Lecture 8: Thinking Flashcards
What was Paivio’s 1963 discovery about paired-associate learning?
Concrete pairs were better remembered than abstract pairs because it is easier to create mental images of concrete pairs than abstract pairs.
What did Shepard & Meltzer study in 1971?
- looked at the reaction times for same and different 3D abstract shapes.
- When the shapes were the same, reaction time was longer the greater the rotational distance.
- It was almost like participants were mentally turning one shape to match the other.
What does data from Shepard & Meltzer (1971) and Kosslyn et al. (1978) tell us?
It suggests that the way we mentally perceive is like the way we visually perceive.
-Representations are both spatial and strict analogical.
What was Pylyshyn’s (1973) contradiction to the idea that representations are spatial and strict analogical?
- Just because data looks like a spatial effect doesn’t mean the representation is spatial.
- Considers the influence of proportional representation and tacit knowledge.
What does Lenient Analogical mean?
- Spatial information about the outside world is represented in a spatial way.
- Preserves relative relationships between positions.
- e.g. London Underground map shows locations relative to whether they are N, E, S or W of each other but does not accurately display distance.
What does Strict Analogical mean?
- Spatial information about the outside world is represented in a spatial way.
- Preserves the relative and absolute relationships between positions.
- e.g. London Underground overground map shows locations relative to whether they are N, E, S or W of each other AND shows distance.
What are proportional representations?
- can be used to code spatial relationships without being analogical.
- symbolic relationships between words suffice.
- information can be stored linguistically.
What are proportional networks?
- mimic spatial relationships between portions of an image again without necessarily being analogical.
- the reaction time data are essentially the same.
What is tacit knowledge?
- Not something to be overlooked.
- We mimic internally the processes that we know happen externally when we really do look at something.
- e.g. Further away takes longer, heavier takes longer to lift.
What are the three levels of entry?
(Tanaka & Taylor, 1991)
Superordinate (expert level)
Basic Level
Subordinate
What did Collins & Quillian (1969) identify as another aspect of these semantic networks?
They preserve cognitive economy in terms of the kinds of information held at each level of the model.
- Superordinate (Animal: has skin, can move around, eats, breathes)
- Basic Level (Bird: has wings, can fly, has feathers)
- Subordinate (Canary: can sing, is yellow)
What is problematic about the relationship between levels of entry and reaction time?
-sometimes, the more levels, the shorter the reaction time.
What is a solution to the problem of the relationship between levels of entry and reaction time and what is problematic about this solution?
- Maybe by adjusting the distance between these categories and properties, we can recreate the deviations in reaction time.
- Yet this is an example of Ad-Hoc Immunisation and questions the theory’s falsifiability.
What is the availability heuristic?
- easily remembered examples are judged to be more probable than harder to remember example.
- primacy dominates.
(e. g. words experiment)
What is the representative heuristic?
- can mislead as a result of the use of stereotypes.
- often linked to a failure to take into account BASE RATE information.
(e. g. Robert is a librarian)
What is the conjunctive fallacy?
- incorrect calculation that the combination of two events can be more likely than either event occurring alone.
(e. g. Roger is 35 and a vegetarian)
What is anchoring and adjustment?
-we use available numerical information as starting points without compensation.
