Cognition

Text Material: Unit VII (Modules 31-36)

Objectives:
31-1

Define memory.

31-2

Explain how psychologists describe the human memory system.

31-3

Distinguish between explicit and implicit memories.

31-4

Identify the information we process automatically.

31-5

Explain how sensory memory works.

31-6

Describe the capacity of our short-term and working memory.

31-7

Describe the effortful processing strategies that help us remember new information.

31-8

Describe the levels of processing and their effect on encoding.

32-1

Describe the capacity and location of our long-term memories.

32-2

Describe the roles of the frontal lobes and hippocampus in memory processing.

32-3

Describe the roles of the cerebellum and basal ganglia in our memory processing.

32-4

Discuss how emotions affect our memory processing.

32-5

Explain how changes at the synapse level affect our memory processing (i.e., long-term
potentiation).

32-6

Explain the (three) ways memory is measured.

32-7

Describe how external cues, internal emotions, and order of appearance influence memory retrieval.

33-1

Explain why we forget.

33-2

Explain how misinformation, imagination, and source amnesia influence our memory construction,
and describe how we decide whether a memory is real or false.

33-3

Describe the reliability of young childrens eyewitness descriptions, and discuss the controversy
related to claims of repressed and recovered memories.

33-4

Describe how you can use memory research findings to do better in this and other courses.

34-1

Define cognition, and describe the functions of concepts.

34-2

Identify the FIVE factors associated with creativity, and describe ways of promoting creativity.

35-1

Describe the cognitive strategies that assist our problem-solving, and identify the obstacles that hinder
it.

35-2

Explain what is meant by intuition, and describe how the representativeness and availability
heuristics, overconfidence, belief perseverance, and framing influence our decisions and

judgments.
35-3

Describe how smart thinkers use intuition.

36-1

Describe the structural components of a language, including: morphemes, phonemes, grammar

structures (semantics, syntax).

36-2

Identify the milestones in language development.

36-3

Describe how we acquire language.

36-4

Identify the brain areas involved in language processing and speech, particularly Brocas and
Wernickes areas.

36-5

Describe the relationship between language and thinking, and discuss the value of thinking in images.

Key People (be able to describe their contributions):

Hermann Ebbinghaus
Elizabeth Loftus
George Miller
Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky
Noam Chomsky
Benjamin Lee Whorf
Richard Atkinson & Richard Shiffrin
Alan Baddeley