Cognition Cognition Anything that involves the process of thinking including memory and planning Can be conscious or unconscious Can be concrete or abstract Can be intuitive or conceptual Memory Learning that has persisted over time can allow you to restore and retrieve memories Memory Encoding Experiencing and putting information into our memory This is actually getting down and writing an essay Storage If you don t hit the save button on your brain the memory goes away you have to store them to keep it Retrieval When you take a test on memory you need to recall the memories being created All memories depend on these Connectionism All of our memories come from interconnected neural networks specific memories activate specific parts of the brain and we remember them better if they are connected to other things Atkinson and Shiffrin Said that memories are made up of many different parts Sensory Memory Extremely short term memory Brief moments of sensory information Short Term Memory If the memory is important it becomes short term memory Also extremely brief but limited Most people can only hold between 5 9 items in a short term memory Remembering definitions for a vocab test in english for a few minutes Long Term Memory Essentially permanent and limitless No one has ever filled up their long term memory Flashbulb Memory You have a powerful memory that is so overwhelming that is bypasses the normal encoding process and automatically becomes long term memory Can be both good and bad memories 9 11 and winning the lottery Working Memory What school is all about Has transferred from short term to long term but you are currently using and need access to While using that information you have a good idea about it but when you stop using it you forget it Falls more into short term but has some characteristics of long term Encoding Parallel Processing The brain processes both automatically and effortfully at the same time You can process automatically without trying to think of them and effortfully where you sit down studying for a test saying I need to remember this Automatic Processing Requires no effort to remember time space frequency and well learned information We process time somewhat automatically Our brain automatically remembers where we are like in cognitive mapping Well learned information is when you park your car next to a Dunkin Donuts truck even though you do not remember you can find your car because the logo is so well learned you process it automatically Through experience well learned information can become better Effortful Processing Effortful processing can become automatic Requires our own time and our attention Rehearsal Practice conscious repetition The more we rehearse something the better we remember it How long you rehearse depends on how much you remember Spacing Effect If you space out your rehearsal over a period of time you will remember it better Long term learning is not made from cram studying Testing Effect Repeated quizzing of previously learned information Serial Position Effect Where we have a list of items to remember we have better memories of some of them as opposed to others Memorizing things from a list can be difficult Primacy Effect The most memorable thing on the list is the first one Recency Effect The second most memorable thing on the list is the last one because you just dealt with it Visual Encoding We create a picture of what we are trying to remember We remember images better than abstract concepts Acoustic Encoding We remember things based on sound Semantic Encoding Remembering meanings the most effective form of encoding Remembering something where it has some specific resonance to you Creating something with meaning to us Self Reference Encoding If we can make things personal to us by referencing ourselves The adjectives people tend to remember are the ones that fit them to best Will likely result in you remembering something better than if it didn t relate to you Imagery Using images to remember things Peg words are used to help us remember them If you are trying to memorize a list of terms in order you create a mental image for each one of those things You create a mental image of soup involving the peg words You would create a picture with that word you are trying to remember if you have a picture of a hen and a postcard the postcard is number 10 By creating images that rhyme with the order they are on the list you remember them Mnemonics A technique that allows for easing the recollection of memory PEMDAS ROYGBIV are examples Helps us encode the information putting it into our brain not storing or retrieving it Chunks Breaking information up into smaller more usable units Looking at a big number as groups of 4 digit numbers We take what we are looking to memorize and break them into something more useful to us Hierarchies Organizing things from greater to smaller or smaller to greater Storing Memory Iconic We store information in two different ways Deals with our sense of sight your brain has encoded where something is on your notes just not what it says Encoding things using visual sense to remember one specific place A momentary sensory memory of a visual stimuli Echoic Deals with hearing We have a memory of things that we have heard They have no time to store the information because they are being asked to do a math problem They don t rehearse the information Long Term Potentiation We can only consciously process a very limited amount of information but once it has become long term memory there is no limit to what we can store The more we use memory the better our neural pathways become This is long term potentiation The physical process of how we make a memory It is a neurological process there are chemicals that can either inhibit or enhance our ability to make memories Stress and Memory Flashbulb Memory Again When you are stressed it is very easy to make new memories You also have trouble accessing your memories Stress is connected to memories because they are tied to our limbic system therefore our emotions and stressed When we are stressed we remember things more vividly and make them easier We also have more difficulty pulling up memories Amnesia The inability to form new memories Amnesiacs can learn afterwards they cannot remember things from before Someone with amnesia may not remember their name but they can walk and talk just fine Implicit and Explicit Memories Implicit memories are ones you don t need to think
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