Chapter 7: Cognition

The principal model of memory is the three-box model, also called the

The first stop for external events is

demonstrated this in a series of experiments in which he flashed a grid of nine letters, three rows and three columns, to participants for 1/20th of a second.

a split-second perfect photograph of a scene.

an equally perfect brief (3–4 second) memory for sounds.

Sometimes selective attention is not as controlled.

Short-term memory is also called __ because these are memories we are currently working with and are aware of in our consciousness.

is our permanent storage.

(also called declarative memories) are what we usually think of first.

(also called nondeclarative memories) are unintentional memories that we might not even realize we have.

studied a patient with eidetic memory who could repeat a list of 70 letters or digits.

This theory explains why we remember what we do by examining how deeply the memory was processed or thought about.

is the process of matching a current event or fact with one already in memory (e.g. “Have I smelled this smell before?”).

is retrieving a memory with an external cue (e.g. “What does my Aunt Beki’s perfume smell like?”).

(1850–1909) established that the order of items in a list is related to whether or not we will recall them.

predicts that we are more likely to recall items presented at the beginning of a list.

is demonstrated by our ability to recall the items at the end of a list.

Together the primacy effect and recency effect demonstrate the

This temporary inability to remember information is sometimes called the

This theory states that our brain might form new memories by connecting their meaning and context with meanings already in memory.

are powerful because the importance of the event caused us to encode the context surrounding the event.

or the greater likelihood of recalling an item when our mood matched the mood we were in when the event happened.

refers to the phenomenon of recalling events encoded while in particular states of consciousness.

can report false details of a real event or might even be a recollection of an event that never occurred.

Another factor that causes forgetting is

Learning new information interferes with the recall of older information. If you study your psychology at 3:00 and your sociology at 6:00, you might have trouble recalling the psychology information on a test the next day.

Older information learned previously interferes with the recall of information learned more recently. If a researcher reads you a list of items in a certain order, then rereads them differently and asks you to list them in the new order, the old list proactively interferes with recall of the new list.

they cannot encode new memories

At the neurological level, researchers focus on a process called

is intimately connected to cognition.

are the smallest units of sound used in a language.

is the smallest unit of meaningful sound.

During which babies speak in single words (holophrases) is sometimes called the

The next language acquisition stage occurs at around 18 months and is called

This misapplication of grammar rules is called

the ability to learn a language rapidly as children (this is also called the nativist theory of language acquisition).

theorized that the language we use might control, and in some ways limit, our thinking.

Descriptions are thoughts, so we are attempting to describe thought using thought itself.

are similar to the schemata

are the mental pictures we create in our minds of the outside world.

Many researchers try to study thought by examining the results of thinking.

is a rule that guarantees the right solution by using a formula or other foolproof method.

is a rule of thumb—a rule that is generally, but not always, true that we can use to make a judgment in a situation.

Judging a situation based on examples of similar situations that come to mind initially.

Judging a situation based on how similar the aspects are to prototypes the person holds in his or her mind.

is our tendency to overestimate how accurate our judgments are.

occurs when we make illogical conclusions in order to confirm our preexisting beliefs.

refers to our tendency to maintain a belief even after the evidence we used to form the belief is contradicted.

refers to the way a problem is presented.

thinking pointed toward one solution,

thinking that searches for multiple possible answers to a question.