Unit 7: Cognitive Processes Flashcards
(37 cards)
What parts of the brain develop during infancy that improve memory?
- Hippocampus (forms and stores memories)
- Prefrontal Cortex (retrieves memories)
Both develop into the second year of life which explains infantile amnesia and basic memories during toddler years.
What was the study done by Rovee-Collier and what did it show?
Identified if preverbal infants have / can retrieve memory (long term memory)
Attached string to leg which connected to a mobile. When the infant kicked the leg, the mobile moved.
Results: After 1 week, 3 months old remembered to kick their leg to make the mobile move. After 2-4 weeks, the 3 month old wouldn’t kick their leg unless prompted
Key Takeaway: Babies as young as 3 months old can retain information for weeks suggesting that they do have long term memory capabilities.
What are the two key factors that account for age-related improvements in memory?
- Learning of memory strategies with age
- Increased factual knowledge about the world helps children to organize information more completely which in turn helps them to remember.
What are the three processes for remembering?
- Encoding: process of transforming what we perceive, think, feel into an enduring memory
- Storage: The retention of encoded info over time
- Retrieval: Process of getting memory out of storage
What is the Brute-Force Method ?
A memory strategy that involves rote learning / rehearsal which requires repetition of items over and over without thinking about what the item means.
What is the Elaborative Encoding Method?
Relating new information to knowledge that is already in our memory.
What was the key takeaway from Craig and Tulving’s study on word recognition?
Thinking about a words meaning (semantic judgment) results in deeper processing and in turn, a better memory for the word later.
What is the difference between semantic judgement and visual judgement?
Semantic (left frontal lobe): thinking about the meaning
Visual (occipital lobe): recognizing something based on physical appearance
What was the key takeaway from Stein’s study on elaboration?
Students were asked to continue a sentence.
Students who were more academically successful would write precise elaborations that connected to the formerly unrelated elements “The hungry man got in his car… to go to McDonalds”
VS.
Students who were less academically successful came up with elaborations that were less precise “…and drove away”
Suggests that academically successful students have a better understanding of the importance of elaboration
How does the strategy of organization help to improve memory?
information is structured together so that related info is placed together.
categories help with organization information and can serve as retrieval cues
EX:chunking
What is the strategy of Superimposed Meaning Strucutre?
Embellishing information to make it more memorable.
- Mneumonic Devices Ex. righty tighty lefty loosely
- Visual elaboration EX. to remember hippocampus picture a hippo on campus
- Method of Loci ex. build a house and in each room have something familiar on the list such as a pig in the tub
What is metamemory?
the informal understanding of one’s memory
EX. understanding that memory is fallible
What is Metacognition Knowledge?
A person’s awareness of their cognitive processes
What is cognitive self-regulation?
The ability to identify goals, select effective strategies and monitor accurately
What is a “script” as it relates to memory?
a memory structure used to describe the sequence in which events occur.
Knowledge can distort memory if a specific experience does not match a child’s knowledge (script)
EX. if you tell a child a story about a female pilot the child may misremember the pilot as a man because their knowledge network specifies a pilot as a man.
What is autobiographical memory?
Memory of one’s significant events and experiences in life.
Multidimensional as it consists of spatial, emotional and sensory components.
Consists of both semantic and episodic.
When does autobiographical memory begin to develop?
Preschool years
What factors contribute to the shaping of autobiographical memory?
- Sense of self
- language skills
- conversations with parents
- basic memory skills
What is infantile amnesia?
The inability to recall events from your early years which implies that the loss of memory from this time was not encoded or stored properly.
What is “hypnotic age regression”?
A memory retrieval technique that claims to be able to retrieve memory before the age of two or even from inside the womb (not grounded in scientific evidence)
What is Breinard and Reyna’s Fuzzy Face Theory?
Explains how false memories can occur: false memories are possible because our experiences are stored in multiple fragments which can be recombined in ways that differ from what actually happened.
- Verbatim vs. Gist memories
Adolesccemtes are biased towards gist processing whereas young children are prone to verbatim processing
What was Wade’s study on suggestibility and false memory?
Individuals were shown pictures of three events (1 fictitious and 2 accurate). The people were put through a round of interviews where they were asked suggestive questions about the fictitious event.
By the end of the third interview, 50% of participants described details of the event.
Key Takeaway: By using suggestive questions and statements, researchers have successfully implanted a wide variety of events in participants
What was the Hoffman’s experiment on suggesitibility?
Researchers brought up finger in mouse trap with young children and after a few weeks, they came to believe that this actually happened.
Key Takeaway: Younger children are more suggestible than older children
What increases suggestibility in children?
- specific questions
- repeated questions
- providing info before the child has a chance
- interviewer is of high status
