copyright © allyn & bacon 2007 chapter 7 chapter 7 cognition

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

Chapter 7Chapter 7

Cognition


Human memory is an information processing

system that works constructively to encode,

store, and retrieve information.

What is Memory?What is Memory?


What is Memory?What is Memory?

Information Processing Model – A cognitive understanding of memory emphasizing how information is changed when it is encoded, stored, and retrieved.


Human Memory is Good atHuman Memory is Good at::

• Information in which attention is focused.

• Information in which we are interested.

• Information that arouses us emotionally.

• Information that we rehearse.


EncodingEncoding StorageStorage RetrievalRetrieval

Memory’s Three Basic TasksMemory’s Three Basic Tasks


EncodingEncoding Storage Retrieval

Involves modification of information to fit the preferred format of the memory system.

Elaboration – Deliberate encoding in which you connect a new concept with existing information.

Memory’s Three Basic FunctionsMemory’s Three Basic Functions


Encoding StorageStorage Retrieval

Involves retention of encoded material over time.



Encoding Storage RetrievalRetrieval

Involves the location and recovery of information from memory.



Each of the three memory stages encodes and stores memories in a different way,

but they work together to transform sensory experience into a lasting record that has a

pattern of meaning.

How Do We Form Memories? How Do We Form Memories?


The Three Stages of MemoryThe Three Stages of Memory

Sensory Sensory MemoryMemory

Working Working MemoryMemory

Long-term Long-term MemoryMemory



Sensory Sensory MemoryMemory

Working Memory

Long-term Memory

Preserves brief sensory impressions of stimuli.


The First Stage: The First Stage: Sensory MemorySensory Memory

• Capacity - 12 – 16 items

• Duration – About ¼ of a second

• Structure - There is a separate sensory register for each sense. • Vision – iconic memory• Hearing – echoic memory

• Function – Briefly holds information awaiting entry into working memory.



Sensory Memory

Working Working MemoryMemory

Long-term Memory

Preserves recently perceived events or experiences for less than a minute without rehearsal, also called short-term memory or STM.


The Second Stage: The Second Stage: Working MemoryWorking Memory

• Capacity - “Magic number 7”

• Duration – About 20-30 seconds

• Structure – Central executive, phonological loop, and sketchpad.

• Function – Attaches meaning to stimulation and makes associations among ideas and events.

Memory Game

http://www.positscience.com/games-teasers/memory-games/word-list-recall


Encoding and Storage Encoding and Storage in in Working MemoryWorking Memory

Chunking – Organizing pieces of information into a smaller number of meaningful units.

Maintenance rehearsal – Process in which information is repeated or reviewed to keep it from fading while in working memory.


Encoding and Storage Encoding and Storage in in Working MemoryWorking Memory

Elaborative rehearsal – Process in which information is actively reviewed and related to information already in LTM.

Levels-of-processing theory – Explanation for the fact that information that is more thoroughly connected to meaningful terms in LTM will be better remembered.



Sensory Memory

Working Memory

Long-term Long-term MemoryMemory

Stores material organized according to meaning, also called LTM.


The Third Stage: The Third Stage: Long-Term MemoryLong-Term Memory

• Capacity - Unlimited

• Duration – Unlimited

• Structure – Procedural memory and declarative memory.

• Function – Storage of information.


The Third Stage:The Third Stage:Long-Term MemoryLong-Term Memory

Procedural memory – Division of LTM that stores memories for how things are done.

Declarative memory – Division of LTM that stores explicit information (also known as fact memory).


Semantic memory – Subdivision of declarative memory that stores general knowledge, including meanings of words and concepts.

The Third Stage:The Third Stage:Long-Term MemoryLong-Term Memory

Episodic memory – Subdivision of declarative memory that stores memories for personal events, or “episodes.”


Semantic memory

Includes memory for:language, facts,general knowledge

Episodic memory

Includes memory for:events, personal experiences

Includes memory for:motor skills, operant and classicalconditioning

Long-term memory

Declarative memory(knowing what)

Procedural memory(knowing how)


The Biological BasisThe Biological Basisof of Long-Term MemoryLong-Term Memory

Engram –The physical trace of memory.

Consolidation –The process by which short-term memories are changed to long-term memories.


The Biological BasisThe Biological Basisof of Long-Term MemoryLong-Term Memory

Anterograde amnesia –Inability to form memories for new information.

Retrograde amnesia –Inability to remember information previously stored in memory.


Flashbulb MemoryFlashbulb Memory

• An exceptionally clear recollection of an important emotion-packed event (a very vivid episodic memory).

• Tragic accident• Death• Graduation• Wedding


How Do We Retrieve Memories?How Do We Retrieve Memories?

Whether memories are implicit or explicit, successful

retrieval depends on how they were encoded and how

they are cued.


Explicit memory – Memory that has been processed with attention and can be consciously recalled.

How Do We Retrieve Memories?How Do We Retrieve Memories?

Implicit memory – Memory that was not deliberately learned or of which you have no conscious awareness.


Retrieval CuesRetrieval Cues

Retrieval cues – Stimuli that are used to bring a memory to consciousness or into behavior.

Priming – Technique for retrieving implicit memories by providing cues that stimulate a memory without awareness of the connection between the cue and the retrieved memory.


Recall and RecognitionRecall and Recognition

Recall – Technique for retrieving explicit memories in which one must reproduce previously presented information.

Recognition – Technique for retrieving explicit memories in which one must identify present stimuli as having been previously presented.


Factors Affecting RetrievalFactors Affecting Retrieval

Encoding specificity principle –The more closely the retrieval cues match the form in which the information was encoded, the better the information will be remembered.

*context-dependent memory*


Factors Affecting RetrievalFactors Affecting Retrieval

Mood-congruent memory –A memory process that selectively retrieves memories that match one’s mood.

TOT (tip of the tongue) phenomenon –The inability to recall a word, while knowing that it is in memory.


Why Does Memory Why Does Memory Sometimes Fail Us?Sometimes Fail Us?

Most of our memory problems arise from

memory’s “seven sins” – which are really by-products

of otherwise adaptive features of human memory.


Factors Affecting the Accuracy of Factors Affecting the Accuracy of Eyewitnesses:Eyewitnesses:

• Passage of time leads to increase in misremembering information.

• Confidence in memory is not a sign of accuracy.


TransienceTransience Absent-Absent-MindednessMindedness BlockingBlocking

MisattributionMisattribution SuggestibilitySuggestibility

BiasBias PersistencePersistence

Memory’s Memory’s ““Seven SinsSeven Sins””


TransienceTransience

• The impermanence of a long-term memory; based on the idea that long-term memories gradually fade in strength over time.Forgetting curve –

A graph plotting the amount of retention and forgetting over time for a certain batch of material.


Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting CurveEbbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve

Recall decreases rapidly, then reaches a plateau, after which little more is forgotten.

Pe

rce

nt r

eta

ined

60

50

40

30

20

10

0Days

5 10 15 20 25 30


Absent-MindednessAbsent-Mindedness

• Forgetting caused by lapses in attention.


BlockingBlocking

• Forgetting that occurs when an item in memory cannot be accessed or retrieved.• Proactive interference• Retroactive interference• Serial position effect

• Also known as the primacy - recency effect


BlockingBlocking

• Proactive interference• When previously stored information

prevents the learning and remembering of new information.

• Retroactive interference• When newly learned information

prevents the retrieval of previously stored material.


MisattributionMisattribution

• Memory fault that occurs when memories are retrieved, but they are associated with the wrong time, place, or person.


SuggestibilitySuggestibility

• Process of memory distortion as a result of deliberate or inadvertent suggestion.

Misinformation effect –The distortion of memory by suggestion or misinformation.

-

Loftus


SuggestibilitySuggestibility

• How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?

• How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?

• Estimates were about 25% higher when the word smashed was used.


BiasBias

• An attitude, belief, emotion, or experience that distorts memories.Expectancy bias –

A tendency to distort recalled events to make them fit one’s expectations.

Self-consistency bias –Idea that we are more consistent than we actually are.


PersistencePersistence

• Memory problem in which unwanted memories cannot be put out of mind.


The Advantages of the The Advantages of the ““Seven SinsSeven Sins” of Memory” of Memory

• Despite the grief they cause us, the “seven sins” may actually be by-products of adaptive features of memory.

• For example, absent-mindedness is the by-product of the useful ability to shift our attention.


Improving Memory with MnemonicsImproving Memory with Mnemonics

Mnemonics – Techniques for improving memory, especially by making connections between new material and information already in long-term memory.

• What are some examples of mnemonic devices?


How Do ChildrenHow Do ChildrenAcquire Language?Acquire Language?

Infants and children face an especially important

developmental task with the acquisition of language.


How Children Acquire LanguageHow Children Acquire Language

Innateness theory of language –Children learn language mainly by following an inborn program for acquiring vocabulary and grammar.

Language acquisition device (LAD) – Structure in the brain innately programmed with some of the fundamental rules of grammar.

- Noam Chomsky



Early stages of language acquisition include the following:• The babbling stage• The one-word stage• The two-word stage• Telegraphic speech

(short, simple sentences)• The naming explosion

(18 months)


The Rules of GrammarThe Rules of Grammar

Grammar – The rules of a language.

Morphemes –Meaningful units of language that make up words.

- walking, walked, children, foxes

Overregularization –Applying a grammatical rule too widely and thereby creating incorrect forms.(e.g. using “hitted” and “feets”)



Other language skills:

• Social rules of conversation• Abstract words

• Hope• Truth• Believe• Love

Language

• Semantics– The study of meaning in language.

“A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

“Do you mind if I sit next to you?”

Can you think of another example???


Thinking is a cognitive process in which the brain uses

information from the senses, emotions, and memory to

create and manipulate mental representations, such as

concepts, images, schemas, and scripts.

What Are theWhat Are theComponents of Thought?Components of Thought?


ConceptsConcepts

Concepts – Mental representations of categories of items or ideas, based on experience.-Natural concepts represent objects and

events.Prototype – a representative example of a concept.

-Artificial concepts are defined by rules.

• We organize much of our declarative memories into concept hierarchies.


Animal

FishBird

SalmonSharkOstrichCanary

Has skinEats

Breathes

Has finsCan swimHas gills

Has wingsCan fly

Has feathers

Can singIs yellow

Can’t flyIs tall

Can biteIs dangerous

Is pinkIs edible


Thought and the BrainThought and the Brain

Event-related potentials – Brain waves shown on an EEG in response to stimulation.


Schemas and Scripts Help you Know Schemas and Scripts Help you Know What to ExpectWhat to Expect

Schema – A knowledge cluster or general framework that provides expectations about topics, events, objects, people, and situations in one’s life.

Script – A cluster of knowledge about sequences of events and actions expected to occur in particular settings.

- Event schema


Good thinkers not only have a repertoire of effective

algorithms and heuristics, they know how to avoid the

common impediments to problem solving and decision

making.

What Abilities Do GoodWhat Abilities Do GoodThinkers Possess?Thinkers Possess?


Problem SolvingProblem Solving

Good problem solvers are skilled at:• Identifying the problem• Selecting a strategy


Selecting a StrategySelecting a Strategy

Algorithms – Problem-solving procedures or formulas that guarantee a correct outcome if correctly applied.

Heuristics – Cognitive strategies used as shortcuts to solve complex mental tasks; they do not guarantee a correct solution.

“I before E, except after C”


HeuristicsHeuristics

Useful heuristics include:• Working backward• Searching for analogies• Breaking a big problem into smaller

problems


Obstacles to Problem SolvingObstacles to Problem Solving

Mental set – Tendency to respond to a new problem in the manner used for a previous problem.

Functional fixedness – Inability to perceive a newuse for an object associatedwith a different purpose.

MacGyver Clip


Obstacles to Problem SolvingObstacles to Problem Solving

Other obstacles include:• Self-imposed limitations• Lack of interest• Fatigue• Drugs (legal and illegal)


Judging and Making DecisionsJudging and Making Decisions

Confirmation BiasConfirmation Bias

Hindsight BiasHindsight Bias

Anchoring BiasAnchoring Bias

Representativeness Representativeness BiasBias

Availability BiasAvailability Bias



Confirmation BiasConfirmation Bias

Hindsight Bias

Anchoring Bias

Representativeness Bias

Availability Bias

Ignoring or finding fault with information that does not fit our opinions, and seeking information with which we agree.



Confirmation Bias

Hindsight BiasHindsight Bias

Anchoring Bias


Availability Bias

Tendency, after learning about an event, to believe that one could have predicted the event in advance.



Confirmation Bias

Hindsight Bias

Anchoring BiasAnchoring Bias


Availability Bias

Faulty heuristic caused by basing (anchoring) an estimate on a completely unrelated quantity.



Confirmation Bias

Hindsight Bias

Anchoring Bias

Representativeness Representativeness BiasBias

Availability Bias

Faulty heuristic strategy based on presumption that, once a person or event is categorized, it shares all features of other members in that category.



Confirmation Bias

Hindsight Bias

Anchoring Bias


Availability BiasAvailability Bias

Faulty heuristic strategy that estimates probabilities based on information that can be recalled from personal experience.


End of Chapter 7End of Chapter 7

copyright © allyn & bacon 2007 chapter 7 chapter 7 cognition

Documents

cognitioncopyright allyn

pieces of information

existing information

recovery of information

information processing

human memory

memory system

shortterm memory