Cognitive Methods Flashcards
What are the 3 basic assumptions of Cognitive Psychology?
- mental processes exist
- mental processes can be studied scientifically
- humans are active participants in the act of cognition
What is the Cognitive Science Approach?
A way of systematically studying people performing tasks
What are the 2 ways we can measure mental processes?
- response times - time between stimulus and person’s response to stimulus
- accuracy
What are strengths of the Cognitive Science Approach?
- it forms a foundation for understanding human mental processes
- informs theorising in research across disciplines
- the source of most theories and tasks used by other approaches
What are weaknesses of the Cognitive Science Approach?
- task impurity issues (most tasks involve multiple cognitive processes)
- ecological validity
- lab-based measures
- paradigm specificity (findings for one task don’t always generalise to other tasks)
What is the Information Processing Approach?
The idea that mental processes are understood as a sequence of independent processing stages
- consists of bottom-up or top-down processing and serial or parallel processing
What is a metatheory?
A set of assumptions and guiding principles to generate research questions
- where to start?
- what to look for?
- what to be aware of?
What are the 7 themes / areas of cognition?
- bottom-up or top-down processing
- attention
- representation
- implicit vs explicit memory
- metacognition
- embodiment
- the brain
What is representation?
A hypothetical entity which stands for a perception, thought or memory. It can be manipulated during cognitive operations such as retrieval or problem solving.
What is the difference between implicit and explicit memory?
Implicit - unconscious memories, remembering things without trying
Explicit - conscious memories, episodic and semantic
What is metacognition?
An awareness of our own cognitive system and how it works
What is embodiment?
The way we think and represent information is a reflection of how we interact with the world
- our interpretation of a stimulus changes the way we interact
What are the 3 stages of memory?
- Encoding
- Storage
- Retrieval
Describe the sensory stores.
- has both iconic (visual) and echoic (auditory)
- only holds info for 1-2 seconds
Describe the short-term memory store.
- limited capacity 7+-2 (Miller, 1956)
- chunking increases ability to remember
- information is lost via displacement
Describe the long-term memory store.
- unlimited capacity (Standing et al, 1970)
- information is lost via interference
Strengths of Multi-Store Model
- widely accepted that there are 3 distinct memory stores
- evidence to support short and long term memory
Weaknesses of Multi-Store Model
- oversimplified
- some people can remember more / less than others
- cannot explain implicit learning
Describe the levels of processing and the main assumptions.
- levels of processing range from shallow (physical) analysis, to deep (semantic) analysis
- the level / depth of processing effects memorability
- deeper levels of analysis produce more elaborate and stronger memory traces
Godden & Baddeley (1975)
- context dependent memory
- recall is better when learning and recall environments are the same compared to different
What are the 4 components of the Working Memory Model (Baddeley et al, 2012).
Central Executive
Visuo-spatial sketchpad
Episodic buffer
Phonological loop
Describe the central executive.
- allocates resources
- dividing attention between tasks
- interfacing with long-term memory
What are the 2 components of the phonological loop?
- phonological store (speech perception)
- articulatory loop (speech production)
What is the phonological similarity effect?
- we have poor recall for similar sounding items than dissimilar ones
- articulatory suppression prevents rehearsal
What are the 2 components of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?
- visual cache (stores info about visual form / colour)
- inner scribe (processes spatial and movement info)
Describe the episodic buffer.
- holds integrated info about episodes / events
- acts a buffer between slave systems
Describe declarative memory.
- conscious recollection
- for episodic and semantic memories
- explicit memories
Describe non-declarative memory.
- unconscious recollection
- for procedural memories
- priming happens
Is episodic memory described as reproduction or construction? Why?
- described as constructive
- we remember important details, are trivial details are omitted
- the episodic memory is prone to error (it is easy to plant false memories)
What type of memory is affected when there is damage to the hippocampus or the para-hippocampal cortex?
Hippocampus - poor episodic memory
Para-hippocampal cortex - poor semantic memory
List some causes of amnesia.
- surgery
- chronic alcohol abuse
- brain tumours
- dementia
What is retrograde amnesia?
- poor recall of memories formed before the onset of amnesia
- poorer recall of personal events than general knowledge
- temporal gradient = older memories are less impaired than newer ones
What are the 3 explanations for the temporal gradient of retrograde amnesia?
- consolidation theory = physiological process in hippocampus leads to formation of long-lasting memories
- semanticisation = episodic memories become more semantic over time (so they are protected from brain damage
- reduced learning opportunity = episodic memory relies on single learning experience so the memory is not repeated
What is anterograde amnesia?
- loss of ability to form new memories after the onset of amnesia
- caused mainly by damage to the hippocampus
What is global amnesia?
- combination of retrograde and anterograde amnesia
Who was patient HM ad why is he important?
- most studied amnesiac patient
- suffered severe epilepsy from aged 10
- underwent surgery to remove the entire temporal lobe (including the hippocampus)
- he developed moderate retrograde and severe anterograde amnesia
What is Korsakoff’s Syndrome?
- known as diencephalic amnesia
- caused by vitamin B1 deficiency from chronic alcoholism
- causes both forms of amnesia
- slight impairment of short term memory
What is semantic dementia?
- causes severe problems with semantic memory, but episodic memory remains intact
- this usually presents as a language deficit
- always involves degeneration of the anterior temporal lobe
What are the 2 reasons for foregtting?
- decay = memory fades over time, less info is available for retrieval as time passes
- interference = similar info gets in the way of memory
What are the 2 types of interference?
- retroactive = new info gets in the way of old memories
- proactive = old info gets in the way of newer info
What is the DRM paradigm?
- causes people to recall words semantically associated with words in the list, which aren’t actually there
- intrusions are prevalent when things are similar
What is the Misinformation Effect?
- memories are easily distorted by misleading information
- source misattribution occurs when memories from one source resemble those from another
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
What is confirmation bias?
- tendency to recall information in a way that confirms pre-existing beliefs
- schemas can lead us to form these expectations
Tucker & Brewer (2003)
- likely to remember infor relevent to bank robbery schemas (male, wore masks)
- less likely to remember irrelevant info (colour of getaway car)
What are the 3 biases / mistakes made during eyewitness identifictaion?
- unconscious transference = misidentify a familiar (but innocent) face as being responsible
- other-race effect = recognition for same-races are more accurate that other races
- own-age bias = more accurate recognition of witnesses similar to yourself
How does anxiety affect memory of violence?
- tunnel vision = narrowing attention to important stimuli
- weapon focus = focus on weapon rather than peripheral details
Cognitive Interview technique (COPR)
Context = mental reinstatement of environment
Order changes = harder to lie, deeper memories
Perspective changes = report from different viewpoints
Report everything
What is Gestalt Psychology?
- means ‘form’ or ‘appearance’
- concerned with perceptual organisation
- describes how we separate and link individual objects
What are the 6 guiding principles (pragnanz) of Gestalt Psychology?
- similarity
- proximity
- good continuation
- closure
- simplicity
- figure-ground segregation
What are the 3 Feature Detection Theories?
- visual search
- feature nets (bottom up and top-down)
- recognition-by-components (RBC)
What is the theory of geometric ions?
- all objects are just a combination of shapes (geometric ions)
What is the difference between recoverable and non-recoverable objects?
Recoverable = have segments of smooth edges missing, but we can still easily recognise the object
Non-recoverable = have vertices (points) missing, so can take longer to recognise objects
What are some weaknesses of recognition-by-components?
- it is tied to bottom-up processing (fails to recognise individual interpretations)
- embodied cognition (our perception of objects is influenced by our expectations of how we will interact with the object e.g. empty / full milk carton)
What is perceptual constancy?
- we perceive constant properties of object despite sensory information changing, based on past experience
What are 3 examples of perceptual constancy?
- size constancy - we can correctly perceive size even when changes in distance make them seem different
- shape constancy - we can correctly perceive shapes even when viewing angle changes
- colour constancy - we can perceive colour even when shadows / reflections distort the colour
What are the 4 depth cues?
- binocular cues - each of the eyes have a different view of the world (difference = binocular disparity)
- oculomotor cues - convergence (eyes turn to focus on object) and accommodation (lens changes shape based on object proximity
- monocular (pictorial) cues - interposition, linear perspective and texture gradients
- motion cues - motion parallax (close objects move quicker) and optic flow (close objects are bigger)
What is agnosia?
- failure to recognise objects
What are the 2 subtypes of agnosia?
- apperceptive agnosia - can perceive features individually but not as a whole to name an object, damage to posterior of right hemisphere
- associative agnosia - can combine the features to identify the object but cannot associate the features with knowledge of the object, damage to temporal and occipital of both hemispheres
What is prosopagnosia?
- poor face recognition
What is focussed (selective) attention?
- selecting one input and ignoring all others
- done by eye movements
- central point of attention falls in the central fovea
WEEK 6 - ATTENTION NETWORKS
What is focussed auditory attention?
- select sounds of interest, while ignoring others
- COCKTAIL PARTY PROBLEM -
What is cross-modal attention?
- coordinating information from 2 or more modalities simultaneously
- VENTRILOQUISM EFFECT - sound and visual are close together so brain combines them together, visual field is more dominant
- MCGURK EFFECT - the way the mouth moves tricks the brain into hearing something different
Development of cross-modal attention (Maidment et al., 2015)
- does having visual stimuli improve speech
- having both audio and visual increased accuracy of hearing
What determines how well we can perform two tasks at the same time?
- similarity between task modality (visual vs auditory)
- similarity between responses (manual vs vocal)
What is the ‘traditional approach’ to automatic processing?
- we have controlled processes (serial) and automatic processes (parallel)
What are the characteristics of CONTROLLED PROCESSES within the traditional approach of automatic processing?
- limited capacity of attention
- in depth attention
- attention can change
What are the characteristics of AUTOMATIC PROCESSING within the traditional approach of automatic processing?
- no limitation (can attend to multiple stimuli)
- do not require attention
- hard to modify once learned
What is change blindness and what causes it?
Failure to detect changes in the environment.
- not focussed on the stimulus
- representations may decay or be overwritten
- not consciously aware change is happening
- unable to compare pre and post change
- used as a defence mechanism to give us consistency
What is intentional bias and what causes it?
Failure to notice an unexpected, but fully visible item when attention is diverted (gorilla and basketball video)
- similarity of unexpected object to task-relevant stimulus
- observers available processing resources
What is spatial neglect?
- brain damage causing lack of awareness of stimuli in the opposite visual field to damage
What are the 3 aspects of problem solving?
- goal-directed (towards a desired outcome)
- conscious processing
- lack of knowledge to produce an immediate solution
What are the 4 types of problems?
- well-defined (all aspects are clearly specified)
- ill-defined (lots of components and not just one right answer to the problem)
- knowledge-rich (can only be solved with expertise)
- knowledge-lean (do not require special knowledge
How can the Gestalt approach be applied to types of thinking?
- reproductive thinking (re-use past knowledge)
- productive (restructuring of a problem using insight)
What is insight?
- eureka moment
- involves a sudden restructuring of a problem
How can we facilitate insight?
- provide hints
- incubation (time away from the problem to think)
- change the problem representation (constraint relaxation, re-encoding, elaboration)
What is functional fixedness?
- mistakenly assuming that a given object has a limited number of uses
What are cognitive misers?
Someone who finds the quickest and easiest way to get to a goal state
What is analogical problem solving?
- solving problems using analogies, relate a current problem to a past experience
What are the 3 types of similarities between problems?
- superficial - solution-irrelevant details are common in both problems
- structural - some relationship between main components of two different problems
- procedural - the process of completing a problem is similar
Provide an example of how expertise causes modifications in the brain.
McGuire’s Taxi Drivers = go through ‘The Knowledge’ which is found to increase grey matter in the hippocampus
What is inductive reasoning?
- making broad generalisations from specific observations
- hypotheses may not be true as we can’t prove all further experiments will find the same results
What is deductive reasoning?
- a specific, logical conclusion from general statements
- follows ‘first premise (P1), second premise (P2), inference’
What is conditional deductive reasoning?
- reasoning with if
- logical operators are included in the premise
What is syllogistic deductive reasoning?
- 2 premises followed by a conclusion
- premises and conclusions contain quantifiers
What type of bias occurs in syllogistic reasoning and why?
Belief bias - we are more likely to accept invalid conclusions if they are believable
What is the Mental Model Theory of logical-based reasoning?
- assumptions and conclusions are made based on a mental picture we build
What is a limitation of the Mental Model Theory of logical-based reasoning?
- does not describe how we decide which information to include in a mental model
What is the dual-systems theory of logical-based reasoning?
- it is a heuristic-analytic theory
- one mental model is considered at a time
- the most relevant based on prior knowledge is picked
- it is evaluated by the analytic system
What are some limitations of dual-systems theory of logical-based reasoning?
- no evidence that the heuristic and analytic systems are separate
- assumes all analytical processing is conscious
What is informal reasoning?
- everyday reasoning
- it is based on own knowledge and experience
- has little to do with formal logic
What are the 4 important aspects of informal reasoning?
- Content (plausibility)
- Context (expert vs non-expert)
- Probabilities (how possible is it to be true?)
- Motivation (for supporting our viewpoint)
Example of Content in informal reasoning.
- either a good or bad explanation of phenomena
- rated how satisfied they were with the explanations
- some explanations were accompanied with neuroscientific findings
- even the bad explanations was rated highly when backed up by science
Example of Probabilities in informal reasoning.
- 3 factors that influence the perceived strength of a conclusion
1. degree of previous belief
2. positive arguments have more impact than negative ones
3. strength of the evidence
Example of Motivation in informal reasoning.
- myside bias = our belief can override actual evidence presented
How do we interpret and respond to sentences when READING?
- words are seen as a whole
- low ambiguity
- rarely distracted by other stimuli
- low cognitive demands
- punctuation is the main cue in understanding meaning
How do we interpret and respond to sentences when PERCEIVING SPEECH?
- words are spread out over time (so hard to predict meaning as someone talks)
- high ambiguity
- high cognitive demands
- lots of distracting stimuli
- prosodic cues are used for understanding
What is orthography? What are graphemes?
- word spelling
- letters
What is phonology? What are phonemes?
- word sounds
- sounds making up a word
What are semantics?
- word meanings
What is syntax?
- sentence structure
How is the naming task used to study reading?
- links orthography (spelling) and phonology (sounds)
- measures reaction time to say a word out loud
How is the lexical decision task used to study reading?
- links orthography (spelling) and semantics (meaning)
- rapidly decide whether a string of random letters are a real word or not
How is the prime words task used to study reading?
- priming words (similar to target word in spelling, sound or meaning) cause faster understanding
Explain the cultural differences in reading.
- english children learn to read more slowly than other languages because english is made up of lots of words where the spelling and sound don’t match
What is the Weak Phonological Model?
- we don’t process the sounds of words when reading
What is the Strong Phonological Model? 3 examples of evidence for this model.
- phonological processing is essential for word identification
- homophone errors
- phonological neighbours
- phonological priming
How does making homophone errors suggest phonological processing?
homophones = words with 1 pronunciation but 2 spellings / meanings
- more errors are made when words are a homophone
How does phonological neighbours suggest phonological processing?
phonological neighbours = words that differ by one phoneme (sound)
- we look at words with lots of neighbours for shorter amounts of time
How does phonological priming suggest phonological processing?
primed with a random non-word or a non-word that is phonologically identical
- phonologically identical word will be processed faster because the words sound the same
What is the interactive activation model?
- word level
- letter level
- feature level
- written word
What 2 things can the interactive activation model account for?
- word superiority effect = because we know certain letters make certain words, we can easily identify if a letter is missing and where it needs to be
- orthographic neighbours = the less orthographic neighbours, the more quickly and easily you can identify a word
What is a limitation of the interactive activation model?
- too much importance attached to letter order
- letter order is irrelevant as long as first and last letters are in the right place
What are 2 possible explanations for semantic priming?
- priming automatically activates related words due to learning experience
- we expect to see a semantically similar word after the prime
What are the 2 major approaches to reading aloud?
- dual-route model
- connectionist triangle model
What is the dual-route model?
- two routes between printed word and speech
- serial processing
What is the connectionist triangle model?
- based on highly interactive nature between orthography, phonology and semantics
- semantics play greater role in reading aloud
What are the 3 types of dyslexia?
- surface dyslexia
- phonological dyslexia
- deep dyslexia
What is surface dyselxia?
- difficulties reading irregular words
What is phonological dyslexia?
- difficulties reading words and non-words (pseudowords)
What is deep dyslexia?
- difficulties reading words and non-words (pseudowords)
- also make semantic errors
What are the 4 stages of speech perception?
- select signal of interest and ignore irrelevant inputs
- extract phonemes to construct words
- word identification
- comprehension and interpretation
List 3 adverse conditions that decrease illegibility of speech when listening?
- pronunciation of phonemes = accents, dialect, speech rate
- energetic masking = target speaker is degraded (drowned out by other speakers)
- informational masking = effect of cognitive load
What is coarticulation?
- pronunciation of phonemes depend on preceding or following phonemes
- some phonemes at the end of one word flow into the next
What are the 2 main levels of sentence comprehension analysis?
- syntactical structure = PARSING
- sentence meaning = PRAGMATICS
What are the 4 possibilities of when different types of analysis is used in parsing?
- syntactic analysis before semantic analysis
- semantic analysis before syntactic analysis
- syntactic and semantic analysis occur at the same time
- syntax and semantics are closely related
What does it mean if a sentence has ambiguity at a global level?
- a whole sentence can have 2 or more meanings depending on how we read it
What does it mean if a sentence has ambiguity at a local level?
- various meanings possible at a certain point in a sentence depending on where we put stress / pauses (parsing)
List 5 prosodic cues.
- stress or accent
- pauses
- intonation
- rhythm
- word duration
What are the 2 models of parsing?
- Garden path model = 2-stage, serial
- Constraint-based model = 1 stage, parallel
Describe the Garden Path Model.
- misleading content at the start of a sentence leads to incorrect interpretation of the rest of the sentence
- this leads to the sentence no making sense
- so we must retrace mental footsteps to come to an understandable conclusion
What are the assumptions of the Garden Path Model?
- one syntactical structure is considered
- semantics are not initially involved
- simplest syntactical structure is chosen using minimal attachment and late closure
What is minimal attachment?
involved in the garden path model
- our brain prefers grammatical structure with the fewest modes (nouns/verbs) possible
What is late closure?
involved in the garden path model
- when new words are encountered, we try to join them to known phrases, but sometimes this doesn’t make grammatical sense
List some strengths of the Garden Path Model.
- provides a simple account of how parsing occurs
- use of principles reduced processing demands
List some limitations of the Garden Path Model.
- assumes we do not try to understand meaning (which is contradictory to some evidence)
- there is no definitive test to see if this is actually what is happening
- doesn’t account for languages that use early closure
What are the assumptions of the Constraint-Based Model?
- all information can be parsed
- analysis happens all at the same time so we find the most simple meaning
List some strengths of the constraint-based model.
- efficient = uses all relevant information from the onset
- accounts for more than one syntactic analysis at a time
List a weakness of the constraint-based model.
- fails to make precise predictions about when parsing happens
What is the name of the model that combines the Garden Path Model and the Constraint-Based Model?
Unrestricted Race Model
What is pragmatics? Give examples.
The study of intended (not literal) meaning
- metaphors
- irony
- idioms
What are the 2 models of understanding metaphorical statements?
- Standard pragmatic model
- Prediction model
Describe the Standard Pragmatic Model of understanding metaphors.
- literal meaning accessed
- does it make literal sense
- if not, search for a suitable non-literal meaning
- metaphorical meaning is understood slower than literal meanings
Describe the Prediction Model of understanding metaphors.
- latent semantic analysis = meaning of words depends on the context of surrounding words
- construction-integration = interpretation relies on information from latent semantic analysis
What is egocentric heuristic?
- interpretation based on our own knowledge, rather than shared with others
- causes misunderstandings as there is not common understanding between speaker and listener
What are the 3 types of inferences?
- logical = applying own meaning to words
- bridging (backwards) = applying new info based previous info
- elaborative = embellish and add details using knowledge to expand the info
What are causal inferences?
- form of bridging inference
- decipher causal relationship between 2 sentences
- bonding = automatic linking of words
- resolution = interpretation must be consistent with the contextual info
Describe the Schema Theory of inferences (Bransford & Johnson, 1972)
- schemas reduce cognitive load
- relate information just read to relevant knowledge from LTM (in the form of schemas)
- passages of text without titles are incomprehensible and not well remembered
List some strengths of the Schema Theory of inferences.
- schematic knowledge helps with comprehension
- model accounts for errors and distortions
List some weaknesses of the Schema Theory of inferences.
- schema theories are hard to test
- we don’t know at what stage schemas are used
- exaggerates how error prone we are
What are some effects of intoxication on speech production?
- impairs attention, memory and reasoning
- produces dysfluencies (stuttering / stammering)
- slower speech
- reduction in creativity
What are the 2 levels of speech planning?
- clause level = part of a sentence containing a subject and verb
- phrase level = a group of words expressing a single idea
What is a word exchange error? Give an example.
Switched words suggest speech planning extends over entire clause
- my chair seems empty without my room
What is a sound (phoneme) exchange error? Give an example.
Switched letters suggests words are planned shortly in advance
- Bedbugs —> Budbegs
What is a spoonerism error? Give an example.
Initial letters of 2 words are switched
- go and SHake a Tower —> go and Take a SHower
What is a semantic substitution error? Give an example.
Words are replaced with another of a similar semantic meaning
- where is my cricket BAT? —> where is my cricket RACKET?
What is a morpheme exchange error? Give an example.
Inflexions / suffixes are attached to words wrong
- He has already TRUNked two PACks
What is a number agreement error? GIve an example.
Mistakes surrounding singular or plural nouns
- the team HAS won the match —> the team HAVE won the match
What is Broca’s Aphasia?
- slow, non-fluent aphasia
- lack ability to make grammatically correct sentences
- comprehension intact
- problems with speech production
What is Wernicke’s Aphasia?
- fluent aphasia
- speech intact
- speech lacks meaning
- problems with speech comprehension
What is anomia?
- impaired ability to name everyday objects
- experienced by all aphasiacs
- comprehension intact but cannot identify the name of the object they are describing
- problems at phonological level
What is agrammatism?
- difficulties producing grammatically correct sentences
- remove function words (the, and, in)
- short sentences with only content words
problems at lexical level
What is jargon aphasia?
- speech is grammatically correct but have difficulties accessing correct words
- substitute one word for another (sometimes made up words)
- problems at phonological level
What are the 4 elements of audience design that are affected or affect common ground within language production?
- syntactic priming
- gestures
- prosodic cues
- discourse markers
What is syntactic priming?
- speaker copies words or phrases heard by the other person
What are discourse markers?
- words / phrases not directly relevant to the message
- happens when deciding what to say (umm, er)
- happens when checking understanding (…you know?)
