Cognitive Psychology I

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Cognition

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mental activity; describes the acquisition, storage, transformation, and use of knowledge

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recency effect

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being able to recall more accurately the items at an end of a series

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behaviorist approach

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popular during the first half of the 20th century in the U.S.; focused on objective, observable reactions to stimuli in the environment

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operational definition

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a precise definition that specifies exactly how a concept is to be measured

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Gestalt psychology

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emphasizes that we humans have basic tendencies to actively organize what we see

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information-processing approach

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a mental process can be interpreted as information progressing through the system in a series of stages, one step at a time.

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Atkinson-Shiffrin model

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memory can be understood as a sequence of discrete steps, in which information is transferred from one storage area to another

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sensory ifnormation

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a storage system tha records information from each of the senses; linked with echoic memory

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short-term memory

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contains only the small amount of information that we are actively using (time span = 30s)

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long-term memory

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some memory finally reaches here; enormous capacity; relatively permanent

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ecological validity

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exists in higher amount if the conditions in which the research is conducted are similar to the natural setting where the results will be applied.

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cognitive neuroscience

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combines cognitive psych with methods fore assessing the structure and function of the brain.

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brain lesions

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destruction of tissue in the brain (by stroke, tumors, injury); loss of function can index a region where function is controlled

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PET (positron emission tomography)

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measures blood flow via radioactive chemical

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fMRI

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measures oxygen in the blood of brain regions

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PDP (parallel distributed processing)

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in contrast to info-proc approach; cognitive processes can be understood in terms of networks that link together neuron-like units; many operations can proceed simultaneously; known as connectionism and neural networks as well.; many cognitive processes show this

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cerebral cortex

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outer layer of the brain that is responsible for cognitive processes; functions shown to be distributed across various regions rather than isolated areas

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Recency effect

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being able to recall more accurately the items at an end of a series

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distal stimulus

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actual object that exists in the environment

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proximal stimulus

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information registered on your sensory receptors

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iconic memory

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visual sensory memory; preserves an image of a visual stimulus for a brief period after the stimulus has disappeared

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primary visual cortex

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located in the occipital lobe; processes visual stimuli
(this is the first of up to 30 different areas of the dome blob)

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ambiguous figure-ground relationship

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figure and the ground reverse from time to time, switching places.
-the neurons in the visual cortex become adapted to one figure
-people try to solve the visual paradox by alternating between two reasonable solutions.

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illusory/subjective contours

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a figure-ground relationship where perception makes up boundaries that are not there. It is an attempt to make sense of jumbled sensory information
-tells us that rational strategies can lead to perceptual errors.

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Template-Matching Theory

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-comparing a stimulus with a set of templates, which are specific patterns stored in memory.
-not very flexible method; only useful for simple, two dimensional figures

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Feature-Analysis Theory

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-a visual stimulus is composed of a small number of characteristics or components. Each characteristic is a distinctive feature. Objects perceived are compared to the general characteristics saved in memory.
-objects (such as letters and numbers) with a close amount of similar distinctive features take longer to tell apart.
-Certain neurons respond to specific stimuli; such as to a vertical line, horizontal line, and specific degreed diagonal lines.
-Like template-matching this is also too simplistic to explain how we understand the relation of features of an object as well as complicated curves, contours, 3-D, etc.

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Recognition-by-Components (or Structural) Theory

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-a specific view of an object can be represented as an arrangement of simple 3-D shapes called geons. Geons can be combined to form meaningful objects. They are like basic component parts that can be fit together to represent things we perceive.
-we compare the geon combinations to concepts in our memory. Three geons is sufficient for someone to recognize an object.

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viewer-centered approach

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we store a small number of views of 3-D objects rather than just one view or by adapting every time we perceive it. A mental rotation can be done if an object is seen from a never before observed angle making it familiar.

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Bottom-up processing

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empahsizes the importance of the stimulus in object recognition; specifically, the physical stimuli from the env are registered on the sensory receptors and passed on to higher, more sophisticated levels of the system. Basic reactions to features and characteristics of something perceived begin at the visual cortex in basic parts then form and emerge through further processing levels.

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Top-down processing

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the second phase of recognition after bottom-up. It emphasizes how a person's concepts and higher-level mental processes influence object recognition and enhance our identification. Expectations are built from experience. Expectations go from top-level cognition to bottom-level cognition.
-Top-down processing is strong when a stimulus is incomplete or ambiguous or registered from only a brief, fraction of a second.

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word superiority effect

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we can identify a single letter more accurately and more rapidly when it appears in a meaningful word than alone or in a meaningless string. (top-down)

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change blindness

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failure to detect a change in an object or a scene

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inattentional blindness

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when paying attention to specific events in a scene we may fail to notice when an unexpected, but quite visible, object suddenly appears.

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facial recognition

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we recognize faces on a holistic basis; in terms of their overall shape
and structure, in terms of its gestalt.

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prosopagnosia

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inability to recognize human faces but able to recognize other visual stimuli. One could see that a woman is happy but not realize it is his wife. They describe it as the face has its features but each is independent and thus the gestalt does not emerge and so identification is not possible.

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temporal cortex (faces)

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an important region of the brain for facial recognition; specifically in the inferotemporal cortex

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Is facial recognition top-down or bottom-up processing?

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Top-down; facial identification is accurate if a face has been seen before, demonstrating that we are drawing upon previously stored knowledge.

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schizophrenics

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cannot show intense emotions, may hallucinate, and are less capable of using top-down processing. Difficulty in expressing emotion may be related to lacking the ability to recognize emotion in others.

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Speech perception

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requires your auditory system to record the sound vibrations generated by someone talking, then translate these vibrations into a sequence of sounds taht you perceive as speech (15 sounds a second, 900 a minute in avg English speech). These sounds are matched to previously known phonemes and morphemes in memory and may even need to be deciphered from background noise.

We can form boundaries between words even if there is no silence separation
-phoneme pronunciation varies tremendously
-context allows listeners to fill in missing sounds
-visual/auditory prosody helps us to interpret ambiguous sounds

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phoneme

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the basic unit of spoken language; English has 45 distinct phonemes

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Coarticulation

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in actual speech when a phoneme is pronounced there is some residual mouth shape from the pronunciation of a previous phoneme as well as anticipating the shape of the next phoneme. So a phoneme's pronunciation is relative to the phonemes before and after it. (assimilation to phonetic environment)

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Phonemic restoration

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filling in a missing phoneme using contextual meaning (based on top-down processes).
-we use our knowledge about language to facilitate recognition

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McGurk effect

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influence of visual information on speech perception when individuals must integrate both visual and auditory information.

Visual prosody can facilitate a greater understanding of language; giving it visual context.

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Special mechanism/speech-is-special approach

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humans have an innate speech stimuli decoding device, so we are more capable of processing language over other sounds.

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phonetic/speech module

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a special-purpose neural mechanism that specifically handles all aspects of speech perception and no other

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categorical perception

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even if a synthetic phoneme is phonetically in between real phonemes one or the other nearest, real phonemes is actually perceived rather than hearing the ambiguous sound.

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General Mechanism Approach

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explains speech perception without proposing any special phonetic module; it is a learned skill
-one proof is that visual cues can enhance auditory cues and so a special phonetic module is less likely
-speech perception proceeds in stages and it depends upon familiar cognitive processes such as feature recognition, learning, and decision making.

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Attention

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a concentration of mental activity that allows you to take in a limited portion of the vast stream of information available from both your sensory world and your memory. Unattended items are not processed in detail.
-Attention uses both top-down and bottom-up processing.
-If something in the environment catches our attention we are using bottom-up processing.
-If we concentrate our attention on something we are using top-down.
-Attention is intertwined with our long-term memory, concepts, problem solving, and reading.

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Divided-attention task

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trying to pay attention to two or more simultaneous messages, responding to each as needed. Accuracy usually decreases.
(inattentional blindness)

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Selective-attention task

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responding selectively to certain kinds of information while ignoring other information. It simplifies sensory messages to avoid overstimulus and confusion.

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Dichotic Listening

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one message heard in one ear while another in the other ear.

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Shadow

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to listen to only one ear stimulus (selective listening). People in studies did not notice a switch in the non-selected ear from English to German, but noticed a change from man to woman.

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cocktail party effect

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noticing your name in an unattented to conversation.

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working memory

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the brief, immediate memory for material we are currently processing; useful for attention

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Stroop effect

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It is more difficult to name an ink color when it is in the form of a color word that is not the ink color versus a plane inked plane. The meaning of the world makes it harder to select one's attention to only the ink color.

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emotional Stroop task

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people name the ink color of words that are related to a possible psych disorder.
-a phobic disorder would involve someone saying the ink color to words like hair and crawl; there attention will lack when they are distracted with this thought of a spider's characteristics. (an attentional bias)

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isolated-feature/combined-feature effect

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if the target differed from the irrelevant items in the display with respect to a simple feature such as color, observers could quickly detect the target; regardless of the number of irrelevant items. "Pops out". Something with two properties that are different from irrelevant items, such as color and shape, makes it harder. You have to process serially, instead of with just one item when the isolated-feature "pops out".

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feature-present/feature-absent effect

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it is easier to find a feature that is present rather than absent. Finding a present feature is nearly automatic and is bottom-up. If it is absent it takes much longer (and longer for more irrelevant items) and takes both bottom-up and top-down processing.
-With movement, it is harder when the important object is moving with the irrelevant objects then when moving alone.

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Why not use introspection as the main way to learn how the mind works?

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Usually intuitive guesses are not accurate to how something actually works.

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Saccadic Eye Movements

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-In reading, the purpose is to bring the center of the retina into position over the words you want to read; a very small region in the center of the retina is the fovea, it has better acuity than other retinal regions. We need this accuracy to recognize letters and words.
-Avg saccade is about 7-9 letters. Humans make 150-200K saccade movements everyday
-While the eye is moving it is hard to process visual information. So, our eye fixates between each saccade (50-500 ms)

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What are the advantages of having top‐down processing?

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Using context or past experience facilitates pattern recognition, speeding up the process.

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What does it mean to say that faces are recognized more “holistically” than other objects?

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The entire face is recognized as an emergence of its individual parts. The whole gestalt is processed.

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Why is speech perception such an amazing ability? (In other words, what are the factors that make speech perception difficult?)

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Speakers produce phonemes at a very high rate; there is often a lack of distinct boundaries between words; there is a lot of idiosyncratic variability between and within speakers (including coarticulation).

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Describe the factors that led psychologists away from strict behaviorism and towards the cognitive approach.

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Behaviorism could only measure the external results of the psyche. Cognition, through employment of technology, was able to observe what used to be immeasurable levels of thought.

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Describe the memory problems that resulted from the removal of H.M.’s hippocampus. Also, describe the memory abilities that were not affected by the surgery.

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H.M. had anterograde amnesia. He could no longer encode new information but remembered everything from before his surgery. His short-term memory and procedural memory still worked.

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alerting attention network

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responsible for making you sensitive and alert to new stimuli; also helps to keep you alert and vigilant for long periods of time.

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orienting attention network

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selects information from sensory input; responsible for the kind of attention required for visual search, shifting your attention around to various spatial locations.

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perceptual span

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perceptual span - the number of letters and spaces that we perceive during a foveal fixation between saccadic eye movements; the range of the span in English is 4 letters to the left and 15 letters to the right (due to reading cues in the future text). 8 letters to the right of the fixation point are actually recognizable.
-Saccades often skip small, common words in a language and fixate on larger words and rarely to a blank space. Saccades are smaller for foreign words, misspelled words, or unusual words.
-Good readers make longer saccadic movements and are less like to make regressions (going back to previous material). Fixations are also shorter in good readers.

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Executive Attention Network

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handles the kind of attention we use when a task features conflict; it inhibits your automatic responses to stimuli; active for top-down control of attention; helps to acquire academic skills and learn new ideas; located in the prefrontal (it relates to the Stroop effect).

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Bottleneck theories

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propose a similar narrow passageway in human information processing as a liquid in a bottle; the bottleneck limits the quantity of information to which we can pay attention (serial)
-these theories underestimate the flexibility of human attention; far too simple
-information is not lost during attention at just one place (the neck of the bottle) but at several possible places.

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Feature-Integration Theory

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we sometimes look at a scene with distributed attention, with all parts processed; sometimes we use focused attention with one item processed at one time; in reality we perform these in a continuum.

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distributed attention

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registers features automatically, using parallel processing across the field to register all the features simultaneously; it is low-level processing, effortless

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distributed attention

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if you processed isolated features then you should be able to rapidly locate a target among its neighboring, irrelevant items ("pops out"); parallel and automatic

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focused attention

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requires serial processing, one object at a time; necessary for complex objects; identifies which features belong together

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focused attention

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forced to focus your attention on one item at a time, using serial processing; object level rather than feature level

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illusory conjunction

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when overwhelmed with with too many simultaneous visual tasks; there can be created an inappropriate combination of features, perhaps combining one object's shape with a nearby object's color; the visual system actually processes an object's features independently

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binding problem

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Can occur due to illusory conjunction (overwhelming stimuli) because your visual system does not represent the important features of an object as a unified whole when attention is overwhelmed. (may happen if one must use distributed attention with multiple stimuli); with words or objects.

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Consciousness

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the awareness that people have about the outside world and about their perceptions, images, thoughts, memories, and feelings; closely related to attention, but associated with the kind of controlled, focused attention that is not automatic.

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rebound effect

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not thinking about something makes you think of it; being allowed to think of something makes you wonder off topic (thought suppression backfires)

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obsession

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persistent thought or image that is intrusive or inappropriate; it makes one feel extremely anxious.

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compulsion

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repetitive behaviors that are designed to reduce the anxiety caused by obsession.

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obsessive compulsive disorder

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recurrent obsessions or compulsions that they recognize are excessive, uncontrollable, and time consuming.

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Blindsight

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an unusual kind of vision without awareness; a conditon in which an individual with a damaged visual cortex claims not to be able to see an object, yet can accurately report some characteristics of the object, such as location. They consciously think/know they can't see, but can locate far better than chance the locations of objects/lights. The retina is still sending some information to the visual cortex and other areas.

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Working memory (short-term memory)

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- the brief, immediate memory for material that you are currently processing.
-a portion of working memory also actively coordinates your ongoing mental activities; working memory lets you keep information active and accessible so that you can use it in a wide variety of cognitive tasks.

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chunk

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a memory unit that consists of several components that are strongly associated with one another. (George Miller)

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The Brown/Peterson&Peterson Technique

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demonstrates that material held in memory for less than a minute is frequently forgotten

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rehearsal

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repeating the items silently; defeats the purpose of the Brown/Peterson&Peterson Technique if performed

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Serial position effect

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the decaying curve (graphical) relationship between a word's position in a list and its probability of recall. The middle words are less likely to be remembered than the first and last. The first items of a list are rehearsed more (and possibly made distinct somehow); the last items have less interference and are more recent.

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primacy effect

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better recall for items at the beginning of a list (because they are rehearsed more frequently)

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recency effect

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better recall for items at the end of a list

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Atkinson & Shiffrin Model

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sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory are distinct.

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control processes

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techniques that people may use to improve their memory (intentional strategies; i.e. rehearsal)

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pronunciation time

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Strongly influences how much we can store in our working memory (how many "chunks" we can remember)
-The more syllables a word has the harder it is to store many in working memory. (ex: English numbers 1-10 are about one syllable, seven is two; in Spanish, Hebrew, and Arabic the numbers have multiple syllabes and so serial memory of numbers has less capacity). This demonstrates that number of chunks influences working memory, and that chunks in the form of syllables is significant in memory capacity; acoustic properties of items in working memory are important.

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proactive interference

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previous material interferes with processing and storing new information. It becomes more challenging to store information after items are already placed in working memory.

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release from proactive interference

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if the information collected after other items is a different type (say from remembering words to remembering strings of numbers) then it becomes easier to store in working memory. This is generally possible if the semantics of the information changes as well (remembering words for fruits then remembering words about bathroom items; the bathroom items are not influenced strongly by remembering the fruits)

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semantic similarity

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If items being stored in working memory are denotatively similar then they may have more proactive interference than when denotatively dissimilar.

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The number of items stored in working memory is influenced by...?

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chunking strategies, as well as word length and word meaning.

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Working-memory approach

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Our immediate memory is a multi-part system that temporarily holds and manipulates information as we perform cognitive tasks.
-We have these items stored at the same time, which are usually interrelated in some way, so that we can process and apply information appropriately.
-It is done by constantly handling, combining, and transforming bits of information for some use. This can involve newly received sensory information and the re-use of long-term information.

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Is working memory unitary?

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No. It has working components with (nearly) independent capacities.

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phonological loop

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processes a limited number of sounds for a short period of time; pronunciation time and recall accuracy are related, even if subvocalizing (silent pronunciation); exemplified in the difficulty of remembering high-syllable words versus less-syllable words.

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acoustic confusions

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confusing similar sounding stimuli; it is easier to remember a list of dissimilar phonemes rather than slightly similar ones. This could be from the actual collection of the stimuli, as in "she sells seashells" (the input is confusing so the phonological loop created from the input would be confused)

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inner voice

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it is usual that if our inner voice is being used it is very difficult to input stimuli into our phonological loop. Ex: You can't listen and understand the professor if you are thinking to yourself.

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What is our phonological loop useful for?

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Language acquisition; also useful in math problems and problem solving.

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Visuospatial Sketchpad

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Processes both visual and spatial information
-allowing you to look at a complex scene and gather visual information about objects and landmarks; navigate from one location to another; allows you to store a coherent picture of both the visual appearance of objects and their relative positions in a scene; stores visual information you encode from verbal stimuli (visualizing a scene a friend describes)
-when too many items enter your visuospatial working memory you cannot represent them accurately enough to recover them successfully. Performing a visual-spatial task can be difficult when trying to form a vivid mental image.

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What happens if the phonological loop is occupied and a visual stimuli that is usually remembered as a word description in the mind must be memorized?

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If the phonological loop is being used the visuospatial sketchpad will represent visual stimuli with a mental image rather than the usual behavior of Westerners converting the visual stimuli into a word description.

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Central Executive

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Integrates information from the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer, and long-term memory; also plays a major role in focusing attention, planning strategies, transforming information, and coordinating behavior; suppresses irrelevant information, deciding what to do and not do, focuses attention and information.
-It does not employ a special storage system like the other components of working memory; rather it plans, coordinates, and organizes these memories.
-The central exec is limited in that it cannot make numerous decisions at once nor perform more than one simultaneous project (when day dreaming this can interfere with other cognitive tasks).

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Episodic Buffer

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Serves as a temporary storehouse where we can gather and combine information from the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad, and long-term memory; it actively manipulates information so that you can interpret an earlier experience, solve new problems, and plan future activities (collects information together for the central executive to process)
-The episodic buffer seems to be able to piece together/recreate things, such as a past experience, for present review and for future plans. This then can be put into long-term memory. (Maybe this is the root of suggested memories to some degree; we remember something, the episodic buffer misinterprets some details, and the long-term memory accepts this)

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The process of memory:

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Our sensory memory turns into the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad components of working memory; long term memory is then inputted into working memory if needed; all this working memory is then put into the episodic buffer; the central executive sorts, organizes and makes general sense out of the information in the episodic buffer; from here the organized information in the episodic buffer can be stored in long term memory.

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Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder

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Causes inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity which is caused in at least part by the functioning of the central executive.

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Major Depression & Working Memory

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feeling sad, discouraged, or hopeless often results in fatigue and lack of interest; this can influence concentration and working memory; results in lack of motivation and impulsory negative thoughts that cannot be easily suppressed

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Long-term memory

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has a large capacity; contains our memory for experiences and information that we have accumulated over a lifetime.

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Episodic memory

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memories for events that happened to you; allows you to travel back in time and reminisce

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Semantic memory

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your organized knowledge about the world; about words and other factual information

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Procedural memory

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your knowledge about how to do something

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Encoding

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your initial acquisition of information, when information is embedded in your memory

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Retrieval

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locating information in storage and accessing that information

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Autobiographical memory

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memory for events and topics related to your own everyday life

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Levels(or Depth) of Processing Approach

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-deep, meaningful kinds of information procesing lead to more permanent retention than shallow, sensory kinds of processing
-predicts that your recall will be relatively accurate when you use a deep level of processing; when you extract more meaning from a stimulus. When you analyze for meaning you may associate, imagine, and recall past experiences; this should produce better recall.
-in contrast, shallow processing is coding a stimulus based on only visual, auditory, or some limited, sensory characteristics (no hermeneutical depth)

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Distinctiveness

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A stimulus is different from other memory traces; it is unique and less likely to be troubled by interference and so makes the stimulus easier to remember.

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Elaboration

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Requires rich processing in terms of meaning and interconnected concepts; this increased effort in processing makes the stimulus easier to remember.
-this deep processing is also helpful in remembering faces.

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Self-reference effect

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You will remember more information if you try to relate that information to yourself; shown to be more powerful than processing semantic characteristics; requires organization and elaboration, thus increasing the chance of recall.
-The self procudes an especially rich set of cues that help us link new information we are trying to learn; these cues are also seen as exceptionally distinct when applied to ourselves

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How can self-reference instructions (specifically being told to self-reference stimuli) help in memorizing stimuli?

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Encouraging people to consider how their personal traits are related to one another makes retrieval easier and more effective.
-Material associated with the self is rehearsed more frequently and is more likely to use rich, complex rehearsal.

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Encoding Specificity Principle

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recall is better if the retrieval is similar to the encoding environment/context; forgetting can occur more easily if the contexts do not match.
-the encoding-specificity effect is most likely to occur in memory tasks that assess your recall, use real-life incidents, and examine events that happened long ago.
-it is possible that physical details are relatively trivial in determining whether the encoding context matches the retrieval context; how well the information transfers from one environment to another depends on how similar the environments feel, rather than how similar they look.

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Can encoding specificity override level of processing?

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Encoding specificity can override level of processing. People can recall more material if the retrieval conditions match the endcoding conditions. Even shallow processing can be more effective than deep processing when the retrieval task emphasizes superficial information.
-Deep, semantic processing is effective only if the retrieval conditions also emphasize these deeper, more meaningful features.

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Does encoding specificity show that recall may use problem-solving?

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Encoding specificity shows that memory often requires problem solving; to determine how to store some information, you'll need to figure out the characteristics of the retrieval task.

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True or False. Memory is sometimes damaged when the retrieval context resembles the encoding environment?

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False. Memory can be enhanced when the retrieval context resembles the encoding context.

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Emotion

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A reaction to a specific stimulus

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Mood

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A more general, long-lasting experience than emotion.

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What kind of stimuli is better remembered? Negative, Neutral, or Positive?

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We typically remember pleasant stimuli more accurately than other stimuli.

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Pollyanna Principle

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pleasant items are usually processed more efficiently and more accurately than less pleasant items.
-Pleasant items can be recalled better, especially after a long time after exposure to the stimuli. Neutral items are the hardest to remember. It may be that memory for pleasant events is more vivid and clear than for unpleasant events.
-Studies have shown that anger and violence can reduce memory accuracy.

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Positivity effect

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tendency to rate past negative events more positively with the passage of time.
-depressed people tend to only have negative events become more unpleasant.
-pleasant memories fade less than unpleasant memories.

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Mood congruence

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we recall material more accurately if our mood matches the emotional nature of the material.
-Non-depressed people remember more positive stimuli; depressed people remember more negative stimuli.

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Social goals

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your style of interacting with other people, in terms of friendships and other interpersonal relationships
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avoidance social goals

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tendency to avoid close relationships

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approach social goals

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your emphasis on close relationships with other people.

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Can people's personal characteristics actually help to explain their memory patterns?

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People's personal characteristics help to explain their memory patterns. Social goals influence which items they will remember and whether they remember items as being more positive or more negative.

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Explicit memory task

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instructing participants to remember information; the participants are conscious that there memory is being tested, and the test requires them to intentionally retrieve some information they previously learned.

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Recall

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reproducing items learned earlier

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Implicit memory task

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People see the material and later are instructed to complete a cognitive task that does not directly ask for either recall or recognition. (filling in words, repetition priming)
-Shows the effects of previous experience that creep out in our ongoing behavior, without consciously trying to remember the past.

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Repetition priming task

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recent exposure to a word increases the likelihood that you'll think of this particular word, when you are given a cue that could evoke many different words.

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Dissociation

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Occurs when a variable has large effects on Test A, but little or no effects on Test B; also occurs when a variable has one kind of effect if measured by Test A, and exactly the opposite effect if measured by Test B.

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depth of processing

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has a large positive effect on memory scores on an explicit memory task, but depth of processing has no effect or a negative effect on memory scores on an implicit memory task.

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Is proactive interference based on implicit or explicit memory?

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It operates on both explicit and implicit memory tasks; memory for new material is less accurate because the earlier material keeps interfering.

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Amnesia

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Severe deficits in their episodic memory.

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Retrograde amnesia

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Loss of memory for events that occurred prior to brain damage; especially severe for events that occurred during the years just before the damage.

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Anterograde amnesia

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loss of memory for events that have occurred after brain damage; often sufferers cannot recall explicit memory such as recall or recognition. They cannot consciously remember events but their implicit memory seems to work fine (example of a dissociation; explicit fails to work while implicit works using the same stimuli)

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Expertise

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consistently showing exceptional performance on representative tasks in a particular area; requires intensive, daily practice.
-memory experts' skills are context specific.
-experts possess a well-organized, carefully learned knowledge structure, which assists them during both encoding and retrieval; are more likely to reorganize the new material they must recall, forming meaningful chunks in which related material is grouped together; typically have more vivid visual images for the items they must recall; work hard to emphasize the distinctiveness of each stimulus during encoding; rehearse in a different fashion; are better at reconstructing missing portions of information from material that they partially remember; are more skilled at predicting the difficulty of a task and at monitoring their progress on this task.

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Own-Race Bias

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people are generally more accurate in identifying members of their own ethnic group than members of another ethnic group (probably more accurately it is the race they saw most often when they were being socialized); specifically the face gestalt; faces that are commonly around a child acquire distinctiveness

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Autobiographical memory

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memory for events and issues related to yourself; includes a verbal narrative, imagery about the events, emotional reactions, and procedural information; it is part of your identity, shaping your personal history and self-concept.
-based on accuracy of memory rather than quantity of recall (such as in encoding and retrieval);focuses on the correspondence between an actual event and an individual's memory for that event.

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Schemas

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Consists of your general knowledge or expectation, which is distilled from your past experiences with an event or person; can shape your memory for previous events, so that this memory becomes more consistent with your current viewpoint; we'll tend to remember schema-relevant information.

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Consistency bias

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We tend to exaggerate the consistency between our past feelings and beliefs and our current viewpoint; our memory of the past may be distorted.

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Source monitoring

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The process of trying to identify the origin of memories and beliefs; we include cues such as our schemas and expectations, as well as the nature of the details.

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Flashbulb Memory

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Memory for the circumstances in which you first learned about a very surprising and emotionally arousing event; usually including trivial details; they are thought by the person to be exceptionally vivid, but may contain errors.

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Eyewitness Testimony

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Schemas and source monitoring can cause errors in eyewitness testimony

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Post-event misinformation effect

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People first view an event, and then afterward are given misleading information about the event; later on they mistakenly recall the misleading information.

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retroactive interference

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having trouble recalling old material because some recently learned, new material keeps interfering with old memories. (proactive interference)

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constructivist approach

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we construct knowledge by integrating what we know, so that our understanding of an event or a topic is coherent, and it makes sense; we construct a memory by blending information from a variety of sources (it is not a permanent list of facts).

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What factors can influence eyewitness testimony?

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Factors affecting eyewitness testimony accuracy: creating memories that are consistent with one's schemas; making errors in source monitoring; post-event misinformation distortion; a long delay between event and recall can let memory fade and/or be contaminated; if misinformation is plausible more likely to contaminate; errors occur more often under social pressure; positive feedback from errors can increase contamination.

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Is a person's confidence about their eyewitness testimony strongly correlated with the accuracy of their testimony?

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It is not strongly correlated.

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Recovered-Memory Perspective

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Memory can be lost, then recovered; suppression of a bad memory, the memory can come flooding back to consciousness.

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False-Memory perspective

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Proposes that many of these recovered memories are actually incorrect memories, they are constructed stories about events that never occurred

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intrusions

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Memories that are not real but somehow associated enough with real memories that they blend in and appear to have happened.

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Betrayal trauma

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how a child may respond adaptively when a trusted parent or caretaker betrays him or her by sexual abuse; inhibition of memories is needed in order to maintain the life-sustaining attachment to the adult.