Cognitive Psychology Flashcards
What is capacity?
The size of the store (the amount it can hold)
What is duration ?
how long information stays in the store
What is mode of representation?
(Mode of storage) the form in which information is encoded or stored
What is encoding?
How memories are encoded (how are they registered) eg a smell/sound etc.
What is storage?
How memories are stored (how and where do we keep them)
What is retrieval?
How we retrieve memories when output is needed (how we access memories)
How long does the sensory register hold memories?
It cannot hold information for long, typically for a few hundred milliseconds
What is the primary effect?
Information learned first will be remembered (it is rehearsed and goes to the LTM)
What is the recency effect?
Information learned last will be remembered (still in rehearsal loop in STM)
What happens to information in the middle?
It is most likely to be lost because it is not rehearsed and therefore displaced by new info and forgotten
Why cant displacement alone describe forgetting?
As decay must be considered
Describe some of the history of cognitive psychology
- following ww2 there was a greater need of understanding of human performance eg how to best train soldiers to use technology
- this led to study of attention ; integrating concepts of human performance research and recently developed information process approach
- In 1956 Newell and Simon introduced the concept of artificial intelligence (AI). The result was more of a framework but integrated ideas like memory, storage and retrieval
- in 1956 Noam Chomsky presented his theory on language development and the same year Miller proposed the magic number seven in short term memory
- in 1967, the term cognitive psychology was introduced by Neisser in his book. His definition of cognition refers to all the processes by which sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered and used.
What is cognitive psychology?
he study of cognitive processes in the human brain. This includes the mental processes of perception, memory, attention, language and problem solving
What does the brain processing information in a linear fashion mean?
that the information flows through the brain seems logical
What’s the basic idea that the information is taken in through the senses …
And then it is encoded in the brain, which means it is translated into a manageable form. It is then stored and can be retrieved as necessary
What’s neuropsychology?
Cognitive psychologists investigating these mental processes is by studying people with cognitive impairments
It considers how damage impacts on ability and also uses brain imaging techniques and uses experiments to gather information
What’s the computer analogy?
Describes the brain like a storage system that receives information from the environment, processes it and provides an output
Memory is now seen like more of a process than a …
Storage system
What are the three stages of memory?
- Encoding - this refers to how we put information into our memory, do w remember things by how they sound how they look or what they mean
- Storage - this simply refers to how we keep the information in our memory, do we keep it in the short term or long term memory stores
- Retrieval - this refers to how we access our memories, so when we need to remember events and memories, how we bring those memories back to the fore front of our minds help us recall the information we need
Explain the multi store model of memory
Information is encoded, which is the early part of the process and then it is stored such as in short erm and long term memory. When a memory is needed, there is retrieval and without that there would be forgetting. The capacity of a store is its size and the duration is how long term memory lasts in that store. Finally there is focus on the mode of representation which is the form in which information is stored
What does the Multi Store Model show?
Memory is composed of three parts, sensory memory, short term memory, and long term memory and information is stored in these parts depending on how it is cognitively processed (attention, rehearsal, encoded)
What is encoding in the MSM w examples?
How is the information put into the memory and remembered, this is different for STM and LTM
STM - acoustic
LTM - semantic
MSM detailed process
Information from the environment first enters sensory memory, where it is store for a very brief period of time.
Depending on coding and rehearsal determines the fate of this information. If we do not pay attention to it, it is lost and decays and if we do pay attention to it, it is passed onto the STM
In order for it to be passed onto the long term memory, we must rehearse the information. This means repeating the info over and over again, if the information isn’t rehearsed; it is forgotten.
Maintenance rehearsal is a key process as it keeps information in the STM but it also is responsible for transferring it to the LTM
Also if short term memory becomes too full, information is lost via displacement (this means the storage reaches full capacity and can’t be take more items and so they aren’t attended to)
Once in the long term memory, the only ways the information is lost is through the lack of use (decay or interference (confusing information)
What is iconic memory?
This is visual sensory memory.
This holds visual sensory memory. This holds visual information for brief periods of time, around 1.5 seconds. It enables us the focus on visual field long enough to choose or find the object, scene we are interested in
What is echoic memory?
This is a brief memory for sound. It lasts around 2 seconds. Every word or second you hear is held here and then forgotten. It enables us to follow the meaning of the spoken sentence without actually remembering each individual word
Whats the modality specific?
We encode information into a more manageable form for our brain to handle in order to store the memory. However, sometimes the information remains as it is and doesnt need to be changed.
What is encoding within each part of the MSM?
(Process of moving information into or LTM)
SR: input of information into the memory system
STM: mostly via acoustic
LTM: takes a few minutes
What is the duration within each part of the MSM?
SR: up to 2 seconds
STM: up to 30 seconds
LTM: unlimited
What is capacity within each stage of the MSM?
SR: Unlimited in all information goes here first, however very limited in only small amounts of information are attended to
STM: 7+-2 (5-9) chunks or items of information
LTM: unlimited
What is mode of representation within each part of the MSM?
SR: Modality specific (information is in the same form as received eg from eyes is visual and from ears is auditory)
STM: auditory (by sound)
LTM: semantic (relies on meaning) can also be visual or acoustic
What is the case of Clive Herring?
He is unable to remember most of his past / unable to make new memories (he is the most extreme case of chronic amnesia every recorded) He only recognises his wife and remembers how to speak/ get dressed/ pay the piano
This means his episodic memory is deeply affected but procedures memory is still intact
What is memory?
Learning that has persisted over time - information that has been stored and, in many cases can be recalled
What are the three ways in which our memory is collected?
Recall, recognition, relearning
What is the definition of recall?
A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information that they learned earlier
What is recognition ?
I.e. multiple choice.
A measure of memory in which the person only needs to identify items previously learned
What is relearning?
A measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material again
What is explicit memory?
Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare
What is implicit memory?
Retention independent of conscious recollection
What is automatic processing?
Non-conscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time and frequency and of well-learned information such as word meanings (eg to not put your hand in the fire)
What is procedural memory?
Refers to how we remember to do things eg riding a bike/ reading
What strategies can you use to remember things?
Mnemonics and chunking
What is shallow processing ?
Encoding information on basic auditory or visual levels, based on the sound, structure or appearance of a word
What is deep processing?
Encodes semantically, based on actual meaning associated with the word (to make it stick you can connect it to something meaningful or related to your own personal, emotional experience)
What are retrieval cues?
Conserve as cues that help you retrieve a particular memory. The more cues you build up, the better you can remember a particular memory
What is priming?
Activating associations non-consciously
Some memories are context dependant, whilst others are…
State dependant or mood congruent (which means that our states and emotions can also serve as retrieval cues)
Sometimes cues might not always be mood/location but…
The order in which we receive information
What is the serial position effect?
Our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list (middle words don’t benefit from either effect)
What is the primary effect?
Remembered better as it was first
What is the recency effect?
Remembered better as it was more recent
What are the different ways in which we forget information?
- we fail to encode it
- we fail to retrieve it
- we experience storage decay
(What we fail to notice, we end not to encode and thus dont remember it)
What can encoded memories still experience?
Storage decay / gradual forgetting over time
What is retrieval failure?
DOESNT mean we’ve forgotten absolutely everything, we just cant call it up on command (tip of the tongue), then retrieval cues help
What can interference from other memories do?
Cause retrieval problems
What is proactive interference?
The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information (old password remembered instead of new one)
What is retroactive interference?
The disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information
What is the misinformation effect?
Incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event
What is memory misattribution?
Forgetting or misrecalling the source of a memory
Why cant you be sure if a memory is real?
Because it is a reproduction and reconstruction of past events
