cognitive processes exam 3

mon (7.1) CATCH UP

LO: understand how conceptual knowledge is organized into categories

  • conceptual knowledge - knowledge that enables us to recognize objects/events and make inferences about their properties

    • concepts - categories of objects, events, ideas

    • categories - all possible examples of a given concept

    • categorization - process of assigning something to a category

    • categories become pointers of knowledge, once you know something about an object or event, you can categorize the info

LO: know the 3 behavioral approaches to forming categories and their limitations

  • 1) definitional approach - determine category membership based on whether item meets definition (contains the features) of the category

    • AKA featural approach

    • ex) you know dogs feature furry, four legs, barks, wags tail → so when presented picture of dog, you retrieve knowledge of said features and make sure all boxes are checked

    • problem:

      • 1 - some categories do not readily lend themselves to feature analysis (definitions can apply to things outside the category)

      • 2 - violation of defining features does not change the category

pollEV: according to definitional approach, members of a category must share _ definign features?

  • Answer: ALL

  • 2) prototype approach - determine category membership by comparing item to prototype that resembles the category

    • contrasts definitional, if you had a checklist, you don’t have to check every box, only some

    • family resemblance: items in category resemble one another in variety of ways (ex. dogs in different costumes are different physically, but still dogs) *THIS IS A STRENGTH OF THIS APPROACH

    • prototype - typical member of a category that has most of the characteristic features

      • ex) prototypical bird is a drawing of a bird, but it matches the characteristics of the real thing

      • prototype of a bird is the set features (flies, sings, lays eggs, small, nests in trees)

        • highly typical bird - shares more features with prototype (ex. wren)

        • less typical bird - shares fewer features with prototype (ex. heron)

        • least typical bird - shares even fewer features with prototype (ex. penguin)

    • typicality - how closely a category member resembles category prototype

      • ex) sports

      • high typicality members:

        • are named first within the category and rated as being more representative

        • are rated as more representative of the category

        • have more overlapping characteristics of the category

    • sentence verification technique - read statement and judge whether it is true

      • high typicality members are:

        • verified more rapidly

        • are more affected by priming

pollEV: according to prototype approach, members of category share _ features with the typical member category member

  • ANSWER: SOME

  • 3) exemplar approach - determine category membership by comparing the item to exemplars of the category

    • exemplar - previously encountered member of a category

      • exemplar is to having many of, prototype is to having a single average

      • exemplar is to having experienced before, prototype is to not having experienced before

      • thus, this approach bases categorization from the many exemplars, and does not use a single prototype

      • 1) retrieve exemplars, 2) check object is similar to exemplar

      • categorization faster when items more similar to exemplars

      • problems 1 - unclear how many exemplars are compared or how similarity if computed

  • what do humans actually do?

    • combo prototype and exemplar

    • extent to which item fits in category affects perceived attractiveness

    • extent to which item fits into category affects stereotyping

LO: understand hierarchical organization of categories and how it is affected by knowledge

  • hierarchical organization - larger, more general categories

mon (8.1)

LO: define visual imagery and know its role in other cognitive functions

  • visual imagery - seeing absence of visual stimulus

    • ex) athletes do this to visualize future action

    • ex) count kitchen drawers

    • ex) letter B that becomes a heart “rotate counterclockwise, remove backing, etc”

    • can involve working and long term memory

    • ex) exceptional visual imagery in einstein and stephen wiltshire (has autism)

    • can be used for spatial navigation - to recall landmarks, imagine alternative route

      • ex) stuck in traffic and imagine different way to school

    • can plan plan future actions

      • ex) rearranging your room

    • can improve memory

      • by allowing us to access deeper levels of processing

    • can help with reasoning and problem solving

      • ex) riddles

      • ex) which glass to tilt more to rid of water

      • aphantasia - inability to voluntarily visualize visual images

pollEV: Visual imagery is a __________ process

  • A. top-down

  • B. nondeclarative

  • C. bottom-up

  • D. physical

  • E. None of the above

  • top down is stimulus driven

  • bottom up is experience driven

LO: Know similarities and differences between visual imagery and perception

  • imagery v. perception

    • visual imagery less vivid than perception

    • visual imagery is effortful and fragile // perception is automatic and stable

      • ex) bell tower - the imagined version gives you access to more details than perception of it just standing in front of you

    • the two can be confused

      • ex) person in lab presented w faint image on screen and asked questions about it - found people’s answers match proper orientation on projector

    • visual imagery can prime perception

      • ex) participant told to create mental image of a letter and then presented with that letter (priming), asked to tell if image was shown, did better when image shown matched image primed

  • spatial representation - different parts in image correspond to specific locations in space

    • applies to perception, maybe to imagery

    • mental scanning - we create mental images and then scan them in our mind

      • ex) imagine boat in mind’s eye, focus on anchor of boat, now focus on motor → found it took longer for participant’s to imagine things further from initial point of focus

    • mental rotation - takes longer to imagine totating image further away from original image

    • symbolic distance effect - we detect more details when we are closer to a stimulus

      • does this car have door handles? - harder to tell when object is further than when object is closer

      • elephant and rabbit (rabbit smaller) vs fly and rabbit (rabbit bigger) - does rabbit have whiskers? - detect more detail when we imagine a larger rabbit

  • propositional representation - different parts of image are represented by language or symbols

    • exclusive to visual imagery, not true of perception

    • imagery may use spatial and propositional representation

    • takes longer to imagine finding parts of image further away in space

    • takes longer to imagine finding parts of image further away in semantic network

    • ex) imagining map, is Reno or LA further west

      • visual imagery you imagine LA (LA in CA, CA west of Reno, oh it must be Reno)

      • actual map is Reno (the part of Nevada Reno is in is further west than LA)

pollev: Both imagery and perception use propositional representations

Response recorded

  • True

  • False

LO: Explain ways that visual imagery can improve memory

  • capacious - something roomy and able to hold a lot

    • ex) cap spacious

  • visual imagery - memory better if you form pictures in mind

  • pegword techinique - you “hang” to-be remembered words tp “pegs” of concrete nouns that you use to create iages

    • easier when peg words are concrete not abstract (ex. truck not truth)

    • ex) remember grocery list by imagining a bun with a banana sticking out, shoe full of eggs, tree with milk carton

  • method of loci - visualize to be remembered items in different locations in a well known mental route

    • ex) remember grocery list by imagining banana door handle, eggs in entry way (specific locations)

LANGUAGE

LO: define language and know its key features

  • language - system of communication using sounds or symbols that enable us to express feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences

    • allows us to communicate

    • involves sequences of signals

    • creates images (Williams - Red Wheelbarrow)

    • language is meaningful

    • language is hierarchical

    • language follows rules

    • language is universal

    • Noam Chomsky

      • believes children don’t just learn language through imitation and reinforcement, but its inborn ability to master

        • his support - you can make sentences never said before/there are multiple ways to craft the same meaning

LO: identify structures of language

  • rules based nature - components can arrange in some ways but not others

    • semantics - meaning of word, sentence, passage

      • ex) understanding “alto” means stop despite the literal word being a learned understanding of blobs to form sounds with meanings

    • syntax - rules determining how words combine into sentence

      • You know it’s “red is my favorite color” not “color is my favorite red”

    • language (forming sentences) = semantics (word meaning) + syntax (rules for combining words)

    • hierarchial nature of language - consists of small components that can combine to make larger units

    • phonemes - smallest unit of SPEECH

    • morphemes - smallest meaningful unit of LANGUAGE

    • words - comprise of 1+ morphemes

    • sentences - meaningful collection of words

  • 4 aspects of language

    • acquisition - how we learn language

    • production - how we produce language

    • comprehension - how we understand language

    • representation - how language is represented in the mind

wed (8.2)

LO: understand how word comprehension is affected by word frequency and context

  • word comprehension

    • lexical semantics - meaning of words

      • lexicon - all words we know

      • semantics - meaning of words, sentences, passages

    • we comprehend words by finding their meaning in our mental dictionary

      • ex) let’s take selfie - we know what selfie means to know the prompt is to take a pic

    • we coMprehend words by choosing the definition that makes sense

      • ex) going on a date is a romantic hangout with someone, not sitting on the fruit (date)

  • word frequency - how often words occur

    • lexical decision task - view stimuli and indicate whether word or nonword

      • high frequency words: busy, mulvow, history

      • low frequency words: chard, boovle, waltz

    • word frequency effect - we respond FASTER to words occurring more frequently

  • word context

    • word pronunciation - how we say words is affected by speech speed, accents, slurring

      • ex) amana, juwana, dijoo

    • speech segmentation - perceive individual words even though there are often no silences between them

      • ex) #didyouseethegamelastnight

      • learned with experience

        • ex) anna mary can pi (to non english speaker) VS an american pie (to english speaker)

      • improved by learning which speech sounds occur more often

        • ex) babies learning segmentation by repeatedly hearing “HI BA-BEE” not “HI-BA BEE”

      • improved hearing words in context

        • ex) you learn difference between

          • have you met my buddy “big EARL” vs “ be a big GIRL”

      • mondegreens - mishear something/ “slips of the ear”

        • ex) hearing the wrong lyrics

      • lexical ambiguity - words with 1+ meanings

        • ex) rose - flower, color, act of standing up

      • lexical priming task - read priming sentence followed by probe word as quickly as possible

        • ex) participant reads sentence followed by probe word as fast as possible, sentence and word either have same, similar, or different meaning

          • same meaning word produces faster priming affect than others

      • biased dominance - one meaning occurs more than others

pollEV: It is easier to understand words that ____________.

A) occur more frequently

B) are spoken with a heavy accent

C) appear without their context

D) have more than one meaning

LO: Know how the garden path and constraint-based models of parsing explain sentence comprehension

  • sentence comprehension

    • phrasal semantics - meaning of sentences

      • parsing - mentally grouping words into phrases to create meaning

        • ex) [after the musician played the piano] [she left the stage]

      • phrasal semantics = lexical semantics + parsing

      • garden path sentence - sentences that begin by appearing to mean one thing, but end up meaning another

        • ex) After the musician played the piano was wheeled off the stage.

  • garden path model of parsing - listeners use heuristics to group words into phrases

    • heuristics - educated guesses, intuitive judgements, common sense to problem solve - AKA RULE OF THUMB

      • late closure - parser assumed each new word part of current phrase

        • initially rely on late closure to parse new words as part of current phrase

        • when errored we re-parse correctly (all done really fast)

  • constraint based model of parsing - listeners use syntax and other info to group words into phrases

    • easier to sentence parse when word meaning is not ambiguos

      • ex) the spy saw the man with the binoculars - who has the binoculars, the man or spy? thus, ambiguous

      • ex) vs the bird saw the man with the binoculars

    • easier to parse sentence within story context

      • ex) the horse raced past the barn fell - easier putting it in a story

    • visual word paradigm - view scene and follow instructions

      • in a study, eye movements are LESS accurate when parsing ambiguous sentence within scene context, MORE accurate with unambiguous sentence (one apple scene)

      • eye movements MORE accurate when additional scene info makes (two apple scene) sentence less ambiguous

    • easier to parse sentence with fewer demands on memory load

      • ex)

        • The senator who spotted the reporter shouted.

          • subjective relative construction - senator is subject of clause

        • The senator who the reporter spotted shouted

          • object-relative construction - senator is object of clause

pollEV: Which of the following describes best the difference between the garden path and constraint-based models?

A) the constraint-based model suggests we rely on syntax-based rules; the garden path model suggests we rely on syntax as well as word meaning, context, and memory load to group words into phrases

B) the garden path model suggests we rely on syntax-based rules; the constraint-based model suggests we rely on syntax as well as word meaning, context, and memory load to group words into phrases

C) there is no difference between these models; they both explain how we parse phrases

D) the garden path model does a better job of explaining how we can still derive meaning even when heuristics are violated

LO: Describe principles that make conversations easier to understand

  • given-new contract - speaker should construct sentences including given info (audience already knows) and new info (hearing for first time)

    • conversations violating this rule are difficult to understand

  • common ground - knowledge and beliefs shared among convo participants

    • convos w friends easy because much shared knowledge

    • referential communication task - one person must identify something (reference) being described by someone else

  • syntactic coordination - convo participants coordinate their grammatical constructs

    • more likely to respond to statement using same syntax

      • ex) responding in same order of words or adaptation of segmentation “like…” to break up speech

    • syntactic priming - hearing grammatical construction increases change that you will use it too

pollEV: The principle of ______________ states that it is easier to understand conversations when the participants already know the back story.

A) syntactic-coordination

B) the given-new contract

C) common ground

D) theory of mind

  • conversation comprehension

    • theory of mind - able to understand what other feel, think, believe

    • nonverbal communication - interpret and react to person’s body language, tone of voice, other meaningful cues

9.2 (wed)

  • catch up

  • problem restructuring

    • 1. perceive - x is unknown / 2. represent - same as image (spatial) / 3.

  • insight - sudden realization of a solution to a problem

    • enables reorganization, allowing us to see solution not previously obvious

    • insight problem

      • ex) move 3 dots to change direction of arrow

      • ex) move chains to link and unlink

    • non-insight problem

      • (1/5)x + 10 =25

    • janet mac tried to see which problems are easier to solve

  • functional fixedness - tendency to focus on similar functions or uses of objects

    • candle problem - mount candle on wall so it burns w/o dripping wax

    • easier to overcome functional fixedness when tacks presented outside box

    • two string problem - tie together two strings hanging from ceiling

  • mental set - preconceived notion about how to approach a problem

    • water jug problem - measure specific quanitity of water from 3 empty jugs of varying capacities

      • ex) measure 20 quartz of water - she tells u how, then asks you how u would do it

      • thus, prior examples establish a mental set that inhibits participants from using simpler solutions later on (i.e. you might copy how it was done in the example shown to you instead of thinking it out for yourself)

pollEV: Insight is the process of changing the way a problem is represented in your mind

  • ANSWER: FALSE

    • to make answer true, change “process” to “consequence”

LO: know info processing approach to problem solving via means end analysis

rewatch whole thing

  • information processing approach - problem solving is a search between posing of a problem and it solution

    • initial state - conditions at the beginning of a problem

    • goal state - solution to the problem

    • intermediate states - conditions after each step is made toward solving a problem

    • problem space - all possible states that can occur when solving a problem

    • operators - actions that take problem from one state to another

  • means end analysis - reduce differences between initial and goal states by creating sub goals

    • ex) travel operators - 1) shortest travel time when buying flight 2) buy tickets within budget

  • problems with info processing

    • mutilated checkerboard problem - if we eliminate 2 corners of checkerboard, can we cover remaining squares with dominos (more difficult than russian but all these problems have same problem solve, there should be no differences in the ease of solving these problems

    • russian

LO: know analogical approach to problem solving

  • analogical problem solving - attempting to solve problem using solution to similar problem

    • ex) Russian marriage solution can be used to solve mutilated checkerboard problem

  • analogical transfer - experience solving one problem is transferred to another problem

    • target problem - problem you are trying to solve

    • source problem - another problem that is similar to and may illustrate a way to solve target problem

pollEV: In the example discussed here, the source problem is _________

  • difficult to transfer

  • the radiation problem

  • what needs to be restructured

  • the fortress story

LO: understand how expertise affects problem solving

  • expert - someone skilled/knowledgeable in particular domain

    • experts solve problems more quickly and more often than beginners, they possess more knowledge about their field