Chapter 7Cognition

Human memory is an information processing

system that works constructively to encode,

store, and retrieve information

What is Memory?

What is Memory?

Memory: Any system (human, animal, or machine) that encodes, stores, and retrieves information

Human Memory is Good at:

Information on which attention is focused

Information in which we are interested Information that arouses us

emotionally Information that fits with our previous

experiences Information that we rehearse

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 Functions

Encoding StorageStorage Retrieval

Involves retention of encoded material over time

Memory’s Three Basic Functions

Encoding Storage RetrievalRetrieval

Involves the location and recovery of information from memory

Memory’s Three Basic Functions

Think About It

Do you consider yourself to have a good memory?

What are your strengths? Weaknesses? What is the worst memory failure you’ve had?

Test, name, appointment, birthday, etc? Do you use any tricks/hooks to improve your

memory? What is your 1st 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

Chapter 7: CognitionHow Do We Form Memories?

The Three Stages of MemorySensory Sensory MemoryMemory

Working Memory

Long-term Memory

Preserves brief sensory impressions of stimuli

The First Stage: Sensory Memory

Sensory register: maintain info; temp storage bins; each of the senses

Echoic Memory: auditory sensory memory (1-4 s)

Iconic Memory: visual sensory memory (1/4 s)

On the next slide, you will see a series of letters for less than one second. Try to remember as many letters as you can.

The First Stage: Sensory Memory

The actual capacity of sensory memory can be twelve or more items.

All but three or four items disappear before they can enter consciousness.

The Three Stages of MemorySensory Memory

Short-term Short-term MemoryMemory

Long-term Memory

Preserves recently perceived events or experiences for less than a minute (20 s) without rehearsal, also called working memory

The Second Stage: STM

Digit Activity STM: stores limited amounts of info for a

limited amount of time (7+/-2) Smallest capacity of 3 stages (bottleneck) STM consists of

A central executive – directs attentionA phonological loop – temp storage of soundsThe sketchpad – temp storage of visuals

Encoding and Storage in Working Memory

Three Lists Activity… 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

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

Encoding and Storage in Working Memory

Popular Song Activity… Word List Activity… Primacy effect: first info remembered Recency effect: latest info remembered

Serial-position effect Memory Test Activity… Levels-of-processing theory: Explanation for

the fact that information that is more thoroughly connected to meaningful terms in LTM will be better remembered

The Three Stages of MemorySensory Memory

Working Memory

Long-term Long-term MemoryMemory

Stores material organized according to meaning, also called LTM

The Third Stage: Long-Term Memory

Limitless in capacity and duration Semantic encoding: ignore details; encode

general, underlying meaning (Sachs ‘67)Can be detrimental in court, etc…Counterfeiting

Visual better than verbal

The Third Stage: Long-Term Memory Procedural memory: Division of LTM that

stores memories for how things are done Declarative memory: Division of LTM that

stores explicit information (aka fact memory)Semantic memory: Subdivision of declarative

memory that stores general knowledge, including meanings of words and concepts

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

Semantic memory

Includes memory for: language, factsgeneral knowledge

Episodic memory

Includes memory for: events, personal experiences

Includes memory for: motor skills, classicalconditioning

Long-term memory

Declarative memory Procedural memory

How Do We Retrieve Memories?

Whether memories are implicit or explicit, successful

retrieval depends on how they were encoded and how

they are cued

How Do We Retrieve Memories? Encoding Activity Implicit memory: Memory that was not deliberately

learned or of which you have no conscious awareness (procedural)

Explicit memory: Memory that has been processed with attention and can be consciously recalled (declarative – semantic and episodic)

Retrieval Cues

Retrieval cues: Stimuli that are used to bring a memory to consciousness

Priming: Technique for retrieving memories by providing cues that stimulate a memory.

Disney Activity…

Recall and Recognition Recall: Technique for retrieving explicit

memories in which one must reproduce previously presented informationFRQ

Recognition: Technique for retrieving explicit memories in which one must identify present stimuli as having been previously presentedMultiple choice

Other Factors Affecting Retrieval

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

Mood-congruent memory Context-dependent memory State-dependent memory TOT (tip of the tongue) phenomenon: The inability to

recall a word, while knowing that it is in memory

Why Does Memory 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

TransienceTransience Absent-Absent-MindednessMindedness BlockingBlocking

MisattributionMisattribution SuggestibilitySuggestibility

BiasBias PersistencePersistence

Memory’s “Seven Sins”

Transience

The impermanence of a long-term memory; based on the idea that long-term memories gradually fade in strength over timeForgetting curve: A graph plotting the amount of

retention and forgetting over time for a certain batch of material

Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve

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

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Absent-Mindedness

Forgetting caused by lapses in attention

Forgetting that occurs when an item in memory cannot be accessed or retrievedProactive interference (new is blocked)Retroactive interference (old is blocked)Tip-of-the-tongue

Blocking

Misattribution

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

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

Suggestibility/Misinformation Effect

Bias

An attitude, belief, emotion, or experience that distorts memoriesExpectancy bias: A tendency to distort recalled

events to make them fit one’s expectationsSelf-consistency bias: Idea that we are more

consistent than we actually are

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

Persistence

Improving Memory with Mnemonics

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

Mnemonic strategies includeMethod of lociAcronymsNatural language mediators

The Advantages of the “Seven Sins” of Memory

Despite the grief they cause us, the “seven sins” may actually be by-products of adaptive features of memoryFor example, absent-mindedness is the by-

product of the useful ability to shift our attention

Misattributions, biases, and suggestibility result from a memory system built to deal with meaning

How Do ChildrenAcquire Language?

Infants and children face an especially important

developmental task with the acquisition of language.

Group Discussion Questions

1. What is communication?

2. What is speech?

3. What is language?

4. Why are these things important?

How Children Acquire Language

Language: Symbols & set of rules that provide a vehicle for communication

Innateness theory of language: Children learn language mainly by following an inborn program for acquiring vocabulary and grammarLanguage acquisition device (LAD): Structure in

the brain innately programmed with some of the fundamental rules of grammar (Noam Chomsky)

How Children Acquire Language

Early stages of language acquisition include the following:The babbling stageThe one-word stage; the naming explosionThe two-word stage

Telegraphic speech (short, simple sentences)

Components of Language

Grammar: rules of a languageSyntax: rules of grammarPhoneme: smallest distinctive unit of soundMorphemes: smallest unit that carries meaningOverregularization: Applying a grammatical rule

too widely and thereby creating incorrect forms(e.g. using “hitted” and “feets”)

How Children Acquire Language

Other language skillsSocial rules of conversationAbstract words (e.g. hope, truth)

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 theComponents of Thought?

Concepts Metacognition: Thinking about thinking Concepts: Mental representations of

categories of items or ideas, based on experienceNatural concepts represent objects and eventsArtificial concepts are defined by rules

We organize much of our declarative memories into concept hierarchiesSuperordinate v. subordinate (vehicle, convertible)

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 Brain

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

Schemas and Scripts Help you Know What 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

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 GoodThinkers Possess?

Problem Solving

Metacognition: thinking about thinking Good problem solvers are skilled at

Identifying the problemPossessing requisite knowledge neededSelecting a strategy…dog problem

Selecting 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

Heuristics

Useful heuristics include:Working backwardSearching for analogiesBreaking a big problem into smaller problems

Unscramble these words…

Obstacles 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 new use for an object associated with a different purpose

Obstacles to Problem Solving

Other obstacles include:Self-imposed limitationsLack of interestFatigueDrugs (legal and illegal)

Judging and Making Decisions

Confirmation BiasConfirmation Bias

Hindsight BiasHindsight Bias

Anchoring BiasAnchoring Bias

Representativeness Representativeness BiasBias

Availability BiasAvailability Bias

Judging and Making Decisions

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

Judging and Making DecisionsConfirmation Bias

Hindsight BiasHindsight Bias

Anchoring Bias

Representativeness Bias

Availability Bias

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

Judging and Making DecisionsConfirmation Bias

Hindsight Bias

Anchoring BiasAnchoring Bias

Representativeness Bias

Availability Bias

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

Judging and Making Decisions

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 (prototype)

Judging and Making DecisionsConfirmation Bias

Hindsight Bias

Anchoring Bias

Representativeness Bias

Availability BiasAvailability Bias

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

The Biological Basis of Long-Term Memory

Engram: The physical trace of memory Anterograde amnesia: Inability to form

memories for new information Retrograde amnesia: Inability to

remember information previously stored in memory

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