PSYC Final

Question 1

Basic Processes of Memory

Answer 1

1. Attention: focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events affecting memory & performance
   Inattention Blindness: failure to perceive an unexpected stimulus in plain sight
   
   • Change Blindness: change in visual stimulated introduced but not observed
   • Next In Line Effect: too busy preparing what you are going to say you don’t remember what the person in front said
2. Encoding: forming a memory code, formatting & putting info into memory banks
   
   • Encoding Specificity/Context-Dependent Learning: more likely to remember something when the conditions present at the time we encoded it are also present at retrieval
   • State-Dependent Learning: superior retrieval of memories when the organism is in the same physiological or psychological state as it was during encoding
3. Storage: maintaining the information in memory over time
   
   • Schema: organized knowledge structure or mental model used as reference for interpreting or simplifying new situations, enhance memory in some cases but lead to memory errors in others → memory illusions, biases, overgeneralizations
4. Retrieval: recovering/reconstructing information from memory stores

Question 2

Draw + Explain Info Processing Model

Answer 2

1. Sensory Memory: preserves info in its original sensory form for a brief time, usually only a fraction of a second to allow us to see the world as an unbroken stream of events
   -Iconic Memory 1s (visual): Sperling’s participants were
   able to take in all of the information but retained it in
   memory only long enough to read off a few letters
   -Echoic Memory 5-10s (auditory)
   -Haptic Memory (touch)
2. Short Term Memory: limited capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed info for up to 20s
   -Rehearsal: process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking (maintenance) or making personal/meaningful connections (elaborative) about info
   -Levels of Processing (unfalsifiable): shallow-
   physical structural, intermediate-sound
   phonemic, Deep-meaning semantic
   -Visual Imagery: creation of visual images to aid
   in memory formation
   -Self-Referent Encoding: deciding how or
   whether info is personally relevant promoting
   additionally elaboration & organization of info
   -Capacity: number of stimuli that one can remember, more or less 2 from 7 for numbers from digit span test (random sets of numbers, increasing in amount each span)
   -Chunking: a group of familiar stimuli stored as a
   single unit which draws long term memory (ex.
   Chess masters chunking realistic positions)
3. Central Executive: coordinates (control, focus, divides attention) the actions of other modules

Question 3

Draw + Explain Working Memory

Answer 3

Working Memory: a limited capacity storage system that temporarily maintains and stores info by providing an interface between perception, memory & action
-Evaluating Working Memory & Storage - N-Back
Task: presented a sequence of stimuli one-by-one &
for each stimulus, they need to decide if the current
stimulus is the same as the one presented N trials
ago
-Phonological Loop: allows for recitation of info (ex.
Phone #, calculating sums)
-Visual-Spatial Sketchpad: temporarily hold &
manipulate visual images (ex. Faces, maps)
-Episodic Buffer: temporary & limited capacity
storage system/interface between working, with all
its modules, & long term memory for integration of
info
-Addresses binding problem - how the brain
connects different perceptions to one concept
(ex. Apple’s taste, color, smell, texture)

Question 4

Long Term Memory + Explicit vs Implicit

Answer 4

Long Term Memory: Larger, longer retention (min-lifetime) store of info prone to semantic errors
-Explicit (Declarative) Memory - requires conscious
effort & awareness: conscious/intentional
recollection of factual info or previous experiences
assessed directly by recall/recognition, affected by
age, drugs, amnesia, retention interval
-Semantic/Encyclopedia Memory - Left Frontal
Cortex: general knowledge about the world
unrelated to the time when the info was learned
(ex. Facts, concepts)
-Episodic/Autobiographical Memory - Right
Frontal Cortex: chronological recollections of
personal experiences on a timeline which can
become semantic (ex. Time, place, emotional
context)
-Implicit Memory: memories that aren’t
consciously or deliberately remembered,
assessed indirectly by relearning measures
unaffected by age, drugs, amnesia or retention
interval
-Procedural: memories of how to execute
specific actions, skills or operations (ex. Muscle
memory, drawing, dancing, sport)
-Priming: ability to identify a stimulus more
easily or quickly when we’ve previously
encountered similar stimuli, when memory
impacts subsequent thoughts & actions
-Conditioning: association, Habituation: learning
to ignore stimuli or become less sensitive when
deemed safe by repetition

Question 5

Serial Position Curve

Answer 5

Serial Position Curve: depicting primacy & recency effect
-Primacy Effect: tendency to remember stimuli early
in a list
-Recency Effect: tendency to remember stimuli later
in a list
-Tendency to remember stimuli that are distinctive in
some way

Question 6

Lessons from H.M.

Answer 6

1. Retrograde Amnesia: inability to retrieve memories for some specific period of time prior to that time which brain damage occurs
   Anterograde Amnesia: inability to form memories of events occurring after the time which the brain damage occurred
   -Myths on Amnesia: gradual recovery not abrupt, very rare for all details of memory to be wiped out
2. Clear Difference b/w STM & LTM
   STM - Digit Span Test - Diff #s each time incr. # in set: normal score of 6
   LTM - Digit Span Test - Same #s each time add new #: no LTM, only 8 compared to normal 20
3. Clear Differences b/w Implicit & Explicit memory
   Mirror Drawing Test: no new explicit memory, implicit procedural memory still available, drawing improves each day but doesn’t remember doing it
4. Differing types of memory encoding & storing in different areas of brain
   Locating Memories: still remembers childhood house 5, 13, 16 years after having operation & moving houses, memory is stored in different parts of the brain as HM can still make spatial memories, no episodic ones
   Post-Mortem Found Brain Damage: Circuits connecting part of limbic system are critical to memory too → amygdala for emotional component of memories, hippocampus for factual component of memories, reducing amygdala’s activity after traumatic events can reduce the emotional effects of the memory

Question 7

Lashley Study + Findings

Answer 7

Lashley Study: rats speed to run the maze is evaluated, lesions to different parts of brain are administered and then made to run the maze again measuring once again, results show

1. Less brain tissue means poorer performance
2. No matter where tissue was removed some memory of maze persisted, times still improved

Question 8

Where is Memory Stored?

Answer 8

1. Long Term Potentiation: gradual strengthening of connections among neurons from repetitive stimulation
2. Consolidation: hypothetical process occurring in hippocampus in which info is gradually converted into memory codes to be stored in LTM. Amygdala responsible for emotion (fear) related memories
   -Does not address Binding Problem: where+how brain
   links all stored info

Question 9

2 Units & 3 Methods of Measuring Memory

Answer 9

• Retention: the proportion of material retained (remembered)
• Retention Interval: amount of time between presentation of materials and the memory measure

1. Recall: a measure of memory that requires subjects to reproduce info on their own without any retrieval cues & determining if it seems correct
   Ex. Short answer question
2. Recognition: a measure of retention that requires subjects to select previously learned info from an array of options, only requires one step of recall; determining correctness
   Ex. Multiple choice question
3. Relearning: a measure of retention that requires a subject to “memorize” info a second time to determine how much time or how many practice trials are saved by having learned it before
   -Often a test of implicit memory, unconsciously
   remembering, ex. Relearning piano
   -More sensitive & quantifiable, not just correct or
   incorrect

Question 10

Why We Forget?

Answer 10

1. Pseudoforgetting: can’t recall information because it was never encoded (well)
   -Lack of attention, ex. Watching Tiktok while writing
   notes
2. Decay Theory: forgetting occurs because memory fades with the passage of time
   -STM yes, LTM no
3. Interference Theory: people forget because of competition from other material
   -Retroactive Interference: when new info impairs the
   retention of previously learned info. Ex. Psychology
   back to Economics
   -Proactive Interference: when previously learned
   info interferes with retention of new info. Ex.
   Learning Bike then Bike backwards
4. Interference Type: Learn list of adjectives → learn 2nd list of Group 1-Synonyms, 2-Antonyms, 3-Unrelated adjectives, 4-nonsense words, 5-numbers, 6-No 2nd List → recall original list
   Results: decreasing interference=increasing words remembered from Group 1-6
5. Aging, strokes, dementia, Alzheimer’s (senile plaques, neurofibrillary tangles→loss of synapses + death of cells in hippocampus & cerebral cortex), deterioration of frontal & temporal lobes

Question 11

Interference vs Decay Study

Answer 11

Probe Digit Experiment: probe digit signaled by a tone after a set of numbers have been said, then participants must identify the digit in the sequence that comes after the probe digit (ex. 623428234235 8)
-Varies amount of interference between probe
digits → as interfering items increase, % correct
decreases
-Varies time between numbers → %correct stay
same

Results: interference plays a larger role than decay in forgetting

Question 12

7 Sins of Memory

Answer 12

Sins of Commission: memory added
Sins of Omission: memory left out

1. Suggestibility: tendency to incorporate misleading info from external sources into personal recollections (false memories)
   -Misinformation Effect: creating fictitious memories
   by providing misleading info about an event after it
   takes place (changing an existing memory)
   ex.Smash/Hit, Leading/Non-Leading questions,
   eye-witness testimony, repressed memories,
   psychotherapy
   -Implanted Memories: people recall a memory that
   didn’t happen that impacts future behavior, which
   can be caused by dream interpretation, imagination,
   hypnosis, exposure to false info, easier if it fits in an
   existing schema or distant past, youth easily gullible
   Loftus Study: paired 3 childhood stories that
   happened with one that is false and
   participants believed that all 4 were true
   although one was false (Lost in the malls,
   drowned at the beach, etc.)
2. Misattribution: attributing an event to something with which it really has no connection or association
   Source Monitoring Confusion: lack of clarity about the origin of a memory (when, where & how information was acquired), harder for older people
   Ex. Donald Thompson, falsely accused, victim was
   watching him on TV when she we struck
   unconscious by attacker
3. (Retrospective) Bias: distorting influences of present knowledge, beliefs & feelings on the recollections of previous experiences
   Ex. Angry at boyfriend → all past memories become
   negative
4. Persistence: intrusive recollection of events that we wish we could forget but cannot
   Ex. Embarrassing moments, PTSD
5. Transience: forgetting that occurs with the passage of time - Decay STM, Interference LTM
6. Blocking (Tip of the Tongue): failure to retrieve info that is available in memory, even though you are trying to produce it
7. Absentmindedness: a lapse in attention that results in memory failure
   -Pseudoforgetting
   -Prospective Memory: remembering to remember
   something in the future, such as an action or event

Question 13

3 Factors of Development of Memory

Answer 13

1. Memory spans increase with age: physical/biological maturation, better use of strategies
2. Conceptual understanding increases with age: increase knowledge of world for more elaborate connections

3, Enhanced meta-memory with age: knowledge about their memory abilities & limitations, how to efficiently use them often thinking less of themselves

Question 14

9 Mnemonics

Answer 14

Learning aid, strategy or device that enhances recall

Rhymes: repetition of vowels & consonants to aid recall of info

Pegword Method: associate a visual word with the wanted word through rhyme

Acrostics: phrases or poems in which first letter of each word functions as a cue to aid recall of info

Acronym: a word formed out of the first letter of a series of words

Link Method: forming a mental image of the items to be remembered in a way that links them together

Method of Loci/Mind Palace: taking an imaginary walk along a familiar path where images of items to be remembered are associated with certain locations

Narrative Methods: creating a story that includes words in their proper order

Keyword Method: associating a concrete word with an abstract word or name and generate an image to represent the concrete word

Music: info in melody improves long-term retention

Question 15

Languages + 4 Principles

Answer 15

Symbols/symbolic that convey meaning/semantic & have rules/structured for combining that generate infinite/generative variety of images

Question 16

5 Components Language Structure

Answer 16

Phonemes: smallest unit of speech in a language that can be distinguished perceptually

Morphemes: smallest units of meaning in a language, conveys info about semantics
-Root Words: friend, able
-Combinations: prefixes, suffixes (ly, un, dis)

Semantics: area of language concerned with understanding the meaning of words & word combinations (house vs home)
-Denotation: dictionary definition
-Connotation: ideas or feelings that a word invokes

Pragmatics: rules that govern the practical aspects of using language
-Extra-Linguistic Info: elements critical to meaning in
communication that aren’t part of content of language
(facial expressions, tones, gestures, context, who is
speaking to whom)

Syntax: a system of rules that specify how words can be arranged into sentences (ex. Article+Noun + Verb)
-Morphological Markers: grammatical elements that
modify words by adding sounds to them that change
their meaning (ex. -ing, -ed, -s)

Question 17

3 Language Acquisition Theories + Criticisms

Answer 17

1. Behaviourist -Simplest: children learn language through imitation of models (copying), reinforcement, & other established principles of conditioning
   -Crits: parents don’t spend much time correcting grammar, children generate more grammatical sentences then they ever hear, overregularizations are not predicted by behavioral theory. Language is generative: a system that can create an infinite statements, thoughts, ideas never previously uttered
2. Nativist: humans have inborn propensity to develop language from language acquisition device, with some basic knowledge of syntactic rules & precise rules need to be determined through exposure
   -Effortless, developmental timing cross cultural similarities & periods of optimal language learning
   Critical Period for developing language: an organism must learn an ability if it’s going to learn it at all.
   Genie no language exposure for first 13 years of life failed to become fluent language users
   Children with hearing loss & parents who don’t: developed homesign - inventing own signs - full fluency in a language can only acquired through systematic exposure to it
   Age-of-exposure effects are more dramatic for syntax & pronunciation
   -Crits: what neural components make up LAD, children vs adults unfair comparison, social factors do play a role, hard to falsify

3, Interactionist: bio dev, cognitive dev, environ reinforcement, lang dev strengthen each other

Question 18

Sign Language + Differences with Spoken + 3 Misconceptions

Answer 18

Language developed by members of a community with hearing loss that use visual rather than auditory communication, hands, face, body “sign space” in front of signer

Differences + Similarities
- Has its own phonemes, words, syntax & extralinguistic info.
- Same brain areas in processing spoken languages + visual/spatial areas
- Babies who learn sign language pass through the same developmental stages at about the same ages as babies who learn spoken language, babbling with hands, syntactic development stages

Misconceptions:
1. People with hearing loss don’t need sign language because they can lip read → lip readers can only pick up 30-35%
2. Learning to sign slows down the ability of children with hearing loss to learn to speak → sign language speeds up the process of learning to talk
3. American Sign Language is just English translated word for word into signs → no resemblance to English, syntax differs

Question 19

4 Growing Pains of Language Acquisition

Answer 19

Overextension: child incorrectly uses a word to describe a wider set of objects or actions than intended (ex. Puppy=All four legged animals)

Underextension: child incorrectly uses a word to describe a narrower set of objects or actions than intended (ex. Dog=only family dog, not for all other dogs)

Telegraphic Speech: phrases that omit articles, prepositions & less critical words (ex. Give ball)

Overregularization Errors: grammatical rules are incorrectly applied or generalized to irregular cases where they do not apply (I hitted the ball)

Question 20

7 Stages of Language Acquisition

Answer 20

In utero: hear mother’s voice, recognizes repeated stories, songs & characteristics of native tongue

1-4 Day: respond to speech more than non-speech sounds

1-5 Months: reflexive communication, distinguishing between language vs non-language & all phonemes
Design: dog Baba, cat dada, baba baby looks at dog = baby recognizes between phonemes

6-18 Months: babbling-intentional vocalization that lack specific meaning, learn the phonemes of language & how to use vocal apparatus

10-13 Months: first words spoken, phoneme categories similar to those of the adult speaker

12-18 Months: 50-100 words, rate of learning new words increases, number of words known & able to be said start to even

18-24 months: vocab spurt

Question 21

Bilingualism Pros & Cons

Answer 21

Cons: delay in syntax development in each of their languages

Pros: vocabulary development unimpaired, heightened metalinguistic insight: awareness of how language is structured and used → perform better on language tasks in general, protection from cognitive decline in patients with Alzheimer’s

Question 22

2 Language = Thought Theories

Answer 22

Linguistic Determinism: suggest all though is determined by language
-Crits: thought can occur without language, children can perform many complex cognitive tasks before they can talk about them, neuroimaging studies show that language brain regions aren’t especially active during some cognitive tasks such as spatial/visual imagery

Linguistic Relativity (Sapir-Whorf) Hypothesis: characteristics of language shapes our thought processes
-Evidence: more words in lang to describe snow in arctic tribes, firewomen + certain topics are easier to talk about in certain languages + firemen affects perception of firefighter jobs + Loftus hit/smash

Question 23

2 Reading Strategies + Speed Reading

Answer 23

1. Recognize Familiar Words when they see them printed on page → automatic
   -Whole Word Recognition: reading strategy that involves identifying common words based on their appearance without having to sound them out
2. Phonetic Decomposition: reading strategy that involves sounding out words by drawing correspondences between printed letters & sounds → to approach words we’ve never seen

Speed Reading: faster we read the more we miss

Question 24

Cognitive Economy

Answer 24

Streamlines process of cognitive tasks using heuristics etc., economizes mental energy/effort however can lead to oversimplifying & faulty conclusions. Functional purpose to use energy & mental capacity efficiently through shortcuts.

Representativeness Heuristic: judging the probability of an event by its superficial similarity to a past experience (ex. Stereotyping)
-Base Rate Information: how common a behavior or characteristic is in general (ex. Schizophrenia)

Availability Heuristic: estimating the likelihood of an occurrence based on the ease with which it comes to our minds (ex. Easier to think of trees in campus than city so assume campus has more trees)

Hindsight Bias (I knew it all along): tendency to overestimate how well we could have predicted something after it has already occurred

Confirmation Bias: tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypotheses or beliefs & to deny, dismiss or distort evidence that doesn’t. Scientific methods to compensate for bias in research

Top Down Processing –> Chunking

Concepts + Schemas

Question 25

6 Barriers to Problem Solving

Answer 25

1. Focusing on Irrelevant Info: (ex. Numbers, unknown words, etc.) 2. Functional fixedness - Inflexible Thinking: tendency to perceive an item in terms of its most common use (ex. Insight learning breaks functional fixedness) → subgoals 3. Mental sets: persist using strategies that have worked in the past even though better or more appropriate methods exist, boxed in our experiences → changing representation 4. Imposition of unnecessary constraints: specifying all the constraints governing a problem without assuming any constraints that don’t exist 5. Not reflecting on intuitive solutions 6. Salience of Surface Similarities: tendency to focus our attention on the surface-level (superficial) properties of a problem → find deeper meaning behind problem

Question 26

3 Approaches to Problem Solving

Answer 26

1. Trial & Error: trying possible solutions & discarding those that are in error until one works 2. Algorithms: a methodical, step-by-step procedure for trying all possible alternatives in search for a solution to a problem, inflexible 3. Heuristics: a guiding principle used in solving problems or making decisions a. Forming Subgoals: forming intermediate steps toward solution, flexible (ex. Finding TR & TC before finding Profit) b. Searching for Analogies: similarity between like features of 2 things, on which a comparison may be based (ex. Running out butter, substituting with olive oil) c. Changing the representation of a problem: looking at a problem in different perspectives in order to find an accurate & most efficient approach (ex. Spatially, verbally, mathematically, list, table, equation, graph, matrix, etc.) d. Working backwards

Question 27

3 Factors of Decision Making Process

Answer 27

1. Anchoring Effect: when an individual attempts to make a decision using prior initial knowledge (anchor) to keep the response within a limited range Ex. Bargaining knowing the actual price, salary negotiations 2. Framing Effects: a cognitive bias in which people make different decisions depending on how choices are presented Ex. leading question with positive or negative connotations 3. Sunk Cost Fallacy: reasoning that further investment is warranted on the fact that the resources already invested will be lost otherwise without taking into consideration the overall losses involved in the further investment Ex. Staying with a boyfriend you don’t like anymore because you’ve already invested 4 years of your life

Question 28

Impacts of Too Many Choices:

Answer 28

1. Paralysis by Analysis: analyzing too deeply can lead to confusion and ultimately a less satisfying decision if we had followed our intuitive feelings especially during emotionally laden decisions, unless the case is objective in outcome 2. Decreased Satisfaction: a. Opportunity Costs: so many other options & rewards that could have been received due to so many alternatives b. Imagined alternatives: imagining how much better the alternatives would have been lowers satisfaction c. Increased expectations: expectations of the chosen product increases when many choices presented lowering satisfaction d. Personal Responsibility: blaming ourselves for the downsides of our decisions as we believe we are the sole one’s responsible for the choice

Question 29

Problem Space

Answer 29

A spatial metaphor used to describe the process of problem solving with a set of possible pathways to a solution considered by the problem solver