5 Steps to a 5 AP Psychology, 2010-2011 Edition (38 page)

Forgetting may result from failure to encode information, decay of stored memories, or an inability to access information from LTM. Encoding failure results from stimuli to which we were exposed never entering LTM because we did not pay attention to them. For example, most of us cannot remember what is on the front or back of different denominations of money. We use money to pay for things, yet have never paid attention to the details of the coins or paper bills. Decay of stored memories can be explained by a gradual fading of the physical memory trace. We may not remember vocabulary words we learned in a class for a different language several years ago because we have never used that information, and the neural connections are no longer there.
Relearning
is a measure of retention of memory that assesses the time saved compared to learning the first time when learning information again. If relearning takes as much time as initial learning, our memory of the information has decayed.

Forgetting that results from inability to access information from LTM can result from insufficient retrieval cues, interference, or motivated forgetting, according to Freud. Sometimes we know that we know something but can’t pull it out of memory; this is called
tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.
Often, providing ourselves with retrieval cues we associate with the blocked information can enable us to recall it. Learning some items may prevent retrieving others, especially when the items are similar. This is called
interference. Proactive interference
occurs when something we learned earlier disrupts recall of something we experience later. Trying to remember a new phone number may be disrupted by the memory of an old phone number.
Retroactive interference
is the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information. Someone asks us for our old address and it is blocked because our new address interferes with our recall of it.

Hint:
Proactive interference is
forward-acting.
Retroactive interference is
backward-acting.
If we learn A, then B, and we can’t remember B because A got in the way, we are experiencing proactive interference. If we learn A, then B, and we can’t remember A because B got in the way, we are experiencing retroactive interference.

Sigmund Freud believed that
repression
(unconscious forgetting) of painful memories occurs as a defense mechanism to protect our self-concepts and minimize anxiety. Freud believed that the submerged memory still lingered in the unconscious mind, and with proper therapy, patience, and effort, these memories could be retrieved. Repressed memories are a controversial area of research today, with Elizabeth Loftus being one of the strongest opponents. She believes that rather than the memory of traumatic events, such as child molestation, being suddenly remembered during therapy, this phenomenon is more a result of the active reconstruction of memory and, thus,
confabulation,
filling in gaps in memory by combining and substituting memories from events other than the one we are trying to remember. Loftus has found that when we try to remember details at an accident scene, our emotional state, the questions a police officer may ask, and other confusing inconsistencies may result in confabulation. When asked how fast a car was going when it bumped, smashed, or collided into another vehicle, our estimate of the speed would probably differ depending on whether bumped or collided was part of the question. This
misinformation effect
occurs when we incorporate misleading information into our memory of an event. Forgetting what really happened, or distortion of information at retrieval, can result when we confuse the source of information—putting words in someone else’s mouth—or remember something we see in the movies or on
the Internet as actually having happened. This is a
misattribution error,
also referred to as
source amnesia
.

Research has shown that we can improve our memory. Applying the information in this section, we can improve our memory for information in AP Psychology by over-learning, spending more time actively rehearsing material, relating the material to ourselves, using mnemonic devices, activating retrieval cues, recalling information soon after we learn it, minimizing interference, spacing out study sessions, and testing our own knowledge.

Language
is a flexible system of spoken, written, or signed symbols that enables us to communicate our thoughts and feelings. Language transmits knowledge from one generation to the next, and expresses the history of a culture.

Language is made up of basic sound units called
phonemes.
The phonemes themselves have no meaning. Of about 100 different phonemes worldwide, English uses about 45.
Morphemes
are the smallest meaningful units of speech, such as simple words, prefixes, and suffixes. Most morphemes are a combination of phonemes. For example, farm is made up of three phonemes (sounds) and one morpheme (meaning). Farmer has two morphemes. By adding “-er” to farm we change the meaning of the word to an individual who farms.

Each language has a system of rules that determine how sounds and words can be combined and used to communicate meaning, called
grammar.
The set of rules that regulate the
order
in which words can be combined into grammatically sensible sentences in a language is called
syntax.
When we hear a sentence or phrase that lacks proper syntax, such as, “a yellow, big balloon,” we know it doesn’t sound right. The set of rules that enables us to derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences is
semantics.
Sentences have both a surface structure (the particular words and phrases) and a deep structure (the underlying meaning).

From birth, we can communicate. A newborn’s cry alerts others to the infant’s discomfort. Children’s language development proceeds through a series of stages from the simple to the more complex. The coos and gurgles of the newborn turn into the babbling of the 4-month-old baby.
Babbling
is the production of phonemes, not limited to the phonemes to which the baby is exposed. Around 10 months of age, however, the phonemes a baby uses narrow to those of the language(s) spoken around him or her. At about their first birthday, most babies use a
holophrase
—one word—to convey meaning. They may point outdoors and say, “Go!” By their second birthday, they begin to put together two-word sentences,
telegraphic speech
characterized by the use of a verb and noun, such as “eat cookie.” At between 2 and 3 years of age, the child’s vocabulary expands exponentially. Sentences also increase in length and complexity. By the age of 3, children begin to follow the rules of grammar without any instruction. A 3-year-old says, “I goed to the store,” indicating use of the general rule that we form the past tense by adding -ed to a word. This is an example of
overgeneralization
or
overregularization
in which children apply grammatical rules without making appropriate exceptions. As their language develops further,
children are able to express more abstract ideas that go beyond the physical world around them and to talk about their feelings.

Young children quickly acquire the language of others around them. Nativists argue that we are born with a biological predisposition for language, while behaviorists insist that we develop language by imitating the sounds we hear to create words. There is no debate about the sequential stages of language development described in the above section. Representing the nature side, nativist Noam Chomsky says that our brains are prewired for a universal grammar of nouns, verbs, subjects, objects, negations, and questions. He compares our language acquisition capacity to a “language acquisition device,” in which grammar switches are turned on as children are exposed to their language. He cites overgeneralization as evidence that children generate all sorts of sentences they have never heard, and thus could not be imitating. He further believes that there is a
critical period
for language development. If children are not exposed to language before adolescence, Chomsky believes they will be unable to acquire language. On the nurture side of the language acquisition debate, behaviorist B. F. Skinner believed that children learn language by association, reinforcement, and imitation. He contended that babies merely imitate the phonemes around them and get reinforcement for these. A baby’s first meaningful use of words is a result of shaping that is done by parents over the course of the first year. Today, social interactionists agree with both sides that language acquisition is a combination of nature and nurture. They believe, like Chomsky, that children are biologically prepared for language, but, like Skinner, they assert that the environment can either activate this potential or constrain it. Cognitive neuroscientists emphasize that the building of dense neuronal connections during the first few years of life is critical for the mastery of grammar.

Thinking affects our language, which in turn affects our thoughts. Linguist Benjamin Whorf proposed a radical hypothesis that our language guides and determines our thinking. He thought that different languages cause people to view the world quite differently. Some words do not translate into other languages. In support of his idea, people who speak more than one language frequently report a different sense of themselves depending on the language they are speaking at the time. His
linguistic relativity hypothesis
has largely been discredited by empirical research. Rather than language determining what we can perceive, a more likely hypothesis is that the objects and events in our environment determine the words that become a part of our language.

Do you ever think about how you solve problems to attain goals? If so, you engage in
metacognition,
thinking about how you think. We usually manipulate concepts to solve problems. Concepts enable us to generalize, associate experiences and objects, access memories, and know how to react to specific experiences.

How do we solve problems? Most problem-solving tasks involve a series of steps. Typically, we first identify that we have a problem. Next we generate problem-solving strategies. These can include using an algorithm or a heuristic, or breaking the problem into smaller problems, developing
subgoals
that move us toward the solution. An
algorithm
is a problem-solving strategy that involves a slow, step-by-step procedure that guarantees a solution to many types of problems. Although we will eventually solve the problem correctly using an
algorithm, we usually want to solve problems quickly and employ
heuristics
or mental shortcuts to solve most problems. For example, when we’re not sure how to spell the word receive, rather than look up the word in the dictionary, we usually follow the heuristic “I before E, except after C, or when sounded like ‘ay,’ as in neighbor and weigh.” A heuristic suggests but does not guarantee a solution to a problem, and can result in incorrect solutions. Sometimes after trying to find a solution to a problem for a while, the solution suddenly comes to us.
Insight
is a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem. For example, after trying to unscramble the letters NEBOTYA to form a word, you suddenly realize that the word is bayonet. When we don’t have a clue how to solve a problem, we often start with a
trial and error approach.
This approach involves trying possible solutions and discarding those that do not work. If we need a combination lock for a locker and find an old lock in the drawer, we can try combinations of three numbers that come to mind, but this can be time consuming and may not lead to a solution. Trial and error works best when choices are limited. After we have tried to solve a problem, we need to evaluate the results. How will we decide if we have solved the problem? Using critical thinking, we think reflectively and evaluate the evidence. We reason by transforming information to reach conclusions.
Inductive reasoning
involves reasoning from the specific to the general, forming concepts about all members of a category based on some members, which is often correct but may be wrong if the members we have chosen do not fairly represent all of the members.
Deductive reasoning
involves reasoning from the general to the specific. Deductions are logically correct and lead to good answers when the initial rules or assumptions are true. Have we attained our goal? Over time, we may profit from rethinking and redefining problems and solutions.