Term
| Cognitive research methods |
|
Definition
Reaction time (RT) - Elapsed time between stimulus presentation and subject response
Eye movements - An "on-line" measure of info. processing
Brain imaging - Assoc. cognitive processes w/ parts of brain |
|
|
Term
Method of savings
Hermann Ebbinghaus |
|
Definition
| After memorizing initial list, Ebbinghaus compared # of times he had to read the list in order to memorize it. This is how he calculated the forgetting curve |
|
|
Term
Forgetting curve
Hermann Ebbinghaus |
|
Definition
| The percent savings (remembered) decreases rapidly, but then reaches a plateau after which decrease in savings is minimal. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Putting information INTO memory |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Retaining information in memory |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Recovering the information in memory |
|
|
Term
| Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon |
|
Definition
| Feel like you're on the verge of remembering something but continue to be unsuccessful doing so -- problem with retrieval |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Reproducing information you have previously been exposed to
Ex. Short-answer, fill-in-the-blank |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Realizing that a certain stimulus event is one you've seen or heard before
Ex. Multiple-choice |
|
|
Term
| Generation-recognition model |
|
Definition
| An attempt to explain why you can usually recognize more than you can recall; model suggests that recall involves the same mental process involved in recognition plus another process not required for recognition. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Words presented at the end of a list are remembered best |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Words presented at the beginning of a list are remembered second-best |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| When asked to recall a list of words, people tend to recall words belonging to the same category. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Memory enters various systems in a specific order: sensory, short-term (working), long-term |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Fleeting impressions of sensory stimuli. Lasts only mere seconds.
Visual - iconic
Auditory - echoic |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Subjects look at a display of nine items and then are asked to recall them
-- Attempt to measure sensory memory
-- People only remembered 4/9 items |
|
|
Term
Partial-report procedure
George Sperling |
|
Definition
3x3 matrix of letters, light that flickered to tell which row to recall suddenly
* People could remember all nine items |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
If nothing is done w/ information - lasts 20 seconds
Maintenance rehearsal - stays a relatively long time
7±2 chunks - meaningful units of info |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Permanent storehouse of your experiences, knowledge, and skills
* Can be brief or can last a lifetime |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Organizing information and associating it with information already in long-term memory |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Remembering how to do things |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Remembering explicit information
* Semantic - general knowledge, facts
* Episodic - Events you have experienced |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| In studies of long-term memory, recall is better if two words are semantically related (NURSE-DOCTOR not NURSE-BUTTER). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Short term - phonology
Long-term - meaning |
|
|
Term
Spreading activation model
Collins and Loftus |
|
Definition
The shorter the distance between two words, the closer the words are related in semantic memory.
(Ex. Ambulance and fire engine are more closely related than ambulance and street) |
|
|
Term
Semantic feature-comparison model
Smith, Shoben, and Rips |
|
Definition
| Concepts are represented by sets of features, some of which are required for the concept and some of which are typical. |
|
|
Term
Levels-of-processing theory
(Depth of processing)
Craik and Lockart |
|
Definition
Effort of encoding determines how well you remember it
Physical - visual - appearance, size, shape
Acoustical - sound combinations
Semantic - meaning
The deeper the processing, the greater the effort, the better your memory |
|
|
Term
Dual-code hypothesis
Paivio |
|
Definition
Information is stored in two ways: visually or verbally.
Abstract info is stored verbally, concrete info is encoded visually.
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| If info in long-term is not used or rehearsed, it will eventually be forgotten |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Forgetting is due to the activities that have taken place betweeen original learning and the later attempted recall
Proactive: What you learned earlier interferes w/ what you learn later
Retroactive: Forget what you learned earlier as you learn something new |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Recall will be best if the context at recall approximates the context during original encoding.
Ex. state-dependent learning |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Techniques used to improve likelihood of remembering
* Chunking
* Method of loci - Associating info w/ some sequence of places that you are familiar with. |
|
|
Term
Reconstructive memory
Sir Frederick Bartlett |
|
Definition
"War of the Ghosts" - folk tale about ghosts
Prior knowledge and expectations (schema) influence recall |
|
|
Term
Eyewitness memory
Elizabeth Loftus |
|
Definition
| Tendency for eyewitnesses to be influenced or confused by misleading info. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Tendency to remember incomplete tasks better than completed tasks |
|
|
Term
| Luchins water-jar problem |
|
Definition
Problem solving
Jar A, B, C - w/ diff capacities and a desired amount in one jar
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Tendency to keep repeating solutions that worked in other situations. Inappropriate sets can be impediments to problem solving |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Tendency to get used to things having only one or a few functions. Lack of creativity. |
|
|
Term
Divergent thinking
Guilford |
|
Definition
| Thinking that involves producing as many creative answers to a question as possible. |
|
|
Term
Heuristics
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky |
|
Definition
| Short-cuts or rules of thumb to make decisions |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Make decision based on how easily similar instances can be imagined. |
|
|
Term
| Representativeness heuristic |
|
Definition
| Categorizing things on the basis of whether they fit the prototypical, stereotypical or representative image of the category. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Using representativeness rather than actual numerical information about which category is more numerous |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Smallest sound unit of language |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Smallest unit of meaning in a language
Walked -> 1. walk 2. ed |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Meaning of words and sentences |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Grammatical arrangement of words in sentences |
|
|
Term
| Learning theory (language) |
|
Definition
| Language is acquired through classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and/or modeling. |
|
|
Term
| Cognitive developmental theory (language) |
|
Definition
| Language has to do with child's capacity for symbolic thought, which develops toward the end of the sensorimotor period. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Actual word order of the sentence |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Underlying form that specifies the meaning of the sentence |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Tells us how we can change from one sentence form to another
Ex. active to passive voice, statement to question |
|
|
Term
Whorfian hypothesis
(linguistic relativity hypothesis)
Benjamin Whorf |
|
Definition
Our perception of reality, the way that we think about the world is determined by content of language.
- Some languages have a wide variety of names for certain things and those cultures may/may not be better at discrimination of those things. |
|
|
Term
Gender differences
Eleanor Macoby, Carol Jacklin |
|
Definition
| Girls have better verbal abilities |
|
|
Term
Primary mental abilities
Louis Thurstone |
|
Definition
Verbal comprehension, number ability, perceptual speed, general reasoning
- Used factor analysis like Spearman |
|
|
Term
Triarchic theory
Robert Sternberg |
|
Definition
Componential (performance on tests)
Experiential (creativity)
Contextual (street smarts/business sense) |
|
|
Term
Multiple intelligences
Howard Gardner |
|
Definition
| Linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal |
|
|
Term
Fluid intelligence
Raymond Cattell |
|
Definition
Ability to quickly grasp relationships in novel situations and make correct deductions from them
* Increases throughout childhood, levels off in young adulthood, and begins a steady decline w/ age |
|
|
Term
Crystallized intelligence
Raymond Cattell |
|
Definition
Ability to understand relationships or solve problems that depend on knowledge acquired from schooling or life experiences
* Increases throughout lifespan |
|
|
Term
IQ differences
Arthur Jensen |
|
Definition
| IQ tests measure genetic intelligence, differences in racial scores |
|
|
Term
Information processing
McClelland and Rumelhart |
|
Definition
| Info processing is distributed across brain and is done in a parallel fashion |
|
|
