Name:
AP Psych
Unit 5 Reading Guide
Cognition: Memory, Thinking, Language
Module 31: Studying and Encoding Memories (pg. 326-338)
● Memory:
● There are 3 steps of memory (according to information-processing models):
1. Encoding:
2. Storage:
3. Retrieval:
● Parallel processing:
● What happens to the neurons in your brain every time you learn something new?
● Forming memories is another 3 step process:
1. Sensory memory:
2. Short-term memory:
3. Long-term memory:
● Working Memory (short-term memory):
A. Building Memories: Encoding
● Explicit memory (declarative memory):
o Encoded through effortful processing:
● Implicit memory (nondeclarative memory):
o Encoded through automatic processing:
o Examples of things you automatically process:
Types of sensory memories
● Iconic memory:
o Example:
● Echoic memory:
o Example:
● How many things can short-term memory hold?
Ways to help effortful processing
● Chunking:
o Example:
● Mnemonics:
o Example:
● Hierarchies:
o Look at the layout of your reading guide—am I using a hierarchy to help you?!!
● Spacing effect:
● Testing effect:
Levels of Processing
● Shallow processing:
o Example:
● Deep processing:
o Example:
● Which is better for your memory over time—shallow or deep?
Module 32: Storing and Retrieving Memories (pg. 339-349)
● What is the capacity for long term memory?
● What part of the brain lays down new explicit memories (names or events)?
● What happens to memories while you are sleeping?
● What kinds of memories does the cerebellum form?
● What kinds of memories does the basal ganglia form?
● Flashbulb memories:
● What part of the brain is involved in emotional memories, like flashbulb memories?
● Describe an especially strong (probably emotional memory) that you can remember about yourself.
● Long-Term Potentiation (LTP):
A. Retrieval
2
● 3 measures of retention:
o Recall:
o Recognition:
o Relearning:
● What is the point to remember about Ebbinghaus’ learning experiments?
● Retrieval cues are things that can make it easier to remember something. Give 2 examples of
retrieval cues.
● Priming:
● State-dependent memory:
● Mood congruent:
● Serial position effect:
Module 33: Forgetting, Memory Construction, and Memory Improvement (pg. 350-364)
● What is the difference between anterograde and retrograde amnesia?
● What are the possible reasons we could forget something because of an encoding failure?
● What did Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve prove about how much time it takes to forget something?
● When you have a retrieval failures, what is one way you could help yourself remember the
information?
● Proactive Interference: The interference effect of previously learned materials on the acquisition
and retrieval of newer materials
o Example: confusing old and new telephone numbers
● Retroactive interference: Conditions in which new learning interferes with old learning.
o Example: Once you have learned a new mobile number, it is often very difficult to recall
your old number.
3
● Repression: the exclusion of distressing memories, thoughts, or feelings from the conscious mind.
o Famous psychologist associated with repression:
Sigmund Freud
A. Memory Construction Errors
● What is reconsolidation?
The neurobiological stabilization of a reactivated memory
● Misinformation effect: a term used in the cognitive psychological literature to describe both
experimental and real-world instances in which misleading information is incorporated into an
account of an historical event.
o Psychologist associated with this: Elizabeth Loftus
● Source Amnesia: the inability to recall where, when, or how one has learned knowledge that has
been acquired and retained
● Déjà vu: A feeling of having already experienced the present situation.
● Is it easy to tell real memories from false one?
B. Improving Memory
● Suggestions to help you improve your memory while studying (just list, don’t need to describe):
o music
o no electronics
o isolate yourself
o reread
o practice until you get it
o review it before bed
o
Module 34: Thinking, Concepts, and Creativity (pg. 365-369)
● Cognition: Focus on the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering,
and communicating information.
● Concepts: an idea that represents a class of objects or events or their properties
● Prototypes: a mental representation that serves as a cognitive reference point for the category
o Example: The concept of a "bird."is a good example for prototypes. This is because most
people would agree that a prototypical bird has certain features, such as wings, feathers, and
the ability to fly.
● Creativity:The ability to produce or develop original work, theories, techniques, or thoughts. A
creative individual typically displays originality, imagination, and expressiveness.
4
● Convergent thinking: Solving a problem within the context of known information and narrowing
down the solution based on logical inference. This occurs when the solution to a problem can be
deduced by applying established rules and logical reasoning.
o Example: Scientific experiments are great examples of convergent thinking. Scientists
conduct experiments to find the best possible answer to a problem.
● Divergent thinking: a thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring
many possible solutions.
o Example: Giving a child a stack of blocks and asking them to see how many shapes they can
create with those blocks.
● Do you consider yourself a creative person? Why/why not?
I don’t consider myself a creative person because I can’t seem to do anything on my own and can’t
seem to feel inspired to draw something on my own.
● 5 components of creativity:
1. Expertise: a high level of domain-specific knowledge and skills accumulated with age or
experience.
2. Imaginative thinking skills: Provide the ability to see things in novel ways, to recognize
patterns, and to make connections
3. A venturesome personality: The desire to seek new experiences, take chances, and tolerate
uncertainty.
4. Intrinsic motivation: The doing of an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than for some
separable consequence.
5. A creative environment: the physical, social, and cultural environment in which creative
activity occurs
Module 35: Solving Problems and Making Decisions (pg. 370-380)
A. Problem Solving: Strategies and Obstacles
● Algorithms: a defined set of step-by-step procedures that provides the correct answer to a particular
problem.
o Example: A mathematical formula
● Heuristics: mental shortcuts that allow people to solve problems and make judgments quickly and
efficiently.
o Example: When you see a person with their hood up in a dark alley and you decide to subtly
walk past a bit faster, your brain has probably used a heuristic to evaluate the situation instead
of a full thought-out deliberation process.
5
● Insight: The clear and often sudden discernment of a solution to a problem by means that are not
obvious and may never become so, even after one has tried hard to work out how one has arrived at
the solution.
Obstacles to Problem Solving
● Confirmation Bias: the tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting,
information that is consistent with one's existing beliefs.
o Example: A person believes left-handed people are more creative than right-handed
people. Whenever this person encounters a person that is both left-handed and creative, they
place greater importance on this "evidence" that supports what they already believe.
● Mental Set: a tendency to approach situations the same way because that way worked in the past
o Example: Pulling a door handle in order to open it.
B. Forming Good and Bad Decisions and Judgments
● Intuition: immediate insight or perception, as contrasted with conscious reasoning or reflection
● Representative heuristic: a mental shortcut that we use when estimating probabilities.
o Example: thinking that because someone is wearing a suit and tie and carrying a briefcase,
that they must be a lawyer, because they look like the stereotype of a lawyer
● Availability heuristic: our tendency to use information that comes to mind quickly and easily
when making decisions about the future.
o Example: plane crashes can make people afraid of flying.
● Overconfidence: a cognitive bias characterized by an overestimation of one's actual ability to
perform a task successfully
o Example: people overestimate how quickly they can do work and underestimate how long
it takes them to get things done.
o How is overconfidence related to happiness?
People who are overconfident are happier; they make harder decisions easier and seem more
credible to others.
● Belief Perseverance: the tendency to maintain one's beliefs even in the face of evidence that
contradicts them.
● Framing: the process of defining the context or issues surrounding a question, problem, or event in
a way that serves to influence how the context or issues are perceived and evaluated.
Module 36: Thinking and Language (pg. 381-392)
● Language: the study of the interrelation between linguistic factors and psychological aspects.
A. Language Structure
6
● Phonemes: the smallest units of sound that are recognizable as human speech and make words
distinct from one another,
o Example: the "p" at the beginning of the word "pat" that distinguishes "pat" from "bat" and
"hat."
● Morphemes: a unit of meaning that cannot be analyzed into smaller such units.
o Example: The word books is composed of two morphemes, book and the suffix -s signifying
a plural noun.
● Grammar: lack or absence of speaking due to physical or psychogenic factors.
B. Language Development
● What is receptive language? How old are babies when they understand that?
Receptive language skills are the first communication skills learned. In the womb, babies hear and respond to
familiar voices. Soon after birth, your baby starts to learn expressive language skills. Around 6 to 9 months
of age, most babies begin to make the link between sound and meaning.
● What is productive language? : The skills involved in actively speaking, writing, or otherwise
producing language
● Babbling Stage: Babbling is a stage in child development and a state in language acquisition during
which an infant appears to be experimenting with uttering articulate sounds, but does not yet produce
any recognizable words.
● One-Word Stage: the developmental period, between approximately 10 and 18 months, when
children use one word at a time when speaking.
● Two-Word Stage: the developmental period, between approximately 18 and 24 months of age,
during which children use two words at a time when speaking
o Telegraphic Speech: two-word sentences
● What does Noam Chomsky believe about language development?
He believes that humans are equipped with a language acquisition device - a structure in the brain
that makes the learning of language. His theory holds that language is inherent in the child at birth
and needs only to be triggered by social contact with speakers in order to emerge.
● What happens to children who have not been exposed to any speaking language before their
critical period ends?
They'll gradually lose their ability to master any language.
● Aphasia: A disorder that affects how you communicate. It can impact your speech, as well as the
way you write and understand both spoken and written language. Aphasia usually happens suddenly
after a stroke or a head injury.
7
● Broca’s Area: A key component of a complex speech network, interacting with the flow of sensory
information from the temporal cortex, devising a plan for speaking and passing that plan along to the
motor cortex, which controls the movements of the mouth.
● Wernicke’s Area: A region of the brain that contains motor neurons involved in the comprehension
of speech.
● Linguistic determinism: The concept that language and its structures limit and determine human
knowledge or thought, as well as thought processes such as categorization, memory, and perception.
o Example: The idea that the Inuit have a much more sophisticated understanding of snow than
people from other cultures do because Inuktitut has many different words for snow.
8