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170 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is Cognitive Psychology?
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The scientific study of mental processes. It is interested in how people process information.
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7 events of the History of Psychology
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1. Structuralism (Wundt)
2. Functionalism (James) 3. Behaviourism 4. Gestalt Psychology 5. 1950s rebellion against behaviourism 6. Advances in linguistics 7. Advances in psychobiology |
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What was the Cognitive Revolution?
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Mid 1950s shift from the behaviourism approach (stimulus-response) to start understanding the operations of the mind and mental processes.
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Define Synthesis
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The compromise between thesis and antithesis.
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Define Empiricism
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A method based on concrete observations.
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Define Rationalism
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A method based on reasoned contemplation.
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7 forms of research in Cognitive Psychology
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1. Experimental studies (manipulation and control)
2. Psychobiological studies (brain imaging, etc) 3. Case Studies 4. Self-reports 5. Quasi-experimental studies 6. Correlational studies 7. Naturalistic Observation |
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Describe the Information-processing approach
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This is a step by step approach which traces the sequence of mental processes in cognition.
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What is attention?
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The ability to focus on a specific stimuli or location.
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What is attention?
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The ability to focus on a specific stimuli or location.
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What is Divided attention?
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When you are focusing on two or more stimuli at once. Can be achieved well with practice.
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Automatic vs controlled processing (and example)?
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Automatic: parallel processing, done without intention, low cognitive load.
Controlled processing: serial processing, really need to focus on it, high cognitive load. Example: driving a car (automatic) whilst listening to the words/singing a song (controlled). |
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What is Broadbent's Filter Theory?
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Messages -> sensory memory -> filter -> detector -> memory
Processing some features of unattended messages, and processing more than one piece of info when no cognitive overload. |
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What is Covert Attention?
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Shifting attention without eye movement.
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What is Change Blindness?
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Having difficulty detecting changes in scenes.
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What is Inattentional Blindness?
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Not noticing something, even though it is in clear view.
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What is Perception?
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Experiences resulting from stimulation of the senses.
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What is the Gibson Framework?
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Distal Object -> information medium -> proximal stimulation -> perception.
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What is Bottom-Up processing?
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Stimulus -> higher order cognition -> perception
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4 theories/explanations for Bottom-up processing?
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1. Template Theory
2. Prototype explanation 3. Feature Theory 4. Structural Theory |
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What is selective attention (and example)?
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Focusing on one specific stimuli/location at a time.
Example: the dichotic listening test. |
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What are Geons?
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Individual features of a stimulus.
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What is Top-down processing (and example)?
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Higher order cognitive processing -> interpretation of stimulus -> perception
Example: Wine Tasting |
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If only top-down processing was used, what would happen?
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People would only perceive what they would be expecting to perceive.
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Support for top-down processing?
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Change Blindness.
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The 5 Gestalt laws of organisation?
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1. Figure-Ground
2. Similarity 3. Proximity 4. Closure 5. Continuation |
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What is shadowing?
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When you repeat a message out loud.
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What is Broadbent's Filter Theory?
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Messages -> sensory memory -> filter -> detector -> memory
Processing some features of unattended messages, and processing more than one piece of info when no cognitive overload. |
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What phenomenon opposes the Filter Theory?
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The Cocktail Party Phenomenon
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What is the Attenuation Theory?
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This is when messages aren't filtered out, but are "turned down". Language and meaning can be used to separate the messages (dictionary unit).
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What is the early selection model of attention?
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This is when the filter restricts the flow of info coming in. It also eliminates info based on its physical characteristics.
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What is the late selection model of attention?
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(Deutsch, Deutsch, and Norman). This is when there is always some semantic processing. Selection of what to respond to happens later on.
Example: "They threw the stone at the bank". |
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What is the Flanker Compatibility Task?
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This is when you focus on specific stimuli and ignore the rest.
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What is the Stroop Effect?
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When the colour of the word and the word itself compete, thus creating a slow response.
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What is Direct Perception?
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Stimulus -> Perception
(No higher cognitive processing needed). |
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What is the capacity and duration of Sensory Memory?
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Capacity: large
Duration: very brief. |
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What is Echoic Memory?
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This is the auditory register for Sensory Memory. It has a longer duration than Iconic Memory.
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What is Short Term Memory?
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This stores small amounts of information for brief periods of time. You are consciously aware of this.
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What is the decay for STM?
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Memory traces fades over time.
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What is interference?
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This is when other information/tasks displace/distort the information to be remembered.
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Name and describe two types of Interference
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Retroactive interference: having an activity after the memory task.
Proactive interference: having an activity before the memory task. |
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What is the capacity of the STM?
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According to Miller (1956) the capacity is 7 plus or minus 2 items. (Items can be numbers, letters, etc).
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What is Chunking?
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This is when you store information in meaningful units.
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Describe STM coding
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The STM is mainly coded acoustically. Can sometimes be visually. Rarely is it coded semantically.
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Describe Baddeley and Hitch's Working Memory Model?
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This model shows a limited capacity system for the temporary storage/manipulation of information.
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What is depth perception (2 types of cues)?
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This is when you judge the distance of an object.
Monocular cues (pictorial cues) Binocular cues (retinal disparity, convergence). |
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Name and describe the 4 components of the Working Memory Model
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Central Executive: this controls the information flow.
Phonological Loop: this acoustically codes information. Visuospatial Sketchpad: this maintains visual/spatial information through visualisation. Episodic Buffer: this integrates information from several areas to make sense of the information. |
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What is the capacity and duration of LTM?
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Capacity: very large.
Duration: very long (possibly a lifetime). |
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Name the 6 pictorial cues
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1. Elevation
2. Textured Gradient 3. Size Constancy 4. Shadowing 5. Linear Perspective 6. Superposition |
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What is Memory?
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Retaining, storing, and retrieving information that is no longer present.
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Name the 7 basics of memory
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1. Coding
2. Encoding 3. Storage 4. Duration 5. Capacity 6. Retrieval 7. Forgetting/Decay |
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Describe the Aitkinson and Shiffrin Modal Model of Memory?
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This model proposes 3 types of memory/stores:
1. Sensory memory 2. Short term memory 3. Long term memory |
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What is Iconic memory?
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This is the visual sensory resister for Sensory Memory.
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Describe Sperlings experiment on Sensory Memory?
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Participants saw a flash (50 milliseconds) of 12 letter on the screen and were asked to recall them.
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What was Sperlings Whole-Report method?
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This was when the participants had to recall as many letters as they can.
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What was Sperlings Partial-Report method?
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This was when the participants saw the quick flash of letters then heard a tone that indicated which row of letter should be recalled. This proved to be very effective.
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What is the Primacy effect of memory?
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This is when you have superior recall for items at the beginning of the list (LTM and STM).
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What is encoding specificity?
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This is when the context the information was learnt in serves as a cue to retrieval.
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What is the Recency effect for memory?
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This is when you have superior recall for words at the end of a list (STM only).
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How is the LTM coded?
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Predominantly Semantically (Baddeley).
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What was Ebbinhaus's study about?
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His study was about forgetting and memory decay. He had his "forgetting curve" which showed that LTM started to decrease quickly (within about an hour) and then slowly plateaued.
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Name and describe Craik and Lockhart's 3 different levels of processing.
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Structural: processing how the word looks (if it's in capitals, etc)
Phonemic: how the word sounds (syllables, does it rhyme, etc) Semantic: the meaning of the word (most effective). The deeper the processing, the longer the duration. |
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LTM encoding: what is Precise Elaboration?
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This is when you have material related to the info you need to memorise.
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LTM encoding: what is imprecise elaboration?
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This is when you have unrelated material to help you memorise some information.
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What is the Dual Coding theory?
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(Paivio, 1975). This is when you encode information in more than one way.
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What is cued retrieval?
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This is when you have a "hint" or a "group" that helps aid your recall.
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What is free retrieval?
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This is when you don't have any help when recalling something.
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What is Encoding Specificity?
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This is when the context in which the information was learnt can serve as a cue to retrieval.
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What are Flashbulb memories?
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These are vivid memories of your experiences over time (ie: where were you when 9-11 happened?)
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What was Bartlett's (1932) study?
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Got participants to read a story from a different culture. Found that recall over time, the story became more and more distorted.
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What is reconstructive memory?
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This is when you reconstruct, through knowledge and schemes, a memory instead of recalling it.
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What is a schema?
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An organisation of knowledge.
Schemes can bias recall information. |
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What is a script?
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This is a special class of schematic. It is the expected sequence of events.
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What is pragmatic interference?
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This is when drawing conclusions based on the information presented can distort memories.
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What are source monitoring errors?
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These are when you have an error identifying the source of the information. (ie: retelling a friend's story as your own).
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What is the power of suggestion?
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(Loftus). This is when a question asked after the event can influence what you remembered. (ie: how fast were the cars going when they "smashed").
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Eyewitness testimony
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Loftus. Weapon focus effect. Familiarity effect.
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What is State Dependant Learning?
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This is when internal States can act as memory cues. (Ie: being intoxicated).
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What is Transfer-appropriate processing?
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When encoding and retrieval tasks are similar, recall is better than when they are dissimilar.
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What is consolidation?
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This is when you transform memories into a permanent state.
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What is reconsolidation?
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This is consolidating an old memory to help strengthen it.
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What are the two types of Declarative Memory?
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1. Episodic (what did you watch on TV last night?)
2. Semantic (who is the prime minister?) |
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What is non-declarative memory?
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Memory without conscious awareness.
Procedural (cerebellum) - don't need to remember how to walk. |
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What are explicit and implicit memories?
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Explicit: consciously aware of these and can consciously recall information.
Implicit: no conscious recall (ie: recalling the meaning of a word whilst reading). |
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2 types of priming in memory?
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1. Repetition Priming: seeing the same word previously.
2. Conceptual Priming: seeing a category in which the word belongs. |
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What are indirect and direct memory tests?
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(Warrington and Weiskrantz, 1970)
Indirect: identification of word fragments, initial letters test Direct: recognition and recall tasks |
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What is Encoding Specificity?
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This is when the context in which the information was learnt can serve as a cue to retrieval.
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What are Flashbulb memories?
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These are vivid memories of your experiences over time (ie: where were you when 9-11 happened?)
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What was Bartlett's (1932) study?
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Got participants to read a story from a different culture. Found that recall over time, the story became more and more distorted.
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What is reconstructive memory?
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This is when you reconstruct, through knowledge and schemes, a memory instead of recalling it.
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What is a schema?
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An organisation of knowledge.
Schemes can bias recall information. |
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What is a script?
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This is a special class of schematic. It is the expected sequence of events.
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What is pragmatic interference?
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This is when drawing conclusions based on the information presented can distort memories.
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What are source monitoring errors?
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These are when you have an error identifying the source of the information. (ie: retelling a friend's story as your own).
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What is the power of suggestion?
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(Loftus). This is when a question asked after the event can influence what you remembered. (ie: how fast were the cars going when they "smashed").
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Eyewitness testimony
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Loftus. Weapon focus effect. Familiarity effect.
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What is a concept?
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This is a mental representation of an object.
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What is State Dependant Learning?
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This is when internal States can act as memory cues. (Ie: being intoxicated).
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What is categorisation?
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This is the process of placing objects into a group.
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What is a category?
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This is the concept that points out similarity among other concepts.
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What is the main focus of categorisation?
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This is to help understand individual cases, and also to help allow us to decide on appropriate actions.
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What is family resemblance?
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This is when members of a category resemble each other.
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What is a prototype?
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This is a typical member of a category. (Not actually a member).
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What is prototypicality?
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This is how closely the member resembles the prototype.
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What is the typicality effect?
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This is when closely related members are recalled more quickly than other members of the category.
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What is the sentence verification technique?
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"An apple is a fruit"
"A pomegranate is a fruit" Higher RT for closely related members. |
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What is an exemplar?
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These are actual members of the category. These help explain the typicality effect. They also take into account atypical members.
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What are the 3 types of hierarchical organisation of categories?
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1. Global (furniture)
2. Basic (table) 3. Specific (kitchen table) |
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What is Transfer-appropriate processing?
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When encoding and retrieval tasks are similar, recall is better than when they are dissimilar.
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The 2 elements of the Semantic Network Model?
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Nodes: concepts
Links: the association between concepts. |
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What is the Lexical Decision Task?
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Presented with pairs of words and non-words.
RT faster for closely related words (ie: chair and sofa) |
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What are the criticisms of the Semantic Network Model?
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You get mixed results for the sentence verification task. The model also predicts the same RT for all members of the category (which ignores the typicality effect).
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What was Collins and Loftus' model (1975)?
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This was an improvement on the Semantic Network Model. It improved the spacing of the lines which helps explain the Typicality Effect.
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What are the 2 types of activity in regards to categorisation and the brain?
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1. Specific activity: different objects show in different specific areas of the brain.
2. Distributed activity: different objects show in multiple areas of the brain. |
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What is consolidation?
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This is when you transform memories into a permanent state.
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What is reconsolidation?
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This is consolidating an old memory to help strengthen it.
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What are the two types of Declarative Memory?
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1. Episodic (what did you watch on TV last night?)
2. Semantic (who is the prime minister?) |
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What is non-declarative memory?
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Memory without conscious awareness.
Procedural (cerebellum) - don't need to remember how to walk. |
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What are explicit and implicit memories?
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Explicit: consciously aware of these and can consciously recall information.
Implicit: no conscious recall (ie: recalling the meaning of a word whilst reading). |
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2 types of priming in memory?
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1. Repetition Priming: seeing the same word previously.
2. Conceptual Priming: seeing a category in which the word belongs. |
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What are indirect and direct memory tests?
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(Warrington and Weiskrantz, 1970)
Indirect: identification of word fragments, initial letters test Direct: recognition and recall tasks |
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Categorisation in Infant?
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Familiarisation.
Global > Basic > Specific |
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What are two lines of evidence on the initial research of visual imagery?
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1. Pictures are better remembered than words.
2. Concrete words are better remembered than abstract words. |
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Describe the method of Loci
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Generating between information to-be-remembered to things that are easy to imagine.
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2 elements of sentence structure?
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1. Semantics
2. Syntax |
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What is the Ambiguity Resolution?
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Used to understand meaning activation/processing.
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What is Parsing?
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The process through which we group words into phrases as we listen/read.
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What is the Syntax first approach?
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This is when Parsing is based on syntax only.
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What is the Interactionist approach?
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This is when meaning and syntax are processed together.
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The 3 types of Inferences?
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1. Anaphoric inference: she = Jenny
2. Instrumental Inference: description of objects assumed. 3. Causal inference: she studied hard, she passed her exam. |
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What is problem solving?
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Efforts to achieve a goal that is not readily attainable.
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Three classes of Problems (Greeno, 1978)?
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1. Problems of arrangement: anagrams
2. Problems of induced structure: numbers in a series 3. Problems of transformation: sequence of changes to achieve goals |
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Gestalt Psychology in Problem Solving?
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1920s - first psychological interventions on problem solving.
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What is insight?
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Sudden realisation/understanding (the "a-ha!" moment).
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5 types of evidence to support that images are like pictures
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1. Domain Specific Interference: selective interference for different types of processing for images and words.
2. Serial vs Parallel processing 3. Mental rotation: identification of an image match harder when it is rotated. 4. Scanning: visualising a picture, trying to get from point A to B. 5. Neurological evidence: brain scanning, cerebral blood flow, single cell recordings. |
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Evidence against images being like pictures
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Imagining relies on memory.
Images are susceptible to top-down processing. |
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What is Language?
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A collection of symbols and rules to combine them so that we can create infinite number of messages.
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Hierarchical organisation of the elements of language (5)
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Phenomes -> morphemes -> words -> phrases -> sentences
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What is Werenicke's Aphasia?
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Grammar, but no meaning.
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What is Broca's Aphasia?
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No Grammar, but meaning present.
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What is a Morpheme?
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This is when the meaning of the word can be understood by its components.
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What is a Phoneme?
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This is the basics of sound in speech. There are 40 in the English Language. Phoneme perception is affected by Top-Down processing.
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What was the word Ambiguity, Lexical Decision Task?
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(Swinney). Used the lexical decision task with ambiguous words. "The government building was filled with bugs"
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What are unnecessary constraints?
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This is when you assume a rule/constraint that is not actually present.
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What is the expected utility theory?
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Gambling choices. Weighing up your options. Probability.
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What is the prospect theory?
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There is a function relating subjective to objecting probability. Decision based on evaluation of your prospects.
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Probability judgements
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People often neglect base-rate information.
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Representativeness
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The degree to which the instance is similar to the target category.
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Availability heuristic
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How likely it is to happen.
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Evaluation of prospects
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Emotions plays an important role in evaluation.
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Illusory correlations
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False correlations about 2 events occurring
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Representative heuristic
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The probability that A comes from B can be determined how well A resembles the properties of B.
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Confirmation Bias
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The tendency to selectively look for information that conforms to our hypothesis and overlook information that argues against it.
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What is reasoning?
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Drawing conclusions from principles or evidence.
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What is functional fixedness?
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This is the failed to see alternative uses for a common item.
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Deductive vs inductive reasoning?
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Deductive: comes from principles
Inductive: comes from evidence. |
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Syllogisms
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Two premise statements, followed by a conclusions, can be valid or truthful. Sometimes both.
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Linear syllogism
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Two premises that describe a relationship between variables.
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Categorical syllogism
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Two propositions concerning class inclusion and a conclusions. "All", "some", "none".
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Conditional syllogism
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"If-then" statements.
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Wason four card problem
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If it's an A then it has a vowel, etc.
Problem: confirmation bias Fixed: add concrete items instead of abstract. |
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Pragmatic reasoning shemata
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General knowledge structures that help enable us to reason about specific situations and infer cause and effect.
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What is incubation?
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This is when you take a break from the problem.
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What is the Problem Space Theory?
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This poses that you mentally move through the problem space before attempting the problem.
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Name 6 problem solving strategies.
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1. Means-end strategy
2. Forming subgoals 3. Generate and testing 4. Working forward 5. Back tracking 6. Loop-avoidance strategy |
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What is problem representation?
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This is when it is easy to solve problems that are easy to be represented mentally.
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What is the analogically transfer?
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This is the carryover of strategy/knowledge from one problem to the next.
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Experts vs novices in problem solving?
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Experts: work forward, good at specific types of problems.
Novices: work backwards. |
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Define creativity
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Producing something worthwhile and original.
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What is the expected value theory?
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Averaging your gains of a decision.
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