PSY 369: Psycholinguistics Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive Psychology It is the body of psychological experimentation that deals with issues of human memory, language use, problem solving, decision making, and reasoning. “Cognitive Psychology refers to all processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used.” Ulric Neisser (1967)

Mind as computer analogy

Mind as computer analogy Limitations of the analogy Computers fast serial (mostly) digital few connections (relatively) Minds (Brains??) slow parallel analog trillions of connections

The ‘standard model’ Information ‘flows’ from one memory buffer to the next

The sensory store George Sperling (1960) Full Report: I'm going to show you a bunch of letters, then I'll cue you to recall as many of letters as you can.

RECALL

Partial Report I'm going to show you a bunch of letters, then I'll cue you (with a blue arrow) as to which row of letters I'd like you to recall. Immediately following the cue, write down as many letters as you can from that row.

RECALL

The sensory store Typically the result of this experiment is: Full report: can report about 4.5 letters on average Partial report: can typically report 4 letters (that's100%) The partial report results suggest that all of the information is there, the 4.5 average seen in the full report condition reflects the extremely rapid decay of the Sensory Store.

The sensory store Further support of this comes from a delay manipulation. In this case you manipulate how much time passes between the stimuli and the recall cue. If you delay by about 1/4 to 1/2 a second, the average reported drops to about 4.5, the same rate as in the Full report task.

The sensory store Properties sensory specific - one for vision, one for audition, etc. high capacity extremely fast decay Talk briefly about relevance to language processing here Visual duration: 150-250 msec (although you may be able to increase this with increased intensity of the stimulus Echoic duration: 250 - 4000 msec Think about the differences between spoken and written language, the spoken stuff is presented in serial fashion, while written language presents (some of) the information in parallel (fixation of attention can span units larger than some words) Attention, is used to move information from the sensory register to STM (or working memory). That’s the role of the blue arrow cue.

The ‘standard model’

Short term memory I’ll read a list of words and ask you to recall them Okay, now recall as many of the items as you can Here is the list: CAT, SHACK, BOAT, CAR, PICTURE, ELEPHANT, MAP, SWING, TACK, BEAR, BOX, DOOR, CHURCH, TREE, DOG, DENTIST, TRAIN, SNOW, SMOKE, RADIO

Short term memory The typical results items at the beginning of a list is remembered well (primacy) items at the end of the list are remembered well (recency)

Short term memory Typical account: A variant of the task: Recency items recalled from STM Primacy items recalled from LTM A variant of the task: Count backwards by threes before recall Here is the list: MOUSE, BARN, SHIP, TRUCK, PHOTOGRAPH, GIRAFFE, SIGN, SLIDE, PIN, DEER, BOTTLE, WINDOW, GARAGE, BUSH, FISH, DOCTOR, AIRPLANE, RAIN, FIRE, TELEVISION

Short term memory The typical result is that the longer you have to count backwards, the worse your memory for the letters. The theory is that the counting backwards prevents the rehearsal of information in STM, so it decays away.

Short term memory Increasing your STM span Chunking Grouping information together into larger units Dog cat mouse shoe sock toe couch pillow blanket Down flowers the by with chased yellow several girls a river boy. A boy chased several girls with yellow flowers down by the river. Notice that the previous two are the same words, but the syntax allows for grouping into meaningful ‘chunks’

Short Term Memory Properties rapid access (about 35 milliseconds per item) limited capacity (7+/- 2 chunks; George Miller, 1956) fast decay, about 12 seconds (longer if rehearsed or elaborated) Again, relate to language processes

Working Memory Working memory instead of STM More complex. Findings that sometimes multiple things can be held in memory without interference, while other times things interfere. Suggested that there are specialized subsystems. Three main components: Phonological loop Visual-spatial Sketch Pad (ignore the typos in the figure) Centeral Executive

Working Memory Phonological store Very limited capacity Working memory instead of STM May also be involved in writing and reading, translating written codes into phonological codes Articulatory suppression effects Say ‘the the the …’ as you read sentences Mary liked John but his brother she couldn’t stand Miss Peacock was murdered by Colonel Mustard The artist I met at the party lived in Australia. Sometimes you’ll see interference with verbatim memory for the sentences, other times not Related to the complexity (primarily syntactic) of sentences Phonological rehearsal mechanism Phonological store Very limited capacity Rehearsal maintains information in the store

Working Memory information Directly from perception Working memory instead of STM Store and manipulate visual and spatial information Directly from perception Indirectly from imagery May also be involved in writing and reading, translating written codes into phonological codes

Working Memory subcomponents Directs elaboration/manipulation of Working memory instead of STM Allocate attentional resources to the subcomponents Directs elaboration/manipulation of information May also be involved in writing and reading, translating written codes into phonological codes

The ‘standard model’

Long term memory Properties Capacity: Unlimited? Duration: Decay/interference, retrieval difficulty Organization Multiple subsystems for type of memory Associative networks (more on these next week)

Long term memory: Capacity How much can we remember? Lots, no known limits to how much memory storage we have. More important issue concerns questions about encoding and retrieval Encoding - getting memories into LTM what gets in? Retrieval - getting memories out of LTM what gets out? exact memories or reconstructed memories?

Long term memory: Duration How long do our memories last? Ebbinghaus (1885/1913) He memorized non-sense syllables. Memorize them until perfect performance, Test to relearn the lists perfectly. This was called the "savings."

Long term memory: Duration How long do our memories last? Bahrick (1984) He has done a number of studies asking people about memories for things (e.g., Spanish, faces of classmates, etc.) that they learned over 50 years past. He has found evidence that at least some memories stick around a really long time.

Long term memory: Organization This theory suggests that there are different memory components, each storing different kinds of information. Declarative episodic - memories about events semantic - knowledge of facts Procedural - memories about how to do things (e.g., the thing that makes you improve at riding a bike with practice. The Multiple Memory Stores Theory Declarative episodic semantic Procedural

Long term memory How is semantic memory structured? Networks (more next week) This theory suggests that there are different memory components, each storing different kinds of information.

Attention Major tool of the central executive Limited capacity resource Filtering capabilities Resource: Miller’s 7±2 is only the beginning. Dual task studies suggest either resources (either the fuel or the processing mechanisms). Filtering: focusing on the relevant information, e.g., what to get out of the sensory store, what information to retrieve from LTM, what stuff to try to integrate (“chunk”) Integration: gluing smaller bits into larger bits, talk Triesman illusory conjuctions Integration function

Automaticity Controlled processes Automatic processes Require resources Under some volitional direction Slow, effortful Automatic processes Require little attention Obligatory Fast Introspect about walking down stairs, about reading a word Think about when you were learning to do these things

Stages of skill acquisition Cognitive stage Establish declarative encoding of an action Associative stage Strengthen the connections between elements of the skill Autonomous stage Skills can be performed without interference form other activities Introspect about walking down stairs, about reading a word, again riding a bike

Bottom-up & Top-down Terms come from computer science Bottom up (data driven) relies upon evidence that is physically present, building larger units based on smaller ones Top down (knowledge driven), using higher-level information to support lower-level processes

Bottom-up & Top-down Selfridge’s Pandemonium system, 1959

Bottom-up & Top-down C T

Bottom-up & Top-down T E

Bottom-up & Top-down T E C T

Bottom-up & Top-down FROG

Bottom-up & Top-down FROG

Bottom-up & Top-down Half the class close your eyes Title: Doing laundry

Bottom-up & Top-down Half the class close your eyes Read story The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange items into different groups. Of course one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step; otherwise, you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first, the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life, but then, one never can tell. After the procedure is completed one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, this is part of life. Rate how comprehensible the story is 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 hard to easy to understand understand

Summing up Psycholinguistic view Language and cognition are inextricably linked Notice that almost all of the experiment demonstrations involved language elements as stimuli