PSY 108: Cognitive Psychology Final
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Questions and Answers

Which approach in psychology focused on breaking down consciousness into basic elements through introspection?

  • Functionalism
  • Structuralism (correct)
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Associationism

    • Who is associated with the development of Functionalism?

  • B.F. Skinner
  • William James (correct)
  • Ivan Pavlov
  • Edward Titchener

    • What is the primary focus of Cognitive Psychology?

  • The adaptive functions of behavior
  • Observable behavior and principles of association
  • The neural basis of cognition
  • Internal mental processes such as perception and memory (correct)

    • What is the approach that integrates cognitive psychology with neuroscience?

    <p>Cognitive Neuroscience</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following psychologists is NOT associated with Behavioralism?

    <p>William James</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term that refers to the prevailing ideas, beliefs, and cultural norms of a particular time period?

    <p>Zeitgeist</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following is an example of a mental set?

    <p>Old or young lady image</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for a tendency to approach problems in a particular way based on past experiences or habits?

    <p>Mental set</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following is NOT an example of an insight problem?

    <p>Bruner and Potter (1964) illusion</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for a phenomenon where expectations and context can influence perception?

    <p>Bruner and Potter (1964) illusion</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary function of perceptual organization?

    <p>To organize and interpret sensory information into meaningful wholes</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the main difference between bottom-up and top-down perception?

    <p>Bottom-up involves processing sensory information from the environment, while top-down involves using pre-existing knowledge to interpret sensory information</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is figure-ground segregation an example of?

    <p>Perceptual organization</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the purpose of the 'laws of perceptual organization'?

    <p>To understand how we perceive and organize visual stimuli</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the definition of perception?

    <p>The process of interpreting sensory information received from the environment</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the ability to perceive the distance of objects from us?

    <p>Depth perception</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following illusions creates the impression of a continuous upward or downward movement?

    <p>Shepard illusion</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the tendency to perceive colors as stable despite changes in lighting conditions?

    <p>Color constancy</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the phenomenon where people fail to notice changes in their environment?

    <p>Change blindness</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following illusions involves the perception of speech sounds being influenced by visual information?

    <p>McGurk effect</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the perception of stimuli below the threshold of conscious awareness?

    <p>Subliminal perception</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the phenomenon where attempts to suppress a thought or idea lead to its increased frequency in consciousness?

    <p>Rebound effect</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the awareness of one's own thoughts and mental processes?

    <p>Meta-consciousness</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the spontaneous shifting of attention from the task at hand to unrelated thoughts or mental imagery?

    <p>Mind wandering</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the ability to monitor and control one's thoughts and mental processes?

    <p>Meta-awareness</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the influence of subconscious processes on behavior?

    <p>Unconscious priming</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the phenomenon where different aspects of consciousness are disrupted independently?

    <p>Translation dissociations</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the discrepancies in the timing of conscious experiences?

    <p>Temporal dissociations</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the ability to monitor and regulate thoughts and behaviors?

    <p>Meta-awareness</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the cultivation of awareness of the present moment and non-judgmental acceptance of one's thoughts and experiences?

    <p>Mindfulness</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary purpose of deep processing in memory recall?

    <p>To enhance retrieval cues and memory connections</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the main limitation of the depth of processing approach?

    <p>It lacks a clear mechanism</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the central executive responsible for in the working memory approach?

    <p>Overseeing and coordinating cognitive processes</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the amount of working memory resources required by a task?

    <p>Cognitive load</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary function of the episodic buffer in the working memory approach?

    <p>Integrating information across domains</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the process of matching the type of processing during encoding to the retrieval task for better recall?

    <p>Transfer appropriate processing</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the main difference between working memory and sensory memory?

    <p>Working memory is involved in active processing, while sensory memory is involved in passive processing</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the phenomenon where most information in sensory memory does not reach short-term memory, and most short-term memory content does not transition into long-term memory?

    <p>Memory filtering</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary function of the phonological store in the working memory approach?

    <p>Handling verbal and auditory information</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary function of the visual-spatial sketchpad in the working memory approach?

    <p>Managing visual and spatial data</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the main controversy surrounding recovered memories of abuse?

    <p>The role of therapist-induced schemata in creating false memories</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the common characteristic of the 7 case analyses mentioned?

    <p>The abuse was independently corroborated in each case</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What influences the encoding, retention, and retrieval stages of memory?

    <p>Schemata and retrieval-encoding correspondence</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the characteristic of genuine recovered memories?

    <p>They occur when retrieval conditions match encoding</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary unit of memory retrieval?

    <p>The gist of experiences</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the role of the therapist in creating false memories?

    <p>They can induce false memories through suggestive techniques</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the process of matching the type of processing during encoding to the retrieval task for better recall?

    <p>Retrieval-encoding correspondence</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary function of schemata in memory retrieval?

    <p>To influence the encoding, retention, and retrieval stages of memory</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the characteristic of case analyses where memories of abuse were recovered?

    <p>The abuse was independently corroborated in each case</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary concern regarding recovered memories of abuse?

    <p>The accuracy of the memories</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary goal of the Method of Loci?

    <p>To use spatial memory and familiar locations to enhance recall.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the definition of prospective memory?

    <p>The ability to remember to perform a planned action or intention at the appropriate future time.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary goal of implementation intentions?

    <p>To increase the likelihood of remembering and performing a future task by linking it to a specific situation or cue.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary function of catch phrases?

    <p>To create a memorable and often amusing phrase that captures key information.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary function of list order acronyms?

    <p>To create an acronym from the first letters of a list of items to recall.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary goal of rhymes?

    <p>To use the rhythmic and phonetic similarity of words to make information more memorable.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is an example of a method of loci?

    <p>Visualizing each point of a speech placed in a different room of your house.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary function of implementation intentions in improving prospective memory?

    <p>To increase the likelihood of remembering and performing a future task by linking it to a specific situation or cue.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary goal of using mnemonics?

    <p>To enhance recall by using spatial memory and familiar locations.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is an example of a catch phrase?

    <p>Using the phrase 'Roy G.Biv' to remember the colors of the rainbow.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is mental imagery?

    <p>The mental experience of seeing, hearing, touching an object in the absence of any sensory input</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the Perky Effect?

    <p>A phenomenon where people believe they are perceiving projected images rather than imagining them</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the dual coding hypothesis?

    <p>The idea that there are two codes in the brain, one verbal and one visual</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the main difference between the analog and propositional views of imagery?

    <p>The analog view states that images are functional, while the propositional view states that images are not functional</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the finding of Kosslyn's (1975) study on relative image size?

    <p>Reaction time to identify features is longer when the object is imagined next to a larger object</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the main finding of Kosslyn's 1978 study on mental imagery?

    <p>Scanning time between objects in a mental image is proportional to the distance between them.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a cognitive map?

    <p>An internal representation of the environment used for navigation and giving directions.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the rotation heuristic in cognitive maps?

    <p>A tendency to remember structures as more horizontal or vertical than they truly are.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary difference between route representations and survey representations?

    <p>Route representations are based on landmarks, while survey representations are based on spatial relationships.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the border bias in cognitive maps?

    <p>A tendency to remember distances as being greater when crossing borders.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the main issue with Defining-Attribute Theory?

    <p>It cannot deal with variability within categories and the role of context in category membership.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary difference between prototype theory and exemplar theory?

    <p>Prototype theory suggests that people form an abstract prototype, while exemplar theory suggests that people store individual instances of categories.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What do schemas influence in memory?

    <p>Encoding, storage, and retrieval</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the main issue with exemplar theory?

    <p>All of the above</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the level of prototypes that contains the most useful information?

    <p>Basic level</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary function of semantic memory?

    <p>To organize objects according to concepts</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the key characteristic of the defining-attribute theory of concepts?

    <p>Concepts are represented by a list of defining attributes</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the challenge to the defining-attribute theory of concepts?

    <p>Typicality effects, where typical instances of a category are processed more quickly and accurately</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is an example of episodic memory?

    <p>Recalling what happened during the last football game that you attended</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the role of semantic memory in identifying objects?

    <p>It helps us to decide which objects are similar</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary function of the dual route approach to reading?

    <p>To provide comprehensive reading instruction that addresses the needs of diverse learners</p> Signup and view all the answers

    According to the research, what happens to gaze duration when the mind wanders during reading?

    <p>Gaze duration tends to decrease, indicating shallower processing of the text</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the main idea of the linguistic relativity hypothesis?

    <p>Language shapes and influences thought processes and perceptions.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the ability to monitor and control one's thoughts and mental processes?

    <p>Executive control</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What are the two routes to reading according to the dual route approach?

    <p>Direct-access and indirect-access routes</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the focus of psycholinguistics?

    <p>The study of the psychological aspects of language.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary factor that influences eye fixations while reading?

    <p>All of the above</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the difficulty in communication due to brain damage affecting language areas?

    <p>Aphasia</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the study of the internal structure of words?

    <p>Morphology</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the understanding of social rules underlying language use?

    <p>Pragmatics</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the key difference in cognitive and emotional responses between insight and non-insight problems?

    <p>Insight problems require sudden shifts in problem-solving strategies, while non-insight problems require methodical processing.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does research suggest about the role of the right hemisphere of the brain in insight problem solving?

    <p>The right hemisphere is active during insight problem solving, particularly in the right temporal lobe.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How does physical distance from a problem affect insight problem solving?

    <p>Physical distance leads to a more abstract representation of the problem, facilitating novel insights.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the effect of temporal distance on insight problem solving?

    <p>Temporal distance encourages a broader perspective, helping individuals overcome mental fixation on previous problem-solving attempts.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the key difference in metacognitive strategies between insight and non-insight problems?

    <p>Metacognitive strategies vary depending on whether individuals anticipate a sudden insight or expect to work through a problem methodically.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the relationship between the right hemisphere and insight problem solving?

    <p>The right hemisphere is associated with holistic processing, pattern recognition, and sudden shifts in problem-solving strategies.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the effect of increased activity in the right temporal lobe on insight problem solving?

    <p>Increased activity in the right temporal lobe facilitates insight problem solving.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the relationship between metacognition and insight problem solving?

    <p>Metacognition may differ between insight and non-insight problems.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the effect of spatial distance on insight problem solving?

    <p>Spatial distance facilitates insight problem solving.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the key difference between insight and non-insight problems?

    <p>Insight problems require sudden shifts in problem-solving strategies, while non-insight problems require methodical processing.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the main emphasis of the Gestalt psychology approach?

    <p>Humans actively organize what they see and see patterns.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Who is associated with the cognitive revolution and the idea that humans have an inborn ability to master language?

    <p>Chomsky</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary focus of the ecological validity principle in research design?

    <p>Using conditions similar to the natural setting where the results will be applied.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary characteristic of the connectionist approach to cognitive processing?

    <p>Parallel processing, simultaneously and in parallel.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary focus of the cognitive neuroscience approach?

    <p>Using neuroscience techniques to study the structure and function of the brain.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the phenomenon referred to as the influence of visual information on speech perception?

    <p>McGurk effect</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which theory posits that humans are born with a specialized device that allows them to decode speech stimuli?

    <p>Special mechanism approach</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the main difference between the special mechanism approach and the general mechanism approach?

    <p>The existence of a specialized phonetic module</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which approach argues that speech perception can be explained without proposing any specialized phonetic module?

    <p>General mechanism approach</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the underlying idea of the general mechanism approach?

    <p>Humans use the same neural mechanisms to process both speech sounds and nonspeech sounds</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary function of distributed attention in feature-integration theory?

    <p>To register the features of the stimulus automatically and simultaneously</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the phenomenon where people fail to notice changes in their environment?

    <p>Change blindness</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary function of mindfulness meditation?

    <p>To focus on inward and outward experiences on a moment-to-moment basis</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the attempt to push an undesirable idea out of consciousness, often resulting in the ironic effect of thinking about the topic even more?

    <p>Thought suppression</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the binding problem in the visual system?

    <p>The inability to combine features of different objects into a unified whole</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary function of the central executive in the working memory approach?

    <p>To integrate information from the phonological loop, visuospatial working memory, and long-term memory</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary difference between short-term memory and working memory?

    <p>Working memory includes short-term memory but differs by being an active process where information is manipulated and transformed</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary function of the phonological loop in the working memory approach?

    <p>To process language and other sounds</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary limitation of the working memory approach?

    <p>It has a limited capacity for storing and processing information</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary correlation between working memory and academic performance?

    <p>Scores on working memory tasks are positively correlated with overall intelligence and grades in school</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the tendency for individuals to more accurately recognize faces of their own ethnic group compared to faces of other ethnic groups?

    <p>Own-ethnicity bias</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the phenomenon where people tend to rate unpleasant past events more positively with the passage of time?

    <p>Polyanna principle</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the exposure to misleading information after an event that can distort an eyewitness's memory, leading to inaccurate testimony?

    <p>Post-event misinformation effect</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the approach that memory is actively reconstructed based on various sources, including prior knowledge and post-event information?

    <p>Constructivist approach</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the tendency for individuals to accept and incorporate plausible misinformation, making them more likely to accept incorrect information as true?

    <p>Plausibility of misinformation</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is metacognition?

    <p>The knowledge and control of one's cognitive processes</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary function of an external memory aid?

    <p>To facilitate memory in some way</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the difference between retrospective and prospective memory?

    <p>Retrospective memory focuses on remembering information, while prospective memory focuses on action</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon?

    <p>The subjective experience of knowing the target word for which you are searching, yet you cannot recall it right now</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is metacomprehension?

    <p>A kind of metacognition, referring to a person's thoughts that specifically focus on language comprehension</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary finding of Segal and Fusella's (1970) study on visual mental imagery and visual perception?

    <p>Imagining a visual image interferes with visual detection.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the characteristic of spatial ability that shows a larger gender difference?

    <p>Mental rotation</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the finding of Rubin and Berentsen's (2009) study on auditory imagery?

    <p>Auditory imagery is less vivid than visual imagery.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary function of cognitive maps?

    <p>To provide a mental representation of geographic information.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the spatial framework model related to?

    <p>The formation of cognitive maps.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the process of using background knowledge to incorporate new information into memory in a schema-consistent manner?

    <p>Memory integration</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the tendency to remember having viewed a greater portion of a scene than was actually shown?

    <p>Boundary extension</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the approach that proposes that people integrate information from individual sentences in order to construct larger ideas?

    <p>Constructivist model of memory</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the study that demonstrated that people often reconstruct memories based on their own cultural expectations and prior knowledge?

    <p>Bartlett’s War of the Ghosts</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the phenomenon where individuals tend to remember information in a way that is consistent with societal gender norms?

    <p>Gender stereotype reinforcement</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary focus of the cognitive-functional approach in linguistics?

    <p>Communicating meaning to other individuals</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the ability to perceive the distance of objects from us?

    <p>Depth perception</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary function of the mirror system in language comprehension?

    <p>To simulate observed actions in the brain's motor cortex</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the main difference between written and spoken language?

    <p>Written language is more visual, while spoken language is more auditory</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the proposal that skilled readers use both a direct-access route and an indirect-access route to recognize words during reading?

    <p>Dual-route approach</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary characteristic of an insight problem?

    <p>It initially seems impossible to solve, but then an alternative approach suddenly bursts into consciousness</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset?

    <p>A growth mindset believes intelligence can be developed, while a fixed mindset believes intelligence is fixed</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the tendency to assign stable functions to an object?

    <p>Functional fixedness</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the term for the ability to monitor and regulate problem-solving processes?

    <p>Metacognition</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the key factor that enhances creativity?

    <p>Intrinsic motivation</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary difference between ecological rationality and the heuristic approach to decision making?

    <p>Ecological rationality emphasizes context-specific adaptation, while the heuristic approach focuses on identifying general cognitive shortcuts.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary cause of overconfidence in decision making?

    <p>All of the above.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary characteristic of satisficers in decision making?

    <p>They tend to settle for something that is satisfactory rather than examining numerous options.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the recency bias?

    <p>Estimating frequency or probability based on the most recent information available.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary difference between the framing effect and the anchoring effect?

    <p>The framing effect is related to the way information is presented, while the anchoring effect is related to the initial value or starting point.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Study Notes

    Foundations of Cognitive Psychology

    Zeitgeist

    • Refers to the prevailing ideas, beliefs, and cultural norms of a particular time period
    • Influences the development of theories and research paradigms in cognitive psychology

    Mental Set

    • A tendency to approach problems in a particular way based on past experiences or habits
    • Can influence problem-solving by narrowing down potential solutions

    Bruner and Potter (1964) Illusion

    • Demonstrated how expectations and context can influence perception
    • Used ambiguous images, such as the rabbit-duck illusion, which can be perceived in multiple ways based on mental set and context

    Examples of Mental Sets

    • Rabbit-duck image: Can be perceived as either a rabbit or a duck depending on mental set
    • Old or young lady: Ambiguous image that can be perceived as either an old woman or a young woman based on mental set
    • Dalmatian: Classic ambiguous figure that can be seen as both a dalmatian dog and a group of people
    • Spinning dancer: Optical illusion where the direction of the dancer's rotation can be perceived differently based on mental set

    Insight Problems (Aha Moments)

    • Not twins problem: Classic problem where two people who are not twins celebrate their birthdays on the same day
    • Donkey matchstick problem: Involves moving only one matchstick to make the donkey face the opposite direction
    • Six matchstick problem: Requires rearranging six matchsticks to form four equilateral triangles
    • 10 coins problem: Involves moving only three coins to create three equal rows with four coins in each row

    Examples of Zeitgeists in Psychology

    • Structuralism: Early approach that aimed to analyze the basic elements of consciousness through introspection
    • Functionalism: Emphasized the adaptive functions of behavior and mental processes
    • Associationism and Behaviorism: Focus on observable behavior and the principles of association, reinforcement, and conditioning
    • Cognitive Psychology: Focuses on the study of mental processes such as perception, memory, language, problem-solving, and decision-making
    • Cognitive Neuroscience: Integrates cognitive psychology with neuroscience, studying how brain structures and functions underlie cognitive processes

    Perception and Sensation

    • Perception: the process of interpreting sensory information received from the environment, involving organizing and interpreting sensory input to give meaning to the environment.
    • Sensation: the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.

    Perceptual Organization

    • Perceptual organization: the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information into meaningful wholes.
    • Involves processes such as:
      • Grouping
      • Figure-ground segregation
      • Depth perception

    Gestalt Psychology and "Laws of Perceptual Organization"

    • Gestalt psychology: a school of thought that emphasizes the importance of organizing sensory information into meaningful wholes.
    • "Laws of perceptual organization" describe principles such as:
      • Proximity
      • Similarity
      • Closure
      • Continuity
      • Common fate
      • Govern how we perceive and organize visual stimuli.

    Figure-Ground Segregation

    • Figure-ground segregation: the perceptual process of distinguishing an object from its surrounding background.

    Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down Perception

    • Bottom-up perception: processing sensory information from the environment to form perceptions. (e.g., seeing a car approaching on the road)
    • Top-down perception: using pre-existing knowledge and expectations to interpret sensory information. (e.g., seeing something moving quickly in peripheral vision and interpreting it as a car because you're near a road)
    • Interact when we perceive a familiar object (top-down) but then notice specific details (bottom-up) that make us rethink what we're seeing.

    Change Blindness and Inattentional Blindness

    • Change blindness: the phenomenon where people fail to notice changes in their environment, typically when changes occur gradually or when attention is diverted elsewhere.
    • Inattentional blindness: the phenomenon where people fail to notice a fully-visible, but unexpected object because their attention is focused elsewhere.
    • Both highlight the limitations of our attention and perception.

    Depth Perception

    • Depth perception: the ability to perceive the distance of objects from us.
    • Monocular depth cues: can be perceived with one eye, such as linear perspective and texture gradient.
    • Binocular depth cues: rely on the input from both eyes to perceive depth, such as retinal disparity and convergence.

    Importance of Studying Illusions

    • We study illusions to understand how perception works and to uncover the mechanisms behind perceptual errors.
    • Illusions demonstrate that our perception can be influenced by factors such as context, expectations, and cognitive biases.

    Examples of Illusions

    • Cafe-Wall illusion: a pattern of alternating light and dark horizontal lines that create the illusion of slanted vertical lines.
    • Depth perception illusions:
      • Ames Room
      • Mueller-Lyer illusion
      • Shepard illusion: an optical illusion that creates the impression of a continuous upward or downward movement.
    • Auditory illusions:
      • Shepard tone: an auditory illusion that creates the perception of a continuously rising or falling pitch.
      • Expectancy effect: the tendency for perception to be influenced by expectations or beliefs.
      • McGurk effect: an illusion where the perception of speech sounds is influenced by visual information.

    Other Important Concepts

    • Silhouettes: the perception of shapes based on the contours or outlines of objects.
    • Contrast detection: the ability to detect differences in luminance or color between objects.
    • Color constancy: the tendency to perceive colors as stable despite changes in lighting conditions.
    • Shape constancy: the tendency to perceive the shape of an object as constant despite changes in viewing angle.

    Perception and Sensation

    • Definition of perception: the process of interpreting sensory information received from the environment, involving organizing and interpreting sensory input to give meaning to the environment.
    • Definition of sensation: the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.

    Perceptual Organization

    • Perceptual organization: the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information into meaningful wholes, involving processes such as grouping, figure-ground segregation, and depth perception.
    • Gestalt psychology: a school of thought that emphasizes the importance of organizing sensory information into meaningful wholes.
    • Laws of perceptual organization: principles such as proximity, similarity, closure, continuity, and common fate, which govern how we perceive and organize visual stimuli.

    Bottom-Up and Top-Down Perception

    • Bottom-up perception: processing sensory information from the environment to form perceptions.
    • Top-down perception: using pre-existing knowledge and expectations to interpret sensory information.
    • Interaction between bottom-up and top-down perception: they interact when we perceive a familiar object (top-down) but then notice specific details (bottom-up) that make us rethink what we're seeing.

    Change Blindness and Inattentional Blindness

    • Change blindness: the phenomenon where people fail to notice changes in their environment, typically when the changes occur gradually or when attention is diverted elsewhere.
    • Inattentional blindness: the failure to notice a fully-visible, but unexpected object because attention is focused elsewhere.

    Depth Perception

    • Definition: the ability to perceive the distance of objects from us.
    • Monocular depth cues: cues that can be perceived with one eye, such as linear perspective and texture gradient.
    • Binocular depth cues: cues that rely on the input from both eyes, such as retinal disparity and convergence.

    Illusions

    • Why we study illusions: to understand how perception works and to uncover the mechanisms behind perceptual errors.
    • Examples of illusions:
      • Cafe-Wall illusion
      • Ames Room and Mueller-Lyer illusion
      • Shepard illusion
      • When worlds collide
      • Silhouettes

    Attention and Consciousness

    Definition of Attention

    • Definition: the process of selectively concentrating on specific aspects of the environment while ignoring others.

    Divided Attention

    • Definition: the ability to focus on multiple tasks simultaneously.
    • Measurement: dichotic listening.

    Theories of Attention

    • Broadbent's Filter Theory: information is filtered early in the processing stream based on physical characteristics before further processing occurs.
    • Treisman's Filter Amplitude Theory: instead of completely filtering out unattended information, it is attenuated or weakened, allowing some of it to be processed to some extent.
    • Deutsch & Deutsch late selection theory: all sensory input is processed to the level of meaning before selection occurs based on relevance or importance.
    • Perceptual Load Theory: attentional selection is influenced by the perceptual load of the task, with high-load tasks leading to reduced processing of irrelevant stimuli.
    • Definition: the process of actively looking for a particular target among other distractors in a visual scene.
    • Phenomena associated with visual search:
      • Feature integration theory
      • Pop-out effect
      • Conjunction search

    Automaticity

    • Definition: the ability to perform a task with little conscious effort or awareness.
    • Characteristics:
      • Efficiency
      • Lack of conscious control
      • Resistance to interference
    • Examples:
      • Driving a familiar route
      • Typing
      • Riding a bike

    Consciousness

    • Definition: the state of being aware of and able to perceive one's surroundings, thoughts, and sensations.

    Levels of Consciousness

    • Non-consciousness (aka unconscious): processes that occur without awareness or intention, such as basic physiological functions like breathing or heart rate.
    • Subliminal perception: the perception of stimuli below the threshold of conscious awareness, often investigated through subliminal priming techniques.
    • Experiential consciousness: the subjective experience of being aware of one's thoughts, feelings, and sensations.
    • Meta-consciousness (aka meta-awareness): the awareness of one's own thoughts and mental processes.

    Mind Wandering and Meta-Awareness

    • Mind wandering: the spontaneous shifting of attention from the task at hand to unrelated thoughts or mental imagery.
    • Relationship between mind wandering and consciousness: mind wandering reflects fluctuations in the level of consciousness.
    • Research study on self-caught vs. probe-caught mind wandering: self-caught mind wandering is associated with better task performance compared to probe-caught mind wandering, indicating differences in awareness and control.

    Sensory Memory

    • Definition: Large capacity, same modality as experience, and very fast decay.
    • Span of Apprehension: Refers to the amount of information one can apprehend or take in at a glance.
    • Measurement: Often measured by briefly presenting a set of items (e.g., letters or digits) and determining how many items can be accurately reported.
    • Importance: Highlights the limited capacity of sensory memory.

    Methods to Study Sensory Memory

    • Sperling Partial Report Paradigm: Measures the capacity and duration of sensory memory.
    • Diloilo Missing Dot Technique: Studies visual sensory memory by revealing how visual information persists over time.

    Function of Sensory Memory

    • Acts as a buffer for stimuli received through the senses, retaining impressions long enough for relevant details to be extracted and processed.
    • Issues: Limited functionality, difficulty in distinguishing from other stages of memory, and determining precise mechanisms involved.

    Echoic Memory

    • Definition: The auditory counterpart to visual sensory memory, responsible for holding auditory information for a short period.
    • Measurement: Often assessed using tasks where participants must recall auditory stimuli presented briefly.
    • Comparison: Lasts longer (2-4 seconds) than iconic memory (less than 1 second) but both serve as initial stages in the memory process.

    Short-Term Memory (STM) and Long-Term Memory (LTM) Distinctions

    • Neurocognitive Evidence:
      • HM (Milner) had no transfer to long-term memory.
      • Clive Wearing had no transfer to long-term memory.
      • JB had impaired short-term memory.
    • Behavioral Evidence:
      • Brown/Peterson paradigm demonstrates the duration limits of STM.
      • Serial position curve reveals primacy (LTM) and recency (STM) effects.
      • Speed of presentation, delay, and interference affect STM.
    • Neuroimaging Evidence: Different brain areas are activated during recall, supporting distinct processing mechanisms.

    Atkinson and Shiffrin's Model

    • Describes memory as a flow of information through sensory registers, STM, and LTM.
    • Evidence: Rundus' rehearsal technique showed that rehearsal improves recall, supporting the model.
    • Limitations: Oversimplifies memory processes and doesn't account for findings like implicit memory or deeper processing effects.

    Depth of Processing

    • Concept: Refers to the idea that memory retention depends on the depth (semantic meaning) rather than the type (e.g., visual, auditory) of processing.
    • Shallow vs deep processing: Shallow involves surface-level features, while deep involves semantic meaning.
    • Experimental evidence: Craik and Tulving showed better recall for semantically processed words compared to shallowly processed ones.
    • Importance: Deep processing enhances retrieval cues and memory connections by focusing on the meaning.

    Working Memory Approach

    • Model: Proposed by Baddeley and Hitch, consisting of multiple components including the central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and episodic buffer.
    • Central Executive: Oversees and coordinates cognitive processes.
    • Cognitive Load: Refers to the amount of working memory resources required by a task.
    • Phonological Store: Handles verbal and auditory information.
    • Visual-Spatial Sketch Pad: Manages visual and spatial data.
    • Episodic Buffer: Integrates information across domains.

    Big Picture Conclusions

    • Memory Filtering: Most information in sensory memory does not reach short-term memory, and most short-term memory content does not transition into long-term memory.
    • Working Memory: Like a computer's RAM or a desktop workspace, working memory is where active processing occurs, involving components like the visual-spatial sketchpad and phonological store.
    • Sensory Memory Types: Both sensory and working memory consist of multiple types distinguished by sensory modality, such as visual sensory memory (iconic) and auditory sensory memory (echoic).

    Aspects of Long-Term Memory

    • Long-term memory has three aspects: encoding, retention, and retrieval
    • Encoding: processing and storing information in long-term memory
    • Retention: holding onto information over time
    • Retrieval: accessing stored information from long-term memory

    Encoding

    • Depth of processing is important for how long information is held in memory
    • Self-reference effect: information related to oneself is better remembered due to deeper processing
    • Generation effect: actively generating information from one's own mind improves encoding and retention
    • Schemas: cognitive frameworks that help organize and interpret information in long-term memory
    • Bransford and Johnson's experiments: providing context or a schema before presenting information enhances comprehension and recall
    • Dual code theory: information is better remembered when encoded both visually and verbally

    Retention

    • Spacing effect: learning is more effective when study sessions are spaced out over time
    • Passage of time: memory can fade over time due to decay or interference
    • Sleep: plays a crucial role in memory consolidation, strengthening and stabilizing long-term memories
    • Post-event information: new information can influence the availability of previously encoded information

    Retrieval

    • State dependent memory: memory retrieval is most effective when an individual is in the same physiological state as when the memory was encoded
    • Mood dependent memory: memory retrieval is enhanced when an individual's mood at the time of retrieval matches their mood during encoding
    • Context dependent memory: memory retrieval is improved when the context present at encoding and retrieval is the same
    • Context dependent memory in real-world settings: using structured recall formats can enhance memory retrieval
    • Impact of schemas on long-term memory retrieval: schemas can facilitate or hinder retrieval

    False Memories

    • Loftus misinformation study: false memories can be created through suggestion
    • Verbal overshadowing: describing a visual memory can impair the ability to recall the original visual information
    • Deese Roediger Mcdermott paradigm: demonstrates how people can recall false memories
    • Jenkins Demo: shows how primacy and recency effects influence memory
    • Debate regarding recovered memories of abuse: controversy surrounds the accuracy of recovered memories and the role of therapeutic techniques in their creation

    Metacognition and Memory Strategies

    Metacognition

    • Meta-cognitive knowledge: understanding what one knows
    • Meta-cognitive experience: conscious cognitive or affective experiences related to intellectual tasks

    Metamemory

    • Types of metamemory judgments:
      • Predicting future memory performance
        • At encoding (judgments of learning): assessing how well material is being learned during study
        • Ease of learning: estimating how difficult it will be to learn new material
      • Paired associative judgments: assessing the likelihood of remembering paired items
      • At retrieval (tip of the tongue): experiencing a feeling that a word or concept is on the tip of one's tongue

    Source Monitoring

    • Assessing the source of one's memory:
      • Source monitoring judgments
      • Reality monitoring: distinguishing between internal and external memories
      • Internal vs. internal: distinguishing between different internal sources (e.g., said vs. thought)
      • External vs. external: distinguishing between different external sources (e.g., source a vs. source b)

    Processing Types

    • Systematic processing: careful deliberation about source
    • Heuristic processing: automatic, low-level processing of source
    • Factors influencing source monitoring performance:
      • Distinguishability depends on similarity
      • Easier to distinguish internal from external sources when things are very different

    Memory Improvement Strategies

    Encoding Principles

    • Transfer to LTM:
      • Using mnemonic devices like acronyms
    • Rehearsal: repeating information to keep it in short-term memory
    • Generation effect: generating one's own examples or questions based on study material
    • Depth of processing: creating meaningful associations with the information
    • Self-reference effect: connecting new information to one's own life and experiences
    • Multiple codes: using both visual and verbal cues to learn information
    • Schemas: organizing information into categories and subcategories
    • Distinctiveness: highlighting unique or unusual aspects of the material

    Retention Interval Principles

    • Delay: testing oneself after varying time intervals to reinforce memory
    • Judgments of learning: regularly assessing how well one has learned the material
    • Spacing effect: distributing study sessions over several days
    • Interference: reducing interference by studying different subjects separately

    Retrieval Principles

    • Encoding specificity: studying in the same environment where one will be tested
    • Associative memory structures: creating mind maps that connect related concepts
    • Schematicity: using an overarching structure or storyline to remember facts

    Specific Techniques for Memory Improvement

    • Keyword mnemonic: associating a familiar word or image with a new term or concept
    • Link system: creating a story or linking items together in a sequential manner
    • Method of Loci: visualizing items to be remembered in specific locations within a familiar environment
    • Rhymes: using rhyming words or phrases to aid memory
    • Catch phrases: creating memorable phrases or sayings that encapsulate information
    • List order acronyms: creating an acronym from the first letters of a list of items

    Prospective Memory

    • Definition: the ability to remember to perform a planned action or intention at the appropriate future time
    • Example: remembering to take medicine at a specific time each day

    Improving Prospective Memory

    • Implementation intentions: creating specific plans about when and how one will achieve a goal
    • Example: setting a specific plan to remember to call a friend after work

    Definition of Mental Imagery

    • Mental experience of seeing, hearing, touching an object in the absence of any sensory input.

    History of Mental Imagery

    • Binet's use of patients with brain damage helped in the study of mental imagery.

    Imagining and Brain Activity

    • Imagining a movement activates motor processing.
    • Imagining a form or color draws on object recognition or color systems.

    The Perky Effect

    • Participants imagined an object while fixating on a blank screen and believed they were imagining the projected images rather than actually perceiving them.

    Dual Coding Hypothesis

    • There are two codes in the brain, one verbal and one visual (Paivio).
    • Supporting evidence:
      • Memory for concrete words is better than for abstract words.
      • Visual imagery interferes with other visual tasks.
      • Verbal tasks interfere with other verbal tasks.
      • Visual imagery does not interfere with verbal tasks.

    Propositions vs. Images

    • Propositions: Abstract, essential meanings that do not resemble what they stand for (e.g., "A canary is a bird").
    • Images: Resemble what they stand for (analog code).
    • Analog view: Information is stored as images, and images are functional in thinking (Kosslyn).
    • Propositional view: Information is stored as propositions, and images are "epiphenomenal" (Pylyshyn).

    Evidence for the Debate

    • Relative image size: Reaction time to identify features is longer when the object is imagined next to a larger object.
    • Relative distances: Scanning time between objects in a mental image is proportional to the distance between them.
    • Rotation: Reaction time to determine if objects are the same is proportional to the amount of rotation required.

    Limitations to Imagery

    • People struggle to recall specific details of a common object (e.g., a penny).
    • Images cannot always be reinterpreted.

    Imagery and the Brain

    • Same brain areas are active when viewing and imagining letters (Farah).
    • Mental rotation activates the parietal cortex proportional to the angle of rotation.
    • Brain damage affecting vision also impacts imagery.

    Cognitive Maps

    • Definition: Internal representations of the environment used for navigation, staying oriented, and giving directions.
    • Example: Navigating through a familiar city or building.
    • Developed: Learned from maps and direct experience in the environment.
    • Used for: Navigation, staying oriented, and giving directions.
    • Accuracy: Often inaccurate due to systematic simplifications.

    Organizing Principles of Cognitive Maps

    • Rotation heuristic: Tilted structures remembered as horizontal/vertical.
    • Alignment heuristic: Structures remembered as more "lined up".
    • Hierarchical representations: Locations influenced by larger regions.
    • Border Bias: Distances seem greater when crossing borders.

    Individual Differences in Cognitive Maps

    • Route representations vs. Survey representations.
    • Spatial ability and sense of direction: Differences in navigation strategies and accuracy, assessed by tools like the Santa Barbara Sense-of-Direction Scale.

    Episodic and Semantic Memory

    • Episodic memory: A person's memory for specific events that were personally experienced, e.g., recalling what happened during the last football game that you attended.
    • Semantic memory: A mental thesaurus organized knowledge a person possesses about words and other verbal symbols, e.g., knowing that football is a sport.

    Characteristics of Semantic Memory

    • Allows us to organize objects according to concepts, e.g., seeing and identifying a microphone.
    • Enables us to make inferences going beyond the information given, e.g., assuming that the microphone is used by professors who give lectures.
    • Enables us to decide which objects are similar.

    Theories of General Knowledge

    Defining-Attribute Theory

    • Concepts are represented by a list of defining attributes.
    • Concepts are organized into networks, where related concepts are connected.
    • Concepts are represented as nodes, and the relationships between them are represented as links.
    • Supporting evidence: Hierarchical organization observed in semantic memory, and reaction time studies showing that people respond faster to items that are closely related in the network.
    • Challenges: Typicality effects, where typical instances of a category are responded to more quickly than atypical instances.

    Feature Analytic Approach

    • Defining features: Necessary features of a category, e.g., birds lay eggs.
    • Characteristic features: Typical but not necessary characters of a category, e.g., birds fly.
    • Deals with typicality effects by acknowledging that not all features are equal in their importance for category membership.

    Prototype Theory

    • Prototypes: Idealized representations of a category that embody its most typical features.
    • Three levels of prototypes:
      • Superordinate: Very broad categories, e.g., animal, plant, tool.
      • Basic level: Levels at which categories are represented that contain the most useful information, e.g., cat, tree, saw.
      • Subordinate: Highly specific examples, e.g., Siamese cat, elm, hacksaw.
    • Support for the 3-level approach: Experimental evidence shows that basic level categories are psychologically privileged and that people tend to categorize items at this level more frequently.
    • Issues: Difficulty accounting for variability within categories and the role of context in category membership.

    Exemplar Theory

    • Exemplars: Specific instances or examples of a category that are stored in memory.
    • Differs from prototype theory: Exemplar theory suggests that instead of forming an abstract prototype, people store individual instances of categories and make category judgments by comparing new instances to these stored examples.
    • Issues: Implausible that people remember every example of every category, and can become computationally expensive as the number of exemplars grows.

    Prototype Theory vs. Exemplar Theory

    • Prototype theory: More suitable when dealing with abstract or less familiar categories.
    • Exemplar theory: More suitable when dealing with categories that have clear, concrete instances and when there is variability within categories.

    Schemas

    • Schemas are cognitive structures that organize knowledge and expectations about specific domains.
    • Guide our attention, interpretation, and memory of events or experiences.
    • Bartlett's War of Ghosts study demonstrates how schemas influence memory and cognition.
    • Impact of schemas on memory selection: Schemas influence what information is encoded, stored, and retrieved from memory, leading to memory distortions and biases.

    Linguistic Relativity

    • Linguistic relativity is the idea that language influences thought processes and perceptions.
    • Whorfian hypothesis has three versions:
      • Strong Hypothesis: Language determines thinking.
      • Weak Hypothesis: Language influences perception.
      • Weakest Hypothesis: Language influences memory.

    Psycholinguistics

    • Psycholinguistics is the study of the psychological aspects of language, including processing, production, and understanding.
    • Subfields of psycholinguistics include:
      • Phonology: Study of speech sounds and their function in language.
      • Morphology: Study of the internal structure of words.
      • Semantics: Study of meaning in language.
      • Syntax: Grammatical rules governing word order and sentence structure.
      • Pragmatics: Understanding of social rules underlying language use.

    Chomsky's Approach to Psycholinguistics

    • Chomsky's approach involves:
      • Deep structure vs surface structure.
      • Transformational rules: Rules for converting between deep and surface structures in language.
    • Challenges to his approach include:
      • Not all aspects of his theory are supported, such as processing time for sentences requiring transformations.

    Factors Affecting Comprehension

    • Negatives: Require more processing time and can lead to errors.
    • Passive Voice: More difficult to understand compared to active voice.
    • Ambiguity: Slows down comprehension as multiple interpretations are considered.
    • Complex Syntax: Nested structures tax working memory, making understanding more challenging.

    Neurolinguistics

    • Aphasia: Difficulty in communication due to brain damage affecting language areas.
    • Types of aphasia:
      • Wernicke's Aphasia: Fluent speech with meaningless content.
      • Broca's Aphasia: Meaningful speech with grammatical deficits.
    • Hemispheric specialization:
      • Left Hemisphere: Superior in language abilities.
      • Right Hemisphere: Superior in processing metaphor, humor, emotional tone.

    Eye Fixations and Reading

    • Eye fixations correspond to the amount of time spent processing each word during reading.
    • Factors that affect eye fixations:
      • Word frequency.
      • Ambiguity.
      • Sentence complexity.
      • Reader's cognitive load.
    • Mind-wandering impacts gaze duration:
      • Decreased gaze duration indicates shallower processing.

    Dual Route Approach to Reading

    • Direct-Access Route: Recognizing words visually without phonetic decoding.
    • Indirect-Access Route: Recognizing words by sounding them out phonetically.
    • Factors that influence route usage:
      • Word characteristics (e.g., frequency, familiarity).
      • Reader expertise (e.g., reading skill level).

    Implications for Teaching Reading

    • Phonics approach (indirect access):
      • Emphasizes teaching children to decode words by sounding them out phonetically.
      • Evidence supports this approach for children with reading difficulties.
    • Whole-word approach (direct access):
      • Emphasizes teaching children to recognize whole words by sight rather than decoding them phonetically.
      • Research suggests that relying solely on whole-word instruction may not be effective for all children, particularly those with reading difficulties.
    • Current compromise: Balanced approach incorporating both phonics instruction and whole-word recognition strategies.

    Reading Comprehension

    • Definition: Understanding and extracting meaning from written text.
    • Factors that encourage drawing inferences:
      • Working-Memory Capacity: Individuals with larger working-memory capacities tend to be better at drawing inferences.
      • Expertise: Readers with expertise in a particular subject matter or domain are more likely to draw accurate and meaningful inferences.
      • Meta-comprehension skills: Self-awareness and monitoring of one's comprehension process.

    Enhancing Meta-Comprehension Skills

    • Strategies include:
      • Self-explanation.
      • Summarization.
      • Making predictions.
      • Questioning the text.

    Decision Making

    • Decision making: The process of assessing information and choosing among two or more alternatives.
    • Two models for decision making:
      • Prescriptive Models: Describe the best way to make a decision, often involving weighing all outcomes and considering pros and cons.
      • Descriptive Models: Describe how decisions are actually made, focusing on real-world decision-making processes.

    Classical Decision Theory and Satisficing

    • Classical Decision Theory: Assumed decision makers knew all options, understood pros and cons, and rationally made choices to maximize value.
    • Satisficing: Aims to obtain an outcome that is good enough, rather than searching endlessly for the optimal solution.

    Individual Differences in Decision-Making Style and Psychological Well-being

    • Satisficers vs maximizers:
      • Maximizers tend to examine as many options as possible, leading to choice overload.
      • Satisficers settle for satisfactory outcomes.

    Decision Making Heuristics

    • Representativeness heuristic:
      • Judging the likelihood of an event based on similarity to a population.
      • Role of sample size: Larger sample sizes are statistically more likely to reflect the true proportions in a population.
    • Availability heuristic:
      • Making judgments based on how easily instances come to mind, influenced by media and vividness.
      • Role of media and vividness: Media tends to report extraordinary or sensational events, making them more memorable and accessible in people's minds.
    • Anchoring and adjustment heuristic:
      • Starting with an initial guess and adjusting based on additional information.
      • Role of presentation order: The order in which information is presented can influence the anchoring effect.
    • Framing effect:
      • How the wording of a question influences decision making.
    • Overconfidence:
      • Unrealistic optimism about abilities, judgments, and skills.
    • Planning fallacy:
      • The tendency for individuals to underestimate the time, costs, and risks involved in completing a future task or project.
    • Hindsight bias:
      • Believing that they would have predicted an outcome after it has already occurred.

    Problem Solving

    • Definition of Problem Solving: The process of reaching a goal when the solution is not immediately obvious.
    • Two types of problem solving:
      • Well-defined Problems: Clear steps to reach a solution, explicit parameters and constraints.
      • Ill-defined Problems: Vague steps, lack of clear parameters or constraints, subjective and open to interpretation.

    Components of Problem Solving

    • Initial State: The starting point of the problem-solving process, where the problem is identified and the current situation is understood.
    • Goal State: The desired outcome or solution that the problem solver aims to achieve.
    • Obstacles: Challenges, constraints, or barriers that hinder progress from the initial state to the goal state.

    Representation of Problems

    • Matrices: Grids showing all possible combinations of items, useful for complex, stable, categorical information.
    • Diagrams: Represent abstract information in a concrete fashion, reducing complex information into a tangible form.
    • Analogy Use: Employing better-understood problems to solve new problems by recognizing similarities at a deep level.
    • Means-End Analysis/Heuristics: Strategies not guaranteed to be correct but generally helpful, involving identifying the desired goals and figuring out the means to reach them.

    Hill Climbing Technique

    • Choosing steps that move closest to the goal, but can lead to getting stuck in local maxima.
    • Solutions: Backtracking or adding randomness may be necessary to overcome local maxima.

    Factors that Influence Problem Solving

    • Expertise: Specific memory skills, speed, accuracy, and metacognitive skills.
    • Mental Set: Tendency to use the same solution from previous problems, which can hinder flexibility.
    • Functional Fixedness: Assigning stable uses to an object, limiting creative problem-solving.

    Insight vs Non-Insight Problems

    • Insight Problems:
      • Solutions seem to come suddenly, often after a period of apparent impasse.
      • Involves a sudden restructuring of the problem representation leading to a solution.
    • Non-insight Problems:
      • Solutions are reached through gradual, systematic problem-solving strategies.
      • Involves logical reasoning and the application of known problem-solving techniques.

    Right/Left Hemisphere Differences and Insight Problems

    • Insight problem solving involves increased activity in the right hemisphere of the brain, particularly in the right temporal lobe.
    • Right hemisphere activation may be associated with holistic processing, pattern recognition, and sudden shifts in problem-solving strategies.

    Effects of Physical Distance and Temporal Distance on Insight

    • Greater physical or temporal distance from a problem can enhance insight problem solving.
    • Physical distance can lead to a more abstract representation of the problem, facilitating novel insights.
    • Temporal distance encourages a broader perspective and may help individuals overcome mental fixation on previous problem-solving attempts, allowing for fresh insights.

    Definition of Cognition and Cognitive Approach

    • Cognition refers to mental activity, including the acquisition, storage, transformation, and use of knowledge.
    • The cognitive approach to psychology emphasizes people's thought processes and their knowledge.

    Origins of Cognitive Psychology

    • Introspection, an early approach to studying mental activity, involved trained observers analyzing their own sensations and reporting them objectively.
    • Wundt's introspection technique is now considered subjective, not objective, by most cognitive psychologists.

    Early Memory Researchers

    • Ebbinghaus examined factors that influence performance on memory tasks, such as the amount of time between two presentations of a list of items.
    • Calkins reported the recency effect, where recall is especially accurate for the final items in a series of stimuli.
    • Calkins emphasized the importance of studying cognitive processes in the real world, rather than in artificial laboratory tasks.

    Behaviorism

    • Behaviorism focuses on objective, observable reactions to stimuli in the environment.
    • Behaviorists, such as Watson, emphasized observable behavior and studied nonhuman animals.
    • Tolman provided evidence that learners create mental representations of their environment based on their experiences.

    Gestalt Psychology

    • Gestalt psychology emphasizes that humans actively organize what they see, see patterns, and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

    Cognitive Revolution

    • Piaget believed that children actively explore their world to understand concepts and their cognitive strategies change as they mature.
    • Chomsky argued that humans have an inborn ability to master language and its complex structures.

    Empirical Research and Ecological Validity

    • Empirical evidence refers to scientific evidence obtained by careful observation and experimentation.
    • Ecological validity is a principle of research design that uses conditions similar to the natural setting where the results will be applied.

    Connectionist Approach and Cognitive Neuroscience

    • The connectionist approach describes cognitive processing in terms of networks that link together neuron-like units, performing operations simultaneously and in parallel.
    • Cognitive neuroscience uses research techniques from cognitive psychology and neuroscience to study mental activity and the brain.

    Computer Metaphor of the Mind

    • The computer metaphor of the mind describes cognition as a complex, multipurpose machine that processes information quickly and accurately.

    Visual and Auditory Recognition

    • Perception: the process of using previous knowledge to gather and interpret stimuli registered by the senses, involving both bottom-up and top-down processing.
    • Object recognition: the process of identifying a complex arrangement of sensory stimuli and perceiving it as separate from its background.

    Visual System

    • Distal stimulus: the actual object in the environment, e.g., a pen on a desk.
    • Proximal stimulus: the information registered on sensory receptors, e.g., the image of a pen on the retina.
    • Sensory memory: a large-capacity storage system that records information from each sense with reasonable accuracy.
    • Iconic memory: a brief preservation of an image of a visual stimulus after it has disappeared.

    Primary Visual Cortex and Occipital Lobe

    • Primary visual cortex: located in the occipital lobe of the brain, concerned with basic processing of visual stimuli, and the first place where information from both eyes is combined.

    Figure-Ground Relationship

    • A perceptual phenomenon where the figure and ground of a visual stimulus reverse, making the figure become the ground and vice versa.

    Illusory/Subjective Contours

    • The perception of edges in a visual stimulus even though they are not physically present.

    Feature-Analysis Theory

    • Distinctive features: important characteristics of a visual stimulus, e.g., shape, color, and texture.
    • Recognition-by-Components theory: proposes that people recognize 3D shapes by identifying simple 3D shapes called geons, which can be combined to form meaningful objects.

    Top-Down vs Bottom-Up Processing

    • Top-down processing: emphasizes the importance of concepts, expectations, and memory in object recognition, e.g., recognizing a word in a sentence.
    • Bottom-up processing: emphasizes stimulus characteristics in object recognition, e.g., recognizing individual letters in a word.

    Face Recognition

    • Gestalt: an overall quality that transcends individual elements in a stimulus.
    • Prosopagnosia: the inability to recognize human faces visually, while other objects may be perceived normally.
    • Face-inversion effect: people are more accurate in identifying upright faces compared to upside-down faces.

    Speech Perception

    • Phoneme: the basic unit of spoken language, e.g., sounds a, k, and th.
    • Word boundaries: the perception of clear boundaries between words in a language, which can be affected by variability in phoneme pronunciation.
    • Variability in phoneme pronunciation: includes interspeaker variability, imprecise production, and coarticulation.
    • Phonemic restoration: filling in a missing phoneme based on contextual meaning.
    • McGurk effect: the influence of visual information on speech perception, combining both visual and auditory information.
    • Special mechanism vs general mechanism theories: debating whether speech perception involves a specialized device or uses the same neural mechanisms as other auditory stimuli.

    Attention

    • Attention is a concentration of mental activity that can be divided into two types: divided attention and selective attention.
    • Divided attention involves paying attention to two or more simultaneous messages, responding appropriately to each message.
    • Selective attention requires people to pay attention to certain kinds of information while ignoring other present information.

    Measuring Selective Attention

    • Dichotic listening is a laboratory technique that presents one message to the left ear and a different message to the right ear to measure selective attention.
    • The Stroop task/effect measures selective attention by asking people to name the ink color of a word that may have a conflicting meaning.
    • The Stroop task has been modified to study eating disorders and emotional responses.

    Visual Search

    • Visual search is a task that requires finding a target in a visual display with numerous distractors.
    • The isolated-feature/combined-feature effect in visual search research shows that people can locate an isolated feature more quickly than a combined feature.
    • The feature-present/feature-absent effect shows that people can locate a feature that is present more quickly than a feature that is absent.

    Brain Imaging and Theories of Attention

    • PET scans (Positron Emission Tomography) measure blood flow in the brain to study cognitive tasks.
    • Bottleneck theories of attention (e.g., Broadbent filter theory; Treisman’s Filter amplitude theory) propose a narrow passageway in human information processing that limits the quantity of information to which one can pay attention.
    • Feature-integration theory proposes two elements: distributed attention (fast, low-level processing of all parts of the scene simultaneously) and focused attention (slower serial processing of each item in the scene, one at a time).

    Consciousness

    • Consciousness is a person's awareness of the external world and of their own perceptions, images, thoughts, memories, and feelings.
    • Mind-wandering occurs when a person's thoughts shift away from the external environment, and they begin thinking about another topic.
    • Thought suppression can lead to ironic (rebound) effects of mental control, where people's efforts to control the contents of consciousness can backfire.

    Other Concepts

    • Blindsight is a condition in which an individual with a damaged visual cortex claims not to see an object but can accurately report some characteristics of the object.
    • Mindfulness meditation is a form of meditation that encourages focusing on inward and outward experiences on a moment-to-moment basis.

    Defining Short-Term and Long-Term Memory

    • Short-term memory holds a small amount of information a person is actively using, also known as working memory.
    • Long-term memory has a large capacity and stores experiences and information accumulated throughout one's lifetime.

    Limits of Short-Term Memory

    • Brown/Peterson & Peterson Technique: a technique to study short-term memory, where participants are presented with items, perform a distracting task, and then recall the original items.
    • Serial position effect: a U-shaped relationship between a word's position in a list and its probability of recall, with better recall for initial and final words.
    • Primacy and recency effects: tendencies for items at the beginning and end of a list to be recalled better than items in the middle.

    Atkinson-Shiffrin Model of Information Processing

    • Proposes that memory involves a sequence of separate steps, with information transferred from one storage area to another.
    • Sensory memory: a large-capacity storage system that records information from each sense with reasonable accuracy.
    • Short-term memory: memories are fragile and can be lost within 30 seconds unless rehearsed.
    • Long-term memory: has an enormous capacity, stores memories decades old, and information is relatively permanent.

    Control Processes and Limitations of the Model

    • Control processes: intentional strategies, such as rehearsal, used to improve memory.
    • Concerns about the model: sensory memory is now considered a brief storage process, and the distinction between short-term and long-term memory is questioned.

    Working Memory Approach

    • Working memory: a brief, immediate memory for limited material that a person is currently processing, which also coordinates ongoing mental activities.
    • Components of working memory:
      • Phonological loop: processes a limited number of sounds for a short period.
      • Visuospatial sketchpad: processes visual and spatial information.
      • Central executive: integrates information and plays a role in attention, planning, and coordinating cognitive activities.
      • Episodic buffer: a temporary storehouse that combines information from other components.

    Characteristics and Applications of Working Memory

    • Active process: working memory is an active process where information is manipulated and transformed.
    • Limited capacity: similar to short-term memory, with information lasting up to 30 seconds.
    • Connection with long-term memory: controversy over whether working memory and long-term memory are separate systems.
    • Applications:
      • Academic performance: working memory tasks are correlated with overall intelligence, grades, and reading ability.
      • Clinical populations: working memory deficits are observed in depression, ADHD, and anxiety.

    Long-Term Memory

    • Long-term memory is a high-capacity storage system that contains memories for experiences and information accumulated throughout a lifetime.
    • It consists of three main types: episodic, semantic, and procedural memory.

    Episodic, Semantic, and Procedural Memory

    • Episodic memory: recalls personal experiences and events that happened to an individual personally.
    • Semantic memory: stores organized knowledge about the world, including factual information and knowledge about words.
    • Procedural memory: involves knowing how to perform tasks, such as riding a bicycle or sending an email.

    Encoding and Retrieval

    • Encoding: the initial acquisition of information, where information is processed and represented in memory.
    • Retrieval: the process of locating information stored in long-term memory and accessing it.

    Levels/Depth of Processing

    • A theory proposing that deeper, meaningful processing of information leads to more accurate recall than shallow, sensory kinds of processing.
    • Deeper processing often leads to extracting more meaning from a stimulus.

    Elaboration and Distinctiveness

    • Elaboration: rich processing emphasizing the meaning of a concept and relating it to prior knowledge and interconnected concepts.
    • Distinctiveness: a stimulus is different from other memory traces.

    Self-Reference Effect

    • According to this effect, individuals will remember more information if they try to relate that information to themselves.

    Encoding Specificity Principle

    • The observation that recall is often better if the context at the time of encoding matches the context at the time of retrieval.

    Recall and Recognition Tasks

    • Recall task: participants must reproduce items learned earlier, such as defining a term.
    • Recognition task: participants must judge whether they saw an item earlier, such as recognizing a word.

    Explicit and Implicit Memory Tasks

    • Explicit memory task: participants are instructed to remember information, and later intentionally retrieve it.
    • Implicit memory task: an indirect measure of memory, where previous experience with material facilitates performance on a later task.

    Amnesia and Anxiety Disorders

    • Retrograde amnesia: loss of memory for events prior to brain damage.
    • Anterograde amnesia: inability to form memories for events after brain damage.
    • Individuals with anxiety disorders remember threatening words more accurately than those without disorders.

    Autobiographical Memory and Source Monitoring

    • Autobiographical memory: recalling personal experiences and events.
    • Source monitoring: identifying the origin of a memory, such as distinguishing between real and imagined events.

    Flashbulb Memory and Eyewitness Testimony

    • Flashbulb memory: memory for circumstances surrounding a surprising and emotionally arousing event.
    • Factors influencing eyewitness testimony accuracy:
      • Schema-consistent memories
      • Source monitoring errors
      • Post-event misinformation
      • Stressful circumstances
      • Delay between event and testimony
      • Plausibility of misinformation
      • Social pressure
      • Positive feedback

    Post-Misinformation Effect

    • Exposure to misleading information after an event can distort an eyewitness's memory, leading to inaccurate testimony.

    Special Topics in Long-Term Memory

    • Memory experts: memory can be improved through practice and specific strategies in specific contexts.
    • How do novices and experts differ? Experts possess a well-organized knowledge structure, reorganize new material, and rehearse strategically.
    • Own-ethnicity bias: tendency to more accurately recognize faces of one's own ethnic group.
    • Emotion and memory: the Pollyanna principle states that people tend to rate unpleasant past events more positively with time.

    Memory Strategies

    • Memory strategies are intentional, goal-oriented mental activities to improve encoding and retrieval of information in memory.
    • The total-time hypothesis states that the amount of information learned depends on the total time devoted to learning, but quality of study strategies is also important.
    • The distributed-practice effect shows that spaced learning (distributing practice over time) is more effective than massed learning (practicing all at once).

    Effective Learning Strategies

    • Desirable difficulties involve learning situations that are challenging but not too difficult, which can increase long-term recall.
    • The testing effect shows that taking a test can boost long-term recall for academic material.
    • Spaced learning is a more effective learning strategy than massed learning.

    Mnemonics

    • Mnemonics are mental strategies designed to improve memory.
    • There are two types of mnemonics: those using mental imagery (e.g., visualizing a piano chewing toast) and those using organization (e.g., chunking, hierarchy).
    • Examples of mnemonics include the keyword method, chunking, hierarchy, first-letter technique, and narrative technique.

    Types of Memory

    • Retrospective memory refers to remembering things that happened in the past.
    • Prospective memory is remembering to do something in the future, typically focused on action.

    Memory Aides and Metacognition

    • An external memory aid is a device that facilitates memory, such as a to-do list.
    • Metacognition refers to knowledge and control of cognitive processes.
    • Metamemory is a type of metacognition that refers to knowledge, monitoring, and control of memory.

    Metacognition and Metamemory

    • The foresight bias is the tendency to be overconfident about performance on a future exam.
    • Immediate metamemory estimates are often inaccurate, but delaying estimates can improve accuracy.
    • Research on metamemory explores factors that influence metamemory and regulation of study strategies.
    • The tip-of-the-tongue effect is the subjective experience of knowing a target word but being unable to recall it.
    • The feeling-of-knowing effect is the subjective experience of knowing some information but being unable to recall it.

    Metacomprehension

    • Metacomprehension is a type of metacognition that refers to thoughts about language comprehension, often focused on reading comprehension.
    • Research shows that college students often exhibit low levels of accuracy in metacomprehension, overestimating their understanding of text content.
    • Strategies to improve metacomprehension include active reading, repeated readings, and self-assessment and self-management of reading strategies.

    Mental Imagery

    • Definition: Mental representation of stimuli when they are not physically present in the environment
    • Examples: Visual imagery, auditory imagery, and mental representation of any sensory experience

    Differences between Mental Imagery and Perception

    • Perception: Involves immediate processing of sensory input from the environment through sensory organs
    • Mental Imagery: Involves internally generated mental representations of sensory experiences without direct sensory input

    Mental Rotation Tasks

    • Purpose: Measure mental imagery
    • Findings: Reaction time increases linearly with the angle of rotation (Shepard and Metzler, 1971)
    • Replication: Similar results found with various stimuli, confirming the angle-reaction time relationship
    • Age Differences: Elderly perform slower on mental rotation tasks (Beni et al., 2006)
    • Deaf Individuals: Skilled in mental rotation due to ASL experience (Emmorey et al., 1998)
    • Cognitive Neuroscience: Mental rotation tasks engage the parietal lobe, especially the right parietal cortex

    The Imagery Debate

    • Controversy: Do mental images resemble perception (analog code) or language (propositional code)?
    • Analog Code: Representation that closely resembles the physical object, maintains spatial relationships
    • Propositional Code: Abstract, language-like representation, storage is neither visual nor spatial

    Research Supporting Each Side of the Debate

    • Analog Code:
      • Mental imagery closely resembles physical objects (Kosslyn et al., 2006)
      • Mental rotation studies show that reaction times increase with the degree of rotation (Shepard and Metzler, 1971)
      • Neuroimaging shows that visual imagery tasks activate the same brain regions as visual perception (Ganis et al., 2009)
    • Propositional Code:
      • Mental images are stored as abstract, language-like representations (Pylyshyn, 2003, 2006)
      • Propositional code does not vary with the amount of rotation

    Factors that Influence Visual Imagery

    • Distance and Shape Effects:
      • Distance Effects: Mental image scanning takes longer for greater distances (Kosslyn et al., 1978)
      • Shape Effects: Judgments about mental images of shapes mimic patterns observed with real objects (Paivio, 1978)

    Interference with Physical Stimuli

    • Interference with Visual Perception:
      • Mental images can interfere with processing actual physical images (Segal and Fusella, 1970)
      • Imagining a visual image can distort judgments about the orientation of a real line segment (Mast et al., 1999)

    Cognitive Maps

    • Definition: Mental representation of geographic information, including a person's surrounding environment
    • Relationship to Spatial Cognition:
      • Spatial cognition refers to thoughts about cognitive maps, remembering the world we navigate, and keeping track of objects in a spatial array

    Distance and Shape Effects on Cognitive Maps

    • Border Bias: People tend to estimate the distance between two locations on different sides of a geographic border as larger than two locations the same distance apart but on the same side of a geographic border
    • Landmark Effect: People tend to provide shorter distance estimates when traveling to a landmark rather than a non-landmark
    • 90-degree-angle-heuristic: People tend to remember a figure that is slightly tilted as being either more vertical or more horizontal than it really is

    Position Effects on Cognitive Maps

    • Rotation Heuristic: People tend to remember a figure that is slightly tilted as being either more vertical or more horizontal than it really is
    • Alignment Heuristic: People tend to remember a series of separate geographic structures as being more lined up than they really are

    Prototype Theory of Semantic Memory

    • Organize categories based on a prototype, the best representative of a category
    • Characteristics of prototypes:
      • Typicality effect: Judge typical items (prototypes) faster than non-typical items (non-prototypes)
      • Example: Judging "robin" as a bird faster than "penguin"
    • Family resemblance: No single attribute shared by all examples of a concept, but each example shares at least one attribute with another example
      • Example: Chair, table, and sofa share attributes like being used for sitting, having legs, or being in a living room

    Levels of Categorization

    • Superordinate-level categories: Higher-level or more general categories (e.g., "furniture", "animal", "tool")
    • Basic-level categories: Moderately specific categories (e.g., "chair", "dog", "screwdriver")
      • Characteristics of basic-level categories:
        • Used to identify objects (e.g., saying "pen" instead of "Paper Mate gel pen")
        • Produce the semantic priming effect (e.g., responding faster to "apple" after hearing "fruit")
        • Activate different regions of the brain
    • Subordinate-level categories: Lower-level or more specific categories (e.g., "desk chair", "collie", "Phillips screwdriver")

    Exemplar Theory of Semantic Memory

    • Classify new stimuli by comparing it to multiple known exemplars in a category
    • Differ from prototype theory, which compares new stimuli to a single prototype
    • Example: Categorizing a new bird by comparing it to specific remembered birds (e.g., robins, sparrows, eagles, and penguins)

    Network Models of Semantic Memory

    • Propose that semantic memory consists of a netlike organization of concepts with interconnections
    • Differ from categorization models, focusing on interconnections among related items
    • Concepts are represented as nodes, with activation spreading to nearby or related nodes
      • Example: The concept "apple" interconnected with nodes like "fruit", "red", "sweet", and "tree"

    Schemas and Scripts

    • Schemas: Generalized knowledge about a situation, event, or person, allowing predictions about new situations
    • Scripts: Simple, well-structured sequences of events in a specified order
      • Example: A script for visiting a doctor's office might include waiting, filling out forms, and consulting the doctor
    • Schemas influence understanding and memory, and serve as building blocks for representing thoughts about people

    Memory Integration and Schemas

    • Memory integration: Using background knowledge to incorporate new information into memory in a schema-consistent manner
      • Example: Integrating information about the flightless kiwi bird into a pre-existing bird schema
    • Research on memory integration:
      • Bartlett's "War of the Ghosts" study: Demonstrated reconstruction of memories based on cultural expectations and prior knowledge, leading to distortions and omissions
      • Research on gender stereotypes: Showed that individuals tend to remember information in a way that is consistent with societal gender norms, perpetuating stereotypical beliefs.

    Definition of Psycholinguistics and Key Terms

    • Psycholinguistics is an interdisciplinary field that examines how people use language to communicate ideas.
    • Phoneme: The basic unit of spoken language, with approximately 40 phonemes in the English language.
    • Morpheme: The basic unit of meaning in language, with each segment conveying meaning.
    • Morphology: The study of morphemes, examining how words are created by combining morphemes.
    • Syntax: The grammatical rules that govern how words can be combined into sentences.
    • Semantics: The area of psycholinguistics that examines the meanings of words and sentences.
    • Pragmatics: The social rules and world knowledge that allow speakers to successfully communicate messages to other people.

    Early Theories of Psycholinguistics

    • Chomsky's approach: Humans have an inborn, universal grammar that allows them to produce and understand sentences they have never encountered before.
    • Surface structures vs deep structures: Surface structures represent a sentence based on the words spoken or written, while deep structures represent the underlying, abstract meaning of a sentence.
    • Research in opposition to Chomsky: Many non-European languages do not exhibit universal grammatical patterns, challenging the notion of a shared underlying structure.
    • Cognitive-functional approach: The idea that the function of human language is to communicate meaning to other individuals in everyday life.

    Methodologies in Psycholinguistics

    • Negation and passive voice: Studying comprehension of sentences with negation or passive voice reveals insights into how people understand complex linguistic structures.
    • Incremental interpretation: Examines real-time language understanding, showing how meaning is built incrementally as words are encountered.
    • Self-paced reading task: Reveals the timing of language processing and strategies for handling syntactic and semantic ambiguities.
    • Lexical ambiguity: A type of ambiguity that arises because a word has multiple meanings.
    • Syntactic ambiguity: Investigates sentences with multiple interpretations due to ambiguous syntax.
    • Eye-tracker: Tracks participants' eye movements during reading or listening, providing detailed information about attention allocation, ambiguity resolution, and information integration.

    Definition of Neurolinguistics and Language Disorders

    • Neurolinguistics: The discipline that examines how the brain processes language.
    • Language disorders: Broca's aphasia (expressive-language deficit) and Wernicke's aphasia (severe problems with language comprehension) provide insights into neurolinguistics.
    • Broca's area: Damage to this area causes Broca's aphasia.
    • Wernicke's area: Damage to this area causes Wernicke's aphasia.

    Hemispheric Specialization and the Mirror System

    • Hemispheric specialization/lateralization: Each hemisphere of the brain has somewhat different functions.
    • The mirror system: A network involving the brain's motor cortex, suggesting that language comprehension might involve the simulation of observed actions in the brain's motor cortex.

    Written and Spoken Language

    • Written language comprehension differs from spoken language in its visual nature, control over input rate, ability to rescan, standardized input, clear word boundaries, and lack of nonverbal cues.
    • Written language requires more elaborate teaching for children's mastery.
    • Despite differences, both written and spoken language involve understanding words and sentences, with a strong correlation between reading and oral comprehension in adults.
    • Adults typically learn new words more quickly in written form than in spoken form.

    Dual-Route Approach to Reading

    • Dual-route approach: The proposal that skilled readers use both a direct-access route and an indirect-access route to recognize words during reading.
    • Direct-access route: When a word is recognized directly through vision, without "sounding out" the word.
    • Indirect-access route: When letters are translated into sound before the word and its meaning can be accessed.

    Approaches to Teaching Reading to Children

    • Whole-word approach: The proposal that readers can directly connect the written word with the meaning.
    • Phonics approach: The proposal that readers recognize words by trying to pronounce ("sounding out") the individual letters in the word.
    • Whole-language approach: The idea that reading instruction should emphasize meaning and be enjoyable.

    Problem Solving and Creativity

    Defining Problem Solving

    • Problem solving: Processes used to reach a specified goal when the solution is not immediately obvious
    • 3 components of problem solving: initial state, goal state, and obstacles
    • Example: Need to reach Jim tonight, but don't know his last name, email, or phone number (initial state) → goal state: have Jim's last name and email address

    Relationship between Attention and Problem Solving

    • Scanning strategically helps in problem solving
    • Paying attention to specific details or parts of the problem helps solve it faster

    Methods of Problem Representation

    • Symbols: Using symbols to represent abstract problems, like algebraic equations
    • Matrices: Grids of rows and columns showing possible combinations of items
    • Diagrams: Visual representations to understand abstract information or problem structures
    • Visual Images: Mental representations of visual information or simulations used in problem-solving

    Situated and Embodied Cognition

    • Situated cognition: Using information in the immediate environment or situation
    • Embodied cognition: Using the body and motor actions to express abstract thoughts and knowledge
    • Examples: Using landmarks to guide way, and waving hand to remember a word

    Problem Solving Strategies

    • Algorithm: Method that will always produce a solution, but can be inefficient
    • Heuristic: General rule or problem-solving strategy that usually produces a correct solution
    • Exhaustive search: Algorithm that tests all possible answers
    • Analogy approach: Using a solution to a similar problem to help solve a new problem
    • Means-ends heuristic: Dividing the problem into subproblems and reducing the difference between the initial state and goal state
    • Hill-climbing heuristic: Choosing the alternative that seems to lead most directly toward the goal

    Factors that Influence Problem Solving

    • Expertise: Impressive memory abilities or consistently exceptional performance in a particular area
    • Knowledge base: Specialized and extensive domain-specific knowledge and schemas
    • Memory: Highly specific and detailed memory retrieval abilities of experts
    • Problem-solving strategies: Systematic and efficient approaches utilized by experts
    • Speed and accuracy: Rapid and precise problem-solving performance exhibited by experts
    • Metacognitive skills: Ability to monitor, evaluate, and regulate problem-solving processes

    Insight vs Non-Insight Problems

    • Insight problem: Problem-solving situation with an initial block, then a sudden solution
    • Non-insight problem: Problem solved gradually, using memory, reasoning skills, and routine strategies

    Metacognition during Problem Solving

    • Research shows different metacognitive patterns for insight and noninsight problems

    Creativity

    • Generating solutions that are both novel and useful
    • Intrinsic motivation enhances creativity, while extrinsic motivation decreases it

    Decision Making and Deductive Reasoning

    • Decision making is the process of assessing information and choosing among two or more alternatives, and it is more ambiguous than deductive reasoning.
    • Deductive reasoning involves making a conclusion based on specific premises and logical principles.

    Decision-Making Heuristics

    Representativeness Heuristic

    • A general rule used to judge the likelihood of an outcome based on the similarity between the sample and the population.
    • Leads to the small-sample fallacy, assuming a small sample represents the population.
    • Example: Assuming a restaurant always has poor service based on two bad experiences.

    Base-Rate Fallacy

    • Ignoring the importance of base rate (frequency of an item in the population) when making a decision.
    • Example: Thinking air travel is very dangerous due to a news report, despite statistics showing it is safer than driving.

    Conjunction Fallacy

    • Judging the probability of two events to be greater than the probability of either individual event.
    • Example: Believing someone is more likely to be a teacher and a part-time musician than just a teacher, based on their love of music.

    Availability Heuristic

    • Estimating frequency or probability based on how easily examples come to mind.
    • Example: Overestimating the probability of car theft due to recent news stories.

    Recency Bias

    • Estimating frequency or probability based on the most recent information available.
    • Example: Overestimating the danger of air travel after a recent plane crash.

    Familiarity Bias

    • Estimating frequency or probability based on how familiar you are with something.
    • Example: Underestimating the prevalence of heart disease due to greater familiarity with cancer stories.

    Recognition Heuristic

    • Choosing the option you recognize over the one you don't, assuming the recognized option is more frequent.
    • Example: Choosing a recognized brand of cereal over an unknown one, assuming it is more popular.

    Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic

    • Beginning with a first approximation and making adjustments based on additional information.
    • Example: Estimating the result of a math problem differently based on the order of the numbers.

    Ecological Rationality

    • A description of how people create heuristic strategies to make adaptive choices in real-world contexts.
    • Emphasizes context-specific adaptation of decision-making strategies, unlike the heuristic approach.

    Framing Effect

    • When decisions are influenced by the background context or the way a question is worded.
    • Example: Preferring a treatment with a 90% survival rate over one with a 10% mortality rate, despite identical information.

    Overconfidence in Decision Making

    • When confidence judgments are higher than actual performance.
    • Factors that increase overconfidence include uncertain assumptions, confirmation bias, and difficulty in recalling alternative hypotheses.

    Hindsight Bias

    • The belief that an event was inevitable and predicted after it has already happened.
    • Example: Claiming to have known a team would win a sports championship after the event.

    Maximizers and Satisficers

    • Maximizers: People who examine many options instead of settling for a satisfactory one.
    • Satisficers: People who settle for a satisfactory option instead of examining many options.

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    Explore key concepts in cognitive psychology, including zeitgeist, mental set, and the Bruner and Potter illusion, and learn how they influence research and problem-solving.

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