Cognition

• Information processing encompasses 3 major steps:

  1. Encoding(the step of getting information into the brain)
  2. Storage(retaining the information)
  3. Retrieval(being able to get the information again at a later time)
• General processing of memories and information include external events(sensory input), sensory memory(sensory input is constantly being stored as sensory memory), working/short term memory(from sensory memory, encoding occurs, the brain pays particular attention to important or novel information, therefore details that are deemed important enough will be transferred into short term memory), long-term memory(information that is deemed important enough from the short term memory is transferred to the long term memory storage).
• Some information can skip the first 2 steps and be directly processed into the long-term memory, without conscious awareness.
• Automatic processing:

  1. space: automatically encoding the place on a page or in a notebook where some key information was written.
  2. time: unintentionally noting the sequence of a day's events
  3. frequency: effortlessly keeping track of how many times something has occurred in a period of time
  4. well-learned information: automatically registering the meaning of some words in one's native language seen somewhere
• Effortful processing includes types of information that are retained only with effort and attention and often will produce durable and accessible memories. Increased amount of time spent rehearsing the information will boost memory.
• Encoding includes 2 main types of processing: automatic and effortful.
• Spacing effect: best memory comes from rehearsals distributed over time as opposed to mass practice, which will produce speedy short-term learning but worse long term recall. The more spread out learning is, the better the information is retained.
• Serial position effect: the tendency to remember the first and last items in a list more than the middle ones. First items are remembered clearly because the subject would have spent the most time rehearsing them(primary effect, leading to better recall later on). Last items are recalled clearly because they are still in the working memory(recency effect, leading to better recall immediately).
• 3 main types of processing: visual encoding, acoustic encoding, and semantic encoding. Deeper semantic processing elicits better recall of a word at a later time.
• Ranked from lowest to highest percent who later recalled a word depending on the type of encoding: visual, acoustic, semantic. By associating the word to a deeper relevant personal meaning allows that memory to be more readily accessible.
• Chunking: grouping information into personally meaningful chunks to make it easier to remember(eg. using acronyms to recall unfamiliar information).
• Hierarchies: few broad concepts that were divided into narrower concepts, then divided again(eg. taking notes in outline format and remembering titles and subtitles can aid in memory).
• Storage can manifest in sensory memory from iconic and ethoic memory.
• Iconic memory: a fleeting photographic memory of visual information. For around one tenth of a second after seeing an image, the eyes hold an exact representation of the scene and thus is able to recall it with perfect accuracy. However, almost immediately new visual images are superimposed over the old ones.
• Ethoic memory: fleeting but impeccable auditory memory. Even without fully paying attention, the mind can recall auditory sounds from the mind's echo chamber from around 3-4 seconds prior.
• Working/short term memory storage capacity is limited by both duration and capacity. The short term memory is able to hold 7± 2bits of information at once. Digits are more easily memorized than letters,
• Long term memory storage capacity is unlimited.
• Memories are stored in regions all over the brain, not just in one precise, discrete location.
• Synaptic changes can cause neural interconnections form or strengthen which will cause them to be better at transmitting signals.
• Rapidly stimulating certain memory-circuit connections can increase their sensitivity for hours and even weeks. The sending neuron requires less prompting to fire and the receiving neuron's receiving sites increase.
• Long-term potentiation(LTP): prolonged strengthening of potential neural firing, provides a neural basis for learning and remembering associations, and forms the physical basis for memory.
• When the body experiences extreme excitement or stress, emotion-triggered stress hormones produce make more glucose energy available to fuel brain activity. The amygdala boosts activity and proteins in the brain's memory-forming areas, of which's arousal due to stress/excitement will increase long-term memory of certain events but disrupt memory for neutral events occurring at around the same time. Stronger emotions form stronger memories.
• Flashbulb memories: a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.
• Prolonged stress can corrode neural connections and shrink the hippocampus, the brain area that is responsible for laying down new memories. Additionally, when sudden stress hormones start flowing, older memories may be blocked.
• Amnesia: inability to form new memories. People with amnesia are still able learn via classical conditioning but are unable to recall that they have learned any such task.
• The two-track memory system includes implicit(nondeclarative) and explicit(declarative) memory. Implicit memory includes unconscious capacity for learning such as motor skills, riding a bike, or playing an instrument, which are processed by the cerebellum. Explicit memory is the ability to know or declare that some task has been learned, such as the retainment of facts or personally experienced events, processed by the hippocampus.
• Infantile amnesia: events that occurred in the first 3 years of people's lives are typically forgotten. This is due to the fact that most explicit memory is indexed by words, which were not common for young children under the age of 3.
• Retrieval of information includes 3 main types: recall, recognizing, and relearning, which are all signs of memory.
• People tend to not be able to efficiently recall information but are able to recognize them when shown pictures, names, etc... many years later.
• Relearning something for the second time around tends to be faster even if the information learned the first time had been forgotten.
• People tend to remember more than they recall.
• Retrieval cues: bits of information that is encoded along with the target pieces of information. For example, remembering the day's mood, weather, seating position, etc... while trying to remember the name of a classmate that sat next to us.
• Context effects: the tendency to better recall information when in the same context or surroundings as when that information was first learned. This is also known as state-dependent memory/mood congruent.
• Retrieval failure is commonly due to interference. There are 2 types of interference: proactive and retroactive interference. Proactive interference occurs when something that was learned earlier disrupts the recall of a later experience. Retroactive interference occurs when new information makes it more difficult to recall something learned earlier.
• Misinformation effect: After exposure to subtle misinformation, many people will misremember. The imagination inflation effect occurs because the same brain area is activated when actually perceiving an event as when someone is imagining the event. Therefore, by imagining an event happening enough times, people tend to construct false memories of actually experiencing some event.
• Source amnesia occurs because the source of some information is the part that is most likely to be forgotten. When people retain the actual information of an event, they can forget the context in which it was acquired.
• Concepts: mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, and people.
• Prototypes: mental image/best example that incorporates all the features associated with a category. Objects that are more readily recognizable as an element of a prototype often fit the characteristics that one assigns to the ideal prototype best.
• Heuristics: a thinking strategy that allows for quick judgements to be made but also more error-prone; a mental short cut that allows for one to arrive faster at a reasonable conclusion, but may often omit other crucial information.
• Insight: known as an "aha!" moment where one suddenly arrives at the solution to a problem without going through much or any problem-solving strategy. An eureka moment is typically preceded by activity in the frontal lobe, due to focusing on the activity/problem, and then accompanied by a burst of activity in the right temporal lobe.