Cognition/Memory (Modules 31-36)

Language

A formal system of communication which involves the combination of words and/or symbols, whether written or spoken, as well as some rules that govern them. Real Life Example: We speak the English language to communicate with one another across the United States of America.

Effortful Processing

Effortful processing is just as the name implies; learning or storing (encoding) that requires attention and effort. There are lots of times when we must practice, rehearse, and try to remember things. When we engage in any technique to help remember information better, we are engaging in effortful processing. Real Life Example: When me and Isaac study for a psych test and try to remember the information in the unit that is effortful processing.

Elaborative Rehearsal

Elaborative rehearsal is a memory technique that involves thinking about the meaning of the term to be remembered, as opposed to simply repeating the word to yourself over and over. Real Life Example: You need to remember the term "neuron." In order to permanently commit the term to your memory, you look up what it means (it is a nerve cell), find out its purpose (transmit information from or to the central nervous system), look at a diagram and study its parts, and think about how it relates to things that you already know (like how different it its from other kinds of cells, assuming you are familiar with other cells). If you do this several times (rehearsal), then you will be more likely to remember the term.

Episodic Memory

Episodic memory is the type of long-term, declarative memory in which we store memories of personal experiences that are tied to particular times and places. Real Life Example: If you are having a conversation with a friend and you tell your friend, "last night I went to a 9:00 movie..." you are recalling information stored in episodic memory.

Explicit Memory

Explicit memory, also known as declarative memory is a type of long-term memory in which we store memories of fact. In addition, explicit memory is divided further into semantic and episodic memories. Real Life Example: So, if you have memories of things such as when Columbus sailed to America or what day and time your baby brother was born, you have explicit memories.

Long Term Potentiation

Long-Term Potentiation is the ability of brain cells to retain how frequently they send signals to other brain cells. Brain cells that are used for mental exercises (such as languages and math problems) have a tendency to last longer than those that aren't used. This can vary both from person to person and within a single person's activities. Real Life Example: If you practice your foreign language but don't practice algebra, you are more likely to forget the algebra and remember the language.

Grammar

Linguistics. Abstract system of rules describing how a language works. Traditionally consists of syntax and morphology with the modern systems of phonology and semantics. Real Life Example: It is grammatically correct to say I was going here instead of I went going here.

Mental Sets

tendency to approach situations the same way because that way worked in the past. Real Life Example: A child may enter a store by pushing a door open. Every time they come to a door after that, the child pushes the door expecting it to open even though many doors only open by pulling. This child has a mental set for opening doors.

Framing

the process of defining the context or issues that surround a problem or event in a way that serves to influence how the context or issues are seen and evaluated Real Life Example: "Would you like to go out tonight?"; and 2) "What time do you want to go out tonight?" These two questions are addressing the same basic issue, but they are framed differently -- they are presented in different ways and under different pretenses. The first, is framed in a more passive, open manner, while the second implies that you and this person ARE going out and the only issue is what time you will be going.

Hindsight Bias

the tendency to believe, once the outcome is already known of course, that you would have forseen it...that even though it's over and you know the outcome, you knew it all along. Real Life Example: Saying "I knew it all along" after something is revealed that you didn't know.

Peg Word Method

A Peg system is a technique for memorizing lists. It works by pre-memorizing a list of words that are easy to associate with the numbers they represent (1 to 10, 1-100, 1-1000, etc.). Those objects form the "pegs" of the system. Real Life Example: If you are remembering a list of items from 1 to 10 and each item that is associated with a certain number has that same number of items.

Representativeness Heuristic

A Representative Heuristic is a cognitive bias in which an individual categorizes a situation based on a pattern of previous experiences or beliefs about the scenario. It can be useful when trying to make a quick decision but it can also be limiting because it leads to close-mindedness such as in stereotypes Real Life Example: The Gambler's Fallacy: This is a person's belief that the probability of an item changes based on previous attempts when in reality, the probability remains the same. If a coin was flipped 10 times, and each time it landed with the "heads" side facing up, someone relying on gambler's fallacy would believe the odds of it being heads the 11th time would be very low. In reality, however, the probability has not changed. The chances of a coin being heads or tails is 50% no matter how many times the coin is flipped.

Retrieval Cue

A Retrieval Cue is a prompt that help us remember. When we make a new memory, we include certain information about the situation that act as triggers to access the memory. Real Life Example: When someone is introduced to us at a party, we don't only store the name and appearance of the new acquaintance in our memory. We also include external cues about the situtation like what kind of party it was, who made the introduction, what cocktails were served, or what music was playing. We also include internal cues like what mood you were in at the time, or what you thought of the person being introduced. When we try to recall the person, having one or more of these cues present will help us remember better. So when you meet the person again, it would be easier to remember them if you bumped into them at another party, or you saw them with the same person who introduced you, or you were in the same mood as when you first met them.

Convergent Thinking

A cognitive process (a mode of critical thinking) in which a person attempts to find a single, correct answer to a problem Real Life Example: A person is using convergent thinking if they are only focused on the single, most efficient way to get through a maze.

Divergent Thinking

A cognitive process (a mode of critical thinking) in which a person generates many unique, creative responses to a single question or problem Real Life Example: If a person came up with many different ways of how to successfully go through a maze.

Memory

A cognitive system that retains information. Or the persistence of learning over time via the storage and retrieval of information. Real Life Example: Similar to a computer's ability to retain information, your brain remembers bits of information such as your mother's name or first day of college. You would be unable to retrieve this information if you were unable to have it stored in your memory.

Confirmation Bias

A tendency for a person to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions. Real Life Example: I know someone who says that all Republicans are only concerned with healing the upper class at the expense of those who are not wealthy. He likes to identify Republican politicians who try to pass, for example, tax laws that help the upper class, which confirms his position. However, when some Republican politician proposes a law that favors those in the lower socioeconomic class, he says that it is just a smoke screen -- that they know it will never pass and only do it to make themselves look like they care when they actually don't.

Misinformation Effect

According to the misinformation effect, when we witness an event and then get some incorrect information about that event, we incorporate that incorrect information (misinformation) into our memory of the event. The result in an altered memory of the event. You may not want to believe this one, but it's true and we are all susceptible to it. Real Life Example: This is often seen in eye witness testimony situations. How is it that 10 people witness a crime and when asked, there are 10 different versions of the crime?

Acoustic Encoding

Acoustic Encoding is the process of remembering and comprehending something that you hear. Repetition of words or putting information into a song or rhythm uses acoustic encoding. Real Life Example: If you find yourself talking or reading aloud while doing your homework, you are using acoustic encoding.

Cognition

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering. As you can tell, any of your ideas, thoughts, memories, etc., are all types of cognitive processes. Real Life Example: What you are doing (reading and learning this explanation) is a type of cognition.

Algorithm

An algorithm is a set of instructions for solving a problem or completing a process, often used in math. The steps in an algorithm are very precise and well-defined. Real Life Example: If your problem is a headache, your algorithm might look like this: 1) Have you been hit on the head? If yes, seek medical attention; if no, go to next step. 2) Have you taken a pain reliever? If no, take one now; if yes go to next step. 3) Have you eaten today? ... and so on until it would end with wither a solution or advice to seek medical attention.

Anterograde Amnesia

Anterograde Amnesia refers to an individual's inability to form new memories following a traumatic event. Although this is an uncommon event, it can occur in conjunction with Retrograde Amnesia. Real Life Example: So if a person suffers brain damage and they cannot remember anything that happens after this brain damage, this is anterograde amnesia.

Automatic Processing

Automatic Processing is sort of like muscle memory. When you start to do something that you have done many times, and you can complete it successfully without giving it any thought, that's automatic processing. It can actually be disruptive to begin to think about the process once it has started automatically. Real Life Example: If you have ever played the piano, or knitted a scarf, you know how your hands seem to move on their own while your mind goes somewhere else. When you look back at your music or yarn, you might lose your place and stumble over the next steps, interrupting the automatic processing.

Availability Heuristic

Availability Heuristic refers to how easily something that you've seen or heard can be accessed in your memory. People tend to think of things they remember as more important than things they don't remember as easily. Real Life Example: A romantic relationship may grow because a person you've seen comes to mind after you've left them, leading you to assume this person must be important. In the same way, new friendship possibilities might have been overlooked because a person you've met several times has never seemed familiar, or they didn't make an impression on you.

Sensory Memory

Brief memory storage of sensory information which holds material before it is recoded for other memory or for comprehension. It is also called sensory information store; sensory register. Real Life Example: Sensory memory is our iconic memory that will hold an image for a split second.

Chunking

Chunking is a way of organizing information into familiar groupings. This is done with all sorts of information, including numbers, single words, and multiple-word phrases which are collapsed into a single word, to create acronyms. The main advantage of this type of mnemonic device is that it enhances retention and memory. Real Life Example: If you just remember the acronym, HOMES, you may find it easier to remember that the names of the Great Lakes are Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior.

Context Dependent Memory

Context dependent memory refers to the phenomenon of how much easier it is to retrieve certain memories when the "context," or circumstances around the memory are same for both the original encoding and retrieval. Research shows improved recall of specific episodes or information when the context present at encoding and retrieval are the same. Real Life Examples: You have probably experienced this if you have ever returned to the home where you grew up, or a school that you used to attend. When you do this memories of events that happened there came more readily to mind. A practical application of this might be in physically reenacting an event to remember some detail. For example, if you have misplaced your car keys, go through the sequence of actions for the last time you came into your house and you might find where you left them.

Deductive vs. Inductive Reasoning

Deductive Reasoning is a decision-making process where choices are made based upon the results of previous choices and a critical observation of the results, This method is used heavily in scientific experimentation, but is also used informally in everyday life. Real Life Example: If a person touches a hot stove burner and burns him/her self. They will learn from this experience and, next time confronted with a hot stove, likely choose not to touch the the burner knowing that they will probably get burned. Inductive reasoning is a style of reasoning in which decisions are made and conclusions are reached by a process of analyzing available evidence and past experiences. Real Life Example: A child learns that if they touch something hot and get burned, they reason that touching hot things is not a good idea and learn not to do that again, or that if they do something that pleases an adult and get a reward, that this is a behavior to repeat.

Reconstruction

During psychoanalysis, the review and examination of past events which have resulted in current emotional problems. Also, the analytical rebuilding of occurrences that are incomplete within the subject's memories. Real Life Example: If one goes through abuse but the memories are jumbled to where they make the subject confused about the events, reconstruction would attempt to rebuild these experiences to help build and add to the incomplete memories, having a psychologists help.

Forgetting

Forgetting refers to the loss of information that was previously stored in memory. Real Life Example: If you can't recall the name of your first grade teacher or if you can't remember how to play a song on the guitar that you knew last year.

Echoic Memory

Humans remember sounds and words in slightly different ways. Memory for sound is referred to as echoic memories, which can be defined as very brief sensory memory of some auditory stimuli. Typically, echoic memories are stored for slightly longer periods of time than iconic memories (visual memories). Real Life Example: If I remember the sound of Isaacs scream when he is scared for a few days after an incident occurs where we are scared, this is an echoic memory.

Implicit Memory

Implicit memory, also known as nondeclarative memory, involves recollection of skills, things you know how to do, preferences, etc., that you don't need to recall consciously. Real Life Example: If you know how to ride a bike and you can do so without having to think about it, you are demonstrating implicit memory.

Maintenance Rehearsal

Maintenance Rehearsal is the process of repeatedly verbalizing or thinking about a piece of information. Your short term memory is able to hold information about about 20 seconds. However, this time can be increased to about 30 seconds by using Maintenance Rehearsal. Real Life Example: Late at night, you have been out partying all night, you get back home and you are hungry. you decide that it's time for pizza. So you pick up the phone and call information to get the number of a local pizza delivery place. When the operator gives the number, you say the number over and over so that you don't forget it in the time it takes to hang up and dial the number. This process of repeating the number over and over is maintenance rehearsal. It won't help get the information into long term memory, but it will help keep it in short term memory a little longer.

Mnemonic Devices

Mnemonics are simply memory aids. Anything you do (any technique you use) to help you remember something can be considered a mnemonic. Real Life Example: If you use the phrase "Emma has a dilemma" in order to remember how to correctly spell "dilemma" you are using a mnemonic.

Mood Congruent Memory

Mood-Congruent Memory indicates that, when humans store memories, they not only store the event, but they also store a memory of the mood they were in at the time. Real Life Example: For this reason, when we feel happy we recall other happy memories. Likewise, when we feel depressed we remember other unhappy events. For this reason, it is easier to remember events when a person is in the same state of mind as when the memory was stored.

Functional Fixedness

People are often very limited in the ways they think about objects, concepts, and people. When something is thought of only in terms of its functionality, then the person is demonstrating functional fixedness. This type of thinking is narrow and limited, often inhibiting the problem solving process. Real Life Example: If you think of people in terms of their functions only and not as whole people, this is functional fixedness.

Phoneme

Phonemes are sets of basic sounds (in fact, the smallest set of sounds) that are the building blocks to all spoken language Real Life Example: Vowels in the English language (a,E,I,o,u).

Serial Position Effect- Primacy and Recency

Primacy: This is the tendency for the first items presented in a series to be remembered better or more easily, or for them to be more influential than those presented later in the series. Real Life Example: If you hear a long list of words, it is more likely that you will remember the words you heard first (at the beginning of the list) than words that occurred in the middle. Recency: This is the principle that the most recently presented items or experiences will most likely be remembered best. Real Life Example: If you hear a long list of words, it is more likely that you will remember the words you heard last (at the end of the list) than words that occurred in the middle.

Priming

Priming is an acuteness to stimuli because of exposure to a certain event or experience. Real Life Example: An individual who has just purchased a new car may now start to notice with more frequency other people driving her same make and model. This person has been primed to recognize more readily a car like hers because of the experience she has driving and owning one.

Procedural Memory

Procedural memory is the most basic and primitive form of memory. As the name implies, this is the type of memory we have for "procedures" or for basic associations between stimuli and responses. Real Life Example: The process or procedure for riding a bike. Once you've learned this procedure (ie, made the association between the stimulus and appropriate responses) it is stored as a procedural memory.

State Dependent Memory

Recall from long-term memory that is dependent on certain cues from our physical states Real Life Example: If you remember being attracted to your wife seeing her 50 years ago for the first time by the way you felt physically, then this is a state dependent memory.

Recall

Recall is simply bringing a thought or idea learned previously, and thus stored in memory into conscious awareness. When you remember something you are actually "recalling" the memory. When you have to complete an essay exam, you are recalling information learned previously. Real Life Example: When someone asks you where you went to eat last night, and you remember where you ate you are recalling this information stored in your memory into your conscious awareness.

Recognition

Recognition is identifying something you learned previously and is therefore stored in some manner in memory. Real Life Example: Taking a multiple choice test requires you to identify material you learned and not necessarily "recall" information learned previously.

Retrieval

Retrieval is the process in which information in your memory can be recalled. Information concerning events, images and feelings are all stored in our memory. Just because you cannot remember something doesn't mean that it is not in your memory. It maybe a problem with being able to locate it for retrieval. Real Life Example: If you're trying to recall where you ate for dinner last night, within your brain, the process of retrieval is occurring.

Interference- Retroactive and Proactive

Retroactive interference is when a person has difficulty recalling old information because of newly learned information. Real Life Example: You may have difficulty skiing because of recently learning how to snowboard. Proactive Interference: Difficulty in learning new information because of already existing information. Real Life Example: An English speaking person may have greater difficulty learning Spanish because of his or her tendency to want to apply English grammar to the new language.

Retrograde Amnesia

Retrograde Amnesia, is the inability to retrieve or recall information before the traumatic event. Real Life Example: An individual who has suffered a bump to his head and now cannot remember his telephone number would be suffering from retroactive amnesia.

Semantic Memory

Semantic memory is one of the three types of long-term memory (the others are episodic and procedural) in which we store general world knowledge like facts, ideas, words, problem solving, etc. Real Life Example: If we know in our memory the year Mount Rushmore was built this a semantic memory.

Semantics

Semantics concerns the meanings of words, signs, symbols, and the phrases that represent them. More specifically, it is the study of meanings through the relationships of words, how they are used, and how they are said. Real Life Example: If I tell you I'm going to eat a piece of cake, you would interpret it literally. Maybe you would even ask for a piece. If instead, I told you my homework was a piece of cake, you would interpret that I meant it was easy, unless of course, I'm taking cooking classes.

Shallow vs. Deep Processing

Shallow Processing: Memory recall was based on the depth of processing and that deeper and more meaningful processing made recall easier. Shallow processing uses only surface features for information processing and is not as involved as deep processing. There are two different types of shallow processing: structural and phonemic. Structural processing is encoding only the physical and visual information about something. Phonemic processing is the encoding of only the auditory information. Shallow processing usually only results in the short term retention of the information. Deep Processing: The cognitive processing of a stimulus for its meaningful properties over its perceptual properties. Real Life Example: If Isaac has a new bruise on himself every day my shallow processing, would just identify the new bruises on him from day to day. My deep processing would maybe think that he is either extremely clumsy and hurts himself a lot or he lives in an abusive home.

Short-term Memory

Short Term Memory is the part of the memory system where information is stored for roughly 30 seconds. Real Life Example: Short-term memory allows you to retain phone numbers from an operator before and while you are dialing the number of interest. The capacity of short-term memory is also limited. Most people can only store roughly 7 chunks of information plus or minus 2.

Informational Processing Model (Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval)

The Information Processing Model is a framework used by cognitive psychologists to explain and describe mental processes. The model likens the thinking process to how a computer works. Memory is a process of getting information into the brain (encoding), keeping information in the brain over time (storage), and then being able to get information out of the brain when needed (retreival). Real Life Example: Just like a computer, the human mind takes in information, organizes and stores it to be retrieved at a later time. Just as the computer has an input device, a processing unit, a storage unit, and an output device, so does the human mind have equivalent structures. In a computer, information is entered by means of input devices like a keyboard or scanner. In the human mind, the input device is called the Sensory Register, composed of sensory organs like the eyes and the ears through which we receive information about our surroundings.

Tip-of-the-tongue Phenomenon

The Tip-of-the-Tongue (TOT) phenomenon occurs when a person cannot recall a specific word or term even though they are aware that they know the word. Often times similar words and concepts or even the first letter of the word can be recalled just not the specific word that one is searching for. Real Life Example: If Liam knows the word to describe someone extremely angry is enraged but he cannot think of the word but knows he knows it, this is the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.

Syntax

The rules that specify how words should be ordered in a sentence to make the sentence meaningful. Of course, these rules vary according to language (English is different than Russian, for example). Real Life Example: If you want to tell someone that you ran to the store, you know to put the verb "ran" before the noun "store" to form the sentence "I ran to the store" as opposed to saying "I store ran".

Morpheme

The smallest units of speech that convey meaning. All words are composed of at least one morpheme. Real Life Example: The word "work" is a single morpheme, but the word "working", which implies some action, is made up of two morphemes ("work" and "ing").

Flashbulb Memory

The sudden onset of a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event. When you are trying to remember something and then it "all of a sudden comes to you", you have experienced a flash bulb memory. It is like turning on a light. Real Life Example: If I'm trying to remember the day I knew I was in love, and the very moment this memory occurs all of a sudden comes to me very clearly, this is a flashbulb memory.

Long-term Memory

The term long-term memory refers to the unlimited capacity memory store that can hold information over lengthy periods of time. By saying "lengthy periods of time" we mean that it is possible for memories in LTM to remain there for an entire lifetime. In addition, there are three types of memories that can be stored in LTM: procedural memory, semantic memory, and episodic memory. Real Life Example: If Isaac is 90 years old and he remembers a memory from when he is 6 years old this has been stored in his long-term memory.

Method of Loci

This is a mnemonic device or technique in which a person visualizes the items they're trying to learn in different spatial locations. To do this, the person associates the items with landmarks in some familiar place, which helps them recall the items later. Real Life Example: If you remember the items you're trying to learn in your living room and you do this by imagining how every item is positioned in your living room, this is using the method of loci.

Visual Encoding

Visual Encoding refers to the process by which we remember visual images. Real Life Example: If you are presented a list of words, each shown for one second, you would be able to remember if there was a word that was written in all capital letters, or if there was a word written in italics, this is a result of visual encoding.

Repression

When we have memories, impulses, desires, and thoughts that are too difficult or unacceptable to deal with, we unconsciously exclude them from our consciousness (some people like to say we "push" them down from our consciousness to our uncosciousness). This is similar to suppression with one key difference - suppression is a conscious exclusion (or "pushing" down) of these painful memories, thoughts, etc., and is more similar to Freud's explaination of condemnation. Real Life Example: If Isaac has desires that are too difficult or complex to deal with, he might repress them out of his consciousness and memory without realizing it (unconsciously).

Heuristic

a rule-of-thumb strategy for making more efficient decisions. Real Life Example: You may be an experienced driver. Over time you have learned that when you come to a stop sign, you need to come to a complete stop or you will get a ticket. Now, whenever you come to a stop sign, you have to give very little thought at all to what behavior is required; you see the stop sign, you stop. You have a heuristic for stop signs.

Rehearsal

consciously repeating the information over and over so that one can keep it in temporary memory. Real Life Example: Isaac loves pizza. Unfortunately he can never remember the phone number for pizza delivery and he's not smart enough to write it down. So he has to call information for the number. To make sure he doesn't forget the number from the time the operator tells him to the time he dials it, he engages in rehearsal.