Chapter 7. Cognition; Test Yourself Questions

What are three ways we forget, and how does each of these happen?

1. Encoding Failure: Unattended information never entered our memory system. 2. Storage Decay: Information fades from our memory. 3. Retrieval Failure: We cannot access stored information accurately, sometimes due to interference or motivated forgetting.

What are two basic functions of working memory?

1. Active processing of incoming visual and auditory information. 2. Focusing our spotlight of attention

Which brain area responds to stress hormones by helping to create stronger memories?

Amygdala

What is the difference between automatic and effortful processing, and what are some examples of each?

Automatic processing occurs unconsciously (automatically) for such things as the sequence and frequency of a day's events, and reading and comprehending words in our own language(s). Effortful processing requires attention and awareness and happens, for example, when we work hard to learn new material in class, or new lines for a play.

______ ____ is one part of the brain that if damaged, might impair you ability to speak words. Damage to _________ ____ might impair you ability to understand language.

Broca's Area; Wernicke's Area

What would be the most effective strategy to learn and retain a list of names of key historical figures for a week? For a year?

For a week: Make the names personally meaningful. For a year: Take advantage of the spacing effect by spreading your learning over several months.

Why is news so often focused on "something that hardly ever happens"? How does knowing this help us assess our fears?

If a tragic event such as a plane crash makes the news, it is noteworthy and unusual, unlike much more common bad events, such as traffic accidents. Knowing this, we can worry less about unlikely events and think more about improving the safety of our everyday activities. (For example, we can wear a seat belt when in a vehicle and use the crosswalk when walking)

If children are not yet speaking, is there any reason to think they would benefit from parents and other caregivers reading to them?

Indeed there is, because well before age 1 children are learning to detect words among the stream of spoken sounds and to discern grammatical rules. Before age 1, they are also babbling with the phonemes of their own language. More than many parents realize, their infants are soaking up language. As researchers Peter Jusczyk reminds us, "Little ears are listening."

What is the difference between receptive and productive language, and when do children normally hit these milestones in language development.

Infants normally start developing receptive language skills (ability to understand what is said to and about them) around 4 months of age. Then, starting with babbling at 4 months and beyond, infants normally start building productive language skills (ability to produce sounds and eventually words).

Imagine being a jury member in a trial for a parent accused of sexual abuse based on a recovered memory. What insights from memory research should you offer the jury.

It will be important to remember the key points agreed upon most researchers and professional associations: Sexual abuse, injustice, forgetting, and memory construction all happen; recovered memories are common; memories from our first four years are unreliable; memories claimed to be recovered through hypnosis are especially unreliable; and memories, whether real or false, can be emotionally upsetting.

If you want to be sure to remember what you're learning for an upcoming test, would it be better to use recall or recognition to check your memory? Why?

It would be better to test your memory with recall (such as with short-answer or fill-in-the-blank self-test questions) rather than recognition (such as with multiple-choice questions). Recalling means your retention of the material is better - and so are the odds of your later recognizing the correct answer. Your chances of test success are therefore greater.

What was the premise of researcher Noam Chomsky's work in language development?

Linguist Noam Chomsky has proposed that humans are biologically predisposed to learn the grammar rules of language. He calls this trait universal grammar.

If you try to make the material you are learning personally meaningful,are you processing at a shallow or a deep level? Which level leads to greater retention?

Making material personally meaningful involves processing at a deep level, because you are processing semantically - based on the meaning of the words. Deep processing leads to greater retention.

What is mental practice, and how can it help you to prepare for an upcoming event?

Mental practice uses visual imagery to mentally rehearse future behaviors, activating some of the same brain areas used during the actual behaviors. Visualizing the details of the process is more effective than visualizing on your end goal.

Why is it so difficult to learn a new language in adulthood?

Our brain's critical period for language learning is in childhood, when we can absorb language structure almost effortlessly. As we move past that stage in or brain's development, our ability to learn a new language diminishes dramatically.

Your friend has experienced brain damage in an accident. He can remember how to tie his shoes but has a hard time remembering anything you tell him during a conversation. How can implicit versus explicit information processing explain what's going on here?

Our explicit conscious memories of facts and episodes differ from our implicit memories of skills (such as tying shoelaces) and classically conditioned responses. The part of the brain involved in explicit memory processing (the frontal lobes and hippocampus) may have sustained damage in the accident, while the parts involved in implicit memory processing (the cerebellum and basal ganglia) appear to have escaped harm.

You have just watched a movie that includes a chocolate factory. After the chocolate factory is out of mind, you nevertheless feel a strange urge for a chocolate bar. How do you explain this in terms of priming.

Priming is the activation (often without our awareness) of associations. Seeing a chocolate factory in a movie, for example, might temporarily predispose you to crave a chocolate treat. Although you might not consciously remember the chocolate factory, it may prime how you interpret or recall events.

What - given the commonness of sources amnesia - might life be like if we remembered all our waking experiences and all our dreams?

Real experiences would be confused with those we dreamed. When seeing someone we know, we might therefore be unsure whether we were reacting to something they previously did or to something we dreamed they did.

Freud believed that we _______ unacceptable memories to minimize anxiety.

Repress

You will experience less (proactive/retroactive) interference if you learn new material in the hour before sleep than you will if you learn it before turning to another subject.

Retroactive

At which of Atkinson-Shiffrin's three memory stages would iconic and echoic memory occur?

Sensory Memory

Memory includes (in alphabetical order) long-term memory, sensory memory, and working/ short-term memory. What's the correct order of these in the three-stage memory model?

Sensory memory, working/short-term memory, long-term memory.

When we are tested immediately after viewing a list of words, we tend to recall the first and last items best, which is known as the ______ ________ effect.

Serial Position

What memory strategies can help you study smarter and retain information?

Spend more time rehearsing or actively thinking about the material to boost long-term recall. Schedule spaced (not crammed) study times. Make the material personally meaningful, with well-organized and vivid associations. Refresh your memory by returning to contexts and moods that activate retrieval cues. Use mnemonic devices. Minimize interference. Plan for a complete night's sleep. Test yourself repeatedly - retrieval practice is a proven retention strategy.

According to Robert Sternberg, what are the five components of creativity?

Sternberg identified expertise, imaginative thinking skills, a venturesome personality, intrinsic motivation, and a creative environment as the five components of creativity.

Which parts of the brain are important for implicit memory processing, and which parts play a key role in explicit memory processing?

The cerebellum and basal ganglia are important for implicit memory processing, and the frontal lobes and hippocampus are key to explicit memory processing.

How does the working memory concept update the classic Atkinson-Shiffrin three-stage information-processing model?

The newer idea of a working memory emphasizes the active processing that we now know takes place in Atkinson-Shiffrin's short-term memory stage. While the Atkinson-Shiffrin model viewed short-term memory as a temporary holding space, working memory plays a key role in processing new information and connecting it to previously stored information.

To say that "words are the mother of ideas" assumes the truth of what concept?

This phrase supports the linguistic determinism hypothesis, which asserts that language determines thought. Research indicates that this position is too extreme, but - as linguistic influence suggests - language does influence what we perceive and think.

How many morphemes are in the word cuts? How many phonemes?

Two Morphemes: Cut and S Four Phonemes: C U T S

What is the best description of FIXATION a. Inability to view problems from a new angle; focuses thinking but hinders creative problem-solving. b. Methodological rule or procedure that guarantees a solution but requires time and effort. c. Your fast, automatic, effortless feelings and thoughts based on your experience; huge and adaptive but can lead you to over feel and underthink. d. Simple thinking shortcut that enables quick and efficient decisions but puts us at risk for errors. e. Sudden Aha! reaction that instantly reveals the solution. f. Tendency to search for support for your own views ad to ignore contradictory evidence. g. Holding on to your beliefs even after they are proven wrong; closing your mind to new ideas. h. Overestimating the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments; allows you to be happier and to make decisions more easily, but puts you at risk for errors. i. Wording a question or statement so that it evokes a desired response; can mislead people and influence their decisions. j. The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

a. Inability to view problems from a new angle; focuses thinking but hinders creative problem-solving.

What is the best description of ALGORITHM a. Inability to view problems from a new angle; focuses thinking but hinders creative problem-solving. b. Methodological rule or procedure that guarantees a solution but requires time and effort. c. Your fast, automatic, effortless feelings and thoughts based on your experience; huge and adaptive but can lead you to over feel and underthink. d. Simple thinking shortcut that enables quick and efficient decisions but puts us at risk for errors. e. Sudden Aha! reaction that instantly reveals the solution. f. Tendency to search for support for your own views ad to ignore contradictory evidence. g. Holding on to your beliefs even after they are proven wrong; closing your mind to new ideas. h. Overestimating the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments; allows you to be happier and to make decisions more easily, but puts you at risk for errors. i. Wording a question or statement so that it evokes a desired response; can mislead people and influence their decisions. j. The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

b. Methodological rule or procedure that guarantees a solution but requires time and effort.

What is the best description of INTUITION a. Inability to view problems from a new angle; focuses thinking but hinders creative problem-solving. b. Methodological rule or procedure that guarantees a solution but requires time and effort. c. Your fast, automatic, effortless feelings and thoughts based on your experience; huge and adaptive but can lead you to over feel and underthink. d. Simple thinking shortcut that enables quick and efficient decisions but puts us at risk for errors. e. Sudden Aha! reaction that instantly reveals the solution. f. Tendency to search for support for your own views ad to ignore contradictory evidence. g. Holding on to your beliefs even after they are proven wrong; closing your mind to new ideas. h. Overestimating the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments; allows you to be happier and to make decisions more easily, but puts you at risk for errors. i. Wording a question or statement so that it evokes a desired response; can mislead people and influence their decisions. j. The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

c. Your fast, automatic, effortless feelings and thoughts based on your experience; huge and adaptive but can lead you to over feel and underthink.

What is the best description of HEURISTIC a. Inability to view problems from a new angle; focuses thinking but hinders creative problem-solving. b. Methodological rule or procedure that guarantees a solution but requires time and effort. c. Your fast, automatic, effortless feelings and thoughts based on your experience; huge and adaptive but can lead you to over feel and underthink. d. Simple thinking shortcut that enables quick and efficient decisions but puts us at risk for errors. e. Sudden Aha! reaction that instantly reveals the solution. f. Tendency to search for support for your own views ad to ignore contradictory evidence. g. Holding on to your beliefs even after they are proven wrong; closing your mind to new ideas. h. Overestimating the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments; allows you to be happier and to make decisions more easily, but puts you at risk for errors. i. Wording a question or statement so that it evokes a desired response; can mislead people and influence their decisions. j. The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

d. Simple thinking shortcut that enables quick and efficient decisions but puts us at risk for errors.

What is the best description of INSIGHT a. Inability to view problems from a new angle; focuses thinking but hinders creative problem-solving. b. Methodological rule or procedure that guarantees a solution but requires time and effort. c. Your fast, automatic, effortless feelings and thoughts based on your experience; huge and adaptive but can lead you to over feel and underthink. d. Simple thinking shortcut that enables quick and efficient decisions but puts us at risk for errors. e. Sudden Aha! reaction that instantly reveals the solution. f. Tendency to search for support for your own views ad to ignore contradictory evidence. g. Holding on to your beliefs even after they are proven wrong; closing your mind to new ideas. h. Overestimating the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments; allows you to be happier and to make decisions more easily, but puts you at risk for errors. i. Wording a question or statement so that it evokes a desired response; can mislead people and influence their decisions. j. The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

e. Sudden Aha! reaction that instantly reveals the solution.

What is the best description of CONFIRMATION BIAS a. Inability to view problems from a new angle; focuses thinking but hinders creative problem-solving. b. Methodological rule or procedure that guarantees a solution but requires time and effort. c. Your fast, automatic, effortless feelings and thoughts based on your experience; huge and adaptive but can lead you to over feel and underthink. d. Simple thinking shortcut that enables quick and efficient decisions but puts us at risk for errors. e. Sudden Aha! reaction that instantly reveals the solution. f. Tendency to search for support for your own views ad to ignore contradictory evidence. g. Holding on to your beliefs even after they are proven wrong; closing your mind to new ideas. h. Overestimating the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments; allows you to be happier and to make decisions more easily, but puts you at risk for errors. i. Wording a question or statement so that it evokes a desired response; can mislead people and influence their decisions. j. The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

f. Tendency to search for support for your own views ad to ignore contradictory evidence.

What is the best description of BELIEF PERSEVERANCE a. Inability to view problems from a new angle; focuses thinking but hinders creative problem-solving. b. Methodological rule or procedure that guarantees a solution but requires time and effort. c. Your fast, automatic, effortless feelings and thoughts based on your experience; huge and adaptive but can lead you to over feel and underthink. d. Simple thinking shortcut that enables quick and efficient decisions but puts us at risk for errors. e. Sudden Aha! reaction that instantly reveals the solution. f. Tendency to search for support for your own views ad to ignore contradictory evidence. g. Holding on to your beliefs even after they are proven wrong; closing your mind to new ideas. h. Overestimating the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments; allows you to be happier and to make decisions more easily, but puts you at risk for errors. i. Wording a question or statement so that it evokes a desired response; can mislead people and influence their decisions. j. The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

g. Holding on to your beliefs even after they are proven wrong; closing your mind to new ideas.

What is the best description of OVERCONFIDENCE a. Inability to view problems from a new angle; focuses thinking but hinders creative problem-solving. b. Methodological rule or procedure that guarantees a solution but requires time and effort. c. Your fast, automatic, effortless feelings and thoughts based on your experience; huge and adaptive but can lead you to over feel and underthink. d. Simple thinking shortcut that enables quick and efficient decisions but puts us at risk for errors. e. Sudden Aha! reaction that instantly reveals the solution. f. Tendency to search for support for your own views ad to ignore contradictory evidence. g. Holding on to your beliefs even after they are proven wrong; closing your mind to new ideas. h. Overestimating the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments; allows you to be happier and to make decisions more easily, but puts you at risk for errors. i. Wording a question or statement so that it evokes a desired response; can mislead people and influence their decisions. j. The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

h. Overestimating the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments; allows you to be happier and to make decisions more easily, but puts you at risk for errors.

What is the best description of FRAMING a. Inability to view problems from a new angle; focuses thinking but hinders creative problem-solving. b. Methodological rule or procedure that guarantees a solution but requires time and effort. c. Your fast, automatic, effortless feelings and thoughts based on your experience; huge and adaptive but can lead you to over feel and underthink. d. Simple thinking shortcut that enables quick and efficient decisions but puts us at risk for errors. e. Sudden Aha! reaction that instantly reveals the solution. f. Tendency to search for support for your own views ad to ignore contradictory evidence. g. Holding on to your beliefs even after they are proven wrong; closing your mind to new ideas. h. Overestimating the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments; allows you to be happier and to make decisions more easily, but puts you at risk for errors. i. Wording a question or statement so that it evokes a desired response; can mislead people and influence their decisions. j. The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

i. Wording a question or statement so that it evokes a desired response; can mislead people and influence their decisions.

What is the best description of CREATIVITY a. Inability to view problems from a new angle; focuses thinking but hinders creative problem-solving. b. Methodological rule or procedure that guarantees a solution but requires time and effort. c. Your fast, automatic, effortless feelings and thoughts based on your experience; huge and adaptive but can lead you to over feel and underthink. d. Simple thinking shortcut that enables quick and efficient decisions but puts us at risk for errors. e. Sudden Aha! reaction that instantly reveals the solution. f. Tendency to search for support for your own views ad to ignore contradictory evidence. g. Holding on to your beliefs even after they are proven wrong; closing your mind to new ideas. h. Overestimating the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments; allows you to be happier and to make decisions more easily, but puts you at risk for errors. i. Wording a question or statement so that it evokes a desired response; can mislead people and influence their decisions. j. The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

j. The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

Increased efficiency at the synapses is evidence of the neural basis of learning and memory. This is called ____-____ ____________

long-term potentiation

Multiple-choice questions test our ___________. Fill-in-the-blank questions test our ______.

recognition; recall