Cognitive Psychology Flashcards
Cognitive psychology
study of mental processes (involved in making sense of the world)
- memory
- attention
- language perception and production
- thinking and reasoning, decision making
Memory - different kinds
The retention of information over time
There are different kinds of memory
- autobiographical / episodic memory (memory of things that happened in your life)
- semantic / lexical memory (a general knowledge - lexical refers to a word)
- prospective memory (things to do in the future)
- procedural memory (procedures, motor skills or actions)
Memory can fail in many ways
Multistore model of memory
Assumes that there are different structures (memory stores) corresponding to different types of memory (duration): sensory memory, short term memory, long term memory
Original assumption of the model is basic - that storing and retrieving information involved passing information from one store to the next
Sensory memory
Preserves information briefly (.5-2 secons) in its original sensory format
- visual: iconic memory (colour, shape)
- auditory: echoic memory
- touch: tactile memory
Allows the sensory information to linger briefly after the sensory stimulation is over
Sensory memory decays rapidly, cannot be maintained by rehearsal.
short term memory
Information from sensory memory is recoded into verbal (speech) format
Information in immediate consciousness (being attended)
Duration: decays within 20-30 seconds if unrehearsed
Can be maintained longer by rehearsal (repeating to oneself)
Capacity: very limited (7 + or - 2)
Long term memory
Memory that can be retrieved after attention has been diverted
Duration: minutes to years
Capacity: unlimited
Distinction between primary memory (info held in immediate consciousness) vs secondary memory (long term memory which gets called back into primary memory) was made by William James 1890
Evidence for the distinction between short and long term memory
Serial position effect in free recall
Neuropsychological data (Patient HM)
Serial position effect
Plotting the probability of recall as a function of the position of the word in the list
Primacy effect (words at the beginning of the list)
Recency effect (words at the end of the list)
U shaped function - primacy and recency effected words are remembered well
Explanation of the serial position effect
Short term memory has a limited capacity of around 7 things
When you have a list of words 20 long - you can rehearse things in your short term memory but as more come in, they’ll drop out
As you hear the first couple of words, you get more time to rehearse them, and as you do that theyr’e more likely to be transferred to long term memory (reflecting from long term memory)
The last couple of words are still in the short term memory (reflecting from short term memory)
Different manipulations effect primacy and recency components differently
- presenting words at a faster rate (leaves recency intact but there is no longer a primacy effect - less time for rehearsal)
- but if you do a mental task after being told the list of words - it is that task which will occupy your short term memory (therefore recency component will be removed)
Neuropsychological data Patient HM
- hippocampus removed as a treatment for intractable epilepsy
- intact remote memory
- intact short term memory (engages in conversation, could maintain information as long as he kept rehearsing it)
- inability to form new memories (living in a permanent present)
- what is impaired is the mechanism that transfers information from STM to LTM
Revision to the original model: the multistore model
What has been challenged is the mechanism that makes memory durable (how long term memory is formed) and the relationship between long term and short term memory.
Piece of evidence against the mechanism of transfer from STM to LTM: Chunking
Group elements into meaningful units improves performance on short-term memory task
Short term memory is affected by meaningful information (such as CIA) in long-term memory –> this argues against strictly serial organisation from STM to LTM
Piece of evidence against the mechanism of transfer from STM to LTM: Maintenance Rehearsal? Craik and Watkins
- manipulate the amount of maintenance rehearsal by saying to remember the last word that started with P
- rehearsal opportunity is proportion to the number of non-P items following it
- the actual results weren’t proportional to the number of intervening non-p words following
- maintenance rehearsal is not effective for making memory durable
- lead to the revision of the multi-store model
- STM is now viewed as working memory, with an emphasis on processes that result in durable memoyry
Encoding processes
levels of processing
organization: schema/scenario
flashbulb memory (not)
Encoding processes: levels of processing
The idea that memory is a by-product of type of operations performed at encoding.
Memory is more durable when its processed semantically.
Physical - such as is this word in capital letters
Rhyme question - does this word rhyme with …
Semantic questions - does this word fit the sentence …
Subjects are later given unexpected test of memory
The proportion of words recalled were in the favour of words processed semantically
Encoding processes: schema/scenario
When encoding complex material, existing knowledge is used to impose organization (making use of existing knowledge)
Schema are conceptual framework about events
Flash bulb memory - doesn’t make memory more durable
Extremely vivid and permanent memory of how one learned about a public event that produced high level of emotion/arousal (e.g. where they were, what they were doing)
Idea that the emotion “fixes” memory like a flash
Idea that has a lot of popularity
But not necessarily accurate
Demonstrated by Talarico and Rubin
- asked subjects to write down a detail from an ordinary event and also how they heard about the terrorist attack
- these subjects recall was tested 1 week later, 6 weeks later and 32 weeks later
Subject’s own belief in their memory or “reliving” quality of memory remained high for flashbulb memory –> this is called ‘meta memory’
Retrieval
Not loss of information, but failure of access due to mismatch in format between retrieval and encoding context.
- recognition failure of person out of context: seeing your barista at a party
- childhood amnesia: people usually have no memories of their childhood earlier than 3.5 years of age (children don’t have developed schemas, and have reduced development of language)
Retrieval: reconstructive process / pseudo memory
Memory is not reproductive, but reconstructive
- pseudo-memory demonstration
- see elizabeth loftus’ work on implanting memory, recovered memory debate, and misinformation effect
Organic amnesia: memory impairment due to brain damage
Anterograde amnesia: impaired learning of information since onset of amnesia (vs retrograde amnesia - loss of infromation learned prior to onset)
Causes:
- surgical lesions –> patient HM, damage limited to limbic system
- head injury
- degenerative disease: caused by chronic alcoholism/vitamin B1 deficiency
- dementia of Alzheimers type
- encephalitis: patient EP and Client Wearing “30 second memory”
-vascular disorders “stroke”
Amnesia involving frontal damage
Head injury, Korsakoffs disease, aging
May show:
- source amnesia: forgetting how information was acquired: unconscious plagiarism
- confabulation “honest lying” accompanied by anosognosia (=lack of concern/insight into the deficit)
Confabulation
Patient HW
- bilateral frontal damage caused by stroke
What accounts for confabulation
- some memories pop into mind easily and are normally monitored by the prefrontal cortex, for plausibility/logical consistency
Neuroanatomy of memory
Neocortex
- storage of sensory experiences in distributed fashion (different for different senses)
Limbic system (hippocampus and thalamus)
- involved in cross referencing information (binding outputs of processing modules to temporal and spatial context of episode)
Prefrontal cortex
- strategic retrieval (reconstructive process) e.g. words had something to do with sleep
- checking consistency of retrieved material: confabulation, source amnesia, unconscious plagiourism
- metamemory: monitoring your own memory performance
Multiple memory systems within long term memory
Amnesiac patients can’t learn long term information
But they can learn perceptual motor and cognitive skills
Therefore learning of skills seems to be separate from learning of verbalized information
They show priming in implicit (indirect) memory tests
Implicit memory: priming
Identifying a degraded picture
- amnesiac patients are better at identifying it the subsequent times they are seeing
Priming with words
- given a list of words
- have an implicit memory test - i.e. completing word fragment or word stem completion
Amnesiac patients can’t retrieve the word intentionally tied to a specific memory episode - but show priming in indirect implicit test of memory - more likely to produce the item in response to the stem or fragment
Long term memory modules
Declarative memory (verbalize memory)
- Semantic memory (general knowlege)
- episodic / autobiogrpahical memory
These ^ are bound to temporal and spatial context
Procedural memory
- action, perceptual and motor skills
- amnesiacs can learn these
What is attention?
The process of focusing conscious awareness providing heightened sensitivity to a limited range of experience requiring more extensive information processing
Attention determines what we experience in the world - the stimuli around us
Allows information to reach awareness
A general model of attention
All sensory input enters a sensory memory store - early stage is characterised by automatic, preattentive processing
From there, information enters a selector (attention operates to select what information is passed on to working memory)
Once information gets to the stage in working memory, its reached awareness - characterised by conscious, attentive processing
Attention is the gate between sensory processing and awareness
Dichotic listening task
used to provide insights into the nature, consequences and limitations of attention
the subject is asked to repeat a message presented over a pair of speakers - when they are attending to one input, they have to ignore a different input
their ability to reach that targeted message - this comes at a cost, because they won’t be able to remember the unattended channel (what they ignored)
They did notice when the voice in the unattended channel changed from a male to a female voice - change in the sensory input of pitch (typically)
Filter model of attention
Information is selected based on its early sensory properties
Similar to the general model of attention described earlier
Attended and unattended message inputs both move through and are held in a sensory store
All that information from the sensory store goes through a selective filter - what goes through is based on the sensory properties of the message
This goes through to higher level processing and then to working memory
Key aspect: the selection of information is based on early sensory properties of the stimulus
Attention restricts information available for further processing - information selected based on physical characteristics
Preattentive processing
How can we tell what’s preattentive
- anne treisman did work on this
- the first few tasks were because we were experiencing visual pop out (the target is defined by a single perceptual feature - colour, orientation)
- attentive processing requires attention and is limited
- when it comes to binding features together - this requires attention (requires a conjunction search - popout can’t occur because its limited by attention)
anne treisman’s feature integration theory
certain basic features are processed quickly in parallel (preattentively)
attention serves to bind simple features together
this binding process is slow and serial
Problems with filter model
- hearing your own name will grab attention (the cocktail party phenomenon) –> example of late selection
- participants shift shadowing between ears when it makes (semantic) sense - if its more meaningful to do so
Treisman modified broadbans theory
Attention is not an absolute filter, but rather serves to attenuate the processing of the unattended channel
not determined solely by the physical aspects of the recipient
Affords a clear role for the top down information selection (our goals, meaning, etc)
Preattentive processing isn’t limited to the physical aspects of the stimulus - semantic processing can occur preattentively
Inputs –> sensory store –> attenuating filter (based on physical properties - rather than anhiliating) and then the attenuated message gets passed onto a hierarchy of analysers –> onto working memory
Early selection
attention can filter information on the basis of physical features (colour / motion)
Late selection
attention can also filter information after additional processing on the basis of meaning
The late selection theories of attention
abandon the idea of the selection filter
Deutsch
all stimuli are processed to the level of meaning
relevance determines further processing and action (whether it becomes the focus)
for this reason - late selection theories are also called response selection theories - implies that semantic processing takes place preattentively
meaning analysis is preattentive
Capcity theory of attention
Attention is a capacity/resource not a filter
Tasks that are quite demanding require attentive effort
Tasks that are simple don’t require much attention
Tasks can become automized - with practice
Stroop effect
Biased competition model of attention
Neurally-based theory
processing of relevant info is enhanced, while processing of irrelevant info is inhibited
competition can be biased by bottom-up or top-down processes
Top down vs bottom up
bottom up - stimulus properties that capture your attention
top down - goal driven selection of information
How we can guide attention?
space based (location, regions of space)
feature based (colour, orientation of a line)
change blindness
- abrupt changes (visual transients) in the visual scene typically attract attention
- but global disruptions mask the visual transient corresponding to the sought-for-change
- observer must instead search for change (must keep and compare image features in memory, limited capacity of short-term memory makes this a very difficult task)
inattentional blindness
the change occurs right in front of our eyes
- not seeing the red shape
- not seeing the gorilla
Why does inattentional blindness occur
Effect of spatial attention
- eye tracking study
- the unexpected event it too far away from the target relevant information
- the distance did have an impact, but its not the whole story –> 53% of people still didn’t notice the unexpected shape when it moved along the line they were attending
Feature based attention
- when your attention is allocated to items that share a specific feature
- not one person noticed the unexpected object if they were focusing on the black objects and the unexpected object was white
inattentional blindness
the failure to notice results from engagement of attention on other aspects of the display and not from aspects of the visual stimulus itself
tracking attention
attention can move when your eyes don’t
overt vs covert attention
direct focus when the individual has eyes directly focused on something
covert = seeing something peripherally on which you are not directly focused
spatial neglect
after damage to one hemisphere on the brain , a defifict in attention to the opposite side of space is observed
- right parietal lobe damage will cause neglect to the left side of space
