- Cognition - The thought patterns of an individual which are heavily influenced by memories.

→ Thoughts and
emotions derived from specific experiences that form schemas.
- Models of Memory -
➢ Information processing (three box) - Arkson and Shiffrin
➢ Sensory -encoding→ Short term/working memory -encoding→ long term
Information from sensory memory that is not encoded is lost
Information for ST memory that is not encoded is lost
Information is lost from LT memory due to retrieval failure
- Sensory memory is present for a split second, some of which is encoded to the short term or working
memory.
➢ George Sperling - Experiment
Grid of letters, 3 rows and 3 columns → Cards would flash for a second (1/20th of a second) and the
participants had to find where N was (row and column) → High, medium or low term (audience did not
know this aspect).
- Ionic Memory - Information is a photograph in your brain for a second → Visual stimulation.
- Echoic memory - Auditory stimuli is visualized in you brain for 3-4 seconds.
- Maximum of the time sensory memory is forgotten. However when it is encoded it goes to the ST depending
on the type of stimuli it is either visual lodes, acoustic lodes, or semantic lodes (making sense of the meaning
of the information).
- Selective attention - Is the ability to pay attention to one thing in the presence of multiple stimuli → Important
information at the time and forgetting or not encoding any of the simultaneous information (only hearing your
name in the midst of a crowd) sometimes it is not controlled.
➢ Cocktail party effect - Not remembering everything and only focusing on one particular stimulus
(sometimes it is not in our control) → what is prominent? (someone attractive) are there intense
feelings attached to what you are focusing on? (Jealousy, love etc).
Paying attention is not equal to the information that gets encoded and stored.
- Short term → Long term (information is stored for years and the space is unlimited)
The only reason information from long term memory is lost is because it is not retrieved enough and hence
the neuron connections weaken.
➢ Episodic memory - Specific events that do not occur daily and are significant to the individual (what
some people consider significant others may not) → sequential series of events (eg - last time you
went on a date)
➢ Semantic memory - General knowledge of the world → Categorically (eg - definition of frequently
used terms, capital of big states etc).
➢ Procedural Memory - Motor skills (muscles memory → Sequential (cycling, running, walking etc).
➢ Explicit/Declarative memory → Conscious memories and facts that happened in our life (eg - Falling
of a cycle, meeting your now partner for the first time) these are unique events of each individual.
➢ Implicit/Unintentional memories → Procedural memory that are unintentionally stored without
conscious effort (motor skills, habitual tendencies, recognizing familiar faces or objects without
remembering from where, developing biases).
- Memory Phenomenon -
➢ Photographic Memory - Remember visual stimulation perfectly ability to capture it permanently in
their mind (eg - notebook chapters).
➢ Eidetic memory - Ability to recall photographic accuracy of an image for a certain period of time
without using mnemonic devices → Diagrams
- Levels of Processing - It is not a way through which information is processed
➢ Deep Processing - Elaborate specific memories that are deeply encoded and stay in the LTM.
➢ Shallow processing - They are removed from the memory after a certain period because they were
not encoded properly ( eg - Passive studying).
 ➢ We have the tendency to remember memories that one spent a long time and energy processing
(trying to solve a question for hours, would lead you to remember that question for a very long time).
- Retrievals - The last step in both memory models (Information processing & levels of processing) -
➢ Recognition - Being able to recognize something familiar when provided with options ( eg - multiple
choice) → similar stimuli, have I seen this before?
➢ Recall - External cue to remember information → what was the answer? What was her name? It can
be done most effectively when the information is deeply processed..
- Herma Ebbinghaus - Serial Position effect
➢ Primacy - The ability to remember what is in the start of the list (recalled the most)
➢ Recency - The ability to recall the last items of the list that the brain was most recently exposed to (in
ST)
➢ Information from the middle of the list is more difficult to remember, and requires more rehearsal.
- Tip of the tongue phenomenon - How semantic network works theory
➢ Connecting the meaning and the context in the memory to itself, knowing people who know each
other and making assumptions about them based on individual information you have of them.
➢ Recalling and remembering information together when asked (oh yeah I know John, he's Peter's best
friend right?).
- Context can be about time - The ability to remember a significant day vividly due to the emotional significance
of the day (flash bulb memories → often inaccurate).
It can be inaccurate due to the tendency to try and construct parts of the memory to fill in gaps of the
story(reconstructive memory). → Hence when a crime is committed witness statements are taken
immediately to prevent this from occurring.
➢ Constructive memory - Recovered memory phenomenon
Suddenly remembering memories that have been repressed (traumatic events) → often happens
through therapy.
➢ Elizabeth Loftus - Memories can be constructed or they are false-recalled in certain events
Repressing Trauma at a young age (forgetting they happened)
False details being made can occur by asking questions about the events, these are called leading
questions and can lead to adding new information to a memory,
To differentiate there has to be physical evidence or reports of the occurrence of the event.
- Emotional Situation context -
➢ Mood congruent memory - Remembering a memory that you had at a particular time because you
are in the same mood you were when the memory was encoded (feeling happy and hence
remembering happy events) → When you are drunk you are more likely to remember what you did the
last time you were drunk.
➢ State dependent memory- Remembering a memory when you are in a similar state as when the
memory was encoded → Drugs, Alcohol, Being sick, Tired.
- Forgetting -
➢ Decaying - Not retrieving a memory enough and the connection dies over time due to the neural
connection in the network weakening. → Passive/shallow processing -
Memorizing - forgetting
It can be prevented through re-learning of the information
A trace of any memory always exists but when they are forgotten you are unable to pinpoint what that
memory is and what it leads to.
➢ Forgetting through interference in encoding -
Retroactive - Learning new information interferes with the recall of old information.
Proactive - Old information interferes with the recall of new information.
- Physical Storing (Biological means) -
➢ Hippocampus - Encoding new memories
 Anterograde Amnesia - Occurs when there is damage to the hippocampus, hence they are able to
remember old information but unable to process new information. → You can learn new skills but you
will not remember learning them (proves that procedural memory is stored elsewhere).
➢ Long term potentiation - Neurons keep strengthening functions and connections between each
other (neural network). → Babies are born with a clean brain, then over time neural connections are
formed to increase the surface area of the brain. Curvatures are formed. (This is how we were able to
prove Albert einstein used maximum of his brain as he had the most neural connections (texture) that
humanity had ever seen in his brain)
The connections become strengthened due to repeated firing of the neurons (they become sensitive
to the information) → More connections means more memories
- Languages - Elements of languages
➢ Phonemes - The smallest unit of sound used in a language (I, o, K)
➢ Morphemes - The smallest unit of meaningful sounds (prefix and suffix) that is written in a particular
order (syntax) → but, and, ing
Stages - Cognitive psychologists believe that how one learned a language can help define which
developmental stage of cognitive stage you are in
➢ Babbling- associating certain objects (food/water) with certain sounds. → Understanding phonemes
from a language.
Acquisition occurs faster when exposed to language at a younger age
➢ Babies produce phonemes on their own language → This explains accents and the inability to form
phonemes in unfamiliar language (Americans can not produce phonemes in Hindi)
➢ Holophrastic or one word stage - Babies producing single words or speaking a holophrase
➢ Telegraphic stage or speech → Toddler screams in learned command (NO BOOK! MOVIE!) →
Learning grammar and syntax
During this stage there is often inappropriate use of suffixes (he hitted my head!) →
Overgeneralization or over regularization
- Acquisition -
➢ Behavioursists say that languages are learned through operant conditioning techniques - Modelling
and shaping
➢ Cognitive psychologists say that certain words and phrases children used without explicitly being told
to do so
➢ Nativist theory - Neom Chomsky
Humans are born with a language acquisition device (specific time period to be exposed to a
language) . It is a critical period of time to learn a skill or development throughout life would suffer →
Retarded development due to lack of exposure. ALL CHILDREN HAVE TO BE EXPOSED TO SOME
LANGUAGE
- Language and cognition -
Linguistic relativity hypothesis - How we label things in our life changes how we perceive it → Language
may control and limit how we think.
- Thinking and creativity -
Describing thought is extremely difficult (Monism and Dualism → are thought and matter two different things
or is thought made up of matter? Does thought die with the human, or live even after death of a human?)
➢ Concepts and schemas are made to apply particular rules to the environment, objects and people who
surround us (each categorized in different schemas).
➢ Prototypes - Examples of the most “typical concept” when asked to think in the chain of a particular
stimulus.
➢ Images - Mental pictures of how the world around us looks (Hypothetically imagining a college even if
you have never been to one) → Created through experiences and prototypes we have of the world.
➢ Auditory (sound), tactile (touch) and olfactory (smell) → Feelings that help you imagine a particular
image in your mind.
- Problem Solving through different techniques -
➢ Algorithms - Basic uniformed structure of solving a problem → Trial and error (every solution that can
possibly solve it)
➢ Heuristics - Rule of thumb that is followed to solve specific problems in certain contexts, it is generally
applicable but also not always.
● Availability heuristic - Judging a situation based on prior similar situations, however due to
variability in experiences it may not always be applicable. → People may label certain
situations differently, person A may consider their home and problems the worst but person B
also may consider their different set of problems to be the worst.
● Representative Heuristic - Judging a situation based on how similar it is to the prototype one
may have in their mind - Oh you have a headache? A nap should fix it. Or when people see
stereotypical “depressive” behaviour people may assume that the person is suicidal. →
Judging something based on how it is perceived due to stereotypes (generalizing) this can
lead to overconfidence in one's accuracy.
➢ Biases -
● Belief Bias & perseverance → Consistent opinion even when the illogical ideology is proven
wrong, refusing to change conclusions on stereotypes even when provided with contradictory
evidence.
It can be connected to trust issues, where to maintain their belief they push people away or
refuse to see another perspective due to repressed conflicts or trauma from past experiences.
Attempting to maintain the same ideology and not be proven wrong.
- Impediments to problem solving -
➢ Rigidity/Lack of critical thinking - Falling into established thought patterns, attempting to use old
solutions to new problems (backwards thought processes to life styles being inflicted onto a newer
generation)
➢ Functional Fixedness - Using a particular object for only one purpose and being unable to think
creatively to apply another purpose for it. → Mental set due to lack of perspectives
➢ Confirmation Bias - Only looking for information that confirms one's bias and ignoring information that
may go against that bias. → Looking for validation of one's thought patterns.
Ignoring red flags in people (often seen in people from collectivist cultures)
➢ Framing - The way a problem is framed may change the perspective at which one looks at it (eg - If
you are listening to a couple's argument from the wife's side they may make it sound like the husband
was in the wrong and vice versa). → Attitudes of the audience being changed and attempting to form
a Bias in the audience.
- Creativity - Wolfgang Koher - Insight learning experiments/AHA experiments
Trying till one forms an insight that helps them solve the problem, this showcases low correlation between
intelligence and creativity → they do not have to be related, as they are different constructs and human traits.
Creativity is often the perseverance in trial and error of aspects, and the freedom to see beauty in typical
flaws. → Originality and appropriateness
- Convergent thinking - Narrowing down to one solution for a problem. → Problem solving tactics being used
(heuristics, algorithms, functional fixedness).
- Divergent thinking - Looking for multiple answers to the same problem → creativity (looking at multiple
lenses).