- adapting our current understandings (schemas) to
incorporate new information
Accommodation - "can change"
- A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees
solving a particular problem.
Algorithm - step by step procedure
- attempt all possible solutions
Neurons that use the neurotransmitter acetylcholine
degenerate in the hippocampus—> leads to memory
Alzheimer's disease degeneration
- inability to form new memories
Anterograde amnesia - still remember the past
- interpreting one's new experience in terms of one's
existing schemas (understandings)
- using preconceived notions and prior perceptions to
Assimilation interpret new info
- "stays the same"
, - unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as
space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned
Automatic processing information, such as word meanings
- effortless
- judging the likelihood of events based on their
availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind
(perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such
events are common.
availability heuristic - ex: there weren't actually 3 wise men, people just
commonly say there was
- the persistence of one's initial conceptions even after the
basis on which they were formed has been discredited.
belief perseverance
- Putting certain pieces of related info under categories
- ex: orange, apple, pear=fruits
Categories
- a memory component that coordinates the activities of
the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad.
Central executive - coordinates focused processing of memory
organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often
Chunking occurs automatically
All the mental activities associated with thinking,
Cognition knowing, remembering, and communicating
, Cognitive psychologist study how we perceive, think, and solve problems
a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or
people
Concept Ex: concept of a chair-> high chair, lounge chair, dentist
chair
a tendency to search for information that confirms one's
Confirmation bias preconceptions
- Memory that is constructed from inferences as well as
input information, which can be affected by biases and
other influences.
Constructive memory - a story your brain rebuilds each time you recall it
- heavily misinformed memories
memory is aided by being in the physical location where
Context effects encoding took place
- narrows the available problem solutions to determine the
single best solution
Convergent thinking - ex: the SAT is an aptitude test
Creativity the ability to produce new and valuable ideas
Trouble remembering language and verbal info
damaged left hippocampus
Trouble with visual and spatial memories
damaged right hippocampus