Cognitive Psych midterm 2

long term memory

a nearly permanent storage for learned information and experiences - the ability to store and recall

encoding

the process of converting information into a form that can be stored in long-term memory.

semantic memory

a type of long-term memory that involves the storage and recall of facts, concepts, and knowledge about the world.

• ex: knowing the capital of France

Procedural memory

implicit knowledge of tasks that usually do not require conscious recall to perform them, related to motor skills and habits

• ex: riding a bike

Deep processing

• focus on the meaning

• remember it better

• creates connections that promote retrieval

elaboration and distinctiveness

• elaborate sentences lead to better understanding and memory

• forced to create connections and think of information in more sophisticated ways

encoding specificity retrieval 

memory recall is better when the content during retrieval is similar to the context during encoding

• ex: study where they learned drunk, sober, and high and then performed under the same and different conditions 

recall vs recognition tasks

• recall: retrieving information from memory without external cues, generating information itself - blank slate

• recognition: recognize an event or piece of information as being familiar, already context.

emotion memory

most vivid autobiographical memories tend to be of emotional events

• recollection of events associated with strong feelings is often stronger and more vivid

pollyanna principle

the psychological tendency for people to remember pleasant events more accurately than unpleasant ones and focus on the positive aspects of life.

• positivity bias/effect: recall good memories more favorably and filter out negative ones, mind processes info like this as it is easier to recall positive events - emotion

retrieval definition

process that influences the ability to recall or recognize the previously encoded information - bringing information stored in memory into conscious awareness 

explicit memory definition

the conscious, intentional recall of facts and personal experiences - declarative

• ex: semantic (general knowledge and facts), episodic (personal events)

implicit memory

unconscious, long-term memory that influences behavior and performance without conscious awareness

• ex: procedural memory (perform routine tasks and motor skills automatically)

amnesia

loss of memories, all types of memory can be affected

retrograde amnesia

a person cannot recall past events, facts, or experiences

anterograde amnesia

inability to form new memories after the event that caused amnesia

novices and experts differ

novices have a less organized, more superficial knowledge base, rely heavily on step-by-step processes, and are more likely to get stuck on surface-level details

autobiographical memory

the collection of memories about your personal life experiences, encompassing specific events, facts about yourself, broader life periods

• forms your sense of identity 

source monitoring

a mechanism of your brain pinpointing the source of your memory 

• failure can result in creating a false origin of where you got information

reality monitoring

cognitive process by which individuals distinguish between memories of actual experiences and those derived from external sources/imagination

flashbulb memory

vivid detailed memory of a highly emotional or significant event, often associated with surprising or impactful news

• more accurate and longer lasting 

• study: 9/11 attack and the challenger explosion

eyewitness testimony

reliability of memory, vulnerable to errors and bias due to stress or misleading questions

constructive approach

people create their own reality and meaning through their experiences, rather than passively receiving information 

recovered memory/false memory

forgotten memories can be initially forgotten but later remembered through therapy or other epiphanic experiences.

• controversial: traumatic events are seldom forgotten, therapeutic interventions can cause false memories

Self reference effect

• relate words to yourself

• self is the most important thing

generation effect

• people generate words or information themselves

• more self involvement - better memory

shcemas

• patterned thought that organizes and categorizes memory

• can markedly enhance encoding of information relevant to one’s domain

• ex: chess - experts excelled when they could see already learned configurations, but they could not recall performed moves when not playable configurations were present.

non-schematic information

method of processing information that focuses on surface-level features like sound or appearance, rather than the meaning of the information itself

• ex: remembering the location of information on a page

dual code theory

a cognitive theory proposing that the brain has two separate channels for processing information: one for verbal information (words) and one for non-verbal information (images).

long term memory: encoding

process that enables information to be transferred from short term to long term

long term memory: retention interval

how long its been since learning information - after encoding, but before retrieval

long term memory: retrieval

processes that influence the ability to recall or recognize the previously encoded information 

spacing effect

better memory for information studied a few times over a long period of time vs studied repeatedly in a single interval

• suggests cramming is bad

• increases the number of separate traces

• want maximum space between each study interval

passage of time

initially dramatic forgetting then plateau

Sleep

enables memory consolidation - enhances memory (especially for emotional material)

Post-event information: Loftus theory

misinformation can produce false memories

• saw a video of a car at a stop sign, later participants heard a question referring to a yield sign, then tested on stop sign vs yield sign

• participants who heard mention of yield sign were more likely to falsely recognize it instead of the stop sign

retrieval: state dependent memory

recall is better when an individual’s internal state during retrieval is the same as it was during the initial learning or encoding of information

retrieval: mood dependent memory

generate autobiographical memories in one mood or another

• same mood —> best recall

• different mood —> worst recall

retrieval: context dependent memory

recall is better when retrieval environment is the same as the environment where memory was originally encoded

• ex: divers studied either on land or or underwater and then tested either on land or in water

• state dependent effect for recall - provides less self context

• recognition - general advantage for on land

impact of schemas on long-term memory retrieval

Deese Roediger Mcdermott paradigm: participants presented a list of words and then often created their own words on the list that had the same schemas - ex: added the word sweet to a list that mentioned words like cookies and candy

Jenkins demo: people falsely remembered seeing sentences to the gist of the sentences they studied

long-term memory: big picture conclusion

Memory involves three key stages 

• Encoding

• Retention interval

• Retrieval 

All three stages influence two key factors

• Memory tends to be schematic (remember the gist rather than the whole experience)

• Memory is maximized when retrieval conditions correspond to encoding conditions 

Relevant to even very controversial topics: recovered memories 

• Can be false and triggered

memory strategies

mental strategies

techniques used to improve how information is encoded, stored, and retrieved

• ex: rehearsal, mnemonics, organizing information, and visualization

total time hypothesis 

• a fixed amount of time is necessary to learn a fixed amount of material regardless of the number of individual trials

• if total study time is the same, learning performance should be the same.

• amount learned is determined by the total time spent on learning

distributed-practice effect

learning technique where study sessions are spread out over time rather than crammed into one long session

• leads to better long-term retention and recall of information

• spaced learning

massed learning

studying intensively in one concentrated session - cramming

• can lead to short-term performance gains, but generally not the best for long-term retention

desirable difficulties

learning strategies that are harder in the short-term but lead to better long-term retention and transfer of knowledge

• Robert Bjork

• intentionally introducing challenges to force the brain to work harder to create stronger neural connections

testing effect

the act of taking a test enhances long-term memory retention of the material.

• requires effortful retrieval practice - strengthens memories and creates new retrieval routes

retrospective vs prospective memory

retrospective: the ability to recall past events, facts, or information

prospective: the ability to remember to do something in the future

• similar: both fundamental memory functions involving encoding and retrieval processes that are crucial for daily life - can be affected by aging or cognitive impairments.

meta cognition

one’s knowledge about what he or she knows

• originally investigated in the context of children’s knowledge (Flavell)

meta cognition knowledge

general knowledge about our knowledge - what we know

meta cognition experience

conscious cognitive or affective experiences that accompany and pertain to any intellectual enterprise - aha moment

meta memory

one’s knowledge about their own memory

• development: children of varying ages were shown pictures and asked how many they would remember

• the older you get, the more reasonable you estimate your performance

types of meta memory judgments

ability to anticipate future memory performance:

• encoding: judgments of learning

• at retrieval: tip of the tongue

ability to assess the source of one’s memory

• source-monitoring judgements

Predicting future memory performance: JOL

judgements of learning (JOL): predictions of how well one will remember something

Types of JOL

• ease of learning: How much study will be required to remember something - predict learning rates fairly well

• paired-associative judgments (Cat - drum):

~ predict subsequent performance on paired-associate test

~ introducing brief delay between cue and associate enhances prediction

~ people are able to use initial retrieval ability to gauge subsequent ability

meta cognition at retrieval: tip of the tongue

inability to recall something combined with subjective feeling that recall is imminent.

Brown and McNeil: gave participants definitions and asked them to recall the word

Those experiencing tip of the tongue:

• more accurate with first letter

• more accurate with number of syllables

• more likely to eventually recall full word

external memories

characterized by sensory details - uses cues from the environment to aid rememberance

internal memories

characterized by cognitive observations - information stored and retrieved from within the mind

meta cognition: roommate study

• keep track of and share dreams for a month

• at the end of the month, indicate which dreams were yours and which were theres

• often times, the roommates got confused when trying to remember which dreams were whose

real memories have more sensory details, false memories have more cognitive operations. 

• stop sign study: false memories described with more words

fruit study

• greater confusion when properties overlap more

• reality monitoring: easier to monitor when they actually ate the fruit and imagined a fruit in lower detail

• had a harder time monitoring (knowing if they actually ate the fruit or not) when they imagined in high detail

keyword mnemonics

give meaning to meaningless information

• using imagination of concrete and bizarre pictures can help remember or learn words/information

mnemonics: link/story method 

linking items on a list by creating a vivid and unusual mental image for each item, then connecting them sequentially through a story.

method of loci

mentally placing items to be remembered in a specific locations with a familiar physical space.

• ex: place an image of a jumping fish in your driveway and a picture of a loaf of bread on your doorknob to remember fish and bread for a grocery list

mental imagery

the cognitive process of creating or manipulating sensory experiences in your mind, such as images, sounds, and smells, without any direct sensory input from the external world.

• imagination: picture or re-picture something 

mental imagery vs perception

perception is the experience of sensory input from the external world, while mental imagery is a sensory experience in the absence of external stimuli

• imagery is often weaker and requires more effort to generate

general knowledge: episodic

a person’s memory for specific events that were personally experienced

general knowledge: semantic memory

a mental thesaurus organized knowledge a person possesses about words and others

allow us to:

• organize objects according to concepts

• make inferences going beyond information given

• decide which objects are similar

defining-attribute theory

concepts defined by a list of attributes:

• each attribute is necessary and all jointly sufficient 

• boundaries are clearly defined 

concepts are organized hierarchically - helps you understand how concepts are related to one another 

defining attributes network models

hierarchically organized - like a cladogram with a triangular shape

• nodes - concepts

• pathways - relationship between concepts

• spreading activation moves between nodes along pathways

economical:

• properties do not need to be re-represented for each concept

• would need to have damage to semantic memory to struggle with forming these networks

support

• sentence verification times consistent with some key predictions (ex: faster to verify canary as a bird as apposed to as an animal)

problems with defining-attributes theories

all defining attributes are not equally salient

• feathers vs gizzards

all members of a category are not equally “good examples”

• robin vs ostrich - birds

some categories do not have defining attributes

some categories are “fuzzy”

difficulty with certain negation

• overlap is not accounted for

does not predict typicality effects

• not all categories are equal

defining-attributes prediction

order of listing members of a category

• bluejays before emu for bird category

generalization from typical item to a category is stronger than from atypical item to category 

feature atypical approach

emphasized semantic features

defining features: necessary features of a category (ex: birds lay eggs)

characteristic features: typical but not necessary characteristics (ex: birds fly)

Two stage process

stage 1 (typical): if high or low degree of overlap of all features make a quick yes or no judgment

stage 2 (atypical): if moderate overlap consider defining features - takes more time

• negation effects - overlap vs no overlap

Prototype Theory

central tendency 

• include characteristic features that are usually present, not only character sufficient features

unclear cases handled - object may be equally close to two categories’ prototype

typically handled - typicality is based on object’s proximity to prototype

family resemblance - members of a category are overall similar, but there may not anything that they all have in common

• average of multiple exemplars

prototypes: 3 levels

basic level - levels at which categories are represented that contains the most useful information, easy to image (ex: cat, tree, saw)

superordinate - very broad categories, difficult to image (ex: animal, tool)

subordinate - highly specific, hard to image (ex: elm tree, siamese cat)

prototype level specialties

Basic-level: names are used to identify objects

• more likely to produce semantic priming effect

superordinate: prefrontal cortex

subordinate: parietal region

exemplar theory

people classify new objects by comparing them to specific, memorable examples (exemplars) in their memory, rather than comparing them to an abstract, average prototype

prototype vs exemplar

exemplar theory uses specific, remembered examples

• more flexible and better at explaining variations and highly specific knowledge

prototype theory compares them to an abstract, ideal (prototype) of the category

• more efficient for quick judgments

general knowledge: schemas

generalized knowledge about a situation, event, or a person

schema theories- explain how people process complex situations and events

Bartlett: introduced notion of schemas

• story lost odd and supernatural elements; straightforward story of death

• transformation of details into more familiar and conventional

imagery demos

the mind’s ability to create mental images, sensory experiences, and simulate scenarios without external stimuli

controversy: imagery

propositions: essential meaning, don’t resemble what they stand for (abstract)

images: resemble what they stand for (analog code)

imagery: analog view

Kosslyn

• store information as images

• images are function in thinking

imagery: propositional view

Pylyshyn

• information stored as propositions

• images are “epiphenomenal”

rotation heuristic

tilted structures remembered as horizontal/vertical

alignment heuristic

structures remembered as being more “lined up” than they really are

hierarchical representation

influenced by locations of larger region that they are a part of

border bias

crossing borders makes distances seem further