1. Cognitive Psychology Winter 2004 -Discussion Section-

2. Memory I. Short term memory

3. Cognitive functions Perception Memory Attention Decision-making Reasoning, problem-solving Imagery Language Emotion Motivation Action Memory

4. Why memory? Essentially: Temporal integration No action without memory Improves survival by storage of rewarded behaviors.

5. Memory Big issue in cognitive psychology Deals with the mental representation per se Big deal because it´s basically part of all cognitions

6. Temporal integration The time that (sensory) information is summed to perform a given cognition/action. Example: Speech perception. At least 4 integration-windows Why not infinite? One needs to act on the info. As long as necessary to do the task, as short as possible (to improve temporal resolution).

7. Evolutionary issues Key to understanding many memory effects (context- sensitity, state-dependent learning, forgetting, etc.) Really simple organisms (particularly simple slugs, insects): Perception  Action (Reflex) Stereotypical behavior. Usefulness limited. More advanced, but essentially limited organisms Perception  Cognition  Action Cognition = Selection, modification of action based on goals, context, etc. Basically trial and error. (Most) modern organisms Memory: Influences cognition by previous experience (learning through punishment and reward). Storage of best previous response. Perception Cognition Action Memory

8. Why forgetting? Evolutionary issues: Storage and reproduction of best response to given previous stimulus type. What if reward context changes?  Useful to limit temporal integration for the sake of flexibility. Access issues: If we store the best response, we do good to erase irrelevant ones, or our behavior will be polluted by these (now) irrelevant issues. Keeping efficiency  Avoiding interference effects. Example: Interference when learning similar material in succession. Resolution: Partial forgetting. Neuropsychological evidence suggests that forgetting is indeed an adaptive function (Lurija). We only store abstractions of info, not depictive details itself. To function.

9. Types of memory Ultra-short term memory (sensory register) Short term memory (Working memory) Long term memory (Episodic, Semantic, Procedural, etc.) Basic classification – based on longetivity of storage, not qualitative aspects – (after Shiffrin & Atkinson, 1975) All of them have relatively well established physiological correlates

10. Short term memory Demo: 9 5 0 1 2 3 6 0 6 8 4 8 6 8 9 1 3 7 6 2 1 4 5 6 5 0 1 8 5 8 9 2 1 8 7 3 8 2 1 7.....

11. Short term memory Demo: 9 5 0 1 2 3 6 0 6 8 4 8 6 8 9 1 3 7 6 2 1 4 5 6 5 0 1 8 5 8 9 2 1 8 7 3 8 2 1 7

12.  Characteristics of STM Information available in absence of the stimulus Information is not stored indefinitely. Vanishes. There is a capacity limit. The short term storage can´t keep large amounts of information active. The retained information is in a highly sensory- Based format. Little abstraction/distortion. There are characteristical memory-effects. STM profits highly from memorization strategies.

13. Capacity of STM 7 +/- 2 items (G.A. Miller, 1956) Improved by chunking. Chunking allows to improve the objective capacity of STM: 7 7 3 8 3 4 3 0 7 2 773-834-3072 Chunking is a form of re-coding of the sensory Information. Profits from identification, LTM: C I A F B I K G B S D I M A D

14. Retention duration Basic retention time is roughly 20 seconds. Improved by rehearsal. Continuous rehearsal can basically extend the retention duration indefinitely. Moreover, rehearsal can also facilitate the trans- tormation of the information from STM to LTM. Another strategy to improve retention is sensory recoding: (Silent) speaking, writing, etc.

15. Coding Mental representation is sensory, particularly acoustic for language material.  Things are encoded in terms of how they sound, not what they look like or mean. Classical studies: People were given material to remember and then given confusing material on a test They were confused by items that sounded similar, not by items that mean similar things. This effect might be highly material-, task-, and strategy-dependent.

16. STM effects Almost all information that goes into STM is subject to the so-called Primacy- and Recency-Effect. This effect means that information at the beginning and at the end of the list has a retention advantage:

17. STM effects Interference: An alternative explanation for forgetting, vs. decay. Basic idea: Some information displaces others in capacity limited STM.  Alternative explanation for retention duration, as a side-effect of capacity limitations. Proactive interference: Material learned first disrupting retention of subsequently learned material. Retroactive interference: Material learned later disrupting retention of previously learned material. Both effects explain why cramming is a bad idea. Ineffective.

18. Information retrieval Information retrieval is the complementary step to Information encoding. Saul Sternberg (1966): Information retrieval is serial and exhaustive: The higher the number the distractors there are, the longer it takes – the whole set is searched. Homework: Watch Brazil (1985). Classical effects might be content-dependent  Parallel search possible.

19. Working memory Typical inflation of words, in memory field. Inspired by computer science. Term goes back to Baddeley. Means: That short term memory has a substructure. Central executive Phonological loop Visuospatial sketchpad

21. Reasons Problems in Exam-design, Format My fault... Your fault... Attitude?

22. Come and see me, if... *You scored under 70% *You have a question regarding the exam *You have a problem I will post a sample solution on my website

23. In general: QALMRIs much better than the exam. Really, really good for a hard paper. Good job.