AP Psychology: Memory, Cognition, and Intelligence

Linguistic Determinism

Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think.

Cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Repression

in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories.

Serial Position Effect

our tendency to recall best the last (a recency effect) and first items (a primacy effect) in a list.

Retroactive Interference

the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old info.

Proactive interference

the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new info.

Sensory Memory

the immediate, very brief recording of sensory info in the memory system.

Spacing Effort

the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice.

Explicit Memory

memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare"

Memory

The persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of info.

Retrieval

The process of getting info out of memory storage.

Prototype

a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin.)

Algorithm

a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier-but also more error prone-use of heuristics.

Heuristic

a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms.

Insight

a sudden realization of a problem's solution; contrasts with strategy-based solutions.

Mental Set

a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.

Anterograde Amnesia

an inability to form new memories.

Retrograde Amnesia

an inability to retrieve info from one's past.

Long-Term Potential (LTP)

an increase in a cell's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.

Two-word Stage

beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements.

Telegraphic Stage

early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram-"go car"-using mostly nouns and verbs

Shallow Processing

encoding on a basic level based on the structure or appearance of words.

Deep Processing

encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the words; tends to yield the best retention.

Effortful Processing

encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.

Phoneme

in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.

Representativeness heuristic

judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant info.

Language

our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.

Creativity

the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

Priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations, in memory.

Long-Term Memory

the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Mood-congruent memory

the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood.

Iconic Memory

A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second.

Encoding

The processing of info into the memory system - for example, by extracting meaning.

Parallel Processing

The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously. the brain's natural mode of info processing for many functions. Contrasts with the step by step (serial) processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving.

Relearning

a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material again.

Concept

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

Flashbulb memory

a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event

Recall

a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve info learned earlier, as on a fill in the blank test.

Recognition

a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple choice test.

Echoic Memory

a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere. sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds.

Hippocampus

a neural center located in the limbic center; helps process explicit memories for storage

Working Memory

a newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial info, and of info retrieved from long-term memory.

Confirmation Bias

a tendency to search for info that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

Short-Term Memory

activated memory that holds a few items briefly. such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the info is stored or forgotten.

Intuition

an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning

Source Amnesia

attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined. Source amnesia, along with the misinfo effect, is at the heart of many false memories.

Babbling Stage

beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language.

Broca's Area

controls language expression-an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech.

Wernicke's Area

controls language reception- a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe.

Testing Effect

enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, info.

Availability heuristic

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common.

Divergent Thinking

expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions).

Aphasia

impairment of language, usually caused by left-hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding).

Grammar

in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others. In a given language, semantics is the set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds, and syntax is the set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.

Morpheme

in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).

Misinformation Effect

incorporating misleading info into one's memory of an event.

Mnemonics

memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices.

Convergent Thinking

narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution.

Chunking

organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically.

Implicit Memory

retention independent of conscious recollection.

Deja Vu

that eerie sense that "i've experienced this before." Cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience.

One-word Stage

the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words.

Automatic Processing

unconscious encoding of incidental info, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well learned info, such as word meanings.