Memory systems
How do psychologists define memory, as in, how would they describe the memory system?
Memory is the processing of information through cognitive systems, as in, the ability to take in information (encode), store it (storage), and later retrieve it (retrieval).
Why do we forget?
Psychologists generally refer to the decay theory; basically, if you don't use you it, you lose it. Encoding failure also plays a part, referring to any poorly processed information.
What is cognition?
The mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communication information.
What are some structures of language?
-phoneme (smallest distinctive sound units in a language; ex: the "c" in "cats")
-morpheme (smallest language units that carry meaning; ex: the "cat" and "s" in "cats")
-grammar (language rules)
How do we communicte non-verbally?
Non-verbal cues include outward signs of our emotions, such as facial expressions, body posture, and gestures.
What is the capacity and duration of sensory memory?
Capacity: a lot. Like, just a lot of information. Think about everything you're processing with your eyes (visual memory) and ears (echoic memory).
Duration: barely even a half of a second
How does source amnesia affect memory?
Source amnesia refers to when we forget the origin or place of a memory, which can lead to feelings of deja vu, as we are repeating events without remembering the original event.
What is intuition?
Our automatic and unreasoned feelings and thoughts.
Which brain areas are involved in language in processing and speech?
Broca's area (Language production) and Wernicke's area (Language comprehension)
How do arousal, expressive behavior, and cognition interact in emotion?
Overall, they work together to trigger emotion.
What is the capacity and duration of short-term memory?
Capacity: 7±2 items (Remember: an item can be a series of smaller items through Chunking, and your short-term memory is also called your Working Meory, because you're currently working on it)
Duration: somewhere from 10-15 seconds (You can think of it just being a handful of seconds), but it could potentially go on forever with rehearsal
How does imagination affect memory?
Imagination can affect memory reconsolidation, which refers to the concept that are memories are constantly reconstructing. Sometimes, our imagination will add onto, or take away from, our memories as we reconsurect them.
Which two heuristics that can negatively affect your intuition?
1. Representativeness heuristic, or when we judge the liklehood of something happening by comparing it to our prototypes. This can negatively affect our intuition, since some people will harass Middle Eastern immigrants, because their protoype of "terrorist" is based on Middle Eastern people.
2. Availability heuristic, or when we judge the commonality of an event based on how often we hear about that event. This can negatively affect our intuition, since some people will assume that sharks are more dangerous than cows, vending machines, or coconuts, because people will report more on shark attacks than any of those accidents.
What are our stages of productive language?
-babbling stage
-one-word stage
-two-word stage
-telegraphic stage
Remember: there is a critical period for language acquisition
How are facial expressions understood within and across cultures?
Within our own culture, we can have mixed cues, and across cultures, there can be different display rules. Context matters!
What is the capacity and duration of long-term memory?
Capacity: potentially infinite (Remember: long-term memory holds semantic, procedural, and episodic types of memory)
Duration: again, potentially infinite
How does the misinformation effect affect memory?
The misinformation effect refers to when a memory is altered due to the introduction of biased information. This can be as subtle as using overly aggressive or passive language when referring to an event, and is why eye-witness testimonies arn't a great practice. My using phrases like, "Rammed into," or, "Bumped into," can alter an eyewitness' testimony about a car crash.
What are some obstacles that hinder our cognition?
Confirmation bias (only looking for things that confirm our beliefs), fixation (inability to try a new perspective), mental set (solving problems the same way over and over again)
What is the value of thinking in images?
Mental rehearsal help us better perform activities.
How do our facial expressions influence our emotions?
We tend to feel the same as whatever emotion is associated with our current facial expression, as suggested by the facial-feedback loop.
What are the four factors of memory retrieval?
1. Mode of retrieval (Recall vs. Recognition)
2. Organization (Remember: the more organized information is, the easier retrieval will be)
3. Types of rehearsal (Maintenance rehearsal vs. Elaborative rehearsal; Effects of position on rehearsal, as in, what order are you rehearsing information?)
4. Enviormental cues (Remember: Mental and phsyical states are different, since this goes into the idea of State-dependent Learning)
Name three ways you can use this research to improve your memory, and in turn, do you better in your classes?
-Activate retrieval cue
-Use mnemonic devices
-Minimize proactive and retroactive interference
-Sleep more
-Test your knowledge (Both for rehearsal and to figure out what you don't know within a given material)
What are some strategies that help our cognition?
prototypes (the mental image that serves as the best example of something), algorithms (step-by-step procedures that gurantee a solution), heuristic (going off rule of tumb for a probable solution), insight (having a solution just "come" to you)
Do other species have the capacity to think and use language?
Yes and no. They show some capacity, but not completely so, which proved the linguistic determinism hypothesis to be too extreme. Refer to PBS documentary and/or pages 352-356 in the textbook.
What are the theories of emotion? Name at least three of the five discussed in class.
-James-Lange theory: arousal comes before emotion
-Cannon-Bard theory: arousal and emotion occur simutaneously.
-Schachter-Singer two-factor theory: emotions depend on both general arousal and a councious cogintive label
-Zajonc-LeDoux: some emotions are triggered instantly, before you have to apply a cognitive label
-Lazarus: you have apply a cognitive label to trigger both arousal and emotion