Cognitive Processes Flashcards
Cognitive Psychology
branch of psychology dedicated to the study of mental processes, develop systematic understandings of them
behaviourist view of psychology
a purely objective, experimental branch of natural science which needs introspection as little as do the sciences of chem and physics
Rejected internal mental structures, describing all behaviours as complex S-R associations
Tolman’s 1948 work with rats
you can learn without reward or punishment
provided evidence in support of internal mental representations
Cognitive model
input -> cognitive processes -> output
We can use computers as a model for human information processing systems
Processing > encoding (form memory code)> storage(maintaining coded info over time) > retrieval
Mental chronometry
Compare behaviour in two tasks that differ in only one mental processes
Method of measuring the speed and organisation of mental process
(Modern) Whittled Donder’s complex process down to 3 subprocesses:
Stimulus input time
Central processing/ decision time
Motor response time
F. C. Donders
Used subtraction method to measure the speed of mental processes
choice reaction time (b-reaction)
2 or more stimuli are present and the subject must indicate which stimulus has been presented by producing one of two or more responses, a different response for each stimulus - press one button for red light and another for green light
subtraction method
Difference between simple reaction time (a-reaction) and choice reaction time (b-reaction) must represent the sum of discrimination time and motor choice time.
c-reaction
Subject is presented with 2 or more stimuli, just as in the b-reaction, but makes only a single response, to one of the stimuli, and moits that response to all others
simple reaction time (a-reaction)
press button to any light
mental chronometry is used but…
But it is clunky and it only works if tasks are carefully equated so that they are the only things different - there is also motor/prep time etc.
Sternberg paradigm
subjects memorise a short set-size and they are asked later if something (probe) was one of them - infer how people search through memory
How can people search through memory?
- People may search parallel (at the same time) or serially (one by one)
- Do they stop when they get to item (self-terminating) or keep going to check the whole set (exhaustive)
How can people search through memory?
- People may search parallel (at the same time) or serially (one by one)
- Do they stop when they get to item (self-terminating) or keep going to check the whole set (exhaustive)
Why do we have to investigate cognitive processes so indirectly?
Introspective data do not provide valid insight into the determinants of cognition
Some conscious process occur without any conscious awareness or control and therefore are not available for introspection
Cognitive heuristic
useful mental shortcuts we use to reduce cognitive load and respond quickly
problems with cognitive heuristic
can lead to systematic errors - biases
used in marketing (sunk cost fallacy, experience/authority fallacy)
Encoding
getting info in - When forming a memory code you may emphasise how it looks, how it sounds or what it means. Requires attention, conscious effort
storage
maintaining it - Keeping it stored in a long time
Storage isn’t enough to guarantee you’ll remember it, it’s the process of retrieving that counts more
retrieval
getting the memory out
Attention
focusing awareness on a narrow range of stimuli or events - CNS is ready to respond
why is attention important?
You need to pay attention for info to be processed in your mind
We have limited “attentional resources”
We can either focus on one stream
Or
Spread our attention across many streams
Early selection
some info was processed but some discarded
late selection
all info was processed but after meaning was established only certain things were processed further
Dichotic listening task
listener has headphones, two messages are played (one in each ear) and is asked to repeat (shadow) one of them - were they able to remember the story from the ear that they weren’t listening to?
Flexible locus
attention varies under the intensity of cognitive load. Heavy cognitive load you wouldn’t process small things going on but when it is light the selection is light and you would notice many things
Feature integration theory
we process features independently in a pre-attentive matter (doing this very quickly in parallel), and the role of attention (spotlight) was to bind these features together into objects (a slow and serial process)
Involuntary
stimulus is exogenous, on the outside, has captured you
Voluntary
stimulus is endogenous, it is coming from you, effortful
Goal-directed attention
I am deciding to do, I am imposing my thoughts and directing my attentions
change blindness
Our sense of “completeness” or experiencing a whole scene in one go is an illusion - can only encode if we are slowly paying attention to small parts
Sensory memory (short term)
literal copies of visual/auditory event
large capacity but very short duration
buffer for the temporary storage of info
iconic memory
see - around 200ms
visuals are a lot more to process
echoic memory
hear- 8-10s
in use all the time, piece small info together to make something meaningful
serial-position effects in short-term recall
Primary: info transferred to LTM, if a list of letters the end and starting letters will probably be recalled the best
Recency: info “dumped” from short term buffer
coding differences of STM and LTM
STM worse for phonologically confusing info
LTM worse for semantically confusing info
working memory consists of…
central executive, episodic buffer and “slave” systems
central executive
manipulating info, organising, get slave system to work, allocate attention
Slave systems
Phonological loop - memory span depends on how long it takes to repeat information eg. word, length, speech rate
Language differences in ‘digit span task’
Visuo-spatial scratch pad
Declarative memory system
Explicit
Facts
- semantic
- episodic
semantic memory
General knowledge
The meaning of things
Knowing versus remembering
episodic memory
recollections of personal experience
semantic memory is organised by…
logical hierarchical structure with interconnected nodes (meaning)
spreading activation
retrieves meaning - activation of appropriate notes and thus related nodes
spreading activation model - nodes
Certain things become quite close because there is an underlying thing tying them together (semantic-relatedness)
problems with hierarchical model
Don’t put in atypical examples because it messes up design, but we are full of atypical things
It’s too orderly
Cognitive economy probably isn’t quite right either
propositional network models
More complex, tied to linguistics
Associated with interactions
Parallel distributed processing (PDP) models
Set of interconnecting nodes (neurons) that communicate by sending activation or inhibition
Very complex pattern of associations
Attributes of things in the world
schema
generalised mental representations, or concepts, describing a class of objects, people, scenes or events
Schemas for stories
some people change stories to fit their expectations
Hard to interpret items were omitted
structure of schemas in LTM governs…
How you perceive events happening in front of you
How you encode and remember what you have experienced
The expectations you have of everything
How well you cope
why are schemas helpful?
make memory encoding more efficient
why are schemas unhelpful?
distort experiences and perception as all kinds of information is forced into a existing schema
Scripts
“Event schemas”, generalised mental representations of events in time
stereotypes
“Person schemas” are used for ease of understanding
Gender
Age
Ethnic
Occupational
nondeclaritive memory
Skills, actions, motor
Focus on procedural memory
priming
Display or mention of one concept leads to spreading activation of other related concepts
Procedural memory
implicit
Memory for how to do things
Not verbalisable, not available to conscious awareness
Learnt through gradual learning
Levels of processing and memory
is this word in capital letters (structural)? Does it rhyme with train (phonemic)? Does it fit into this sentence (semantic)?
explicit memory tasks
ask you to do a specific task, you will know that your memory is tested
E.g. free recall and recognition
Subjects explicitly told to remember items from previous list -> engage in intentional retrieval
implicit memory tasks
you will not know memory is being tested - just asked to perform a task
E.g. fragment completion, stem completion, perceptual identification.
Exposure to a word in previous taks will make you more inclined to answer with that word unintentionally (e.g. fill in the blank)
Implicit memory performance is better when…
the stimulus modality/format is the same at encoding and retrieval
Better preserved over delay
light bulb memories
What you were doing when a big event occurred (9/11, natural disaster etc.)
rehearsal of memory
Reminds yourself of it, strengthens the memory
Every time you recall a memory, you re-instantiate it
Confabulation
You have no intention to deceive, but you are unaware that you have provided incorrect information (often despite high confidence)
A ‘filling in’ of the blanks
why does confabulation occur?
Preserve self image, image control, completeness, coherence
Errors in retrieval accompanied by errors in monitoring (frontal lobe issues)
Imposed a self schema
Infantile amnesia
Don’t have a lot of memories of being very young
Often say they remember things but it is from a photo
Typically we have no mems from the first 3 years of life
Reminiscence bump
A surprisingly large number of memories coming from the years between 10-30 (especially 15-25) - not just personal memories
motivation to remember (MTR)
Raising MTR at retrieval has no effect, raising MTR at encoding greatly improves memory
Don’t leave to the last minute
Free recall task
report items from earlier study episode
Recognition task
select previously studied items from a mixture of old and new items. The actual answer is there which sparks the recall, retrieval cue. Less effort than recall test
memory in older years
memory is good throughout lifespan, but that there is less effort at encoding
neurons die across our lifespan, and myelination is reduced, affecting processing speed
Attributions (I am too old, changes how you think) change across the lifespan
Cues
recognition task provide a cue that can activate (“prime”) the memory network
but cues can prime the wrong info (mc questions)
retroactive
new material effects old material
Proactive
old material affects new material
deep processing
Ask questions - elaboration of material
Structuring material semantically
low utility processing
summarisation
highlighting/underlining
rereading
high utility processing
practice testing
distributed practice
the method of loci
memory journey, pathway of remembering things
the method of loci
memory journey, pathway of remembering things
