UNIT 2: COGNITION
CREATIVITY
Two Parts of Creativity
● Novelty: to be creative, something should be unique or different from things
that have come before
○ Can happen by adapting or parodying prior ideas or combining ideas in
a new way
○ In other words, it doesn’t have to be totally original
● Useful: Shakespeare is credited with pioneering the use of the many common
words we use today. Those words would not have survived so long if they
weren’t useful.
○ Demonstrates the second part of creativity: an idea should have some
utility and can’t just be random nonsense.
Convergent vs. Divergent Thinking
● Humans have a paradox in that we like to fit in, but we also like to stand out.
○ Individuals stand out due to divergent thinking–thinking that deviates
from the norm
○ Convergent thinking is where the thinking falls in line with the norm
● These concepts for based on context
○ EX. In a town whose main fashion trend is parachute pants, skinny
jeans could be an example of divergent thinking.
Gestalt Psychology
● In the 1900s, German psychologists noticed that we tend to organize objects
into groups
● Figure-ground relationship: the organization of the visual field into objects
that stand out from their surroundings
○ EX. words = figure and paper = ground
● Grouping: perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into groups
● Ways we group stimuli
○ Similarity: based on how similar they are
○ Proximity: nearby figures
○ Continuity: smooth, continuous patterns
○ Closure: filling gaps to create complete object
, ■
○ Common region: individual figures grouped together if they share an
area with a clearly defined boundary
○ Contiguity: two things that happen close together in time
■ EX. associating fire extinguisher with fire
● Monocular Cues
○ Relative size, interposition, relative clarity, texture gradient, light and
shadow
● Binocular Cues
○ Convergence - helps calculate distance
○ Retinal disparity - each eye sees slightly differently.
● Heuristic: a type of shortcut that we do in order to make a decision
○ Availability Heuristic: making decisions on events based on how vivid
your memory is on the event
○ Representativeness Heuristic: taking post information on stereotypes
and making decisions based on that
INTRODUCTION TO MEMORY
Different Levels of Memory
● Memory exists on a spectrum: most things are forgotten, many things are
partially remembered or enough to recognize, and few things are memorized
permanently enough to become permanent.
● Recall: test of whether or not you can bring something that you weren’t
thinking about into your consciousness (e.g FRQs)
● Recognition: referred to as passive learning, this involves being able to
distinguish things you’ve seen before from things you haven’t
● Relearning: this refers to the fact that we learn info faster after seeing it
more than once.
Analogy for Memory
● Our memory system is similar to that of a computer
, ● Humans encode experiences as memories (e.g learning vocab words is like
feeding data into a computer)
● If the info sticks, it has entered memory storage, like a harddrive on a
computer
● You can retrieve the memory through retrieval.
○ The more encoded the memory, the more accurate the retrieval
● Sensory memory: the base level of memory; usually unintentionally;
everything that goes through your mind
● Short-term memory (working memory): more important things from sensory
memory
● Long-term memory: more important things from short-term memory
○ EX. like RAM on a computer vs stored files on a hard drive
How Working Memory Works
● 3 main parts: central executive, phonological, visuospatial sketchpad
● Central executive: supervisory system that controls information flow
● Phonological loop: part of our working memory system that handles auditory
and verbal information, including language and music
● Visuospatial Sketchpad: the component of working memory responsible for
handling visual and spatial information (e.g how you’d imagine a chair).
● Episodic buffer: theorized to integrate the other functions with a sense of
time, so that things occur in a continuing sequence, like a story from a book
or movie
Types of Memory
● Effortful processing: learning or storing (encoding) that requires attention
and effort
● Automatic processing: automatic processing is like muscle memory. When
you start to do something that you have done many times, you can complete
it successfully without giving it any thought, that's an automatic process.
○ EX. Memorizing your room or reading
● Explicit memory/Declarative memory: a type of long term memory in which
we consciously store memories of factual information, previous experiences,
and concepts
○ EX. Vocab, factual info
CREATIVITY
Two Parts of Creativity
● Novelty: to be creative, something should be unique or different from things
that have come before
○ Can happen by adapting or parodying prior ideas or combining ideas in
a new way
○ In other words, it doesn’t have to be totally original
● Useful: Shakespeare is credited with pioneering the use of the many common
words we use today. Those words would not have survived so long if they
weren’t useful.
○ Demonstrates the second part of creativity: an idea should have some
utility and can’t just be random nonsense.
Convergent vs. Divergent Thinking
● Humans have a paradox in that we like to fit in, but we also like to stand out.
○ Individuals stand out due to divergent thinking–thinking that deviates
from the norm
○ Convergent thinking is where the thinking falls in line with the norm
● These concepts for based on context
○ EX. In a town whose main fashion trend is parachute pants, skinny
jeans could be an example of divergent thinking.
Gestalt Psychology
● In the 1900s, German psychologists noticed that we tend to organize objects
into groups
● Figure-ground relationship: the organization of the visual field into objects
that stand out from their surroundings
○ EX. words = figure and paper = ground
● Grouping: perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into groups
● Ways we group stimuli
○ Similarity: based on how similar they are
○ Proximity: nearby figures
○ Continuity: smooth, continuous patterns
○ Closure: filling gaps to create complete object
, ■
○ Common region: individual figures grouped together if they share an
area with a clearly defined boundary
○ Contiguity: two things that happen close together in time
■ EX. associating fire extinguisher with fire
● Monocular Cues
○ Relative size, interposition, relative clarity, texture gradient, light and
shadow
● Binocular Cues
○ Convergence - helps calculate distance
○ Retinal disparity - each eye sees slightly differently.
● Heuristic: a type of shortcut that we do in order to make a decision
○ Availability Heuristic: making decisions on events based on how vivid
your memory is on the event
○ Representativeness Heuristic: taking post information on stereotypes
and making decisions based on that
INTRODUCTION TO MEMORY
Different Levels of Memory
● Memory exists on a spectrum: most things are forgotten, many things are
partially remembered or enough to recognize, and few things are memorized
permanently enough to become permanent.
● Recall: test of whether or not you can bring something that you weren’t
thinking about into your consciousness (e.g FRQs)
● Recognition: referred to as passive learning, this involves being able to
distinguish things you’ve seen before from things you haven’t
● Relearning: this refers to the fact that we learn info faster after seeing it
more than once.
Analogy for Memory
● Our memory system is similar to that of a computer
, ● Humans encode experiences as memories (e.g learning vocab words is like
feeding data into a computer)
● If the info sticks, it has entered memory storage, like a harddrive on a
computer
● You can retrieve the memory through retrieval.
○ The more encoded the memory, the more accurate the retrieval
● Sensory memory: the base level of memory; usually unintentionally;
everything that goes through your mind
● Short-term memory (working memory): more important things from sensory
memory
● Long-term memory: more important things from short-term memory
○ EX. like RAM on a computer vs stored files on a hard drive
How Working Memory Works
● 3 main parts: central executive, phonological, visuospatial sketchpad
● Central executive: supervisory system that controls information flow
● Phonological loop: part of our working memory system that handles auditory
and verbal information, including language and music
● Visuospatial Sketchpad: the component of working memory responsible for
handling visual and spatial information (e.g how you’d imagine a chair).
● Episodic buffer: theorized to integrate the other functions with a sense of
time, so that things occur in a continuing sequence, like a story from a book
or movie
Types of Memory
● Effortful processing: learning or storing (encoding) that requires attention
and effort
● Automatic processing: automatic processing is like muscle memory. When
you start to do something that you have done many times, you can complete
it successfully without giving it any thought, that's an automatic process.
○ EX. Memorizing your room or reading
● Explicit memory/Declarative memory: a type of long term memory in which
we consciously store memories of factual information, previous experiences,
and concepts
○ EX. Vocab, factual info
