Cognitive Psychology Introduction

HideShow resource information
  • Created by: Justin
  • Created on: 12-04-13 15:51

The word "cognitive" comes from the latin word "cognito" meaning to understand, to apprehend or know.

Cognition - The activity of internal mental processing.

Cognitive Psychology - Looking at the mental processes that underlie behaviour. Study of people learning, structuring, storing and using knowledge.

Clarks's Nutcracker - Stores long term memory for finding food in winter buried in the Spring. It buries 30,000 pine nuts in different places constrained to a 15 mile radius. They have developed better spacial memory.


Origins of Memory - Memory and learning abilities in animals are all adaptions to solve problems linking Charles Darwin (Theory of Evolution).

Animals, like humans remember better when it's a field they're specifically interested in.

Duration - A measure of how long a memory lasts before it is no longer available. STM has a very limited duration whereas LTM has potentially unlimited duration.

Duration of Short Term Memory - Memory concerning immediate events. Short Term Memories last for a a very short time (15-18 seconds) and disappear unless rehearsed. Referred to as working memory because it is used in comprehending language and solving problems.

Duration of Long Term Memory - Memory for events that have happened in the past. This lasts anywhere from 2 minutes-100 years…


Thegirlwhoknewtoomuch - Team GR

what exam board is this for?


AQA - Specification A

Similar Psychology resources:

See all Psychology resources »See all Cognitive Psychology resources »