Module 2 Cognition Intelligence Memory What is cognition The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought experience and the senses What is metacognition Metacognition is higher level cognition and refers to thinking about the thought process itself To the extent you can monitor your own thoughts you might be able to change and improve the way your thought processes operate What is the difference between Automatic and Controlled cognition Describe this in terms of intention awareness control and effort Automatic cognition the thought that happens subconsciously and without any real effort Controlled cognition the thought that we are aware of and that takes some mental effort What is the research evidence that controlled processes can become automatic processes Schneider Shiffrin 1977 performed a study where sets of four letters were rapidly flashed on a screen The observer s task is to detect the presence of target letters that might appear once in the set In the first test the target letters changed after about 100 sets of letters Because the observer had to keep changing which letters to look for this task required conscious attention throughout testing and therefore used controlled processing In the test where the target letters remained the same throughout testing processing eventually became automatic Detecting the target became much faster and observers reported that the target seemed to jump out from among the other letters What are some things in your life that used to require effort but now happen automatically o Riding a bike o Tying your shoes o Putting a password into computer o Writing your name What is the stroop task How does it relate to controlled vs automatic processes In the stroop task you will see a word appear on the screen and all you have to do is click the button to indicate what color the ink is For this to work you must try and respond as fast as possible and record the average times for congruent and incongruent trials This task becomes very difficult because an automatic process interferes with a controlled process What is cognitive load and how does it explain why we cannot truly multitask Cognitive load is when our mind is occupied with effortful tasks It explains why we cannot truly multitask because the brain physically cannot focus on too many things at once What is the advantage of being able to allocate cognitive resources to different tasks Allocating cognitive resources allows your brain to figure out what is most important in the moment this way you do not waste resources on things that are less important How is the cocktail party effect an example of motivation determining allocation At a cocktail party you are using your resources to listen to the person you are speaking to even though there is loud noise all around you Your brain can hear every word the other person is say because you are so focused on listening in that moment What is the evidence that depleted resources reduce self control Studies suggest that relatively small acts of self control passing up a cookie stifling prejudice controlling attention even helping people significantly reduce the body s blood glucose level leading to poor self control on subsequent tasks How does this relate to glucose Glucose acts as brain fuel that supports complex psychological processes What about fatigue Those who do not re fuel on glucose lose energy and become more tired This leads to a lack of motivation to fulfill daily tasks What is ego depletion and how does it affect decisions and behavior Ego depletion occurs when you exercise self control and it then becomes more challenging to control yourself later on This affects decisions and behavior because it makes it more difficult to resist an impulse How do people conserve resources by using heuristics Heuristics are mental shortcuts that help us make decisions quickly and with minimal cognitive effort which allow people to use less resources in the brain Be prepared to define give examples of and distinguish between Availability Heuristic based on what you ve heard before Ex Most people assume murders are more common than suicides but in truth suicides are twice as more common Murders seem more common because they are discussed more in the media Representative Heuristic based on your own judgments Ex You might look at the way someone is dressed and make instant judgments about their intelligence friendliness and sexual preference How do your motivations influence your judgment You make judgments based on your motivation to associate with or distance yourself from something How did Kruglanski et al 2002 demonstrate that seemingly objective judgments could be influenced by motivations subconsciously In a study done by Kruglanski et al 2002 students at the University of Maryland were asked to describe their thoughts about either the time that the basketball team had made it into the final four or the time there was vandalism in College Park when the team had lost to Duke They were then asked to describe their feelings about either event and the results were what were expected feelings of pride and excitement for the inclusion and feelings of disappointment and shame for the vandalism People who were asked to discuss their feelings about qualifying for the final four rated the red fabric as being the better of the two while people who were asked about the vandalism preferred the purple fabric Subconsciously people who were more prideful preferred the red one because of its association with something they were proud of UMD Similarly people who were motivated to distance themselves from the campus believed that the purple fabric was of higher quality What is confirmation bias and how might it influence you Confirmation bias occurs when an individual tends to look for information that supports what they already believe to be true For example if someone has made a decision in the past like selecting a brand of laundry detergent or toothpaste the simplest thing to do is repeat that decision What are some ways in which this bias can have harmful consequences This bias can be harmful when what you believe to be true is actually false Who was Clever Hans and why is his story a good example of why scientists who study animal intelligence have to be so careful with their methodology Clever Hans refers to a horse who responded to math questions by tapping his hoof It appeared the animal was responding to human
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