Cognitive Psychology

inattentional blindness

failure to notice new unexpected stimuli when attention is focused elsewhere

change blindness

failure to notice change in existing stimulus that your attention is focused on

influences that increase inattentional blindness

• greater demands on attention

• more like the ignored elements of a scene

• more distracted

relationship between working memory capacity and inattentional blindness

• no relationship

• greater capacity correlates with being better able to maintain focus on prescribed task, maybe less likely to notice something else

cocktail party problem

process of tracking one conversation in the face of the distraction of other conversations

dichotic presentation

listening to separate messages in each ear

positive influences on selective attention

• distinctive sensory characteristics of targets speech

• volume

• location of sound source

broadbent’s model of selective attention

• filter info when noticing at sensory level

• channels of sensory input reach attentional filter, distinguished by characteristics, filter lets one channel through to perception

moray’s selective filter model of selective attention

• messages of high importance may break through filter of selective attention

• selective filter blocks out most info at sensory level, but personally important messages push through

treisman’s attentuation model of selective attention

• some info about unattended signals is analyzed

• later filtering mechanism weakens strength of stimuli other than target stimulus

• stimuli reaches us and we analyze at low level for target properties

deutsch and deutsch’s late-filter model of selective attention

• stimuli are filtered out only after they have been analyzed for both physical properties and meaning

• allows people to recognize information entering unattended ear though which only single source of info can pass

pre-attentive processes

• automatic processes occur rapid and in parallel

• notice physical sensory characteristics of unattended message

• doesn’t discern meaning/relationships

attentive, controlled processes

• occur later, executed serially

• observe relationships and synthesize fragments into mental representation

attentional blink

• impaired ability to identify second of two visual targets presented in close succession

• made better when concurrently engaged in distracting mental activity (ex. listening to music)

shadowing

a task where a participant repeats aloud a message word for word at the same time that the message is being presented, often while other stimuli are presented in the background

STM capacity

7 chunks

brown/peterson and peterson technique

• presenting participants with items they’re instructed to remember

• participants perform distracting task

• participants asked to recall original items

• as delay gets longer, recall gets worse

recency effect

better recall for items at end of a list, or recently learned

retroactive interference

• trouble learning first material because recently learned material interferes

• related to recency effect (recently learned remembered better)

primacy effect

better recall for items at beginning of list, or first learned

proactive interference

• trouble learning recent material because first learned material interferes

• related to primacy effect (first learned remembered better)

central executive

• complex cognitive activities

• does not store info

executive processes

• focusing attention

• dividing attention

• switching attention

• interfacing with LTM

miyake’s executive functions

• inhibition function

• shifting function

• updating function

dysexecutive syndrome

damage to frontal lobe causing impairment to central executive and working memory

phonological loop

• speech-based information is processed and stored

• 4 chunk capacity

• 2 components: speech perception and speech production

word-length effect

• number of words recalled immediately in correct order is greater for short words

• effect depends on rehearsal

visuospatial sketchpad

• temporary storage and manipulation of visual patterns and spatial movement

• 2 components: visual cache and inner scribe

  • can use components at the same time, but not 1 component twice

visual cache

info about visual form and color

inner scribe

info about space and movement

episodic buffer

• holds integrated info about episodes

• 4 chunk capacity

simple span

test where participant sees series of letters and must recreate list after last item is presented

maxispan

immediate serial recall task, but told to rehearse a limited number of letter

maxispan experiment results

• Dramatic increase in spans with maxispan procedure compared with simple span procedure

• Spans approaching 8

• Simple spans don't just measure STM capacity, but also reflect the complex interplay between different structures and cognitive processes

childhood amnesia

few memories of early years of life, none from before age 3

reminiscence bump

disproportionately great number of memories from ages 10-30

effect of rehearsal on recall (age)

• before age 3, rehearsal worsens recall because memory is too fragile and will become confused

• after age 3, rehearsal facilitates recall

narrative style

• way in which one reminisces or narrates past events

• style influences the quality of childhood memories (more detail, better recall)

elaborative style

• long and richly detailed discussion of past events

• most likely to be used on daughters

pragmatic style

• succinct and contains less detail and elaboration

• most likely to be used on sons

relationship between language and autobiographical memory

• develop alongside each other

• development of language allows for verbal expression of memory, but not storage

sense of self

knowledge that one is a person with unique and recognizable characteristics

relationship between sense of self and autobiographical memory

• sense of self organizes autobiographical experiences

• determining factor in emergence of autobiographical memory

relationship between culture and childhood memories

• individualistic→ early memories feature personal autonomy

• collectivistic→ early memories feature social/group relationships

critical factors to development of autobiographical memory

• basic explicit memory abilities must be in place

• language takes on prominent role, enabling encoding

• engage in discussion with adults about their memories

• developing consciousness about past

reasoning for reminiscence bump

• important and distinctive memories

• identity formation

• cognitive tools to form life story and reasons to have a life story develop in this time

• cognitive abilities and brain function are at their peak

relationship between importance of memory and recall

• while in adolescence, importance doesn’t affect recall

• when older, importance has a positive effect on recall

self-memory system model

• model that highlights relationship between self and memory

• 2 main components: autobiographical memory knowledge base, and working self

autobiographical memory knowledge base

personal information at 3 levels of specificity:

1. lifetime periods: substantial period of time

2. general events: repeated or single event

3. event-specific: image/feeling/detail from event

working self

the self, what it may become, current goals

generative retrieval

deliberate or voluntary construction of autobiographical memories based on current goals

• more vocalization

• memories involve working self

• activation in prefrontal cortex

direct retrieval

involuntary recall of autobiographical memory triggered by specific cue

• does not involve working self

• faster

• less vocalization

• more specific memories, less significant, and less relevant to identity

• activation in hippocampus

agentic personality

• emphasis on independence, achievement, personal power

• these individuals recall agentic memories

communal personality

• emphasis on interdependence, similarity to others

• these individuals recall communal memories

brain structures involved in autobiographical memories

• prefrontal cortex+amygdala (retrieval)

• fronto-parietal network (construction)

• cingulooperculum network (construction)

• medial prefrontal cortex network (construction+elaboration)

• medial temporal lobe network (construction+elaboration)

anterograde amnesia

problem in encoding, storing, or retrieving new memories

retrograde amnesia

problem in encoding, storing, or retrieving old memories

source amnesia

difficulty in recollecting source of a given memory

consolidation

memory traces are initially fragile and become more resistant to forgetting as time passes

ribot’s law

older memories are more durable than newer ones

photo-taking impairment effect

participants are less likely to remember objects they photograph rather than just observing

offloading hypothesis

thinking information is remembered because you know it will be available later

transactive memory

shared memory, relying on other person/tech to remember info

attentional-disengagement hypothesis

when people take photos they disengage for a moment to take the photo, leading them to encode less deeply

concept

mental representations of categories

borderline item

item that is not clearly in or out of category, people will change their mind about its membership

typicality

items seen as typical members of a category (judged as a category member more and faster)

family resemblance theory

items are likely to be typical if they resemble items in the category, and don’t resemble items outside of the category

category hierarchy

more concrete categories are nested inside larger abstract categories

basic-level category

• most salient category an object can fall into

• intermediate level of specificity

• preferred category for labeling and learning

• not universal

classical view of categorization

• items classified into categories if they have certain features that are both necessary and sufficient

• difficult to specify concepts this way

• implies absolute, clear-cut boundaries to categories

prototype theory of categorization

• people have summary representation of categories

• represented as a set of weighted features

• fails to capture sensitivity to context

prototype

most typical item in a category

exemplar theory of categorization

• claims that concept of category is remembered examples of that category

• classifying new object is comparing it to exemplars of category and fitting it based on similarity to exemplar

psychological essentialism

• belief that categories have underlying “essence”

• essence can be changed for inanimates, but not animates

signs of essentialism

• objects are either in or out of category

• resistance to change of category

• essence is passed onto offspring

category verification task

used to determine how we access categorical knowledge

feature verification task

used to assess how the features of categories are stored and accessed

semantic network

knowledge representation scheme to understand group of related concepts, with specific links and nodes

spreading activation model

• concept nodes linked in associative network

• links represent variety of relationships

• concept presented → node activated → activation spreads through links

• activation spread becomes summed up, if activation passes threshold, concept is activated and belongs

semantic priming

tendency for processing of one stimulus to enhance processing of a related stimulus

natural categories

occur naturally in the world, define themselves, share basic features

artifact categories

objects/conventions designed by humans to serve particular functions, don’t share basic features

ad hoc categories

formed in service of some goal (ex. things to take on vacation)

similarity-based approach

categorization is a matter of judging the similarity between target object and some standard in LTM

semantic dementia

cognitive and language deficit, involving word comprehension and related semantic processing

imagery

mental representation of things not currently seen or sensed

dual-code theory

we use both pictorial and verbal codes for representing information in our minds

analog code

mental images that resemble the objects they are representing

symbolic code

form of knowledge representation that’s been chosen arbitrarily for something that doesn’t perceptually resemble what’s being represented

propositional theory

we do not store mental representations in images or words, but in abstract form of proposition

epiphenoma

secondary and derivative phenomoena that occur as result of more basic cognitive processes (ex. the experience of mental representations as images)

proposition

meaning underlying a particular relationship among concepts

predicate calculus

• shorthand means of expressing underlying meaning of relationship

• [relationship between elements] ([subject element],[object element])

mental image vs. actual perception

• we represent and use mental images the same way as actual perception

• this contradicts propositional theory

• true for rotations and distance judgments

functional equivalence hypothesis

children and adults take the same time to perceive things visually

bizarreness effect

bizarreness improves memory but not visual imagery

decision making

selecting one option from several possibilities

judgement

deciding on likelihood of various events using incomplete information

bayesian inference

form of statistical inference where initial beliefs/prior probabilities are modified by evidence/experience to produce posterior probabilities