Cognition and Memory

Cognition & Memory

• Cognitive Dissonance arises when beliefs and actions are inconsistent; for instance, knowing smoking is unhealthy but continuing to smoke, justified by only smoking when stressed.
• Cognitive Map represents a mental layout of a space, enabling navigation in darkness due to remembered locations.
• Cognitive Bias refers to thinking errors that influence decisions, such as favoring a sports team regardless of statistical performance.
• Framing Effect, as a cognitive bias, highlights how wording impacts choices.
• Heuristic involves mental shortcuts for quick decision-making, like assuming rain upon seeing dark clouds and carrying an umbrella.
• Prototype signifies the best example of a concept; thinking of a Labrador when someone mentions "dog."
• Schema is a mental framework used to organize information, such as assuming a doctor wears a white coat and stethoscope.
• Encoding is the process of getting information into memory, such as repeating a phone number to memorize it.
• Retrieval is the process of getting information out of memory, such as struggling to recall an old classmate’s name.
• Priming occurs when exposure influences future behavior; seeing "yellow" makes recognizing "banana" faster.
• Serial Position Effect involves remembering the first and last items in a list while forgetting the middle ones.

Social Psychology

• Attribution Theory explains behavior based on personality or situation, such as assuming someone is rude for cutting you off versus considering they are rushing to the hospital.
• Fundamental Attribution Error overestimates personality and underestimates the situation, such as thinking a waiter is unfriendly without considering they might be having a bad day.
• Self-Serving Bias involves taking credit for success and blaming others for failure, like attributing a good test score to intelligence but blaming the teacher for a failure.
• Groupthink leads to bad decisions to maintain harmony, exemplified by a company launching a poor product because no one criticizes the boss’s idea.
• Group Polarization strengthens beliefs when discussing with like-minded individuals, such as becoming strongly opposed to school uniforms after discussing it.
• Conformity is adjusting behavior to fit in, such as wearing trendy clothes because everyone else does.
• Obedience is following authority, as seen when a soldier follows orders even when disagreeing with them.
• Bystander Effect means individuals are less likely to help when others are present, such as no one helping a person who collapses in a crowded mall because they assume someone else will.
• Social Loafing involves doing less work in a group, like one person doing all the work on a group project.
• Social Facilitation leads to improved performance when others are watching, like a basketball player performing better during a game.

Motivation & Emotion

• Intrinsic Motivation is doing something for personal satisfaction, such as painting because you love it.
• Extrinsic Motivation involves doing something for external rewards, such as studying to get an A.
• Drive-Reduction Theory suggests motivation arises from reducing biological needs, such as drinking water when thirsty.
• Homeostasis is maintaining internal balance, such as sweating to cool down when hot.
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs progresses from Physiological to Safety to Love to Esteem to Self-Actualization, prioritizing eating before personal growth.
• James-Lange Theory posits that emotion follows physical response; seeing a snake causes your heart to race, then you feel fear.
• Cannon-Bard Theory states that emotion and physical response occur simultaneously; seeing a snake causes both heart racing and fear at the same time.
• Two-Factor Theory (Schachter-Singer) suggests emotion results from physical response plus cognitive label; heart races, thinking "I must be excited," leads to feeling excitement.

Sensation & Perception

• Absolute Threshold is the minimum amount needed to detect a stimulus, like the lowest volume at which a sound is heard 50% of the time.
• Difference Threshold (Just Noticeable Difference - JND) is the smallest detectable difference, such as noticing the volume change when turning the radio from 10 to 12.
• Weber’s Law states JND is a constant percentage of the original stimulus; noticing a 1 lb increase when lifting 5 lbs, but not when lifting 100 lbs.
• Sensory Adaptation is decreased sensitivity to a constant stimulus, such as no longer noticing a strong perfume after a few minutes.
• Gate Control Theory explains that the spinal cord controls pain signals; rubbing a sore spot reduces pain.
• Vestibular Sense provides a sense of balance; feeling dizzy after spinning in circles.
• Kinesthetic Sense is awareness of body movement; touching your nose with eyes closed.
• Feature Detectors are brain cells that detect edges, movement, and shape; recognizing a car based on shape and movement.
• Opponent-Process Theory explains color vision based on opposing pairs (red-green, blue-yellow); staring at a green image for a long time causes you to see red after looking away.
• Trichromatic Theory describes color vision based on red, green, and blue cones; TVs use RGB pixels to create all colors.

Learning (Behaviorism)

• Classical Conditioning is learning through association; a dog salivates at the sound of a bell expecting food (Pavlov).
• Operant Conditioning involves learning through rewards/punishments; a child gets candy for doing homework.
• Reinforcement strengthens behavior; giving a dog a treat for sitting.
• Punishment decreases behavior; taking away a teenager’s phone for breaking curfew.
• Shaping involves rewarding small steps toward a goal; teaching a dog to roll over by first rewarding sitting, then lying down, then rolling.
• Observational Learning is learning by watching others; a child learns to say "please" by watching their parents.
• Latent Learning is learning that isn't shown until needed; a rat knows a maze but shows it when given food at the end.