1. Chapter 7 Cognition

2. What is Memory?
Human memory is an information processing system that works constructively to encode, store, and retrieve information

3. What is Memory?
Memory: Any system (human, animal, or machine) that encodes, stores, and retrieves information

4. 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

5. Memory’s Three Basic Functions
Encoding
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

6. Memory’s Three Basic Functions
Encoding
Storage
Retrieval
Involves retention of encoded material over time

7. Memory’s Three Basic Functions
Encoding
Storage
Retrieval
Involves the location and recovery of information from memory

8. 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?

9. Chapter 7: Cognition How Do We Form Memories?
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

10. The Three Stages of Memory
Sensory Memory
Working Memory
Long-term Memory
Preserves brief sensory impressions of stimuli

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. The Three Stages of Memory
Sensory Memory
Short-term Memory
Long-term Memory
Preserves recently perceived events or experiences for less than a minute (20 s) without rehearsal, also called working memory

14. 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 attention
A phonological loop – temp storage of sounds
The sketchpad – temp storage of visuals

15. 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

16. 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

17. The Three Stages of Memory
Sensory Memory
Working Memory
Long-term Memory
Stores material organized according to meaning, also called LTM

18. 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

19. 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”

20. Long-term memory Declarative memory Procedural memory Semantic memory
Includes memory
for: language, facts
general knowledge
Episodic memory
Includes memory
for: events, personal
experiences
Includes memory
for: motor skills,
classical
conditioning

21. How Do We Retrieve Memories?
Whether memories are implicit or explicit, successful retrieval depends on how they were encoded and how they are cued

22. 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)

23. 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…

24. Recall and Recognition
Recall: Technique for retrieving explicit memories in which one must reproduce previously presented information
FRQ
Recognition: Technique for retrieving explicit memories in which one must identify present stimuli as having been previously presented
Multiple choice

25. 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

26. 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

27. Memory’s “Seven Sins” Transience Absent-Mindedness Blocking
Misattribution
Suggestibility
Bias
Persistence

28. Transience
The impermanence of a long-term memory; based on the idea that long-term memories gradually fade in strength over time
Forgetting curve: A graph plotting the amount of retention and forgetting over time for a certain batch of material

29. Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve
Percent retained 60 50 40 30 20 10
Days 5 10 15 20 25 30
Recall decreases rapidly, then reaches a plateau, after which little more is forgotten

30. Absent-Mindedness Blocking
Forgetting caused by lapses in attention
Forgetting that occurs when an item in memory cannot be accessed or retrieved
Proactive interference (new is blocked)
Retroactive interference (old is blocked)
Tip-of-the-tongue
Blocking

31. Suggestibility/Misinformation Effect
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

32. Bias
An attitude, belief, emotion, or experience that distorts memories
Expectancy bias: A tendency to distort recalled events to make them fit one’s expectations
Self-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

33. 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 include
Method of loci
Acronyms
Natural language mediators

34. 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 memory
For 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

35. How Do Children Acquire Language?
Infants and children face an especially important developmental task with the acquisition of language.

36. Group Discussion Questions
What is communication?
What is speech?
What is language?
Why are these things important?

37. 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 grammar
Language acquisition device (LAD): Structure in the brain innately programmed with some of the fundamental rules of grammar (Noam Chomsky) 28

38. How Children Acquire Language
Early stages of language acquisition include the following:
The babbling stage
The one-word stage; the naming explosion
The two-word stage
Telegraphic speech (short, simple sentences) 29

39. Components of Language
Grammar: rules of a language
Syntax: rules of grammar
Phoneme: smallest distinctive unit of sound
Morphemes: smallest unit that carries meaning
Overregularization: Applying a grammatical rule too widely and thereby creating incorrect forms (e.g. using “hitted” and “feets”) 29

40. How Children Acquire Language
Other language skills
Social rules of conversation
Abstract words (e.g. hope, truth) 30

41. What Are the Components of Thought?
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

42. Concepts Metacognition: Thinking about thinking
Concepts: Mental representations of categories of items or ideas, based on experience
Natural concepts represent objects and events
Artificial concepts are defined by rules
We organize much of our declarative memories into concept hierarchies
Superordinate v. subordinate (vehicle, convertible)

43. Animal Bird Fish Canary Ostrich Shark Salmon Has skin Eats Breathes
Has wings
Can fly
Has feathers
Has fins
Can swim
Has gills
Canary
Ostrich
Shark
Salmon
Can sing
Is yellow
Can’t fly
Is tall
Can bite
Is dangerous
Is pink
Is edible

44. Thought and the Brain
Event-related potentials: Brain waves shown on an EEG in response to stimulation

45. 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

46. What Abilities Do Good Thinkers Possess?
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

47. Problem Solving Metacognition: thinking about thinking
Good problem solvers are skilled at
Identifying the problem
Possessing requisite knowledge needed
Selecting a strategy…dog problem

48. 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

49. Heuristics Useful heuristics include: Unscramble these words…
Working backward
Searching for analogies
Breaking a big problem into smaller problems
Unscramble these words…

50. 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

51. Obstacles to Problem Solving
Other obstacles include:
Self-imposed limitations
Lack of interest
Fatigue
Drugs (legal and illegal)

52. Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation Bias
Hindsight Bias
Anchoring Bias
Representativeness Bias
Availability Bias

53. Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation Bias
Ignoring or finding fault with information that does not fit our opinions, and seeking information with which we agree
Hindsight Bias
Anchoring Bias
Representativeness Bias
Availability Bias

54. Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation Bias
Tendency, after learning about an event, to believe that one could have predicted the event in advance
Hindsight Bias
Anchoring Bias
Representativeness Bias
Availability Bias

55. Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation Bias
Faulty heuristic caused by basing (anchoring) an estimate on a completely unrelated quantity
Hindsight Bias
Anchoring Bias
Representativeness Bias
Availability Bias

56. Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation 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)
Hindsight Bias
Anchoring Bias
Representativeness Bias
Availability Bias

57. Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation Bias
Hindsight Bias
Faulty heuristic strategy that estimates probabilities based on information that can be recalled from personal experience
Anchoring Bias
Representativeness Bias
Availability Bias

58. 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