P1 - Cognitive - Cognitive Processing Flashcards
Models of Memory, Schema, Thinking and Decision Making
what is cognition?
term referring to mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension
what is memory?
faculty of the brain where data or information is encoded, stored and retrieved when needed. The retention of information over time
what is thinking?
process of considering or reasoning about something
what is memory?
faculty of the brain where data or information is encoded, stored and retrieved when needed. The retention of information over time
what is decision making?
process of identifying and choosing alternatives based on the values, preferences and beliefs of the decision maker
who was the MSM created by?
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
what was the MSM based upon?
inspired by computer science
- seperate stores
- memory processes in a sequence
- each memory store operates in a single, uniform way
what are the stages of MSM
environmental input - sensory memory - attention - short term memory (maintenance rehearsal) - elaborative rehearsal - long term memory
describe sensory memory
- doesn’t process information
- echoic or iconic
capacity: limited by our perception
duration: very short, echoic 2-5s, iconic 1s
describe STM
capacity: Miller found 7+/-2 items
duration: 30s
maintenance rehearsal is needed
elaborative rehearsal is needed to transfer to LTM
describe LTM
capacity: unlimited
duration: unlimited
evaluate MSM
+ significant research to support theory of seperate memory stores
+ historical importance: gave psychologists a way to talk about memory
- oversimplified
- doesnt explain reconstructive memory
- evidence that LTM is not just one store
- Craik and Toluing - information has different levels of processing
what is delcarative memory?
memory of facts and events
what is episodic memory
memory of specific evenst
what is semantic memory
general knowledge
what is procedural memory?
skills and how to do things
describe HM and Milner
HM had a bicycle accident in the 1930s which led to seizures
1953: Dr Scoville led experiential surgery and was left with anterograde amnesia
1957: Milner did psychometric testing, observations and interviews.
what was the aim of Milner (1957)
to investigate extent and nature of HMs memory deficits and how they relate to his brain damage
what was the procedure of Milner (1957)
Milner asked H.M. to copy a five-pointed star by drawing in-between the lines of two template stars. However, H.M. could only see the reflection of the star and his hand in a mirror. Milner asked H.M. to re-attempt the task many times, to see if he grew more skilled at the procedure even though he didn’t remember doing it before.`
what was the findings of Milner (1957)
H.M.did show improvement in the star-tracing task, making fewer mistakes on each attempt. He started with 30 errors, dropping to 20 on his second attempt and 10 by his seventh. Moreover, he kept these skills from one day to the next, getting better and better at it: on Day 2 he started making only 25 mistakes, immediately dropping to fewer than 10; by Day 3, he was making fewer than 5 mistakes each time.
what was the conclusion of Milner (1957)
Milner’s qualitative data shows a clear difference between short term and long term memory. They suggest that the hippocampus plays a vital role in transforming short term memories into long term memories, because this was something H.M. (whose hippocampus had been removed in the operation) couldn’t do.
link back: supports that there are two different memory stores
what is the evidence against MSM
Warrington and Shallice
case study of KF, who suffered a motorbike accident and damaged his parietal occipital reigon
showed poor memory for numbers, but good for LTM tasks
MSM predicts this should not be possible as STM is needed to transfer to LTM
shows that memory is not a linear process, undermining the MSM
critical thinking for Milner (1957)
+ case study
+ triangulation
- lacks generalisability
- ethics
- could still transfer procedural memories to LTM
what is the aim of Glanzer and Cunitz (1966)?
To examine whether the position of words influences recall (primacy & recency effects) and to investigate the existence of short-term memory and long-term memory as two separate memory stores.
what is the procedure of Glanzer and Cunitz (1966)
- 240 US Army enlisted males were presented lists of words, one at a time. They were asked to recall the words and could do so in any order (free recall)
- Independent variable: Presence or absence of the 30 second distraction task
- Dependent variable: Number of words correctly recalled from different positions in the list
- Condition 1 – Half of the participants were asked to recall words immediately after memorising them (Immediate recall)
- Condition 2 – The other half of the participants counted backwards for 30 seconds before recalling the words (recall after distraction)
what were the findings of Glanzer and Cunitz (1966)?
- Participants who were asked to count out loud for 30 seconds remembered fewer of the last words on the list compared to participants that were asked to count out loud for 10 seconds.
- Delaying the recall by 30 seconds destroys the recency effect causing recall of later words to be similar to ones in the middle, however it does not influence primacy effect
- Participants had a higher probability of recall on items that were near the start of the list – this is called the PRIMACY EFFECT
- Participants had a higher probability of recall on items that were near the end of the list – this is called the RECENCY EFFECT
what was the conclusion of Glanzer and Cunitz (1966?)
- This provides evidence for the existence of short-term and long-term memory as two separate memory stores thus, providing support for the MSM
explain the findings of Glanzer and Cunitz (1966)
- Recency effect is because STM has a duration pf up to 30 seconds, so the information is still in it. This is also why the distractor task eradicates the recency effect, because the information has been lost from the STM.
- The primacy effect is because the information is attended to in more detail and elaboratively rehearsed in the mind, leading to its transfer to the LTM.
- The information in the middle is lost because there is too much to be elaboratively rehearsed as STM can only hold 7 +/-2, and the capacity has been reached at this point.
Critical Thinking for Glanzer and Cunitz (1966)
+ offers support for MSM
+ highly controlled
+ easily replicated
- low ecological validity
- sample was only men
describe the working memory model
by Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
central executive
visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer, phonological loop (articulatory control, phonological store)
long term memory
what is the central executive in the WMM
‘boss’
capacity to divide attention
monitors and coordinates operations of the other components
what does the visuospatial sketchpad do in WMM
‘inner eye’
temporary store for visual and spatial information
visual processing
what does the episodic buffer do in the WMM
temporary store created in 2001
what is the phonological loop store in WMM
auditory component
articulatory control: inner voice
phonological store: inner ear, holds auditory memory trace
what is the aim for Quinn & McConnell (1996)
To find evidence for the working memory model.
what is the procedure for Quinn & McConnell (1996)
The researchers asked participants to learn a list of words, by either imagery of rehearsal. The task was performed on its own or with a concurrent visual noise (changing patterns of dots) or a concurrent verbal noise (speech in a foreign language).
what is the findings of Quinn & McConnell (1996)
The participants who learned the list by imagery were unaffected by the verbal noise but were by the visual noise. The opposite is true of the rehearsal group. This shows that there is separate store for different types of short term memory.
what is the conclusion of Quinn & McConnell (1996)
This indicates that imagery processing uses the Visuo-Spatial Sketch Pad whereas verbal processing uses the Phonological Loop. If the two tasks used the same component, performance deteriorated. The study this lends support to different systems of working memory.
evaluate the WMM
+ supported by experimental evidence
+ helps us understand how we can multitask
+ less reductionist
- only explains STM
- isnt clear what the central executive does
- doesnt explain how processing abilities can change with practise or time
contrast the MSM and WMM
memory: MSM is holistic as it has all the parts of memory, whilst WMM has more detail, but no sensory or LTM
dual processing: MSM is unitary, WMM is complex
differences: MSM has no individual differences, whilst WMM is more effective as KF contradicts MSM but agrees with WMM
processing: MSM emphasises rehearsal, but WMM doesnt explain how info moves
STM: MSM is unitary and passive, whilst in WMM its complex and active
what are schemas?
mental representations of an individuals preexisting knowledge about the world and their experiences
used to organise knowledge and assist recall
created by British Psychologist Bartlett who was teaching at Cambridge University
what do schemas do?
fill in the blanks of information based on preexisitng schemas
what is assimilation?
using an existing schema to deal with a new object or event
example: child understands that a dog is furry and has four legs, so all dogs are understood to be in that schema
what is accomomodation?
changing an existing schema or developing a new schema when it cannot explain a new object or event
example: if a child sees a cat, it might think its a dog due to the dog schema, but once they learn they meow and look different, they develop a cat schema.
why are schemas helpful?
- simplify the world
- help save cognitive energy
- creates stereotypes to make it easier for us to think about groups of people
what is the aim of Bartlett (1932)?
To investigate how memory of an unfamiliar story is affected by previous knowledge.
what is the procedure of Bartlett (1932)?
20 students at the Uni of Cambridge were told a Native American legend called The War of the Ghosts
repeated reproduction
serial reproduction
findings of Bartlett (1932)
familarisation of the material: ‘canoes’ became ‘boats, ‘paddling’ became ‘ rowing’ = consistent with British culture
omission of unfamiliar information: reference of ‘ghosts’ was dropped, because they are not consistent with British culture
what is the conclusion of Bartlett (1932)
memory is reconstructive and use familiar schemas to reorganise unfamiliar material
cultural schemas influence remembering
critical thinking of Bartlett (1932)
+ ecological validity as it was a real task
+ important in supporting schema theory
- no standarsised intervals at which they learnt info in the repeated reproduction condition
- students at Cambridge
- few controls
what is the aim of Loftus and Palmer (1974)
To investigate whether leading questions asked of eyewitnesses after an event can change memory of that event.
what is the procedure of Loftus and Palmer (1974)
45 American uni students were split into 5 groups and shown 7 films of car accidents
smashed, collided, hit, bumped, contacted and asked about the speed
second experiment of 150 students asked about if they saw any broken glass
what were the findings of Loftus and Palmer (1974)
smashed had a higher speed estimate of 40.5 + more likely to see broken glass
contacted had a speed estimate of 31.8
what was the conclusion of Loftus and Palmer?
schema invoked by the word ‘smashed’ is a more serious accident that from the word ‘contacted’
schema is associated with the verb, resulting in distortion of their reconstructive memories.
critical thinking of Loftus and Palmer (1974)
+ standardised
+ critical question was hidden to avoid demand characteristics
- students
- lab study
evaluate schema theory
+no apparent bias and can be applied across cultures
+ applications with memory
+ can help us predict behaviour
- reductionist
- applications with memory
describe the dual systems theory
system one
- impulsive and automatic
- legacy of evolution: survival advantaged
- fast and unconscious
- everyday decisions
- error prone
- based on heuristics
- limbic system
system two
- deliberate and calculating
- reasoning and beliefs
- slow, effortful
- complex
- reliable
= frontal lobe
what are heuristics?
mental shortcuts that involve focusing on one aspect of a complex problem and ignoring others
what is the anchoring bias?
human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered
once anchor is set, other judgements are based on this
what was the aim of alter et al (2007)
To investigate the effect of cognitive disfluency, on the use of rational thinking over intuitive thinking.
what was the procedure of Alter et al (2007)
40 undergrad students from Princeton
completed a cognitive reflection test questionaire
condition 1- fluent condition, easy to read font
condition 2- disfluent, difficult to read font
DV: how many correct answersw
what were the findings of Alter et al (2007)
mean of disfluent font: 2.45
mean of fluent font: 1.9
what were the conclusions of Alter et al (2007)
disfluent font: used rational thinking and system 2 to overcome intuitive judgements and so answered more correctly
critical thinking for Alter et al (2007)
+ scientific
- lacks internal validity
what was the aim of Tversky and Khaneman (1974)
To investigate anchoring bias with a mathematical problem
what was the procedure of Tversky and Khaneman?
high school students were used
condition 1: ascending condition 1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8
condition 2: descending condition 8x7x6x5x4x3x2xx1
what are the findings of Tversky and Khaneman (1974)
median for ascending group: 512
median for descending group: 2250
actual value: 40320
what was the conclusions of Tversky and Khaneman (1974)
We can rely on the first piece of information to make a decision.
This research supports Anchoring biases as the participants relied on the first piece of information (in this case the first number of the equation) to make a decision about the answer
critical thinking of Tversky and Kahnemans (1974)
+ simple experiment that easily replicated
+ highly controlled and high internal validity
- low ecological validity
- artificial environment
critical thinking for dual systems theory?
+biological evidence that different types of thinking may be processed in different parts of the brain
+ theory has been applied to explain gambling addictions
+ neurophysical evidence evidence for two systems is increasing
- over reductionist
- how is this mapped in the brain, and more research is needed
