UCSD Psych 3 - Cognitive Foundations Celeste Pilegard

How do we learn?

-We learn by making sense of the info

-Cognitively active

-Goal: Make sense of the material (quality) instead of learning the facts

Working Memory

-All the information we are currently holding active in our mind

-Is limited in our capacity

-Active workplace

Short Term Memory

Simple storage

Long Term Memory

-What we know but are not currently thinking about

-Unlimited in our capacity (no limit to how much we know)

Prior Knowledge

-What you already know

-Guides selecting, organizing, integrating

Motivation

Influenced by interests, beliefs, goals, and attributions

Metacognition

Involves monitoring learning, choosing study strategies

What is Generative processing?

-Is actively constructing knowledge

-Elaborating/integrating with prior knowledge

-Organizing knowledge into comprehensible order/layout/relationships

-Generating most important info and connections

What is not Generative processing?

-Isn't passively receiving knowledge

-Maintenance rehearsal

-Verbatim recall

What are 5 Generative Strategy Round-Ups?

-Self-explaining

-Summarizing

-Mapping

-Self-Testing (testing effect)

-Teaching others

What is Cognitive Psych?

Cognitive Psych is the study of mental process

Cognitive Revolution

-response to behaviorism

-2 major contributors

Limitations of behaviorisms explanatory power

-Evidence from animals (Tolman)

-Evidence from humans (Chomsky)

Research Methods

-Theory -> Prediction -> Experiment -> Observation

Measurements of Research Methods

-Response accuracy

-Produced Response - analyzing actual responses during free recall

-Reaction time

-Transfer of learning

Sensation

Stimulation of sensory receptors which produces neural impulses

Perception

Our experience as a result of stimulation of senses

Constructive nature of vision

-Foreated Vision

-Retina-back of eye w/ photosensitive cells

What kinds of photoreceptors are there?

-Cones- Good for detailed, color vision and bad at low light

-Rods- Good at low light & motion sensing and bad at detail and color

-Fovea- Center of retina , densely packed cones

Depth cue

Info that helps our visual system infer depth

A lab of linear perspective

Ponzo Illusion

Color Constancy

We perceive color of objects to be relatively constant even under varying illumination conditions

Methods, Results and Conclusion

what it means and why it matters

Whats the Psychology behind "The Dress"

"The Dress" illusion is due to brain guessing about lighting conditions

Algorithm

Algorithm at its most basic form is a rule that guarantees the right solution

Heuristic

Heuristic is a shortcut that generally works

Gestalt principles

-Perception is more than the sum of its parts

-Principle of good continuation

-Principle of similarity (perceive visually similar items as grouped)

-Principle of pragnanz

What did Blakemore & Copper (1970) do?

-raised kittens w/ only b/w vertical

-After 5 months they were behaviorally normal BUT they could not perceive horizontal orientations

-perceptual system shaped by exposure to environment

What did Lee & Aronson (1974) do?

-created "room" hanging from the ceiling

-moved it toward or away from subjects

-adults will sway while children will fall over

-vision has a powerful effect on balance, even overriding other senses

What did Palmer (1975) do?

-Scheme: organized knowledge structure

-Scene Schemas

-Flash image of scene

-Flash an object that does or does not fit the scene

-Objects that fit 80% correct ID

-Objects that don't fit 40% ID

-Connect is important in the ability to identify objects

McGurk et al (1976)

-The McGurk Effect integrating visual auditory info:

-The visual -"g" sound

-Auditory - "b" sound

-Perception - "d" sound

Attention

Attention is the ability to focus on specific stimuli

Early selection

minimal processing of unattended info

Late Selection

Relatively more process of unattended info

Dichotic listening

-One person/topic in one ear and different in other ear

-Could not report content of unattended ear

Whats the pattern on early selection?

With complex input, few cog. resources leftover

Whats the pattern of late selection?

With simple input, more cog. Resources leftover

Divided Attention

Limited Cognitive Resources

Low-load task

Uses small amount of processing capacity

High-load task

Uses large amount of processing capacity

Schneider & Shiffrin (1977)

Divide attention between holding target in memory AND paying attention to distractor stimuli

Automatic Processing

-Occurs without intention

-" " at cost of only some of persons cognitive resources

-requires extended, consistent training

-If the task is made more difficult automatic processing is not possible even with practice

Simons and Levin (1998)

- Subjects asked for directions by stranger

-While giving directions, movers carrying door pass between stranger and subject

-Stranger switched with different person!

50% of subjects don't notice the switch

Visual Search

A procedure in which a person's task is to find a particular element in a display that contains a number of elements.

Feature search

Search for a target defined by a single attribute, such as a salient color or orientation

Conjunction search

Search for a target defined by the presence of two or more attributes

Memory

processes by which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved

STM Capacity

Miller (1956) -> "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two" (chunks)

Chunking

Process of combining smaller units into larger, meaningful units

Chunk

Meaningful unit of info

Chase & Simon (1973)

Memory Task reconstruct chess board from memory

The ability to chunk depends on what?

Prior knowledge

2 major differences from modal model

-Abandons unitary storage

-Emphasizes storage and manipulation of info in complex cognition

2 storage systems

-Phonological loop : stores verbal & auditory information

-Visuospatial sketchpad : stores visual & spatial info

Central Executive

-Control & regulation of WM

-Coordinates between storage systems

-Focuses attention & switches attention

-Inhibits responses

Phonological Loop

-Capacity : 2 second of tape

-Word length effect : Memory for short words better than for long words

-Phonological similarity effect : Confusion of words that sound similar

-Shows info in P.L coded acoustically

Visuospatial Sketchpad

Limited in capacity

How do we know sepastic storage for spatial & auditory info

-Block letter F Task

-Pointing at Nouns