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