Friday SAQs

Models of Memory - MSM - opening statement

When considering the cognitive approach to understanding human behaviour, models of memory such as the multistore model have revealed a great deal about cognitive processing.

Models of memory - WMM - opening statment

When considering the cognitive approach to understanding human behaviour, models of memory such as the working memory model have revealed a great deal about cognitive processing.

Schema theory - opening statement

When considering the cognitive approach to understanding human behaviour, the study of schema theory has revealed a great deal about cognitive processing.

Thinking and decision making - opening statement

When considering the cognitive approach to understanding human behaviour, the study of thinking and decision making has revealed a great deal about cognitive processing.

Reconstructive memory - opening statement

When considering the cognitive approach to understanding human behaviour, the study of reconstructive memory has revealed a great deal about the reliability of cognitive processing.

Bias in thinking and decision making - opening statement

When considering the cognitive approach to understanding human behaviour, the study of biases in thinking and decision making has revealed a great deal about the reliability of cognitive processing.

One model of memory - study

Peterson - multi-store

working memory model - study

baddeley

schema - study

bartlett

thinking and decision making

englich - dual processing

reconstructive memory/reliability - study

loftus

bias in thinking and decision making - study

englich - anchoring

ethical consideration/research method

sharot

models of memory MSM - intro

• The MSM was created in 1968 by Atkinson and Shiffrin.

• It is one of many models, but has become the dominant one as it is an approximation of the rest.

• It is a visual model in the style of a flow diagram.

• It depicts the flow of information between three stores, showing how we process information from encoding, storage and retrieval.

• It is an information processing model.

• You should illustrate and label the model.

• You should ack that the three stores each have specific characteristics of capacity (the amount of information that can be stored) and duration (the length of time information can reside in there).

• Sensory Memory Store contains information derived from our senses - of the environment and of ourselves. This is mainly visual information (from our vision) that is transformed into Iconic memory, and auditory information (from our audition) that is transformed into echoic information.

• Sensory Memory capacity is limited by the limits of our senses. Iconic memories decay after 1sec, echoic after 2-5sec.

• Only information that we pay attention to is transferred to the STM store.

• STM store is limited to 7 +-2 chunks of information (our cognitive load) and decays after ~30sec.

• Rehearsal of this information is required to sustain duration beyond this, and to transfer the information to LTM. It consolidates the memory trace and enables this to enter LTM permanently.

• Rehearsal may be covert (in our own mind) or overt (out loud).

• The LTM store has a limitless capacity, and can reside for a lifetime.

• Information in the LTM may decay over time if not retrieved to our STM for rehearsal.

• Not all information in the LTM is necessarily retrievable. Some require a great deal of mental effort.

• Unless information is paid attention to in SM, rehearsed in STM, or retrieved from LTM, it decays (is lost).

models of memory WMM - intro

• The WMM was created in 1974 by Baddeley and Hitch.

• It was created to address the inner workings of the STM store - which Baddeley argued was non-unitary, having sub-stores of its own where information undergoes different processes.

• This opposed the MSM's portrayal of STM as unitary.

• This was though because of the dual-task technique which shows we are able to process different forms of information simultaneously. This suggested there were different ways to process information (work) within the STM store.

• It is a visual model in the style of a flow diagram.

• It depicts the flow of information between a central executive and three sub-stores.

• It is an information processing model.

• The flow of information between the stores is bi-directional.

• The Central Executive coordinates the flow of information to the sub-stores. It is often known as the CEO of WM.

• The Visuospatial Sketchpad processes visual and spatial information (Iconic memory). It is often known as the Inner Eye.

• The Phonological Loop processed auditory information (Echoic memory). It is subdivided into two separate components:

• The Phonological Store - known as the Inner Ear. And the Articulatory Rehearsal component - known as the inner voice.

• The PS passively stores echoic information, but the AR transforms visual stimuli (Iconic memory) into auditory stimuli (Echoic memory) for subvocalization - when we "say things in our head".

• The AR also permits us to practice rehearsal of that echoic memory, to enable its transfer to LTM.

• In 2010, Baddeley added the Episodic Buffer which integrates information from the other components and links it to LTM structures.

Schema theory - intro

• That a cognitive schema is a mental framework or structure that organizes information and knowledge about a particular concept, object, or event.

• That it helps individuals process and interpret incoming information, as well as retrieve and use stored knowledge.

• They are developed through experience and can be influenced by cultural, social, and personal factors.

• So, they are individual, and determined by our own individual lived experiences.

• They guide our perceptions, expectations, and behaviours, allowing us to make sense of the world around us.

• However, cognitive schemas can also lead to biases and errors in thinking and memory, as they can influence the way we interpret and remember information.

• That the concept of a schema was proposed by Piaget in the 1930s.

• There are different types of schema such as self, script, and social.

• Schema are a form of heuristic (mental shortcut).

• They help us (as cognitive misers) to reduce the cognitive effort required to process information and make decisions.

• They are both helpful (in helping us process greater quantities of information, and making a greater number of decisions) and harmful (by inviting prejudgement, risking the formation of stereotypical thinking, and favouring our own lived experiences over others').

• When new information is similar to what we know, it can enter the mind through assimilation. For completely new information, this doesn’t work. Then we need accommodation and change the schema itself.

• Assimilation is the cognitive process of making new information fit in with one's existing understanding of the world. It works if new information is close to what we already know. To process it, we make it fit into our existing schemas.

• This process informs and changes the information, causing the schema to change.

• Accommodation occurs when things are so unique that they do not fit into our existing schema. To comprehend new information with our existing schema we have to make new experiences to modify our schema or form a new one.

Thinking and decision making - into

• Thinking is the cognitive process of generating and manipulating mental representations to make sense of information, solve problems, and make decisions.

• It involves a range of cognitive processes such as perception, attention, memory, language, and reasoning.

• Thinking can be conscious or unconscious, deliberate or automatic, and can occur at different levels of complexity and abstraction.

• it is influenced by various factors, such as prior knowledge, motivation, emotion, and social context.

• Thinking is a critical aspect of human cognition and is essential for adapting to the environment, learning, and achieving goals.

• Decision-making is the cognitive process of selecting a course of action from a set of available options.

•  It involves assessing the risks, benefits, and trade-offs associated with each option, and choosing the option that best aligns with one's goals, preferences, and values.

• The Dual Processing Model by Kahneman suggests that decisions are made with one of two thinking modalities.

• System 1 is a cognitive process that operates automatically and unconsciously, using mental shortcuts and heuristics to quickly make judgments and decisions.

• This system is fast, intuitive, and relies heavily on past experiences and emotions to guide decision-making. It is often referred to as the "intuitive" system and can handle multiple tasks simultaneously.

• It is because decisions are made without the need to process new information that reduces the cognitive load, and therefore the to decide.

• System 2 is a cognitive process that operates deliberately and consciously, using logical reasoning and analytical thinking to make judgments and decisions.

• This system is slower, more effortful, and relies heavily on attention and working memory. It is often referred to as the "rational" system and is involved in complex problem-solving and decision-making.

Reconstructive memory - intro

• Reconstructive memory refers to the way in which memories can be altered or reconstructed over time.

• It is a process by which our mind tries to fill in the gaps in our memory using our past experiences and knowledge.

• Our minds use a combination of information from our sensory inputs, past experiences, and expectations to create a new memory

• This can lead to the formation of false memories or distorted memories of events that we experienced in the past.

• Reconstructive memory plays an important role in how we recall events and make decisions based on past experiences. It can also be influenced by various factors such as emotions.

• Research into the reliability of memory often focuses on eyewitness testimony - the recollection of events by an individual who has witnessed a crime or an accident.

• Eyewitness testimony is often used as evidence in legal proceedings, and can be influenced by various factors such as the passage of time, stress, suggestibility, and the way questions are asked during the investigation.

• The accuracy of eyewitness testimony is also influenced by the attention and perception of the witness, the ability to retain and retrieve the information, and the influence of Post-Event information.

• Due to the potential for inaccuracies and biases, eyewitness testimony is often scrutinized and corroborated with other forms of evidence.

• Testimonies are often revealed to have been false, with memories experiencing distortion when reconstructed.

• Distortion is the phenomenon where the original memory is changed, distorted or influenced by subsequent events or information.

• Memories are not exact recordings of past events and can be altered by various factors, including the passage of time, emotional states, and external suggestions.

• Different types of memory distortions include false memories, suggestibility, source confusion, and misinformation effects. False memories are the recollection of an event that never occurred

Bias in thinking and decision-making intro

• Cognitive biases are systematic errors in thinking and decision-making that occur as a result of mental shortcuts or heuristics.

• These biases can lead to deviations from rationality, accuracy, and objectivity.

• We know of over 180 of them.

• They are a product of the mind's limited capacity to process information and the need to make quick decisions in complex situations.

• Cognitive biases can affect perception, memory, judgment, and decision-making.

• One such example is Anchoring Bias; the tendency to form perceptions or make quantitative judgments under conditions of uncertainty, and to give excessive weight to the starting value (or anchor).

• This is based on the first received information or one’s initial judgment, and one does not modify this anchor sufficiently in light of later information.

• Such a bias manifests when accessing our System 1 mode of thinking (Dual Processing Model).

• The Dual Processing Model by Kahneman suggests that decisions are made with one of two thinking modalities.

• System 1 is a cognitive process that operates automatically and unconsciously, using mental shortcuts and heuristics to quickly make judgments and decisions.

• This system is fast, intuitive, and relies heavily on past experiences and emotions to guide decision-making. It is often referred to as the "intuitive" system and can handle multiple tasks simultaneously.

• It is because decisions are made without the need to process new information that reduces the cognitive load, and therefore the to decide.

Models of Memory MSM - study sentence

One study that supports the MULTISTORE MODEL of MEMORY is Peterson and Peterson (1959).

models of memory WMM - study sentence

One study that supports the WORKING MEMORY MODEL is Baddeley et al. (1975).

Schema theory - study sentence

One study that supports SCHEMA THEORY is Bartlett (1932).

Thinking and Decision-making - study sentence

One study that supports the DUAL PROCESSING MODEL of MEMORY is Englich and Mussweiler (2001).

Reconstructive memory - study sentence

One study that supports RECONSTRUCTIVE MEMORY is Sharot et al. (2007).

Bias in thinking and decision-making - study sentence

One study that demonstrates ANCHORING BIAS is English and Mussweiler (2001).

Peterson and Peterson, Aim

To investigate the duration of the short term memory and how information is retained over short intervals without rehearsal.

Peterson and Peterson, Method

True experiment.

Peterson and Peterson, Design

Repeated measures design.

Peterson and Peterson, Sampling Strategy

Purposive - 24 students from a university.

Peterson and Peterson, IV

Time delay before recall (six conditions).

Peterson and Peterson, DV

How many trigrams a participant could remember.

Peterson and Peterson, Procedure

Step 1: Participants were placed in a room with a box with a light.

Step 2: The examiner then says a three-letter word, trigram, and a three-digit number.

Step 3: The participant then has to repeat this number and then count down in 3s until the light turned red.

Step 4: After the red light, the participant could then recall the trigram.

Step 5: Participants experienced all eight trials with a range of recall intervals 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 seconds.

Peterson and Peterson, Findings

The experiment found that as the interval increased, the recall accuracy of trigrams decreased.

Peterson and Peterson, Conclusion

Participants had to count backwards to prevent rehearsal of the trigrams which suggests that without rehearsal information decays quickly. STM has a very limited duration when rehearsal is prevented.

Bartlett, Aim

To investigate how the memory of a story is affected by previous knowledge.

Bartlett, Method

Experiment.

Bartlett, Design

Independent measures design (no control condition).

Bartlett, Sampling Strategy

Purposive and convenience - Cambridge students who had a British upbringing.

Bartlett, IV

None.

Bartlett, DV

None.

Bartlett, Procedure

Step 1: Students were put into two conditions.

Step 2: The first condition was where the participants were told a folktale story of Native American origin and then had to repeat it to the experimenter day, weeks and months later.

Step 3: The second condition was serial reproduction, where students were told the tale and then had to repeat it to other participants who told other.

Bartlett, Findings

*The study found three common distortions of information of the story:

1. Levelling

over time the story became shorter as information was regarded as irrelevant where students didn't recall details that they weren't familiar with before (i.e., the detail of hunting seals was frequently removed).

2. Assimilation

the students changed part of their memories of the story to conform with already familiar concepts (i.e., students remembered the canoe as a row-boat and seal hunting as fishing).

3. Sharpening

students changed the structure of the story so that it would conform to traditional British storytelling norms (i.e., establishing more of a causal effect of the war on the people).*

Bartlett, Conclusion

Memories are dynamic and susceptible to influence from our cultural schema. The act of retrieving information is not an active one but a passive one.

"Long term memories are neither fixed nor immutable but are constantly being adjusted."

Englich and Mussweiler, Aim

To investigate whether a high or low recommended sentence, acting as an anchor, would affect the outcome.

Hypothesised that the sentence would affect.

Englich and Mussweiler, Method

True lab experiment.

Englich and Mussweiler, Design

Independent measures.

Englich and Mussweiler, Sampling Strategy

Purposive sample - All were judges with an average of 9.34 months of experience, 15 male and 4 female.

Englich and Mussweiler, IV

Whether the recommended sentence was a High or Low anchor.

Englich and Mussweiler, DV

Recommended sentence for the guilty defendant.

Englich and Mussweiler, Procedure

Step 1: Dual processing model was explored with both systems be.

Step 2: Before the study, law students were given the case material and asked to determine the recommended length of sentence. They suggested 17.21 months which was used as a basis for determining the anchors.

Step 3: A sample was made of 19 young trial judges.

Step 4: The participants were given a set of case materials along with copies of the penal code. They were asked to form an opinion.

Step 5: The sample was only given 15 minutes to review the case where they would usually have much longer. This time limit made sure that they were using system 1 thinking.

Step 6: They were then asked whether the sentence was too low, adequate or too high, which sentence they would recommend, how certain they were, and how realistic this case is.

Englich and Mussweiler, Findings

The average rating for the judges' certainty was 4.53 with a standard deviation of 2.29.

When presented with a low anchor of two months, the average sentence was 18.78 months with a standard deviation of 9.11.

In the high anchor condition of 34 months, the average sentence was 28.7 months with a standard deviation of 6.53.

Englich and Mussweiler, Conclusion

It can be concluded that the anchors affect the judges' decision. This cements anchoring bias as a robust cognitive bias that can affect expert decision making.

Sharot et al., Aim

To determine the potential role of biological factors on flashbulb memories.

Sharot et al., Method

Quasi experiment.

Sharot et al., Design

Independent measures design.

Sharot et al., Sampling Strategy

Purposive sampling of 24 participants

Sharot et al., IV

Lived in uptown, midtown or downtown.

Sharot et al., DV

How vivid and in-detail their memories were of 9/11.

Sharot et al., Procedure

Step 1: The participants had an functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scan to measure their brain activity during which they were shown word cues alongside the word 'Summer' or 'September' in order to remember summer memories or memories of 9/11.

Step 2: Researchers then used the summer memories as a baseline to compare with memories of 9/11.

Step 3: Participants then completed a self-reported rating of their memories for vividness, detail and confidence in accuracy and arousal.

Step 4: Participants were also asked to write a description of their memories.

Sharot et al., Findings

Activation of the amygdala for the participants who were downtown was higher when they recalled memories of the terrorist attack than when they recalled events from the summer.

Only half of the participants reported 'flashbulb memories'. These participants were closer to the World Trade Centre.

Participants who were had close geographic proximity to the WTC also included more specific details in their written memories as participants who were in downtown wrote on average 15 more words when shown the word September than when shown the word summer whereas participants who were in midtown wrote the same number of words for memories of summer as for of September.

Sharot et al., Conclusion

The results concluded that close personal experience or personal consequentiality may be critical in engaging the neural mechanisms that produce 'flashbulb memories'.

Loftus and Palmer, Aim

To investigate the impact of leading questions on memory.

The harsher the word, the faster the participants would guess the car is going.

Loftus and Palmer, Method

True lab experiment.

Loftus and Palmer, Design

Independent measures.

Loftus and Palmer, Sampling Strategy

Opportunity sampling

Loftus and Palmer, IV

Varying emotional intensity of the verb used in the critical question.

Loftus and Palmer, DV

Estimation of speed.

Loftus and Palmer, Procedure

Participants answered many questions but only the critical question was measured. The rest of the questions were disregarded. This would reduce demand characteristics as participants couldn't guess which variable was being measured.

Step 1: Participants watched 7 films ranging from 5 to 30 seconds.

Step 2: When the participants had watched a film, they were asked to give an account of the accident they had seen and then they answered a questionnaire.

Step 3: This critical question included different verbs from smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted.