IB Psychology: Learning and cognition

Cerebral cortex

  • Thin layer that covers all our brain

  • Inhibitory control

    • Our ability to control our actions

  • Prefrontal cortex

    • Part of the prefrontal lobe (layer)

      • in charge of commanding our thoughts and behaviours

      • Executive chief of all the brain

    • Attention, memory, etc.

  • Differentiates us from other animals

  • Cognitive processes

    • Processing of information in our brains is the main approach of cognition

Cognitive Biases “Rule of thumb”

Confirmation bias

  • A tendency to seek out information that confirms preexisting beliefs and avoids information that contradicts them

  • People are easily susceptible because rejecting one’s established beliefs is psychologically uncomfortable.

  • Only remembering certain facts that support our beliefs

  • Ignoring information that contradicts our beliefs

  • Failing to seek out objective information

  • Misinterpret new information to fit with existing beliefs

  • How to avoid

    • Recognize it

    • What if the opposite were true?

    • Seek out objective data

Anchoring Bias

  • Decisions are influenced by the initial piece of information provided, even when that information is not very relevant

Dual-process model

  • There are two very distinct systems of thinking

    • System 1: 

      • Fast, intuitive, automatic

      • Making quick judgements based on past experience

        • Already established schema: how our neural connections are wired

      • Prone to error because it’s not an educated decision

      • Uses shortcuts called heuristics to save time

      • Focuses on what it sees and ignores absent evidence

      • Operates automatically

      • Why do we use it?

        • Cognitive misers: want to use as little energy as we can to think. Lazy thinkers.

        • Sometimes we have too many things going on in our mind to allocate energy to solve a problem. This happens when your cognitive load is too high

        • Law of least effort: if there are several ways of achieving the same goal, people will choose the least demanding course of action

        • Economize mental resources and energy

    • System 2:

      • Slow, effortful, controlled, and rational

      • Requires concentration

      • Works with abstract concepts

      • Works through logic

      • Uses conscious reasoning

      • More reliable, but slow

    • Advantages

      • Biological evidence that abstract and concrete thinking is processed in different parts of the brain

      • Tests are reliable

  • Schema:

    • A mental framework that helps us organize and interpret information. 

    • Mental template built from past experiences and knowledge that allows us to quickly make sense of new situations, people, or events

    • Helps us:

      • Predict what to expect in familiar situations

      • Interpret new information based on what we already know

      • Fill in gaps in our memory or understanding by predicting the most likely situation or information

    • How does it work?

      • As active processors of information, humans combine new information with what they already know

      • When we encounter new information, our brain tries to match it with an existing schema

      • It helps us make sense of it quickly without having to process everything from scratch

      • Making associations

      • We tend to notice and remember information that fits our schema and may ignore details that don’t

        • This can lead to confirmation bias, where we interpret information in a way that confirms what we already believe

    • Example in memory

      • Barlett showed that schema plays an important role in how we encode information

      • He studied 2 situations

        • Participants telling other participants a story: like the telephone game

        • Participants repeating the story to themselves and writing down what they can remember after different time intervals

      • The story was from a Native American culture

      • It was unusual for the people from the Western culture to understand because it had supernatural concepts and a non-Western storyline

      • He found that their memories of the story were distorted in ways that made the story more consistent with their own culture

      • Findings:

        • Rationalization: Made the story more typically Western. Changing canoes to boats or changing the order of events to make it more logical

        • Leveling: Leaving out information that was not essential to the understanding of the story or was incongruent with their schema

        • Sharpening: Adding details to fill in the gaps of the story and make it make more sense to them.

    • Example in emotions:

      • We interpret an event based on our past experiences and self-schema. Schemas filter how we see whats happening around us

      • If your past experience has taught you that you are not “good enough”, you might interpret a neutral comment as criticism and feel shame, anxiety, or sadness

      • If you have a schema that “people can’t be trusted”, you might respond to kindness with suspicion or fear. 

      • Cognitive behavioral therapy identifies unhelpful schema and with the help of a therapist, hopes to change a client's automatic negative thinking

      • This is done through validity testing

        • When someone has a schema that everyone hates them, a therapist will ask for evidence with the hope of showing the client that this belief is not true.

    • Example in relationships

      • Play a big role in dating by shaping our expectations, reactions, and the kind of partners we’re drawn to

      • If someone has a schema that love equals rejection due to past experiences, they might unconsciously sabotage connections or cling too tightly. 

      • If someone has a schema of a healthy relationship they might communicate more openly and build trust more easily. 

    • Example in consumer behavior

      • Influence consumer behavior by shaping how people perceive and respond to brands, products, and marketing messages

      • If someone has a schema that luxury equals quality, they may be willing to pay a premium price for high end brands, even if similar products exist at lower prices

      • Marketers often tap into familiar schemas to build trust, trigger emotions, or reinforce brand identity. 

Social learning theory

  • Albert Bandura created the theory

    • to explain the phenomenon of observational learning, but it expanded over years into a much more general theoretical framework explaining all human behaviour.

    • We learn through role models

      • Ex. Kids learn through parents how to behave

    • 4 Cognitive mechanisms

      • Attention

        • The ability to be attentive to a certain behavior in order to imitate it

      • Retention

        • The ability to store it in memory so that we can later retrieve it to imitate it 

      • Potential/Motor reproduction

        • Our ability to perform the behavior, or our belief that we are able to perform it

      • Motivation 

        • The rewards or punishments that the model received

        • We are more likely to imitate the models behavior when vicariously reinforced or punished for it 

    • The role of the model

      • The model has to be appealing for us to want to replicate the behavior

      • Attached to the effect of that behavior

      • Feel reflected in the model 

    • Consistency

      • You tend to follow a model who portrays consistent behavior

      • In childhood

        • A kid is going to choose a model who they think is consistent

        • A little girl with a mom or caregiver

        • If not consistent, it is less likely that the child will see them as a role model or replicate the behavior

          • Don’t know what to expect or if reliable or not

    • Identification

      • If you feel identified with the model

    • Liking

      • We tend to imitate the behavior of people that we like 

        • Family, friends etc,

    • Rewards and punishments

      • If the models behavior is rewarded we are more likely to imitate it and vice versa

Memory

Simple division of different types of memory

  • Semantic

    • Factual information or knowledge

    • Content

    • Learned

  • Procedural

    • Things we learn to do with our bodies or hands

    • Driving, riding a bike

    • Motor skills

  • Episodic

    • Episodes or life events

  • Perceptual

    • Odors, noises

Localization of functions

  • What?

  • Idea that says that every cognitive process has a specific place in the brain 

  • Biological approach: behavior may be the product of brain structure

  • Brain structure

    • The nervous system

      • Spinal cord

      • Brain

  • Brain

    • Cortex

      • Layer of neurons with a folded surface covering the brain on the outside

      • Largest part of the human brain associated with higher order functions like abstract thinking

    • Cortical lobes

      • Frontal lobe

        • Reasoning, planning, thinking, decision making

      • Parietal lobe

        • Movement, orientation, perception, recognition

      • Temporal lobe

        • Processing of auditory information, memory, speech

      • Occipital lobe

        • Visual processing

    • Cerebrum

      • Front

    • Cerebellum

      • Balance, coordination

      • In the back

      • “The little brain”

      • It has two hemispheres and a folded surface

      • Most primitive part of the brain

      • Connects the cerebrum to the brain stem

    • Limbic system

      • Inside brain 

      • At the core of the brain

      • Hypothalamus

        • Homeostasis

      • Hippocampus

        • Memory conversion

        • Essential for encoding and consolidating autobiographical memories

        • Helps bind different elements of an experience into a cohesive memory

      • Thalamus

        • Relays information

      • Amygdala

        • Emotion

        • Enhances emotionally charged memories, making them more vivid and long lasting

        • Distribution of memory across multiple brain regions ensures long term retention, even if one area is damaged

    • Brain stem

      • What connects the cerebellum and cerebrum to the spinal cord

      • Underneath the limbic system

      • Main function

        • Regulate the vital processes

        • Breathing and heartbeat

  • Research that supports localizations

    • Paul Broca

      • Discovered a speech centre in the brain, while studying the case of patient “Tan”

      • The patient had a lesion in the frontal area of the left hemisphere, in the posterior inferior frontal gyrus

      • This region is known as Broca’s area

      • The patient lost his ability to speak when he was 30. He couldn’t speak or write but his intelligence was intact. He understood everything he was asked but couldn't utter anything other than “tan”

      • This condition is now known as Broca’s aphasia or Non-Fluent aphasia

        • Loss of articulated speech

    • Carl Wernicke

      • Wernicke’s area was discovered in 1874

      • In temporal lobe of the dominant hemisphere

      • Responsible for comprehension of written and spoken language

      • People with Wernicke’s aphasia or Fluent aphasia have a general impairment in of language comprehension

      • Speech production is intact in patients with Wernicke’s aphasia

    • Wilder Pennfield

      • Neurosurgeon who used the method of neural stimulation

      • Mapped brain functions on a larger scale

      • Treated patients with severe epilepsy by destroying nerve cells that initiated the seizures

      • Before doing brain surgery he would stimulate various parts of the brain while the patient was still conscious and would observe the effects on their behavior

      • Created a map of the sensory and motor cortex called the Cortical Homunculus

      • Pennfield's Homunculus shows the relative representation of various parts of the body in the sensory cortex

    • Karl Lashley

      • Used the technique of measuring behavior before and after and specific carefully controlled induce brain damage in the cortex of rats

      • After his research he concluded that memory was distributed rather than localized

      • Induced brain damage in the rats to see how they reacted 

    • Split Brain Research

      • Relativity of localization

      • Pioneered by Roger Sperry

      • Lateralization: division of functions between the two hemispheres of the cortex

      • Lateralization is a special case of localization

      • Importance of the corpus callosum

        • What connects both hemispheres

      • Michael Gazzaniga: Studied human split brain patients

        • People that had a damage in the corpus callosum

    • Conclusions on Localization research

      • Some functions are indeed localized in very specific regions of the brain, and damage will lead to loss of the function

        • Broca and Wernicke

      • Some functions are localized weakly

        • Several brain areas may be responsible for a function but some areas are dominant

      • Scientists have been more successful in establishing strict localization for sensory and motor functions rather than higher order cognitive functions

        • Memory, thinking, and learning

      • Some functions are widely distributed

        • The ability of both hemispheres to to form an emotional reaction independently from each other

      • Some components of a function may be localized while other components of the same function are distributed in the brain

        • Language

      • Localization is not static

        • Functional areas move about and can respecialize after brain damage

          • Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity

  • Our ability to adapt to change

  • Plasticity of neural connections

  • Our ability to learn, relearn, etc

  • Making and breaking of synaptic connections

  • Remapping of the sensory cortex

  • The ability of the brain to change through the making and breaking of synaptic connections between neurons

    • Causing factors are both genetic and environmental

  • Synaptic plasticity

    • The ability of the neuron to form new synaptic connections and break up the old ones

    • Connecting new knowledge with prior knowledge

  • Cortical remapping

    • Phenomenon when brain area X assumes the functions of brain area Y

    • When one is impaired, it tends to take the function of another one

    • If you have a brain injury and part of your brain is impaired, and you lose a specific function, the areas of the brain that are connected to that area start to take control of that function. 

    • Loss of the ability to name objects, as you relearn to do that through rehabilitation, other areas of the brain take charge of relearning that function. 

  • Remapping of sensory cortex

    • Merzenic and colleagues in 1984 did one of the early studies of neuroplasticity on the level of cortical remapping

    • Studied the cortical representation of the hand in eight owl monkeys

    • Cortical remapping of sensory inputs from the hand occurs within 62 days in owl monkeys

  • Neuroplasticity as a mechanism of learning

    • When you learn, your brain gradually reshapes itself

    • Researchers

      • Draganski et al 2004 & 2006

      • Maguire et al 2000

  • Practical applications

    • The idea that other senses may be used to make up for the lost sense is known as sense substitution

    • If you’re blind, the other senses are heightened

Neurotransmitters and behavior

  • Chemical messengers in our brains

  • How neurons connect to each other in a chemical way

  • What is a neuron?

    • A nervous cell

    • Fundamental unit of the nervous system

    • Transmit information from one to another through electrical and chemical processes

      • Dendrites connect neurons

  • Synaptic buttons

    • At the end of dendrites, which hold the synaptic vesicles

    • The vesicles hold the neurotransmitters

    • The buttons open and release neurotransmitters into the synaptic gap (space between neurons)

    • The other neuron absorbs some of the neurotransmitters and the rest stay in the gap

    • Reuptake

      • The neurotransmitters left in the gap are taken back into the vesiclesº

      • The ones left in the gap after being taken back are broken down by enzymes

  • The ones left over after being broken down just stay in the space

  • Synaptic gap

    • Presynaptic neuron

      • Releases neurotransmitters

    • Postsynaptic neuron

      • Receives neurotransmitters

  • Neurotransmission

    • Chemical mechanism of transmission between neurons

    • Neurotransmitter

      • Chemical messengers

      • Released from the axon terminal into the synaptic gap

  • Different types of neurotransmitters

    • Divided into 2 groups

    • Excitatory

      • Allow the impulse in the other neuron to cross the synapse and travel faster

      • Enhance the electrical impulse through the axon

      • Produce stimulating effects on the brain

      • Ex. Dopamine

    • Inhibitory

      • Stop the impulse, preventing it to cross the synapse

      • Produce calming effects on the brain

      • Slows down the electrical impulse

      • Always in a state of dynamic balance

      • Ex. Serotonin

    • Neurotransmitters can be affected by

      • Agonists

        • Chemicals that enhance the action of a neurotransmitter

      • Antagonists

        • Chemicals that counteract and prevent a signal from being passed further

The role of hormones in human behavior

  • Hormones may be responsible for certain behaviors

  • What is a hormone?

    • Another chemical messenger

    • Released into the bloodstream by glands

      • Affects the activity of cells and tissues in our body

  • Adrenaline

    • Produced by the adrenal glands

    • Located in the epigastrium at the top of the kidney

    • In charge of releasing adrenaline

    • Targets vital organs

    • Allows the body to respond quickly in critical situations

    • High adrenaline

      • Increases heart rate

      • Sweating

      • Anxiety

      • Heightened alertness as part of the body’s fight or flight response

    • Low adrenaline

      • Fatigue

      • Low blood pressure

      • Difficulty in responding to stressful situations due to insufficient activation of the fight or flight response

  • Oxytocin

    • The “Love” hormone

    • Produced in the hypothalamus

    • Released by the pituitary gland

      • At the base of the brain under hypothalamus

    • Plays a role in sexual reproduction, childbirth, and social bonding

    • High oxytocin

      • Increases trust

      • Connection with others

      • Relaxation

      • Improves sleep cycle

    • Low oxytocin

      • Irritability

      • Poor communication

      • Sleep difficulties

      • High stress

      • Sadness and bad mood

  • Testosterone

    • Produced by the male sex gland called the testes

    • Controls developmental changes in males such as deeper voice, facial and pubic hair, muscle growth, and bone strength

    • High testosterone

      • Acne

      • Increased muscle mass

      • Low sperm count

      • Prostate enlargement 

        • Can cause difficulties urinating

    • Low testosterone

      • Less facial and body hair

      • Less muscle mass

      • Hot flashes

      • Brittle bones

  • Oestrogen

    • Produced in the female sex gland called the ovary

    • Controls developmental changes in females like breast development, release of egg cells which marks the beginning of menstruation

    • High

      • Heavy or irregular period

      • Breast tenderness

      • Weight gain

    • Low

      • Missed menstruation cycle

      • Mood swings

      • Hot flashes and night sweats

  • Thyroxine

    • Produced in the thyroid gland

    • Increases rate of chemical reactions 

    • Helps control growth and development

    • Controls our body's metabolism

    • Hypothalamus releases thyrotropin hormone which triggers the release of

    • Imbalanced levels

      • Unexplained weight loss or gain

      • Slow or fast heart rate

      • Intolerance to cold or heat

      • Dry or moist skin

      • Irregular periods

    • Conditions related to imbalanced levels

      • Hypothyroidism

      • Hashimoto’s disease

      • Hyperthyroidism

      • Grave’s disease

The multi-store model

  • Proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1971

  • Foundation of all cognitive model

  • Wanted to explain how memory works with concepts

  • Putting into words how memory works

  • Environmental input

    • Information from environment, stimuli

  • Divided memory into 3 “places of storage”

    • 1: Sensory buffer/memory

      • First information received

      • Limited capacity and duration

      • If you pay attention to the information it goes through the short term memory storage

    • 2: Short term memory storage

      • Limited in capacity and duration

    • 3: Long term memory storage

      • According to them, unlimited in capacity and duration (Not true)

The working memory model

  • Central executive

    • Hypothetical space in out minds that has the role of receiving information and organising it

    • In charge of sending information to where it should be saved

    • Replaces the “sensory buffer”

      • One in short term memory

    • Directs attention to tasks

  • Phonological loop

    • Sent by central executive

    • Processes information about language and auditory information

      • Written and spoken

    • Divided into 2

      • Phonological store

        • Words heard

      • Articulatory process

        • Words heard/seen and silently repeated like an inner voice

    • Repetition = long term memory

    • Limited capacity

  • Episodic buffer

    • Sent by central executive

    • Holds information about everything all at once

      • Visual, spatial, and verbal information with time sequencing

        • Memory of a story or event

    • A picture of that moment

    • Not just visual, also situational

  • Visuo-spatial sketchpad

    • Holds visual and spatial information

    • Limited capacity

    • Visual cache

      • What things look like, form, and color

    • Inner scribe

      • Processes spatial and movement information

    • Repetition = long term memory

    • Comes back and forth

  • Evidence that supports the model

    • Dual task techniques

      • Allocation of attention and switch focus

        • Involves central executive

      • Struggle to manage both tasks

        • Overload of executive control

    • Word length effect

      • Phonological loop holds the amount of information you can say in 1.5-2 seconds

      • Makes it hard to remember a list of long words

        • Representative vs Dog

      • Word length disappears if a person is given an articulatory suppression task

        • Saying “the,the,the,the” while reading words

      • Repetitive task ties up the articulatory process which means you can’t rehearse the shorter words more quickly than the longer words

    • Articulatory suppression

      • Found that reciting the numbers 1 and 2 while trying to memorize a list of 7 letters caused 76% of controls recalled the list accurately and the articulatory suppression condition only 45%

  • Strengths of the working memory model

    • Supported by considerable experimental evidence

    • Brain scans have shown that a different area of the brain is active when carrying out verbal tasks

  • Limitations of the working memory model

    • Role of the central executive is unclear though it is said to be the most important part of the model

    • How the various components of the model interact is not yet clear

    • This model only explains short-term memory so it doesn’t tell us much about the processes involved in long-term memory

    • Doesn’t explain memory distortion or the role of emotion in memory formation

Levels of processing theory


Schema theory

Technology and cognitive load

  • Cognitive load

    • Total amount of mental effort used in working memory

    • Cognitive load theory

      • Humans have limited working memory capacity, and information overload occurs if they are presented with information that exceeds this capacity

    • Miller’s “Magic Number 7”

      • According to Miller, the average memory span is between 5 and 9 items

      • Cowan argued that it was less and short-term memory may only be 4 items

    • Types of cognitive load

      • Intrinsic load

        • Level of difficulty associated with a task

        • Ex: Solving a calculus problem has a higher intrinsic load than simple arithmetic

      • Extraneous load

        • Difficulty of processing information due to factors that are external to the task

        • Ex: People talking while you’re reading

      • Germane load

        • Effort needed to process information in working memory

      • Too high cognitive mode makes it hard to move information from STM to LTM

      • Factors that increase cognitive load

        • Complexity

          • How many steps a task has

        • Difficulty

          • How challenging or hard to understand a task is

          • Varies from person to person

        • Pressure

          • Limited time

        • Distractions

          • External stimuli

          • Interruptions/disruptions

  • Role of technology in cognitive load

    • Can reduce cognitive load

      • Dual coding activates both visual and auditory processing, making memory stronger

      • Organizes information clearly

    • Can increase cognitive load

      • It presents too much information at once

      • Computers can be a source of distraction

    • “Technology doesn’t make learning easier - it depends on how it’s used. Well-designed tech supports memory. Bad design or misuse overloads the brain”