5 Steps to a 5 AP Psychology, 2010-2011 Edition - Laura Lincoln Maitland [93]
• Misinformation effect—incorporation of misleading information into memories of a given event.
• Serial position effect—better recall for information that comes at the beginning (primacy effect) and at the end of a list of words (recency effect).
• Encoding specificity principle—retrieval depends upon the match between the way information is encoded and the way it is retrieved.
• Context-dependent memory—physical setting in which a person learns information is encoded along with the information and becomes part of the memory trace.
• Mood congruence (mood-dependent memory)—tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current good or bad mood.
• State-dependent memory effect—tendency to recall information better when in the same internal state as when the information was encoded.
• Distributed practice—spreading out the memorization of information or the learning of skills over several sessions typically produces better retrieval than massed practice.
• Massed practice—cramming the memorization of information or the learning of skills into one session.
Forgetting—the inability to retrieve previously stored information. Forgetting results from failure to encode, decay of stored memories, or inability to access stored information.
• Interference—learning some items prevents retrieving others, especially when the items are similar.
• Proactive interference—the process by which old memories prevent the retrieval of newer memories.
• Retroactive inference—the process by which new memories prevent the retrieval of older memories.
• Repression—the tendency to forget unpleasant or traumatic memories hidden in the unconscious mind according to Freud.
• Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon—the often temporary inability to access information accompanied by a feeling that the information is in LTM.
• Anterograde amnesia—inability to put new information into explicit memory resulting from damage to hippocampus; no new semantic memories are formed.
• Retrograde amnesia—memory loss for a segment of the past, usually around the time of an accident.
Overlearning—continuing to practice after memorizing information makes it more resistant to forgetting.
Problem solving and creativity:
Cognition—all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering.
Metacognition—thinking about how you think.
Problem-solving steps typically involve identifying a problem, generating problem-solving strategies, trying a strategy, and evaluating the results.
Trial and error—trying possible solutions and discarding those that fail to solve the problem.
Algorithm—problem-solving strategy that involves a step-by-step procedure that guarantees a solution to certain types of problems.
Heuristic—a problem-solving strategy used as a mental shortcut to quickly simplify and solve a problem, but that does not guarantee a correct solution.
Insight learning—the sudden appearance (often creative) or awareness of a solution to a problem.
Deductive reasoning—reasoning from the general to the specific.
Inductive reasoning—reasoning from the specific to the general.
Hindrances to problem solving may include:
Mental sets—barriers to problem solving that occur when we apply only methods that have worked in the past rather than trying new or different strategies.
Functional fixedness—when we are not able to recognize novel uses for an object because we are so familiar with its common use.
Cognitive illusion—systematic way of thinking that is responsible for an error in judgment.
Availability heuristic—a tendency to estimate the probability of certain events in terms of how readily they come to mind.
Representativeness heuristic—tendency to judge the likelihood of things according to how they relate to a prototype.
Framing—the way an issue is stated. How an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.
Anchoring effect—tendency to be influenced by a suggested reference point, pulling our response toward that point.
Confirmation bias—tendency to notice or seek information that already