Cognitive Psych - Exam 2

Memory affects all aspects of cognition…

Ex. Visual Perception

remembering where a building is

Memory affects all aspects of cognition…

Ex. Reading a sentence

remembering what the words mean in a sentence 

Memory affects all aspects of cognition…

Ex. Multiplication

easy multiplication (5×5=25) you just remember

Encoding

translating information into a usable form

Ex. if your reading a book you dont remember the words you remember the meaning → translating info to have meaning

• getting it in

Retrieval

Accessing/remembering the information

• Getting to it

Storage

holding the information for later use

• keeping it in there

Artisole - Wax Tablet

• Young People

Young peoples memories are bad because they are growing and the memories cannot stick (wax is liquid)

Artisole - Wax Tablet

• Old People

Old people’s memories are bad because there are so many memories already (wax is already hard)

Plato - An Aviary

The information is not gone, you just can’t remember it for the moment

Vives - A body

we have to practice using our memory to keep it good

Cows Digestive System

a cow digests food through many pathways and memory and information go through many passages as well

Serial Position Effect

Primacy (the beginning of a sentence), you remember and Recency (the end of the list) you remember better than the middle of the list 

Sensory memory

the initial stage of memory that retains sensory information for a very brief period, allowing for the processing of stimuli before it is transferred to short-term memory.

Iconic/visual sensory memory

A very brief sensory memory of visual information, lasting only a fraction of a second.

Auditory sensory memory

The brief retention of sounds that are heard, lasting only a few seconds. It allows for the processing of auditory information before it fades from memory.

Sperling (1960)

He was interested in how much information you could capture in your iconic/visual sensory memory

Results - suggest iconic memory doesn’t capture all of the information → they reported they saw all the letters but didn’t hold them 

Partial Report CogLab

Method: 3×3 grid of letters presented for a brief moment, participants asked to recall a specific row based on the tone. the tone came one second before and less than one second after 

Independent V - the delay between letter display and tone 

Dependent V - proportion of letters correctly recalled 

Predicted Results - as the delay increases, the recall accuracy decreases

• Echoic memory

Serial Position CogLab

Method - 10 letters, shown in 1 second, then i clicked the letters i remembered seeing in any order

Independent V - the serial positioln (letters place in list) 

Dependent V - how often each letter was correctly called 

Results - last letters (recency), and first few (primacy) will be remembered better than the middle of the list. 

Echoic Memory 

the auditory sensory memory 

• large capacity (20 seconds)

• it is longer than iconic memory because it takes longer to hear someone say something and process it than it is to see something and process it 

  • hurt by masking

Masking

You hear one sound and then hear another sound, which then replaces what the first sound was, which then interferes with with remembering the first sound

Suffix Effect

An auditory item is played after you hear a series of auditory items you need to remember, which then interferes with recalling what you actually needed too

Short Term Memory

• information enters from sensory or long-term memory

• small capacity 7 +/- 2 (5-9 items)

• stored in an acoustic code → you speak to yourself in your mind

• forgotten unless rehearsed

Acoustic code

A method of encoding information in short-term memory by using sounds or verbal repetition to aid retention.

• errors in short term recall are usually sound based

Semantic code

A method of encoding information by associating it with meanings or concepts, enhancing understanding and recall.

• errors in long term memory recall are more meaning based

Chunking

organizing the items into chunks together to meaningful items

• helps remember more than 7 items

Ex. I R S N B A C S I

IRS NBA CSI

Retroactive Interference 

where new information interferes with the recall of old learned information

Proactive Interference

where old information interferes with new information that your trying to learn

Semantic Code

The encoding of information based on its meaning and concepts

Baddeley’s working memory theory

a model that describes how information is temporarily held and processed in the mind, emphasizing the roles of the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and central executive.

Phonological loop

A component of Baddeley's working memory model responsible for processing and storing verbal and auditory information.

Parallel Search

search through every item in short term memory ALL AT ONCE

Serial Search

search through every item in short term memory ONE BY ONE

When do we stop?

Self terminating

we look at every item one at a time, but stop when we find what we are looking for

When do we stop?

Serial Exhaustive

go through every item one at a time but not stopping when you find what your looking for you make a decision after you have seen every one

Sternberg (1966)

is the researcher who studied the processes of serial search in memory. He distinguished between self-terminating and serial exhaustive search methods.

• in his research he found self terminating was used more than serial exhaustive search in rapid high speed cognitive tasks.

Baddleys Working Memory

a model that describes how information is temporally processed and how it will be processed in the mind emphasizing phonological loops, central executive, and visuospatial sketchpad

Central Executive

controls your attention, selects what info will be processed and how it will be processed

Visuosketchpad

holds visual information, creates, stores, and uses mental images

Phonological loop

stores audiotory/verbal information

• 2 component

Articulatory control process (ACP)

• 1st component of phonological loop

translates visual info to auditory code to be placed in the phonological store

Phonological Store (PS)

• 2nd component of phonological store

stores spoken words and sounds for short periods, decaying in 2 seconds unless rehearsed by ACP

Irrelevant Speech Effect

A phenomenon where the presence of irrelevant speech impairs the recall of verbal information, disrupting the functioning of the phonological loop.

word length effect

longer words are more difficult to recall than shorter words

Articulatory suppression

repeating a word or syllable (the) during presentation of a list results in poor recall of list

Concept

a mental representation

category

a class of similar items that share one or two things

Classical View: Artistotle

Artistoltle believed in the view that people categorize based on defining features

Defining Features -

Features must be…

• necessary, every item must have the feature

• sufficient, if the feature is on the item, the item is automatically apart of the category

Classical view assumptions

• concepts mentally represent lists of features 

• category memberships are all or none 

• all members are created equally

Classical view problems

• people do NOT seem to represent features

• category membership is not all or none

• all members are not created equally - some are better than others

• fuzzy boundaries

Typicality Effect (2 types)

The phenomenon where some members of a category are perceived as typical or better examples than others, leading to a bias in judgments about category membership.

• when you see a new instance if it is similar to the typical exemplars you will be faster

Category membership

people are faster and more accurate at verifying typical items

exemplar production

people are more likely to generate typical examples than atypical examples

Prototype View

the best and most representative member of a category

• the more similar an item is to the prototype the quicker you can categorize it

• the more typical members of a category will share more features with the prototype

• The prototype is the most typical/average so it will be very similar to the typical exemplar (example)

knowledge-based view

justify and explain why certain instances happen to go in the same category

• people’s theories and mental explanations are bound with their concepts and are used to categorize

Collins and Quillian Hierarchical model

A model of semantic memory that organizes concepts in a network, showing relationships between concepts using links such as “is a” and property links. It proposes that concepts are stored in a structured way to facilitate efficient retrieval.

• store info in the highest level possible

• research focuses on seeing how long it takes for you to answer true or false questions - sentence verification task

episodic memory

memories for specific events in which you were somehow involved

• personal episodes

• you are AWARE of where you learned the information (original learning context)

semantic memory

general/factual information

• you have NO AWARENESS of where you learned the information

Tulving (1989)

Proposed the distinction between episodic and semantic memory, highlighting the different types of information and recall.

• The difference between the two has to do with the awareness of the original learning context 

• There is more blood flow to the frontal lobe for episodic retrieval 

Collins and Loftus (1075) Spreading Activation Theory

A model of memory that explains how concepts are interconnected in the mind, suggesting that recalling one memory can trigger the recall of related memories.

priming

being exposed to one thing (like a word, image, or idea) makes it easier or more likely for you to think about or respond to related things later — often without realizing it.

Example: If you see the word “yellow”, you’ll recognize the word “banana” faster afterward, because your brain has already been “primed” to think of related ideas.

what affects priming?

how related the two things are, how much time passes between the stimulus and target, how much attention you pay, how often you see the priming context, and personal factors like memory and mood

• if someone is primed it takes them less time to recall than if they are not primed

Neely (1977)

Neely's study explored how the timing of word presentation influences priming effects, showing that the degree of priming varies based on the space between the prime and the target.

Lexical Decision Test

indicate whether a stimulus is a word or not as quickly as possible

Stimulus Onset Asynchrony (SOA)

refers to the time interval between the presentation of a prime and a target stimulus in a priming experiment. It can significantly influence the strength of the priming effect.

Mediated Priming

the connection between a prime and target is indirect - the first words reminds you of something else IN BETWEEN which then reminds you of the final word

• you see the word “lion” it makes you think of “tiger” and tiger makes you think of “stripes” which is the final word. - tiger helped you recall stripes

connectionist model

learning happens by strengthening or weakening connections between units not by storing facts in one place

• information is stored as a pattern of neural activity

Declarative

knowledge you can verbalize

Procedural

knowledge you cannot verbalize

Implicit memory

memory that is unconscious but shows evidence of prior learning or storage

Explicit memory 

memory that is consciously recollected 

Ebbinghaus (1885/1913)

known for his work on memory, particularly the forgetting curve and the percent savings (how much time it took you to relearn information)

transferring appropriate processing

A theory suggesting that memory performance is enhanced when the conditions of retrieval match the conditions of encoding.

• Memory is strongest when the way you practice matches how you’ll be tested.

Encoding Specificity

memory works best when the context at learning matches the context at recall

levels of processing

memory depends on how deeply you encode the information

• rehearsing and intent do not matter

Deeper encoding = better memory

• memory is determined by how deeply you encode the information

Context-dependent memory

memory is better when the test and study environment are the same

State-dependent memory

Memory is better when your biological state at encoding is the same biological state you are in when you test

Mood-dependent Memory

memory is better when your mood at studying is the same mood your in when you take the best

Mood-Congruent memory

the mood you are in during recall affects what information you remember

happy mood = recall of positive memories

sad mood = recall of negative memories.

Schema

a mental blueprint based on prior knowledge that helps you make sense of the world

Ex. Restaurant - you expect menus, tables, chairs, food, waiters

flashbulb memories

vivid, detailed memories of significant events, often with strong emotional connections.

• they are no different than regular memories in accuracy and not forgetting

• frozen like a photograph 

• people present flashbulb memories more confidently because their emotions are involved, and they are usually traumatic

Attribution error

remember the information correctly but confuse where you learned the information

Ex. you go to tell your friend a story, she already knows the story, you told the story correctly but forgot who you told the story too

confabulation

supplying information that most likely happened that were not actually apart of the original experience

• false memories

Inference

providing missing details that most likely happened logically

• filling in details based on logic 

Misled

Information received after the event can change the memory for the event

Implanting memories

a process where suggestions or information presented can create false memories or alter existing ones.

eyewitness memory

Due to reconstructive processes involved in memory retrieval, the reports of eyewitnesses may be inaccurate

“false” memories 

Some memories are true, some are false

memories always have some information that did not happen in the original learning context 

Sternberg Search Coglab

Method: saw 1,3, or 5 numbers for up to 6 seconds, then you had to indicate as quickly and accurately as possible if a specific number was present 

IV: the number of digits in the memory set 

DV: the speed with which you made a correct decision 

Results: Participants generally took longer to respond as the number of digits increased, suggesting a systematic search process in memory retrieval.  

Operation Span Coglab

Method: participants solved math problems while remembering words, then recalled the words for accuracy.

No IV or DV 

Results: Participants demonstrated working memory capacity by recalling words accurately after doing the math problems

Encoding Specificity Coglab

Method: saw word paids such as “car-PORT” the uppercase letter was the target. phase 2 we were showed a pair or words. Our task was to decide if the word shown in uppercase was one of the words shown in phase 1

IV: was the type of cue at study and the type of cue at test (either weak or strong)

DV: the proportion of times you correctly judged the uppercase word was on the list

Results: you should be more accurate in recognizing the target when the cue at encoding was the same as the cue at retrieval than when it was different 

Levels of Processing Coglab

Method: participants were presented with words and asked to process them at different levels, such as shallow or deep encoding.

IV: the level of processing induced by the task (letter task, rhyme task, semantic task)

DV: the proportion of times the word was correctly recognized as being in phase 1

Results: people should correctly recognize more words with the deep processing task than with the shallow processing task 

False Memory Coglab

Method: a list of words were shown one at a time, each shown for 1 second. then were shown a list of words to press, some were on the list and some were not. you had to press the words that were on the list

IV: the presentation order of words (original list vs. lure words)

DV: the percentage of correct identifications made by participants.

Results: people should report the related distractors very often as genuine items from the original list, demonstrating the false memory effect.

Forget-it-all-along Coglab

method: Participants studied word pairs (cue in lowercase, target in uppercase), then completed targets with missing letters using the cues, and finally completed a recognition test indicating whether they had previously typed the target in the second phase.

IV: was whether the context word presented during the memory judgement task was thr same as during the cued-recall test

DV: the percentage of times you said you remembered remembering a word

Results: you should have forgotten that you remembered the target word more often in the different context condition

Lexical Decision Coglab

Method: showed words and nonwords, and we have to decide quickly and accurately if the word is a real word

IV: whether the first word wasd related to the second word

DV: the time to respond correctly to the second item 

Results: people should respond more quickly to second word when it is semantically associated to the first word than when it is unrelated

Implicit Learning Coglab

Method: saw a red circle in one of four locations and was asked to press the key where the dot was located 

IV: whether the dots follow a pattern or not 

DV: the response time for correct responses 

Method: reaction time decreases regardless of which condition you were assigned too 

Pattern condition: increase in average reaction time 

Random condition: no increase in average reaction time 

Prototypes Coglab

Method: shown a dot pattern and asked to classify it as belonging to category A or B and respond quick and accurately 

IV: the type of items shown in the test phase (prototype or one of the new variations) 

DV: the speed with which the patterns were correctly classified 

Method: you should find that the response time to the prototype pattern is faster than the response time to the new variants