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Psych year 1 semester 1 > Cognition > Flashcards

Cognition Flashcards

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1
Q

What are automatic vs controlled processes in visual attention?

A

Automatic:

  • Fast
  • Doesn’t require attention
  • Doesn’t reduce capacity for performing other tasks
  • Parallel processing
  • Unavailable to consciousness
  • Unavoidable
  • Very hard to modify once learned

Controlled:

  • Slow
  • Require attention
  • Take up processing capacity
  • Serial processing
  • Available to consciousness
  • Can be used flexibly in changing circumstances
  • e.g., the Stroop test
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2
Q

What is the psychological refractory period (PRP)? What is a potential explanation for it?

A
  • Psychological refractory period (PRP)
    o 2 stimuli
    o 2 responses
    o Respond to each stimulus as rapidly as possible
    o Second stimulus presented shortly after the first
    o A marked slowing to the second stimulus

o Response to the second stimulus is slowed because ppts are still processing the first stimulus
o Results delayed in response time when asked to divide attention

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3
Q

What are the limitations of the Multiple resource model?

A

o Models really focus on visual and auditory inputs but tasks could be presented in other modalities
o Coordination between tasks not really considered

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4
Q

What is the supporting evidence for the multiple resource model?

A
  • Supporting evidence – more interference when tasks share a modality or type of response
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5
Q

What is selective inference and which model does it refer to?

A
  • Selective interference – it is the type of resource that tasks require that determine whether they will interference with one another
  • Refers to the multiple resource model
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6
Q

What is the multiple resource model? And what are the 3 successive stages of processing?

A
  • separate sources of capacity may be specialised for particular processes
  • 3 successive stages of processing
    o Encoding – perceptual processes (visual/auditory)
    o Central processing - (spatial/verbal cues)
    o Response – voice or manual
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7
Q

What did Bourke et al find (central capacity models)

A

– 4 tasks which they hypothesised required different amounts of the “central capacity”
o Tested ability to do 2 of these tasks at once – one primary task one secondary task
o Findings consistent with the central capacity theory
o Task which most loaded on the central capacity interfered most
- Theory tends to be rather descriptive and circular

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8
Q

What are central capacity models?

A
  • Assume there is some central capacity which can be used flexibly across a range of activities
  • Central capacity has limited resources, so how successfully multiple tasks can be performed depends on the drain of each task on these resources
  • Any two tasks will interfere provided they require more resource than is available I the total capacity
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9
Q

What three factors can affect whether or not we can multi-task?

A
  • Task difficulty - harder when task is harder
  • Task similarity - harder when tasks are too similar
  • Practice - some research shows that practice can improving multitasking but there are limitations to this
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10
Q

What is the threat superiority effect?

A

– we are faster to notice something potentially threatening compared to something positive or neutral

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11
Q

What are the limitations of feature integration theory?

A
  • Assumption that visual search either all serial or parallel too strong
  • Search for conjunctive targets faster than predicted by feature integration theory
  • Nature of non-targets in display also important (similarity among distractors speeds search)
  • Not all features are equal
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12
Q

What is the serial process (“focussed attention stage”) in feature integration theory?

A

– requires attention
o Features can be combined by focused attending to the location of the object, which allows search for targets define by a conjunction of features
o “Illusory conjunctions” (random combination of features) can occur due to problems in combining features to form objects at a relatively late stage
o Slower than the parallel process, and depends on set size

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13
Q

What is the rapid initial parallel process (“preattentive stage”) in feature integration theory?

A

– doesn’t require attention
o Process physical characteristics – “features”
o Targets that are identifiable by simple physical characteristics “pop out”

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14
Q

What is feature integration theory?

A
  • Treisman & Gelade

- Object –> preattentive stage (features separated) –> focused attention stage (features combined) –> perception

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15
Q

What type of processing can visual search tasks suggest?

A
  • If response time is affected by display size – suggests serial process
  • If reaction time not affected by display size – suggests parallel process
  • Pop-out – no effect of display size
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16
Q

How do visual search tasks work on neglect patients?

A
  • Set size
  • Target presented on half of the trails
  • Decide if target is present
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17
Q

What is visual search?

A
  • Looking for something in a cluttered visual environment

- Find the target among the non-targets (distractors)

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18
Q

What is happening in neglect patients?

A
  • Exaggeration of normal functioning – we choose what to attend to
  • Presence of extinction strongly suggests that there’s some sort of competition
    o Presence of a more salient stimulus on the ipsilesional side of space capture attention and hinders perception of the stimulus on the contralesional side
    o Can be alleviated by presenting related stimuli, one to each side, as this is more likely to be seen as an integrated whole than as two separate stimuli
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19
Q

True or false, can hemispatial neglect affect memories?

A

TRUE

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20
Q

Is anything processed if there is neglect?

A
  • Can process some of the unattended information semantically – e.g., Marshall & Halligan (1988)
  • So, there is some processing of information presented to the neglected side, but the patient is not consciously aware of the neglected stimuli
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21
Q

The border between neglected space and non-neglected space is:

A
  • Not sharp and absolute as in a primary visual field deficit such as hemianopia
  • Doesn’t necessarily align with the vertical midline or meridian
  • Can vary with the number of distractor items in the display
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22
Q

What does neglect do to patients?

A

Patient fails to act upon, identify, or acknowledge contralesional (on the side opposite the lesion) stimuli and acknowledge only stimuli which are ipsilesional (on the same side as the lesion).

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23
Q

What commonly causes neglect?

A

A stroke

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24
Q

What side is neglect most common on?

A

The right hemisphere of the human brain

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25
Q

What is hemispatial neglect?

A

a relatively common neuropsychological condition in which patients ignore one side of space.

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26
Q

What are multiple attentional spotlights? Who provides evidence for this?

A
  • Awh & Pashler (2000)
  • Ppts are asked to report 2 numbers in a 5x5 grid filled with 23 letters
  • Cued (80%) valid to two squares. Interested in what happened on the invalidity cued trials
  • Zoom lens predicts space between cued locations should be included in the focus of attention – but this was not the case
  • Possibly have multiple attentional spotlights instead of one lens that can change
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27
Q

What is the zoom lens model of attention? Who provides evidence for it?

A
  • Evidence from LaBerge
    o Press button when letter S (cue) is followed by letter R (target)
  • “Letter condition”:
  • Probe appeared in different spatial locations
  • Letter task attempted to focus ppts attention on centre of display. Faster reaction time when probe within central attentional beam
  • In word task, ppts required to categorise entire word = broader attentional beam
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28
Q

What are the endogenous systems (cues)?

A
  • Controlled by the individual’s intentions and expectations

- Involved when central cues are presented

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29
Q

What are the exogenous systems (cues)?

A
  • Automatically shift attention
  • Involved when uninformative peripheral cues are presented
  • Stimuli that are salient or that differ from other stimuli are more likely to be attended to
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30
Q

How can we control where our attentional spotlight is?

A
  • Disengagement of attention from a given stimulus
  • Shifting of attention from one target stimulus to another
  • Engaging/locking attention onto a new visual stimulus
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31
Q

What is location-based attention?

A
  • “Attentional spotlight”
  • Can be focused on a particular location
  • Posner (1980) suggested that the attentional spotlight can shift to a different visual location without eye movements (covert attention)
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32
Q

How do you process task irrelevant stimuli under Lavie’s perceptual load theory?

A

o If the perceptual load is high: early selection
o If the perceptual load is low: late selection
- Stage of selection is variable, and task-irrelevant info can be processed if there is spare capacity

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33
Q

What is the prediction of Lavie’s perceptual load theory?

A

o There will be less interference from the distractor on the more difficult task relative to the easier task (because there’s less attentional resource left over for processing it)

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34
Q

What is perceptual load?

A

o Perceptual load – number of units in the display and the nature of processing required for each unit (difficulty)

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35
Q

What is Lavie’s Perceptual Load theory?

A
  • Everyone has a limited attentional capacity
  • Total available capacity is always allocated
  • Spare capacity that’s not required for primary task is automatically allocated to irrelevant stimuli
  • Attentional capacity allocated to main task depends on perceptual load
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36
Q

What research isn’t explained by Deutsch & Deutsch’s late-selection theory?

A

Treisman & Riley – dichotic shadowing task but instructed to shadowing and to tap the desk whenever they heard a target word in either message

  • More target words detected in attended than unattended
  • Wouldn’t have expected this under D&D theory as all stimuli are processed equally – would’ve expected equal number of words detected in either message
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37
Q

What is Deutsch & Deutsch’s late-selection theory?

A
  • Suggest filtering occurs late – so that all stimuli are analysed equally and the most relevant stimulus determines the response
  • Accounts for the extensive processing of unattended stimuli just as well as Treisman’s Attenuation theory
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38
Q

What is a problem with Treisman’s attenuation theory?

A

it’s a bit circular – noticed unattended message because it was relevant, relevant because we noticed it (more descriptive than explanatory)

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39
Q

What is Treisman’s attenuation theory?

A
  • Unattended input not completely rejected, but filter attenuates (reduces) analysis of the unattended signal
  • The threshold for processing stimuli is consistent with the context or our expectations lowered
    o Accounts for breakthrough effects
  • Partially process stimuli in the unattended message sometimes exceeds the threshold for conscious awareness
  • Making it more likely that we process task-related info e.g., like our own name at a cocktail party
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40
Q

What is “Breakthrough” as described by Treisman?

A
  • When ppts say a word that was presented in the unattended message in a dichotic listening task
  • Occurs more commonly when the word is highly likely given the content
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41
Q

What did the MacKay study show?

A
  • Dichotic listening task
  • At the end they had to paraphrase the attended message
  • Despite being unable to report the content of the unattended message, it still affected performance: more likely to interpret the attended message in a way that was consistent to the information presented in the unattended message
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42
Q

What did the Von Wright study show?

A
  • Paired some words with a mild electric shock to ppts
  • Then conducted a dichotic listening task with those words presented in the unattended message
  • Ppts demonstrated an increased galvanic skin response (GSR – indicative of emotional response)
  • This suggests that there was some analysis of the content of the unattended message, and this affected unconscious physiological measures
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43
Q

What is the “Cocktail party effect”? and which theory doesn’t answer this?

A
  • talking to your friend, actively paying attention
  • But if someone says your name from across the room you will notice this even though you weren’t paying attention
  • Broadbent’s theory can’t answer this
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44
Q

What is Broadbent’s filter theory?

A
  • Filter prevents overloading a limited-capacity mechanism beyond the filter
  • Filter allows one stream of info through
  • Other outputs remain in the buffer for later processing
  • Theory accounts for many of the findings from the dichotic listening task
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45
Q

In the dichotic listening task, in the non-attended message what do and don’t ppts notice?

A

Do notice:
o Some basic physical characteristics e.g., if the voice stops or changes from male to female
Don’t notice:
o Any of the content or individual words
o When the language change e.g., English to German or when the speech was spoken backwards

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46
Q

What was the Dichotic listening task?

A
  • Ppts are played two different messages to different ears over headphones.
  • Asked to repeat back one of the messages
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47
Q

What did William James say about attention?

A
  • Attention is an active process

- James suggested attention was filtering out what was not relevant

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48
Q

What are the limitations of computational cognitive science?

A
  • explanations without prediction is common
  • difficult to falsify
  • typically de-emphasise motivational and emotional components of cognition
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49
Q

What are the strengths of computational cognitive science?

A
  • theoretical assumptions are clear and precise

- increasingly used to model the effects of brain damage

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50
Q

What are connectionist models (neural networks)?

A

– mathematical structures that “learn.” Don’t always know how the model reaches its conclusions. Makes the same mistakes that children do when learning.

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51
Q

How is computational models different to AI?

A

Computational models:

  • Involves programming computers to model human cognition
  • Successful models need to perform the way humans do (make mistakes etc.)

AI:

  • involves building computer systems that produce intelligent outcomes
  • don’t have to work in the same way as humans
  • e.g., Deep Blue was able to consider 200 million chess positions per second and so beat the chess grandmaster – a human couldn’t do this
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52
Q

What is computational cognitive science?

A

– developing computational models to understand human cognition (not the same as AI)

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53
Q

What are the limitations of functional imaging, ERP & TMS?

A
  • correlational data – correlation =/= causation
  • over-interpretation of data
  • difficulty relating brain activity to psychological processes
  • studies are often underpowered with a high likelihood of false positives (e.g., Bennett et al., 2009 – scanning dead salmon and picked up brain activity)
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54
Q

What are the strengths of functional imaging, ERP & TMS?

A
  • variety of techniques offer a range of spatial and temporal resolution
  • can study functional specialisation
  • rich data allow elaborate assessment of neural functioning
  • TMS allows for causal inferences
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55
Q

What is the spatial and temporal resolution of a naturally occurring lesion like?

A

Naturally occurring lesion likely to affect a region or even the whole brain and has quite poor temporal resolution (hours, days etc.)

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56
Q

What is the spatial and temporal resolutions of a single cell recording like?

A

A single cell recording has a very fine spatial resolution (cell level), temporal resolution varies depending on set up.

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57
Q

What is Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)?

A
  • creates temporary brain “lesions” by running an electrical current through a coil placed near the skull
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58
Q

What is Magnetoencephalography (MEG)?

A

– measures the magnetic fields produced by brain activity

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59
Q

What is Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)?

A

– imaging blood oxygenation using MRI (indexes metabolic activity)

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60
Q

What is Positron Emission Tomography (PET)?

A

– brain scanning by measuring positrons

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61
Q

What are event related potentials (ERPs)?

A

– present the same stimulus repeatedly and measure the pattern of electrical brain activity recorded from scalp electrodes

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62
Q

What is a single cell recording?

A

– use of a microelectrode to record the activity of a single neuron

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63
Q

What is cognitive neuroscience?

A

– use converging evidence from brain and behaviour to understand cognition

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64
Q

What are the limitations of cognitive neuropsychology?

A
  • don’t usually know what patients were like before brain damage
  • patients can develop compensatory strategies to mitigate the effects of their brain damage
  • sometimes rely on single-case studies (but are these really necessarily problematic?)
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65
Q

What are the strengths of cognitive neuropsychology?

A
  • double dissociations are very powerful and provide strong evidence for modularity (different parts of the brain are responsible for different things)
  • casual links between damage and cognitive function
  • can reveal surprising complexities in cognition
  • provides insights that cannot be obtained in any other way
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66
Q

Give two examples of cognitive neuropsychology patients:

A
  • Phineas Gage - a pipe went through his brain and altered aspects such as his personality
  • HM - issues with memory
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67
Q

What is cognitive neuropsychology?

A

– study patients with brain damage/neurological disease to understand how these affect cognition

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68
Q

What are the limitations of cognitive psychology?

A
  • ecological validity – this can be mitigated by well-designed experiments to test specific questions
  • behavioural evidence offer only indirect evidence about the internal mental process – so researchers must infer what this means - theories can be too general and not make clear predictions
  • findings can be paradigm specific
  • no unifying model
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69
Q

What are the strengths of cognitive psychology?

A
  • scientific and systematic approach to studying cognition
  • provided bedrock for other approaches to build upon
  • diverse and flexible – has strongly influenced lots of other areas of psych
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70
Q

Do cognitive processes occur in parallel? Explain

A

Many processes occur in parallel and there is interaction between cognitive system (e.g., both attention and memory are involved in decision making)

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71
Q

What is top-down processing?

A

– driven by expectation/knowledge about the world

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72
Q

What is bottom-up processing?

A

– driven by environment (input produces output) but this is an oversimplification

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73
Q

What does cognitive psychology study and what evidence does it use?

A

– uses behavioural evidence to study cognition.

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74
Q

What is the Alan Turing Test?

A

Alan Turing test – converse with a robot without knowing that you are talking to a robot. Difficult to pass but raises the questions about what it would mean to pass this test – is language intelligence or is it just following instructions?

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75
Q

How did the cognitive approach come about?

A

Cognition came about as a response to behaviourism as many findings can’t be explained by a simple stimulus response

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76
Q

What did Bruner’s research show?

A
  • asked rich and poor kids to estimate the physical size of coins.
  • Found that the poorer children overestimated the size. Argued that this was because the coins meant more to the poorer children and this “need” inflated their perception of the physical size of the coin – shows an internal representation and so presents problem for behaviourists
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77
Q

How did Tolman challenge the behaviourist view?

A

– challenge behaviourist view that nothing happens between S –> R
Rats will learn layout of maze even when not reinforced to do so. Proposed that animal and people’s behaviour is goal directed – represent external world using internal mental representation

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78
Q

How did Chomsky critique Skinner concerning language?

A
  • Language is inherently generative (e.g., can produce unique utterances that they’ve never encountered before)
  • Language is learned even where there is poverty of stimulus
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79
Q

What is the issue with behaviourism?

A

Issue with behaviourism is that it does not study the mental processes between stimulus and response

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80
Q

What did Skinner say about the way we learn language?

A

Skinner – way we learn language can be explained by behaviourists principles (reinforcement)

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81
Q

What is blocking?

A

– involves pairing of the CS and US at exactly the same time

- unlikely to lead to an association (CC)

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82
Q

What are the types on contingency?

A
  • positive contingency - so bell signifies a higher probability of seeing meat
  • negative contingency - where the bell indicates that meat is unlikely to come.
  • Both cases demonstrate clear learning
  • According to contingency learning, the animal updates their understanding of the probability of the US following the CS on a trial-by-trial basis
  • Learning occurs through things being surprises
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83
Q

What is contingency?

A

– how often the US follows the CS

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84
Q

What is contiguity?

A

– when one thing follows another

  • In Psychology we think of it as the proximity in which a response follows a stimulus.
  • The timing of this is crucial in order to develop a clear, strong association
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85
Q

Explain how CC can relate to diabetes

A
  • Diabetes – inject insulin, to deplete blood sugar levels
    o After many injections, sight of needle starts to trigger early physiological response = increase in blood sugar levels
    o Body is striving for homeostasis – CR prepares for US (compensatory reaction)
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86
Q

Explain how a CR in CC can involve conditioned emotions?

A
  • E.g., Mr Wolf sees cat shack, then hears footsteps and is then shocked
  • Initially, wolf ignores the footsteps, salivates
  • In later trails, wolf starts to suppress salivation
  • called a conditioned emotional response procedure
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87
Q

What is an inhibitor?

A

something that stops the CR, may be because the ppt learns that this stimulus is not similar to other stimuli that produce a CR

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88
Q

Can classical conditioning generalise to similar situations?

A

Yes, if a similar stimulus is seen, the CR can generalise to similar situations, as you go further from these similar situations however, level of CR response decreases

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89
Q

What is re-conditioning?

A

If CS is the continuously associated with CR, then this is called re-conditioning – not starting from zero, already have been conditioned once so sees a jump

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90
Q

What is spontaneous recovery?

A

Spontaneous recovery – if CS is accompanied by CR after it not being accompanied by it
– conditioning response is initially not as strong

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91
Q

When does extinction happen?

A

Extinction happens when CS is not accompanied by CR

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92
Q

What is second order acquisition?

A

a phenomenon whereby a conditioned stimulus (CS) acquires the ability to elicit a conditioned response (CR) without ever being directly paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US).

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93
Q

True or False? More repeated pairings lead to a greater probability of the CR after the CS?

A

TRUE

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94
Q

What is classical conditioning?

A
  • Leaning = associations

- Either strengthening or weakening of existing associations

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95
Q

An evaluation of automatic vs controlled processes in visual attention?

A
  • Monitor performance
  • Detect conflict and resolve it
  • Flexibly switch between responses
  • Inhibit inappropriate response
  • Keep track of where system is – and was
  • Sustain attention on current goals
  • But raises the issue of what does the controlling? What chooses?
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96
Q

What is Utilization behaviour?

A

o Associated with medical frontal lesions

o Patients will grasp and utilize any object that is presented, even if this behaviour is inappropriate

97
Q

What is - Dysexecutive syndrome?

A

o Cognitive, emotional, behavioural symptoms
o Often associated with frontal lobe damage
o Patients often have difficulty in planning, organising and controlling action

98
Q

What is the Supervisory attentional system (SAS)?

A

Norman and Shallice (1986) distinguished between different levels of automaticity:

  1. Fully automatic (organised plans)
  2. Partially automatic (e.g., contention scheduling)
  3. Deliberate control by SAS
    - New tasks, deliberate planning, problem solving, conflict monitoring, “executive control,” or when a strong habitual response has to be prevented
99
Q

Is distributed practice good for revision? Why?

A

Yes

  • Reminding – second presentation of to-be-learned material remind learner of the first learning opportunity
  • Consolidation – second learning episode benefits from the consolidation of the first learning process
100
Q

Does practice testing improve learning? Why?

A

Yes

  • Direct effect – changes that arise from the act of taking the test itself
  • Mediated effect – better learning at next study
101
Q

What is elaborative processing (revision technique)

A
  • Asking why

- Can be fairly effective

102
Q

Is highlighting useful? Is there any exceptions?

A

No
Exceptions include:
- If highlighting is used sparsely
- If highlighting is done by an expert in that topic so they know the relevant info

103
Q

What is cognitive learning? Who suggested it?

A
  • Tolman - three groups of rats trying to find their way through a maze, 1 with food, 1 without, 1 given food after 10 days
  • Latent learning (Tolman) – rats had formed a “cognitive map” of the maze
  • Clear evidence for learning in absence of conditioning and instead through cognitive means
104
Q

What is the law of effect? What type of conditioning does this relate to?

A
  • law of effect: responses that are rewarded become strengthened, those that are not rewarded (or punished) are weakened.
  • The strength of response is therefore adjusted according to the consequences of that response.
  • Operant conditioning
105
Q

What are some problems with the modal model?

A
  • Subsequent research has shown that each of the stores is complex (not a unitary, monolithic store)
  • Subsequent research has shown that each of the stores is complex (not a unitary, monolithic store)
  • Much unrehearsed info gets into LTS (implicit learning, ‘incidental’ encoding)
  • Is STS strictly phonological and LTS strictly semantic? What about e.g., non-verbal info?
106
Q

True or False, HM and KF provide a double association?

A

TRUE

107
Q

Who was patient KF?

A
  • Normal LTM
  • Impaired STM (poor digit span)
  • Provides issue with Modal Model of memory as it does not explain how info can move to LTM if STM is impaired
108
Q

What did Milner find about patient HM?

A

HM – had intractable epileptic seizures so had removed medial temporal lobes bilaterally

  • Went to study HM in 1955
  • Found he had anterograde amnesia, couldn’t acquire new memories
  • Digit span normal
  • Memory for past intact \9up to 3 years pre-surgery)
  • Could acquire some skills
109
Q

What is anterograde amnesia? Who had this?

A
  • inability to make new memories (patient HM)
  • But intact STM and LTM prior to incident
  • Reduced primacy but intact recency
110
Q

What is the echoic store? Give info about type, capacity, duration and loss

A

o Auditory store
o Duration: 1-5 sec
o Capacity: depends on stimuli
o Loss via: decay

111
Q

What is the iconic store? Give info about type, capacity, duration and loss

A

o Visual store
o Duration: 500 ms
o Capacity 12+ letters
o Loss via: decay

112
Q

What is the sensory store capacity and duration? What evidence is there?

A
  • Partial report technique (Sperling)
    o Tachistoscope presented a matric of letters
    o If asked to report all letters, could only report 3-4
    o Reporting is a bottleneck – you forget most letter while reporting the first few (full report technique, not useful)
    o Partial report technique – after display, cued to report one row
    o Could still report 3-4, therefore they stored all 12
113
Q

What is the LTM coding? What evidence is there?

A
  • Semantic confusability effect (Baddeley)
    o Delayed recall (20 mins)
    o Recall worse if words semantically similar
    o No effect of acoustic/phonological similarity
  • Info in LTM stored using semantic code for verbal stimuli
114
Q

What is the LTM capacity and duration? What evidence is there?

A
  • LTM capacity and duration are assumed to be limitless
    o E.g., vocab increases over lifespan
  • Our LTM store vast amounts of info
    o E.g., language, social skills, motor skills etc
115
Q

What is the STM coding? What evidence is there?

A
  • Phonological confusability effect (Conrad)
    o Visually presented letters: recall performance was worse on similar sounding letters
    o Similar to errors made when trying to discriminate spoken letters against distracting noise
  • Baddeley
    o Immediate recall was worse if were phonologically similar
    o No effect of semantic similarity in immediate recall
  • Info in STM is stored using phonological code
116
Q

What is the STM duration? What evidence is there?

A
  • Brown-Peterson Paradigm
    o Ppts given a nonsense trigram to remember
    o Then count backwards in 3s from a number
    o Trace decay of unrehearsed items occurs exponentially over 20-30 seconds
117
Q

What is the STM capacity? What evidence is there?

A
  • Miller (1956) – magic number 7 (+/- 2)
    o Digit span tsk
    o Can recall lists of lengths 5 to 9
118
Q

What is the primacy effect? Why does it occur?

A

Primacy effect = first few items tend to be recalled well because they are transferred from the long-term store

  • For first item, rehearsal is high
  • Rehearsal then declines as there is more items to remember so recall worsens
  • Primacy effect is related to the number of rehearsals: early items receive more rehearsals and are better recalled
119
Q

What is the recency effect? Why does it occur?

A

Recency effect – last few items tend to be recalled well because they are from the STM

  • Delay conditions used, recency effect declines as delay increases, can no longer hold in STM (can only hold info for 30 seconds)
  • Filled delay between list and recall diminishes recency effect
120
Q

How does the serial position curve provide evidence for the modal model of memory?

A

Free recall task:

  • Study: words presented at fixed paced
  • Test: recall words in any order
  • Recall % plotted as a function of word’s position in the list
  • Produces a serial position curve
  • Upturn of % recall at beginning and end of list
  • Primacy effect (upturn at start), asymptote (flat middle recall), recency effect (upturn at end)
121
Q

Give an overview of the modal model (Atkinson and Shiffrin)

A

Sensory input –> sensory stores–> if pay attention –> short-term memory –> if rehearsed –> long-term store
Possibility for decay at sensory stores, displacement in STM, and interference in LTM
Info can be retrieved from LTM to STM and reported

122
Q

What did Hermann Ebbinghaus discover bout memory (early research)?

A
  • Performed hundreds of memory experiments on himself
  • Discovered many methods and effects including:

o Consonant-vowel-consonant nonsense syllables
o Learning curves, forgetting curves
o Capacity of short-term memory = 7 (picked up then by Miller in 1950s)
o Recollections vs. familiarity (picked up by Tulving in the 1970s/80s)
o The serial position curve (picked up again by people in the 1960s)

123
Q

What did William James discover about memory (early research)

A
  • Primary memory – info that remains in consciousness after it has been perceived, forms part of the psychological present
  • Secondary memory – info about events that have left consciousness, part of the psychological past
124
Q

What is memory?

A

Memory – the process of storing information and experiences for possible future retrieval

125
Q

What is Transfer-Appropriate Processing? How does it criticise LoP?

A

Transfer-Appropriate Processing – memory performance depends on the extent to which processes used at the time of learning are the same as those used when memory is tested

  • “deep” orienting tasks often produce better results because the test task engages the same “deep” processes
  • A form of encoding which is “shallow” for one purpose may be “deep” for another
126
Q

What are some problems with LoP?

A
  • Main problem is circularity of the definition of depth
    o In order the break circularity, an independent measure of depth is required
  • Weak theoretical power
  • Concepts such as “elaboration” are just as slippery as “depth”
  • “Shallow” orienting tasks almost certainly involve some automatic semantic processing e.g., Stroop test
  • Its possible that “deep” processing only leads to better performance under certain testing conditions
127
Q

Which type of rehearsal is associated with increased retention according to LoP?

A

Type II rehearsal is associated with increased retention – elaborative processing increases the number of associations between stimulus and context

128
Q

What are the 2 types of rehearsal laid out by LoP?

A
  • Type I – maintenance rehearsal

- Type II – elaborative rehearsal

129
Q

How does evidence from incidental learning paradigms supported the idea that encoding can occur without rehearsal?

A

o Subjects are unaware that their memory will be tested

o Therefore, they weren’t intentionally encoding

130
Q

What are levels of processing? What are the different levels?

A
  • Stimulus processing (of words at least) can occur at a number of different levels:
    o Orthographic – the letters that make up the word (level=shallow, retention=poor)
    o Phonological – the sounds associated with pronouncing the word (level=medium, retention=medium)
    o Semantic – word is a cue to further information associated with that word (level=deep, retention=good)
131
Q

What are some problems with WM?

A
  • Articulatory Suppression: This secondary task doesn’t fully prevent registration of visually presented words (which should be recoded phonologically)
  • STM-impaired patients: visual and verbal spans are usually similarly affected (e.g., digit span of 2, visual span of ~4; Baddeley et al., 1997) – why would that be the case if independent sub-systems are responsible?
  • Rehearsal: How is (non-verbal) visual information rehearsed? How do (pre-verbal) children rehearse verbal info?
  • Consciousness: How can consciousness ‘bind’ information from different modalities without a multimodal short-term store?
    o Baddeley (2000) later expanded the model to include an ‘Episodic Buffer’ – see textbook for more on this
132
Q

What is the central executive? What are its roles?

A
  • Most complex but least understood component of WM
  • A “workspace” divided between storage and processing demands
  • “In some ways the central executive functions more like an attentional system than a memory force” – Baddeley
  • Model suggests CE co-ordinates the activity of the 2 slave systems
  • Other potential roles for the CE include coordinating retrieval strategies and selective attention
133
Q

What is the visuospatial sketch-pad for?

A
  • Geographical location – learning our way around an environment
  • Planning and performing spatial tasks
134
Q

What dual processing task did Baddeley perform to provide evidence for the visuospatial sketch-pad?

A

Dual task – Brooks Matrix tasks and pursuit rotor task

  • Result – tracking disrupts spatial but not non-spatial condition
  • Sketchpad relies on spatial coding
135
Q

What is the Brooks Matrix Condition? How does it provide evidence for the visuospatial sketch-pad?

A

Brooks Matrix Task – learn sequence of sentences to remember
o Spatial – “in starting square put a one, in the next square put a 2” etc. -Mentally can build up a matrix
o Non-spatial – “in the starting square put a 1, in the next square to the quick put a 2” etc.
o Recall is better for spatial sentences than non-spatial one

  • Non-spatial condition – performance is better with written instructions
  • Spatial condition – performance better with auditory instructions
  • Visual (written) instructions interfere with spatial imagery
136
Q

What is the visuospatial sketch-pad?

A
  • A workspace in which an image can be stored and manipulated to guide behaviour
137
Q

What is the phonological loop for?

A
  • Learning to read – lower memory spans –> reduced reading ability
  • Vocabulary acquisition – correlation between non-word repetition ability (requires phonological loop) and vocab size
  • Language comprehension – patients with STM impairments have difficulty comprehending complex sentences
138
Q

What is an articulatory suppression task? What are the results?

A
  • Articulate irrelevant items while performing a verbal span task
  • Result – world length effect disappears (for written words only)
139
Q

Is the word length effect related to the number of syllables or the duration it takes to read the word? What does research suggest?

A
  • Spoken duration appears to be crucial
    o Memory spans are greater for short-duration words than long-duration words even though they have the same number of syllables
  • Different languages – shorter articulation rate correlates with longer digit span
  • Individual differences – memory span and articulation rate are highly correlated
140
Q

What are the 2 components of the speech-based phonological system?

A
  • Phonological store = stores memory traces for a few seconds before they face
  • Articulatory (phonological) loop = rehearsal process analogous to subvocal speech (inner voice)
141
Q

Where does evidence for the phonological loop come from (3 types)?

A
  • Dual task results
  • Phonological confusability effect
  • Word-length effect – greater span for short words than long words, whether written or heard and this seems to correspond well with the speed these words are read
142
Q

Where does evidence for the WMM mainly come from? Give an example of this

A
  • Dual task paradigms – primary and secondary task
  • If you could complete both tasks, suggests evidence that WM system was more complex than a simple short-term store
  • If the secondary task interfered with the primary task, then this was because they both relied on the same processing mechanism
    o E.g., overtly rehearse sequence of digits and perform a simple true/false reasoning task
    o Is possible to carry out
    o Error rate held constant
    o Increase in reasoning time is significant but not large (35%) – speed-accuracy trade-off
143
Q

What was Coltheart’s compromise of the 3 different types of persistence?

A
  • Neural persistence – overlap in neural processing, very brief
  • Visible persistence – a “pre-categorical” phenomenon of sensory processing, Di Lollo
  • Informational persistence – “post-categorical” iconic memory that decays rapidly, Sperling
144
Q

For Di Lolla’s follow up study to the dot fusion test, what would the overlap of visual processing account predict?

A

– as duration of S1 increases, performance should decrease
o Processing starts from onset of S1
o SOA – stimulus onset asynchrony – the time between the onset of S1 and the onset of S2
o Predicts decline in performance as S1 duration increases because effective overlap decreases

145
Q

For Di Lolla’s follow up study to the dot fusion test, what would the decay from memory account predict?

A

– as there is no gap then performance should stay the same
o Decay from the offset of S1
o Predicts no decline in performance as S1 duration increases because effective overlap doesn’t change (ISI = 0)

146
Q

What study by Di Lollo followed the dot fusion study to determine which account was correct? What were the results?

A

if we manipulate the duration of S1 and keep the interval at 0, the theories make different predictions
- Found inverse duration effect – performance declines as S1 duration increases

147
Q

Why can we not tell which account is correct for explaining the results of the dot fusion study?

A
  • Can’t tell which account is correct since they predict the same pattern: declining performance as ISI (inter-stimulus interval) increases
148
Q

If you believe it was due to overlap of visual processing, what would that suggest? (Di Lollo)

A

o Processing starts from the onset of S1 and runs its course
o If you present S2 when S1 is still being processed then they will fuse
o Decline in performance as the interval increases due to less effective overlap between processing of S1 and processing of S2

149
Q

If you believe that the results of the dot fusion study were due to decay from sensory memory, what would that suggest? (Erickson)

A

o If you present S2 just after S1, then the memory trace for s1 is 100% available and you will fuse the two images
o The onset of S2 to the complete decay of S1 is called the Effective Overlap
o The longer the effective overlap, the more likely you are to fuse the two stimuli
o The later you present S2, the shorter the effective overlap and the less likely you are to fuse the 2 stimuli

150
Q

When does the sensory store seem to decay?

A

Sensory store decays at around 300ms

151
Q

What was the dot fusion study?

A

Dot fusion – two patterns of dots that form a nonsense syllable when superimposed
- If the gap is increased between stimulus 1 and 2 then it becomes harder to fuse the 2 stimuli together

152
Q

What is flicker fusion?

A

Flicker fusion – the perception of successive brief stimuli as a single unified percept

153
Q

What is visual persistence?

A

Visible persistence – the continued apparent visibility of a stimulus beyond its physical duration

154
Q

What is the encoding-specificity principle?

A
  • Retrieval success depends on “informational overlap” between encoding and retrieval
  • Focus is on context
  • Context can be intrinsic or extrinsic
155
Q

What is cue-dependent forgetting?

A
  • Retrieval performance improves with cueing
    o Performance: recognition > cued recall > free recall
  • Retroactive interference is weaker with cueing
    o Interference: recognition < cued recall ««< free recall
  • Recall declines as the number of lists presented after original learning increases (retroactive interference)
    o Retroactive interference selectively affects free recall (no cue)
    o Cued recall/recognition less affected because context is partly reinstated during test
156
Q

why does interference lead to forgetting?

A
  • Assume a cue has a fixed capacity for activating memories – the more memories associated with a cue, the less well it can activate any of them
  • Or: if several possible memories share similar overlap with retrieval environment, successful recall is less likely
157
Q

What is proactive interference?

A

Proactive interference = prior learning disrupts subsequent learning

  • Interference builds up over trails
  • Performance declines over successive study-test with similar stimuli
  • Performance recovers when switch to dissimilar stimuli
158
Q

What is retroactive interference?

A

Retroactive interference = later learning disrupts earlier learning
- Memory decreases as the number of intervening trails increases

159
Q

What are decay and interference? How are they confounded?

A
  • Decay – memory simply fades with time
  • Interference: memory traces disrupted or replaced by subsequent/prior learning
  • Time and interference are usually confounded – the longer the delay, the more interference
160
Q

What is the forgetting curve?

A
  • Time required to relearn a list of words = measure of forgetting
  • Information loss is rapid then levels off: a logarithmic function which holds for many different types of learned material
161
Q

What are the types of nondeclarative (implicit) memory?

A

Procedural and priming

162
Q

What are the types of declarative (explicit) memory?

A

Semantic and episodic

163
Q

Do right occipital lobe resection patents (e.g., patient MS) show normal perceptual priming but impaired declarative memory?

A

No, they show normal declarative memory, impaired perceptual priming

164
Q

Do amnesic patients show intact perceptual thinking? what were the results for perceptual identification and recognition memory tasks?

A
  • Amnesic patients show intact perceptual thinking
    o Perceptual identification: identify studied items faster than unstudied item
    o Recognition memory tests: perform better under indirect instructions
165
Q

What are the types of priming tests?

A
  • Perceptual identification – name an object from image obscured by noise
  • Word-stem/-fragment completion – first word that comes to mind
  • Sentence completion – “conceptual” priming
166
Q

What is priming?

A

Priming = the improvement in processing a stimulus as a result of a prior encounter with the same or related stimulus

167
Q

Can amnesic patients can learn to perform “procedural” tasks despite a lack of episodic memory training?

A

Yes

168
Q

Why is testing different types of memory systems more complicated than a one to one mapping?

A

o Episodic or “Direct” Test (recognition memory for previously presented items) is intended to measure episodic memory system (conscious retrieval of past episode)
o Some episodic tests can be influenced by non-episodic memory systems – you can “know” that you have see an item recently without consciously “remembering” the encoding event (find it familiar but don’t recollect it)

169
Q

What is Tulving’s model of LTM?

A
  • Episodic, semantic and procedural memories are interactive and defined by levels of conscious awareness
170
Q

What is procedural memory?

A

Procedural: Effects of past experience demonstrated via performance (anoetic – “unaware”)
o e.g., how to tie shoelaces, how to ride a bike

171
Q

What is semantic memory?

A

Semantic: Word meanings, facts, categories, etc. (Noetic – aware of info, not origin)
o e.g., that Paris is the capital of France

172
Q

What is episodic memory?

A

Episodic: Temporally distinct past experiences (autonoetic – “self-aware”)
o e.g., an event that occurred in your first few years of primary school

173
Q

What is the encoding-specificity principle?

A
  • Retrieval success depends on “informational overlap” between encoding and retrieval
  • Focus is on context
  • Context can be intrinsic or extrinsic
174
Q

What is intrinsic context?

A

Intrinsic context = features that are an integral part of target stimulus
- Recognition cues were better if study and test intrinsic context were similar

175
Q

What is extrinsic context? What is an example of research showing this?

A

Extrinsic context = other features present at the time of encoding (time, place, cognitive state etc.)
- Godden & Baddeley – diver study
o Study lists on land or underwater and then recall in similar or dissimilar environment
o Better recall when in same environment (not the same for recognition)

176
Q

What is repression and motivated forgetting?

A
  • Freud – people actively repress unpleasant memories – evidence for this is limited
  • People can also motivate themselves to forget
177
Q

What is consolidation?

A
  • Physiological basis of memory: glutamate release, protein synthesis, neural growth and rearrangement
  • “Fixes” information in long-term memory, strengthens connections between cortical regions over hours, days, months (“systems’ consolidation”)
  • Over time, cortical components of memories become less dependent on hippocampus for retrieval (hence HM can retrieve old memories)
178
Q

How can consolidation lead to forgetting?

A

o New memories are initially sensitive to disruption before becoming progressively more stable (hence HM can’t recall events in the lead up to surgery)
o This process is selective – not all memories will be consolidated

179
Q

What is reconsolidation?

A

Reconsolidation – retrieving a memory puts it in a liable state again

180
Q

How can reconsolidation be blocked?

A
  • Extinction

- Pharmacological intervention

181
Q

What can reconsolidation be a possible treatment for?

A

Possible use as treatment for PTSD, phobias

182
Q

What is the most accepted theory for forgetting?

A

Most “accepted” idea of forgetting is a combination of theories, mainly cue dependent forgetting and consolidation failure account for most forgetting

183
Q

What are two ways that we can investigate human language processing?

A
  • Eye-movement tracking

- EEG

184
Q

Do eyes move smoothly when reading?

A

no

  • Eyes don’t move smoothly when reading, they make jumps
  • Eye movements consist of eye fixations and saccades (jumps from one location to another)
185
Q

Why are some eye movements backwards when reading?

A
  • 10-15% of all eye-movements are backwards (called regressions) – allow reader to re-look at previous text
186
Q

How does eye-movement tracking work?

A

o Shining an infra-red light into the eye – generates 2 reflections which are measured by the eye-tracking camera
o Two reflections result – by measuring how these reflections move relative to each other, its possible to calculate what the eye is looking at

187
Q

What does eye-movement tracking tell us?

A

o How long people fixate on a particular word
o Which words they go back to re-read
o Time spent on a word reflects the processes associated with how long it takes the reader to access the meaning of the word and integrate with the meanings of the words read previously
o Also reflects how common or rare words are – increased fixation time to rare words

188
Q

What is the immediacy hypothesis and the eye-mind hypothesis? What do they suggest together?

A

The immediacy hypothesis – the reader tries to comprehend a word as soon as it is encountered (don’t delay processing)
The eye-mind hypothesis – there is no delay between looking at a word and the brain processing that word
Together, these hypotheses assume that the brain starts processing a word as soon as it is encountered and the eye moving onto the next word signal processing has terminated

189
Q

What does an EEG measure? What are the two components of most interest?

A
  • Measures voltage chances on the scalp associated with the presentation of stimuli
  • ERPs are components of EEG and labelled according to their polarity and latency following the onset of the stimulus
  • N400 and P600 are 2 of the ERP components of most interest
190
Q

What is the N400?

A

o N400 has a negative potential – peaks around 400ms after stimulus onset
o This reveals sensitivity to semantic incongruity
o The last word in the sentence “I take coffee with cream and dog” is semantically anomalous and results in N400

191
Q

What is the P600?

A

o P600 typically indexes syntactic violations around 600ms after stimulus onset
o In the sentence “the broker persuaded to sell the stock was tall” the verb is initially interpreted as the past tense of “persuade” rather than as a reduced relative (“who was persuaded”)

192
Q

What is parsing?

A

Parsing – computing the syntactic structure of sentences

  • Involves determining the relationship between the different elements of a sentence and assigning them to syntactic categories
  • Lots of implicit knowledge rapidly during parsing
193
Q

What is syntax?

A

Syntax – building of sentences according to grammatical rules; arrangements of words into an order that results in a meaningful sentence

194
Q

What is local ambiguity? Give an example

A
  • For example, the phrase “the ball” is temporarily ambiguous – it could be the object of the verb “passes” or it could be the subject of the next phrase “always gets to its target.” You find out only after you’ve read “the ball” which interpretation correct
195
Q

What is global ambiguity? Give an example

A
  • “The spy saw the cop with the binoculars”
  • This is ambiguous between an interpretation where the phrase “with the binoculars” is attached to the verb phrase (VP-attachment), and an interpretation where it is attached to the noun phrase (NP-attachment)
196
Q

What is the garden path model?

A
  • Defines simplicity in terms of the simplest syntactic structure that could be constructed
  • Stage 1: identify syntactic categories and build initial structure
  • Stage 2: assess outcome against context, semantic plausibility, real-world knowledge.
  • Revise if necessary
197
Q

What are some strengths and limitations of the garden path model?

A

This model was very influential – made clear predictions so generated lots of experiments
Bulk of empirical evidence suggests that syntax isn’t “special” and that lots of different types of information influence parsing as it unfolds in real time.

198
Q

What are constraint based models?

A
  • Propose that the parser is able to utilise all potentially relevant information to guide the early stages of processing
199
Q

What is discourse processing?

A

Discourse processing = involves the linking together of units of text in order to construct a coherent mental representation

200
Q

What are the 3 levels of representation in discourse processing?

A

o A level representing the surface form
o A level representing the text base
o A level representing the situation model

201
Q

What is the situation model?

A
  • Memory for the surface form of a discourse is rapidly lost

- What people remember is something akin to the text base and the situation model levels of representation

202
Q

What study shows we have a memory for gist?

A
  • Participant heard a sentence and then a similar sentence that was different on surface level but had the same gist – thought they had already heard the sentence
  • Didn’t do this when the sentences had different situation models
203
Q

What are inferences?

A

Inferences = a piece of information that isn’t explicitly stated in the text but is represented in a Situation Model.

204
Q

What are the three common types of inferences?

A
  • Logical
  • Bridging
  • Elaborative
205
Q

What are logical inferences?

A
  • Based on formal rules and are 100% certain

- E.g., john is a bachelor – can logically infer that john is male

206
Q

What are bridging inferences?

A
  • Help us to relate new to previous information
  • We use them to make information coherent by linking new information to previously obtained information
  • E.g., Mary unpacked some picnic supplies. The beer was warm. – infer that the “beer” was part of the picnic
207
Q

What are elaborative inferences?

A
  • Involve extending what is in the text with world knowledge
  • Sematic associations for the basis for this type of inference making
  • E.g., the delicate vase fell on the floor – make the inference that the vase will break
208
Q

What is the influence of reader preferences on inference generation?

A

It has been found that inferences people generated were influenced by how they felt about the character in stories

209
Q

What is the event-indexing model?

A
  • Accounts for how readers build situation models
  • Proposes that events are connected along dimensions of time, space, protagonist, causality and intentionality and that readers (at least implicitly) keep track of events along these dimensions
  • The model has led to much research and explains a number of previous findings, is also clearly defined
210
Q

What are anaphors?

A

Anaphors = take their meaning from the thing they refer back to e.g., he, the fool, Bill
- They differ in their level of ambiguity

211
Q

Do anaphors always have to refer to explicitly mentioned referents?

A
  • Found that it takes readers longer to understand a sentence if there is no explicit mention of the referent in the prior sentence as inference has to be used – is possible but takes longer to achieve
  • However, for highly constraining context, situational anaphora can be easy to understand even if the referent is not explicitly mentioned – anaphors can map onto entities in the situation model that might not be in the text base
  • But this doesn’t work for pronouns –
  • Pronouns only carry number and gender information so can match to many possible referents in a text. We are able to usually able to easily interpret them because they tend to refer to character that are in focus
212
Q

What is centring theory?

A

Centring theory = a model of how attention shifts during a discourse

213
Q

What is the repeated name penalty?

A

The repeated name penalty = arises when the character in focus is referred to using a proper name rather than a pronoun

214
Q

What are quantifiers?

A

Quantifiers = expressions that communicate something about quantity

  • Can subtly change the meaning of the sentence by using the same quantifier
  • E.g., a few of the fans went to the match. They …
  • E.g., few of the fans went to the match. They …
  • Changes the focus for the reader
215
Q

What are scalar expressions?

A

Scalar expressions = a magnitude can give readers different meanings in a sentence e.g., “almost 500 votes” is viewed as more positively than “only 500 votes”

216
Q

What is depth of processing?

A

Depth of processing = making predictions about what is being asked so not accurately answering a question – links to top-down processing
- E.g., how many animals of each type did Moses take on the Ark? People will answer two rather than realising that it was Noah who took the animals on the Ark and not Moses

217
Q

What is a phoneme?

A

Phonemes – smallest units of sound e.g., rice and lice differ by just one phoneme

218
Q

What is a morpheme?

A

Morphemes – smallest units of meaning in language e.g., dog-s is two morphemes

219
Q

What is phonology?

A

Phonology – rules governing the sound of words and parts of words

220
Q

What are semantics?

A

Semantics – the meanings of words and sentences e.g., bank, oink etc.

221
Q

What are pragmatics?

A

Pragmatics – the use of language as a function of context and social rules e.g., hello, hi, hey etc.

222
Q

What is language?

A

Language – a system of symbols and rules that allow us to communicate

223
Q

How do people use top-down processing in language (speech production)?

A

People will try to predict the endings of sentences or how something will unfold – when given the start of a sentence and then 3 images you will look at the image that you anticipated will follow the sentence

224
Q

What are the 3 stages of speech production?

A
  • Conceptualization – think of something to say
  • Formulation – find a way to express your idea given the specific language tools
  • Articulation – physical action of moving your muscles to produce speech
225
Q

What is the WEAVER++ (Levelt) theory of speech production?

A
  • Idea
  • Zoom in on the appropriate lexical item in the mental lexicon
  • Retrieve a word’s morphemic code
  • Retrieve a word’s phonological code
  • Syllabify the word and access the corresponding articulatory gesture
  • Move the muscles and produce the speech waves
    o Serial – feed-forward information flow
    o Lemma is an intermediate stage between activating an idea and the speech sound
    o The link from meaning to sound (lexicalisation) is not a one stage process
226
Q

What is the Spreading activation (Dell) theory of speech production?

A
  • Set of nodes associated with semantics
  • A set of nodes associated with words
  • A set of nodes associated with phonemes
    o Semantics connect in multiple ways to words
    o Words connect in multiple ways to phonemes
    o Like a neural network with the multiple connections
    o Unilateral flow
    o Lemma is an intermediate stage between activating an idea and the speech sound
    o Lexicalisation is not a one stage process
227
Q

When do TOTs occur? What does this provide evidence for?

A
  • Occur when we have conceptualization but cannot find the appropriate words
    o Evidence that lexicalisation is not a one stage process
228
Q

What are the features of TOTs?

A

o Can retrieve the first phoneme of the target word, the number of syllabuses of target words, gender of target word
o Occurs most often with low-frequency words

229
Q

What are picture-word inferences and what do they provide evidence for?

A
  • Sematic relatedness slows down picture naming e.g., a picture of an apple appears with the word lemon makes it harder to name the apple
  • Phonological relatedness speeds up picture naming e.g., picture of house appears with word mouse
    o Lexicalisation is not a one stage process
230
Q

Why do we study speech errors?

A
  • Gain insights into how the complex cognitive systems involved in speech production works when it breaks
  • Understand how information flows between different mental processes during speech production
  • Understand how much planning speakers do when they speak
231
Q

What are the types of speech errors?

A
  • Semantics substitution – use a different word than intended but has the same meaning e.g., bat and racquet
  • Word-exchange – swap words round in a sentence e.g., chair and room
  • Sound-exchange – swapping sounds of words so instead of take and shower you say shake and tower
232
Q

What effects show that speech errors are not random?

A

Lexical bias effect = more likely to make errors that result in other words in your language than made up words
Mixed-error effect – more likely to say “let’s start” but not “let’s being” instead of “let’s stop”

233
Q

Which theory of speech production is the most compatible and why?

A

Spreading activation model is most compatible with the supporting evidence from TOTs, picture-word interference and speech errors that lexicalisation is not a one stage process

234
Q

What is co-articulation? What is something good and something bad about it?

A

Co-articulation = pronunciation of a phoneme by a speaker depends on the proceeding and following phonemes

  • No one-to-one relationships between acoustic signal and phonemes
  • Allows for prediction and makes perception faster
235
Q

What is the motor theory of speech perception?

A
  • Listeners perceive spoken words by reproducing the movements of the speaker’s vocal tract rather than by identifying the sound patterns that speech generates
  • The motors system is involved in both speech production and perception with a “bridge” between the two
236
Q

What evidence is there for the motor theory of speech perception?

A

o Mirror neurons
o McGurk Effect – an illusion occurs when the auditory component of one sound is paired with the visual component of another sound leading to the perception of a third sound – auditory and visual information processing is merged
o Categorical speech perception – tend to perceive phonemes as distinct categories
o Motor cortex and speech perception –
fMRI – listening to speech and imagining you are speaking activates speech motor cortex
TMS – motor TMS decreases phoneme discrimination

237
Q

What is the TRACE theory of speech perception?

A
  • Different levels in speech system corresponding to auditory features, phonemes and words – activates different potential outcomes
  • Nodes influence each other creating patterns of activation
  • Interaction of bottom-up and top-down processes
238
Q

What evidence is there for the TRACE theory of speech perception?

A

o Ganong effect – when listening to sounds ranging from /dash/ to /tash/, phonemes were assigned to words rather than non-words
o Phonemic restoration effect – will fill in missing phonemes in context of a sentence to make to sentence make sense

Psych year 1 semester 1 (5 decks)

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