Memory: Encoding and Storage

Chapter 7: Memory

• Processes include encoding, storage, and retrieval

Encoding

• Refers to how information is initially learned
• Important factors are attention, motivation, and the use of effective strategies
• Multitasking has associated costs, impairing encoding efficiency
• Levels of processing range from shallow (structural appearance) to intermediate (phonemic sound), to deep (semantic meaning)
• Improving encoding involves strategies such as elaboration, visual imagery, self-reference, motivation, and mnemonic devices

Storage

• Begins with sensory memory
• Followed by short-term memory, characterized by limited duration and capacity
• Increasing the duration and enhancing the capacity are key research goals
• Miller vs. Cowan's number relates to the estimated capacity of short-term memory
• Working memory differs from short-term memory
• The first working memory model identified three parts
• Long-term memory is divided into non-declarative and declarative forms with varying duration and capacity
• The accuracy of flashbulb memories reflect aspects of memory function

Retrieval

• Recall is facilitated by cues and encoding specificity
• Encoding specificity includes context and state-dependent memory
• Misinformation effect reveals insights into memory distortions

Forgetting

• The Ebbinghaus forgetting curve shows retention over time
• Causes include ineffective encoding, decay, and interference
• Interference can be proactive or retroactive

Amnesia

• Retrograde amnesia involves loss of memory for events before an incident
• Anterograde amnesia involves inability to form new memories after an incident

Chapter 8: Language

• Bilingualism and linguistic relativity affect cognitive processes

Barriers to Problem Solving

• These include irrelevant information, functional fixedness, and unnecessary constraints

Decision Making

• Preference choices can be impacted by choice overload
• Deliberation without attention effect influences decision quality
• Risky decision-making employs heuristics like availability and representativeness
• Ignoring base rates, conjunction fallacy, and gambling fallacy are common biases in risky decision making

Intelligence

• Fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence represent different facets of cognitive ability
• In 1905, Binet & Simon developed a test where the score was mental age, where a mental age of 6 performed like the average 6 year old
• In 1916, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale included scoring via intelligence quotient, mental age / chronological age X 100, and children were now assessed on the same scale (centered around 100)
• In 1939, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) assessed via normal distribution with scores for verbal and non-verbal skills

IQ Scores

• Deviation IQ scores are based on mean & SD and an average range
• Issues of reliability and validity arise
• Determinants involve:
  • Hereditary influence, supported by twin studies
  • Environmental influence, revealed in studies of adopted children, cumulative deprivation hypothesis, and the Flynn effect
• Reaction range is also a factor

Chapter 10: Motor Development

• Motor development involves nature vs. nurture
• Maturation and environment are key factors
• Culture examples
• Examination of development norms gives insights into developmental milestones

Emotional Development

• Attachment is a key concept
• Attachment peaks at a certain age, revealing relevant insight
• Secure, anxious-ambivalent, and avoidant attachment styles each have unique characteristics and determinants
• Attachment theories explain why attachments form
• Harlow's experiment and later demonstrations showed attachments are reinforced by certain factors
• The Strange Situation is a method for studying attachment

Cognitive Development

• Cognitive development refers to a range of processes
• Piaget's stages are:
  • Sensorimotor: birth to age 2
  • Preoperational: 2-7 years
  • Concrete operational: 7-11 years
  • Formal operational: 11-adulthood

Adolescence

• Specifically neural development
• Adolescents behaviors are more risky because of slow development of prefrontal cortex and also they are more sensitive to rewards