Introduction to Cognitive Science (COGN1001) Psychology Module (i)

Nature of Human Mind Cognitive Psychology – Information processing system – The architecture of the mind

Information Processing Model Computer as an analogy – Select, encode, store & retrieve Empirical investigation & evidence

Sensory Memory Echoic memory Iconic memory Visual summation – Phi phenomenon – E.g., movies Backward masking

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John

is

going

to

tell

you

a

story

Sensory Memory (cont’d) Temporal limitation – Brief Storage – Relatively large Capacity? Duration? Sperling (1960) 3 x 3 letter matrix 3 x 4.15,.30,.50 msecs delay Whole report Partial report technique

Sensory Memory (cont’d) Capacity – Relatively large Duration – 250 msecs Function: Information loss: – Decay

Attention Theories of Attention Early selection (Broadbent) Dichotic listening Left ear: Right ear: 3 2 5

Contrasting findings: – Shadowing – Attended message: “They were throwing stones at the bank” – Unattended message: “money” rather “river” – Tended to remember: “They were throwing stones at the financial institution” Cocktail party phenomenon

Attenuation (Treisman) Late selection (Deutsch & Deutsch) Capacity model (Kahneman & others)

Selective attention Divided attention Attention – Unavoidable – E.g., Stroop effect RED BLUE GREEN ORANGE

Short-term Memory Encoding How is information encoded? – Demo

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T L P K S J

P  B P  R Acoustic confusion

Short-term Memory (cont’d) How can you keep the info in your STM? Capacity? – Demo

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F B I S A R U C S I B M

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Lake Bread Jump Sing Song Pen Water Hop Paper Butter

F B I S A R U C S I B M (7) (9) Lake Bread Jump Sing Song Pen Water Hop Paper Butter (5)

Short-term Memory (cont’d) Storage limitation – items (George Miller, 1956) Chunking

F B I S A R U C S I B M F B I -S A R- U C S- I B M Lake Bread Jump Sing Song Pen Water Hop Paper Butter Lake Water Bread Butter Jump Hop Sing Song Paper Pen

Short-term Memory (cont’d) Duration? – How can we go about to test it?

Working Memory Baddeley (1989) 3 components: – Articulartory loop – Visuospatial sketchpad – Executive control system (e.g., simple arithmetic) – Limited resources – Digit span & Arithmetic

Digit span – English 7.3 – Chinese 9.9

Working Memory (cont’d) Information loss – Displacement – Interference – Decay