10 Human Information Processing

Question 1

What percentage of sensory information is visual?

Answer 1

70%

Question 2

Describe Habituation in relation to the senses

Answer 2

The process of increasing the sensitivity of other sensors if one is lost.

E.g. Improved hearing if eye sight is lost

Question 3

What is the sensory threshold?

Answer 3

The threshold at which a stimulus needs to reach before it is registered by one of the senses.

By increasing the sensory threshold, the sensitivity of the sense is reduced

Question 4

What is the Absolute threshold?

Answer 4

The threshold a stimulus must reach before a sensor reacts to it.

A person can be unaware if a stimulus goes beyond the absolute threshold

Question 5

What is the Just Noticeable Difference (JND)?

Answer 5

The amount a stimulus needs to change before a person becomes aware of the change

Question 6

What are the two types of Attention?

Answer 6

• Selective: Concentrating on one thing, closely linked to the ‘cocktail party’ effect
• Divided: Subconsciously monitoring more than one channel, accuracy is lost

Question 7

What is Vigilance?

Answer 7

A state of alertness or watchfulness.

Closely linked with arousal

Question 8

What are the three types of memory?

Answer 8

• Sensory store
• Short term / Working memory
• Long term memory

Question 9

Give details of the two types of Sensory Store memory and details about it in general

Answer 9

• Iconic: visual information (lasts between 0.5 to 1 sec)
• Echoic: audible information (lasts between 2 to 8 sec)
• Shortest part of the memory
• < 1% of information is past to the next stage, short term memory

Question 10

Give details regarding the Short Term or Working memory

Answer 10

• Lasts between 15 to 30 sec
• Can hold 7 to 9 bits of information
• Very prone to interruption
• Brain uses ‘chunking’ and ‘rehearsing’ to strengthen memories

Question 11

Give details about Long Term memory and the different types

Answer 11

Explicit: consciously retrieve information

• Episodic: events in your life
• Semantic: general knowledge

Implicit: subconsciously retrieve information
- Procedural: Motor skills / Motor programs

Question 12

What is the definition of learning?

Answer 12

The process of changing behaviour or gaining knowledge through past experiences or through teaching

Question 13

Name and define the 4 types of learning

Answer 13

• Conditional Learning / Classical Conditioning: Where a person is conditioned to react to a stimulus a specific way e.g. Cabin pressure warning alarm

(Behaviouralistic)

• Operant Conditioning: Learning through positive and negative reinforcement

(Behaviouralistic)

• Insight Learning: Using previous experiences and knowledge to solve a problem

(Cognitive)

• Imitation / modelling / observation learning: Learning through copying someone else

Question 14

What is a Mental / Cognitive Schema and give key facts about it?

Answer 14

• A ‘web’ or ‘collection’ of information
• The larger the scheme becomes the easier it is to remember and add new relevant information to it
• Whilst recalling a schema any new unrelated information is lost

Question 15

With regards to learning a skill, what are the stages of the Anderson Model?

Answer 15

• Cognitive stage: Learning the theory behind the skill
• Associative stage: Practice the skill
• Autonomous stage: The skill can be performed automatically by motor programs

Question 16

Describe Non-declarative Knowledge

Answer 16

Where describing how to perform a skill becomes very difficult whilst performing said skill

Question 17

What forms the basis of all perceptions?

Answer 17

The intensity of the stimuli