Chapter 5: Cognitive Approach II Flashcards
What is Memory?
Memory is the capacity to retain information over time
What are the three main characteristics of individual memory systems?
Duration, Capacity, Coding (type of information)
What is the purpose of Sensory memory?
The purpose of sensory memory is to maintain a representation of a stimulus long enough so that it can be recognized
How many types of sensory memory are there?
- As much as our senses. (e.g Iconic, Echoic memory)
How many items can iconic memory hold according to Sperling’s experiment?
12
How many items can iconic memory hold according to later research? (up until today)
Unlimited
What is known as decay?
The loss of information over time
How does Working Memory (or Short Term Memory) differ from Sensory Memory?
Working Memory also stores information briefly. However, it has larger duration and smaller capacity than Sensory Memory.
What is the use of Rehearsal in memory?
Rehearsal is the mental repetition or mental practicing. It refreshes items in short term memory.
What is Miller’s “magical number seven” ?
According to some experiments, individuals can retain about 7 items on their Working Memory (on average)
What is chunking in short term memory?
Chunking is grouping items into a single meaningful whole. By chunking, we can increase the total amount of information that is contained in short term memory.
What is Proactive Intereference?
Prior information knowledge interfering with later information knowledge
What is Retroactive Interference?
Later information knowledge interfering with prior information knowledge
What is Procedural Memory (or Production or Implicit)
Procedural Memory is memory for skill. It is demonstrated by doing and arises without conscious recall
What is Declarative Memory (or Explicit)
Declarative Memory is memory for facts and events. It is demonstrated by speaking and arises with conscious recall.
What are two types of Declarative Memory?
Semantic (knowledge of facts) and Episodic (personally experienced events)
How much can be retained in semantic long term memory?
It has been proposed that we remember virtually everything that we have experienced in our lifetime but simply have difficulty in recalling it
What are the three types of memory coding?
Visual, Acoustic and Semantic
What are three main models about how information is processed in each of the different memory types?
Modal Model, ACT model, Working Memory Model
What is Encoding in memory?
Encoding is a process by which information is taken into long-term memory and converted into a usable form
What is Consolidation in memory?
Consolidation is a process by which information is transferred to short-term memory. Consolidation “strengthens” information so that it lasts longer
What is Retrieval in memory?
Retrieval is the act of accessing needed data and making it available for use
What are ACT’s model three components?
Working Memory, Declarative Memory and Production Memory
What is a Visual Image?
A visual image is a mental representation of an object or scene that preserves metric spatial information (imagery)
What are the two image structures that Kosslyn posits?
Surface Representations and Deep Representations
What is a Surface Representation?
A quasi-pictorial representation that occurs in a spatial medium: a visual buffer (matrix that consists of an array of points)
Are images according to Kosslyn holistic?
Yes. A change in the image produces changes across its entire extent
What is a Deep Representation?
Deep Representations consist of information in the long term memory that is used to generate surface representations.
What are the two classes of Deep Representations?
Literal encodings (contain coordinates that detail the placement of points in the buffer) and Propositional encodings (declarative statements that contain information about an object’s parts, its sizes etc)
When does Image generation occur according to Kosslyn?
When the encodings in long-term memory are used to form an image in the visual buffer
According to Kosslyn, are images formed bit by bit or all by one?
Images are suggested to be formed gradually (bit by bit)
What do the Pictorialists advocate contrary to the Descriptionalists?
Pictorialists supported that mental images are quasi-pictorial while descriptionalists believed that pictures are just digital symbol processing
What is now generally acknowledged about mental images?
Both analog and digital processing happens, as well as pictorial and descriptional processing.
What are the four characteristics of problem solving?
Goal directedness, Sequence of operations, Cognitive Operations and the Setting of subgoals.
What is a problem space?
Different situations or states that can exist in a problem (initial, intermediate and goal state)
What is a heuristic in problem solving?
An informal method of problem solving that does not guarantee a solution but is faster and easier to use than a systematic search
What are two main heuristics?
- Means-End Analysis (determination of the difference between the existing state and the goal state: e.g SOAR model)
- Hill-Climbing Strategy (taking actions that will bring closer to the goal)
What is the GPS model?
It’s a computer simulation of human problem solving that uses production rules in order to bring about a solution
