Question 1

What is language?

Accepted Answer

A flexible system of spoken, written, or signed symbols

Allows us to communicate thoughts and feelings

Question 2

What are phonemes?

Accepted Answer

Basic sound units that make up language

(English uses ~45 phonemes [e.g., p, d, t], out of the 100 used worldwide)

Question 3

What are morphemes?

Accepted Answer

The smallest meaningful units of speech

(simple words, prefixes, suffixes)

Question 4

What is grammar?

Accepted Answer

A system of rules that determines how words can be combined to communicate meaning

Question 5

What is syntax?

Accepted Answer

A set of rules that control the order words can be put in

Question 6

What is semantics?

Accepted Answer

Set of rules that enable us to derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences

Question 7

What is babbling?

Accepted Answer

Stage in child language development where infants produce semi-random phonemes

(babbled phonemes are more than just the ones in the child's language, over time the child loses the ability to make phonemes not in their language)

Question 8

What is a holophrase?

Accepted Answer

A single word phrase that expresses a complete thought

("okay"; babies use holophrases at ~1yrs old)

Question 9

What is telegraphic speech?

Accepted Answer

Simple form of speech with just a verb and a noun

("eat cookie"; used by children ~2yrs old)

Question 10

What is overgeneralization/overregularization, in language acquisition?

Accepted Answer

When a child applies grammatical rules without making exceptions

(a 3yr-old saying "I goed to the store" since -ed makes it past tense)

Question 11

What are Noam Chomsky's thoughts about how our brains acquire language?

Accepted Answer

Our brains are prewired for a "universal grammar" of nouns, subjects, objects, negations, and questions

Question 12

What is a critical period, in language acquisition?

Accepted Answer

A period where children must be exposed to language before adolescence, or they will be unable to learn a language

Question 13

What are B. F. Skinner's thoughts on language acquisition?

Accepted Answer

Babies merely imitate the phonemes around them and are reinforced for doing this

Question 14

Who was Benjamin Whorf?

Accepted Answer

American linguist who proposed that our language guides and determines our thinking

Different languages cause people to view the world differently

Question 15

What is the linguistic relativity hypothesis / the Whorf hypothesis?

Accepted Answer

Hypothesis that suggests the structure of a language influences how its speakers perceive the world

(created by Benjamin Whorf; mostly discredited, and is more likely that our environment determines what words come into our language)

Question 16

What is memory?

Accepted Answer

The capacity to register, store, and recover information over time

Question 17

What is an information processing model?

Accepted Answer

A model that attempts to compare our mind to a computer

Question 18

What is encoding?

Accepted Answer

Process in memory where sensory receptors send impulses that are registered by neurons in our brain

(in the information processing model, this is like keyboard information going to your computer's CPU)

Question 19

What is storing, in memory?

Accepted Answer

The process of retaining encoded information in our brain, for some period of time (from a single second to a lifetime)

(in the information processing model, this is like writing data to a hard drive)

Question 20

What is retrieval?

Accepted Answer

Getting information out of memory storage

(in the information processing model, this is like opening a file from the hard drive)

Question 21

Who was Donald Broadbent?

Accepted Answer

British psychologist that modeled human memory and thought-processes using a flowchart

Question 22

Who was Anne Treisman?

Accepted Answer

British cognitive psychologist that developed feature integration theory

(you must focus on complex stimuli to find a meaningful pattern in it)

Question 23

Who was Fergus Craik?

Accepted Answer

Cognitive psychologist who developed the levels-of-processing theory

Question 24

What is the levels-of-processing theory?

Accepted Answer

A theory that states how long and how well we remember information depends on how deeply we process the information when it is encoded

(shallow processing and deep processing; developed by Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart)

Question 25

What is shallow processing?

Accepted Answer

Using the physical characteristics to remember sensory information, rather than meaning

Creates weaker memories that deep processing

(part of Craik and Lockhart's levels-of-processing-theory)

Question 26

What is deep processing?

Accepted Answer

Attaching meaning and creating associations to new information

Creates stronger memories than shallow processing

(part of Craik and Lockhart's levels-of-processing-theory)

Question 27

What is semantic encoding?

Accepted Answer

Type of encoding where the meaning of a stimulus is encoded, rather than its physical appearance

(occurs during deep processing)

Question 28

What is elaboration-rehearsal?

Accepted Answer

Meaningful analysis of information, that occurs during deep processing and leads to better recall

Question 29

What is self-referent encoding?

Accepted Answer

The idea that making information personally meaningful makes it easier to recall

Question 30

What is the Atkinson-Shiffrin three-stage model of memory?

Accepted Answer

An information processing model that describes three memory systems:

Sensory memory, short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM)

Question 31

What is sensory memory?

Accepted Answer

External events from our senses that are only held long enough to be perceived

Question 32

What is iconic memory?

Accepted Answer

Visual sensory memory, that lasts for less than a second

(makes sure we don't see gaps between frames in a motion picture)

Question 33

What is echoic memory?

Accepted Answer

Auditory sensory memory that only lasts for about 4 seconds

(allows us to hear a flow of information)

Question 34

How does selective attention relate to memory?

Accepted Answer

Being able to focus on a small fraction of what we sense allows us to encode specific information into STM

Question 35

What is automatic processing?

Accepted Answer

Unconscious encoding of information that occurs without interfering with normal thoughts

(example of parallel processing)

Question 36

What is parallel processing?

Accepted Answer

Ability of the brain to process different stimuli at the same time

(automatic processing is an example)

Question 37

What is effortful processing?

Accepted Answer

Encoding that requires focused attention and conscious effort

Question 38

What is short-term memory?

Accepted Answer

Capacity to hold a very limited amount of information for ~30 seconds, unless it's processed further

Question 39

How many items can a human hold in their STM?

Accepted Answer

7 ± 2 unrelated bits of information

(5-9)

Question 40

What is rehearsing information?

Accepted Answer

Consciously repeating information so that it is stored longer in STM

(often out loud)

Question 41

What is chunking?

Accepted Answer

Grouping information into meaningful units, to help increase the capacity of STM

(remembering a word, rather than the letters that make it)

Question 42

Who is Alan Baddeley?

Accepted Answer

British psychologist who developed a model of working memory

Question 43

What is Baddeley's working memory model?

Accepted Answer

A three-part memory system of working memory that temporarily holds information

(consists of a phonological loop, visuospatial working memory, and the central executive; far more complicated than STM)

Question 44

What is long-term memory (LTM)?

Accepted Answer

A relatively permanent and almost unlimited memory system

Information from STM may pass into LTM

Question 45

What are the two parts of LTM?

Accepted Answer

Explicit memory and implicit memory

(also called declarative memory and non-declarative memory)

Question 46

What is explicit memory (declarative memory)?

Accepted Answer

LTM of facts and experiences we consciously know and can verbalize

(remembering how to solve a math problem; two parts: semantic memory and episodic memory)

Question 47

What are the two parts of explicit memory?

Accepted Answer

Semantic memory (facts and general knowledge) and episodic memory (personally experienced events)

Question 48

What is semantic memory?

Accepted Answer

Part of explicit memory that deals with facts and general knowledge

Question 49

What is episodic memory?

Accepted Answer

Part of explicit memory that deals with personally experienced events

Question 50

What is implicit memory (non-declarative memory)?

Accepted Answer

LTM for skills and procedures to do things that aren't concsiously recalled

(remembering how to ride a bike)

Question 51

What is procedural memory?

Accepted Answer

Part of implicit memory that deals with motor and cognitive procedures

(remembering the steps to tie your shoelaces)

Question 52

What are the two parts of implicit memory?

Accepted Answer

Procedural memory (procedures for motor actions, like tying shoelaces) and classical/operant conditioning effects (automatic associations between stimuli)

Question 53

What is prospective memory?

Accepted Answer

Memory to perform a planned action or remembering to perform that planned action

Question 54

What are the four major models for the organization of LTM?

Accepted Answer

Hierarchies, semantic networks, schemas, and connectionist networks

Question 55

What are hierarchies, in memory?

Accepted Answer

Memory system where concepts are arranged from more general to more specific classes

Question 56

What are concepts?

Accepted Answer

Mental representations of information

(events, organisms, attributes, or even abstractions)

Question 57

What are prototypes, in memory?

Accepted Answer

Typical examples of a concept

(robin might be a prototype for the concept of "bird", while penguin is not)

Question 58

What are semantic networks?

Accepted Answer

Memory system where concepts have multiple links to other concepts

More irregular and less organized than hierarchies

(the concept of "bird" might be linked to fly, feathers, wings, animals, etc.)

Question 59

Who is Dr. Stephen Kosslyn?

Accepted Answer

American psychologist and neuroscientist who showed we scan a visual image of a picture (mental map) when asked questions

Question 60

What are schemas, in memory?

Accepted Answer

Preexisting mental frameworks, that start as basic operations and get more complicated as add additional information

Allow us to organize and interpret information, while still being able to expand and make inferences

Question 61

What is a script?

Accepted Answer

A schema for an event

(a script for elementary school might make us expect it to have teachers, classrooms, desks, chairs, etc.)

Question 62

What is connectionism theory?

Accepted Answer

Theory that states memory is stored throughout the brain in connections between neurons

Many neurons work together to process a single memory

Question 63

What is long-term potentiation (LTP)?

Accepted Answer

The strengthening of neural connections in long-term memories

Requires fewer neurotransmitters to make neurons fire

Question 64

What is a flashbulb memory?

Accepted Answer

A vivid memory of an emotionally arousing event

(associated with an increase of adrenal hormones, which causes the memory to be formed)

Unit 5: Cognitive Psychology, AP Psychology Flashcards