Unit VII Test Review

Memory, Thinking and Language

How we remember

Storage-Retaining Information, 319-322• Sensory Memory

– the immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the memory system

• Iconic Memory– a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli– a photographic or picture image memory lasting no

more that a few tenths of a second– Registration of exact representation of a scene

• Echoic Memory– momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli

Effortful Processing, 321

Committing novel information to memory requires effort just like learning a concept from a textbook. Such processing leads to durable and accessible memories.

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Storage-Short Term Memory, 319

• Short Term Memory

– limited in duration and capacity

– “magical” number 7+/-2

Long-Term Memory, 319

Unlimited capacity store. Estimates on capacity range from 1000 billion to 1,000,000 billion bits of information (Landauer, 1986).

The Clark’s nutcracker can locate 6,000 caches ofburied pine seeds during winter and spring.

R.J. E

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Did you experience Déjà vu? 349

• The feeling of experiencing a previous situation (thinking one word was in the list that really wasn’t)

• Your sensory register gets activated during the activity, but because you never enter the information in your long term memory you have this feeling but can’t quite remember about it. Page 319

Craig and Tulvig experiment on processing words: results

Semantic encoding (by word meaning) resulted in the best recognition

Long term potentiation 333

• Gary Lynch term:

• The prolonged strengthening of potential neural firing which provides the neural basis for memory and learning

• Synaptic changes that promote memory formation

Types of encoding

• Semantic Encoding–encoding of meaning–including meaning of words

• Acoustic Encoding–encoding of sound–especially sound of words

• Visual Encoding–encoding of picture images

Herman Ebbinghaus

• Was to study of memory as Pavlov was to conditioning

• Showed we could boost memory by rehearsal

• Retention curve: more practice, fewer time needed to relearn

• Forgetting curve: we forget a lot then it levels off

allpsych.com/biographies/ ebbinghaus.html allpsych.com/biographies/ ebbinghaus.html

Hippocampus, 330 Helps to encode

memories, and then helps to find them when you want to remember something.

• Since it’s one of the last brain areas to mature it causes infantile amnesia

Forgetting Curve

http://www.awa.com/norton/figures/fig0709.gif

Spacing Effect, 355

Distributing rehearsal (spacing effect) is better than practicing all at once. Robert Frost’s poem could be memorized with fair ease if spread over time.

ACQUAINTED WITH THE NIGHTRobert Frost

I have been one acquainted with the night.I have walked out in rain — and back in

rain.I have outwalked the furthest city light.

… …

Retrieval- Getting Information Out, 334

• Recall– the ability to retrieve info learned

earlier and not in conscious awareness-like fill in the blank test

• Recognition– the ability to identify previously learned

items-like on a multiple choice test

Retrieval, 335

• Relearning– amount of time saved when

relearning previously learned information

• Priming– activation, often unconsciously, of

particular associations in memory

Retrieval Cues, 373-4• Deja Vu- (French) already seen

– cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier similar experience

– "I've experienced this before"

• Mood Congruent Memory– tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with

one’s current mood – memory, emotions or moods serve as retrieval cues– State Dependent Memory

• what is learned in one state (while one is high, drunk or depressed) can more easily be remembered when in same state

Mnemonics

Imagery is at the heart of many memory aids. Mnemonic techniques use vivid imagery in aiding memory.

1. Method of Loci

2. Link Method

Method of Loci

List of Items

CharcoalPensBed SheetsHammer...Rug

Imagined Locations

BackyardStudyBedroomGarage...Living Room

Testing effect, 324

• Henry Roedinger: repeated self-testing raises summative test scores.

Encoding

• Chunking– organizing items into familiar, manageable

units• like horizontal organization- 1776149218121941

– often occurs automatically– use of acronyms

• HOMES- Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior• ARITHMETIC- A Rat In Tom’s House Might Eat

Tom’s Ice Cream

Storage-Retaining Information

• Sensory Memory–the immediate, initial recording of sensory

information in the memory system

• Iconic Memory–a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli–a photographic or picture image memory lasting no

more that a few tenths of a second–Registration of exact representation of a scene

• Echoic Memory–momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli

The location ofLong Term Memory

• Explicit Memory–memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare

–hippocampus- neural center in limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage

–Verbal in the left–Visual in the right

Retrieval- Getting Information Out

• Recall–the ability to retrieve info learned earlier and not in conscious awareness-like fill in the blank tests

• Recognition–the ability to identify previously learned items-like on a multiple choice test

Priming

• Priming is a retrieval cue–activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory

–The examples in the book: you see a child missing poster, then later look differently at ambiguous child-adult interactions.

–Or you see a rabbit that prompts you to spell h-a-r-e rather than h-a-i-r.

Storage-Long Term Memory, 330

• Amnesia- the loss of memory• Explicit Memory

– memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare

– hippocampus- neural center in limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage

• Implicit Memory– retention without conscious recollection– motor and cognitive skills– dispositions- conditioning– CEREBELLUM AND BASAL GANGLIA

The location ofLong Term Memory, 330

• Explicit Memory– memory of facts and experiences that one

can consciously know and declare– hippocampus- neural center in limbic

system that helps process explicit memories for storage

– Verbal in the left– Visual in the right

Memory Effects, 324

1. Next-in-line-Effect: When you are so anxious about being next that you cannot remember what the person just before you in line says, but you can recall what other people around you say.

2. Spacing Effect: We retain information better when we rehearse over time.

3. Serial Position Effect: When your recall is better for first and last items on a list, but poor for middle items.

Why we forget

Forgetting as Interference

• Learning some items may disrupt retrieval of other information– Proactive(forward acting) Interference

• disruptive effect of prior learning on recall of new information

– Retroactive (backwards acting) Interference• disruptive effect of new learning on recall of

old information

Forgetting as Interference

Dr. Elizabeth Loftus on false memory creation, 347 ff.

• Expert on false memory and reconstructed memories

• The misinformation effect: incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event.

http://www.seweb.uci.edu/psb/images/faculty/beth.jpg

Forgetting- Interference

• Motivated Forgetting–people unknowingly revise history

• Repression (Freud’s idea)–defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

Children’s Eyewitness Recall, 350

• Researchers Stephen Ceci and Maggie Bruck discuss the susceptibility of children to develop false memories

• Factors include:• A. exposure to misinformation : The

children were asked leading questions by therapists using anatomical dolls.

• B. source amnesia: wrong person identified

• C. Many of the children were under age 3 when the alleged event happened. (infantile amnesia)

http://www.human.cornell.edu/che/Features/images/sjc9.jpg, . http://hooulu.org/10102001/pix/maggie.jpg

Memory Construction and the misinformation effect, 382

• Eyewitnesses incorrectly reconstruct memories when questioned. If asked a leading question they assume more damage was done.

Depiction of actual accident

Leading question:“About how fast were the carsgoing when they smashed intoeach other?”

Memoryconstruction

Amnesia 342

• Anterograde: can’t remember things after the incident

• Retrograde: can’t remember things before the incident

Thinking concepts

Misusing heuristics: Availability Heuristic

– estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory

– if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common

A. Divergent Thinking: The goal of divergent thinking is to generate many different ideas about

a topic in a short period of time. (convergent focuses on one answer)

• 1. Foot• 2. Chair• 3. Party• 4. Green or club• 5. Paper• 6. Light• 7. Bar• 8. bee

Prototype

= a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin).

Algorithms, 361

Algorithms, which are very time consuming, exhaust all possibilities before arriving at a

solution. Computers use algorithms.

S P L O Y O C H Y G

If we were to unscramble these letters to form a word using an algorithmic approach, we would face

907,208 possibilities.

Heuristics example: shopping, 362

Example: you go to a specific section to find drinks. You don’t check every isle and shelf

Heuristics allow us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently.

Heuristics are less time consuming, but more error-prone than algorithms.

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Insight

Chimpanzees show insightful behavior when solving problems.Wolfgang Kohler’s 1925 experiment on insight to solve a problem used

a chimpanzee

Perseverance and bias

• Belief Perseverance – clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on

which they were formed has been discredited

• Confirmation bias contributes to belief perseverance

• Once you have an idea it’s difficult to dislodge it; any disconfirming evidence falls on deaf ears

“Mental set” for No. 1

• Mental sets can be obstacles to problem solving PAGE 363

• Based on one’s past experiences with series problems, the mental set is the tendency to see the alphabetical characters as single entities (letters) and not as parts (the first letters) of some related larger entities (the digit words; e.g., 1=one, 2=two, etc.).

Fixation, 363

Fixation: An inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective. This impedes

problem solving. Two examples of fixation are mental set and functional fixedness.

The Matchstick Problem: How would

you arrange six matches to form four equilateral triangles?

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Heuristics

• Representativeness Heuristic • rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of

things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes

– may lead one to ignore other relevant information

Overconfidence

– tendency to be more confident than correct – tendency to overestimate the accuracy of

one’s beliefs and judgments– Experts experience this: weather forecasters,

economists, military leaders, scientists. – They think they know more than they really

do.

Causes of overconfidence, 365

Intuitive heuristics, confirmation of beliefs, and the inclination to explain failures increase our

overconfidence.

At the stock market, both the seller and the buyer may be confident about

their decisions on a stock.

Belief Perseverance, 367

– clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.

– It takes much evidence to convince you of the incorrectness of your views once they are formed than it did to develop them in the first place.

– “Once you have a belief, it influences how you perceive all other relevant information.” Dr. Robert Jervis

Framing

– the way an issue is posed

– how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgements

– Example: What is the best way to market ground beef- As 25% fat or 75% lean?

Language

Phoneme

The smallest distinct sound unit in a spoken language. For example:

bat, has three phonemes b · a · t

chat, has three phonemes ch · a · t

Morpheme

The smallest unit that carries a meaning. It may be a word or part of a word. For example:

Milk = milkPumpkin = pump . kin

Unforgettable = un · for · get · table

Semantics, 373

Semantics is the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences.

For example:

One semantic rule tells us that adding –ed to the word laugh means that it happened in the past.

Syntax, 373

Syntax consists of the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.

For example:

In English, syntactical rule says that adjectives come before nouns; white house.

In Spanish, it is reversed; casa blanca.

Babbling stage

– beginning at 3 to 4 months– First able to discriminate speech sounds at

this stage– the stage of speech development in which

the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language

Telegraphic Speech

= early speech state in which a child speaks like a telegram – “go car” – using mostly nouns and verbs.

Chomsky on how we learn language

a.  ability to speak language is largely inbornb. we have a language acquisition capacity called

the language acquisition devicec. Children just pick up the word order pattern on

their own (Dan Slobin). That’s called the “deep structure.”

Linguistic determinism

A. Benjamin Whorf’s Linguistic relativity theory/linguistic determinism

Language determines how we thinka. most evident in those speaking two

languages: they can think in both languages if they learn them early enough

b. Another example: Eskimos think about snow differently than we do since they have so many names for it

Animal thinking and language

Koko and Washoe

Washoe learned hundreds and Koko mastered more than 1,000 words in American Sign Language. This challenges preconceptions about the limits of animal intelligence & expressing thoughts and emotions.

Dolphins mirror test

Dolphin intelligence displayed in an experiment

wimp.com/dolphinsmirror

Animal language?

3. Chimpanzees use signs meaningfully but lack syntax (the rules for how to organize sentences).

They often mix up the few symbols they use.

Criticisms of animal language claims

1. Apes acquire their limited vocabularies with a great deal of difficulty, unlike children who develop vocabularies at amazing rates.

2. Chimpanzees can make signs to receive a reward, just as a pigeon who pecks at the key receives a reward. However, pigeons have not learned a language.

3. Chimpanzees use signs meaningfully but lack syntax (the rules for how to organize sentences). They often mix up the few symbols they use.

4. Presented with ambiguous information, people tend to see what they want to see.