04/24/14 Memory

• Memory- the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information. 
• Memory processing
1.  Encoding- the process of information into the memory system. 
2.  Storage- the retention of encoded material over time. 
3.  Retrieval- process of getting the information  out of memory storage. 
• Recall v. Recognition 
• With recall,  you must retrieve the information from your memory (fill in the blank tests)
• With recognition, you must identify the target from possible targets (multiple choice tests) 
• Flashbulb memory- A clear moment of emotionally significant moment or event. 
• Types of memory
1.  Sensory memory 
2.  Short- term memory 
3.  Long - term memory 
• Sensory memory is the immediate,  initial recording of sensory information in the memory system. 
• Stored just for instant,  and must get unprocessed. 
• Short term memory is memory that holds a few items briefly 
• Seven digits (Plus of minus two) 
• The information will be stored into long- term or forgotten. 
• Working memory (modern day stm)
• Another way of destroying the use of short term memory is called working memory. 
• Working memory has three parts
1.  Audio 
2.  Visual 
3.  Integration of audio and visual (controls where your attention lies)
• Long- term memory 
• The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. 
• Encoding 
• Automatic Processing
• Unconscious encoding of incidental information
• You encode space, time, and word meaning without effort.
• Things can become automatic with practice.
• Effortful Processing
• Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.
• Rehearsal is the most common effortful processing technique.
• Through enough rehearsal, what was effortful becomes automatic. 

04/22/14 Intelligence

• Intelligence- The ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt new situations.
• Is socially constructed, thus, can be culturally specific. 
• Factor analysis- a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items on a test. 
• Charles Spearman used FA to discover his general intelligence. 
• Multiple intelligences 
• Howard Gardner disagreed with Spearman's general intelligence and instead came up with the concept of multiple intelligences. 
• He came up with the idea by studying savants. ( a condition where a person has limited mental abilitybut is exceptional in one area.) 
• Gardner's multiple intelligences 
• Visual/ spatial 
• Verbal/ linguistic 
• Logical/ mathematical 
• Bodily/kinesthetic 
• Musical/ rhythmic 
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal
• Natural 
• Sternberg's three aspects of intelligence 
• Gardner simplified
• Analytical 

04/22/14 Language and Thought

• Language- Our spoken written or gestured words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning.
• Phonemes- In a spoken language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.
• Morphemes- In a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning. (Prefix or Suffix)
• Grammar- A system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate and understand others.
• Semantics- The set of rules bu which we derive meaning in a language.
• Adding ed at the end of words means past tense.
• Syntax- The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences. 
• Language Development
1. Babbling Stage- Starting at 3-4 Months. Infant makes spontaneous sounds.
2. One Word Stage- 1-2 years old. Uses one word to communicate big meanings.
3. Two word Stage- at age 2, uses two words to communicate meanings- called telegraphic speech.
• Skinner
• Thought we can explain language development through social learning theory.
• Chomsky inborn universal Grammar
• We acquire language too quickly for it to be learned.
• "Learning Box" inside our heads that enable us to learn any human language.
• Whorf's Linguistic Relativity
• The idea that language determines the way we think.
• Thinking without language
• We can think in words, but more often we think in mental pictures.
• Kohler's Chimpanzees
• Kohler's exhibited that chimps can problem solve. 

04/22/14 Thinking

• Concepts- Mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
• Concepts are similar to Piaget's idea of schemas.
• Prototypes- Mental image or best example of a category.
• Algorithms- A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.
• Heuristics- A rule of thumb strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently. 
• Insight- A sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem.
• No real strategy involved.
• Confirmation Bias- A tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions.
• Fixation- The inability to see a problem from a new perspective.
• Mental Set- A tendency to approach a problem in a particular way especially if it has worked in the past.
• May or may not be a good thing.
• Functional Fixedness- The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions. 
• Types of Heuristics  (Often lead to errors)
1. Representativeness Heuristic
• Rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they match our prototype. 
• Can cause us to ignore important information.
2. Availability Heuristic
• Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in our memory.
• If it comes to wind easily we presume it is common.
• Overconfidence- The tendency to be more confident that correct.
• To overestimate the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments.
• Belief Bias- The tendency for one's preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning.
• Sometimes making invalid conclusions valid or vice versa.
• Belief Perseverance
• Clinging to your initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited. 

04/22/14 Perception

• Monocular Cues
• Interposition- If something is blocking our view, we perceive it as closer.
• Relative Size- If we know that two objects are similar size, the one that looks smaller is smaller away.
• Relative Clarity- We assume hazy objects are farther away.
• Texture Gradient- The coarser it looks the closer it is,
• Relative Height- Things higher in our field of vision look farther away.
• Liner Perspective- Dimmer objects appear farther away because they reflect less light,
• Phi Phenomenon- An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in succession.
• Perceptual Consistency- Perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images changes.

04/10/14 Touch

• Touch- Receptors located in our skin.
• Gate Control Theory of Pain
• Where the spinal cord contains a neurological gate that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass onto the brain.

• Vestibular Sense
• Tells us where our body is orientated in space.
• Our sense of balance.
• Kinesthetic Sense
• Tells us where our body parts are.
• Receptors located in our muscles and joints.
• Perception
• The process if organizing and interpreting information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.
• Gestalt Philosophy
• The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
• Figure- Ground Relationship
• The organization of the visual field into objects (figures) that stand out from their surroundings (ground)
• Grouping
• The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into groups that we understand.

• Depth Perception
• The ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two dimensional.
• Allows us to judge distance.
• Binocular Cues
• Retinal Disparity- A binocular cue for seeing depth.
• The closer an object comes to you the greater the disparity is between the two images. 

04/10/14 Hearing and Taste

• Parallel Processing
• Young- Heimholtz Trichromatic Theory
• Three types of cones:
1. Red 
2. Blue 
3. Green
• These three types of cones can make millions of combinations of colors.
• Most colorblind people simply lack cone receptors for one or more of these primary colors. 

• Opponennt- Process Theory
• The sensory receptors come in pairs.
• Red/ Green
• Yellow/ Blue
• Black/ White
• If one color is stimulated, the other is inhibited.
• Hearing- Out Auditory Sense
• The height of the wave gives us the amplitude of the sounds.
• The frequency of the waves gives is the pitch of the sound.
• Transduction in the Ear
• Sound waves hit the eardrum then anvil then hammer then stirrup then oval window. 
• Everything vibrates, then the cochlea vibrates.
• Membrane
• In basilar membrane there are hair cells.
• When hair cells vibrate they turn vibrations into neural impulses which are called organ of Corti. 
• Sent then to thalamus up auditory nerve.
• Place Theory
• Different hairs vibrate in the cochlea when there are different pitches. 
• SO Some hairs vibrate when they hear higher pitches and other vibrate when they hear low pitches. 
• Frequency Theory
• All the hairs vibrate but at different speeds.
• Deafness
1. Conduction Deafness- Something goes wrong with the sound and the vibration on the way up to the cochlea. 
• You can replace the bones or get a hearing aid to help.
• Nerve (Sensorineural) Deafness
• The hair cells in the cochlea gets damaged
• Loud noises can cause this type of deafness.
• No way to replace the hairs.
• Cochlea implant if possible.

• Smell and Taste
• We study both together because of sensory interaction the principle that one sense may influence another.
• Taste
• We have bumps on our tongue called papillae. 
• Taste buds are located on the papillae (they are actually all over the mouth)
• Sweet, salty, bitter, and sour.
• Umami- Flavor, meaty, savory taste.