PSY 301 Exam Review: Memory, Thinking, Development, Social Psychology and Psychological Disorders

Terms in this set (31)

1. Describe the Atkinson-Shiffrin (multi-store) model of memory.Information passes from sensory memory (very brief) to short-term memory (limited, about 20-30 seconds without rehearsal) and, with encoding, into long-term memory (vast and relatively durable).
2. What is working memory, and what are Baddeley's main components?An active short-term system for holding and manipulating information. Components: the phonological loop (verbal), the visuospatial sketchpad, the central executive (attention control), and the episodic buffer.
3. What is the typical capacity of short-term memory, and how can chunking help?Miller estimated 7 ± 2 items; more recent estimates are about 4 chunks. Chunking groups items into meaningful units (like a phone number in parts) so more information fits.
4. What is the levels of processing idea (Craik and Lockhart)?Deeper, meaning-based (semantic) processing produces better long-term memory than shallow processing of appearance or sound.
5. Explicit vs implicit memoryExplicit (declarative) memory is consciously recalled facts and events. Implicit (nondeclarative) memory shows up without conscious recall, such as skills (procedural memory), priming and classical conditioning.
6. Episodic vs semantic memoryEpisodic memory stores personal experiences tied to a time and place (your last birthday). Semantic memory stores general facts and knowledge (the capital of Texas).
7. What is the serial position effect?In free recall of a list, the first items (primacy effect, from rehearsal into long-term memory) and the last items (recency effect, still in short-term memory) are remembered best.
8. Proactive vs retroactive interferenceProactive: old information disrupts recall of new information (your old locker combination blocks the new one). Retroactive: new information disrupts recall of old information.
9. Anterograde vs retrograde amnesia, and what patient H.M. showedAnterograde: inability to form new memories after an injury. Retrograde: loss of memories from before it. After removal of his medial temporal lobes, including the hippocampus, H.M. had severe anterograde amnesia but could still learn new motor skills.
10. What did Loftus and Palmer's car crash study show?Wording such as 'smashed' vs 'hit' changed speed estimates and made people more likely to falsely recall broken glass, demonstrating the misinformation effect and the reconstructive nature of memory.
11. What is encoding specificity (context-dependent memory)?Recall is better when the retrieval context or cues match those present at encoding, such as divers recalling words learned underwater better when tested underwater.
12. Spacing effect and testing effectSpacing: study spread over time produces better long-term retention than cramming. Testing: practicing retrieval improves memory more than rereading the material.
13. Availability vs representativeness heuristicAvailability: judging likelihood by how easily examples come to mind (overestimating plane crashes). Representativeness: judging by how well something matches a prototype, often ignoring base rates.
14. Confirmation bias vs framing effectConfirmation bias: seeking or favoring evidence that supports what you already believe. Framing: the same information leads to different choices depending on how it is presented (90% survive vs 10% die).
15. Piaget's four stages of cognitive developmentSensorimotor (0-2, object permanence develops), preoperational (2-7, egocentrism, lacks conservation), concrete operational (7-11, logical thinking about concrete events, conservation), formal operational (12+, abstract reasoning).
16. Define object permanence and conservation.Object permanence: knowing objects still exist when out of sight, developing in the sensorimotor stage. Conservation: understanding quantity stays the same despite changes in shape, mastered in the concrete operational stage.
17. What did Harlow's monkey studies show about attachment?Infant monkeys spent most of their time clinging to a soft cloth surrogate mother rather than a wire one that provided milk, showing that contact comfort, not just feeding, drives attachment.
18. Ainsworth's Strange Situation: describe secure and insecure attachment patterns.Secure infants explore with the caregiver present, become upset at separation and are comforted on reunion. Avoidant infants show little distress and ignore the caregiver on return; anxious-ambivalent (resistant) infants are very distressed and hard to soothe.
19. What is the fundamental attribution error?The tendency to overestimate personality (dispositional) causes and underestimate situational causes when explaining other people's behavior.
20. What did Festinger and Carlsmith's $1 vs $20 study show?Participants paid $1 to say a boring task was fun later rated it as more enjoyable than those paid $20. With little external justification, they reduced cognitive dissonance by changing their attitude.
21. What did Asch's line judgment studies show?Many participants conformed to a unanimous group's obviously wrong answer on at least some trials. Conformity dropped sharply when even one other person gave the correct answer.
22. What did Milgram's obedience studies find?In the baseline version, about 65% of participants obeyed an experimenter's instructions to deliver what they believed were 450-volt shocks. Obedience fell when the experimenter was absent or the victim was closer.
23. What is the bystander effect, and why does it happen?People are less likely to help in an emergency when others are present, partly because of diffusion of responsibility and because others' inaction makes the situation seem less serious.
24. Social facilitation vs social loafingSocial facilitation: the presence of others improves performance on simple or well-learned tasks but hurts it on hard or new ones. Social loafing: people exert less effort on group tasks when individual contributions are not identifiable.
25. What are the Big Five personality traits?Openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (OCEAN). Each is a continuous dimension and fairly stable in adulthood.
26. Fluid vs crystallized intelligenceFluid intelligence is the ability to reason quickly and solve new problems; it tends to decline in later adulthood. Crystallized intelligence is accumulated knowledge and vocabulary; it tends to hold steady or grow with age.
27. Compare the James-Lange, Cannon-Bard and Schachter-Singer theories of emotion.James-Lange: physiological arousal comes first and we feel emotion from it. Cannon-Bard: arousal and emotion occur at the same time. Schachter-Singer two-factor: arousal plus a cognitive label creates the emotion.
28. What is the Yerkes-Dodson law?Performance improves with arousal up to a moderate level, then declines. The optimal level is lower for difficult tasks and higher for easy ones.
29. Major depressive disorder vs bipolar I disorderMajor depressive disorder involves depressive episodes (at least two weeks of low mood or loss of interest) without mania. Bipolar I requires at least one manic episode, often with depressive episodes as well.
30. Positive vs negative symptoms of schizophreniaPositive symptoms are added experiences or behaviors: hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech. Negative symptoms are reductions of normal function: flat affect, social withdrawal, lack of motivation.
31. Cognitive-behavioral therapy vs psychodynamic therapyCBT targets present maladaptive thoughts and behaviors with structured techniques like cognitive restructuring and exposure. Psychodynamic therapy explores unconscious conflicts and past experiences to build insight.