Cognition - Review the Knowledge You Need to Score High - 5 Steps to a 5 AP Psychology, 2014-2015 Edition

5 Steps to a 5 AP Psychology, 2014-2015 Edition (2013)

STEP 4. Review the Knowledge You Need to Score High

Chapter 11. Cognition

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: Do you remember how classical conditioning compares with operant conditioning? In order to profit from what you learn, you need to remember it—information from sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and even skin sensations needs to be translated into codes that your brain can store and you can retrieve. Memory is your capacity to register, store, and recover information over time, or more simply, the persistence of learning over time. Your memory can be affected by how well you focus your attention, your motivation, how much you practice, your state of consciousness when you learn something and your state of consciousness when you recall it, and interference from other events and experiences. Cognitive psychologists study cognition, all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering information.

This chapter looks at how you make memories, remember and forget them, solve problems, and use thinking in your use of language.

Key Ideas

Models of memory

Organization of memories in LTM

Retrieving stored memories

Forgetting

Language

Thinking

Problem solving

Creativity

Models of Memory

Different models are used to explain memory. No model accounts for all memory phenomena.

Information Processing Model

The general information processing model compares our mind to a computer. According to this model, input is information. First input is encoded when our sensory receptors send impulses that are registered by neurons in our brain, similar to getting electronic information into our computer’s CPU (central processing unit) by keyboarding. We must store and retain the information in our brain for some period of time, ranging from a moment to a lifetime, similar to saving information in our computer’s hard drive. Finally, information must be retrieved upon demand when it is needed, similar to opening up a document or application from the hard drive.

Because we are unable to process all incoming sensory stimulation that is available, we start seeking out, focusing on, and selecting aspects of the available information. Donald Broadbent modeled human memory and thought processes using a flowchart that showed competing information filtered out early, as it is received by the senses and analyzed in the stages of memory. Attention is the mechanism by which we restrict information. Trying to attend to one task over another requires selective or focused attention. We have great difficulty when we try to attend to two complex tasks at once requiring divided attention, such as listening to different conversations or driving and texting. In dichotic listening experiments, participants heard different messages through left and right headphones simultaneously. They were directed to attend to one of the messages and repeat back the words (shadow it). Very little about the unattended message was processed, unless the participant’s name was said, which was noticed (the cocktail party effect). When the cocktail party effect occurred, information was lost from the attended ear. According to Anne Treisman’s feature integration theory, you must focus attention on complex incoming auditory or visual information in order to synthesize it into a meaningful pattern.

Levels of Processing Model

According to Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart’s levels of processing model, how long and how well we remember information depends on how deeply we process the information when it is encoded. With shallow processing, we use structural encoding of superficial sensory information that emphasizes the physical characteristics, such as lines and curves, of the stimulus as it first comes in. We assign no relevance to shallow processed information. For example, once traffic passes and no more traffic is coming, we cross the street. We notice that vehicles pass, but don’t pay attention to whether cars, bikes, or trucks make up the traffic and don’t remember any of them. Semantic encoding, associated with deep processing, emphasizes the meaning of verbal input. Deep processing occurs when we attach meaning to information and create associations between the new memory and existing memories (elaboration). Most of the information we remember over long periods is semantically encoded. For example, if you noticed a new red sports car, just like the one you dream about owning, zoom past you with the license plate, “FASTEST1,” and with your English teacher in the driver’s seat, you would probably remember it. One of the best ways to facilitate later recall is to relate the new information to ourselves (self-referent encoding).

Three-Stage Model

A more specific information processing model, the Atkinson–Shiffrin three-stage model of memory, describes three different memory systems characterized by time frames: sensory memory, short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM) (see Figure 11.1). External events from our senses are held in our sensory memory just long enough to be perceived. In sensory memory, visual or iconic memory that completely represents a visual stimulus lasts for less than a second, just long enough to ensure that we don’t see gaps between frames in a motion picture. Auditory or echoic memory lasts for about 4 seconds, just long enough for us to hear a flow of information. Most information in sensory memory is lost. Our selective attention, focusing of awareness on a specific stimulus in sensory memory, determines which very small fraction of information perceived in sensory memory is encoded into short-term memory. Encoding can be processed automatically or require our effort. Automatic processing is unconscious encoding of information about space, time, and frequency that occurs without interfering with our thinking about other things. This is an example of parallel processing, a natural mode of information processing that involves several information streams simultaneously. Effortful processing is encoding that requires our focused attention and conscious effort.

Figure 11.1 Atkinson–Shiffrin three-stage model of memory.

Short-Term Memory

Short-term memory (STM) can hold a limited amount of information for about 30 seconds unless it is processed further. Experiments by George Miller demonstrated that the capacity of STM is approximately seven (plus or minus two) unrelated bits of information at one time. STM lasts just long enough for us to input a seven-digit phone number after looking it up in a telephone directory. Then the number disappears from our memory. How can we get around these limitations of STM? We can hold our memory longer in STM if we rehearse the new information, consciously repeat it. The more time we spend learning new information, the more we retain of it. Even after we’ve learned information, more rehearsal increases our retention. The additional rehearsal is called overlearning. While rehearsal is usually verbal, it can be visual or spatial. People with a photographic or eidetic memory can “see” an image of something they are no longer looking at. We can increase the capacity of STM by chunking, grouping information into meaningful units. A chunk can be a word rather than individual letters, or a date rather than individual numbers, for example.

Although working memory is often used as a synonym for STM, Alan Baddeley’s working memory model involves much more than chunking, rehearsal, and passive storage of information. Baddeley’s working memory modelis an active three-part memory system that temporarily holds information and consists of a phonological loop, visuospatial working memory, and the central executive. The phonological loop briefly stores information about language sounds with an acoustic code from sensory memory and a rehearsal function that lets us repeat words in the loop. Visuospatial working memory briefly stores visual and spatial information from sensory memory, including imagery, or mental pictures. The central executive actively integrates information from the phonological loop, visuospatial working memory, and long-term memory as we associate old and new information, solve problems, and perform other cognitive tasks. Working memory accounts for our ability to carry on a conversation (using the phonological loop), while exercising (using visuospatial working memory) at the same time. Most of the information transferred into long-term memory seems to be semantically encoded.

Long-Term Memory

Long-term memory is the relatively permanent and practically unlimited capacity memory system into which information from short-term memory may pass. LTM is subdivided into explicit memory and implicit memory. Explicit memory, also called declarative memory, is our LTM of facts and experiences we consciously know and can verbalize. Explicit memory is further divided into semantic memory of facts and general knowledge, and episodic memory of personally experienced events. Implicit memory, also called nondeclarative memory, is our long-term memory for skills and procedures to do things affected by previous experience without that experience being consciously recalled. Implicit memory is further divided into procedural memory of motor and cognitive skills, and classical and operant conditioning effects, such as automatic associations between stimuli. Procedural memories are tasks that we perform automatically without thinking, such as tying our shoelaces or swimming.

Organization of Memories

How is information in long-term memory organized? Four major models account for organization of LTM: hierarchies, semantic networks, schemas, and connectionist networks. Hierarchies are systems in which concepts are arranged from more general to more specific classes. Concepts, mental representations of related things, may represent physical objects, events, organisms, attributes, or even abstractions. Concepts can be simple or complex. Many concepts have prototypes, which are the most typical examples of the concept. For example, a robin is a prototype for the concept bird; but penguin, emu, and ostrich are not. The basic level in the hierarchy, such as bird in our example, gives us as much detail as we normally need. Superordinate concepts include clusters of basic concepts, such as the concept vertebrates, which includes birds. Subordinate concepts are instances of basic concepts. Semantic networks are more irregular and distorted systems than strict hierarchies, with multiple links from one concept to others. Elements of semantic networks are not limited to particular aspects of items. For example, in a semantic network, the concept of bird can be linked to fly, feathers, wings, animals, vertebrate, robin, canary, and others, which can be linked to many other concepts. We build mental maps that organize and connect concepts to let us process complex experiences. Dr. Steve Kosslyn showed that we seem to scan a visual image of a picture (mental map) in our mind when asked questions. Schemas are preexisting mental frameworks that start as basic operations and then get more and more complex as we gain additional information. These frameworks enable us to organize and interpret new information, and can be easily expanded. These large knowledge structures influence the way we encode, make inferences about, and recall information. A script is a schema for an event. For example, because we have a script for elementary school, even if we’ve never been to a particular elementary school, we expect it to have teachers, young students, a principal, classrooms with desks and chairs, etc. Connectionism theory states that memory is stored throughout the brain in connections between neurons, many of which work together to process a single memory. Changes in the strength of synaptic connections are the basis of memory. Cognitive psychologists and computer scientists interested in artificial intelligence (AI) have designed the neural network or parallel processing model that emphasizes the simultaneous processing of information, which occurs automatically and without our awareness. Neural network computer models are based on neuronlike systems, which are biological rather than artificially contrived computer codes; they can learn, adapt to new situations, and deal with imprecise and incomplete information.

Biology of Long-Term Memory

According to neuroscientists, learning involves strengthening of neural connections at the synapses, called long-term potentiation (or LTP). LTP involves an increase in the efficiency with which signals are sent across the synapses within neural networks of long-term memories. This requires fewer neurotransmitter molecules to make neurons fire and an increase in receptor sites. Where were you when you heard about the 9/11 disaster? Like a camera with a flashbulb that captures a picture of an event, you may have captured that event in your memory. A flashbulb memory, a vivid memory of an emotionally arousing event, is associated with an increase of adrenal hormones triggering release of energy for neural processes and activation of the amygdala and hippocampus involved in emotional memories. Although memory is distributed throughout the brain, specific regions are more actively involved in both short-term and long-term memories. The role of the thalamus in memory seems to involve the encoding of sensory memory into short-term memory. STM seems to be located primarily in the prefrontal cortex and temporal lobes. The hippocampus, frontal and temporal lobes of the cerebral cortex, and other regions of the limbic system are involved in explicit long-term memory. Destruction of the hippocampus results in anterograde amnesia, the inability to put new information into explicit memory; no new semantic memories are formed. Another type of amnesia, retrograde amnesia, involves memory loss for a segment of the past, usually around the time of an accident, such as a blow to the head. This may result from disruption of the process of long-term potentiation. Studies using fMRI indicate that the hippocampus and left frontal lobe are especially active in encoding new information into memory, and the right frontal lobe is more active when we retrieve information. A person with damage to the hippocampus can develop skills and learn new procedures. The cerebellum is involved in implicit memory of skills.

Retrieving Memories

Retrieval is the process of getting information out of memory storage. Whenever we take tests, we retrieve information from memory in answering multiple-choice, fill-in, and essay questions. Multiple-choice questions require recognition, identification of learned items when they are presented. Fill-in and essay questions require recall, retrieval of previously learned information. Often the information we try to remember has missing pieces, which results in reconstruction, retrieval of memories that can be distorted by adding, dropping, or changing details to fit a schema.

Hermann Ebbinghaus experimentally investigated the properties of human memory using lists of meaningless syllables. He practiced lists by repeating the syllables and keeping records of his attempts at mastering them. He drew a learning curve. Keeping careful records, he then tested to see how long it took to forget a list. He drew a forgetting curve that declined rapidly before slowing. He found that recognition was sometimes easier than recall to measure forgetting. A method he used to measure retention of information was the savings method, the amount of repetitions required to relearn the list compared to the amount of repetitions it took to learn the list originally. Ebbinghaus also found that if he continued to practice a list after memorizing it well, the information was more resistant to forgetting. He called this the overlearning effect. When we try to retrieve a long list of words, we usually recall the last words and the first words best, forgetting the words in the middle. This is called the serial position effect. The primacy effect refers to better recall of the first items, thought to result from greater rehearsal; the recency effect refers to better recall of the last items. Immediately after learning, the last items may still be in working memory, accounting for the recency effect. We may remember words from the beginning of the list days later because rehearsal moved the words into our LTM.

What helps us remember? Retrieval cues, reminders associated with information we are trying to get out of memory, aid us in remembering. Retrieval cues can be other words or phrases in a specific hierarchy or semantic network, context, and mood or emotions. Priming is activating specific associations in memory either consciously or unconsciously. Retrieval cues prime our memories.

Cramming for a test does not help us remember as well as studying for the same total amount of time in shorter sessions on different occasions. Numerous studies have shown that distributed practice, spreading out the memorization of information or the learning of skills over several sessions, facilitates remembering better than massed practice, cramming the memorization of information or the learning of skills into one session.

If we use mnemonic devices or memory tricks when encoding information, these devices will help us retrieve concepts, for example acronyms such as ROY G. BIV for colors of the spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) or sayings such as, “My very educated mother just served us noodles” for the planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune). Another mnemonic, the method of loci, uses association of words on a list with visualization of places on a familiar path. For example, to remember ten items on a grocery list (chicken, corn, bread, etc.), we associate each with a place in our house (a chicken pecking at the front door, corn making a yellow mess smashed into the foyer, etc.). At the grocery store, we mentally take a tour of our house and retrieve each of the items. Another mnemonic to help us remember lists, the peg word mnemonic, requires us to first memorize a scheme such as “One is a bun, two is a shoe,” and so on, then mentally picture using the chicken in the bun, the corn in the shoe, etc. These images help both to encode items into LTM and later to retrieve them back into our working memory.

Successful retrieval often depends on the match between the way information is encoded in our brains and the way it is retrieved. The context that we are in when we experience an event, the mood we are in, and our internal state all affect our memory of an event. Our recall is often better when we try to recall information in the same physical setting in which we encoded it, possibly because along with the information, the environment is part of the memory trace; this process is called context-dependent memory. Taking a test in the same room where we learned information can result in greater recall and higher grades. Mood congruence aids retrieval. We recall experiences better that are consistent with our mood at retrieval; we remember information of other happy times when we are happy, and information of other sad times when we are unhappy. Finally, memory of an event can be state-dependent; things we learn in one internal state are more easily recalled when in the same state again. Although memory of anything learned when people are drunk is not good, if someone was drunk when he or she hid a gift, he or she might recall where the gift was hidden when he or she was drunk again.

Forgetting

Forgetting may result from failure to encode information, decay of stored memories, or an inability to access information from LTM. Encoding failure results from stimuli to which we were exposed never entering LTM because we did not pay attention to them. For example, most of us cannot remember what is on the front or back of different denominations of money. We use money to pay for things, yet have never paid attention to the details of the coins or paper bills. Decay of stored memories can be explained by a gradual fading of the physical memory trace. We may not remember vocabulary words we learned in a class for a different language several years ago because we have never used that information, and the neural connections are no longer there. Relearning is a measure of retention of memory that assesses the time saved compared to learning the first time when learning information again. If relearning takes as much time as initial learning, our memory of the information has decayed.

Cues and Interference

Forgetting that results from inability to access information from LTM can result from insufficient retrieval cues, interference, or motivated forgetting, according to Freud. Sometimes we know that we know something but can’t pull it out of memory; this is called tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. Often, providing ourselves with retrieval cues we associate with the blocked information can enable us to recall it. Learning some items may prevent retrieving others, especially when the items are similar. This is called interference. Proactive interference occurs when something we learned earlier disrupts recall of something we experience later. Trying to remember a new phone number may be disrupted by the memory of an old phone number. Retroactive interference is the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information. Someone asks us for our old address and it is blocked because our new address interferes with our recall of it.

Hint: Proactive interference is forward-acting. Retroactive interference is backward-acting. If we learn A, then B, and we can’t remember B because A got in the way, we are experiencing proactive interference. If we learn A, then B, and we can’t remember A because B got in the way, we are experiencing retroactive interference.

Sigmund Freud believed that repression (unconscious forgetting) of painful memories occurs as a defense mechanism to protect our self-concepts and minimize anxiety. Freud believed that the submerged memory still lingered in the unconscious mind, and with proper therapy, patience, and effort, these memories could be retrieved. Repressed memories are a controversial area of research today, with Elizabeth Loftus being one of the strongest opponents. She believes that rather than the memory of traumatic events, such as child molestation, being suddenly remembered during therapy, this phenomenon is more a result of the active reconstruction of memory and, thus, confabulation, filling in gaps in memory by combining and substituting memories from events other than the one we are trying to remember. Loftus has found that when we try to remember details at an accident scene, our emotional state, the questions a police officer may ask, and other confusing inconsistencies may result in confabulation. When asked how fast a car was going when it bumped, smashed, or collided into another vehicle, our estimate of the speed would probably differ depending on whether bumped or collided was part of the question. This misinformation effect occurs when we incorporate misleading information into our memory of an event. Forgetting what really happened, or distortion of information at retrieval, can result when we confuse the source of information—putting words in someone else’s mouth—or remember something we see in the movies or on the Internet as actually having happened. This is a misattribution error, also referred to as source amnesia.

Research has shown that we can improve our memory. Applying the information in this section, we can improve our memory for information in AP Psychology by over-learning, spending more time actively rehearsing material, relating the material to ourselves, using mnemonic devices, activating retrieval cues, recalling information soon after we learn it, minimizing interference, spacing out study sessions, and testing our own knowledge.

Language

Language is a flexible system of spoken, written, or signed symbols that enables us to communicate our thoughts and feelings. Language transmits knowledge from one generation to the next and expresses the history of a culture.

Building Blocks: Phonemes and Morphemes

Language is made up of basic sound units called phonemes. The phonemes themselves have no meaning. Of about 100 different phonemes worldwide, English uses about 45. Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units of speech, such as simple words, prefixes, and suffixes. Most morphemes are a combination of phonemes. For example, farm is made up of three phonemes (sounds) and one morpheme (meaning). Farmer has two morphemes. By adding “-er” to farm we change the meaning of the word to an individual who farms.

Combination Rules

Each language has a system of rules that determines how sounds and words can be combined and used to communicate meaning, called grammar. The set of rules that regulate the order in which words can be combined into grammatically sensible sentences in a language is called syntax. When we hear a sentence or phrase that lacks proper syntax, such as, “a yellow, big balloon,” we know it doesn’t sound right. The set of rules that enables us to derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences is semantics. Sentences have both a surface structure (the particular words and phrases) and a deep structure (the underlying meaning).

Language Acquisition Stages

From birth, we can communicate. A newborn’s cry alerts others to the infant’s discomfort. Children’s language development proceeds through a series of stages from the simple to the more complex. The coos and gurgles of the newborn turn into the babbling of the 4-month-old baby. Babbling is the production of phonemes, not limited to the phonemes to which the baby is exposed. Around 10 months of age, however, the phonemes a baby uses narrow to those of the language(s) spoken around him or her. At about their first birthday, most babies use a holophrase—one word—to convey meaning. They may point outdoors and say, “Go!” By their second birthday, they begin to put together two-word sentences, telegraphic speech characterized by the use of a verb and noun, such as “eat cookie.” At between 2 and 3 years of age, the child’s vocabulary expands exponentially. Sentences also increase in length and complexity. By the age of 3, children begin to follow the rules of grammar without any instruction. A 3-year-old says, “I goed to the store,” indicating use of the general rule that we form the past tense by adding -ed to a word. This is an example of overgeneralization or overregularization in which children apply grammatical rules without making appropriate exceptions. As their language develops further, children are able to express more abstract ideas that go beyond the physical world around them and to talk about their feelings.

Theories of Language Acquisition

Young children quickly acquire the language of others around them. Nativists argue that we are born with a biological predisposition for language, while behaviorists insist that we develop language by imitating the sounds we hear to create words. There is no debate about the sequential stages of language development described in the above section. Representing the nature side, nativist Noam Chomsky says that our brains are prewired for a universal grammar of nouns, verbs, subjects, objects, negations, and questions. He compares our language acquisition capacity to a “language acquisition device,” in which grammar switches are turned on as children are exposed to their language. He cites overgeneralization as evidence that children generate all sorts of sentences they have never heard, and thus could not be imitating. He further believes that there is a critical period for language development. If children are not exposed to language before adolescence, Chomsky believes they will be unable to acquire language. On the nurture side of the language acquisition debate, behaviorist B. F. Skinner believed that children learn language by association, reinforcement, and imitation. He contended that babies merely imitate the phonemes around them and get reinforcement for these. A baby’s first meaningful use of words is a result of shaping that is done by parents over the course of the first year. Today, social interactionists agree with both sides that language acquisition is a combination of nature and nurture. They believe, like Chomsky, that children are biologically prepared for language, but, like Skinner, they assert that the environment can either activate this potential or constrain it. Cognitive neuroscientists emphasize that the building of dense neuronal connections during the first few years of life is critical for the mastery of grammar.

Thinking

Thinking affects our language, which in turn affects our thoughts. Linguist Benjamin Whorf proposed a radical hypothesis that our language guides and determines our thinking. He thought that different languages cause people to view the world quite differently. Some words do not translate into other languages. In support of his idea, people who speak more than one language frequently report a different sense of themselves depending on the language they are speaking at the time. His linguistic relativity hypothesis has largely been discredited by empirical research. Rather than language determining what we can perceive, a more likely hypothesis is that the objects and events in our environment determine the words that become a part of our language.

Do you ever think about how you solve problems to attain goals? If so, you engage in metacognition, thinking about how you think. We usually manipulate concepts to solve problems. Concepts enable us to generalize, associate experiences and objects, access memories, and know how to react to specific experiences.

Problem Solving

How do we solve problems? Most problem-solving tasks involve a series of steps. Typically, we first identify that we have a problem. Next we generate problem-solving strategies. These can include using an algorithm or a heuristic, or breaking the problem into smaller problems, developing subgoals that move us toward the solution. An algorithm is a problem-solving strategy that involves a slow, step-by-step procedure that guarantees a solution to many types of problems. Although we will eventually solve the problem correctly using an algorithm, we usually want to solve problems quickly and employ heuristics or mental shortcuts to solve most problems. For example, when we’re not sure how to spell the word receive, rather than look up the word in the dictionary, we usually follow the heuristic “I before E, except after C, or when sounded like ‘ay,’ as in neighbor and weigh.” A heuristic suggests but does not guarantee a solution to a problem, and can result in incorrect solutions. Sometimes after trying to find a solution to a problem for a while, the solution suddenly comes to us. Insight is a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem. For example, after trying to unscramble the letters NEBOTYA to form a word, you suddenly realize that the word is bayonet. When we don’t have a clue how to solve a problem, we often start with a trial and error approach. This approach involves trying possible solutions and discarding those that do not work. If we need a combination lock for a locker and find an old lock in the drawer, we can try combinations of three numbers that come to mind, but this can be time consuming and may not lead to a solution. Trial and error works best when choices are limited. After we have tried to solve a problem, we need to evaluate the results. How will we decide if we have solved the problem? Using critical thinking, we think reflectively and evaluate the evidence. We reason by transforming information to reach conclusions. Inductive reasoning involves reasoning from the specific to the general, forming concepts about all members of a category based on some members, which is often correct but may be wrong if the members we have chosen do not fairly represent all of the members. Deductive reasoning involves reasoning from the general to the specific. Deductions are logically correct and lead to good answers when the initial rules or assumptions are true. Have we attained our goal? Over time, we may profit from rethinking and redefining problems and solutions.

Obstacles to Problem Solving

Sometimes we are unsuccessful at solving a problem; we cannot attain our goal. What hinders our ability to solve the problem? Obstacles to problem solving and biases in reasoning can keep us from reaching a goal. Fixation is an inability to look at a problem from a fresh perspective, using a prior strategy that may not lead to success. If we’ve solved 10 problems in a 50-problem set using one rule, we tend to use the same rule to solve the 11th. This tendency to approach the problem in the same way that has been successful previously is a type of fixation called mental set. We may get stuck on the 11th problem because it requires a different rule from the first 10. Another type of fixation that can be an obstacle to problem solving is called functional fixedness, a failure to use an object in an unusual way. For example, if people are carrying plastic tablecloths to a picnic area when it starts to rain, and they get soaked because they aren’t wearing raincoats and don’t have umbrellas, they are evidencing functional fixedness. They could have used the tablecloths to protect them from the rain. Using decision-making heuristics when we problem solve can result in errors in our judgments. Amos Tversky and Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman studied how and why people make illogical choices. They looked at two types of research. Normative studies ask how we ought to make decisions, and do not actually reflect how people make decisions. Descriptive studies look at how decisions are actually being made. Tversky and Kahneman found we often make erroneous decisions based on intuition. Under conditions of uncertainty, we often use the availability heuristic, estimating the probability of certain events in terms of how readily they come to mind. For example, many people who think nothing of taking a ride in a car are afraid to ride in an airplane because they think it is so dangerous. In fact, riding in an airplane is much safer; we are far less likely to be injured or die as a result of riding in an airplane. Other errors in decision making result from using the representative heuristic, a mental shortcut by which a new situation is judged by how well it matches a stereotypical model or a particular prototype. Is someone who loves to solve math problems more likely to be a mathematics professor or a high school student? Although many people immediately reply that it must be the professor, the correct answer to the problem is the high school student. The total number of high school students is so much greater than the total number of mathematics professors that even if only a small fraction of high school students love to solve math problems, there will be many more of them than mathematics professors. Framing refers to the way a problem is posed. How an issue is framed can significantly affect people’s perceptions, decisions, and judgments. We are more likely to buy a product that says it is 90% fat-free, than if it says it contains 10% fat. A suggestion can have a powerful effect on how we respond to a problem. Kahneman and Tversky asked if the length of the Mississippi River is longer or shorter than some suggested length and then asked how long the person thinks the river actually is. When the suggested length was 500 miles, the length guessed was much smaller than when the suggested length was 5,000 miles. The anchoring effect is this tendency to be influenced by a suggested reference point, pulling our response toward that point.

Biases

Confirmation bias is a tendency to search for and use information that supports our preconceptions and ignore information that refutes our ideas. To lessen this tendency, we can consider the opposite. Belief perseverance is a tendency to hold onto a belief after the basis for the belief is discredited. This is different from belief bias, the tendency for our preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning, making illogical conclusions seem valid or logical conclusions seem invalid. Hindsight bias is a tendency to falsely report, after the event, that we correctly predicted the outcome of the event. Finally, the overconfidence bias is a tendency to underestimate the extent to which our judgments are erroneous. For example, when reading this section dealing with obstacles to problem solving and errors in decision making, we tend to think that we make these errors less often than most other people do.

Creativity

Creativity is the ability to think about a problem or idea in new and unusual ways, to come up with unconventional solutions. One way to overcome obstacles to problem solving and avoid biases in reasoning is to borrow strategies from creative problem solvers. Convergent thinkers use problem-solving strategies directed toward one correct solution to a problem, whereas divergent thinkers produce many answers to the same question, characteristic of creativity. When they feel stuck on a particular problem, creative thinkers tend to move on to others. Later they come back to those stumpers with a fresh approach. To combat the confirmation and overconfidence biases, when beginning to solve a problem, creative problem solvers brainstorm, generating lots of ideas without evaluating them. After collecting as many ideas as possible, solutions are reviewed and evaluated.

Review Questions

Directions: For each question, choose the letter of the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.

1. The three stages of the Atkinson–Shiffrin process of memory are

(A) iconic, echoic, encoding

(B) sensory, short term, long term

(D) semantic, episodic, procedural

(E) cerebellum, temporal lobe, hippocampus

2. Which of the following examples best illustrates episodic memory?

(A) telling someone how to tie a shoe

(B) answering correctly that the Battle of Hastings was in 1066

(D) remembering that a clown was at your fifth birthday party

(E) long-term memory for the times tables learned in second grade

3. Doug wrote a grocery list of 10 items, but leaves it at home. The list included in order: peas, corn, squash, onions, apples, pears, bananas, flour, milk, and eggs. If the law of primacy holds, which of the following is Doug most likely to remember when he gets to the store?

(A) peas, pears, eggs

(B) banana, flour, peas

(D) flour, milk, eggs

(E) peas, corn, onions

4. In the example above, which of the items would be recalled in Doug’s short-term memory immediately after writing the list?

(A) peas, corn, squash

(B) peas, corn, onions

(D) flour, milk, eggs

(E) flour, corn, bananas

5. According to the levels of processing theory of memory,

(A) we remember items that are repeated again and again

(B) maintenance rehearsal will encode items into our long-term memory

(D) input, output, and storage are the three levels

(E) we can only hold 7 items in our short-term memory store before it is full

6. Which of the following brain structures plays a key role in transferring information from short-term memory to long-term memory?

(A) hypothalamus

(B) thalamus

(D) frontal lobe

(E) parietal lobe

7. Dai was drunk, so his girlfriend convinced him to get out of his car, and she drove him home in her car. He could not remember where his car was parked when he got up the next morning, but after drinking some liquor, Dai remembered where he left his car. This phenomenon best illustrates

(A) the misinformation effect

(B) mood-congruent memory

(D) state-dependent memory

(E) anterograde amnesia

8. Phonemes are:

(A) the rules of grammar that dictate letter combinations in a language

(B) the smallest unit of sound in a language

(D) semantically the same as morphemes

(E) about 100 different words that are common to all languages

9. Because it has all of the features commonly associated with the concept bird, a robin is considered

(A) a prototype

(B) a schematic

(D) a phenotype

(E) a heuristic

10. Compared to convergent thinkers, to solve a problem, divergent thinkers are more likely to:

(A) process information to arrive at the single best answer

(B) think creatively and generate multiple answers

(D) frequently suffer from functional fixedness

(E) use algorithms rather than heuristics to arrive at a solution

11. Unlike B. F. Skinner, Noam Chomsky believes that children

(A) learn to speak by mimicking the sounds around them

(B) speak more quickly if their parents correct their mispronunciations early

(D) learn language more quickly if positive rewards are given to them

(E) can learn to speak correctly only during a critical age

12. Which of the following is a good example of functional fixedness?

(A) failing to use a dime as a screwdriver when you have lost your screwdriver

(B) not being able to solve a physics problem because you apply the same rule you always do

(D) adding water to a cake mix when it calls for milk

(E) thinking of an apple first when you are asked to name fruits

13. Having been told that Syd is an engineer and Fran is an elementary school teacher, when Arnold meets the couple for the first time, he assumes that Syd is the husband and Fran is the wife, rather than the opposite, which is the case. This best illustrates:

(A) confirmation bias

(B) cognitive illusion

(D) the anchoring effect

(E) the representativeness heuristic

14. Which of the following is a holophrase one-year-old Amanda is likely to say?

(A) “Mmmmm”

(B) “Gaga”

(D) “I eated the cookie”

(E) “Bottle”

15. Which of the following exemplifies retroactive interference?

(A) After suffering a blow to the head, Jean cannot form new memories.

(B) Elle failed a Spanish test because she studied for her Italian test after studying Spanish.

(D) Gene cannot remember his new locker combination but remembers last year’s.

(E) Jodi remembers the first few items on her school supply list, but can’t remember the rest of them.

Answers and Explanations

1. B—The three stages of the Atkinson–Shiffrin process of memory are sensory memory, short-term (working memory), and long-term memory.

2. D—Episodic memories, like having a clown at your fifth birthday, are memories of events which happened to you personally—rather than factual semantic memories like dates, math problems, and French vocabulary—or procedural memories like how to tie a shoe.

3. E—Peas, corn, and onions all are words at the beginning of the list. The primacy effect refers to better recall for words at the beginning of a list, which have been transferred to long-term memory as a result of rehearsal.

4. D—Flour, milk, and eggs are the last items on the list. They are likely to be in our short-term memory for retrieval for 20 seconds unless rehearsed. Words at the beginning of the list, as in the question above, are more likely encoded into our long-term memories because we have rehearsed them more often than items at the end of the list.

5. C—Elaborative rehearsal enables deeper processing of information into long-term memory. It makes both encoding into and retrieval from long-term memory easier.

6. C—Although explicit memories are not necessarily stored in the hippocampus, we know that hippocampal damage does affect processing of explicit memories for semantic and episodic events into long-term memory.

7. D—Dai remembered where he left his car when he was in the same physiological state as when he was last in his car.

8. B—There are about 100 phonemes worldwide; the English language uses about 45 of them.

9. A—When asked to mention types of birds, an average or typical one likely to come to mind (a prototype) would be a robin because it has all the characteristics of the category.

10. B—Divergent thinkers think out of the box, generate more possible solutions, and are more creative thinkers than convergent thinkers.

11. C—Nativist Noam Chomsky has suggested that babies come equipped with a language acquisition device in their brains that is preprogrammed to analyze language as they hear it and determine its rules.

12. A—Using a dime to substitute for a screwdriver shows a lack of functional fixedness because you are able to come up with an unconventional way to use a standard item when needed.

13. E—Arnold made a faulty decision based on his prototypes that elementary school teachers are women and engineers are men.

14. E—The one-year-old communicates that she wants a drink using a holophrase, one word.

15. B—In retroactive interference we can’t recall previously learned information, because newer information (Italian) disrupts the older information (Spanish) and makes it more difficult to retrieve.

Rapid Review

Memory—human capacity to register, retain, and remember information.

Three models of memory:

1. Information Processing Model of memory—encoding, storage, and retrieval.

• Encoding—the process of putting information into the memory system.

• Storage—the retention of encoded information over time.

• Retrieval—the process of getting information out of memory storage.

We have difficulty attending to two complex tasks—divided attention.

2. Levels of Processing Theory or Semantic Network Theory—the ability to form memories depends upon the depth of the processing.

• Shallow processing—structural encoding emphasizes structure of incoming sensory information.

• Deep processing—semantic encoding involves forming an association or attaching meaning to a sensory impression and results in longer-lasting memories.

Self-reference effect or self-referent encoding—processing information deemed important or relevant more deeply, making it easier to recall.

3. Atkinson-Shiffrin model: Three memory systems—sensory, short-term, and long-term.

Sensory memory—memory system that holds external events from the senses for up to a few seconds.

• Visual encoding—the encoding of picture images.

• Iconic memory—a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli.

• Acoustic encoding—the encoding of sound, especially the sound of words.

• Echoic memory—a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli.

• Selective attention—the focusing of awareness on stimuli in sensory memory that facilitates its encoding into STM.

• Automatic processing—unconscious encoding of information about space, time, and frequency that occurs without interfering with our thinking about other things.

• Parallel processing—a natural mode of information processing that involves several information streams simultaneously.

• Effortful processing—encoding that requires our attention and conscious effort.

• Feature extraction (pattern recognition)—finding a match for new raw information in sensory storage by actively searching through long-term memory.

Short-term memory (STM)—working memory, 20 seconds before forgotten; capacity of seven plus or minus two items.

• Rehearsal—conscious repetition of information to either maintain information in STM or to encode it for storage.

• Maintenance rehearsal—repetition that keeps information in STM about 20 seconds.

• Elaborative rehearsal—repetition that creates associations between the new memory and existing memories stored in LTM.

• Chunking—grouping information into meaningful units increasing the capacity of STM.

• Mnemonic devices—memory tricks or strategies to make information easier to remember.

• Method of loci—uses visualization with familiar objects on a path to recall information in a list.

• Peg word system—uses association of terms to be remembered with a memorized scheme (“One is a bun, two is …”).

Long-term memory (LTM)—relatively permanent storage with unlimited capacity, LTM is subdivided into explicit (declarative) memory and implicit memory.

• Explicit memory (declarative)—memory of facts and experiences that one consciously knows and can verbalize. Explicit memory is subdivided into semantic memory (memory of general knowledge or objective facts) and episodic memory (memory of personally experienced events).

• Implicit memory (nondeclarative)—retention without conscious recollection of learning the skills and dispositions. Implicit memory includes procedural memory—memories of perceptual, motor, and cognitive skills.

Four major models account for organization of information in LTM:

1. Hierarchies—systems in which concepts are arranged from more general to more specific classes.

Concepts—mental representations of related things.

Prototypes—the most typical examples of a concept.

2. Semantic networks—more irregular and distorted systems than strict hierarchies, with multiple links from one concept to others.

3. Schemas—frameworks of basic ideas and preconceptions about people, objects, and events based on past experience.

Script—a schema for an event.

4. Connectionism—theory that memory is stored throughout the brain in connections between neurons, many of which can work together to process a single memory.

Artificial intelligence (AI)—a field of study in which computer programs are designed to simulate human cognitive abilities such as reasoning, learning, and understanding language.

Neural network or Parallel processing model—clusters of neurons that are interconnected (and computer models based on neuronlike systems) and process information simultaneously, automatically, and without our awareness.

Long-term potentiation or LTP—an increase in a synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation and possibly the neural basis for learning and memory, involving an increase in the efficiency with which signals are sent across the synapses within neural networks.

The biology of memory:

• The thalamus is involved in encoding sensory memory into STM.

• The hippocampus is involved in putting information from STM into LTM.

• The amygdala is involved in the storage of emotional memories.

• The cerebellum processes implicit memories and seems to store procedural memory and classically conditioned memories.

Retrieval—the process of getting information out of memory storage. Key terms and concepts associated with retrieval include:

• Retrieval cue—a stimulus that provides a trigger to get an item out of memory.

• Priming—activating specific associations in memory either consciously or unconsciously.

• Recognition—identification of something as familiar such as multiple choice and matching questions on a test.

• Recall—retrieval of information from LTM in the absence of any other information or cues such as for an essay question or fill-in on a test.

• Reconstruction—retrieval that can be distorted by adding, dropping, or changing details to complete a picture from incomplete stored information.

• Confabulation—process of combining and substituting memories from events other than the one you’re trying to remember.

• Flashbulb memory—vivid memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.

• Misinformation effect—incorporation of misleading information into memories of a given event.

• Serial position effect—better recall for information that comes at the beginning (primacy effect) and at the end of a list of words (recency effect).

• Encoding specificity principle—retrieval depends upon the match between the way information is encoded and the way it is retrieved.

• Context-dependent memory—physical setting in which a person learns information is encoded along with the information and becomes part of the memory trace.

• Mood congruence (mood-dependent memory)—tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current good or bad mood.

• State-dependent memory effect—tendency to recall information better when in the same internal state as when the information was encoded.

• Distributed practice—spreading out the memorization of information or the learning of skills over several sessions typically produces better retrieval than massed practice.

• Massed practice—cramming the memorization of information or the learning of skills into one session.

Forgetting—the inability to retrieve information. Forgetting results from failure to encode, decay of stored memories, or inability to access stored information. Key terms and concepts associated with memory include:

• Interference—learning some items prevents retrieving others, especially when the items are similar.

• Proactive interference—the process by which old memories prevent the retrieval of newer memories.

• Retroactive inference—the process by which new memories prevent the retrieval of older memories.

• Repression—the tendency to forget unpleasant or traumatic memories hidden in the unconscious mind according to Freud.

• Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon—the often temporary inability to access information accompanied by a feeling that the information is in LTM.

• Anterograde amnesia—inability to put new information into explicit memory resulting from damage to hippocampus; no new semantic memories are formed.

• Retrograde amnesia—memory loss for a segment of the past, usually around the time of an accident.

Overlearning—continuing to practice after memorizing information makes it more resistant to forgetting.

Cognition—all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering.

Metacognition—thinking about how you think.

Problem-solving steps typically involve identifying a problem, generating problem-solving strategies, trying a strategy, and evaluating the results.

Trial and error—trying possible solutions and discarding those that fail to solve the problem.

Algorithm—problem-solving strategy that involves a step-by-step procedure that guarantees a solution to certain types of problems.

Heuristic—a problem-solving strategy used as a mental shortcut to quickly simplify and solve a problem, but that does not guarantee a correct solution.

Insight learning—the sudden appearance (often creative) or awareness of a solution to a problem.

Deductive reasoning—reasoning from the general to the specific.

Inductive reasoning—reasoning from the specific to the general.

Hindrances to problem solving may include:

• Mental sets—barriers to problem solving that occur when we apply only methods that have worked in the past rather than trying new or different strategies.

• Functional fixedness—when we are not able to recognize novel uses for an object because we are so familiar with its common use.

• Cognitive illusion—systematic way of thinking that is responsible for an error in judgment.

• Availability heuristic—a tendency to estimate the probability of certain events in terms of how readily they come to mind.

• Representativeness heuristic—tendency to judge the likelihood of things according to how they relate to a prototype.

• Framing—the way an issue is stated. How an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

• Anchoring effect—tendency to be influenced by a suggested reference point, pulling our response toward that point.

• Confirmation bias—tendency to notice or seek information that already supports our preconceptions and ignore information that refutes our ideas.

• Belief perseverance—the tendency to hold onto a belief after the basis for the belief is discredited.

• Belief bias—the tendency for our preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning, making illogical conclusions seem valid or logical conclusions seem invalid.

• Hindsight bias—the tendency to falsely report, after the event, that we correctly predicted the outcome of the event.

• Overconfidence bias—the tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

Overcoming obstacles to problem solving can include:

• Creativity—the ability to think about a problem or idea in new and unusual ways to come up with unconventional solutions.

• Incubation—putting aside a problem temporarily; allows the problem solver to look at the problem from a different perspective.

• Brainstorming—generating lots of possible solutions to a problem without making prior evaluative judgments.

• Divergent thinking—thinking that produces many alternatives or ideas.

• Convergent thinking—conventional thinking directed toward a single correct solution.

Language—communication system based on words and grammar; spoken, written, or gestured words and the way they are combined to communicate meaning from person to person and to transmit civilization’s accumulated knowledge. Key elements of language include:

• Phonemes—smallest units of sound in spoken language.

• Morphemes—the smallest unit of language that has meaning.

• Grammar—a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.

• Syntax—rules that are used to order words into grammatically sensible sentences.

• Semantics—a set of rules we use to derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences.

Key concepts and terms associated with language development include:

• Babbling—an infant’s spontaneous production of speech sounds; begins around 4 months old.

• Holophrase—one-word utterances that convey meaning; characteristic of a 1-year-old.

• Telegraphic speech—meaningful two-word sentences, usually a noun and a verb, and usually in the correct order uttered by 2-year-olds.

• Overgeneralization or overregularization—application of grammatical rules without making appropriate exceptions (“I goed to the store”).

• Behavioral perspective—language is developed by imitating sounds we hear to create words.

• Nativist perspective—idea that the human brain has an innate capacity for acquiring language (language acquisition device) possibly during a critical period of time after birth, and that children are born with a universal sense of grammar (Noam Chomsky).

• Social interactivist perspective—babies are biologically equipped for learning language, which may be activated or constrained by experience.

Linguistic relativity hypothesis—our language guides and determines our thinking (Whorf). It is more accurate to say that language influences thought.