Cognitive Psychology Exam 3 Flashcards
The generation effect refers to
the memory benefit of generating information rather than simply observing it
According to the levels of processing theory, memory durability depends on the depth at which information is ___
encoded
Encoding Definition
The process of storing information into long-term memory during the learning experience
Does Repetition help with memory encoding?
No
What does the experiment with reporting all words that start with the letter D show?
There is no difference in the D words remembered regardless of how many times it was repeated (measured with amount of intervening words)
What does the penny experiment show?
You have seen pennies so many times (lots of repetition), but this did not lead to a lot of encoding!
Does having the intent to remember help you remember things? What experiment proved this?
Nope, and the EG checking/pleasantness experiment where some people where warned about the memory test
What else does the EG checking/pleasantness group show?
That depth of processing is important because pleasantness group remembered much better
Levels of Processing Theory
The deeper the stimulus is processed, the better it is encoded
Which is deepest to shallowest encoded? Structural, Phonemic, Category?
Category –> Phonemic –> Structural
___: Is the word in capital letters?
___: Does it rhyme with weight?
____: Is it a type of fish?
Structural, Phonemic, Category
Ways to establish deep processing?
- Survival
- Self-reference
- Imagery
- Understanding
- Organization
- Generation
Which experiment showed that survival is a good way to deeply encode information?
Judging list of words on survival, moving, and pleasantness
Which experiment showed that self-referance is a good way to deeply encode information?
Answering whether words describe you vs words that are commonly used
What does the fact that you remember birthdays closest to your own prove?
Self-reference helps with memory encoding
What did the laundry paragraph experiment show and prove?
Having context before aids with memory –> proves understanding information helps you encode information more deeply
What experiment shows that generating information helps with memory encoding?
Word-pair generating experiment
Three Characteristics of Levels of Processing Theory
Increased elaboration leads to better encoding
Richer network of semantic connections during encoding
More ways to retrieve information during recall
Does testing help with encoding and memory?
Yes, especially after 2 days and 1 week (not so much after 5 minutes)
How is storage/consolidation involved in learning/memory
The strengthening of information in long-term memory after the learning experience
New memories are fragile so you should study with ___
breaks between information to help information consolidate – delay condition
How do we know hippocampal replay assists learning?
Rats replay information during sleep and when we disrupt the hippocampal replay, the rats do not do as well the next day
What happens with the neocortex and hippocampus during sleep?
During wakefulness, input goes into the neocortex and then initial storage. During sleep, hippocampus replays event and puts the memory back into the neocortex
Can the mouse experiment that proves hippocampus is important for learning be generazlied to humans and how do we know?
Yes, because of the Harvard Experiment which did a similair thing. They can shorten ISIs and still get better at the task Then they stay the night in the lab, they are either given a bed and can go to sleep, or they are forced to stay awake. Three days later, we test them with the same task, and see that people who were sleep deprived on the first night, are really bad at the task and the people who slept initially were good at the task
PROVES: sleep is also involved in memory consolidation in humans
What does the Tetris Dream Experiment Show and Prove?
Shows:
- Experts: didn’t improve that much because they are already good
- Novices: improve a lot at tetris
- Amnesics: don’t improve at tetris
Proves: experience-related dreams exist but you may not need a hippocampus for that and it might not be so linked to memory
The principle of ___ states that we encode information along with its context
encoding specificity
Locations, songs, and smells highlight the importance of ____ in long term memory
retrieval cues
Memory performance is enhanced if the type of task at encoding matches the type of task at retrieval. This is called _____
transfer-appropriate processing
Retrieval Definition
The process of accessing information stored
into long-term memory
Tip-of-the-tongue effect
Tip-of tongue is associated with partial information
Based on the standard model of memory why does the tip of the tongue effect exist?
There is not enough spread of activity between nodes
What is the difference between accessibility and availability
Available = the information is stored in memory
Accessible = the information can be retrieved
Does the presentation of cues increase recall and what experiment proves this?
Yes, and the experiment with sentences like “A lampshade can be used as a hat.” It was difficult to remember all of these without a retreival cue but when given the word lampshade, people more easily remembered the word hat.
How does the tip of the tongue effect relate to retrieval cues?
If something is on the tip of your tongue, you may just need a good cue!
What exactly is a cue?
Cues are simply nodes in a memory’s network
Is the context of studying important and how do we know this?
Yes, and through the studying underwater vs on land experiment which shows that if you study and are tested in the same context, you will preform better.
Encoding Specificity Definition
Matching context between encoding and retrieval assists performance
What does the experiment with studying with noise/without noise prove?
Context is important
How does encoding specificity relate to the standard model of memory?
Memories are distributed networks of associations and context is just another set of associations.
What is a more succesful retreival cue? Rhyme or Meaning
Depends on which one was used during encoding – transfer-processing approach
Transfer-appropriate processing approach
Better performance when the type of processing matches during encoding and retrieval
Can transfer-appropriate processing approach be explained through associative networks?
No, deeper processing does not always result in better retrieval which goes against the levels of processing theory.
What is the difference between proactive interference and retroactive interference?
Proactive interference – information you learned earlier on interferes with remembering something now
Retroactive interference – information you learn later that interferes with the remembering the initial information
What does the proactive interference experiment show and prove?
People had trouble with retrieval and a possible explanation may be that there is competition during retrieval because each session may create one large network
What was the retroactive Interference experiment and results?
Have people study a list of noun pairs in multiple sessions and the first part of the list is the same for both sessions but not the second part. In the test phase, they are supposed to fill in the second word for each pair but only from the first session.
Control condition: use completely new list in session 2 and in tes condition they ask them to fill in nouns from session 1 → separating out contexts
Results: Experimental condition had MUCH worse performance due to retrieval competition
What is Constructive memory?
Memories are not a carbon copy of the past
Prone to revision and error
Does retrieval cause changes?
Can retrieval induce forgetting?
Yes, for the items that aren’t rehearsed as seen in the Grocery and Games Experiment
What is an alternative explanation for retrieval inducing forgetting?
Blocking: Practiced words occupy the ‘response channel’ (they come to mind so quickly that they block the unpracticed words)
What are the conclusions on retrieval induced forgetting?
Memories are constantly in swing
Elements can be suppressed and activated
Retrieval biases towards recent goals
What are the conclusions on Retrieval in general?
The effectiveness of retrieval depends on
what you do with information
Retrieval is error prone (interference)
Retrieval can change memories (retrieval induced forgetting
What does neuroscience say about retreival induced forgetting vs blocking?
we can see with MVPOA that, the brain
What type of memory does this refer to: A person’s knowledge, experiences, and expectations contribute to what
gets remembered?
Constructive
What is an everyday memory?
an Everyday Event
Two important considerations for autobiographical memories
Multidimensional
Some autobiographical memories are remembered better than others
What does it mean for a memory to be a multidimensional memory?
The memory includes several sensory-modalities, the memory takes place in three-dimensional space, there are thoughts and emotions associated with the memory
What makes certain events memorable?
More special events, you are either really happy or really upset about it
What autobiographical memories remain?
Memories are stronger for events that are distinct from our day-to-day experiences
and remininsce bump (early adulthood memories)
Why is there a reminiscence bump in early adulthood?
- Time of self-image formation
- Time of rapid change with new events
- Time where important cultural events occurs
How do we know emotion affects memory?
experiment with neutral, negative, and positive pictures of animals, also activity in the amygdala
Does the experiment with the animals prove that the amygdala is necessary for emotional memories to be remembered better than neutral ones?
no
What does the Amygdala Experiment with Emotional Memory show and prove?
Group 1: typical amygdala function
Group 2: impaired amygdala function
Shows: participants with normal amygdala remembered scary photos better than other photos. People with damaged amygdala couldn’t remember the scary photo better
Proves: amygdala activation is important for consolidating emotional memories
Flashbulb Memories defintion
Any memory where a person
remembers the circumstances
surrounding how they heard about the event
When do flashbulb memories typically occur?
Under Highly Emotional Circumstances
What are flashbulb memories associated with?
Overt narrative rehearsal – a person typically reports many vivid details long after the event occurred
Are flashbulb memories more accurately remembered than regular memories?
Nope
If flashbulb memories are emotional and distinctive, why aren’t they remembered more accurately
Constructive Nature of Memory
What does it mean for memory to be inherently constructive?
Affected by a person’s
knowledge, expectations, and
experiences
Remembering something may
distort or change the memory
based on new information.
What does the window words experiement show and prove?
When constructing memory, we can construct false memories such as the word window even though the word window was never actually mention just because it is semantically related to all of the other ones
What does Princess Diana’s Death say about the constructive nature of memory?
Her death was announced through the radio but people often answered that they watched it on the news because they typically find out news on tv and not over radio
Can we construct false memories and how?
Yes, memories about starting fights were induced
- Start by remembering real events
- Leading questions shaped the false
memory - Vivid imagery to give the memory more
dimensionality - Social pressure to “remember” it.
What is a source monitoring error?
Source Monitoring is the process of knowing where a memory is from
Source Monitoring Errors occur when you retrieve information but misremember where the information came from
Explain the fake name experiment
People were shown a list of fake names
Then they were asked to identify which names are of famous people with a list of real famous people, previously fake names, new fake names
Two groups: immediate group, 24 hour wait time
Results: people started remembering the previously identified fake names as famous people because it is familiar to them (especially in the delay group) → misattributing the source and committing a source monitoring error
Why does fake news work?
fake news works because even though people initially see that a source is fake, they still remember the information and forget that it was coming from a fake
How can we reduce fake news?
Present the fact that the headline is fake after the fact
Scripts definition
previous knowledge about the
typical sequence of actions in a known situation
Schema Definition
A person’s knowledge about some aspect of the environment
What is misleading post-event information?
According to this theory, misleading post-event information generates an automatic updating of memory that results in a permanent loss of the original information.
3 Implications of imperfect memory on eyewitness testimony?
- Perception and Attention
- Familiarity
- Suggestion
How does Perception and Attention affect Memory
People can’t remember an
event well if the event is not perceived
What is weapons focus?
When witnessing a crime that includes a weapon,
participants are less likely to remember information about the perpetrator because they are focused on the weapon
What is the “butcher on the bus” phenomenon
occurs when one believes that a person is familiar (often upon seeing their face in an atypical context) while failing to recall any information about that person whatsoever
Suggestion Experiment
Particiaptns watched crime and saw a lineup of suspects but participant was not in lineup
Three groups: one group had positive feedback about their choice, one had no feedback, one had negative feedback and told them their choice was wrong
Results: positive feedback was associated with more confidence in their choices by participants
How can we improve eye witness testimony?
- Inform the witness that the perpetrator may not
be in the lineup - Use fillers that look similar to the actual suspect
- Use a blind lineup administrator who does not
know who is the suspect - Have witnesses rate their confidence
immediately
Does the definitional approach to categorization work well for natural objects like birds, plants, and trees
no
Priming with a color category name (pink) would lead to fast judgements about stimuli that
are dissimilar from each other
Concept Definition
A mental representation of a class or individual. Also, the meaning of objects, events, and abstract ideas
Options for understanding what kind of thing something is
- Definition
Definitional Approach to Categorization
List of rules, with output being either TRUE or FALSE
What is the difference between something that is necessary and something that is sufficient
Necessary:
Need to be US native to become president
Need to have gas in your car to drive
Sufficient:
Earning 70% is sufficient to pass this class
Being in St. Louis is sufficient for being in the USA
How do we learn artificial concepts?
Either Incremental Learning Theory or Hypothesis Testing
Incremental Learning Theory Definition
You incrementally get better at classification
Hypothesis Testing Definition
You will always be no better than guessing, until you hit the right hypothesis.
What are the criteria for an artificial category?
Features are well-defined
no within category variability
categorization follows a rule
Natural Categories Criteria
Hard to enumerate all features
Some examples are better category members
There is family resemblance
Family Resemblance Definition
(definitions do not include all members, allows for variation within category)
3 options for how the brain determine’s an items category:
- Best Single Example
- Central Tendency
- Collections of Examples
Best Single Example Definition
when they see an object they compare it to the best example in the category
Ex. when they see a squash they compare it to an orange (best example of fruit) and broccoli (best example of broccoli) and decide which it is closer to
Prototype View
Central Tendancy Definition
take all the items in the category and compare against average of category
Compare different fruit and vegetable averages to decide which it is closer to
Prototype view
Collection of Examples Definition
– compare all objects in the category
Compare all the fruit and vegetables and see which category it is closer to with a technique called clustering and see if your object falls in the boundary of the cluster
Exemplar view
What does the experiment with the circles and prototypes show and prove?
Results: all of the instances they have seen before were classified more accurately and quickly. The new prototypes were classified even more rapidly than new instances. After a week delay, there was no loss of performance on prototypes but there was loss of performance on the instances.
PROVES: we do NOT use the best single example because these people never even saw the prototype but were really good at classifying the prototype.
What is the New Prototype Explanation?
Maintain an average for each category (prototype)
Adjust average with each new instance
During test, compare to available prototypes, and choose closest
What are the issues with the prototype explanation?
People are sometimes sensitive to the specifics of particular instances
People are sensitive to the variability of instances
What is the Examplar Explanation for what is stored?
Each exemplar is stored or forgotten
When a new case comes in, compare it to the stored examples
How would the Exampler View explain the effects from the little dots experiment?
(int terms of old vs new instance not examplars themselves)
Old instances classified more accurately and rapidly than new instances
Prototypes classified more rapidly and accurately than other new instances
No loss of performance on prototype after week delay,
but instances show forgetting
How does the Exemplar View explain the effects?
One way to categorize: average distance to all exemplars
in a category
- Looks just like prototype explanation
- Averaging during comparison, not learning
Another way: distance to closest exemplar
- Can account for issue cases
If you know a lot about a category, would you be more likely to use a prototype or an exemplar approach?
Exemplar
How does a Connectionist Network work
In an untrained network, all the ‘weights’ (associations) between nodes
are set to 1.0
Connectionist network
Next, some input is presented, and output is calculated
Then, an error or learning signal is computed:
Error signal = Desired output - Actual output
This signal tells network how it should change connection weights
(this happens slowly)
Backpropogation definition
learning signal is sent back through network
When does the connectionist network continue until?
Threshold is reached?
What does the Representation Layer show
After a lot of trials, similar items have similar concepts which shows learning and gives a graded representation
What are the strengths of the connectionist network?
Not all or none, but graded representations like the brain
can explain generalization
biologically motivated
How are concepts represented in an actual brain?
with embodied (grounded condition) Information about an object is not just
represented in any distributed way:
Representations use the same neural regions
that are activated when you experience it
(sensory information)
What does it mean for a concept to be a stimulater?
Embodied cognition proposes that concepts are programs for interacting with things
Use the banana example to explain a concept as a simulater
Concepts:
- yellow
- sweet
- fruit
Stimulate:
- motor information for peeling
- anticapation of satiation
What evidence is there for embodied cognition?
- motor word experiment and move body parts showed that neural region are used for movement and reading words that are associated with that movement –> shown through neuroimagine
What is the behavioral evidence for the embodied cognition hypothesis?
Manmade vs natural items experiment with pinching/squeezing
Results: increased response time when object does not match the pinch or squee (couch should be squeeze and penny should be pinch)
Hub and Spoke Model
A hub-and-spoke network, often called star network, has a central component that’s connected to multiple networks around it. The overall topology resembles a wheel, with a central hub connected to points along the edge of the wheel through multiple spokes.
What are the 3 types of evidence for the embodied grounded condititon?
MRI, Behaviroal, TMS
Gestalt Psychologists consider problem solving as a process involving
Reorganization or restructuring
What is the definition of a problem?
A situation in which there is an obstacle between
a present state and a goal and it is not immediately
obvious how to get around the obstacle.
What is the definition of problem solving?
The application of ideas, skills or information
to achieve a solution to a problem.
4 ways to solve problems?
- Trial and Error
- Insight
- Applying an algorithm
- Using an analogy
What is Thorndike’s Law of Effect
Responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular
situation become more likely to occur again in that
situation, and responses that produce a discomforting
effect become less likely to occur again in that situation – found this through the experiment with cats in the box
When is Trial and Error not useful?
- when there are a large number of possible actions
- many intermediate states
- ex. rubik’s cube
Definition of Insight
Sudden realization of a problem’s solution
Characteristics of Insight Problem Solving
Sudden solution, restructuring, suppressing competing wrong answers
What do the insight experiments show in terms of warmth?
in the building up group (algebra), people feel progressively more warm
but in the sudden jump group (insight) people felt less warm and then they eventually felt super warm when they got it
Three phases of Insight
- Initial search through wrong representation
- Impasse
- Restructuring
What did the dominos experiment show and prove?
restructuring with bread and butter made it the quickest
and restructuring can be external – restructured representations aids insight
What are the matchbox candle experiment and Maier’s two string tests examples of?
Functional Fixedness
What is an important aspect of insight?
suppressing irrelevant information
Definition of Algorithms
A sequence of actions used to achieve a desired outcome
Characteristics of problem solving through algorithms
Goal directedness
Sequence of operations
Cognitive operations
subgoal decompositions
Problem Space Theory
- Initial Space
- All states in between
- Goal State
What is an operator?
Operators (actions to move between states)
Heuristics Definition
Practical method to problem solving, not optimal but sufficient to reach short-term goal
What is stereotyping an example of?
Heuristics
What is Repeat-state avoidance?
Aversion to take actions that takes you back to previous state
Difference Reduction
People prefer actions that lead to the biggest similarity between current and goal state
What is a means end analysis
Set up a goal state or subgoal state
Look for difference between current state and this state
Find operator that eliminates this difference
Repeat this process until goal state is reached
What is a benefit of the means end analysis ?
Reduced risk of exponential growth of possibilities
People are most succesful at noticing an analogous relationship between problems if they focus on
Structural features
The main purpose of the checkerboard problem was to demonstrate that
the way the problem is presented can influence the ease of problem solving
The creating the object study showed that people were more likely to come up with creative uses for pre-inventive objects if they____
made the object themselves
Algorithms Definition
A sequence of actions uses to achieve a desired outcome
How do we know that the brain cares about subgoals?
There is a reward-like signal for getting closer to a subgoal but without a behavioral preferance
What does the subgoal study with the envelope and house show and prove?
The closer the subgoal, the more activity in the reward-related brain regions
PROVES: maybe brain is trying to solve problems by setting subgoals
What is the problem with our subgoal conclusion from the envelope experiment?
Maybe participants falsely assumed their overall distance decreased and it wasn’t about subgoals at all
What is the evidence for pseudoreward for subgoals?
Experiment: envelope jumped to two locations and people were asked to choose which one to go to
RESULTS: brain sets subgoals and cares about it but behaviorally humans understand that subgoals don’t actually matter even though there is still a reward-like singal
Could be used for trial and error learning
What are algorithims?
Sequence of cognitive operations
Directly aimed towards goals
Made feasible by decomposing in subgoals
What are the issues with setting subgoals?
- How do you find good subgoals?
- How do you find operators?
- How to deal with uncertainty
- What if there are multiple ways to subgoal?
Four ways in which we can solve problems
- Trial and Error
- Insight
- Applying an algorithm
- Using an analogy
How do we solve new problems?
Using prior experience
What is the structure mapping theory?
Base domain: familiar
Target domain: new
You are trying to find relationships that exist in the base domain and relate them to relationships that exist in the target domain
What are some aspects of the structure mapping theory?
You need correspondence between domains
Match relations instead of just attributes
Focus on systematicity
Carry relations over from base to target
What is the alignment of differences?
Alignable: corresponding relations
Nonalaignable: no corresponding relations
What does the castle and cancer experiment show and prove?
People with source story, were more likely to answer the target problem correctly especially with a hint.
Proves: people use structure mapping theory
Three stages of using an analogy
- Noticing the analogy
- Mapping the source problem to the target problem
- Applying the mapping
What determines a match?
- Structural Similarity
- Surface Similiarity
Structural Similarity Definition
Relationships between objects are comparable
Surface Similarity Definition
Objects are comparable
Which type of similarity hurts performance and what experiment tells us this?
Surface Similarity and Water Jug Experiment
What is Analogical Reasoning
Carrying over from a source domain to a target domain
Notice similarity, map to the target, apply the mapping
Surface and structural similarity encourage noticing
(but surface similarity can be misleading)
What is special about expertise?
- experts know more
- experts knowledge is organized differently (more focused on structural relations)
- sometimes experts spend more time analyzing problems
What is involved in creativity
Generating different potential solutions (divergent thinking)
Generating many ideas
How can we increase the chances of generating many ideas and different potential solutions?
To increase chance of being more creative, make your environment as varying and stimulating as possible
What is a positional solution to functional fixedness?
Actively work against prior associations
What does the MRI study on creativity show and prove?
Result 1: More creative uses in low-constraint condition (didn’t study word pairs)
Result 2: More activity in default network and control network in high-constraint condition (studied word pairs)
Result 3: stronger coupling between control and default network in high-constraint condition
PROVES: Creativity is an interaction between mind wandering and memory retrieval AND top down executive functioning
