Cognition 2

cognition 2

What are the 7 sins of memory?

PBSTABS, Persistence, Bias, Suggestibility, Transience, Absentmindedness, Blocking, Source Misattribution

What is Transience?

Forgetting over time (Interaction between time and repeated retrieval)

What is Absentmindedness?

Lack of attention during coding/retrieval

What is Blocking?

Failure to retrieve a memory, even if you know it

What is Source Misattribution?

Misremembering the original source

What is Cryptomnesia?

Thinking an idea is new and original when you saw or heard it somewhere else, part of the memory sin of source misattribution.

What is Suggestibility?

Change based on new information or statements, shown in eyewitness testimony errors

What are retrieval cues?

How you phrase a question may change what you retrieve (Asking how hard a car “bumped” something vs. How hard a car “smashed into” something makes participants describe different speeds) (Part of Suggestibility)

Recalling vs Recognition

Part of retrieval cues in suggestibility

Recalling: Open ended questions

Recognition: Specific choices

What is Bias?

Alteration based on experience or knowledge (Participants being shown random names, then picking the names out when asked to identify “famous people” because the names sounded familiar)

What is persistence

Experiencing an unwanted memory

Flashbulb memories

Vivid memories that are associated with personally significant/emotional events (where were you, how you felt, ex. 9/11)

How can emotion change flashbulb memories?

Emotion clouds the sense of accuracy, decreases the number of details, ect. But the belief that the memories are accurate increases

What are memory Scripts?

Abstract memory sequences for typical activities (ex. going to a restaraunt)

Is memory accurate?

Due to reconstructive nature, likely not. Initial encoding and what happens during retrieval effect the accuracy of the memory

Early Selection Model

You have a very strict filter, once that filter is in place you should only know what you are focusing on, all other information should be bounced off

Who created the Early Selection Model?

Broadbent

Dichotic listening

Receiving different audio in both ears, participants listened to random strings of words in both ears and many made sentences

(L: Black, Rows, Meows, Funny; R: Soldiers, Cat, Outside, Loudly; Statement: Black Cat Meows Loudly)

Late Selection/Attenuation Model

Created by Triesman, a model in which unattended streams can still affect the interpretation of the attended stream.

Spotlight Model

Attention is like a spotlight on stage, resources around the “spotlight” or the focus are visible, but less visible as you go out.

Who created the spotlight model?

LaBerge

Experiment showing the spotlight model

Participants were told to find a number in a string of digits

Only Digits: (ex TZTZ7), Participants found the number the fastest in the center, and took longer amounts of time the more outward it was from the center

Shown a word then Digits: (ex HORSE, then TZTZ7), Participants were able to find the 7 more since the brain focuses on the whole word of horse, so there was no “spotlight” in the digits

Inattentional Blindness

Your attention is focused on something else so you will not be paying attention to something

Change Blindness/Change detection

Can occur even when attention is being paid, you’re missing changes in detail

How are the attentional models Different?

Triesman and Laberge both account for items you accidently pay attention to or things that will personally have meaning to you, Broadbent does not.

Priming

Exposure to one stimulus influences how a person will respond to another related stimulus

Automated Processing

A Subconscious and unintentional form of processing that happens as a result of repeated training on a task (walking, writing, reading)

Controlled Processing

A Slow and effortful form of processing that are not permanent features of memory

Consistent Mapping

A stimulus is either always a target or always a distractor

Varied Mapping

A stimulus can be a target or a distractor and can change roles randomly in an experiment

Pop out Effect

A form of automated processing in which the features are so different they are immediately obvious

Serial Search

A form of controlled processing in which you must look at every stimuli individually because they are too similar

The “binding problem”/illusory conjunctions

The brain will put together the incorrect features during recognition if they aren’t viewed for long enough (ex. a red apple and green pepper, participant says a green apple and a red pepper)

Feature detectors

Neurons in the visual system that are specialized for different types of features (object form, color, position)

Feature integration theory

Separated into two stages, Distributed attention (parallel processing of all features) and focused attention (serial processing of one object at a time)

Attention network Test

A computer based test that provides measures of the alerting, orienting, and executive attention networks

Arrow Stimuli (attention network test)

Separated into three groups with Neutral (a singular arrow surrounded by dashes, not distracted what’s happening around the arrow) Congruent (multiple arrows all facing the same direction) or Incongruent (multiple arrows facing one direction, the arrow in teh middle faces the other direction)

Cues (Attention Network Test)

Separated into three sections of Central (one dot in the middle), Double (a dot on top and bottom) or Spatial (on either the top or bottom)

Indicators in Cues (Attention Network Test)

If the cue is in the central or double position, there is no indication. However, if the cue is in the spatial position it gives you an indicator of where the stimulus would be in the screen.

Alerting

How much does any kind of cue increase your speed? Central/Double cue conditions are faster then no cue conditions

Orienting

How much does the spatial cue increase your speed? Spatial is better then central and double cue conditions

Executive Control

How easily do you resolve the arrows pointing against eachother? Neutral/congruent trials are faster then incongruent trials

Parietal Lobe

Alerting Network

Parietal and Frontal Lobe

The Orienting network

Frontal Lobe

Executive Network

Can you Multitask?

No, Most of the time multitasking is just shifting from one task to another very rapidly

Two Necessary conditions for multittasking

One activity must be automatic, Predominantly must be housed in different brain regions

McCarley & Strayer (2004)

An experiment following the influence of hands free cell phone convos on traffic scenes, showed that there was a higher error rate in dual tasking and in the older population

What is Saliency?

the vividness of an object and/or the ability of an object to take over our attention without conscious effort

Learned meaning

Symbols having a specific meaning associated with them

Bottom up saliency

Some stimuli being naturally more attention-grabbing than others

High saliency and examples

Objects that are very attention grabbing (movement, flashing, loud sounds, bright colors)

Low saliency

Objects that are less attention grabbing

Transience in memory

Memories fade over time, if you do nothing with a memory the performance will fade (even flashbulb memories), assuming the retrieval process of the memory is unsuccessful you will basically start the whole process over again

What are schemas?

Semantic memory formats that help the brain organize new information (ex. imagining a professors office)

Attenuator

According to Triesman’s attenuation model, “changes the volume” on prosessing

Dictionary Unit

An internal knowledge storage unit that influences late selection in attention on the basis of meaning

Strayer Et Al (2003)

An experiment where participants followed a car driving & breaking at different intervals, individuals involved dual-tasked with a hands-free phone call. Results showed that people on the phone take longer distance between cars but end up breaking slower

Drews Et Al (2008)

Participants had either a conversation with a passenger in the car or on a hands-free call. On average, cars with passengers showed safer lane keeping, speed and distance (due to shared attention. aka passenger usually will quiet down if they think you need to pay attention to the road)

Strayer Drews and Crouch (2006)

Passengers followed a car that breaks at random intervals, tested alcohol vs cell-phone use (hand-free vs hand-held, there were no difference in these results) Results showed that participants on the phone braked slower and were slower to recover speed, while participants who were intoxicated followed closer and had more forceful driving (forceful breaking + speeding up faster)