Cognitive

Cards (26)

  • Information processing theory suggests that our mind works like a computer, taking in sensory input (input), storing it temporarily (short term memory) or permanently (long term memory). It then uses this stored information to solve problems and make decisions (output)
  • The cognitive approach is concerned with how we process information, think about the world around us and make decisions.
  • Cognitive bias– Your brain creates shortcuts for faster processing 
  • hostile attribution bias - We may wrongly interpret other people's behaviour as threatening when in fact it is neutral
  • confirmation bias - tend to favour information that supports a belief we already hold but ignore information that contradicts this
  • fundamental attribution error - the tendency to overemphasize the role of personality in explaining behaviour
  • context dependant memory - memory for events that are associated with a particular context, such as a particular place or time
  • state dependant memory - phenomenon that behaviour is learned better if your internal mental state is similar to the one you are trying to learn
  • serial position effect - the tendency to remember the first and last items in a list better than the middle
  • priming - the process by which a stimulus can influence the response to a later stimulus
  • cognitive priming - the tendency to recall information that is associated with a stimulus
  • positive priming - caused by simply experiencing the stimulus
  • negative priming - caused by experiencing the stimulus and then ignoring it
  • repetitive priming - the more you hear a word, the more likely you are to recall it
  • associative priming - the strength of a memory is related to the strength of the original association
  • semantic priming - the tendency to recall words that are semantically similar to the word you are trying to recall
  • cognitive script - a mental representation of a situation that is used to explain and predict behaviour
  • heuristic - a mental shortcut that helps us solve problems quickly and efficiently
  • schema - a mental parcel of information
  • leading questions - questions that suggest the answer to the question being asked.
  • rationalisation - when parts of a memory are distorted to fit your schema
  • confabulation - when details are added to a memory to fill in the gaps to make recall meaningful
  • shortening - when part of a memory is left out so what remains is shorter
  • reconstruction - when memories are changed or altered over time
  • memory decay - forgetting due to lack of rehearsal, this can be prevented by retrieving the info from long term memory into short term memory
  • retrieval failure - not remembering something because it has been forgotten