Cognitive Psychology Flashcards
What does the Sensory memory deal with?
- visual and auditory information that passes through our senses quickly
- doesn’t last long, spontaneous decay
What are the 3 processes of memory?
- Encoding 2. Storage 3. Retrieval
Who proposed the Multi-store model of memory?
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
What are the parts of the multi-store model?
stimulus from environment - sensory register - short term store - long term store
Explain the sensory register.
- Sperling (1960)
- iconic store = visual
- echoic store = sound/acoustic
- duration less than half a second
- high capacity- unable to measure
- encoded- attention = into further memory system
Explain the short term memory store.
- capacity Miller’s magic number 7(+-)2
- Baddeley: encoded acoustically
- Peterson: between 18 & 30 secs
- maintenance rehearsal = into long term memory
Explain the long term memory store.
potentially permanent
- unlimited capacity
- Baddeley: encoding is semantic
- lifetime duration (Bahrick et al)
Who studied duration of short term memory?
Peterson and Peterson
What is an issue with the Multi-Store Memory model?
- too simplistic
- more stores within stores
- E.g. KF case study: visual ok but verbal not
Who proposed the working memory model and when?
Baddeley and Hitch in 1974
What is the overview of the working memory model?
-central control system assisted by 3 ‘slave’ subsystems
What is the central executive and give the duration, capacity and encoding of it?
- attentional process that focuses, divides and switches our limited attention
- monitors incoming data, allocates to sub-systems
- very limited capacity
- no storage
What is the phonological loop?
- deals with auditory information
- acoustic encoding
- preserves order of info
- phonological store (holds info in speech form for 2 secs) and articulatory process (rehearse info)
Who studied word length effect?
Baddeley, Thompson & Buchanan
What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad?
- temporarily store visual and spatial info
- limited capacity, Baddeley: 3/4 objects
- Logie: visual cache (stores visual data), inner scribe (rehearse info)
What is the episodic buffer?
-added in 2000 -temporary -maintains time sequencing -limited capacity of 4 chunks (Baddeley) -combines info from other subsystems with LT memory -links to wider cognitive processes
What are strengths of the Working Memory model?
-support from lab experiments -dual task performance studies (Baddeley) -visual & verbal tasks = performance same as seperate -2 visual tasks = performance declined -tasks competing for same subsystems
What are opposing arguments of the Working Memory model?
lack of clarity over the central executive -most important but least understood (Baddeley) -contains separate subsystems -working memory model not fully explained
What is a differing theory for the working memory model?
Multi-store model
What is an application of the Working Memory model?
understanding amnesia -Patient KF: amnesia after brain injury, poor STM auditory, good visual, phonological loop damaged but visuo-spacial sketchpad intact -amnesia not a global disorder that affects everyone in the same way
Who studied long term memory?
Tulving
What are the 3 parts of the long term memory?
Episodic -Procedural -semantic
What is the episodic memory?
information about events we have personally experienced -times, places, associated emotions -unique to the individual
What is the semantic memory?
stores knowledge of the world -facts, languages, meaning of words, symbols -general
What is the procedural memory?
remembering how to do things without consciously thinking -instant recall
Evaluate Long Term Memory?
-STRENGTH: HM case study, episodic severely affected, semantic intact, supports different memory stores -OPPOSING ARGUMENT: unable to test memory before damage, lack of control affects validity, not representative (each case is different) -DIFFERING THEOR
What is the reconstructive memory?
unconsciously filling in the gaps in your memory with schemas
Who proposed the reconstructive memory model?
Bartlett
What are schemas?
organized packages of info that stores our knowledge about the world -each mental schema contains the stereotypes & experiences we have acquired during out lives
What is reconstruction?
active process that automatically fills gaps in memory using mental schemas -a memory that is retrieved is unlikely to be the exact same as the original
Who tested reconstructive memory?
Loftus
What was Loftus’ study of reconstructive memory?
-car crash clips experiment -investigation into how information provided to a witness may influence their recall of the event -5 groups: different verbs used to describe event -verb used affected interpretation
What is a strength of the reconstructive memory?
-research is more realistic -‘artificial’ as we rarely use memory for this type of thing
What is an opposing argument of the reconstructive memory?
not completely controlled, lacked objectivity -instructions not standardized, ppts experiences not consistent, hard to compare -evidence underlying reconstructive memory lacks reliability and validity
What is a differing theory of the reconstructive memory?
some memories accurate -wrong to suggest that all are inaccurate or affected by schemas -other studies found memory can be accurate (memories of personal importance)
What is an application for the reconstructive memory?
-useful to explain problems with witness testimony -don’t always recall accurately (Loftus) -no convictions now based on eye witness testimony alone, not trustworthy enough
What is the cognitive contemporary study?
Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil
What were aims of Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil’s study?
investigate development of phonological loop -using verbal digit span as measure of capacity -compare Spanish schoolchildren with anglo-saxton elderly adults and dementia patients
What was the procedure of Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil’s study?
-IV: year of schooling -575 children from various schools aged 5-17 years -no cognitive disorders or impairments -sequence of random digits that increase in length, read aloud to ppt -practice at start -digit span = longest sequence child could recall 2/3
What were the findings of Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil’s study?
-increase in digit span with age -significant increase to 11, rate then slowed to 17 -previously studied patients with dementia = similar digit span to 5/6 year olds
What were the conclusions of Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil’s study?
digit span increases with age up to adolescence -avg digit span lower for Spanish children word length effect - Spanish number words longer -capacity of phonological loop component is affected more by age than dementia
Evaluate the validity of Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil’s study?
control of variables -several standardized procedures -digits read aloud at constant rate for all ppts -reasonable degree of internal validity but -children not directly tested for underlying impairments, relied on parents, may have undermined validity of study
Evaluate the reliability of Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil’s study?
-small sample size in comparison study (only 9 ppts) -results found may not actually exist (type 1 error) -study may not have enough statistical power to reject null hypothesis -conclusions are questionable
Evaluate the application of Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil’s study?
understanding cognitive abilities -longer digit span = better readers and higher general intelligence -short digit span linked to learning disorders -digit span can explain crucial real life cognitive skills
Evaluate generalisibility of Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil’s study?
-digit span linked to culture -due to structural differences between languages -can’t generalize results to all cultures
What was the aim of our practical?
to investigate whether people’s recall of acoustically similar words is better than acoustically dissimilar words
what was the experimental hypothesis of our practical?
participants will recall more acoustically dissimilar sounding words than acoustically similar sounding words from a list of 10 words
what was the procedure of our practical?
-independent groups design -15 ppts split into 8 and 7 (alevel psychologists) -condition A: similar sounding words -condition B: dissimilar sounding words -10 words for 3 secs each then 1 min to recall
what were the conclusions of our practical?
-not a significant difference, accept null hypothesis -observed value of U should be <6 to accept results whereas ours was 12
what is the key question in cognitive psychology?
How can psychologists’ understanding of memory help patients with dementia?
Outline Dementia (P1)
-cronic or persistent disorder of mental processes -caused by brain disease or injury -memory disorders, personality changes and impaired reasoning -850,000 people in UK currently affected -set to rise to 1 mill by 2025 -many people don’t notice until adv
Outline the 3 points used in paragraph 2 of a dementia key question essay.
-1: most common cause is Alzheimers, symptoms = memory loss, confusion even in familiar environments, issues with reasoning + thinking. Live in the past, within themselves -2: worsens overtime, recent events forgotten earlier, ‘pockets of memory’ triggere
Apply the episodic memory model to the key question
-more recent lost first -memories from youth or childhood often always kept -explain how they ‘live in the past’ -avoid distress by correcting or contradicting them
Apply the multi-store memory model to the key question
-new info isn’t correctly coded, doesn’t reach LTM -explains why sufferers say things that don’t make sense or struggle to remember the correct word to use -asking more specific questions (not general)
Apply the working memory model to the key question
explains why dual-tasking would be hard and should be avoided -competition between components = confusion -reduce background noise to increase focus on required task
Apply the reconstructive memory model to the key question
explains confusion in familiar environments -patients struggle to retrieve correct schema -helpful to use cues which trigger correct schema
Which 3 case studies are used in cognitive psychology?
HM (Henry Molaison) -KF -CW (Clive Wearing)
Outline the case of Henry Molaison
-severe epilepsy -surgeon removed 2/3 tissue from hippocampus -cured but unable to form new episodic memories -able to learn new motor skills so could form procedural memories
What does the case of HM show us?
-STM and LTM are seperate (MSM) -3 types of LTM - semantic, episodic, procedural - episodic coded using hippocampus but procedural not -MSM too simplistic -encoding + retrieval in LTM use different systems
Outline the case of KF
motorbike accident caused blood clot in brain and damage in left parietal occipital cortex -unable to repeat verbal stimuli -visually presented numbers or letters = not as difficult
What does the case of KF show us?
-STM and LTM are seperate (MSM) -at least 2 types of STM - visual and verbal, supports WMM (phonological loop & visuo-spacial sketchpad)
Outline the case of Clive Wearing
-brain infection caused damage to hippocampus and amnesia -unable to form new memories -only 30 secs memory -no memory apart from his wife -can play piano (procedural memory intact) -can learn new skills and a few facts through procedural memory
What does the case of Clive Wearing tell us?
-STM and LTM are separate (MSM) -no LTM from before, more extensive, LTM’s encoded in hippocampus but stored in cortex -3 types of LTM, MSM too simple -emotional memories also separate from episodic and can remain intact when hippocampus is damaged, linke
