Studying and building memories & Memory Storage and Retrieval
What is the definition of memory?
Information one can encode, store, and retrieve over time.
Text Book Def:
the persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information.
Who was the famous psychologist who falsely remembered being saved from a kidnapping by his nursemaid after hearing her telling stories of this? What is the term for this formation of a false memory?
Jean Piaget. He vividly recalls his nursemaid saving him from a potential kidnapping. However, this was simply because he always heard the stories of the nursemaid saving another child.
This is source amnesia.
True or False
Divergent thinking is the narrowing down of possible solutions to one best solution.
False
That is convergent thinking. Divergent thinking expands the possible number of problem solving solutions.
What is a simple thinking strategy that provides a quick, but error prone solution?
A heuristic
What is the difference between phoneme, morphemes, and grammar?
Phonemes: The smallest distinctive sounds. PHONEMES ARE NOT LETTERS.
Ex: chat------> ch a t
Morphemes: smallest unit that carry meaning in a language. Most morphemes consist of 2 or more phonemes, with some of the few exceptions being: I(in reference to yourself) or s(in implying plural of something.)
Grammar: the set of rules we use to communicate with one another.
Helps us understand:
-syntax: ordering of words in sentences
-semantics: meaning from sounds
What are some effortful processing strategies?
Chunking, Mnemonics, and Hierarchies
What is the misinformation effect?
Providing deceptive information about an event into one's memory, resulting in an often exaggerated account of the actual event.
Ex:
How fast were the cars going when the cars hit each other?
How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other.
Is intrinsic motivation or extrinsic motivation associated with creativity?
Intrinsic motivation
What is the psychology term to describe our tendency to approach a problem a way that has worked in the past for a similar problem?
mental set
When do children enter the 2 word stage of language development? (what age)
About the age of 2.
What parts of the brain make up the implicit brain system?
Cerebellum and Basal Ganglia
What is the difference between retrograde and anterograde amnesia?
Those suffering from anterograde amnesia can recall their past but cannot form any new memories. Retrograde amnesia is the inability to recall any past memories.
True or false
We form our prototypes by forming concepts.
False
Define representative heuristic and give an example.
Judging the likelihood of things fitting in to our current prototypes. Can result in us ignoring other relevant information.
Ex:
All psychology teachers are old men who wear suits and carry briefcases.
Coach Wiemers does not wear a suit or carry a briefcase, and did not fit my prototype of a psychology teacher.
Who argued that all languages share same basic elements? What is the term called?
Noam Chomsky
Chomsky proposed that we are predisposed to learn grammar rules.
Universal grammar
-all languages have nouns, verbs, and adjectives as building blocks for grammar.
What parts of the brain make up the explicit memory system and what are their roles?
The hippocampus and frontal lobe. The hippocampus helps process explicit memories for storage. The frontal lobes are used when summoning a mental encore of a past experience.
What's the difference between proactive and retroactive interference?
Proactive interference happens when prior knowledge disrupts recall of new information.
Retroactive interference occurs when new information disrupts the recall of old information.
What is the definition of prototype?
A mental image for category.
Define availability heuristic and give an example.
estimating the likelihood of events based on how mentally available they are. The more vivid the memories, the more assumption that it is common.
Ex:
After watching a news segment on a bank robbery in a neighboring town, you assume theft is common there.
Where are Broca's area and Wernicke's area located? What are their functions? How is it related to aphasia?
Broca's area is located in the left frontal lobe.
-controls language expression
Wernicke's area is located in the left temporal lobe.
-controls language comprehension and expression
Aphasia is usually the result of left hemisphere damage, impairing language. Wernicke's and Broca's are both located in the left hemisphere. Damage to Broca's impairs speaking while damage to Wernicke's impairs understanding.
What are the 3 stages of Richard Atkinson's and Richard Shiffrin's memory forming process model?
1)Sensory Memory: Record fleeting information that is to be stored later.
2)Short Term Memory: The processing of information. Can be encoded with rehearsal
3)Long Term Memory: When information can be retrieved.
What is the forgetting curve and which psychologist created it?
The forgetting curve hypothesizes the decline of memory retention over time. The course of forgetting starts off very rapid but levels overtime.
Hermann Ebbinghaus created it.
What is the definition of concept?
The mental grouping of similar objects.
Sully's doctor tells him he has a 90% chance of surviving his surgery. Dana's doctor tells her that she has a 10% of dying from the same surgery. What psychology term would best describe why Sully is going through with the surgery and Dana is not?
Framing Def: the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.
Based on how the doctors worded their phrases, Dana was more frightened and did not proceed with the surgery.
What is the definition of linguistic determinism? Who created this theory? Use it in an example.
Benjamin Lee Whorf's theory
-His theory proposed that language determines how one thinks.
Ex:
An experiment was done on bilingual students. Those who described themselves in English gave positive self statements. Those who described themselves in Chinese gave statements typical agreed with Chinese values and roughly equally negative and positive self statements.
*language does not determine how one thinks, but it does have influence*