AP Psychology Unit 2: Understanding Cognition

Hello there and welcome to the Unit 2 summary video for AP Psychology. My name is Mr. Sin and today we are going to review all of the concepts that you need to know for cognition. Now before we get started, I need you to click the link in the description of this video and get the study guide that goes along with the video. These notes are part of my ultimate review packet and will help you focus on the key concepts in this unit. Trust me, you want to take notes during this video. Remember, the key to learning is being active, not... passive. And don't worry if you do miss anything in the video, I also created an answer key to the study guide and put it in the ultimate review packet as well. That way you can double check your notes once you're done with the video. All right, to start this unit off, we're going to talk about perception. Now don't get this confused with sensation. Remember, we talked about sensation at the end of unit one. Perception is the process of interpreting the information we obtain through our five senses. While sensation is the raw data or information that we receive from our sensory receptors. When remembering the difference between these two concepts, just remember that sensation is about detecting a stimulus and perception is about interpreting a stimulus. When we perceive sensory information, we typically rely on one of two types of processing. The first being top-down processing, which is when you use your prior knowledge and experiences to interpret the information. This approach is often used when a stimulus is familiar or relatively simple, allowing us to quickly make sense of what we're seeing or experiencing. Oftentimes, top-down processing helps us process things in a relatively efficient and quick manner, but sometimes it can lead us astray. For instance, when proofreading a paper you wrote, you utilize top-down processing, since you already know what you intended to write. This can cause your brain to overlook spelling or grammar mistakes. essentially auto-correcting them in your mind as you read. This phenomenon is called the proofreader's illusion. This is why it's helpful to have someone else review your work or to read it out loud to yourself. Top-down processing can also sometimes lead to skewed perceptions since our previous experiences and expectations end up influencing how we interpret the new information. For instance, take a look at this image. What do you see? Do you see a bird flying through the air? or perhaps you see a bunny on skis. As I'm asking these questions, your interpretation might actually shift. This is because as I asked questions, I gave you new information that your brain could use to shape how you perceived the image. Now, the second type of processing is bottom-up processing, which is when the stimuli or experience is complex and not familiar to the individual. In these cases, we are often building our perception from the ground up. Organizing and interpreting the information as it comes in, without relying on prior knowledge. This often results in the processing taking longer. If you do need more help with practicing processing, you can check out the practice quiz in my Ultimate Review Packet. Alright, now that we've explored top and bottom-up processing, let's continue to explore our perception and talk about how our brain uses schemas to guide our perception. A schema is a mental framework that's built from our past experiences. A schema is essentially a cognitive structure based on individual's experiences. Schemas guide our perception and help us interpret and organize our environment. For instance, let's say that you have a family birthday party next week. If I was to ask you what you would do at it, I would bet you could probably pretty easily describe what would happen at the party, even though the event hasn't happened yet. This is because you've attended family birthday parties before and developed a schema for what usually happens at them. Now, since we're talking about schemas, I want to remind you not to confuse them with perceptual sets. Remember, a perceptual set is a mental shortcut your brain uses to quickly interpret what you're experiencing. Perceptual sets often influence our immediate perception based on our expectations or emotions, influencing how we interpret a stimuli in a specific moment. Schemas and perceptual sets can help us quickly organize information and understand the world around us. However, sometimes they can also lead us astray. For example, when we are in a good mood, we are more likely to see and focus on positive stimuli and thoughts. Or if we're in a bad mood, we'll focus on the negative things and dismiss positive items. So we can see that our perception can be influenced by internal factors, such as our culture, mood, emotions, or expectations. We can also see that the environment we are in can influence our perception as well. For instance, individuals who work with numbers for a living are more likely to quickly identify numbers in images. While individuals who read more books or do more with words are more likely to identify words or letters first. Even how and where we are raised can shape our perceptual set. For example, if you were raised in an urban area in a western country, you're more likely to see right angles, since they are common in your society. This is one of the reasons why optical illusions like the Mueller-Lyer Illusion This illusion has multiple lines or arrows that are the same length, but for many people they perceive this illusion to have lines that are different lengths. Depending on your perceptual set, you may be more or less likely to fall for this illusion. So we can see that our perception can be influenced by different external and internal factors. Now our perception can also be impacted simply by our attention. When we focus on a particular stimulus, we often tune out other stimuli in our environment, a process known as selective attention. For instance, let's say that you're at a party. There's music playing and lots of people talking. Despite all the background noise, you can still easily engage in a conversation with the person in front of you by focusing on their words and filtering out the surrounding noise. What's remarkable, though, is that your brain continues to monitor the background for relevant or personal information. That's why even if you're not paying attention, you'll still notice when somebody nearby mentions your name or starts spilling the tea. In this situation, selective attention helps you manage the sensory inputs, allowing you to focus on what's important while filtering out the rest. This ability to focus on a specific conversation or sound in a noisy setting is known as the cocktail party effect. Now as people we love to pretend that we can focus on multiple things at once. However, it's simply not true When our attention is divided, we often experience inattentional blindness, which is the failure to notice stimuli in our visual field due to our attention being focused elsewhere. Another phenomenon that could occur when our attention is divided is change blindness, which is a type of inattentional blindness. This is where we fail to notice changes in the environment. These phenomenon illustrate the limitations and selective nature of human attention, showing how we can focus on certain stimuli while we are in the same situation. while remaining oblivious to others. We will talk more about the importance of our attention and multitasking later in this video. Right now though, we need to talk about a couple more phenomenon, starting with apparent movement, which is when we perceive motion, even though nothing is actually moving. This illusion is created by specific visual cues and contexts that trick our brain into interpreting still images as if they're in motion. One example is stroboscopic motion, which is commonly used in animations or movies. Here the illusion of movement is created by the movement of the eyes. by showing a series of images in rapid succession, resulting in the brain perceiving motion. Another example is the five phenomenon, which occurs when lights blink on and off in a sequence, resulting in us perceiving objects as moving, even though objects are stationary. Next, there is induced movement, which is when a stationary object appears to move because of the motion of surrounding objects. And finally, there's the auto-kinetic effect. which is when a stationary point of light in a dark environment appears to move. This happens because the eyes and brain have difficulty maintaining stable perception of the light's position since there is no other visual references. Now to help you keep all these different phenomena straight, I created a practice quiz that will help you check your understanding and also included explanations for each of the different questions going over all the different answers. All right now since we're talking about perception it's important that we spend some time and explore the principles proposed by Gestalt psychology. which help explain how we organize our perceptual world. Gestalt psychology focuses on how humans naturally group elements together to form meaningful patterns. Instead of processing individual components of a stimuli, our brains tend to interpret a stimuli as a unified whole. We can see there are six key Gestalt principles that shape our perception, guiding us to see objects in their simplest forms. The first principle is figure and ground. This principle describes how our visual system separates what we see into two categories. The figure, which is the object of focus, and the ground, which is the background. This distinction helps us quickly identify important information while filtering out the rest. Next is continuation, which addresses why our eyes naturally follow continuous lines or paths. For example, when you see an exit sign with an arrow, your gaze is drawn outward, leading you towards the exit. The closure principle explains how our brain subconsciously fills in missing information when viewing a familiar but incomplete object. For instance, when looking at this image with random black lines and shapes, you might still recognize an airplane, even though parts of it are missing. Then there is similarity, which refers to how we perceive a group of similar objects or patterns as one cohesive unit. This principle explains why even though the group or pattern is not the same, pattern is separate, we still see the object as one. This principle also addresses why when we see an anomaly, which is when an object is different from the others, it becomes the focal point and stands out. You often see this principle used in branding for companies, such as the case with these logos, where one unique element draws your attention. You can also see the proximity principle in action in these logos as well. This principle is used to show the object as one. This principle states that when objects are placed close to each other, they are often perceived as one single group, while objects that are spaced and farther apart are seen as separate entities. Lastly there is symmetry, which is when objects that are symmetrical to each other are perceived as one, rather than individual separate elements. Each of these principles plays a role in how we perceive the world around us. allowing us to make sense of our sensory experiences. Now, while Gestalt principles explain how we naturally organize information into meaningful patterns, there is another layer to how we perceive our environment that we need to discuss. To fully understand our visual field, we need to talk about our depth perception, which is the ability to perceive relative distance of an object in one's visual field. In order to fully understand this, we need to talk about binocular and monocular cues, which help us judge depth and spatial relationships using both eyes or just one. Binocular cues rely on both eyes working together. When we look at something close to us, our eyes move inward. And when we focus on something farther away, our eyes straighten out. This process is called convergence. When looking at an object, each of our eyes sees a slightly different view of the object. This creates a sense of depth. The difference between the two images is known as retinal disparity. Binocular cues use these differences between the eye's image to give us our depth perception. On the other hand, monocular cues only require one eye and help us perceive depth on flat or two-dimensional surfaces. There are actually six key monocular cues that our brain uses to create the illusion of depth. Relative size allows us to determine how close an object is to us. Objects that are closer to us will appear larger, while objects that are farther away will appear smaller. Interposition occurs when one object blocks another. The object being blocked is perceived as farther away, while the one doing the blocking is seen as closer. Relative height tells us that objects higher in our visual field appear farther away, while objects lower in our field of view seem closer. Shading and contour helps us perceive the shape and form of an object. Parts of an image that are hazy and have less details appear farther away, while clearer, sharper parts are perceived as closer. Texture and gradient also play a role in depth. perception. Objects that are clear in focus and full of detail appear closer than objects that lack details and appear more blurry. Lastly there is linear perspective which is when parallel lines seem to converge in the distance giving us a sense of depth and positioning. One other monocular cue that I want to mention is the motion parallax which you could probably guess but it involves motion. Here we can see that objects closer to you appear to move quickly. while those that are farther away seem to move more slowly. This is why if you ever look out your car window, nearby cars seem to speed by, but distant landscapes and clouds appear to be slowly moving. If you need more help with the different Gestalt principles or the different binocular and monocular cues, you can find exclusive quizzes and practice resources in the Ultimate Review Packet. Continuing our review of perception, we also need to cover perceptual constancy, which is the ability to perceive objects as having consistent shape, size, color, and lightness, even when their appearance changes due to varying conditions. Size constancy refers to our brain's tendency to perceive objects as the same size. Color constancy is when we perceive the color of an object to remain constant, even if the lighting changes. Shape constancy is the tendency of the brain to perceive an object's shape as the same and even when it moves. For instance, when you close or open a door, your brain still recognizes the door's shape as a constant. And lastly, lightness constancy refers to our ability to perceive the blackness, whiteness, and grayness of an object as constant, even under different lighting conditions. Essentially, this is the shading of an object. These constancies explain why when someone walks towards you, you don't perceive them as growing larger, but simply getting closer. They also explain why when talking to someone who is moving their head, you don't perceive their head as changing shape. Similarly, if a bright light is turned on, you don't perceive the person's skin color as suddenly changing. So that was a lot of information, but don't worry if you do need more practice with the Gestalt principles, the binocular cues, the monocular cues, or any of the constancies. I created different practice quizzes and resources and put them inside my ultimate review packet. That way you can make sure that you've got all of this content down. All right, now comes the time to talk about how psychological concepts and theories account for thinking, problem solving, judgment, and decision making. According to the APA, cognition is all forms of knowing and awareness, such as perceiving, conceiving, remembering, reasoning, judging, imagining, and problem solving. Our cognitive structures rely on concepts, prototypes, and schemas, each playing a unique role in helping us organize and interpret information. As we process information, we use... Concepts, which are mental categories that help us organize and understand the world. Concepts allow us to group similar objects, events, ideas, or people under a shared classification. They are what form the foundation of our thought process. For instance, if I ask you to think about balls that can be used in a sport, the concept would be ball, but the specific examples you start to think of, like basketball or baseball, are called prototypes. A prototype is the most typical or basic example of a concept. It serves as a mental image that illustrates the concept and acts as a cognitive reference point or benchmark. In the case of the ball concept, prototypes like basketball or baseball embody the common characteristics that are associated with the idea of a ball. Schemas, on the other hand, are more complex mental frameworks that organize and interpret information about the world. They help guide our expectations and actions and are built from our past experiences and knowledge. People generally form and modify schemas through assimilation, which is when we fit new information into existing schemas, or accommodation, which is when we change a schema to incorporate new information. Now, my students often mix up these two terms, so make sure you remember, assimilation adds the new information to a schema and it does not alter it, while accommodation adds new information to the schema and it does not alter it. does alter it. Both assimilation and accommodation help individuals consistently refine and expand their schemas, leading to a better understanding of their experiences and the world. Now let's shift gears and talk about executive functions, which are cognitive processes that help individuals generate, organize, plan, and carry out goal-directed behaviors, as well as engage in critical thinking. These functions are closely linked to the frontal lobe and the prefrontal cortex of the brain. and they rely on skills such as language, judgment, logic, and reasoning. We can see that when individuals are faced with a problem, they may use a variety of approaches to try and solve it. One approach an individual can use is known as algorithms, which is where a person tackles a problem step-by-step in a systematic way. For instance, let's say that you lost your phone. You might start searching one room at a time in your house to ensure you don't miss any areas. Alternatively, people can use heuristics to solve problems as well. Heuristics are mental shortcuts based on past experiences. If we go back to the phone example, instead of searching every room in your house, you might decide to first retrace your steps and focus on the areas where you last had your phone. This will definitely save you some time, but it may lead you to miss some things. Everyone uses heuristics to help make quick decisions, but they don't always guarantee accuracy and can sometimes lead to errors in judgment. Typically, individuals will use representative and availability heuristics to help in their problem solving. Representative heuristics involves making judgments based on how much something resembles or is a representation of a typical case or stereotype. This can cause individuals to overlook important details in favor of information that aligns with their expectations or personal biases. On the other hand, availability heuristics involves making judgments based on how easily examples come to mind. This can lead to errors when decisions are heavily influenced by recent or vivid memories. rather than a full consideration of the facts. Our decision-making process is often significantly influenced by past experiences and the context in which our decision is being made. Now, when we come across a new problem or challenge in life, we often will utilize mental sets to try and solve the issue. A mental set is a cognitive framework that relies on past experiences and successful strategies to solve new problems. Now, don't get this confused with a schema. Both mental sets and schemas are cognitive frameworks, but they both serve different purposes. A mental set is specific to problem solving, while a schema is focused on organizing information. So we can see that when we are faced with a new challenge in life, we tend to approach it using methods that worked for us in the past, which makes sense. This ends up saving us time and energy, but it can also limit our creativity and prevent us from considering better or more efficient solutions. Speaking of using past information to tackle current challenges, we also need to talk about priming, which refers to the phenomenon where exposure to one stimulus influences how we respond to a later stimulus. There are two types of priming that you want to be familiar with. The first one is repetition priming, which occurs when you are exposed to a specific stimulus that makes it easier to recognize that same or similar stimulus later. For example, if I were to keep showing you the word subscribe throughout this video, and then at the end of the video showed you a list of words, you would be more likely to recognize and point out the word subscribe because of your initial exposures. Now, the second type is semantic priming, which involves the influence of one word on the interpretation of another related word. For instance, if you see the word You are more likely to quickly recognize or process related words like nurse or hospital That's because the first word primes your brain to expect related concepts Finally, we also need to talk about framing which refers to how information is presented which can shape how we interpret and react to it Often influencing our decisions and judgments oftentimes we can see framing and action when watching the news Many outlets frame stories in particular ways to guide their audience's opinions, either by omitting conflicting details or by using language that encourages a specific perspective. All of which influences our thought process and decision making. If you do need more help with these concepts and understanding problem solving, then make sure you take the practice quiz in the ultimate review packet once you're done watching this video. So we have talked about how we process new information, how we as individuals problem solve, and how our experiences can influence our thinking. But now we need to talk about creativity, which is when we as individuals create new original ideas and solutions. When thinking creatively, individuals often use two different approaches, divergent thinking and convergent thinking. Divergent thinking is when a person explores many possible solutions, expanding the range of options for solving a problem. On the other hand, convergent thinking involves narrowing down the possibilities to identify the single best solution. Coming up with a unique solution or fresh idea can be challenging. When trying to understand creativity, we can look at the five key components that psychologist Robert Sternberg identified. The first is expertise. The more knowledge someone has about a subject, the more likely they are to apply it in new and innovative ways. Second is imaginative thinking skills. An individual must be able to view concepts in a unique and creative way, instead of focusing on traditional perspectives. Third is a venturesome personality, which means that the individual is willing to seek out new experiences and embrace challenges that will help them grow and see things from different perspectives. Fourth is intrinsic motivation. Individuals must have an internal drive to pursue a goal. goal for personal satisfaction rather than external rewards. And lastly, a creative environment. Individuals that surround themselves with other creative people and put themselves in creative environments tend to foster innovation and promote creative thinking. Now that list is harder than you think to do. Oftentimes we can see creativity be hindered due to people becoming fixated on a particular way of thinking, ultimately limiting their ability to see problems from a different perspective. One time. type of fixation that you want to be familiar with is functional fixedness, which limits a person to using an object only in its traditional way. For instance, if you only see a hammer as a tool for pounding nails, you may overlook its potential to be used as a doorstop or even a paperweight. So we are about to move into the next section of this unit and talk about memory. But before we do, I want to highlight two cognitive biases that can affect decision making. The gambler's fallacy and the sunken cost fallacy, both of which hinder individuals from making sound choices. The gambler's fallacy is the mistaken belief that if an event occurs more frequently than normal during a given period, it'll happen less frequently in the future or vice versa. For instance, let's say that you are at the roulette table and it keeps landing on red. Spin after spin after spin, it lands on red. In fact, the last 10 spins have all been red. Now you might be tempted to think that there is a higher probability that the 11th spin is going to land on black, since the last 10 have been red. However, this is the gambler's fallacy. In reality, the odds of the ball landing on red, black, or green remain exactly the same with each spin. The previous outcomes do not affect future spins. This fallacy often leads to poor decision making because it's based on the false assumption that past events influence future probabilities when in fact they don't. Now the sunk cost fallacy is the tendency to continue to pursue an action in which you've already invested money, time, or resources in. into, regardless of its future value. For instance, say you've started a business and while things were promising at first, it becomes pretty clear that after a significant amount of time, money, and effort, that the business is failing. You might feel compelled to keep investing in it because of the resources you've already put in, not wanting the investment to go to waste. This is the sunk cost fallacy in action. It can lead to poor decisions by keeping individuals stuck in unproductive situations, rather than making choices that would benefit them moving forward. moving forward. I realize I just quickly touched on these fallacies. So if you do need more practice with them, you can check out the other resources in my ultimate review packet for more help. Okay. Now it's time to talk about our memories. Don't forget to keep following along in your study guide. And if you're finding value in this video, consider subscribing. Memory refers to the information that persists over time acquired through various experiences and can be and retrieved later. I do want to note that memory is different from metacognition, which is the awareness of your own cognitive processes. Throughout this unit we will reference both of these concepts, so be sure not to confuse the two. When we talk about memory there are three main types that you want to be familiar with. Explicit memory involves information that we consciously recall. These memories require effort and thought. There are two subtypes of explicit memory. Episodic memory, which relates to personal experiences or events. And semantic memory, which involves knowledge, facts, and general information. The next type of memory is implicit memory, which consists of information or skills we learn without being fully aware of it. One key type of implicit memory that you want to be familiar with is procedural memory, which helps us recall how to perform tasks, such as motor skills and routines. The last memory is prospect memory, which involves remembering to perform future actions, like recalling to take medication at a specific time or attending a meeting next week. To gauge how well we've retained information, we can can ask ourselves three types of retention questions. One, can you recall the information? Two, can you recognize the information? And three, can you quickly relearn the information? If the answer is yes to these three questions, it's likely you formed a memory. For instance, when studying for your AP psychology test, you're building explicit memories by actively learning the terms and concepts. Meanwhile, without even realizing it, you're also forming implicit memories as well, such as remembering the different smells of the room you're studying in. in. This process shows that your brain is doing parallel processing, which means it handles multiple streams of information simultaneously. So while you're focused on creating explicit memories, your brain is also forming implicit ones. Now when discussing memory, we also need to cover a key biological process called long-term potentiation. This process strengthens the synaptic connections between neurons in the brain through repeated activation. LTP allows the brain to form stronger and more efficient neural connections. which enhances our ability to store and retain knowledge and skills over time, making it a critical part in memory formation and learning. Speaking of learning, let's review the working memory model. Now, when you hear working memory, realize that it's just another term for short-term memory. This model explains how our primary memory system, known as working memory, processes and temporarily holds information for different cognitive tasks. This model has four parts to it. The first part is the vision. visual spatial sketchpad, which is often called the inner eye. This part of working memory handles visual and spatial information. It is what allows us to visualize objects and their locations. For instance, imagining a scene or navigating a familiar path. The next part is the phonological loop, which deals with verbal and auditory information. This part has two sub components. There is the phonological store, also known as the inner ear, which holds spoken words and sounds for a short period of time, and the articulatory rehearsal process, also known as the inner voice, which helps you repeat and rehearse verbal information to keep it active in your working memory. This is what you use when you are remembering a phone number long enough to dial it or keep a list of words in mind. Up next is the central executive, which acts as the control center of working memory. This is what manages and coordinates the other components, focusing attention, prioritizing tasks, switching between different activities, and integrating information from both the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad. Now, since this model was created, it has been updated with the addition of the episodic buffer. This change helped fill in gaps that the original model had. The episodic buffer explains how long-term memory integrates with working memory and how different types of information such as sounds and visuals are combined. The episodic buffer acts as a temporary storage system that brings together information from the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad, and the spatial sketchpad and long-term memory into one cohesive sequence. So we can see that the working memory model helps illustrate how these different components interact to process, store, and manipulate information, allowing us to effectively carry out cognitive tasks in everyday life. Now I realize that this model can be confusing. So to make sure that you are rock solid on it, I created an exclusive overview video and practice quiz to help you review, practice, and master this model. You can find these resources on the website, inside my ultimate review packet. All right, I know we just covered one memory model, but we need to still talk about the multi-store model of memory before we go on to the next part of the unit, which focuses on the impact of automatic and effortful processing. The multi-store model explains how information is processed, stored and retrieved. It focuses on three key systems that information must pass through if it's going to be remembered. To start, we have A stimulus. This is anything we see, hear, or experience. The information we are taking in goes first to our sensory memory, which consists of our iconic memory and echoic memory. Iconic memory is our visual sensory memory. This memory only lasts for a fraction of a second, while our echoic memory is our auditory sensory memory, which lasts anywhere between one to four seconds. Iconic memory is why you can see the afterglow of a sparkler. And echoic memory is why you can remember the last couple words someone says around you, even if you weren't really paying attention. At this stage, automatic processing takes place. meaning the information is gathered with little or no conscious effort. Now, if something captures your attention here and the information is of interest to you, then the information moves into your working memory, also known as short-term memory. Your working memory can only hold a limited amount of information for a short period of time. However, there are things you can do to keep information active, such as using maintenance rehearsal or elaborative rehearsal. Maintenance rehearsal is when you repeatedly go over the information to prevent forgetting, like when you recite a phone number to yourself over and over and over again. While elaborative rehearsal is when you connect new information to something you already know, which makes it easier to remember. Next comes encoding, which is the process of moving information from working memory to long term memory. If the information is properly encoded, it gets stored in long term memory, where it stays until we need to retrieve it in the future. We'll go more in depth into encoding later in this video. One key takeaway we can get from this model is is that our attention is crucial when trying to form memories. If our attention is divided, it disrupts the encoding process, making it harder to retain and recall information later on. This is why it's so important that while you are studying and trying to process information, you remove distractions and focus on the task at hand. Speaking of processing, we can see that memory is encoded on three levels. This is according to our last model of the section, the levels of processing model. The first is structural processing. This is the process of processing. This is the most superficial level. Here the focus is on the physical appearance or structure of the information. For instance, what a word looks like. Next is phonemic processing. This is a deeper level. Here the focus is on how the information sounds, such as how a word is pronounced, or in my case, maybe how a word is mispronounced. Lastly, there's semantic processing. This is the deepest level. Here the focus is on the meaning of the information. For instance, trying to understand the meaning of a word or concept. We can see that the deeper level of processing the better your memory retention compared to shallow processing levels. If you want extra practice with these models, make sure you check out the exclusive resources inside my Ultimate Review Packet that will help you review, practice, and master these models for your class. Okay, the time has come now to go more in-depth into encoding memories. Encoding is the process and strategies we use to take in information and store it in our long-term memory. We can see that there are different types of encoding. Visual encoding is when we encode information by the visual elements we observe. For example, when reading a book you may notice that certain sections of the book have a specific font or a specific color acoustic encoding is when the different sound elements help with the encoding process for instance when some people remember information by using rhymes tactile encoding is when we use the feeling of touch when encoding the information for example remembering the feel of certain textures organizational encoding is when we process information in terms of a specific sequence this can take the form form of lists, groups, or focus on a relationship between different items. There's also elaborative encoding, which is when you pair new information with prior knowledge. Here you are remembering new information by linking it to information you already know. The last type of encoding is semantic encoding, which is when you focus on the meaning or context of the information. This type of encoding is used with deep processing, and it is one of the most effective encoding methods. How we decide to encode information is very important. information can significantly impact how well that information is stored and how easily it can be retrieved later on. When we utilize effective encoding strategies, we make meaningful connections with the material resulting in better long-term retention and easier recall when we need it. On the other hand, like we already talked about, when we use shallow processing or passive encoding, we will see weaker memory retention. One way in which we can encode new information is by using mnemonic devices which help people remember in information more easily by organizing it in a way that's easier to recall. Mnemonic devices often use patterns like acronyms, visual images, rhymes, or associations to connect new information to something familiar. One type of mnemonic device that I want to highlight is the method of loci, which helps you remember information by associating it with with specific locations in a familiar setting. This technique works by using spatial memory and vivid imagery to enhance recall, making it easier to remember detailed information. Now you can also improve your encoding process by organizing information into meaningful chunks, categories, or hierarchies. This is known as chunking. It involves grouping individual pieces of information into larger, more manageable units. For instance, when remembering a bunch of numbers, it's easier when you break them down into smaller chunks. Similarly, organizing information into categories or hierarchies helps the brain create connections between related concepts, making it easier to store and retrieve the information later on. Whenever you are trying to learn new information, you want to practice distributed practice, to take advantage of the spacing effect, to truly maximize the encoding process. Oftentimes when information is learned all at once, we get a false sense that we understand the information, but when we space out our studying and practice distributed practice, you will often see real learning. When you space your studying out, it allows your brain to better encode and store the information. It also allows you to keep practicing the information and focus on areas where you are struggling, resulting in improved memory consolidation. One way you can make your distributed practice even more effective is by testing yourself during your studies, which I realize doesn't really sound that fun. I mean, no one likes taking tests, but research has shown that when we take tests, it not only assesses your understanding of the information, but it helps improve your memory as well. This is known as the testing effect. When you take a test, you are forced to truly think about the information. Taking a test shows you what concepts you understand, what concepts you kind of understand, and which concepts you have no idea about. This lets you refine your studies to focus on the content that you need to spend more time with, instead of trying to study everything all at once. This is why I include practice quizzes at the end of my YouTube videos, and why I create all of the different practice quizzes. practice quizzes and resources in my ultimate review packet. The more you practice and the more active you are in your learning, the easier it is for you to succeed. One other aspect of encoding that I want to highlight before we move on to storing memories is the order in which you study the information. Oftentimes when studying information, we have a set order in which the information is presented to us. This can cause us to be impacted by the serial position effect, which refers to how the order in which information is presented affects our ability to remember it. This effect suggests that information that is at the start and end of a list are more likely to be remembered than items in the middle. This is because of the primacy effect, which states that information at the beginning of a list is more memorable because it has had more time to be rehearsed and encoded into long-term memory. For instance, when practicing a speech, I bet every time you mess up, you start over, giving the most practice time to the start of the speech. As for the end of the list, well, we can more. easily remember that due to the recency effect which states that information at the end of a list is easier to recall because it's still fresh unfortunately the information in the middle of the list is often what is most difficult for us to remember since it doesn't get practiced as often and isn't the most recent information we reviewed something to definitely consider when studying now to make sure that we practice what we preach when you're done with this video make sure that you go to the ultimate review packet and take the encoding practice quiz to check your understanding of all these different concepts. Alright, now comes the time to talk about storing memories, which let's be honest is something we all wish we could do just a little bit better. Let's start our conversation off with our sensory memory, short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory. Each of these different stages of memory varies in how long they can store information, how much information they can hold, and what type of information they can handle. Sensory memory is the briefest form of memory, only lasting a few seconds. It captures sensory information. and can hold a lot of it, but unfortunately it's only for a very short period of time. This is where our iconic memory, which remember is visual information, and echoic memory, which is auditory information, are stored. Our short-term memory typically holds around seven items at a time, and usually only for 20 to 30 seconds. While our working memory, which is a more updated dynamic form of our short-term memory, not only stores information, but also processes information as well. We use our working memory to... handle different cognitive tasks. The amount of information we can store here is limited, but our working memory plays a critical role in managing information. As we talked about earlier, we can extend how long information remains in our short-term and working memory by using maintenance rehearsal, which involves repeatedly going over the information to keep it active, or we could use elaborative rehearsal, which is when we connect new information to existing information in a meaningful way. Both of these methods can help with memory retention, but remember, elaborative rehearsal involves deeper processing and is better for long-term retention. Lastly, there's our long-term memory, which has an unlimited capacity and can store information for long periods of time. Information here often includes facts, experiences, skills, and other learned types of information. When looking at our brain, we can see that the frontal lobes and hippocampus process and store new explicit memories. Now memories are not stored in the hippocampus. Instead, it is believed that the hippocampus helps process and temporarily holds information before being sent to different parts of the brain. Before information is sent, the brain will consolidate information. This is known as memory consolidation, which is a process by which short-term memories are transformed into long-term memories. Here, information is solidified and neural connections in the brain are strengthened. making it easier to recall the information later on. This often occurs while we sleep. Now, while the hippocampus and the frontal lobes are associated with explicit memories, it is believed that the cerebellum and basal ganglia play a critical role in forming and storing implicit memories. So we can see when looking at our long-term memory, we have two distinct memory systems. On one side, we have our autonomic processing, and on the other, our effortful processing. Both of these systems focus on different information and aspects of our lives. Our emotions also influence the creation and storage of memories. When we're scared or sad, our bodies release hormones that promote memory formation. Sometimes our emotional reaction to a situation or event can cause us to form flashbulb memories. These are memories that are often clear and very specific. Flashbulb memories are often formed around events that are extremely stressful, traumatic, or emotional. For instance, if you were to ask someone what they were doing on 9-11, they can probably tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing on that day. Another type of memory that I also want to highlight is autobiographical memory, which involves memories connected to our own lives. Generally, these are more memorable because of the personal connection and relevance these memories have. This is why memories that are connected to our own experiences are often more vivid. compared to other memories. Some people actually have highly superior autobiographical memory, which means that they have an extraordinary ability to remember events from their own lives. This is often due to the individual's biological processes. Individuals with a highly superior autobiographical memory will have extremely detailed and accurate memories, even years later. Now, unfortunately, our memory storage system can be damaged. which can result in issues with memories being stored. For instance, if the hippocampus is damaged, an individual may find it hard to recall explicit memories. Generally, damage to the left hippocampus results in people struggling to remember verbal information, with damage to the right hippocampus resulting in an individual struggling to remember visual information. And it isn't just physical injuries that can damage our storage system. Individuals can also be impacted by developmental limitations and diseases. such as amnesia and Alzheimer's disease. Amnesia involves the temporary or permanent loss of memory. There are four types of amnesia you want to be familiar with. The first is anterior grade amnesia, which is when a person can no longer form new memories. This type of amnesia almost always involves something happening to the hippocampus. The second is retrograde amnesia, which is when a person can no longer retrieve past information. This could happen because of a blow to a person's head. The third is source amnesia, which is when a person can remember the information but cannot recall where or how they learned it. The fourth and last type of amnesia deals specifically with developmental limitations, and it is infantile amnesia, which is when an adult cannot remember personal experiences from the early years of their life. For instance, can you remember what you did when you were three years old or four years old? These early memories were formed, but they often fade as you grow older. due to your brain being underdeveloped at the time the memories were formed. I also mentioned Alzheimer's disease, and this is a neurodegenerative disorder that impairs memory and cognitive functions of an individual. As this disease worsens, it disrupts the storage and retrieval of both new and old memories. Alright, so we've now reviewed memory, encoding, storing, and now it comes time to talk about retrieving memories. When we access information that is stored in our memory, it is known as memory retrieval. This typically happens in one of two ways. We can recall information, which is when we retrieve information without any cues or hints. Or we can use recognition, which is when we use retrieval cues to help access the information. Each situation will change which memory retrieval method you will use. For instance, if you are asked to give your phone number at a store, you will most likely use recall since you won't have any prompts to help you remember your number. On the other hand, when you are taking one of the multiple choice practice quizzes in my ultimate review packet, you will utilize recognition since you're going to recognize the correct answer from the provided options. Generally, recognition tends to be easier since there are external cues that can help trigger the memory. whereas recall relies solely on our internal memory. Our memory retrieval process can be influenced by our environment, our mood, and our physical state, all of which can act as retrieval cues, which may make it easier for our brains to access stored information. Memory retrieval can be enhanced when the conditions during recall match the conditions present during the encoding of the memory. We can break this down into three different types. The first is context-dependent memory, which is when retrieval is improved when you're in the same environment as when you first learned the information. The second is mood-congurant memory, which is when you're more likely to recall memories that match your current mood. For instance, if you feel happy, you'll find it easier to recall positive memories. Or when you're sad, you'll find it easier to recall negative memories. And the third and last is state-dependent memory, which is when memory retrieval is improved if you're in the same physical or mental state as when the memory was encoded. For instance, if you are sick, you're more likely to remember memories of when you were sick in the past. Now, if you want to improve your memory recall, you want to make sure that you take advantage of retrieval practices that strengthen your ability to recall information, such as associating new information with previously learned information. This helps create retrieval cues. that can be used to access the information more easily in the future. For example, when trying to learn the names of your classmates, you could connect their name with where they sit in the class, their hair color, or to different interests that you and them share. This helps with remembering their name, and in the future you can use those retrieval cues to help access the memory of who they are. You also want to make sure that you practice good encoding strategies, such as utilizing distributed practice, deep processing methods and take advantage of the testing effect concepts that we covered earlier in this video one other way in which you can improve your retrieval process is by practicing metacognition reflecting on your own learning and thinking processes can help you understand what you truly understand and what you are struggling with now if you do need more practice with storing memories or retrieving memories make sure you take the two practice quizzes inside the ultimate review packet That way you can make sure that you're fully understanding all of these concepts. And again, if you get anything wrong, don't worry. I got the answers and explanations all in there for you. Now, unfortunately, sometimes we can struggle to retrieve certain memories or forget them entirely. Over time, memories that are stored in our long-term memory that are not retrieved and used may start to decay. To better understand how quickly we can forget information, we can look at the forgetting curve. which was developed by Herman Ebbinghaus. We can see that forgetting generally happens rapidly after we learn new information. At first there is a steep decline in memory retention. However, over time the rate of forgetting slows down and eventually levels off. Now this curve can be countered with reinforcement and review. Just another reason why distributive practice is so We can see that sometimes memories are difficult for us to retrieve because they were never properly encoded. Encoding failure happens when information is not stored correctly. This could be due to our attention being divided during the encoding process, or due to inadequate retrieval cues, which could cause the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon, which is when you know something, but you can't quite think of the exact name. For instance, when you hear a song, but you can't think of the name of the song, but you know that you know it. It's just right there. Memories might also be difficult to retrieve due to proactive or retroactive interference. Proactive interference occurs when older memories interfere with the recall of newer memories, while retroactive interference occurs when newer memories interfere with the recall of older memories. When remembering the difference between proactive and retroactive interference, remember that proactive interference is forward acting, and retroactive interference is backward acting. We can also see that some individuals believe that information or memories can be repressed. For instance, psychodynamic theorists believe that information or memories can be forgotten to defend the ego from distress. Remember, distress is stress that is perceived to be detrimental and is often caused by negative life events. This is different from eustress, which is stress that is perceived as beneficial and is often caused by positive life events. Now, Sigmund Freud originally developed the idea that a person's personality was shaped by the ego, superego, and the id. The ego controls a person's impulses, it deals with external stimuli, and is the overseer of the superego and the id. Super ego is located in a person's pre-conscious. It represents a person's ideals, judgments, and individual's moral components of their personality. While the id is located in a person's unconscious, the id strives to satisfy a person's most basic drives. The focus is solely on pleasure, for example, satisfying a person's hunger or sex drive. The super ego and the id have competing wants and demands. According to Freud, it is the ego's job to work with the superego and id. The ego seeks to control the superego and id. It balances the id's desire for instant gratification and the superego's moral decisions. By taking in both the id and superego, the ego can decide what should be done. In order for the ego to protect itself from the constant conflicting demands of the id and the superego, the ego utilizes different defense mechanisms. These mechanisms allow the ego to protect itself and reduce anxiety. Generally, these mechanisms focus on distorting reality and happen unconsciously. The most basic mechanism is repression of memory. Repression is believed to be an automatic process that shields a person from confronting difficult emotions or experiences. These memories are not consciously accessible. Psychodynamic theorists believe they still may influence behavior and emotions. often surfacing in dreams or through therapy. Now, it isn't just forgetting memories that can cause us challenges. We can also see the accuracy of our memories come into question as well. The idea that memories are not perfect, exact recordings of past events, but instead are reconstructed and shaped when we recall them is known as constructive memory. When we remember information, the brain combines actual stored information with additional elements. such as assumptions, expectations, and even new information. So every time we retrieve a memory, it may be altered or reshaped based on current knowledge, emotions, or external suggestions. The process of altering memories that have been recalled before they are stored again is known as reconsolidation. If an individual does alter a memory with misleading or false information, it can distort the memory. This is known as the misinformation effect. Now to help make sure that your memory is accurate and you don't forget anything, make sure you take the memory challenge quiz and also take the quiz on the ego, the id, and the superego to make sure you're truly understanding all of these concepts. Congratulations, if you are still with me, then you made it to the last section of unit two, where we are going to review intelligence and achievement. Now the concept of intelligence has been debated throughout history. And to this day, we don't have one set way in which to measure it. Intelligence is generally defined as the ability to learn from experiences, adapt to new situations, solve problems, and apply knowledge in a variety of different contexts. One debate that has been ongoing when it comes to intelligence is whether or not intelligence is a general ability, often called G, or if intelligence comprises multiple abilities. Individuals who are proponents of intelligence being a general ability argue that people who perform well in one cognitive area tend to perform well in others, leading to a belief in a general intelligence. While individuals that believe that intelligence comprises multiple abilities believe that intelligence is not a single trait, rather a combination of distinct skills. such as emotional intelligence, creativity, and practical problem solving, with each type of intelligence contributing to an individual's overall cognitive function. Generally speaking, we can see intelligence can be broken down into fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. Fluid intelligence is the ability to quickly reason and break down abstract problems. This decreases as we get older, while crystallized intelligence is the accumulated knowledge and verbal skills that an individual has. which increases as a person gets older. When it comes to intelligence, we can see that some people believe that intelligence is fixed, while others believe it's more malleable. Individuals with a fixed mindset believe that intelligence is something you were born with, and cannot change. This could potentially limit an individual. For instance, if you come across a challenge in life, you may be tempted to give up more easily. since you think that I'm just not smart enough to do this. On the other hand, individuals with a growth mindset believe that intelligence can be developed through effort and learning, which often can lead an individual to seek growth opportunities. When these individuals come across a challenge in life, they may view it as an opportunity to grow and work to overcome the challenge. Now, for years, people have been trying to figure out how to quantify an individual's intelligence. Early formal intelligence tests like those developed by Alfred Bennett introduced the concept of an IQ. In this test a person's mental age, which was the level of intellectual development relative to others, was divided by their chronological age and the results then were multiplied by a hundred. This created the IQ score. Today we can see that IQ tests have evolved and are no longer based on a person's mental age. Instead, they now compare an individual's performance to that of others in the same age group, using a standardized scale. IQ scores today are often used to help identify students for educational services, such as special education or gifted programs. IQ tests have also been used as a tool to determine if an individual was qualified for a particular job, a rank in the military, or even if they should be allowed into a country. For instance, in the early 20th century, intelligence tests were used in the United States to assess immigrants. If an immigrant did not score high enough, they could be denied entry to the country. Now, while intelligence scores can help schools, jobs, and countries gain insight into an individual, it is important to note that IQ tests can be influenced by outside factors and have been criticized for being biased. Some individuals are working to create intelligence assessments that are sociocultural responsive. in order to try and minimize bias and reduce negative impacts, such as the stereotype threat or stereotype lift. The stereotype threat is the fear or anxiety an individual may feel when they are at risk for conforming negative stereotypes about their social group. While the stereotype lift is when an individual benefits from positive stereotypes about their social group. Both of these concepts can impact how an individual performs on an assessment, and can lead to inaccurate results and possibly could perpetuate different stereotypes. To try and address these issues, researchers have been working to create more equitable tests that seek to reduce the impact of cultural bias and stereotypes allowing individuals from all backgrounds to demonstrate their abilities without external pressures. Now, in looking at intelligence, we are talking about a branch of psychology that focuses on the quantification of mental attributes, known as psychometric. In order for intelligence tests to be relevant and beneficial to an individual, they must follow the psychometric principles, which means that an intelligence test must be standardized, have reliability, and have validity. Standardized tests allow the test to be administered in a consistent way, meaning that the procedures and testing environment is the same for anyone who takes the test. This helps reduce bias and allows for a fair comparison. If a test is reliable, it produces consistent results each time it is given. This means if you take a test multiple times, the score should be similar. We can see there's two types of reliability that you want to be familiar with. Test retest reliability and split half reliability. The test-retest reliability refers to the consistency of test results over time when the same person takes the test again, while the split-half reliability refers to the consistency of results within the test itself, such as comparing the results from two halves of the same test. This method allows researchers to see if test takers do better on one part of the test compared to the other part. Ideally, there should be a high correlation between the two parts of the test. This would show that the test is correlated with itself. Now besides having reliability, an intelligence test must also have validity. We can break validity down into four different types. The first is content validity, which is the extent to which a test inquires about the information or behaviors that are of interest of the test. The second is construct validity, which is the degree in which a test can actually measure a specific trait or concept. This ensures that the test accurately measures the specific concepts or traits that it's supposed to. The third is Criterion Validity, which checks to see if the test correlates with any outside variables or measures. If this is low, the test may not be valid. And lastly, there is Predictive Validity, which predicts future performance. This validity only can be used when there is a large data set. This is used to predict trends and patterns. Now over time, we have seen that IQ scores across the world have generally increased. This is known as the Flynn Effect. It is believed that the rise in IQ scores is due to people having access to better education, economic stability, healthcare, nutrition, and learning resources. These factors paired with the advancements in technology and education allow for more engagement and stimulating environments, which have helped contribute to the rise in the average IQ score over time. Now in looking at IQ scores, we can see that there's actually more variation among individuals within the same group. than there is between different groups. A group could be a person's race, gender, or socioeconomic status. Within a group, you'll find a wide range of IQ scores. Some people will score higher, some lower, and many in between. The differences among these individuals are often greater than the average differences you'd find if you compared an entire group to another group. This means that individual differences within a group are more significant than the average differences between groups. This highlights the importance of making sure that you don't make assumptions about intelligence based solely on a person's group identity. Now, we already touched on this idea, but I want to point out again that IQ scores do not always reflect an individual's potential. Oftentimes, they can be shaped by factors beyond their control, such as personal or sociocultural biases, which can lead to the misinterpretation of intelligence levels about a person's intelligence and potential. Factors like poverty, discrimination, and educational inequalities can all negatively impact IQ scores and lead to unfair judgments of individuals and societal groups. Now, changing gears, I want to end this review by reviewing two types of academic tests that are used to assess students. Each test has a different purpose to achieve a specific goal. We can see that there is achievement tests, which are designed to measure what someone knows at a specific point in time. And there's aptitude tests, which aim to predict how how someone will perform in the future. Achievement tests assess knowledge and skills that a person has already learned. For instance, at the end of this school year, you will take the AP Psychology National Exam, which is a standardized test to see what you have learned in this class. This test evaluates your past learning to see if you have mastered the content in this course. Now, aptitude tests measure a person's potential to learn new skills or succeed in specific areas, instead of focusing on what a person already knows. These tests are often used to predict future academic or career success. For instance, the ACT or SAT are examples of an aptitude test, because they seek to predict how well a student will do in college. And just like that, you are done with Unit 2. Now, of course, don't forget to take all of the different practice quizzes in my Ultimate Review Packet. including the ones on intelligence tests and IQ scores. Plus, make sure you check your answers to the study guide and take the Unit 2 practice quiz to make sure that you are ready for your test. As always, thank you so much for watching. I'm Mr. Sin, and I'll see you next time online for Unit 3.

Trust me, you want to take notes during this video. Remember, the key to learning is being active, not... passive.

And don't worry if you do miss anything in the video, I also created an answer key to the study guide and put it in the ultimate review packet as well. That way you can double check your notes once you're done with the video. All right, to start this unit off, we're going to talk about perception. Now don't get this confused with sensation. Remember, we talked about sensation at the end of unit one.

Perception is the process of interpreting the information we obtain through our five senses. While sensation is the raw data or information that we receive from our sensory receptors. When remembering the difference between these two concepts, just remember that sensation is about detecting a stimulus and perception is about interpreting a stimulus.

When we perceive sensory information, we typically rely on one of two types of processing. The first being top-down processing, which is when you use your prior knowledge and experiences to interpret the information. This approach is often used when a stimulus is familiar or relatively simple, allowing us to quickly make sense of what we're seeing or experiencing.

Oftentimes, top-down processing helps us process things in a relatively efficient and quick manner, but sometimes it can lead us astray. For instance, when proofreading a paper you wrote, you utilize top-down processing, since you already know what you intended to write. This can cause your brain to overlook spelling or grammar mistakes. essentially auto-correcting them in your mind as you read. This phenomenon is called the proofreader's illusion.

This is why it's helpful to have someone else review your work or to read it out loud to yourself. Top-down processing can also sometimes lead to skewed perceptions since our previous experiences and expectations end up influencing how we interpret the new information. For instance, take a look at this image.

What do you see? Do you see a bird flying through the air? or perhaps you see a bunny on skis.

As I'm asking these questions, your interpretation might actually shift. This is because as I asked questions, I gave you new information that your brain could use to shape how you perceived the image. Now, the second type of processing is bottom-up processing, which is when the stimuli or experience is complex and not familiar to the individual.

In these cases, we are often building our perception from the ground up. Organizing and interpreting the information as it comes in, without relying on prior knowledge. This often results in the processing taking longer. If you do need more help with practicing processing, you can check out the practice quiz in my Ultimate Review Packet.

Alright, now that we've explored top and bottom-up processing, let's continue to explore our perception and talk about how our brain uses schemas to guide our perception. A schema is a mental framework that's built from our past experiences. A schema is essentially a cognitive structure based on individual's experiences. Schemas guide our perception and help us interpret and organize our environment. For instance, let's say that you have a family birthday party next week.

If I was to ask you what you would do at it, I would bet you could probably pretty easily describe what would happen at the party, even though the event hasn't happened yet. This is because you've attended family birthday parties before and developed a schema for what usually happens at them. Now, since we're talking about schemas, I want to remind you not to confuse them with perceptual sets. Remember, a perceptual set is a mental shortcut your brain uses to quickly interpret what you're experiencing. Perceptual sets often influence our immediate perception based on our expectations or emotions, influencing how we interpret a stimuli in a specific moment.

Schemas and perceptual sets can help us quickly organize information and understand the world around us. However, sometimes they can also lead us astray. For example, when we are in a good mood, we are more likely to see and focus on positive stimuli and thoughts. Or if we're in a bad mood, we'll focus on the negative things and dismiss positive items.

So we can see that our perception can be influenced by internal factors, such as our culture, mood, emotions, or expectations. We can also see that the environment we are in can influence our perception as well. For instance, individuals who work with numbers for a living are more likely to quickly identify numbers in images. While individuals who read more books or do more with words are more likely to identify words or letters first.

Even how and where we are raised can shape our perceptual set. For example, if you were raised in an urban area in a western country, you're more likely to see right angles, since they are common in your society. This is one of the reasons why optical illusions like the Mueller-Lyer Illusion This illusion has multiple lines or arrows that are the same length, but for many people they perceive this illusion to have lines that are different lengths.

Depending on your perceptual set, you may be more or less likely to fall for this illusion. So we can see that our perception can be influenced by different external and internal factors. Now our perception can also be impacted simply by our attention. When we focus on a particular stimulus, we often tune out other stimuli in our environment, a process known as selective attention. For instance, let's say that you're at a party.

There's music playing and lots of people talking. Despite all the background noise, you can still easily engage in a conversation with the person in front of you by focusing on their words and filtering out the surrounding noise. What's remarkable, though, is that your brain continues to monitor the background for relevant or personal information.

That's why even if you're not paying attention, you'll still notice when somebody nearby mentions your name or starts spilling the tea. In this situation, selective attention helps you manage the sensory inputs, allowing you to focus on what's important while filtering out the rest. This ability to focus on a specific conversation or sound in a noisy setting is known as the cocktail party effect. Now as people we love to pretend that we can focus on multiple things at once. However, it's simply not true When our attention is divided, we often experience inattentional blindness, which is the failure to notice stimuli in our visual field due to our attention being focused elsewhere.

Another phenomenon that could occur when our attention is divided is change blindness, which is a type of inattentional blindness. This is where we fail to notice changes in the environment. These phenomenon illustrate the limitations and selective nature of human attention, showing how we can focus on certain stimuli while we are in the same situation. while remaining oblivious to others. We will talk more about the importance of our attention and multitasking later in this video.

Right now though, we need to talk about a couple more phenomenon, starting with apparent movement, which is when we perceive motion, even though nothing is actually moving. This illusion is created by specific visual cues and contexts that trick our brain into interpreting still images as if they're in motion. One example is stroboscopic motion, which is commonly used in animations or movies.

Here the illusion of movement is created by the movement of the eyes. by showing a series of images in rapid succession, resulting in the brain perceiving motion. Another example is the five phenomenon, which occurs when lights blink on and off in a sequence, resulting in us perceiving objects as moving, even though objects are stationary. Next, there is induced movement, which is when a stationary object appears to move because of the motion of surrounding objects.

And finally, there's the auto-kinetic effect. which is when a stationary point of light in a dark environment appears to move. This happens because the eyes and brain have difficulty maintaining stable perception of the light's position since there is no other visual references. Now to help you keep all these different phenomena straight, I created a practice quiz that will help you check your understanding and also included explanations for each of the different questions going over all the different answers. All right now since we're talking about perception it's important that we spend some time and explore the principles proposed by Gestalt psychology.

which help explain how we organize our perceptual world. Gestalt psychology focuses on how humans naturally group elements together to form meaningful patterns. Instead of processing individual components of a stimuli, our brains tend to interpret a stimuli as a unified whole. We can see there are six key Gestalt principles that shape our perception, guiding us to see objects in their simplest forms. The first principle is figure and ground.

This principle describes how our visual system separates what we see into two categories. The figure, which is the object of focus, and the ground, which is the background. This distinction helps us quickly identify important information while filtering out the rest. Next is continuation, which addresses why our eyes naturally follow continuous lines or paths. For example, when you see an exit sign with an arrow, your gaze is drawn outward, leading you towards the exit.

The closure principle explains how our brain subconsciously fills in missing information when viewing a familiar but incomplete object. For instance, when looking at this image with random black lines and shapes, you might still recognize an airplane, even though parts of it are missing. Then there is similarity, which refers to how we perceive a group of similar objects or patterns as one cohesive unit.

This principle explains why even though the group or pattern is not the same, pattern is separate, we still see the object as one. This principle also addresses why when we see an anomaly, which is when an object is different from the others, it becomes the focal point and stands out. You often see this principle used in branding for companies, such as the case with these logos, where one unique element draws your attention.

You can also see the proximity principle in action in these logos as well. This principle is used to show the object as one. This principle states that when objects are placed close to each other, they are often perceived as one single group, while objects that are spaced and farther apart are seen as separate entities. Lastly there is symmetry, which is when objects that are symmetrical to each other are perceived as one, rather than individual separate elements. Each of these principles plays a role in how we perceive the world around us.

allowing us to make sense of our sensory experiences. Now, while Gestalt principles explain how we naturally organize information into meaningful patterns, there is another layer to how we perceive our environment that we need to discuss. To fully understand our visual field, we need to talk about our depth perception, which is the ability to perceive relative distance of an object in one's visual field. In order to fully understand this, we need to talk about binocular and monocular cues, which help us judge depth and spatial relationships using both eyes or just one.

Binocular cues rely on both eyes working together. When we look at something close to us, our eyes move inward. And when we focus on something farther away, our eyes straighten out. This process is called convergence.

When looking at an object, each of our eyes sees a slightly different view of the object. This creates a sense of depth. The difference between the two images is known as retinal disparity. Binocular cues use these differences between the eye's image to give us our depth perception. On the other hand, monocular cues only require one eye and help us perceive depth on flat or two-dimensional surfaces.

There are actually six key monocular cues that our brain uses to create the illusion of depth. Relative size allows us to determine how close an object is to us. Objects that are closer to us will appear larger, while objects that are farther away will appear smaller.

Interposition occurs when one object blocks another. The object being blocked is perceived as farther away, while the one doing the blocking is seen as closer. Relative height tells us that objects higher in our visual field appear farther away, while objects lower in our field of view seem closer.

Shading and contour helps us perceive the shape and form of an object. Parts of an image that are hazy and have less details appear farther away, while clearer, sharper parts are perceived as closer. Texture and gradient also play a role in depth.

perception. Objects that are clear in focus and full of detail appear closer than objects that lack details and appear more blurry. Lastly there is linear perspective which is when parallel lines seem to converge in the distance giving us a sense of depth and positioning. One other monocular cue that I want to mention is the motion parallax which you could probably guess but it involves motion. Here we can see that objects closer to you appear to move quickly.

while those that are farther away seem to move more slowly. This is why if you ever look out your car window, nearby cars seem to speed by, but distant landscapes and clouds appear to be slowly moving. If you need more help with the different Gestalt principles or the different binocular and monocular cues, you can find exclusive quizzes and practice resources in the Ultimate Review Packet. Continuing our review of perception, we also need to cover perceptual constancy, which is the ability to perceive objects as having consistent shape, size, color, and lightness, even when their appearance changes due to varying conditions. Size constancy refers to our brain's tendency to perceive objects as the same size.

Color constancy is when we perceive the color of an object to remain constant, even if the lighting changes. Shape constancy is the tendency of the brain to perceive an object's shape as the same and even when it moves. For instance, when you close or open a door, your brain still recognizes the door's shape as a constant.

And lastly, lightness constancy refers to our ability to perceive the blackness, whiteness, and grayness of an object as constant, even under different lighting conditions. Essentially, this is the shading of an object. These constancies explain why when someone walks towards you, you don't perceive them as growing larger, but simply getting closer.

They also explain why when talking to someone who is moving their head, you don't perceive their head as changing shape. Similarly, if a bright light is turned on, you don't perceive the person's skin color as suddenly changing. So that was a lot of information, but don't worry if you do need more practice with the Gestalt principles, the binocular cues, the monocular cues, or any of the constancies. I created different practice quizzes and resources and put them inside my ultimate review packet. That way you can make sure that you've got all of this content down.

All right, now comes the time to talk about how psychological concepts and theories account for thinking, problem solving, judgment, and decision making. According to the APA, cognition is all forms of knowing and awareness, such as perceiving, conceiving, remembering, reasoning, judging, imagining, and problem solving. Our cognitive structures rely on concepts, prototypes, and schemas, each playing a unique role in helping us organize and interpret information.

As we process information, we use... Concepts, which are mental categories that help us organize and understand the world. Concepts allow us to group similar objects, events, ideas, or people under a shared classification. They are what form the foundation of our thought process. For instance, if I ask you to think about balls that can be used in a sport, the concept would be ball, but the specific examples you start to think of, like basketball or baseball, are called prototypes.

A prototype is the most typical or basic example of a concept. It serves as a mental image that illustrates the concept and acts as a cognitive reference point or benchmark. In the case of the ball concept, prototypes like basketball or baseball embody the common characteristics that are associated with the idea of a ball.

Schemas, on the other hand, are more complex mental frameworks that organize and interpret information about the world. They help guide our expectations and actions and are built from our past experiences and knowledge. People generally form and modify schemas through assimilation, which is when we fit new information into existing schemas, or accommodation, which is when we change a schema to incorporate new information.

Now, my students often mix up these two terms, so make sure you remember, assimilation adds the new information to a schema and it does not alter it, while accommodation adds new information to the schema and it does not alter it. does alter it. Both assimilation and accommodation help individuals consistently refine and expand their schemas, leading to a better understanding of their experiences and the world.

Now let's shift gears and talk about executive functions, which are cognitive processes that help individuals generate, organize, plan, and carry out goal-directed behaviors, as well as engage in critical thinking. These functions are closely linked to the frontal lobe and the prefrontal cortex of the brain. and they rely on skills such as language, judgment, logic, and reasoning.

We can see that when individuals are faced with a problem, they may use a variety of approaches to try and solve it. One approach an individual can use is known as algorithms, which is where a person tackles a problem step-by-step in a systematic way. For instance, let's say that you lost your phone. You might start searching one room at a time in your house to ensure you don't miss any areas.

Alternatively, people can use heuristics to solve problems as well. Heuristics are mental shortcuts based on past experiences. If we go back to the phone example, instead of searching every room in your house, you might decide to first retrace your steps and focus on the areas where you last had your phone.

This will definitely save you some time, but it may lead you to miss some things. Everyone uses heuristics to help make quick decisions, but they don't always guarantee accuracy and can sometimes lead to errors in judgment. Typically, individuals will use representative and availability heuristics to help in their problem solving.

Representative heuristics involves making judgments based on how much something resembles or is a representation of a typical case or stereotype. This can cause individuals to overlook important details in favor of information that aligns with their expectations or personal biases. On the other hand, availability heuristics involves making judgments based on how easily examples come to mind. This can lead to errors when decisions are heavily influenced by recent or vivid memories. rather than a full consideration of the facts.

Our decision-making process is often significantly influenced by past experiences and the context in which our decision is being made. Now, when we come across a new problem or challenge in life, we often will utilize mental sets to try and solve the issue. A mental set is a cognitive framework that relies on past experiences and successful strategies to solve new problems. Now, don't get this confused with a schema. Both mental sets and schemas are cognitive frameworks, but they both serve different purposes.

A mental set is specific to problem solving, while a schema is focused on organizing information. So we can see that when we are faced with a new challenge in life, we tend to approach it using methods that worked for us in the past, which makes sense. This ends up saving us time and energy, but it can also limit our creativity and prevent us from considering better or more efficient solutions.

Speaking of using past information to tackle current challenges, we also need to talk about priming, which refers to the phenomenon where exposure to one stimulus influences how we respond to a later stimulus. There are two types of priming that you want to be familiar with. The first one is repetition priming, which occurs when you are exposed to a specific stimulus that makes it easier to recognize that same or similar stimulus later. For example, if I were to keep showing you the word subscribe throughout this video, and then at the end of the video showed you a list of words, you would be more likely to recognize and point out the word subscribe because of your initial exposures. Now, the second type is semantic priming, which involves the influence of one word on the interpretation of another related word.

For instance, if you see the word You are more likely to quickly recognize or process related words like nurse or hospital That's because the first word primes your brain to expect related concepts Finally, we also need to talk about framing which refers to how information is presented which can shape how we interpret and react to it Often influencing our decisions and judgments oftentimes we can see framing and action when watching the news Many outlets frame stories in particular ways to guide their audience's opinions, either by omitting conflicting details or by using language that encourages a specific perspective. All of which influences our thought process and decision making. If you do need more help with these concepts and understanding problem solving, then make sure you take the practice quiz in the ultimate review packet once you're done watching this video. So we have talked about how we process new information, how we as individuals problem solve, and how our experiences can influence our thinking.

But now we need to talk about creativity, which is when we as individuals create new original ideas and solutions. When thinking creatively, individuals often use two different approaches, divergent thinking and convergent thinking. Divergent thinking is when a person explores many possible solutions, expanding the range of options for solving a problem.

On the other hand, convergent thinking involves narrowing down the possibilities to identify the single best solution. Coming up with a unique solution or fresh idea can be challenging. When trying to understand creativity, we can look at the five key components that psychologist Robert Sternberg identified.

The first is expertise. The more knowledge someone has about a subject, the more likely they are to apply it in new and innovative ways. Second is imaginative thinking skills.

An individual must be able to view concepts in a unique and creative way, instead of focusing on traditional perspectives. Third is a venturesome personality, which means that the individual is willing to seek out new experiences and embrace challenges that will help them grow and see things from different perspectives. Fourth is intrinsic motivation. Individuals must have an internal drive to pursue a goal.

goal for personal satisfaction rather than external rewards. And lastly, a creative environment. Individuals that surround themselves with other creative people and put themselves in creative environments tend to foster innovation and promote creative thinking.

Now that list is harder than you think to do. Oftentimes we can see creativity be hindered due to people becoming fixated on a particular way of thinking, ultimately limiting their ability to see problems from a different perspective. One time.

type of fixation that you want to be familiar with is functional fixedness, which limits a person to using an object only in its traditional way. For instance, if you only see a hammer as a tool for pounding nails, you may overlook its potential to be used as a doorstop or even a paperweight. So we are about to move into the next section of this unit and talk about memory.

But before we do, I want to highlight two cognitive biases that can affect decision making. The gambler's fallacy and the sunken cost fallacy, both of which hinder individuals from making sound choices. The gambler's fallacy is the mistaken belief that if an event occurs more frequently than normal during a given period, it'll happen less frequently in the future or vice versa.

For instance, let's say that you are at the roulette table and it keeps landing on red. Spin after spin after spin, it lands on red. In fact, the last 10 spins have all been red.

Now you might be tempted to think that there is a higher probability that the 11th spin is going to land on black, since the last 10 have been red. However, this is the gambler's fallacy. In reality, the odds of the ball landing on red, black, or green remain exactly the same with each spin.

The previous outcomes do not affect future spins. This fallacy often leads to poor decision making because it's based on the false assumption that past events influence future probabilities when in fact they don't. Now the sunk cost fallacy is the tendency to continue to pursue an action in which you've already invested money, time, or resources in.

into, regardless of its future value. For instance, say you've started a business and while things were promising at first, it becomes pretty clear that after a significant amount of time, money, and effort, that the business is failing. You might feel compelled to keep investing in it because of the resources you've already put in, not wanting the investment to go to waste. This is the sunk cost fallacy in action.

It can lead to poor decisions by keeping individuals stuck in unproductive situations, rather than making choices that would benefit them moving forward. moving forward. I realize I just quickly touched on these fallacies.

So if you do need more practice with them, you can check out the other resources in my ultimate review packet for more help. Okay. Now it's time to talk about our memories. Don't forget to keep following along in your study guide.

And if you're finding value in this video, consider subscribing. Memory refers to the information that persists over time acquired through various experiences and can be and retrieved later. I do want to note that memory is different from metacognition, which is the awareness of your own cognitive processes. Throughout this unit we will reference both of these concepts, so be sure not to confuse the two.

When we talk about memory there are three main types that you want to be familiar with. Explicit memory involves information that we consciously recall. These memories require effort and thought. There are two subtypes of explicit memory.

Episodic memory, which relates to personal experiences or events. And semantic memory, which involves knowledge, facts, and general information. The next type of memory is implicit memory, which consists of information or skills we learn without being fully aware of it.

One key type of implicit memory that you want to be familiar with is procedural memory, which helps us recall how to perform tasks, such as motor skills and routines. The last memory is prospect memory, which involves remembering to perform future actions, like recalling to take medication at a specific time or attending a meeting next week. To gauge how well we've retained information, we can can ask ourselves three types of retention questions. One, can you recall the information? Two, can you recognize the information?

And three, can you quickly relearn the information? If the answer is yes to these three questions, it's likely you formed a memory. For instance, when studying for your AP psychology test, you're building explicit memories by actively learning the terms and concepts. Meanwhile, without even realizing it, you're also forming implicit memories as well, such as remembering the different smells of the room you're studying in. in.

This process shows that your brain is doing parallel processing, which means it handles multiple streams of information simultaneously. So while you're focused on creating explicit memories, your brain is also forming implicit ones. Now when discussing memory, we also need to cover a key biological process called long-term potentiation. This process strengthens the synaptic connections between neurons in the brain through repeated activation.

LTP allows the brain to form stronger and more efficient neural connections. which enhances our ability to store and retain knowledge and skills over time, making it a critical part in memory formation and learning. Speaking of learning, let's review the working memory model.

Now, when you hear working memory, realize that it's just another term for short-term memory. This model explains how our primary memory system, known as working memory, processes and temporarily holds information for different cognitive tasks. This model has four parts to it.

The first part is the vision. visual spatial sketchpad, which is often called the inner eye. This part of working memory handles visual and spatial information. It is what allows us to visualize objects and their locations. For instance, imagining a scene or navigating a familiar path.

The next part is the phonological loop, which deals with verbal and auditory information. This part has two sub components. There is the phonological store, also known as the inner ear, which holds spoken words and sounds for a short period of time, and the articulatory rehearsal process, also known as the inner voice, which helps you repeat and rehearse verbal information to keep it active in your working memory. This is what you use when you are remembering a phone number long enough to dial it or keep a list of words in mind. Up next is the central executive, which acts as the control center of working memory.

This is what manages and coordinates the other components, focusing attention, prioritizing tasks, switching between different activities, and integrating information from both the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad. Now, since this model was created, it has been updated with the addition of the episodic buffer. This change helped fill in gaps that the original model had.

The episodic buffer explains how long-term memory integrates with working memory and how different types of information such as sounds and visuals are combined. The episodic buffer acts as a temporary storage system that brings together information from the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad, and the spatial sketchpad and long-term memory into one cohesive sequence. So we can see that the working memory model helps illustrate how these different components interact to process, store, and manipulate information, allowing us to effectively carry out cognitive tasks in everyday life. Now I realize that this model can be confusing. So to make sure that you are rock solid on it, I created an exclusive overview video and practice quiz to help you review, practice, and master this model.

You can find these resources on the website, inside my ultimate review packet. All right, I know we just covered one memory model, but we need to still talk about the multi-store model of memory before we go on to the next part of the unit, which focuses on the impact of automatic and effortful processing. The multi-store model explains how information is processed, stored and retrieved.

It focuses on three key systems that information must pass through if it's going to be remembered. To start, we have A stimulus. This is anything we see, hear, or experience.

The information we are taking in goes first to our sensory memory, which consists of our iconic memory and echoic memory. Iconic memory is our visual sensory memory. This memory only lasts for a fraction of a second, while our echoic memory is our auditory sensory memory, which lasts anywhere between one to four seconds. Iconic memory is why you can see the afterglow of a sparkler. And echoic memory is why you can remember the last couple words someone says around you, even if you weren't really paying attention.

At this stage, automatic processing takes place. meaning the information is gathered with little or no conscious effort. Now, if something captures your attention here and the information is of interest to you, then the information moves into your working memory, also known as short-term memory.

Your working memory can only hold a limited amount of information for a short period of time. However, there are things you can do to keep information active, such as using maintenance rehearsal or elaborative rehearsal. Maintenance rehearsal is when you repeatedly go over the information to prevent forgetting, like when you recite a phone number to yourself over and over and over again. While elaborative rehearsal is when you connect new information to something you already know, which makes it easier to remember. Next comes encoding, which is the process of moving information from working memory to long term memory.

If the information is properly encoded, it gets stored in long term memory, where it stays until we need to retrieve it in the future. We'll go more in depth into encoding later in this video. One key takeaway we can get from this model is is that our attention is crucial when trying to form memories.

If our attention is divided, it disrupts the encoding process, making it harder to retain and recall information later on. This is why it's so important that while you are studying and trying to process information, you remove distractions and focus on the task at hand. Speaking of processing, we can see that memory is encoded on three levels. This is according to our last model of the section, the levels of processing model. The first is structural processing.

This is the process of processing. This is the most superficial level. Here the focus is on the physical appearance or structure of the information.

For instance, what a word looks like. Next is phonemic processing. This is a deeper level. Here the focus is on how the information sounds, such as how a word is pronounced, or in my case, maybe how a word is mispronounced. Lastly, there's semantic processing.

This is the deepest level. Here the focus is on the meaning of the information. For instance, trying to understand the meaning of a word or concept.

We can see that the deeper level of processing the better your memory retention compared to shallow processing levels. If you want extra practice with these models, make sure you check out the exclusive resources inside my Ultimate Review Packet that will help you review, practice, and master these models for your class. Okay, the time has come now to go more in-depth into encoding memories. Encoding is the process and strategies we use to take in information and store it in our long-term memory.

We can see that there are different types of encoding. Visual encoding is when we encode information by the visual elements we observe. For example, when reading a book you may notice that certain sections of the book have a specific font or a specific color acoustic encoding is when the different sound elements help with the encoding process for instance when some people remember information by using rhymes tactile encoding is when we use the feeling of touch when encoding the information for example remembering the feel of certain textures organizational encoding is when we process information in terms of a specific sequence this can take the form form of lists, groups, or focus on a relationship between different items.

There's also elaborative encoding, which is when you pair new information with prior knowledge. Here you are remembering new information by linking it to information you already know. The last type of encoding is semantic encoding, which is when you focus on the meaning or context of the information.

This type of encoding is used with deep processing, and it is one of the most effective encoding methods. How we decide to encode information is very important. information can significantly impact how well that information is stored and how easily it can be retrieved later on.

When we utilize effective encoding strategies, we make meaningful connections with the material resulting in better long-term retention and easier recall when we need it. On the other hand, like we already talked about, when we use shallow processing or passive encoding, we will see weaker memory retention. One way in which we can encode new information is by using mnemonic devices which help people remember in information more easily by organizing it in a way that's easier to recall.

Mnemonic devices often use patterns like acronyms, visual images, rhymes, or associations to connect new information to something familiar. One type of mnemonic device that I want to highlight is the method of loci, which helps you remember information by associating it with with specific locations in a familiar setting. This technique works by using spatial memory and vivid imagery to enhance recall, making it easier to remember detailed information. Now you can also improve your encoding process by organizing information into meaningful chunks, categories, or hierarchies. This is known as chunking.

It involves grouping individual pieces of information into larger, more manageable units. For instance, when remembering a bunch of numbers, it's easier when you break them down into smaller chunks. Similarly, organizing information into categories or hierarchies helps the brain create connections between related concepts, making it easier to store and retrieve the information later on. Whenever you are trying to learn new information, you want to practice distributed practice, to take advantage of the spacing effect, to truly maximize the encoding process. Oftentimes when information is learned all at once, we get a false sense that we understand the information, but when we space out our studying and practice distributed practice, you will often see real learning.

When you space your studying out, it allows your brain to better encode and store the information. It also allows you to keep practicing the information and focus on areas where you are struggling, resulting in improved memory consolidation. One way you can make your distributed practice even more effective is by testing yourself during your studies, which I realize doesn't really sound that fun. I mean, no one likes taking tests, but research has shown that when we take tests, it not only assesses your understanding of the information, but it helps improve your memory as well. This is known as the testing effect.

When you take a test, you are forced to truly think about the information. Taking a test shows you what concepts you understand, what concepts you kind of understand, and which concepts you have no idea about. This lets you refine your studies to focus on the content that you need to spend more time with, instead of trying to study everything all at once. This is why I include practice quizzes at the end of my YouTube videos, and why I create all of the different practice quizzes.

practice quizzes and resources in my ultimate review packet. The more you practice and the more active you are in your learning, the easier it is for you to succeed. One other aspect of encoding that I want to highlight before we move on to storing memories is the order in which you study the information. Oftentimes when studying information, we have a set order in which the information is presented to us.

This can cause us to be impacted by the serial position effect, which refers to how the order in which information is presented affects our ability to remember it. This effect suggests that information that is at the start and end of a list are more likely to be remembered than items in the middle. This is because of the primacy effect, which states that information at the beginning of a list is more memorable because it has had more time to be rehearsed and encoded into long-term memory. For instance, when practicing a speech, I bet every time you mess up, you start over, giving the most practice time to the start of the speech.

As for the end of the list, well, we can more. easily remember that due to the recency effect which states that information at the end of a list is easier to recall because it's still fresh unfortunately the information in the middle of the list is often what is most difficult for us to remember since it doesn't get practiced as often and isn't the most recent information we reviewed something to definitely consider when studying now to make sure that we practice what we preach when you're done with this video make sure that you go to the ultimate review packet and take the encoding practice quiz to check your understanding of all these different concepts. Alright, now comes the time to talk about storing memories, which let's be honest is something we all wish we could do just a little bit better. Let's start our conversation off with our sensory memory, short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory. Each of these different stages of memory varies in how long they can store information, how much information they can hold, and what type of information they can handle.

Sensory memory is the briefest form of memory, only lasting a few seconds. It captures sensory information. and can hold a lot of it, but unfortunately it's only for a very short period of time. This is where our iconic memory, which remember is visual information, and echoic memory, which is auditory information, are stored.

Our short-term memory typically holds around seven items at a time, and usually only for 20 to 30 seconds. While our working memory, which is a more updated dynamic form of our short-term memory, not only stores information, but also processes information as well. We use our working memory to... handle different cognitive tasks.

The amount of information we can store here is limited, but our working memory plays a critical role in managing information. As we talked about earlier, we can extend how long information remains in our short-term and working memory by using maintenance rehearsal, which involves repeatedly going over the information to keep it active, or we could use elaborative rehearsal, which is when we connect new information to existing information in a meaningful way. Both of these methods can help with memory retention, but remember, elaborative rehearsal involves deeper processing and is better for long-term retention. Lastly, there's our long-term memory, which has an unlimited capacity and can store information for long periods of time.

Information here often includes facts, experiences, skills, and other learned types of information. When looking at our brain, we can see that the frontal lobes and hippocampus process and store new explicit memories. Now memories are not stored in the hippocampus.

Instead, it is believed that the hippocampus helps process and temporarily holds information before being sent to different parts of the brain. Before information is sent, the brain will consolidate information. This is known as memory consolidation, which is a process by which short-term memories are transformed into long-term memories.

Here, information is solidified and neural connections in the brain are strengthened. making it easier to recall the information later on. This often occurs while we sleep. Now, while the hippocampus and the frontal lobes are associated with explicit memories, it is believed that the cerebellum and basal ganglia play a critical role in forming and storing implicit memories. So we can see when looking at our long-term memory, we have two distinct memory systems.

On one side, we have our autonomic processing, and on the other, our effortful processing. Both of these systems focus on different information and aspects of our lives. Our emotions also influence the creation and storage of memories.

When we're scared or sad, our bodies release hormones that promote memory formation. Sometimes our emotional reaction to a situation or event can cause us to form flashbulb memories. These are memories that are often clear and very specific. Flashbulb memories are often formed around events that are extremely stressful, traumatic, or emotional.

For instance, if you were to ask someone what they were doing on 9-11, they can probably tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing on that day. Another type of memory that I also want to highlight is autobiographical memory, which involves memories connected to our own lives. Generally, these are more memorable because of the personal connection and relevance these memories have.

This is why memories that are connected to our own experiences are often more vivid. compared to other memories. Some people actually have highly superior autobiographical memory, which means that they have an extraordinary ability to remember events from their own lives.

This is often due to the individual's biological processes. Individuals with a highly superior autobiographical memory will have extremely detailed and accurate memories, even years later. Now, unfortunately, our memory storage system can be damaged.

which can result in issues with memories being stored. For instance, if the hippocampus is damaged, an individual may find it hard to recall explicit memories. Generally, damage to the left hippocampus results in people struggling to remember verbal information, with damage to the right hippocampus resulting in an individual struggling to remember visual information. And it isn't just physical injuries that can damage our storage system. Individuals can also be impacted by developmental limitations and diseases.

such as amnesia and Alzheimer's disease. Amnesia involves the temporary or permanent loss of memory. There are four types of amnesia you want to be familiar with.

The first is anterior grade amnesia, which is when a person can no longer form new memories. This type of amnesia almost always involves something happening to the hippocampus. The second is retrograde amnesia, which is when a person can no longer retrieve past information. This could happen because of a blow to a person's head. The third is source amnesia, which is when a person can remember the information but cannot recall where or how they learned it.

The fourth and last type of amnesia deals specifically with developmental limitations, and it is infantile amnesia, which is when an adult cannot remember personal experiences from the early years of their life. For instance, can you remember what you did when you were three years old or four years old? These early memories were formed, but they often fade as you grow older. due to your brain being underdeveloped at the time the memories were formed. I also mentioned Alzheimer's disease, and this is a neurodegenerative disorder that impairs memory and cognitive functions of an individual.

As this disease worsens, it disrupts the storage and retrieval of both new and old memories. Alright, so we've now reviewed memory, encoding, storing, and now it comes time to talk about retrieving memories. When we access information that is stored in our memory, it is known as memory retrieval. This typically happens in one of two ways. We can recall information, which is when we retrieve information without any cues or hints.

Or we can use recognition, which is when we use retrieval cues to help access the information. Each situation will change which memory retrieval method you will use. For instance, if you are asked to give your phone number at a store, you will most likely use recall since you won't have any prompts to help you remember your number.

On the other hand, when you are taking one of the multiple choice practice quizzes in my ultimate review packet, you will utilize recognition since you're going to recognize the correct answer from the provided options. Generally, recognition tends to be easier since there are external cues that can help trigger the memory. whereas recall relies solely on our internal memory.

Our memory retrieval process can be influenced by our environment, our mood, and our physical state, all of which can act as retrieval cues, which may make it easier for our brains to access stored information. Memory retrieval can be enhanced when the conditions during recall match the conditions present during the encoding of the memory. We can break this down into three different types.

The first is context-dependent memory, which is when retrieval is improved when you're in the same environment as when you first learned the information. The second is mood-congurant memory, which is when you're more likely to recall memories that match your current mood. For instance, if you feel happy, you'll find it easier to recall positive memories.

Or when you're sad, you'll find it easier to recall negative memories. And the third and last is state-dependent memory, which is when memory retrieval is improved if you're in the same physical or mental state as when the memory was encoded. For instance, if you are sick, you're more likely to remember memories of when you were sick in the past. Now, if you want to improve your memory recall, you want to make sure that you take advantage of retrieval practices that strengthen your ability to recall information, such as associating new information with previously learned information.

This helps create retrieval cues. that can be used to access the information more easily in the future. For example, when trying to learn the names of your classmates, you could connect their name with where they sit in the class, their hair color, or to different interests that you and them share. This helps with remembering their name, and in the future you can use those retrieval cues to help access the memory of who they are. You also want to make sure that you practice good encoding strategies, such as utilizing distributed practice, deep processing methods and take advantage of the testing effect concepts that we covered earlier in this video one other way in which you can improve your retrieval process is by practicing metacognition reflecting on your own learning and thinking processes can help you understand what you truly understand and what you are struggling with now if you do need more practice with storing memories or retrieving memories make sure you take the two practice quizzes inside the ultimate review packet That way you can make sure that you're fully understanding all of these concepts.

And again, if you get anything wrong, don't worry. I got the answers and explanations all in there for you. Now, unfortunately, sometimes we can struggle to retrieve certain memories or forget them entirely.

Over time, memories that are stored in our long-term memory that are not retrieved and used may start to decay. To better understand how quickly we can forget information, we can look at the forgetting curve. which was developed by Herman Ebbinghaus. We can see that forgetting generally happens rapidly after we learn new information.

At first there is a steep decline in memory retention. However, over time the rate of forgetting slows down and eventually levels off. Now this curve can be countered with reinforcement and review. Just another reason why distributive practice is so We can see that sometimes memories are difficult for us to retrieve because they were never properly encoded. Encoding failure happens when information is not stored correctly.

This could be due to our attention being divided during the encoding process, or due to inadequate retrieval cues, which could cause the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon, which is when you know something, but you can't quite think of the exact name. For instance, when you hear a song, but you can't think of the name of the song, but you know that you know it. It's just right there.

Memories might also be difficult to retrieve due to proactive or retroactive interference. Proactive interference occurs when older memories interfere with the recall of newer memories, while retroactive interference occurs when newer memories interfere with the recall of older memories. When remembering the difference between proactive and retroactive interference, remember that proactive interference is forward acting, and retroactive interference is backward acting.

We can also see that some individuals believe that information or memories can be repressed. For instance, psychodynamic theorists believe that information or memories can be forgotten to defend the ego from distress. Remember, distress is stress that is perceived to be detrimental and is often caused by negative life events. This is different from eustress, which is stress that is perceived as beneficial and is often caused by positive life events.

Now, Sigmund Freud originally developed the idea that a person's personality was shaped by the ego, superego, and the id. The ego controls a person's impulses, it deals with external stimuli, and is the overseer of the superego and the id. Super ego is located in a person's pre-conscious. It represents a person's ideals, judgments, and individual's moral components of their personality.

While the id is located in a person's unconscious, the id strives to satisfy a person's most basic drives. The focus is solely on pleasure, for example, satisfying a person's hunger or sex drive. The super ego and the id have competing wants and demands.

According to Freud, it is the ego's job to work with the superego and id. The ego seeks to control the superego and id. It balances the id's desire for instant gratification and the superego's moral decisions.

By taking in both the id and superego, the ego can decide what should be done. In order for the ego to protect itself from the constant conflicting demands of the id and the superego, the ego utilizes different defense mechanisms. These mechanisms allow the ego to protect itself and reduce anxiety.

Generally, these mechanisms focus on distorting reality and happen unconsciously. The most basic mechanism is repression of memory. Repression is believed to be an automatic process that shields a person from confronting difficult emotions or experiences. These memories are not consciously accessible. Psychodynamic theorists believe they still may influence behavior and emotions.

often surfacing in dreams or through therapy. Now, it isn't just forgetting memories that can cause us challenges. We can also see the accuracy of our memories come into question as well.

The idea that memories are not perfect, exact recordings of past events, but instead are reconstructed and shaped when we recall them is known as constructive memory. When we remember information, the brain combines actual stored information with additional elements. such as assumptions, expectations, and even new information. So every time we retrieve a memory, it may be altered or reshaped based on current knowledge, emotions, or external suggestions. The process of altering memories that have been recalled before they are stored again is known as reconsolidation.

If an individual does alter a memory with misleading or false information, it can distort the memory. This is known as the misinformation effect. Now to help make sure that your memory is accurate and you don't forget anything, make sure you take the memory challenge quiz and also take the quiz on the ego, the id, and the superego to make sure you're truly understanding all of these concepts.

Congratulations, if you are still with me, then you made it to the last section of unit two, where we are going to review intelligence and achievement. Now the concept of intelligence has been debated throughout history. And to this day, we don't have one set way in which to measure it.

Intelligence is generally defined as the ability to learn from experiences, adapt to new situations, solve problems, and apply knowledge in a variety of different contexts. One debate that has been ongoing when it comes to intelligence is whether or not intelligence is a general ability, often called G, or if intelligence comprises multiple abilities. Individuals who are proponents of intelligence being a general ability argue that people who perform well in one cognitive area tend to perform well in others, leading to a belief in a general intelligence.

While individuals that believe that intelligence comprises multiple abilities believe that intelligence is not a single trait, rather a combination of distinct skills. such as emotional intelligence, creativity, and practical problem solving, with each type of intelligence contributing to an individual's overall cognitive function. Generally speaking, we can see intelligence can be broken down into fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. Fluid intelligence is the ability to quickly reason and break down abstract problems.

This decreases as we get older, while crystallized intelligence is the accumulated knowledge and verbal skills that an individual has. which increases as a person gets older. When it comes to intelligence, we can see that some people believe that intelligence is fixed, while others believe it's more malleable. Individuals with a fixed mindset believe that intelligence is something you were born with, and cannot change. This could potentially limit an individual.

For instance, if you come across a challenge in life, you may be tempted to give up more easily. since you think that I'm just not smart enough to do this. On the other hand, individuals with a growth mindset believe that intelligence can be developed through effort and learning, which often can lead an individual to seek growth opportunities.

When these individuals come across a challenge in life, they may view it as an opportunity to grow and work to overcome the challenge. Now, for years, people have been trying to figure out how to quantify an individual's intelligence. Early formal intelligence tests like those developed by Alfred Bennett introduced the concept of an IQ. In this test a person's mental age, which was the level of intellectual development relative to others, was divided by their chronological age and the results then were multiplied by a hundred.

This created the IQ score. Today we can see that IQ tests have evolved and are no longer based on a person's mental age. Instead, they now compare an individual's performance to that of others in the same age group, using a standardized scale.

IQ scores today are often used to help identify students for educational services, such as special education or gifted programs. IQ tests have also been used as a tool to determine if an individual was qualified for a particular job, a rank in the military, or even if they should be allowed into a country. For instance, in the early 20th century, intelligence tests were used in the United States to assess immigrants. If an immigrant did not score high enough, they could be denied entry to the country. Now, while intelligence scores can help schools, jobs, and countries gain insight into an individual, it is important to note that IQ tests can be influenced by outside factors and have been criticized for being biased.

Some individuals are working to create intelligence assessments that are sociocultural responsive. in order to try and minimize bias and reduce negative impacts, such as the stereotype threat or stereotype lift. The stereotype threat is the fear or anxiety an individual may feel when they are at risk for conforming negative stereotypes about their social group.

While the stereotype lift is when an individual benefits from positive stereotypes about their social group. Both of these concepts can impact how an individual performs on an assessment, and can lead to inaccurate results and possibly could perpetuate different stereotypes. To try and address these issues, researchers have been working to create more equitable tests that seek to reduce the impact of cultural bias and stereotypes allowing individuals from all backgrounds to demonstrate their abilities without external pressures.

Now, in looking at intelligence, we are talking about a branch of psychology that focuses on the quantification of mental attributes, known as psychometric. In order for intelligence tests to be relevant and beneficial to an individual, they must follow the psychometric principles, which means that an intelligence test must be standardized, have reliability, and have validity. Standardized tests allow the test to be administered in a consistent way, meaning that the procedures and testing environment is the same for anyone who takes the test. This helps reduce bias and allows for a fair comparison.

If a test is reliable, it produces consistent results each time it is given. This means if you take a test multiple times, the score should be similar. We can see there's two types of reliability that you want to be familiar with.

Test retest reliability and split half reliability. The test-retest reliability refers to the consistency of test results over time when the same person takes the test again, while the split-half reliability refers to the consistency of results within the test itself, such as comparing the results from two halves of the same test. This method allows researchers to see if test takers do better on one part of the test compared to the other part. Ideally, there should be a high correlation between the two parts of the test.

This would show that the test is correlated with itself. Now besides having reliability, an intelligence test must also have validity. We can break validity down into four different types.

The first is content validity, which is the extent to which a test inquires about the information or behaviors that are of interest of the test. The second is construct validity, which is the degree in which a test can actually measure a specific trait or concept. This ensures that the test accurately measures the specific concepts or traits that it's supposed to. The third is Criterion Validity, which checks to see if the test correlates with any outside variables or measures. If this is low, the test may not be valid.

And lastly, there is Predictive Validity, which predicts future performance. This validity only can be used when there is a large data set. This is used to predict trends and patterns.

Now over time, we have seen that IQ scores across the world have generally increased. This is known as the Flynn Effect. It is believed that the rise in IQ scores is due to people having access to better education, economic stability, healthcare, nutrition, and learning resources.

These factors paired with the advancements in technology and education allow for more engagement and stimulating environments, which have helped contribute to the rise in the average IQ score over time. Now in looking at IQ scores, we can see that there's actually more variation among individuals within the same group. than there is between different groups.

A group could be a person's race, gender, or socioeconomic status. Within a group, you'll find a wide range of IQ scores. Some people will score higher, some lower, and many in between.

The differences among these individuals are often greater than the average differences you'd find if you compared an entire group to another group. This means that individual differences within a group are more significant than the average differences between groups. This highlights the importance of making sure that you don't make assumptions about intelligence based solely on a person's group identity.

Now, we already touched on this idea, but I want to point out again that IQ scores do not always reflect an individual's potential. Oftentimes, they can be shaped by factors beyond their control, such as personal or sociocultural biases, which can lead to the misinterpretation of intelligence levels about a person's intelligence and potential. Factors like poverty, discrimination, and educational inequalities can all negatively impact IQ scores and lead to unfair judgments of individuals and societal groups.

Now, changing gears, I want to end this review by reviewing two types of academic tests that are used to assess students. Each test has a different purpose to achieve a specific goal. We can see that there is achievement tests, which are designed to measure what someone knows at a specific point in time. And there's aptitude tests, which aim to predict how how someone will perform in the future.

Achievement tests assess knowledge and skills that a person has already learned. For instance, at the end of this school year, you will take the AP Psychology National Exam, which is a standardized test to see what you have learned in this class. This test evaluates your past learning to see if you have mastered the content in this course. Now, aptitude tests measure a person's potential to learn new skills or succeed in specific areas, instead of focusing on what a person already knows.

These tests are often used to predict future academic or career success. For instance, the ACT or SAT are examples of an aptitude test, because they seek to predict how well a student will do in college. And just like that, you are done with Unit 2. Now, of course, don't forget to take all of the different practice quizzes in my Ultimate Review Packet.

including the ones on intelligence tests and IQ scores. Plus, make sure you check your answers to the study guide and take the Unit 2 practice quiz to make sure that you are ready for your test. As always, thank you so much for watching. I'm Mr. Sin, and I'll see you next time online for Unit 3.

Transcript for:AP Psychology Unit 2: Understanding Cognition

Transcript for:
AP Psychology Unit 2: Understanding Cognition