2- associative memory Flashcards
What determines your internal reaction
A combination of intuitive valuation (lower level evaluation) + deliberate evaluation of the situation
associative memory
- implicit model of the world
- distillation of statistical regularities across your experiences
- does NOT just operate at the linguistic/conceptual level
semantic memory
- words!
- explicit model of the world
- general knowledge
- facts, ideas, meanings, concepts
- can come from experience or culture
culture’s influence on associative learning
- culture influences what we are exposed to every day
- repeated exposure strengthens some associations
- lack of exposure weakens other associations
culture determines what we are exposed to (our experiences) which determines our associative memory, which determines our intuitive valuations
how does culture shape our models of the world
shapes our implicit model of the world without our awareness
shapes our explicit model of the world with and without our awareness
conditioning
a major way of learning new associations and thus forming associative memories
system 1 + system 2 functioning
system one: intuition
our associative memory determines our intuitive judgements
system two: reasoning
can either REJECT or ACCEPT system one’s intuitive judgments
- over-ridden in favour of our deliberate judgments
- endorsed as our deliberate judgments
system 1 descriptors
INTUITION
fast
parallel
automatic
effortless
associative
slow-learning
emotionsl
system 2 descriptors
REASONING
slow
serial
controlled
effortful
rule-governed
flexible
neutral
availability heuristic
when examples of nothing comes to mind EASILY, system 2 judges the frequency of that something to be HIGH
attribute subsitution
when the individual has to make a complex judgement and instead substitutes a more easily calculated HEURISTIC
substitute frequency to easy in own head
a system 1 process!
processing fluency
the subjective experience of the ease (or difficulty) with which we process given information or accomplish something
high processing fluency = true, good, confident (according to system 1!!)
when is the availability heuristic a good mental shortcut to follow
when it’s unimportant
the experience in modern day is different from before!
heuristics vs statistics: which one has greater influence on our deliberate judgments out danger?
BOTH… which has more depends on CIRUMSTANCE and PERSON
issue with fractions in probabilistic view of danger
- it’s difficult to think in factions, especially as they get smaller - and smaller
- many people consider probabilities of < 1 in 100 “too small to worry about
- judgments about what is dangerous and safe are often determine through cultural influences and emotional associations here
risk and achievement within the probabilistic view of danger
for many things, risk is NOT the main focus… but instead achievement is
- running a marathon
- going on a NASA space shuttle mission
however… childbirth is not thought of this way
issues with fractions when talking about danger
- non-intuitive
- words we use instead of them can be misleading
words of estimative probability
proposed solution to issues with fractions when talking about danger
~93% = almost certain
~75% = probable
~50% = chances about even
~30% = probably not
~7% = almost certainly not
weasel words
- vague enough to be meaningless
- can be used to mislead
EX: - its possible
- its a ___ possibility
what are our judgements about what is “dangerous” or safe based on and influenced by?
- generally not based on statistical probabilities
- culturally influenced
- based on associative memory and heuristics
our general model about birth and how it affects our judgments
“birth is dangerous, but intervention (technology/control) makes it safe”
It leads to systematic distortions in our judgments
- overestimating the risk of not intervening
- underestimating the risk of intervening
what are the two most famous representations of birth and how do they depict birth
- Botticelli: Birth of Venus
- Michelangelo: Birth of Adam
- no baby
- shows a deity
- no blood or umbilical cord
- less emotion and facial expression
what do the culturally dominant representations of birth tend to avoid?
- the PHYSIOLOGICAL REALITY: blood, bodily fluids, body organs, etc.
- the VULNERABILITY and DEPENDENCY of human newborns on their mothers
- the ANIMALISM and EMOTIONALITY of birth
examples of culturally dominant values
- reason (lack of emotion)
- the mental
- abstractions and symbols
- culture
- humans as gods
- power, independence
- autonomy, individuality
- hierarchy
examples of culturally non-dominant values
- emotion
- the physical
- the subjective experience
- nature
- humans as animals
- vulnerability, dependence
- intimacy, connectedness
- interdependence
how can reasoning be motivated
- accuracy motive
- directional motive
accuracy motive and what it leads us to do
motivation to arrive at an accurate, thorough explanation
generally, it leads us to:
- expend more cognitive effort
- process information more deeply
- use more complex thinking strategies
directional motive
motivation to arrive at a particular, directional explanation
generally, it leads us to:
- try to justify a particular conclusion in a rational, convincing manner
- undertake a biased memory search for particular beliefs and rules
- access only a subset of our relevant knowledge (different subset would ve accessed with a different direction motive)
self-serving bias
reinforce that we’re a good person and validity of our own base of knowledge
- likely to occur when we formulate explanations about positive or negative events or outcomes
- POSITIVE events/outcomes tend to be explained through INTERNAL CAUSES (it was MEHH)
- NEGATIVE events/outcomes tend to be explained through EXTERNAL CAUSES (not me!1)
people with depression and self-serving bias?
people with depression show less self-serving bias
are more realistic
self-serving bias and culture-serving bias
we are motivated to attribute:
POSITIVE outcomes -> DOMINANT cultural values
NEGATIVE outcomes -> non-dominant cultural values
what are errors of judgement attributed to
TWO ERRORS
- Automatic operations of system 1 have Faulty intuition
- Associative memory
- Control operations of systems 2 fail to detect and correct
Judgement biases
overweighting of some aspects of the info and underweighting/neglect of others
how much weight is given to strongly active information?
- Strongly activated information is likely to be given more weight than it deserves
- relevant knowledge that is not activated by the associative context with be underweighted or neglected
associations automatically evoked by a stimulus include elements that are often attributed to…
high level inferences
○ Description of an event immediately retrieves possible causes and counterfactual alternatives
Blocking effect
blocking experiment:
- tone predicts an electric shock
- animal fears the tone
- now NEW stimulus is paired with the shock
- but animal is not scared of the new stimulus alone!!
discounting effect
○ Possible cause of an event is ignored when event is already attributed to another cause
associative coherence
Induces confirmatory bias
when people examine a hypothesis by increasing the accessibility of hypothesis-consistent information
- Pattern of automatic activation in memory tends to produce a comprehensive and internally consistent interpretation of the present situation
- which is causally embedded in the context of the recent past - incorporates appropriate emotions and preparedness for likely future events and for future actions
Framing
alternative statements of a decision evoke different emotions
- Activation of compatible associations is a primary mechanisms of both anchoring and framing effects
Intention to evaluate a particular attribute of a stimulus automatically activates….
assessments of other dimensions as well
b/c dimensions of judgement are associated with each other
Robust bias
observed when observers rely on a subjective impression to estimate an objective quantity in the prescence of an obvious biasing factor
Priming paradigm
exposure to one stimulus influences a response to a subsequent stimulus, without conscious guidance or intention.
Priming is about presenting some stimulus to subjects that then makes it easier for them to process another similar stimulus (the similarity could be phonetic, conceptual, or other).
easiest, fastest way of judging system 1 or rejecting system 1
availability heuristic
issues and good things about the availability heuristic
- great mental shortcut to follow if you live before the invention of agriculture
- could be greatly misleading when our associative memory is biased (not representative of real world)
- many things other than stat frequency could INFLUENCE memory availability
- culture
- expectations
- motives and desires
T or F: evidence of the priming paradigm suggests that activation spreading selectively within associative memory generates and continuously maintains a rich, coherent representation of the current state of affairs
true!!
- it links to both the past and to the likely future and supports a readiness to act and react appropriately
- many biases of intuitive judgment are predictable side effects of this highly adaptive mechanism
