memory for schema-consistent vs. schema-unrelated information, and "fills in" the gaps of a constructed memory. Schemas are helpful to remember the GIST of a story (ie. what's important) → They make the world more predictable, and help to interpret current experience with other memories. **Schemas help provide a THREAD among experiences that we've had.

Modifications of Memories via Schemas

Schemas help ORGANIZE and categorize information and also have the ability to CHANGE episodic memories → They affect how we remember or recall a memory traces.

Quillian's Model of Semantic Memory

Searching through a NETWORK takes time. Verifying sentences where the relationships are further apart in the network take longer than if they were closer together → TIME increases with length of path. - Can a canary sing → One pointer apart - Does a canary eat → Three pointers apart **Therefore, 'can a canary sing' is more readily answered, as it's more specific to that particular animal **With this model, it is difficult to explain contradictions (ie. 'does a canary have hands' → You are required to falsify that notion → It's not part of the network, making it difficult to determine). **There are different theories for how concepts are related to one another within the network: HIERARCHICAL network model and SIMILARITY of feature models.

Language and Thought: Linguistic Relativity View

Seeing a container marked 'gasoline' is interpreted as dangerous because of the linguistic label (gasoline is flammable). However, seeing a gasoline container marked "empty" is seen as not dangerous (or flammable) even though vapours are explosive → This is because the word "empty" creates the concept of "VOID", "non-explosive" or "safe". **Language DOES change how we think and perceive.

Memory Systems

Sensory memory → Short-term/working memory → Long-term memory (once attention is paid to it).

Syllogisms

Statements with two PREMISES (statements - parts of a reason that work together to support a conclusion, presumed to be TRUE) and conclusion that you use deductive reasoning to determine if the CONCLUSION is correct. Categoric syllogisms are premises that begin with All, No or Some and take the following format: - Major premise - Minor premise - Conclusion → Must determine if this is true or valid based on the premises listed previously

Why Are We Stuck On One Form of Intelligence?

Sternberg suggests there are some reasons we are hesitant to accept multiple forms of intelligence: - Fear of CHANGE → We are so used to thinking of intelligence as one thing that we are reluctant to give this notion up - FINANCIAL gain → A lot of test prep centres benefit from this view, for example - Quantitative pseudo-precision → A single test score sounds more PRECISE, therefore it is preferred by scientists

Prediction Error

The DIFFERENCE between what you predicted would happen and what actually happened. For example, you go to the store to buy Perrier: - Surprise! It's on sale (cheaper than usual) - Inflation! It's marked up (more expensive than usual) **Prediction errors are thought to drive (reinforcement) LEARNING → Environment changes, updating our beliefs based on how the world works. Prediction errors can be: - Positive → Unexpectedly good outcome - Negative → Unexpectedly bad outcome

Categories

Systematic GROUPING of instances that are similar. - CONCEPTS are what define a category - Cognitive economy is the BALANCE between simplification and differentiation categorizing **The desire to use the fewest 'bits' of information that is still be meaningful when describing a concept (ie. the cog dog is: A mammal, a psychology mascot, and a dog).

Brute Force Approach

Systematic algorithms represent all the possible steps from the initial problem state → Considering EVERY possible move that can be made to reach end goal (takes up a lot of energy and time). - You go through all the options via a BLIND SEARCH - While it is guaranteed to find a solution, this leads to COMBINATORIAL EXPLOSION, as computing the many alternatives (combinations) takes up too many resources

Memory Schemas: Bartlett (1932)

The "War of Ghosts" experiment → Participants read a story about young men hunting seals in a river → Examined how the story changed with repeated retrievalS. **The story didn't fit people's schema of TYPICAL hunting (ie. fishing), so Bartlett tried to see how people would change their story to fit with their schemas over time. Results: - Participants remembered a simplified version of the story (same results, regardless of method used) → Specific details were forgotten, but not the gist - The story became more conventional with repeated retrievals → Story began to align with what the participants would expect from that story, based on their schemas - Omissions and changes followed a process of RATIONALIZATION - Details that did not fit the participants schema were dropped or altered (ie. excluded uncommon phrases like "a black thing rushed out of his mouth") (ie. changed uncommon to more conventional activities, according to their schemas

Structural Similarity

The CAUSAL RELATIONS among the main components are shared by both problems → They are similar with respect to their 'deep representations' (only the underlying message or representation is the same). The parts of the problem look DIFFERENT. For example, two people who go to the same barber shop to get their haircut. **The fortress and tumor stories also share structural similarity.

Gardner's Theory

The belief that intelligence is the ability to solve problems values within a particular SETTING, it is skill based → Taking into account the context one's in when thinking and acting. EIGHT separate systems that operate on different symbols (information) that are supported by different brain areas. **This is a theory that intelligence is MANY things and can take on many forms (separate aspects that operate independently).

Neuroplasticity

The brain's ability to reorganize itself, by forming NEW neural connections → Improving language function. - Neuroplasticity in the brain after a left hemisphere stroke can help RECOVER language function - Areas around the damaged area, within the left hemisphere, can be recruited to over-take language function - The right hemisphere can be recruited to over-take language function as well **TMS or tDCS (brain stimulation) can promote activity in these areas post-stroke as a form of REHABILITATION → This induces cortical excitability to these areas, helping to improve language functioning.

Adding in Misinformation

The effect of LEADING questions on false memory formation: - Participants viewed a simulated car crash - After, asked either: - "How fast were the cars going when they SMASHED into each other?" - "How fast were the cars going when they HIT into each other?" - The particular question asked impacted how fast the participants recollected how fast the cars were going (some even reported seeing images of broken glass in the car accident scene, when there was none) **Smashed > collided > bumped > hit > contacted. **Therefore, how a question is framed can AFFECT how information is remembered.

Gambler's Fallacy

The false belief that a predicted outcome of an independent event DEPENDS on past outcomes → This is seen in clinical decision-making, actual gambling and on the soccer field. This occurs because we assume outcomes are linked, when in fact they're RANDOM. ie. A coin flip lands heads three times in a row. What are the odds that it will be heads in the next toss → Answer is 50:50, however there is often a misperception that a 'tails' must be coming → Thinking one is due for a 'win' after a run of 'losses'. **It is easy for the participant to assume the odds of these trials are related in some way → We don't like when things are random, so we often expect things to be linked.

Imagery

The formation of any MENTAL IMAGES, used to help with the recollection of past events. **But, it does NOT always have to be visual imagery → It could appeal to each and everyone of the five senses (ie. an "earworm").

Sternberg's Triarchic Theory

The intellectual components INTERACT with internal representations, leading to analytic, creative and practical intelligence. Criticisms: - The measures of analytical, practical, and creative intelligence are correlated - so maybe they are measuring ONE thing - There is little EMPIRICAL evidence for these forms, especially practical intelligence - This theory underplays the importance of general intelligence (cognitive ability) in practical situations

Poverty of Stimulus Argument

The linguistic ENVIRONMENT of a child is NOT sufficient to allow that child to learn a language. - A child doesn't hear enough language samples and not enough to learn from mistakes → Only hears a subset of the infinite possibilities of linguistic combinations - Therefore, there MUST be something innate about language **However, adult reformulations of children's speech DOES allow children to gather information about an incorrect sentence in which the STRUCTURE but not the meaning is corrected (ie. I want butter mine → Ok, I will put butter on it → I need butter on it). **Even in infants, the brain has statistical PATTERN recognition devices that allow one to extract regularities and form rules (these rules are NOT innate).

Retrograde Amnesia

The loss of OLD memories from before the onset of amnesia. Temporally graded following RIBOT'S LAW → Remote memories are less affected than recent memories, as they have been consolidated.

Language of Thought Hypothesis

The medium of thought is an innate non-spoken language called MENTALESE. - Mentalese is structured to represent all conceptual content and propositions to create thought - Explains why children (and animals) can still THINK without spoken language → Language and thought are INDEPENDENT (aligns with nativist views)

Problem Solving

The multi-step process to shift your current state (problem) to a GOAL (desired) state. If desired outcome is known → Well-defined problem. If outcome is unknown → Ill-defined problem. Problem space and heuristics are used to navigate this space → Means-end analysis is the most effective heuristic, and this was used to form early computer simulations of problem solving.

Typicality Effect: Priming

The name of a concept primes prototypical items. Color matching test → Responses are faster for condition 1 than 2 (forest vs. lime green) because the green color is more prototypical.

Adaptive Functions of Constructive Memory

The same processes that help us construct the past, help us IMAGINE not-yet-experienced scenarios, helping to plan for the future. **Both tasks have overlap in active areas of the brain (ie. hippocampus) → Details from past experiences are picked out to construct what we think our future will look like.

Insight Problem Solving Examples

The triangle problem → Typically solved in a step-by-step analytic way, however it becomes solved when using insight. The cheap necklace problem → Requires restructuring the problem (seeing the problem in a new way) Verbal insight problem → Thinking outside the box.

The Expert Brain: Functional Differences

There are NOT anatomical differences between experts and non-experts in the brain → However, there ARE functional brain differences (the way in which the brain is recruited during a task). Experts more easily RECRUIT brain areas that process information related to their expertise → For example, expert radiologists will recruit more VISUAL areas when viewing chest X-rays.

Prior Experience: Expertise

There are different levels with which you can be familiar with something, thereby making for differences in problem solving. Those with expertise in a particular domain will use better rules and strategies when solving these problems.

Encoding Specificity in the Brain

There is NEURAL pattern SIMILARITY between encoding and retrieval → Overlap in these brain states results in better memory. **There is reactivation of encoding context brain regions during successful retrieval of items (predictive of someone remembering the associated item).

Theory of General Intelligence (Charles Spearman)

There is a single, biologically based source of 'GENERAL' intelligence. **Initially, not a lot of support because mental test scores didn't CORRELATE with one another → Spearman used factor analysis to examine these correlations, allowing his to see if seemingly unrelated factors trule do have something in COMMON.

Can Individuals with Hippocampal Damage Learn from New Semantic Knowledge?

These individuals wouldn't learn in the same way that normal individuals do (ie. somebody who developed hippocampal damage back in the 70's wouldn't know what Wikipedia is). However, if you bypass the hippocampus, some absorption CAN happen if new information is presented alongside really well-known semantic (previously acquired) knowledge.

Covert Rehearsal

Thinking about an event, internally (ie. reflecting on the sudden passing of Kobe Bryant).

Ambiguous Sentences

Those with sections that have different MEANING depending on how it is interpreted. **Ambiguity dissipates when deep structure is used to guide interpretation. Two different meanings of a sentence can be extracted from the same surface structure: - Time flies like an arrow - Fruit flies like bananas

The Hobbits and Orcs Problem

Three hobbits and three orcs are on one side of a river. They all want to cross to the other side. - There is one boat that hold one or two creatures, but if there are ever more orcs than hobbits in one place, the orcs eat them - Someone is always required to row the boat - How can you get everyone safely to the other side? **This can NOT be solved using the hill climbing strategy → The solution requires multiple intermediate steps that aren't always directly moving towards the final goal.

Strategies to Offset Age-Related Decline

UNITIZATION as a strategy for learning → Remember two things as one item (i.e a gorilla holding an umbrella vs. a gorilla and an umbrella). **This is a similar process to chunking. **When conducted experimentally, there was a reduced age difference in the unitized condition, when asked to remember words presented in a color background.

How do the Two Languages of the Bilingual Interact?

Two hypotheses: i) Language SELECTIVE activation → Able to "turn-off" the language you aren't using, also called a "mental FIREWALL" (this theory was disproven). ii) Language NON-SELECTIVE activation → You dont "turn-off" the language you aren't using, words from both languages COMPETE for selection (even when you are only using one of them).

Types of Premise Rules

Universal affirmative → All A are B (NOT applicable vice versa - ie. "all rocks are hard things → does not mean all hard things are rocks). Universal negative → No A are B (this IS applicable vice versa - ie. "no rocks are soft things → also means no soft things are rocks). The particular affirmative → Some A are B (ie. "some rocks are hard things → many ways to interpret these, making them difficult to reason with). The particular negative → Some A are not B (ie. some rocks are not hard things → this could mean that they're completely separate concepts or that some hard things are simply not rocks).

Sternberg's Intellectual Components

Universal components that act on internal representations, meaning they're important for all forms of intelligence: - META-component → Higher order processes for planning and decision making, making decisions about how to SOLVE a problem - PERFORMANCE component → Processes for EXECUTING a task - KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION component → Process to LEARN and STORE new information

Creative Intelligence

Use of experience in ways that foster INSIGHT → The ability to reason with novel CONCEPTS and connect the internal world to external reality in NEW ways. It is the ability to form links and broad connections between things that aren't obviously there (ie. insight) → Bring together information from different areas. **It is useful in ILL-DEFINED scenarios.

The Simon-Binet Test

Used as a PERFORMANCE method → Assesses intellectual skills and knowledge by determining the ABILITY to correctly answer questions. EMPIRICAL evidence (information achieved by observation) was used to create these questions → Studied what the average child of a given age could do. - 30 questions of increasing DIFFICULTY → Easy items (ie. follow a light beam, state your family name) and difficult items (ie. repeat 7 digits, describe abstract words - these could only be answered by more educated or older individuals) - A child's mental age is calculated by COMPARING the child's score to that of the average (standardization)

Viewing a Problem: Expertise Study

Used eye-tracking to view how experts vs. non-experts look for abnormalities: When viewing scans, expert radiologists use 'GLOBAL' visual processes, compared to the novices → They don't get bogged down by the details. Conclusion → Experts use more EFFICIENT search patterns in the domain of expertise. **The non-experts aren't quite sure which details to pay attention to.

Thinking Aloud Procedures

Used to measure complex THINKING to understand STRATEGIES → Determines how we actually know the strategies listed above are used by people. Two types: - CONCURRENT verbalizations → Describe what you are doing AS you do it (how you're solving a problem, play-by-play report of participant's thoughts) - RETROSPECTIVE verbalizations → Describe what you DID at an earlier time (influenced by metacognitive processes, this describes problem solving after it has already been done) **Concurrent verbalizations are more accurate, as they do NOT rely heavily on memory.

Prior Experience: Analogical Transfer

Using PAST stories or solutions to solve a current problem → Requires seeing a LINK between experiences. For example, when Archimedes was trying to determine the mass of the king's crown aas being completely gold or containing silver → He took a bath and realized the displacement of water due to his weight → Applied this experience to determine the solution to his problem.

Valid vs. Invalid Syllogisms

Validity depends on whether the conclusion FOLLOWS those premises (only on the logical form and not the content) → This is different than how we use this term in everyday conversation in which validity = truth. Valid syllogism: - All A are B - All C are A - Therefore all C are B - ie. Coffee is a beverage, lattes are coffee, therefore lattes are beverages Invalid syllogism: - All A are B - All C are B - Therefore all C are A - ie. Coffee is a beverage, a milkshake is a beverage, therefore milkshakes are coffee

Visual vs. Auditory Imagery

Visual imagery → Visualizers = verbalizers. Auditory imagery → Visualizers < verbalizers. **Visualizers are individuals who, when recalling past personal events, tend to do this primarily with visual images. Whereas, verbalizers utilize words.

The Availability Bias

We confuse the FREQUENCY with which we can REMEMBER something with how frequently it OCCURS. The easier it is to remember something, the more likely you'll think it is to happen in the future → Related to MEMORY. For example, are there more words in the English LANGUAGE that begin with the letter R or with the letter R in the third letter? - Run, rather, rock are easier to recall than arrange, park, word → However, there are 3x mroe words with R in the third position, than the first **News and MEDIA violence makes thinking of examples of crime very easy, making it seem like there is more crime in the world than there actually is → This bias can be used by people to mis-guide thinking (ie. being more afraid of flying than driving because we hear about plane crashes compared to car crashes). We can remember CHALLENGES we have to overcome better than other people's challenges, as they are more available from memory → Therefore, we perceive things as harder for us compared to others (ie. siblings think parents were harder on then than their brother/sister).

The Reminiscence Bump

We tend to remember more events from our TEENAGE years than any other period in life → This even extends to music. An adaptive characteristic of memory → Focus on novel events and experiences critical for SELF-IDENTITY. Once we age: - Implicit memory intact → Procedures and habits - Semantic memory intact → Facts, verbal knowledge **These have been crystallized and are not subject to decay. - Episodic memory IMPAIRED → 'What did I do', 'where was I' and flashbulb memories **What was last to develop in childhood, is the first to decline in adulthood.

Well-Defined vs. Ill-Defined Problem Solving

Well-defined problems have MORE task constraints than ill-defined problems. Experiment: - People solved anagrams under two experimental conditions in an MRI scanner - Asked to create a word from jumbles of letters - Well-defined (constraints) → "Can you make a type of music with ZJAZ?" - Ill-defined (no constraints) → "Can you make a word with ZJAZ?" Results: - GREATER activity in the right lateral prefrontal cortex for ill-defined anagrams, compared to well-defined ones - Solving ill-defined problems carry a greater 'cognitive LOAD'

Grapheme Level (Shallow Processing)

What are the letters? How many syllables? **This form of processing doesn't take into account the concept of what's being studied.

Prototypes are Dynamic

When thinking about a prototype, it's not static → It has the ability to CHANGE over time (ie. development of the telephone).

Proactive Interference

When OLD information prevents the recall of newer information (ie. when trying to remember a new phone number, you might keep thinking of an old one).

Insight Problem Solving

When a person can't find the solution, then the solution emerges into consciousness after a period of time → The 'AHA' experience. **This requires breaking free of assumptions to form NEW connections in mind to reach a solution → Happens when you stop consciously trying to solve the problem (lets you tumble into the correct solution).

Regression Towards the Mean

When a process is somewhat random (ie. WEAK correlation), extreme values will be closer to the mean (ie. less extreme) when measured a SECOND time. **Scores tend to average out a second time around → Can't always attribute changes in performance to manipulations, sometimes it's just noise. For example, individuals who initially did very well on a test and then receive a lower test score the following test, assume that they somehow became dumber → Relation to illusory correlations, where people tend to see causal relationships even when there are none.

Memory Re-Consolidation

When a trace representation becomes activated, it becomes DE-STABILIZED (ie. fragile and open to change). Cortical connections can be STRENGTHENED and modified during this time, which alters how the memory trace is reconsolidated afterwards → Meaning, the memory could be stored differently based on how it was being remembered in the moment (depending on the details paid attention to).

Retroactive Interference

When more RECENT information gets in the way of trying to recall older information (ie. calling your ex boyfriend by your new boyfriend's name).

Base Rate Neglect

When you fail to use information about the prior PROBABILITY of an event to judge the likelihood of an event. For example, imagine running an HIV test on population of 1000 people, in which only 1% are infected. The false positive rate (falsely diagnosing someone) is 5% with no false negatives. If a test comes back positive, what is the likelihood someone has HIV? - It is actually 17% (10 positive individuals out of 60 individuals tested positive) → Important for doctors diagnosing with low incidence populations

Special Places Strategy (Memory)

When you want to keep something secure, you often think to hide that item in an unexpected place → Although we believe this to be memorable due to its distinctiveness, we often forget where we put the valuable item. **There is no associated made between the objects and their locations, so while searching for it, we only think of the obvious locations of where the item might be.

Omission Bias

Which is more harmful: 1. A person who accidentally sets fire to a building. 2. A person who sees a fire in a building but doesn't bother to report it. People tend to react more strongly to harmful actions (1) than to harmful INACTIONS (2) → Although both lead to the same harmful outcome, different steps are taken to make a difference in interpretation. **This is because of the biased thought that withholding is not as bad as doing → Inaction (the lack of something, negative premise) is harder to classify as wrong than action.

Progress Monitoring Theory

While they may subjectively feel different, insight and non-insight solutions rely on the SAME cognitive MECHANISMS. - Monitor progress of a problem by examining the DIFFERENCE between current and goal state - We CHANGE how we solve a problem when we can't solve the problem with current methods: Criterion failure - Then, we form new moves that may include insight **Insight only occurs when individuals realize that the solution they need can't be achieved with the current set of moves → Restart problem solving.

Adaptive Cognitive Aging

Word pair memory test in scanner: - Young adults (YA) and low-performing old adults (OA) recruited the RIGHT prefrontal cortex - High performing OA recruited BILATERAL prefrontal cortex **Neural compensation → Recruit extra brain activity to 'match' memory performance of the YA. **Frontal lobes of the brain are important for directing memory retrieval.

Concrete Word

Word that can be represented as BOTH a word and an image. **Participants remember response words that were paired with concrete words better than those paired with abstract words, because they can be represented using both the verbal and non-verbal systems.

Abstract Word

Word that tends to be represented ONLY as a word. For example, an "IDEA" is difficult to imagine as an image, but we understand its meaning as a word. **Although not represented by images, abstract words are still highly recruited by areas in the right hemisphere → Just in different activation PATTERNS compared to concrete words.

Is Intelligence (Working) Memory?

Working memory capacity SHARES at least half its statistical variance with general intelligence. The central executive is responsible for updating shifting attention and inhibiting information, which is linked to a variety of cognitive abilities. **General intelligence is the ability to ACTIVATE cognitive processes related to working memory. **Working memory ability (specifically those that are supported by the central executive component) are better able to predict things like grades than standard IQ scores.

Selecting Operators in a Problem Space

You need to select operations that will move you EFFECTIVELY through the problem space to the goal. **These problem spaces are used to represent a SOLUTION somebody might take → Determined through the observation of strategies an individual uses when problem-solving (without using too many cognitive resources). Methods to select operations: - BRUTE FORCE - HEURISTICS: Strategies to control movement in a problem space (mental shortcuts or rules you might implement so you don't have to look at all possible solutions) → Hill climbing, working backwards and means end analysis

The Alan Example - Representativeness Bias

You randomly select one male from the Canadian population and that male, Alan, wears glasses, speaks quietly and reads a lot. Is it more likely Alan is a farmer or a librarian? - Most people say librarian, due to description - However, this ignores base rate information → There are MORE farmers than librarians in Canada - Therefore it is more statistically probable that Alan is a farmer

Steps for Analogical Problem Solving

i) Notice a relationship → There is an analogous RELATIONSHIP between source and target problem. ii) Map the correspondence between the source and target via WHAT is similar between the target and source problems (ie. "the common link"). iii) Apply the mapping by generating a parallel SOLUTION for the target problem (transferring the solution from the source to target problem).

Auditory Imagery vs. Perception

i) People are presented with a pure tone (single frequency, no harmonic spectrum), and are asked to imagine this tone played by a specific instrument (ie. guitar, flute or trumpet) ii) People are then presented with a second tone played by one of three instruments (ie. guitar, flute or trumpet) ii) People judge whether the second tone is the same as or different from the first tone **People were faster at saying that the two notes were the same when the perceived timbre was consistent with the heard timbre ("instrument")