Introduction to Cognitive Psychology - 1.4

Question 1

What are models?

Answer 1

Representations of structures or processes that help us visualise or explain the structure or process

Question 2

What are the two types of models?

Answer 2

• Structural models
• Proces models

Question 3

What is structural models?

Answer 3

• Representation of a physical structure.
• An example is a model of the brain or structures within the brain and their connections.
• e.g object car , airplane represents its appearence

Question 4

Example of structural models

Answer 4

• These used to illustrate the locations of different structures of the brain
• Structures can also be represented by diagrams that don’t resemble the structure itself but that instead indicate how different areas of the brain are connected

Question 5

Models purpose is to simplify

e.g Figure 1..12

Answer 5

• This model isn’t anything like the real brain and doesn’t show what is happening inside each structure and how each are connected each other
• if we really wanted our model to be exactly like the brain, we would have to represent the individual cells, called neurons, that make up the brain
• how they are connected. Besides that this would be an impossible task, it would also go against the main purpose of models, namely to simplify. Having said this, models have naturally become more complex and more detailed over time.

Question 6

How is structural models designed to represent:

Answer 6

• structures involved in specific functions.
• Such models however, do not tell you how these structures are involved in the specific functions that cognitive psychologists are interested in, no matter how detailed they are.
• Indeed, to really understand how cognitive functions operate we do need models that go beyond just considering (brain) structure

Question 7

What are process models?

Answer 7

• A model that represents the processes involved in cognition.
• Usually with arrows indicating connections between processes
• An example is the flow diagram for Broadbent’s filter model of attention.

Question 8

1st Broadbent

Example of the process model

Answer 8

• Broadbent’s filter model of attention
• In this model, the box representing the “filter” represents the process that separates the attended message from other messages. Please take note: This process is not necessarily located in one particular place in the brain, so the boxes do not represent specific brain structures!
• oxes symbolize a process that could be carried out by any number of different structures working together.

Question 9

Clearing assumption with Broadbent’s fitler model

Answer 9

Please take note: This process is not necessarily located in one particular place in the brain, so the boxes do not represent specific brain structures! Indeed, these boxes symbolize a process that could be carried out by any number of different structures working together.

Question 10

2nd Atkinson and Shiffrin

Example of the process model

Multi store model

Answer 10

• Proposed in 1960s
• Sensory memory holds incoming information for a fraction of a second and then passes selection of information to STM (limited capacity and holds info for only seconds)
• STM transfer to LTM can hold info for longer periods of time
• If you retrieve info from LTM , it trasfers to STM

Question 11

Example of STM

Answer 11

Like an address you are trying to remember until you can write it down

Question 12

Example of LTM

Answer 12

• Like memory of what you did last week

Question 13

3rd example

types of long term memory

(Tulving, 1972, 1985)

Answer 13

• Episodic memory is memory for events in your life (like what you did last weekend).
• Semantic memory is memory for facts (such as the names of famous cognitive psychologists).
• Procedural memory is memory for physical actions (such as how to ride a bike or play the piano).

Question 14

How does Broadbent suggestion on selective attention filter mechanism relate to the wider world?

Answer 14

• prevents a lot of information from reaching our awareness
• serious impact on how we should build control panels in cars and airplanes and/or how we could best design safe traffic situations.

Question 15

understanding which factors influence our decision-making process relates to wider world applications such as..

Answer 15

inform businesses and government organizations about persuasive communication strategies, health-promoting campaigns and innovative commercial techniques, like neuromarketing (Breiter et al., 2014).

Question 16

Advantage of knowing about the complexity of face recognition and memory wider world example

Answer 16

conception of strict guidelines and recommended protocols regarding eye witness testimony (Loftus, 2013;

Question 17

Links of working memory , executive functioning and intelligence

wider world example

Answer 17

led to an increased interest in developing and testing brain training programmes, for example, to slow down cognitive decline at older age, or to reduce impulsivity (fast reaction) in children with ADHD (Karbach & Verhaeghen, 2014).

Question 18

Ebbinghaus (1885/1913)

What did he demonstrate

+ what is spacing

Answer 18

, repeated presentation and reviewing of information facilitates learning and improves memory. When distributed over time (this is called spacing),

repetition of information may initially lead to slower learning but ensure more durable retention

Question 19

What is interleaving?

Answer 19

Intermixing different topics within a particular domain

Question 20

Can we start revising another topic or would this interfere and deteriorate our performance?

Answer 20

• To answer this latter question, research suggests that intermixing different topics within a particular domain (this is called interleaving) will not deteriorate but actually improve performance!
• (Roediger & Pyc, 2012; Rohrer, 2012). This increased performance has usually been attributed to the fact that interleaving requires students to practice discrimination between topics, problems, concepts or principles. In mathematics
• for example, it is important that students learn not only how to multiply fractions but also that the principle of multiplying “tops” and “bottoms” does not transfer to additions. In other words, apart from knowing how one also needs to learn when to apply certain (mathematical) principles.

Question 21

Main conclusion cognitive learning stategeries

Answer 21

• best to use spaced and interleaved practice when lasting learning is desirable. Such routines can be accomplished in general by mixing up several topics during the study and by repeatedly returning to the same topics in different contexts. .

Question 22

What is retrieval-based learning

Answer 22

From laboratory studies, it has been known for a long time that the act of retrieving information from memory might be beneficial for learning.

Question 23

Roediger and Karpicke (2006) procedure

retrieval based learning

Answer 23

• three groups of students were asked to read texts that were tested for recall a week later.
• In the first group, students were asked to read the text four times in the week before the final test (denoted as SSSS).
• The second group was asked to read the text three times and then do a practice recall test (denoted SSST).
• The final group read the text-only once and was then tested for recall three times (STTT) during the practice week.
• Then, all students received a surprise free recall test after five minutes and an expected recall test after one week.

Question 24

Results

Answer 24

• simply rereading the text (SSSS) produced superior recall performance in the immediate test after five minutes, but this performance dropped dramatically to about 40 per cent recall after one week.
• In contrast, repeated testing during practice (STTT) produced initially the lowest recall rate (around 70 per cent) but the performance of this group hardly dropped in a week’s time (to around 60 per cent).
• These results show that fast learning results in fast forgetting and that retrieval practice is very beneficial in the long run.

Question 25

Conclusion of Roediger and Karpicke (2006)

Retrieval-based learning

Answer 25

These results show that fast learning results in fast forgetting and that retrieval practice is very beneficial in the long run.

Question 26

Contributon of Roediger and Karpickle study

Answer 26

• Thus, what has been demonstrated in this and other studies is that retrieving information from memory increases the chance that the same information will be retrieved again in the near future.
• In other words, retrieving makes the remembered information more retrievable. This is a fundamental characteristic of our memory, which has been supported also at brain level by a recent brain imaging study (Keresztes, Kaiser, Kovács, & Racsmány, 2014).
• Furthermore, it needs to be appreciated that this increased retrievability comes on top of other potential benefits of continuous assessment.

Question 27

Application of retrieval-based learning

Answer 27

• For example, repeated assessment also informs teachers and students which materials need further explanation or study.
• Furthermore, it ensures that students become more used to test-taking, which will likely reduce their test anxiety.
• Indeed, Khanna (2015) showed that test-enhanced learning may occur only or primarily when participants are not anxious about the practice tests themselves.
• Moreover, she showed that students who engaged in ungraded pop quizzes during their introductory Psychology course outperformed not only those not engaged in such quizzes but also those engaged in graded pop quizzes.
• She attributed these differences to the fact that compared to students taking the graded pop quizzes, those taking the ungraded ones felt less anxious and more positive towards the quizzes

Question 28

Note taking on laptop is distracting

Answer 28

increasingly common that students take their laptops into the classroom, which often distracts attention from the contents of the lecture and the actual learning process (for example, when students use their laptops to answer their emails or to engage in online shopping).

Question 29

laptops are used for their intended function of efficient note taking, a recent laboratory study revealed that taking notes by hand led to superior performance in tests of both factual and particularly conceptual understanding

(Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014).

RESULTS

Answer 29

• laptop note takers produced more notes than the longhand note takers; and more notes means more information to review.
• comparing the contents of notes of the two groups, several qualitative differences were observed that may account for these results.
• laptop notes showed greater verbatim overlap with the lecture than the longhand notes, suggesting that students who used their laptop for note taking were just simply transcribing content without thinking about it.
• this verbatim note taking appeared remarkably robust, as it remained present when laptop users were instructed not to take such notes.

Question 30

Alice studies vision, focusing on the brain’s pulvinar nucleus, the lateral geniculate nucleus and superior colliculus. Alice most likely makes use of a(n) _____ model.

Answer 30

structural

Structural models rely on representations of physical structures such as those in the brain.

Question 31

Tulving proposed a model of memory in which long-term memory had three components: episodic memory, semantic memory, and procedural memory. Tulving proposed a(n) _____ model.

Answer 31

process

Process models represent the processes that are involved in cognitive mechanisms, with boxes usually representing specific processes and arrows indicating connections between processes.

Question 32

Compared to typing notes on a laptop, taking notes by hand has been shown to lead to better test performance mainly because

Answer 32

written notes show less verbatim overlap with the lecture than laptop notes.

Compared to typing notes on a laptop, taking notes by hand has been shown to lead to better test performance mainly because written notes show less verbatim overlap with the lecture than laptop notes.

Question 33

Parallel studies of note-taking studies

What is important while note-taking

(e.g., Smith et al., 2010)

Answer 33

• emphasizing that elaboration and active involvement with the materials is necessary for efficient learning. Thus, whether it is note taking or reading this textbook, we would like to encourage you to repeatedly ask yourself “Why?” At the end of each chapter