1. Thinking: Memory, Cognition, and Language
Chapter 6
Thinking: Memory, Cognition, and Language
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Terms
Cognitive Psychology Memory Sensory Memory Short-term memory Long-term memory Chunk Rehearsal Declarative memory Procedural memory Semantic memory Episodic memory Recall Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon Recognition Levels-of-processing theory Explicit memory Implicit memory Flashbulb memories Constructive processes Schemas Autobiographical memories Decay Interference Cue-dependent forgetting Proactive interference Retroactive interference Thinking Mental imagines Concepts Prototypes Algorithm Heuristic Means-ends analysis Functional Fixedness Mental set Language Babble Telegraphic Speech Overgeneralization Learning-theory approach to language development Universal grammar Nativist approach to language development Linguistic-relativity hypothesis Language-acquisition device Interactionist approach to language development
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3. The Foundations of Memory Module 18
Learning Outcomes
Identify sensory memory
Define short-term memory
Define long-term memory
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4. Sensory, Short-Term, and Long-Term Memory
Memory: the process by which we encode, store, and retrieve information
Memory is the process by which we encode, store, and retrieve information.
Each of the three parts of this definition represents a different process, and only if all 3 processes have been operated will you experience success in retrieving a particular memory.
Encoding is the initial recording of information; storage is the process whereby information is stored for future use; and retrieval is the recovery of the stored information.
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Sensory memory
Sensory memory: initial, momentary storage of information; lasts only an instant; stores almost exact replicas of all sensory stimuli experienced by that person
Sensory memory, corresponding to each of the sensory systems, is the first place where information is saved. Sensory memories are very brief, but they are precise, storing a nearly exact replica of a stimulus.
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Short-term memory
Short-term memory: second stage of memory; holds information for seconds
Capacity of 7 +/- 2 chunks (meaningful grouping of stimuli that can be stored as a unit in short-term memory)
Rehearsal: the repetition of information in short-term memory
repetitive rehearsal keeps information in short-term,
elaborative rehearsal moves information to long-term memory
Roughly seven (plus or minus two) chunks of information can be transferred and held in short-term memory. Information in short-term memory is held from 15 to 25 seconds and, if not transferred to long-term memory, is lost.
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Long-term memory
Long-term memory: third stage of memory; stores information on a relatively permanent basis, but can be difficult to retrieve
Declarative memory - is memory for factual information and can be divided into procedural memory which refers to memory for skills and habits
Episodic memory - which is memory for events that occur in a particular time, place or context.
Procedural memory - (non-declarative) refers to memory for skills and habits.
Long-term memory can be viewed in terms of memory modules, each of which is related to separate memory systems in the brain. For instance, we can distinguish between declarative memory and procedural memory. Declarative memory is further divided into episodic memory and semantic memory.
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Recap
Sensory memory, corresponding to each of the sensory systems, is the first place where information is saved.
Sensory memories are very brief, but they are precise, storing a nearly exact replica of a stimulus.
Roughly seven (plus or minus two) chunks of information can be transferred and held in short-term memory. Information in short-term memory is held from seconds and, if not transferred to long-term memory, is lost.
Memories are transferred into long-term storage through rehearsal. If memories are transferred into long-term memory, they become relatively permanent.
Long-term memory can be viewed in terms of memory modules, each of which is related to separate memory systems in the brain. For instance, we can distinguish between declarative memory and procedural memory. Declarative memory is further divided in episodic memory and semantic memory.
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9. Recall and Forgetting Module 19
Learning Outcomes
Explain retrieval cues
Discuss levels of processing
Compare and contrast implicit and explicit memory
Define flashbulb memories
Describe the constructive process of memory
Define forgetting
Explain why we forget information
Compare and contrast proactive and retroactive interference
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Retrieval Cues
Retrieval cue: a stimulus that allows you to more easily recall a long-term memory because it is connected to that memory
Retrieval cues are important when we are making an effort to recall information, as opposed to recognizing material stored in memory.
Recall: specific information must be retrieved from memory
Recognition: when presented with a stimulus, you determine whether you’ve been exposed to it previously, or you identify the correct information from a list of alternatives
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Levels of Processing
One determinant of how well memories are recalled is
the way in which material is first perceived, processed,
and understood.
Levels-of-processing theory: emphasizes the degree to which new material is mentally analyzed; the greater the intensity of initial processing, the more likely we are to remember the information
Information to which we pay greater attention is processed more thoroughly,
therefore it is at a deeper level, and less apt to be forgotten.
Rote memorization: is unlikely to produce long-term recollection, however thinking about terms and reflecting on how they relate to information we already know brings about more effective long-term recall.
Rote memorization unlikely to lead to long-term recollection of information because processing is at a shallow level
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12. Explicit and Implicit Memory
The fact that people can sometimes recall information
of which we are unaware. This has led to speculation
that two forms of memory may exist:
Explicit memory: intentional or conscious recollection of information
Example – recalling the name of someone you met last week
Implicit memory: memories of which people are not consciously aware, but which can affect subsequent performance and behavior
Example – automatic skills like jumping out of the way of a car about to hit you
Explicit memory refers to intentional or conscious recollection of infomration. Explicit memory example: recalling the name of someone you met last week.
Implicit memory includes memories of which people are not consciously aware, but which can affect subsequent performance and behavior. Implicit memory example: automatic skills, like jumping out of the way of a car about to hit you.
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Flashbulb Memories
Flashbulb memories: specific, important, or surprising events that are so vivid in memory it is as if they represented a snapshot of the event
Flashbulb memories illustrate a more general phenomenon about memory: exceptional memories are more easily retrieved, than are commonplace events.
What were you doing on 9/11/2001?
Exceptional, distinctive, and/or personally relevant memories are more easily retrieved than commonplace ones (but not necessarily accurately).
Where were you on November 4, 2008? It might be helpful to add: The day the first African-American man was elected President of the United States.
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14. Constructive Processes in Memory: Rebuilding the Past
It is clear that we can have detailed recollections of significant and distinctive events.
But it is difficult to gauge the accuracy of such memories.
It is apparent that our memories reflect, at least in part, constructive processes
processes in which memories are influenced by the meaning we give to events.
The memory which is produced is affected not just by our prior experience with the
stimulus, but also by our guesses and inferences about its meaning.
This notion of constructive processes was first introduced by Frederic Bartlett, who
suggested that people tend to remember information in terms of schemas, or
organized bodies of information stored in memory that bias the way new information
is interpreted, stored, and recalled. This implies that memories of our own past may
be partially fiction, or at least a distortion of what actually happened.
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15. Constructive Processes in Memory: Rebuilding the Past
Autobiographical memories: our recollections of circumstances and episodes from our own lives. Culture determines how people frame information initially, how it is stored, and how they recall it.
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Forgetting
Forgetting is essential to remembering important information.
Forgetting inconsequential details about experiences helps us avoid being burdened and distracted by trivial stores of meaningless data.
Hermann Ebbinghaus made the first attempts to study forgetting. His research demonstrated a strong initial decline in memory, which was followed by a more gradual decline over time. He also demonstrated that relearning mastered material is usually faster than learning new information.
Forgetting permits us to form general impressions and recollections. Forgetting also helps us avoid being burdened and distracted by trivial stores of meaningless data.
Our memories are based on a summary of various critical features – a far more economical use of our memory capabilities.
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Why We Forget
We may forget because we did not properly encode information in the first
place. Material that has been encoded into long-term memory can be
forgotten. Several processes can account for memory failure:
Failure of encoding (paying attention to and placing information in memory)
Decay: the loss of information because of nonuse
Interference: information in memory disrupts the recall of other information
Cue-dependent forgetting: forgetting that occurs when there are insufficient retrieval cues to rekindle information that is in memory
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Proactive and Retroactive Interference: The Before and After of Forgetting
Proactive interference: information learned earlier disrupts the recall of newer material
Retroactive interference: difficulty in recalling information learned earlier because of later exposure to different material
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19. Thinking, Reasoning, and Problem Solving Module 20
Learning Outcomes
Explain the concept of mental images
Discuss the process of categorizing the world
Describe the processes the underlie reasoning and decision making
Explain how people approach and solve problems
Thinking is defined as the manipulation of mental representations of information. This representation can take the form of a word, visual image, or sound. Thinking transforms a particular representation of information into new and different forms, allowing us to answer questions, solve problems, or reach goals.
Using mental images, categorizing and other processes help us to “think” and then solve problems.
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20. Mental Images: Examining the Mind’s Eye
Thinking is defined as the manipulation of mental representations of information.
Thinking transforms such representations into novel and different forms, permitting people to answer questions, solve problems, and reach goals
Mental images: representations in the mind of an object or event (can take the form of any of the senses: visual, auditory, etc.)
Some experts see the production of mental images as a way to improve various skills
Use of mental imagery can improve various skills; many athletes use visualization
Thinking is the manipulation of mental representations of information. Thinking transforms such representations into novel and different forms, permitting people to answer questions, solve problems, and reach goals. Mental images are representations in the mind of an object or event.
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21. Concepts: Categorizing the World
Concepts: categorizations of objects, events, or people that share common properties; enable us to organize complex things into cognitive categories we can use
Concepts help us classify newly encountered objects on the basis of our past experience
Concepts ultimately influence behavior
Prototypes: typical, highly representative examples of a concept
Concepts are categorizations of objects, events, or people that share common properties. Prototypes are representative examples of concepts.
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22. Reasoning: Making Up Your Mind
Reasoning is the process by which information is
used to draw conclusions and make decisions.
When faced with making decisions, we often turn cognitive shortcuts.
Algorithm: cognitive shortcut in decision making; a rule that, if applied appropriately, guarantees a solution to a problem. Algorithms can be used even if we cannot understand why they work.
Heuristic: cognitive shortcut that may lead to a solution. Heuristics enhance the likelihood of success in coming to a solution, but do not ensure it.
Decisions sometimes (but not always) may be improved through the use of algorithms and heuristics. An algorithm is a rule that, if applied appropriately, guarantees a solution; a heuristic is a cognitive shortcut that may lead to a solution but is not guaranteed to do so.
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23. Problem Solving Problems vary from well-defined problems
to ill-defined problems.
Step 1 – Preparation:
The preparation stage of understanding and diagnosing is critical in problem solving because it allows us to develop our own cognitive representation of the problem and to place it within a personal framework.
Our ability to represent a problem—and the kind of solution we eventually come to—depends on the way a problem is phrased, or framed.
Psychologists have found that problem solving typically involves the three steps of preparation, production and judgment.
Problems vary from well-defined to ill-defined. Our approach will remain the same, but one problem may take longer to be solved than another, based on the information provided and the time it takes to reach a solution.
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24. Problem Solving
Step 2 – Production: If the problem is simple, we may already have a direct solution stored in long-term memory, if we cannot retrieve or do not know the solution, we must generate possible solutions and compare them with information in long-and short-term memory.
  At the most basic level we can solve a problem through trial and error. In place of trial and error, we can use heuristics.
The most common applied heuristic is a means-ends analysis, which is repeated testing for differences between the desired outcome and what currently exists.
Another heuristic is to divide a problem into intermediate steps, or subgoals, and solve each of those steps.
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25. Problem Solving
Step 3 – Judgment: If the solution is clear, we will know immediately whether we have been successful.
- If the solution is less concrete, or there is no single correct solution, evaluating the solution becomes more difficult.
- Theoretically, if we rely on appropriate heuristics and valid information to make decisions, we can make accurate choices among alternative solutions.
-Significant obstacles can exist at each of the three major stages.
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26. Impediments to solutions
Even though cognitive approaches to problem solving suggest that thinking proceeds along fairly rational, logical lines as a person confronts a problem and considers various solutions, several factors can hinder the development of creative, appropriate, and accurate solutions.
Functional fixedness: the tendency to think of an object only in terms of its typical use
Mental set: the tendency for old patterns of problem solving to persist
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27. RECAP
Problem solving typically involves three major stages: preparation, production of
solutions, and evaluation of solutions that have been generated.
A crucial aspect of the preparation stage is the representation and organization of the problem.
In the production stage, people try to generate solutions. They may find solutions to some problems in long-term memory. Alternatively, they may solve some problems through simple trial and error and use algorithms and heuristics to solve more complex problems. 
Using the heuristic of a means-ends analysis, a person will repeatedly test for
differences between the desired outcome and what currently exists, trying each time to come closer to the goal. 
Several factors hinder effective problems solving. Mental set, of which functional fixedness is an example, is the tendency for old patterns of problem solving to persist. Inappropriate use of algorithms and heuristics can also act as an obstacle to the production of solutions.
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Language Module 21
Learning Outcomes
Explain how language develops
Describe how people use language
Language is defined as the communication of information through symbols arranged according to systematic rules. Not only is language central to communication, it is also closely tied to the very way in which we think about and understand the world.
There are two major explanations of how language develops in humans, and a third approach has been adopted to reconcile the differing views of the two major theories.
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29. Language Development: Developing a Way with Words
Language is the communication of information through symbols arranged according to systematic rules, an important cognitive ability.
Babble: speech-like but meaningless sounds made by children from around 3 months to 1 year old
Critical period: time when a child is particularly sensitive to learning/acquisition of skills; critical period for language development early in life; difficult to acquire language skills if critical period is missed
Language production develops out of babbling, which then leads to the production of actual words.
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30. Language Development: Developing a Way with Words (cont.)
By about 1 year after birth, children stop producing sounds that are not in the language being spoken around them.
After 1 year, children begin to learn more complicated forms of language.
By age 2 the average child has a vocabulary of more than 50 words, and in six months the language increases to a vocabulary of several hundred words.
Telegraphic speech: sentences in which words not critical to the message are left out; used by children beginning around age 2 ½ (ex.: “I show book” instead of “I showed you the book”)
Overgeneralization: by about age 3, children employ language rules even when it results in an error (ex.: adding –ed to “run” to form the past tense)
By age 5 children have acquired the basic rules of language.
After 1 year of age, children use two-word combinations, increase their vocabulary, and use telegraphic speech, which drops words not critical to the message. By age 5, acquisition of language rules is relatively complete.
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31. Language Development: Developing a Way with Words (cont.)
Learning theory approach to language development: language acquisition follows the principles of reinforcement and conditioning.
a mother repeating “mama” to her baby until the child repeats it back. This theory suggests that with repetition comes proficiency. However, it does not explain how children acquire language rules.
Nativist approach to language development: a genetically determined, innate mechanism drives language development (Noam Chomsky)
Scientists have discovered a gene related to the development of language abilities. Specific sites in the brain are closely tied to language.
The Learning Theory approach suggests that language acquisition follows principles of reinforcement and conditioning (a mother repeating “mama” to her baby until the child repeats it back). This theory suggests that with repetition comes proficiency. However, it does not explain how children acquire language rules.
The Nativist Theory suggests that humans are born with an innate linguistic capability that emerges as the person matures. Scientists have discovered a gene related to the development of language abilities. Specific sites in the brain are closely tied to language.
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32. Language Development: Developing a Way with Words (cont.)
Universal grammar: common underlying structure shared by all the world’s languages
Language-acquisition device: a neural system of the brain that Chomsky thought permits understanding of language
Interactionist approach to language development: combination of the learning theory and nativist approaches (brain’s language-acquisition device is the “hardware;” exposure to language in the environment allows us to develop the “software”)
The Interactionist Theory has been put forth to reconcile the differing views of the other two theories. This theory suggests that language development is produced through a combination of genetically determined predispositions and environmental circumstances that help teach language.
However, the issue of “how” language is acquired remains hotly contested.
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The Influence of Language on Thinking: Do Eskimos Have More Words for Snow Than Texans?
Linguistic- relativity hypothesis: the idea that language shapes and may determine the way people in a specific culture perceive and understand the world (language produces thought)
However, most recent research suggests that thinking produces language, although language may influence how we think
The linguistic-relativity hypothesis suggests that language shapes and may determine the way people think about the world. Most evidence suggests that although language does not determine thought, it does affect the way people store information in memory and how well they can retrieve it.
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34. The Influence of Language on Thinking: Do Eskimos Have More Words for Snow Than Texans?
  Linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf contended that, because snow is so relevant to Eskimos’ lives, their language provides a particularly rich vocabulary to describe it.
The contention that Eskimo language is especially abundant in snow-related terms, led to the linguistic-relativity hypothesis--the notion that language shapes and may, in fact, determine the way people in a specific culture perceive and understand the world.
Another possibility is that is that, instead of language’s being the cause of certain ways of thinking, thought produces language.
Most current research refutes the linguistic-relativity hypothesis, and suggests, instead, that thinking produces language.
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35. The Influence of Language on Thinking: Do Eskimos Have More Words for Snow Than Texans?
There is evidence that language influences how we think. Thought influences language, suggesting that language and thinking interact.
In New York city, one in six students are enrolled in some form of bilingual or English as a Second Language instruction.
Many educators maintain that bilingual education is best.
Other educators support immersion programs where students are Immediately plunged into English instruction.
Evidence shows that speaking two languages provides significant cognitive benefits over speaking only one language.
Speaking several languages changes the organization of the brain, as does the timing of the acquisition of a second language.
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36. Critical Thinking Exercise
Is there a cognitive advantage to having children learn a second language? Why or why not? 1-2 paragraphs
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