2 Flashcards
Sensory Memory time length
1-3 seconds
Short-term Memory time length
1 minute
Long-term Memory time length
hours-years
Digit Span Test
- hear a set of numbers and repeat back after short delay
- length of sequence increases as the test progresses
Digit Span Test Result
usually 7 (+/-2) words
Chunking
- “recording information” ; depends on knowledge
- functionally increases STM capacity
Brown-Peterson Task
- 3 letters to remember
- get a number and count backwards by threes until asked to recall letters
Performance on STM tasks will be determined by
how much one can rehearse and how long it has to be remembered by being recalled
Proactive Interference
Information stored previously makes it difficult to add new information (interference from OLD onto new)
Retroactive Interference
New information coming in overwrites older information in memory (interference from NEW onto old)
You have been studying Spanish vocabulary words for several hours, and you’ve been misremembering the words pretty frequently. You decide to start to start studying vocabulary for an upcoming physics test, and your performance improves. This is an example of
Release from proactive interference
An experiment that instructs participants to “Read the words that are presented below while also repeating ‘la, la, la’ out loud, wait for a signal, and then report what you recall” would probably be studying
The phonological loop
One role of ____ is suppressing information that is not relevant to a task.
the central executive
Finke and Pinker used a four-dot display to study mental imagery. Participants viewed the display, and after a two-second delay, participants saw an arrow. They were asked to report whether the arrow pointed to any of the dots in that they saw in the display. The significance of their results was they eliminated demand characteristics present in some of Kosslyn’s studies, and supported a _________ representation for mental images.
Spatial
The procedure used in Kosslyn’s island experiment is called the ____ procedure.
Mental Scanning
When interpreting his experimental results, Kosslyn concluded that they support the hypothesis that mental imagery involves ____ representations.
Spatial
Which of the following tasks is LEAST likely to activate the visual cortex due to mental imaging?
Select one:
a.
Imagine the meaning of the word “concept.”
b.
Imagine a chess board and where each piece would be placed.
c.
Imagine a typical mechanical pencil, and decide whether it is shorter or longer than a foot.
d.
Imagine how your house looks as you walk toward it.
Imagine the meaning of the word “concept”
Chunking primarily affects short-term memory by
increasing the apparent capacity of STM
The word-length effect implies that
The capacity of the phonological loop is limited
George Miller’s Magical Number Seven
The capacity of short-term memory is around 7 items
Baddeley and Hitch
Argued that STM involves more than just the storage of info. It is manipulated and analyzed too. This is called working memory
Working memory parts
- central executive
- phonological store
- visuo-spatial sketchpad
Central Executive
- attentional process ; limited capacity
- gets info from sensory memory and coordinates sending info to LTM
Phonological Store
- holds on to speech-like info
- silent speech process (phonological loop) that rehearses this info. can’t be used while talking
Visuo-spatial sketchpad
- stores mental images
- important for spatial tasks
Testing the visuo-spatial sketchpad
Pattern span tasks
Pattern span tasks
- look at grid with squares for a few secs, try to reproduce it after
- most people can remember up to 9 squares
2 types of representation in cognitive psychology
symbolic & imagistic
Symbolic Imagery
- abstract
- learned meaning
- discrete
- no spatial medium
- no point-for-point correspondence
- unambiguous
Imagistic Imagery
- concrete
- iconic
-distributed - spatial medium
- point-for-point correspondence
- ambiguous
Computers use symbolic representation therefore we know
information processing can be done just using symbols
Dual-Coding theory (Paivio)
- proposes we have two independent, interconnected systems
- nonverbal/visual (imagistic) and verbal (symbolic/propositional)
Dual-Coding experiment results
- memory for pictures is better than memory for words
- memory for concrete words is better than memory for abstract words
Properties of imagistic representations
spatial equivalence & transformational equivalence
Spatial equivalence
spatial arrangement of objects in mental images corresponds to actual arrangement in real world
Transformational equivalence
operations performed on images have the same dynamic characteristics as in real world
Bisiach and Luzzati Study
- hemi-neglect patients look at the Piazza del Duomo and they report only have of it, and when they turn around, they report half of the other side
Bisiach and Luzzati Study Results
patients show the same deficit in their imagery as they do in their perception. this suggests that imagery uses some of the same brain areas as perception
Dual task paradigm
Used in research on attention to see if tasks use the same or different resources. Can be used to ask about imagery and perception
Segal and Fusella
tests auditory vs visual learning
Unconscious Recognition- Hemineglect
if you put a bug on the unattended side of a plate, the patient will refuse to eat the food even though they cannot see the bug
Unconscious Recognition- Prosopagnosia
patients have no conscious ability to rexognize faces even though their galvanic skin response and eye movement patterns show that the brain does recognize the person
Capgras Syndrome
patients can recognize familiar faces but insist they have been replaced by imposters/aliens
Capgras Syndrome occurs because
of problems with covert recognition therefore no familiar face response is shown therefore the patient believes someone is an imposter
Episodic (autobiographical) Memory
- specific episodes in time
- time-stamped
- known source
Semantic Memory
- no-time stamp
- source unknown; you just know it
ex. how to spell your mom’s name
Declarative memory parts
episodic & semantic
Non-declarative Memory parts
procedural, priming, & conditioning
Procedural Memory
knowing how to do something
ex. how to ride a bike
Priming Memory
- implicit learning
- experiencing stimulus multiple times change response
ex. read faster the second time
Conditioning Memory
classical and operant
Encoding
learning the material
Retrieval
accessing the material
Recall
you generate the material
Recognition
you identify studied material
Tulving
Gave people a list of words and asked them to recall the words; people who organized the most remembered the best
Taxonomic organizing
items have similar properties
Thematic organizing
making up a story ; works well for things that must be remembered in order
Why does organization help?
it provides support for new information and cues for how to find it
Shallow processing
surface, perceptual features
Deep processing
linked to meaning
Hyde and Jenkins results
better recall for deeper encoding
Rogers, Kuiper, and Kirker
study words grouped by appearance, sound, meaning, and self-relevance
Rogers, Kuiper, and Kirker results
judgements about self lead to better recall than other tasks
Encoding is better for
- meaning-based information
- information with personal significance
- information that was actively generated
Eysenck and Eysenck
Tested whether or not depth of processing was all that mattered. People were given a list of words with some weird ones
Eysenck and Eysenck results
recall was almost as high for the shallow as for the semantic task for distinctive words. Task emphasized how they were different
Distinctiveness
possessing features that makes it stand out in some way compared to something else
Distinctiveness increases memory by
- increasing attention at encoding
- increasing retrievability
2 types of distinctiveness
- primary: with respect to immediate context
- secondary: with respect to prior experience
Primary Distinctiveness
incongruity defined with respect to immediate context; Von Restorff Effect
Secondary Distinctiveness
Incongruous with past experience
- life experiences
- orthographic distinctiveness (words with unusual spellings well remembered)
- unusual faces (unique faces easier to remember than typical ones)
State-dependent learning
recall easier when your mind/body is in the same state as during learning
Amnesia causes
damage to medial temporal lobe
Retrograde amnesia
amnesia for events that preceded some disturbance to the brain
Anterograde amnesia
Amnesia for events that occur after some disturbance to the brain
What does amnesia tell us?
It supports a distinction between declarative and non-declarative memory. Supports a distinction between the processes involved in forming a memory and the representations that are eventually formed
Retrograde Amnesia Characteristics
- variable time, may lose decades of memories less time
- most likely to recover oldest memories
- typically spares “overlearned” material: language, social skills, general intelligence
- doesn’t affect procedural memory
Anterograde Amnesia Characteristics
- STM is fine
- all sensory modalities are affected
- does not affect procedural memory (can learn new skills)
- temporal gradient: also see memory loss for events a few years prior to injury
For the experiment where participants saw an office and then reported what they saw, items like books, which weren’t actually there, were “remembered” by some participants. This experiment is an example of how _____ affect memory.
Question 1Select one:
a.
schemas
b.
biases
c.
some kinds of misinformation
d.
scripts
a. schemas
Which of the following is LEAST likely to encourage elaborative rehearsal of a word?
Question 2Select one:
a.
Making up a sentence using the word.
b.
Generating synonyms and antonyms of the word.
c.
Repeating the word multiple times.
d.
Linking concepts to the new word.
c.
Repeating the word multiple times.
Which of the statements below is incorrect?
Question 3Select one:
a.
Eyewitness testimony is often only partially correct, but viewing a recording of a crime considerably improves accuracy at choosing the “perpetrator” from a lineup.
b.
False memories can be created for events that a person experienced recently.
c.
False memories for events that occurred when a person was a young child can be created through suggestion.
d.
Faulty eyewitness testimony has caused miscarriages of justice.
a.
Eyewitness testimony is often only partially correct, but viewing a recording of a crime considerably improves accuracy at choosing the “perpetrator” from a lineup.
Kevin found that studying for his Latin exam made it harder to recall some of the French vocabulary words he had studied earlier. This effect is called
Question 5Select one:
a.
serial position effect.
b.
retroactive interference.
c.
memory-trace replacement.
d.
suggestibility
b.
retroactive interference.
The misinformation effect happens when memory for an event is changed by being exposed to misleading information
Question 6Select one:
a.
just before the event.
b.
during encoding of the event.
c.
after the event.
d.
all of the above
c.
after the event.
What kind of memories are generally the LEAST affected by retrograde amnesia?
Question 7Select one:
a.
emotional memories
b.
proactive memories
c.
recent memories
d.
older memories
d.
older memories
Based on research on the spacing effect, the study strategy that will result in the best performance is
Question 9Select one:
a.
short sessions that are spread across multiple days.
b.
long sessions spread across multiple days.
c.
long sessions that are all on one day.
d.
short sessions that are all on one day.
a.
short sessions that are spread across multiple days.
Which example below is the clearest real-life example of state-dependent learning?
Question 10Select one:
a.
Sydnee doesn’t think about her first love, Horatio, very often. However, he always comes to mind in when she hears “their song”.
b.
Nico ran into a psychology professor he took a class with three semesters ago at the hardware store. However, he recognized her right away.
c.
Moira has very bad test anxiety. In order to manage it, she tries to study in a relaxing environment in order to promote better encoding of her memories.
d.
Mickey hasn’t been to his family’s cabin since he was a child, but he still has many vivid memories of time he spent there.
a.
Sydnee doesn’t think about her first love, Horatio, very often. However, he always comes to mind in when she hears “their song”.
Which of the following would be likely to cause shallow processing of a word?
Question 8Select one:
a.
Saying whether a word is a noun or a verb.
b.
Paying attention to what a word means.
c.
Rating the pleasantness of a word.
d.
Counting how many vowels are in a word.
d.
Counting how many vowels are in a word.
False memories are best-characterized as
Question 4Select one:
a.
not common in the wider population, but fairly common for unusually suggestible or inattentive subgroups.
b.
very common in laboratory settings but very unlikely in the real world.
c.
a natural consequence of a largely adaptive memory system.
d.
likely to affect details but not to create entire fictitious events.
a.
a natural consequence of a largely adaptive memory system.
What kind of memory errors can occur?
- we fail to retrieve information when we want to
- we retrieve inaccurate information
- we fail to forget things we might want to
Explicit measures ask
people to make overt, specific reference to their memory
Examples of explicit measures
recall, cued recall, recognition
“What can you remember?”
Recall
“What does this remind you of?”
Cued recall
“Which of these items have you seen before?”
Recognition
“I remember this exact thing”
Recollection
“I feel like I have seen this before”
Familiarity
Implicit measures
Do NOT ask people to reference their own memory
Examples of implicit measures
performance measures (RT or accuracy) and physiological measures (eye movements & ERPs)
Jacoby and Dallas study conditions
- letter judgement (does it contain the letter l)
- rhyme judgement (does it rhyme with train)
- meaning judgement (does the word refer to the nervous system)
Jacoby and Dallas Test conditions
recognition & perceptual identification
Jacoby and Dallas 1981 study
tested participant’s memory for a list of words
Jacoby and Dallas study results
- explicit memory is more rigidly linked to original stimulus and context
- implicit memory depends on modality and other perceptual characteristics
Why do we care about the different types of memory?
- we might want different strategies for getting information in and out of these systems
- it provides cross-check for situation where accuracy is very important
- want to have accurate models of memory
Blocking
refers to a failure to be able to retrieve information that we know is stored in the system
Transient Failure
Can recall that information at a later time
Tip of the tongue characteristics
- fail to retrieve a word that you are certain you know
- often can get some partial information about the word (meaning, initial sound, length)
Baker/baker paradox
two types of labels but the actual word is the same
- recall for occupations is better than recall for names
Parts of a memory
- content (info can be remembered)
- source (where info comes from)
- fleuncy/familiarity (how easily info comes to mind)
Source memory
Memory for contextual elements
(where you learned something or who told you something)
Failures in source memory
- can’t tell similar instances of something apart
- can’t differentiate between having done something and having imagined/heard about it
Flashbulb memories
memories of particularly traumatic/emotional events are immune from being forgotten
Memory conjunction error
information blends together in memory
Brewer and Treyens Office Experiment
Had people look at an office and report what they remembered
Loftus and Palmer Experiment
Showed people videos of car accidents and asked them questions with controlled wording to see how it changed their perception
Consequences of suggestibility
- how we are questioned changes the memory itself
- we incorporate misleading info from other sources into our personal recollections
Characteristics of people likely to generate false memories
- good visual imagery abilities
- poor source memory
- confidence that their memory is good
- under hypnosis
- likely to succumb to social pressure
Extremes of suggestibility
- false confessions
- false memories of childhood sexual abuse
How do we classify information?
- classical view (definitions)
- probabilistic view (similarity)
Classical View
- Objects are categorized using properties that are necessary and sufficient
- all category members must have ALL properties otherwise it is not a member
Problems of a classical view
- some categories do not have clearly defined features
- some instances of a category seem “better” than others
Probabilistic View
- Classification of an object is determined by level of similarity to the category representation
- Category representation includes features usually true of categories
2 types of probabilistic representation
Prototype & Exemplar
Prototype Account
Summary representation including all the typical properties
Single, unitary representation containing the “average” features of the category
Probabilistic view
Exemplar Account
a known, individual member of a category
- NO Unitary description
- category represented by an “average”
- fit to category, based on similarity
- static and unitary
Prototype Account
- category is a set of exemplars
- fit based on similarity and probabilistic
- not unitary adn not static
Exemplar Account
How is knowledge organized?
semantic networks & spreading activation model
Semantic Network Models
- Concepts represented as hierarchies of interconnected concept nodes
- Nodes have associated features
Cognitive Economy
- properties stored at most general (highest) possible level
- subordinates inherit attributes of superordinates
Semantic Network Strengths
- can predict a lot of RT data
- cognitive economy (efficient)
Semantic Network Weaknesses
- some data challenge hierarchical assumptions
- can’t explain typicality effects
- RT data better explained by strength of association between words
RT data is better predicted by the ______________________ between words than by category distance
Association Strength
Spreading activation structure
- Not hierarchical, all types of relations represented the same
- Length of connection proportional to relatedness
- Search time depends on distance
Spreading activation mechanism
activation of one node leads to activation of other nodes nearby
What is essential for any type of top-down processing?
General knowledge
Categories are likely to be defined _______
Probabilistically
Knowledge can be represented as a system of _____________
Interconnected Symbols
