Cognitive

• 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