Cognition

1
Cognition

• Ines Ramadanovic
• Period 6

2
Cognition

• The four components of cognition are
• Memory
• Language
• Concepts and Thinking
• Problem Solving and Creativity

3
Memory

• Sensory Store- Gateway between perception and
  memory its limited
• The information in it is referred to as either
  Iconic-visual or Echoic-auditory
• Items in it are being constantly replaced by new
  input.

4
Short Term Memory

• It holds memory for a few seconds or up to one
  minute.
• The information is primarily acoustically coded.
• It can hold about 7 items of memory.
• Items in Short term Memory are maintained there
  by rehearsal.

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Rehearsal

• Maintained rehearsal simple repetition to keep
  an item in the short term memory until it can be
  used.
• Elaborate rehearsal Organizing and understanding
  the information that has been encoded so it can
  be transferred to Long term Memory.

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Short Term Continued

• Items forgotten exit Short Term Memory by either
  Decay- passing of time or Interference- displaced
  by new information.
• The first and last items on a list are better
  memorized than the middle items because of the
  serial position effect.
• We remember the first items because there is no
  proactive interference acing on them and we
  remember the last items because there is no
  retroactive interference acting on them.

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Long Term Memory

• It is the repository for all of our lasting
  memories and knowledge.
• It is stored in different ways
• Episodic Memory- memory for events we ourselves
  have experienced.
• Semantic Memory- compromises facts, figures and
  general world knowledge.
• Procedural Memory- Consisting of skills and
  habits.

8
Continued

• Recalling items in Long Term Memory is subject to
  encoding specificity principle- states the
  information is more likely to be recalled if the
  attempt to retrieve it occurs in a situation
  similar to the situation in which it was encoded.
• Memory reconstruction- we attribute the event to
  a different source than it actually came from.

9
Language

• Has key points to it
• Its arbitrary- words rarely sound like the ideas
  they convey.
• It has a structure thats additive in a certain
  sense.
• It has multiplicity of structure- analyzed in a
  number of ways.
• Its productive- it has endless meaningful
  combinations of words.
• Its dynamic- constantly changing.

10
Continued

• Language goes from Phonemes- speech sounds, to
  Morphemes- smallest meaningful parts of language,
  to Syntax- sentence structure, to Porsody- the
  tone and inflection added to language
• Infants first make noises or phonemes, at about 2
  years they start combining words.
• After this vocabulary rapidly increases.
• At about 10 years old, a child's language is
  essentially the same as an adults.

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Noam Chomsky

• Made a system for the organization of language
  based on the concept of transformational
  grammar- differentiates between surface structure
  of language (superficial way in which words are
  arranged in a text/speech) and deep structure of
  language (underlying meaning of the words)
• Language and thought are interactive process
  language can influence thought and vise versa.

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Concepts

• Concepts are a way of grouping or classifying the
  world around us.
• They can be small/large
• Superordinate Concept- Very broad and encompasses
  a large group of items. Example food
• Basic Concept- Smaller and more specific.
  Example bread
• Subordinate Concept- Even smaller and more
  specific. Example Wheat bread

13
Thinking

• Can be viewed in two different ways
• Autistic Daydreaming or fantasizing
• Directed Reasoning, drawing, inferences and
  problem solving
• Reasoning is drawing of conclusions from
  evidence.
• Deductive Reasoning Process of drawing logical
  conclusion from general statements.
• Inductive Reasoning Process of drawing general
  inferences from specific observations.

14
Problem Solving and Creativity

• Problem Solving involves the removal of one or
  more impediments to the finding of a solution in
  a situation.
• Can be solved either by being Well Structured
  the paths to solution or they can be Ill
  Structured there is no single, clear path to the
  solution.

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Continued

• There are two kinds of thinking used to solve
  problems
• Divergent Thinking If many correct answers are
  possible. Example Brainstorm
• Convergent Thinking If the problem can be solved
  by only one answer.

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Heuristics

• Problem Solving relies on Heuristics- intuitive
  rules of thumb that may or may not be useful in a
  given situation.
• There are many heuristics and all may lead to
  incorrect conclusions.
• Heuristics contrast with algorithms- systematic,
  mechanical approaches that guarantee an eventual
  answer to a problem.

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Creativity

• The process of producing something novel, yet
  worthwhile.
• Creative people tend to be motivated to create,
  primarily for the joy of creation, rather than
  for financial or material gain.
• Creative people seem to exhibit care and
  consideration when choosing a specific area of
  interest to pursue, and when they choose it, they
  immerse themselves into it.