Cognition 1-4

Question 1

Paivio (1969; 1971) explained the fact that imageable words are more memorable by suggesting that having numerous retrieval routes improves the odds of successful recall, an idea called the ___________ hypothesis

Answer 1

dual coding

Question 2

Jenkins and Russell (1952) observed that _____ are more likely to be grouped together in a free recall.

Answer 2

Semantically related words

Question 3

Neuropsychological evidence for episodic vs semantic memory

Answer 3

Spiers, Maguire, and Burgess (2001) -> 147 cases of amnesia
Dound substantial oe even dramatic loss of episodic memory.
- semantic effects were more variable and generally smaller.
- Damage to the hippocampus (and the MTL) affects episodic memory far more than semantic)

Question 4

damage to which areas of the brain cause semantic deficits?

Answer 4

semantic = Anterior frontal lobe + Anterior temporal lobe

Question 5

damage to which areas of the brain cause episodic deficit’s?

Answer 5

Amygdala, Hippocampus, Parahippocampal cortex etc

Question 6

who studied schemas and how

Answer 6

Barlett, recall of efforful and meaningful stimuli.

Question 7

what did Barlett find in his schema study “The war of the Ghosts” using Native American folk tales.

Answer 7

when participants recalled the tales, they committed many distortions and errors.
They aimed to make the story more coherent by omitting details.
- Distortions were more consistent with their semantic knowledge.
- Recalled stories were “Westernised”

Question 8

What did Bransford and Johnson (1972) find about schemas and titles

Answer 8

participants who read a paragraph with slightly ambiguous meaning showed better recall when supplied with a title than not.
suggests that previous schematic knowledge is beneficial for later recall

helps organisation of elements and helps comprehension

Question 9

Levels of processing theory (Craik & Lockhart, 1972)

lowest to highest facilitator of LTM

Answer 9

Meaning facilitates LTM.

lowest to highest facilitator of LTM

Visual (structure)
Phonological (Acoustic)
Semantic (Meaning)

Question 10

Evidence for the levels of processing

Answer 10

Words studied and participants asked to make 3 judgments:
Visual processing (e.g. “Is TABLE in upper case?” Y/N)

Phonological (e.g. “Does DOG rhyme with LOG?” Y/N)

Semantic (e.g. “Does FIELD fit in the sentence: ‘The horse lived
in a ___.”Y/N)

found sentance better remembered than rhyme and case. Rhyme better remembered than Case.
Also, YES answers were better remembered, possibly because they are better integrated with existing meaning.
Even when reaction time is matched (some hypothesised that semantic is better remembered as more time is taken to process).

Question 11

Limitations of levels of processesing

Answer 11

• difficult to define and measure
• processing speed ?
• Levels of processing (features) are not processed in a serial order but simultaneously (e.g. we observe structure and meaning in parallel)
  (-) Deeper processing is not always more memorable!

Question 12

TAP - transfer appropriate processing

Answer 12

cues at encoding should match those at retrieval

Question 13

TAP evidence

Answer 13

rhyming recognition TESTS better for phonological rhyming encoding

Question 14

Elaborative vs Maintenance rehearsal. Which is bette

Answer 14

Elaborative. e.g. taking the info in the way that you encoded it, and applying different methods such as connecting to other concepts.
ORGANISATION!

Question 15

Intention to learn vs organisation

importance in memory

Study

Answer 15

Task
Deck of cards with word on each
4 conditions:
1. Learn the words
2. sort by meaning
3. sort by meaning, you will be tested
4. sort into collums

Found:
2 and 3 showed highest recall.
sorting by meaning with or without knowlege of test produced similar recall.
- worst recall in 4

Conclude: Attention to material and organise is more important.
- intention has minimal effect, while level/type of processing matters more.

however, some argue that if you intend to learn, you will probably organise anyway.

Question 16

Distributed Practice

Answer 16

Distribute learning trials sparsely across a period
of time
§ Faster improvement rates of learning and less
forgetting

Question 17

Lag effect (memory)

Answer 17

benefit of repeated study increases as the lag between study
occasions increases

Question 18

The Testing Effect shows that

Answer 18

having to retrieve the answer, rather than
being presented with, leads to greater retention.

Question 19

Expanding Retrieval Method
Landauer & Bjork (1978)

Answer 19

Spaced/Distributed Practice + Testing/Retrieval Practice

Question 19

Ø Motivation to learn may make learning more efficient in
both automatic and strategic ways

How?

Answer 19

Automatic:
Ø External (e.g., reward) or internal (e.g., curiosity) motives
prior to exposure to stimuli improves memory even when time spent studying or strategies used are controlled

Strategic:
Ø People use deeper and more elaborate memorization strategies for high value items

Question 20

Collins and Quillian (1969) devised which model of semantic memory?

Answer 20

Hierarchical network model

Question 21

what is the Hierarchical network model

+ cognitive economy

Answer 21

semantic memory organised into a series of hierarchical networks

• Major concepts are represented as nodes
• Properties/features are associated with each concepts.
  eg.
  top of hierarchy has animal, which has defining features. Node below would be Bird which has features such as has wings can fly. Canary at bottom of hierarchy, with features such as yellow and can sing.

Cognitive economy: the idea is that features are stored at the highest level possible and are not repeated to remove redundancy

Question 22

Main empirical framework to test hierarcical Network model of semantic memory

Answer 22

Sentence varification task.

shown a sentence, asked if true or false. RT is measured.

greater distances from the node are associated with longer RTs. for both categories and properties.
e.g. A canary can sing has a faster response time than a canary can fly.

Question 23

problems with hierarchical model

Answer 23

doesn’t acknowledge Typicality (e.g. canary is more representative of a bird than a penguin) or Familiarity (e.g. canary has skin is not familiar)

Question 24

what model of organisation of semantic memory did Collins and Loftus develop (1975)

Answer 24

Spreading activation model

Question 25

spreading activation model

Answer 25

semantic memory is organised by semantic relatedness/distance.

Lengths of links indicates the degree of semantic relatedness.
- activity at one node causes activation at other nodes via links
- spreading activation decreases as it gets further away from the original point of action

Question 26

Semantic priming tasks

Answer 26

when presenting one stimulus that is semantically related makes subsequent processing more efficient

Question 27

semantic links and distance determine

Answer 27

strength and speed of activation spread from one concept to the other

Question 28

Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm.

Answer 28

study items that have one concept in common. e.g. Doctor.
more likely to report the related item as studied even when it was not studied.

Question 29

pros and cons of the flexibility of the spreading activation model

Answer 29

pros: reflects more empirical findings

cons:
- makes it less specific in predictions.
- more difficult to test

Question 30

limitations of spreading activation model

Answer 30

• notion that each concept is represented by a node is oversimplified. e.g. what about abstract concepts such as justice
• does each concept have a fixed mental representation?
• situation/context in which we encounter concepts changes the way we process them.
• do different people have similar representations of any given concept?
• no consensus on how to measure semantic distance

Question 31

situated simulation theory

Answer 31

• concepts are processed in diff settings
• processing is influenced by current context/setting
• Concepts incorporate Perceptual and motor/action related properties (goal related properties)

e.g. concept of bicycle reflects current goals.

e.g. aim to buy bike for daughter, think ab diff bike.

Question 32

neural evidence for situated simulation theory

Answer 32

similar areas that control foot, arm, face movement are activated when are asked to perceive an action that is possible with the corresponding limb.

words such as kick, lick, pick activate areas in motor cortex.

Question 33

RT evidence for situated simulation theory

Answer 33

when asked to annwer Q about an action requiring hands with their hands, the RT was faster than the inconsistant limb being used.

Question 34

limitations of situated simulation theory

Answer 34

new theory so empirical research is still coming through
BUT these questions remain unanswered:

How cariable are concepts across situations?

do concepts consist of a stable core + context dependant elements.

• are these properties secondary - after concept meaning has been accessed, then contextual version

Question 35

Grandmother cell hypothesis

Answer 35

• semantic memories are represented in the brain as whole objects
• each object/concept has its own node/neuron.
  e.g. there’s a special neuron representing your grandmother.
• types of nodes are grouped together
• Most evidence suggests that this is not the case

Question 36

Feature-Based approach.

Answer 36

Diff kind of info ab given object stored in seprerate brain regions.
e.g.
- Visual in one part, auditory in another

becoming increasingly popular

Question 37

Neuro-cognitive Hub-and-spoke model.

Answer 37

• hybrid model of semantic memory
• Hub = Modality, independent conceptual representations. (the meaning)
• Spoke = Modaliy specific brain areas. sensory and motor processing (sound, action, colour, shape)

Question 38

Ecidence for Hub and SPoke model.

Answer 38

tDCS (transCranial direct current stimulation) makes certain brain regions more likely to fire.

asked 2 questions. Tool function, (scissors used for cutting)

and tool manipulation question (pliers gripped by handles).

applied tDCS to ATL (hub semantis) showed increased performance in both tool manioulation and function)

applied tDCS to IPL (actions to objects / spoke) showed tool manipulation task was enhanced

Question 39

Neuropsychological evidence for hub and spoke model

Answer 39

those with sematic dementia (extensive damage to and starting from ATL.
Show general semantic deficits.

Those with Category-specific deficits have greater difficulty naming or identifying whether object is living or non living for example

Question 40

Limitations of Hub and Spoke model

Answer 40

open questions

• role of ATL (anterior temporal lobe) may be more complex e.g. organising spokes.
• Does familiarity with concepts affect their organisation in the hub
• How many spokes ? can be categorised?
• How is info integrated between spokes and hub ?

Question 41

spreading activation model in memory retrieval

Answer 41

Activation level =

the internal state of a memory, reflecting its level of excitement.
- determines the accessability of the item
Increases when:
- smth related to the memory is encountered
- persists for some time

SO spreading activation =
the automatic transmission of “energy” from one memory to related items via associations.
- proportional to the strength of connections

Question 42

what is pattern completion in spreading activation model

regarded as what mechanism

Answer 42

process by which reinstatement of a memory, is caused by spreading activation from a set of cues.
e.g. want to remember an event. at time of encoding, the hippocampus connects the name, face, lecture theatre together. If some of these partial cues are present, one is more likely to remember entire event (and pattern completion has occoured).

hippocampal mechanism

Question 43

Factors determining retrieval success

Answer 43

1. Attention to cues
2. Relevance of cues
3. Cue-target strength
4. Number of cues
5. Target strength
6. Retrieval strategy
7. Retrieval Mode

Question 44

Attention to cues (as a retrieval factor)

Answer 44

Reduced attention to cue impairs its ability to guide retrieval

observed in divided attention tasks.
e.g. during retrieval, it reduces memory performance if secondary task is:
- related to primary task
- Demands a lot of attention

Question 45

Relevance of cues

Answer 45

• cues most effective when strongly related to target.

encoding specificity principle
more useful if:
- present at encoding
- encoded w the target
- similar to original cue

best cues are ones present at encoding

e.g. using hair colour to remember a name

Question 46

cue - target associative strenght

Answer 46

determined by length of time and attention spent on encoding the relationship

e.g. encoding the target and the cue seperately is unhelpful

e.g. using lecture theatre cue to remember name

Question 47

number of cues

Answer 47

access to additional relevant cues facilitates retrieval, providing both cues are attended to

= Dual cuing.

• Elaborative encoding maximises the number of retrieval routes.

Question 48

5. strength of target memory

Answer 48

• weakly encoded targets are more difficult to achieve
• targets start at a lower activation level.
• require a greater boost in activation to achieve

Explains word frequency effect on recall.
more frequent target words start with higher activation level and are more easily retrieved.

e.g. the name you are trying to remember is a long one.

Question 49

Retrieval strategy

Answer 49

success increased by:
- The organisation of materials at encoding
- Adopting efficient strategies of memory search

also, Adopting a new perspective/strategy can facilitate recall of different objects previously forgotten.

strategy used in recall should be consistant with strategy used in encoding

Question 50

Retrieval mode

Answer 50

Frame of mind allows interpreting environmental stimuli as episodic memory cues to guide subsequent retrieval.

e.g.
having multiple episodic tasks in a row graduallly imroves performance
- takes time to fully adopt retrieval mode

• BUT there is also involuntary episodic retrieval (smth springs to mind)

Question 51

harry potter example recognition task

Answer 51

asked to identify harry potter characters names from a list of fictional characters names.

Question 52

explicit memory tests

Answer 52

• ask pp to recall particular experiences
• Require a contextual cue
• reveal impaired performance in amnesics
• in many cases rely on hippocampus

Question 53

implicit memory tests

Answer 53

• measures unconscious influence of experience without asking the subject to recall the past.
• Priming: recent experience with the stimulus improves performance
• Reveal normal performance in amnesics

Question 54

types of explicit memory tasks

Answer 54

• free recall
• cued recall
• Yes/No recognition (was the word MONK studied)
• Forced-Choice recognition (which word did you study? Apple or Monk?)

Question 55

Implicit memory retrieval tasks

Answer 55

• Stem completion. “fill in missing letters MO_ _ “
• Fragment completion “Fill in A _ P _ E”
• Conceptual fluency “name as many birds”

Question 56

context dependant memory

Answer 56

• memory is context dependant
• context reinstates original encoding environment and facilitates retrieval.

Principle of encoding specificity: we encode info along with its context

Question 57

diff types of contextual cues

Answer 57

External

• Spatio-Temporal / environmental

Internal

• Mood
• Physiological (tired, drunk)
• Cognitive: collection of concepts one has though ab the event

Question 58

Mood-Congruent memory

Answer 58

about the person/item match.
- easier to recall events that have an emotional tone that matches the current mood of the person
- depressed indivs are more likely to recall unpleasant events

Question 59

Mood dependant memory

Answer 59

about person/person match

• recall dependant on match between mood state at encoding and retreival

Question 60

experiment of Cognitive dependant memory

Answer 60

Marian & Neisser (2000) Bilingual study.

Task.
- Memory cues provided in Russian or English.
asked to recall life events from any period.

Found
- when pp cued in Russian, more likely to generate Russian related memories from prev events. vise versa .

Question 61

Recognition memory. how do you gage the level of guessing or descision making bias for accepting items as old

Answer 61

• add in new distractor, foils or lures.

they will give an indication of error and .: guessing

Question 62

SDT (signal detection theory) principles in recognition memory

+ outcome matrix

Answer 62

auditory task:
- detect a tone (signal) presented against a background noise.
it is either hard or easy to detect (depending on similarity to background noise).

4 outcomes in a matrix. Stimulus present vs absent. Participants response as YES vs NO (recognition).
YES + Present = HIT
NO + Present = MISS
YES + Absent = false alarm
NO + Absent = correct rejection

Recognition memory applies same matrix but with Old and New rather than Yes and No.

2 accurate, 2 inaccurate responses.

Question 63

Familiarity graph concept in recognition memory

Answer 63

key concept i acc need to remember: appreciate each outcome from recognition memory test and their relationships define how well performance is.
and can get metrics from this to gage memory performance.

surplus info:

two normally distributed graphs of equal size on an axis of familiarity (against probability ofc).
- old item curve will be higher up as they have been studied and are more faimiliar.
- New items will be lower down.

BUT
there will be some overlap.
possibly because some new words are similar to old words and seem more familiar.

assume pp will set a criteria for how familiar an item is. any over this line will be rated as old (studied).

so can do mathamatical calculations

Question 64

limitations of SDT and recognition memory

Answer 64

SDT cannot account for all memory phenomena
e.g.
- word frequency effect. low frequent words start with little familiarity (and are worse recalled). However, in recognition tasks, low frequency words do much better.
- SDT incorrectly predicts that low frequency words should be less familiar

Question 65

Dual process theory

Answer 65

recognition memory is based on two processes.

Familiarity and Recollection.

Familiarity:
- a sense of memory without being able to remember contextual info
- described by signal detection
- Faster and more automatic

Recollection:
- Retrieving contractual info about a stimulus- like cued recall.
- Slower and more attention demanding

Question 66

Recognition Memory: Measuring
Remember/Know Procedure (Tulving, 1985)

Answer 66

prompt participants.

p.p decide

remember item being presented previously then
- Recollect contextual details
- Measure of recollection

Know it was presented previously:
- seems familiar
- measure of familiarity