Cognitive Psychology

Memory

Stages of Memory

  • Encoding (Process)

  • Storage (Maintain)

  • Retrieval (Recall)

Latent Learning: the type of learning that occurs without immediate reinforcement but becomes apparent when there is motivation to demonstrate it.

The Multi-Store Model

Sensory Memory (SM)

  • Function: Holds sensory information (sights, sounds, etc.) for a very short time.

  • Duration: Less than a second for visual information (iconic memory) and 2-4 seconds for auditory information (echoic memory).

  • Capacity: Very large but only a small amount is passed on.

  • How it moves to the next store: If attention is paid to the information, it moves to short-term memory (STM).

Short-Term Memory (STM)

  • Function: Temporarily holds information we are currently thinking about.

  • Duration: About 18-30 seconds unless rehearsed.

  • Capacity: Limited (around 7±2 items, according to Miller’s law).

  • How it moves to the next store: If rehearsed (especially through maintenance rehearsal), it transfers to long-term memory (LTM).

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

  • Function: Stores information for long periods, potentially indefinitely.

  • Duration: Can last a lifetime.

  • Capacity: Unlimited.

  • Retrieval: Information is retrieved back into STM when needed.

Key Processes in MSM

  • Encoding: Information is processed in different forms (e.g., visual, auditory, semantic).

  • Storage: Holding the information in either STM or LTM.

  • Retrieval: Accessing stored information when needed.

This model is linear, meaning information flows in one direction from SM → STM → LTM. It emphasizes the role of rehearsal in memory transfer but has been criticized for being too simplistic (e.g., it doesn't explain why we remember things without rehearsal).

Sensory Memory

  • Iconic: Last 1/20th of second

  • Echoic: Last 3 or 4 seconds

Iconic lasts less because one is likely to grasp on to auditory pro

Working Memory Model

  • Short-term memory is more complex

  • Short-term Memory = Working Memory

    • Visual Spatial Sketchpad (visual and spatial information)

    • Phonological Loop (spoken and written information)

Capacity of Short-Term Memory

  • 15-30 seconds or 7 items (+/-2)

    • Words

    • Numbers

    • Phrases

We can remember more if this is organized!

Biological Process of Memory

Long-term Potentiation: Synaptic connections between neurons become stronger with frequent activation.

Levels of Processing Model

Shallow _____Structural __Phonemic _____Semantic_______Deep

Types of Information Processing

Automatic Processing: Unconscious and effortless encoding of information into memory

  • EX: brushing teeth, walking, tying shoes

Effortful Processing: Conscious and deliberate encoding of information into memory

  • EX: studying for a test.

Effortful Processing Strategies to Improve Encoding

Chunking: grouping information together into meaningful chunks or categories

Mnemonic Devices: a strategy that helps one remember by using a word/phrase

Method of Loci: Adding numbers or letters to each part of a room to remember

Spacing Effect

  • Massed Practice: cramming studies in 4 hours

  • Distributed practice: chunking studying out for 1 hour every day.

Serial Position Effect: Information presented at the beginning of a list (primacy effect) or the end of a list (recency effect) will be more memorable than information presented in the middle of the list.

Hierarchies: A branching/nested set of categories and subcategories.

Deep or Semantic Processing: When coding information, one is more likely to retain it if one can deeply process even a simple word list by focusing on the semantics (meaning) of the words.

Ebbinghaus’ Retention Curve: The more time spent on learning something, the fewer repetitions were needed to relearn.

Priming: the activation of a particular association in memory.

Memory Storage

  • Sensory Memory: HIGH capacity, LOW duration

  • Short-Term Memory: LOW capacity, LOW duration

  • Long-Term Memory: HIGH capacity, HIGH duration

Rehearsal

  • Maintenance Rehearsal: Simply repeating information to keep it in short-term memory for a brief period of time

  • Elaborative Rehearsal: Connects new information to existing knowledge, creating deeper processing and better long-term memory retention

Superior Memory Storage

Autobiographical Memory: Collection of memories of a person’s life

  • Explains why memories connected to our own lives are more memorable

  • Suggests that there are biological processes for superior memory storage due to highly superior autobiographical memory

  • Increased activity in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus

Storage Impairments

Autograde amnesia: When the hippocampus is damaged, resulting in the inability to “create” long-term memories and forcing a person to always live in the present (50 First Dates, the case of Clive Wearing)

Retrograde amnesia: forgetting events that occurred before an injury or trauma

  • NO DAMAGE TO HIPPOCAMPUS, loss of episodic memories

Infantile amnesia: implicit memories are retained, but explicit memories only go back to 3 years old for most

  • This is an encoding failure because the hippocampus has not been developed.

Alzheimer’s Disease: A brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills.

  • Associated with the loss of acetylcholine

Memory Retrieval

Recall: “Fill in the blanks”

  • Information that is previously learned are retrieved and unconsciously stored

  • Ex: Recalling celebrities, or names of countries

Recognition: “Multiple Choice”

  • One identifies which stimuli matches the stored information

  • Ex: choosing a best answer from a list of possibilities to answer a question

Enhancing Retrieval

Context Dependent Memory: in the same environmental space

  • Ex: studying in the same classroom you will take the test in

State Dependent Memory: in the same physical and mental space

  • Ex: chewing gum while learning the info, then chewing gum while taking the test.

Testing Effect: You’re likely to perform better on a test if you do flashcards and practice tests, rather than reading the textbook.

Metacognition: thinking about thinking

  • Ex: self assessment, goal setting, etc

Memory Failure

Encoding failure: Can not remember what has been encoded. This is mostly age related.

Storage Decay: Memory declines over time if there is no effort to retain the information

  • 80% of what is learned is lost within 24 hours without recitation/review

  • People typically lose what they learn within 3 months.

Psychodynamic Theory of Forgetting

  • Created by Sigmund Freud, the theory was known as repression (motivational forgetting)

    • The pushing out of painful, embarrassing and threatening memories out of consciousness

Retrieval Failure

Retrieval failure: Information is in long term memory but can not be accessed.

  • Tip of the Tongue: feeling that a memory is available but not quite retrievable. This can be frustrating but normal

This stems from interference:

  • Proactive Interference: occurs when prior learning interferes with recall of new information

  • Retroactive interference: occurs when new learning disrupts recall of old information.

Mnemonic: Proactive interferes with Old learning, Retroactive interferes with New learning

Accuracy of Memories

Misinformation Effect: Incorporating misleading information into ones memory of an event.

Constructive Memory: The process of creating and updating memories based on existing knowledge, beliefs and experiences

  • EX: You witness a car accident. Police ask for the color of the car and you say it was red. You said red because of a car you saw earlier that you saw earlier that day.

Imagination Inflation: Occurs when someone mistakenly believes that an event happened because they imagined it. This contributes to misinformation effect and constructive memory.

  • Ex: False confessions

Creativity, Thinking and Problem Solving

Creativity: The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas within any discipline, including art, music, architecture, mathematics, science and engineering.

Two kinds of thinking influence creativity:

  • Convergent thinking: only one correct answer

    • Multiple choice test questions/intelligence tests

  • Divergent thinking: can have several or many possible responses

    • “How many ways can you use a paperclip?”

5 components of creativity

  • Expertise

  • Imaginative thinking skills

  • Adventuresome personality

  • Intrinsic motivation

  • A creative environment

Problem solving: the thinking we do to answer a complex question or to figure out how to resolve an unfavorable situation.

Ways to Solve Problems

Trial and error: try out different solutions until one works.

  • Best when a problem has few solutions

Insight: a sudden understanding about what is required to solve a problem

  • “Light bulb moment”

Heuristics

Availability heuristic: likelihood of an event based on how much it stands out in our mind

  • EX: afraid to swim because of seeing “Jaws”

Representative heuristic: when we judge how something represents or matches certain prototypes we have

Obstacles to Problem Solving

Overconfidence: overestimate the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments

  • FACT: only 50% of people in any particular field can be above average

  • FACT: about 70% of the people in the U.S. describe themselves as above average

Sunk Fallacy: continuing a course of action once you have committed time, effort and money

  • EX: finish reading a boring book

Gambler’s Fallacy: the mistaken belief that independent events are interrelated

  • EX: I have flipped a coin with heads showing up the last 5 flips, tails is bound to be next

Cognitive Bias: ways of thinking that veer us away from natural conclusions.

  • Framing: the way an issue is posed

    • EX: You have a 1 in 175 million chance in winning the lottery, but phrases like “One person has to win. It could be you” makes it seem more likely

Confirmation bias: the tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions

  • EX: gun control issue

Belief perseverance: holding on to your ideas over time, and actively rejecting information that contradicts your ideas

  • EX: high school rumor

Fixation: inability to see a problem from a new perspective

  • Mental Set: the tendency to approach a problem in one way

  • Functional fixedness: tendency to think of thinks only in terms of their usual functions.

Intelligence

Intelligence: the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use the knowledge to adapt to new situations

Ways to Define Intelligence

G factor: general intelligence

  • Created by Charles Spearman

  • If people scored high in one factor, they will generally score high on other factors

  • Most modern psychology tests measure a g factor.

Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

  • Created by Robert Sternberg, who believed intelligence was composed of three parts:

    • Analytical

    • Creative

    • Practical

Savant Syndrome: A person with an intellectual disorder or autism spectrum disorder who demonstrates exceptional cognitive abilities

Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory: Believed the conventional concept of intelligence was too narrow and measures of IQ would miss out on other “intelligences”

Extremes of Intelligence

Gifted: Score over 130

Intellectually disabled: score over 70

How is intelligence measured?

The History of Assessing Intelligence

  • Created by Sir Francis Galton

  • Cousin of Darwin

  • Wanted to use intelligence testing for eugenics (selective reproduction to enhance the capabilities of the human race)

Albert Binet founded the modern intelligence test

  • Stanford-Binet Scale - Lewis Terman

    • Mental age: age level at which you function mentally

    • Intelligence Quotient (IQ): take the mental age provided by the exam divided by the actual age multiplied by 100

Assessment Measures

Assessments: evaluations or tests of ability or other traits

  • Achievement tests: identify what individuals know and test their skill levels in different areas

    • Unit or final exams

    • Upcoming AP exam

  • Aptitude test: measure ability in certain area, such as numerical, verbal, or mechanical reasoning

    • Problem solving in work related situations

Modern Intelligence Tests

The Weshsler Tests

  • Used more widely now than Stanford Binet

  • David Wechsler believed the Stanford-Binet test did not measure all of a person’s intelligence

  • Designed to measure intelligence and cognitive ability in adults and other adolescents

  • WISC( tests for 6-16) to understand whether or not a child is gifted and determine cognitive weaknesses

Psychological Tests MUST be

  • Standardized

  • Reliable

  • Valid

Standardized Scoring

Standardization: “norming a test”

  • Refers to determining what the “norm” is for typical, randomly selected people taking the test, allowing for the comparison between an individual score to the norm

  • Standard distribution curve looks like this:

  • Mean of 100

  • Standard deviation of 15

Restandardization and the “Flynn Effect”

Restandardization: Retesting a sample of the general population to make an updated, accurate comparison group in case people are smarter than the last generation when the test was first made.

The Flynn Effect: Performance on intelligence tests has improved over the years, worldwide.