Cognitive Processes Quiz

Cognitive Processes

• Cognition: Mental activities like thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
• Metacognition: Tracking one's own mental processes
• Concepts: Mental groupings of similar objects or ideas (e.g., "chair" – something to sit on, furniture)
• Prototype: Mental image of a typical example of a category (e.g., a robin is a better prototype of "bird" than an ostrich)
• Schemas: Mental molds into which we pour our experiences; help us organize and interpret info
• Assimilation: Interpreting new experiences using existing schemas (e.g., child calling all four-legged animals "dog")
• Accommodation: Adapting existing schemas to incorporate new info (e.g., child learning that a pig is a different animal, though four-legged)
• Creativity: Generating new and valuable ideas
• Convergent Thinking: Finding one best solution to a problem (e.g., standardized tests)
• Divergent Thinking: Exploring many possible solutions to a problem (e.g., creative problem solving)
• Functional Fixedness: Inability to see a problem from a different perspective; hindering problem-solving (e.g., assuming a hammer is only for hammering)
• Executive Functions: Cognitive skills that combine to manage our thoughts (e.g., planning, problem-solving)

Memory

• Memory: Learning that persists over time
• Algorithms: Step-by-step procedures guaranteeing a solution (e.g. recipes)
• Heuristics: Mental shortcuts or simplified strategies (e.g. judging a person's character by their clothing)
• Insight: Sudden solutions to problems
• Confirmation Bias: Seeking only supporting evidence for existing beliefs
• Fixation(Mental Set): Approaching problems in one specific way, impeding flexibility
• Perceptual Set: Mental bias to perceive one thing instead of another

Cognitive Biases

• Intuition: Automatic feelings or thoughts
• Representative Heuristic: Judging likelihood based on how well something matches a prototype (can lead to misconceptions)
• Availability Heuristic: Judging probability based on how easily instances come to mind
• Overconfidence: Overestimating one's accuracy
• Planning Fallacy: Overestimating leisure time or income in plans
• Belief Perseverance: Sticking to initial beliefs even when incorrect
• Framing: How an issue is presented, influencing choices and decisions
• Nudge: Influencing decisions subtly but beneficially
• Gambler's Fallacy: False belief that a random event's probability changes after preceding events
• Sunk Cost Fallacy: Continuing something despite having invested substantial time or resources in it
• Information Processing Model: Encoding, storing, retrieving information

Memory Models

• Sensory Memory: Brief storage of sensory input (iconic - visual, echoic - auditory)
• Short-Term Memory: Temporary storage, limited capacity (7 +/- 2 items)
• Working Memory: Active processing of information (links new to existing, limited)
• Long-Term Memory: Permanent storage, potentially limitless capacity (explicit and implicit memories)
• Effortful Processing: Encoding with attention and conscious effort (e.g., studying)
• Automatic Processing: Encoding without conscious effort (e.g., procedural memories, spatial/temporal/frequency info)
• Maintenance Rehearsal: Repeating information to keep it in short-term memory (not long-term)
• Elaborative Rehearsal: Connecting new information to existing knowledge for better retention (more effective)

Long-Term Memory

• Explicit Memories: Consciously recalled memories (semantic & episodic)
• Implicit Memories: Unconsciously recalled memories (procedural, spatial, frequency)
• Parallel Processing: Processing multiple aspects simultaneously
• Sequential Processing: Processing one aspect at a time

Encoding Strategies

• Shallow Processing: Encoding based on physical or sound attributes
• Deep Processing: Encoding based on meaning/understanding
• Chunking: Grouping information into manageable units
• Method of Loci: Visualizing information in a familiar location
• Spacing Effect: Spacing study sessions for better retention
• Testing Effect: Enhanced recall after retrieval practice

Memory Processes and Factors

• Memory Consolidation: Process of converting short-term to long-term memories
• Infantile Amnesia: Inability to consciously recall memories from early childhood (before age 4)
• Long-Term Potentiation: Strengthening of neural connections, contributing to memory
• Synaptic Plasticity: Ability of synapses to change over time (affect memory storage)
• Hippocampus: Crucial for forming new memories (does not store permanently)
• Cerebellum: Storage of implicit memories (e.g., procedural motor skills, certain classical conditioning)
• Basal Ganglia: Involved in procedural memory and motor control
• Amygdala: Processes emotional memories (stress hormones play a role)
• Flashbulb Memories: Vivid memories of emotionally significant events
• Retrospective Memory: Retrieving past memories; Prospective Memory: Remembering future intentions

Memory Disorders, Interference, and Errors

• Alzheimer's Disease: Neurological disorder causing progressive memory decline
• Amnesia (Retrograde/Anterograde): Loss of memory
• Misinformation Effect: Memory distorted by misleading information
• Imagination Inflation: Memory distorted by mentally rehearsing events
• Source Amnesia: Forgetting the origin of a memory
• Proactive/Retroactive Interference: Prior/new learning interfering with recall
• Serial Position Effect (Primacy/Recency): Tendency to remember first and last items best
• Interleaving: Mixing study topics for better learning
• Ebbinghaus' Forgetting Curve: Forgetting is rapid at first, then slows down over time

Memory Retrieval Issues

• Context-Dependent Memory: Recall is easier in the same environment as storage
• State-Dependent Memory: Recall is easier when in the same emotional or physiological state as storage
• Context-Dependent Memory: Recall is easier in the same environment as learning
• Priming: Exposure to one stimulus influences response to a related stimulus

Test your understanding of cognitive processes including cognition, metacognition, and creativity. This quiz covers key concepts such as schemas, prototypes, and the differences between convergent and divergent thinking. Challenge yourself to apply these concepts in various scenarios.