PSY 201 EXAM 4- University of Oregon

Representing verbal info

retain gist/ meaning vs. exact wording

when told a story people retain the gist of the story not the exact wording

Visual-spatial information

stored as propositions (verbal statements) or as visual images ( a visual representation that preserves spatial and form information)

Evidence for a visual-spatial format

3 ways:

1) Scanning experiments

2)mental rotation experiments

3) eidetic imagery

Scanning experiments

memorize map of island. Then, imagine map of island. Scan from location x to location y. RT is proportional to distance between the 2 points

mental rotation experiments

presents subjects with letters some of which are mirrors reversed and rotated at varying degrees from upright

Task--identify as quickly as possible if letter is mirror reversed

Results: time required to respond depends on degree of rotation

Evidence: that subjects mentally rotate figure to upright position to compare it with an image stored in memory

eidetic imagery

long lasting and detailed images of a visual scene. Can be scanned or "looked at"

representation of Concepts (word meanings)

Concept refer to categories of things

Prototype theory of concepts

picture-like representation of typical or average member of a category

I.e. word meanings/concepts are not just definitional, but are represented by prototypes (the average/typical member)

Hierarchical model of semantic (conceptual) memory

Each category has properties which are stored as high as possible in the hierarchy lower categories inherit the properties of the higher categories to which they belong

Links between different categories and between categories and their properties

basic level of hierarchy

middle level,the level at which people best think about and categorized an object

why are having categorical representations useful?

Rapid organization,classification, and prediction of aspects of experiences

Also helps in reasoning and communicating about the world

forgetting curve (short term)

have similar shapes

i.e.learning faces, pictures, etc

forgetting curve (long term)

have different shapes,

i.e. a foreign language test

Forgetting is due to (3 things)

decay,interference, or lack of appropriate retrieval cues

Retroactive interference

inhibitory effect of new material on old (e.g. learning a new phone # or address suddenly makes it hard to retrieve the old info)

Proactive interference

Inhibitory effect of old material on new (e.g. initially learning how to pronounce a word wrong-"colonel" affects one's ability to do it right in the future).

(is greatest when the different learning tasks involve similar items)

Retrieval cues

Recall vs. Recognition

Recalling info

no stimulus present to help

i.e. essay exams

Recognizing info

stimulus is there providing retrieval cues

i.e. multiple choice exam

Context-dependent memory

refers to improved recall of specific episodes or information when the context present at encoding and retrieval are the same

i.e. scuba divers learn words either on land or underwater. Better recall if tested in same environment

state-dependent memory

memory retrieval is most efficient when an individual is in the same state of consciousness as they were when the memory was formed

i.e. word learning with or without marijuana

Remembering

an active inferential process influenced by a person's general knowledge of the world

Bartlett (1932)-- remembering pictures and stories

students are told a old native story and asked to remember it and they tend to 1) simplify the story; 2) changed the emphasis, 3) assimilate--change details to fit their own cultural background or knowledge

Remembering pictures→ serial reproduction of pictures

10 subjects. Subject 1 saw the original figure and was asked to reproduce it ½ hour later. Subject 2 saw subjects 1's reproduction and so on. The figure shows the original drawing and the 10 serial reproductions, illustrating a massive reconstruction process

Loftus

information added after an event can affect people's apparent memory

i.e.Traffic accident film

Other experiments on remembering

indicate that new information supplements or competes with (or. replaces) the original information

i.e. When misleading information is pitted against original memory subjects perform poorly . However, when misleading info not pitted against original information, subjects perform just as well as non-misled subjects

Repressed memories

repressed memories of traumatic events (such as childhood physical or sexual abuse) that resurfaces later in life

False memory syndrome

describes a condition in which a person's identity and relationships are affected by memories that are factually incorrect but that they strongly believe

(Loftus and other question the accuracy of repressed memories, especially those that are recovered during psychotherapy)

work at the UO by Dr. Freyd and by other in the field show the following

1.Memory accuracy and memory persistence (recovered or continuous) are independent. We can have memories that are largely true of false whether recovered or continuous

2.Repressing memories of abuse is more likely when the perpetrator is a caregiver, such as a parent than when they are not the caregiver such as a family friend or stranger

3.Forgetting occurs for many different types of trauma

The in class video (about the woman that was raped) showed what?

that picking a person from a lineup who looks similar to the criminal (who is not in the lineup) can later lead to problems in correctly identifying the real criminal

Anatomy of Sensory systems

Primary sensory areas→ high level sensory areas (It cortex) ←> Hippocampus/Amygdala

what are "medial temporal lobe" structures

hippocampus and amygdala

Damage to the IT cortex

deficits in pattern recognition (e.g. visual agnosia) → this is where long term memories are stored

Damage to Medial Temporal Lobe (MTL) Structures (Hippocampus and Amygdala) Result in:

anterograde and retrograde amnesia

Anterograde Amnesia

difficulty in establishing new memories

unable to form new declarative memories (episodic and semantic memories)

Retrograde Amnesia

difficulty in retrieving memories formed just before the onset of amnesia (i.e. before the time that the damage occurred) IN other words, lose youngest memories (i.e. newly established memories which are the most vulnerable)

Case HM

surgery which removed his hippocampus and amygdala to treat severe epilepsy

Case HM: what was lost

declarative memories (Anterograde amnesia)

e.g.memory for pictures,new faces, anything read about in a magazine, new address of family, etc

and

Retrograde Amnesia-- lost declarative memories up to -1 year before the surgery

Case HM: what was preserved

STM (can correctly repeat 6-7 digits), language, social skills, personality, memory for the remote/distant past (everything up to 1 year before his surgery) & procedural memory

Could learn and retain new procedural skills/memories

(E.g. sensory-motor skill learning (tracing mirror image pattern); conditioning)

consolidation

Need interaction between MTL structures and cortex to establish new long-term declarative memories in cortex

(the integration of new memories with old ones) and it takes time

language is

creative, structured, meaningful, referential, interpersonal/communicative

creative

a limitless # of thoughts can be expressed in a limitless # of ways

Structured

sounds are combined into words, and words into sentences according to rules (i.e. grammar)

Meaningful

ideas are conveyed by individual words and how they are organized into sentences

i.e. the cat bit the dog

The dog bit the cat

(Same words by different meanings)

Referential

it refers to and describes things and events in the world

i.e.Children must learn the mapping (between words and things/events in world)

Interpersonal/Communicative

has a social function

i.e.Can you tell me the time

Competence

what one knows

Implicit knowledge

knowing what's right

i.e.plural,wordness,syntactic, competence

Explicit knowledge

explain in terms of formal rules (grammar)

i.e. Most knowledge is implicit, unless you are a linguist, English major, or English is a 2nd language

Performance

what one does; how knowledge is used (often make mistakes). Competence is usually better than performance

How many languages in the world?

7000 different languages in the world today

What is the basic hierarchical structure?

Sounds(phonemes)--> words (morphemes)--> phrases→ sentences→ conversations

phoneme

elementary sounds of speech

There are vowel (e.g. "e") and consonant (e.g. "t') sounds

Are NOT letters (e.g. to,too,two,through,threw,shoe,clue,view)

11-144 of these in any given language

Combining these-- is rule governed: some sound combinations are pronounceable but not allowed

e.g. "tl" is not allowed at the beginning of a word (in english)

Morpheme

the smallest meaningful unit of language

Can be:

Word (e.g. help, love)

Word Stem (e.g. spir,ceive,duce)

Prefix (e.g. re-,dis-)

Suffix(e.g.-less,-ful)

2 types of these

Content words

carry the main meaning of the sentences. Includes nouns,verbs, adjectives, and adverbs

Function words

grammatical words. Includes articles (a,the), conjunctions (and,but), prepositions (in,of), and prefixes and suffixes (-ing,-ed,-s)

syntax

the rule governed system for grouping of words together into phrases and sentences

e.g. English word order-SVO

(subject,verb,object)

Organizing Words into Meaningful Sentences

Sentences introduce somes concept that they are about, the subject ( or noun phrase of the sentence, and then propose or predicate something about that concept, the predicate (or verb phrase) of sentence

E.g. " The boy (subject) hit the ball (predicate)"

Sentences can have the same meaning (same deep structure) but different surface phrase structures (different surface structure)

Deep structure

the implicit meaning of sentences

surface structure

the sound and order of words

passive sentence structure

E.g. "the ball was hit by the boy"

focuses on the "done-to" (the ball) vs. the "doer" (the boy)

active sentence structure

E.g. "the boy hit the ball"

focuses on the "doer" (the boy) vs. the "done-to" (the ball)

Sentences can have the same surface structure but different deep structure (i.e. meanings)

E.g. "Visiting relatives can be boring"

E.g. "Smoking volcanoes can be dangerous"

Similar to ambiguous figures (1 form, 2 interpretations). News headlines are often guilty of being ambiguous

One can tell whether a sentence is grammatical or not, even if it doesn't make sense (or contains non-words)

E.g. "colorless green ideas sleep furiously." vs. "furiously idea colorless green sleep"

spoonerisms

"Slips of the tongue"

errors in speech production in which two elements in a sentence (e.g. phonemes,morphemes) are mistakenly interchanged in position

language comprehension

Strong bias in English to interpret sentence as: doer, act,done-to ( i.e. subject, verb, object)

use grammatical morphemes to interpret sentences that don't follow the doer, act, done-to

format

Where is language located for most people

left hemisphere

Broca's Aphasia

syntactic deficit(sentence grammar),problems interpreting and producing grammatical

morphemes/words (OK with content words); trouble producing language (telegraphic

speech)

telegraphic speech

use as few words as possible to get across meaning (using mostly content words vs. function/grammatical words. Also deficient in use and understanding of function/grammatical words)

Wernicke's Aphasia

semantic deficits(meaning/content) => serious problems in comprehending the

meaning of language; superficially fluent speech without meaning (deficient in

content words but not grammatical morphemes/words)

A Broca's Aphasic will have brain damage in the ____ lobe causing a _____ deficit; while a Wernicke's Aphasic will have brain damage in the ______ lobe causing a ______ deficit

frontal;syntactic;temporal;semantic

Language in humans requires the ability to

1.Represent objects or events with symbols (language is referential)

2.Combine symbols in a systematic way (syntax)

Older ape research: ( on chimpanzees- e.g. Washoe,Nim)

Words?:can acquire a substantial number of "words"

E.g. after 4 years, Washoe learned -130 signs for objects (banana,han), actions (bite,tickle), and action modifiers (enough,more).

Syntax?:e.g. does Washoe know the difference between: "mama tickles Washoe" and "washoe tickles mama?"

Some researchers/trainers claimed the apes could string words into meaningful sentences and even coin new phrases (e.g. water bird" for a swan; "cookie rock" for a stale pastry)

Research on Bonobo Chimps

Kanzi. Given no formal or explicit language instructions;uses a lexigram keyboard. More careful studies

Words?:By 6 years matches -200 spoken English words to appropriate to most of -300 novel sentences

Comprehension?:Researchers suggest that Kanzi is aware that communication is social interaction-many utterances directed towards social games (vs. food)

Syntax?: limited--tends to consistently produce action-object sequences

e.g. hit ball, Chase/hide someone