CH 2 COGNITION Flashcards
MEMORY
- the internal record of some previous event or experience
- memory sometimes is called mental representation, which refers to the fact that memory is a psychological version of the original sound, thought, object or concept.
what did Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) do?
developed a model of memory, known as STAGE MODEL – three separate stages:
- sensory memory
- short-term memory
- long-term memory
each memory stage categorised by three differences;
- capacity
- duration
- encoding
multi-store model of memory
- most information is lost quickly but information considered important is attended to and passed into short-term memory.
- storage refers to the retention of information, the brain can be thought as a computer that stores information on its hard disk.
RETRIEVAL: the recovery of information stored in the brain.
what is sensory memory?
- refers to memory retained for a very brief period of time when we pay attention to the stimuli
- capacity: 3-7 units
- duration: 0.25 - 0.5 seconds
- encoding: through the senses
- stores all incoming sensory information in memory
- registers for the different senses but most research has been on visual and auditory
- Iconic memory is visual. Eg Shape and colour. It works briefly by storing an icon or image for a brief period of time (less than a second)
- Echoic is auditory. Held in sensory memory for 3 to 4 seconds – long enough to be encoded into storage.
- It is thought that there are registers for the other senses of touch, taste and smell.
short term memory / working memory
- Without processing, we will forget the information from the sensory register
- STM refers to the information you are aware of, and is sometimes called working memory, which means that the thoughts, words and images are available for decision-making and problem solving
- information is then encoded and transferred to the long-term memory
- capacity: 7 plus or minus 2
- encoding: mostly auditory
- duration: 0–18 seconds or 0–30
rehearsal
- Rehearsal enables information to be retained in STM longer than it would usually be
- rehearsal is repeating the information to store it longer
- Used to transfer material to LTM when you want to remember information
- maintenance rehearsal is deliberately repeating information to keep it in the short-term memory
- elaborative rehearsal is adding meaning to the information when deliberately rehearsing/repeating
chunking
- material is combined into larger, meaningful groups. The larger groups are based on patterns or regularities.
- E.g. mobile numbers we chunk them into 3 groups to remember them
‘working memory’
- more modern and broad version of STM - preferred term
- emphasises the active nature of processing memory rather than earlier notions of passive maintenance
- limited capacity
- original WM model proposed by Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
talk about the work of ivan pavlov
- studied digestive systems of dogs
- knew that dogs naturally salivated while being given food
- this salivation (reflex action) could occur before food was given
- wanted to know what triggered the anticipatory salivation that occurred to many stimuli associated with food eg. sight of bowl, footsteps of person coming to feed
pavlov’s experiment
Pavlov’s experiment
- hypothesis: dogs associated footsteps of lab tech who fed
dogs, with presence of food given to them
- sound of footsteps had been conditioned to cause reflex response of salivation
- originally, stimulus (food) produced the response (salivation)
- eventually, sight/sound of lab tech became stimulus which produced salivation
- salivation (reflex response) had been conditioned to a new stimulus (sight of sound of tech)
began experiment by associating various sounds with food
- findings: after few trials, dogs could be conditioned to respond to sound by salivating
- evidence that repetitive association of different stimuli led to learning or ‘conditioning’
Pavlov’s experiment (method)
Pavlov’s experiment (method)
- food powder placed in mouth of dog
- food was paired with sound of buzzer
- amount of saliva was measured
- after number of pairings of buzzer and food powder, buzzer was given alone
- dog salivated at sound of buzzer (without powder!)
- conditioned!!
neutral stimulus
stimulus that doesn’t naturally
elicit a response
unconditioned stimulus
specific stimulus that is innately capable of eliciting reflex response
unconditioned response
natural, automatic response to specific UCS
conditined stimulus
stimulus that evokes a specific response due to learning
conditioned response
reflex response to previously neutral stimulus that occurs due to learning
Watson’s experiment
- 9 year old
- placid child selected on basis of never crying
- placed on floor in Watsons lab, allowed to play with white
rat - showed no fear (did not respond negatively to other animals and objects)
- showed fear when steel bar was struck with hammer, making a loud noise
2 months later - Watson paired rat with loud noise (struck iron bar with hammer when Albert touched the rat)
- caused Albert to jump in fear, no tears
- several pairing of rat and noise -> Albert cried
- later, rat was presented but no noise sounded —> Albert cried and tried to crawl away
learning that takes place during CC is subject to
- extinction
- spontaneous recovery
- stimulus generalisation
- stimulus discrimination
extinction
gradual decrease in the strength or frequency of a response that has been conditioned when the UCS is no longer present
- if the UCS never again follows the CS, CR will eventually extinguish
- eg. if you ring the bell many times and don’t follow it with food, dog’s expectancy of getting food when hearing the bell will weaken
spontaneous recovery
reappearance of a CR following a period of extinction
- ringing paused for hours; trying to ring the bell again caused small amount of saliva to be produced
stimulus generalisation
stimuli similar to the CS trigger the CR
- dog been conditioned to salivate in response to sound of bell; would also salivate when buzzer was sounded (never been paired)
- explains why shops carry imitations of nationally known products
- we feel comfortable to generalise from the real products!
stimulus discrimination
bility to respond differently to various stimuli that may be similar - dog conditioned with bell as CS - occasionally sound a horn instead of bell, but never follow with UCS (food) - dog will not salivate to the sound of the horn because it sees the horn as different because food does not follow
what is operant conditioning?
learning process in which the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated is determined by the consequences of that behaviour
- form of learning that has origins in CC; early work conducted on animals and humans
- Thorndike
- proposed that animals learn responses through experiences
consequences
- repeat desired responses that are rewarded
- drop other responses that are punished
- Law of effect
Thorndike
- placed hungry cat in a ‘puzzle box’ with a plate of food
outside the box
- cat was keen to escape; only way was to pull a string that opened the door
- cat eventually pulled string; was rewarded with food
Watson and skinner (operant conditioning)
- interested in modification of human behaviour; called ‘behaviourists’
- use of stimulus-response models
