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.
