35 big notions of cognitive psychology

Alain Lieury – Picture: Mont Cenis 2015 –

Perception is based primarily on our 5 senses and the balance

Short-term memory (or work memory) is limited in storage and leads to rapid forgetting (useful for the code entry of your friends’ entry). And long-term memory where we categorize according to our … perceptions (See “Are we all Psy? and the fundamental error … based on the feeling of having the info!) but also to the magic number 7 (+/- 2): our limited ability to memorize information at the same time (letter, word, sentence, ..).

… Punctuality is the politeness of princes 

… is not a sentence easier to memorize than 35 letters, right?

Sustained attention (concentration), selective and cognitive competition (multitask).

Focus on letters or on color ?

In front of the multitude of information, we will inhibit irrelevant information. So make conscious and unconscious choices of what we are going to memorize and how we will categorize information (implicit theory of personality).

We do not lose information (forgetfulness), we lose the way to access to it (the address).

Intelligence relies heavily on LT memory and combination ability (CT memory): “Toto’s mother has 3 sons: Pim, Pam and …? Pom? “. Moreover the powerful role of the environment, of heredity, … The environment for lack of stimulation (abandoned newborn, orphanage, …). The video games do not stand directly, except for lack of stimulation (when we play, we do not learn).

Motivation = Need (goal) + Reinforcement (Feed Back). Biological and psychological mechanisms: orientation (rejection), intensity (emotions) and persistence. The strongest motivation is self-motivation (independence, freedom, ..).

Emotions are intense reactions to emergencies or motivations. 12 primary emotions:

interest, joy, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, scorn, fear, guilt, shame, shyness, hostility to self.