Perspectives in psychology (biology)

• The Mind Is Adaptive What does it mean that our mind makes “best guesses” about the world? Why do we have cognitive biases? 

• Bottom-up processing vs Top-down processing 

• 
  

  • Range of Processes Controlled processes vs automatic processes 

  • Cognitive Psychology Strengths vs weaknesses 

Spring 2024 – PSY 155 - Study Guide Cognitive Module 

Working Memory vs Long-Term Memory (Reading: Mantonakis et al., 2009) 

• William James (1842-1910) Primary vs Secondary Memory ▪ Short-term vs Long-term memory 

• What is rehearsal? What is it’s function in terms of Working Memory? 

• 
  

  • How do we know that Working Memory (i.e., short-term memory) and Long-Term Memory are separate systems? → IMPORTANT! Behavioral evidence ▪ Serial Position Curve (Murdock, 1962; Brodie & Murdock, 1977; Glantzer & Cunitz, 1966)) Mantonakis et al. (2009) → Serial Position in Choices 

  • Neuropsychological evidence ▪ Double dissociations 

  • Why do we call it “Working” memory? 

• Working Memory Capacity George Miller (1920-2012) ▪ 7 ± 2 “bits” of information 

• Chunking ▪ 4± 1 “chunks” of information 

Levels of Processing (Reading: Soderstrom & McCabe, 2011) 

• What is incidental memory? What did Craik and Lockhart (1972) meant by saying that “most learning in everyday life is incidental”? 

• Types of Rehearsal Maintenance vs elaborative rehearsal ▪ Shallow vs Deep processing 

• Craik & Tulving (1975) What did they in this study? What did they found? → IMPORTANT! 

• Other types of “deep” processing Self-reference effect (Rogers, Kuiper, & Kirker, 1977) 

• Generation effect 

• Enactment effect 

• Survival processing (Nairne et al., 2007) Soderstrom & McCabe (2011) → Is survival processing special? 

Spring 2024 – PSY 155 - Study Guide Cognitive Module 

Attention & Encoding (Reading: Henkel, 2014) 

• Three basic processes in Long-Term Memory Encoding 

• Storage 

• Retrieval 

• Encoding errors How does “pay” attention impacts encoding? ▪ Inattentional blindness 

• ▪ Nickerson & Adams (1979) 

• ▪ Blake et al. (2015) 

• ▪ Henkel (2014) → What is the “photo impairment effect” and how does it connect attention and memory? → IMPORTANT 

• 
  

  • What attracts attention? Distinctiveness ▪ Hedwig von Restroff (1906 – 1962) The von Restroff effect (aka, the Isolation effect) 

Storage & Retrieval (Reading: Abel et al. 2023) 

• Long-term Memory Limitless storage capacity 

• Storage errors Proactive Interference (Keppel & Underwood, 1962) ▪ Release from Proactive Interference (Wickens, 1973) 

• Abel et al. (2023) → What is Retroactive Interference and how does sleep helps to prevent it? 

• Availability vs Accessibility What does it mean for a memory to be available but not accessible? 

• Encoding Specificity → IMPORTANT! What kind of things can serve as useful retrieval cues? ▪ Context-dependent memory (Godden & Baddeley, 1975) 

• ▪ Mood-dependent memory (Eich & Metcalfe, 1989) 

• ▪ State-dependent memory (Eich et al., 1975) 

  • ▪ Transfer-appropriate processing (Morris et al., 1977) Relation to Levels of Processing? 

Spring 2024 – PSY 155 - Study Guide Cognitive Module 

Episodic vs Semantic Memory (Reading: Pansky & Koriat, 2004) 

• Explicit vs Implicit Memories What does conscious awareness has to do with this distinction? 

• Be sure to be able to provide examples for each one! → IMPORTANT! 

• Explicit Memories: Episodic vs Semantic Differences in terms of: ▪ Affective (emotional) vs non-affective (neutral) 

• ▪ Past vs Present 

• ▪ Personal vs shared 

• What did Tulving (1985) meant by saying that episodic recollection is like “mental time-travel”? 

• How do we know these are separate memory systems? Remember/Know Paradigm 

• Case studies: ▪ Patient L. P. (DeRenzi et al., 1987) 

  • ▪ Patient K. C. (Rosenbaum et al., 2005) Retrograde Amnesia Theodule Ribot (1839-1916) ▪ Ribot’s Law What does this tells about the relationship between Episodic and Semantic memory? → IMPORTANT! 

• Structure of Semantic Memory Early (hierarchical) models (Collins & Quillian, 1969) ▪ Similarity to computers 

• ▪ Weakness? Pansky & Koriat (2004) → What is the “optimal” level of abstract representation in memory? What is the “Basic-level Convergence Effect”? 

• Network models (Collins & Loftus, 1975) ▪ Advantages over hierarchical models? 

• ▪ Spreading Activation Model (SAM) What is spreading activation? How can we measure it? ▪ Associative priming 

• Schemata What are schemas? 

• What are “scripts”? ▪ How can schemas aid our memories? (Bransford & Johnson, 1972) 

• ▪ How can schemas distort our memories? (Bewer & Treyens, 1981; Barlett 1932) 

Spring 2024 – PSY 155 - Study Guide Cognitive Module 

False Memories (Reading: Clancy et al., 2002) 

• Memory Reconstruction What did LeDoux (2009) meant by saying that “your memory is only as good as your last memory”? 

• Why are episodic memories more likely to be reconstructed than semantic memories? 

• Measuring false memories in the laboratory The Misinformation Effect ▪ Loftus & Palmer (1974) 

• ▪ Loftus, Miller, & Burns (1978) 

• The DRM paradigm 

• Autobiographical Interviews ▪ Loftus & Pickrell (1995) 

• Imagination Inflation ▪ Clancy et al. (2002) → How does false memories created in a laboratory setting relate to those in the “real” world? 

• Eyewitness Memory Unconscious Transference (Ross et al., 1994) 

• Simultaneous vs Sequential police lineups