Chapter 7-Cognition
AP PSYCHOLOGY
Memory
• Take out a piece of paper and name the 7 dwarfs
Difficulty of Task
• Was the exercise easy or difficult?
• It depends on what factors?
• Whether you like Disney movies
• how long ago you watched the movie
• how loud the people are around you when you are trying to
remember
Cognition--Memory
• Cognitive psychologist view memory as a system of that
encodes, stores, and retrieves information.
• Human memory works closely with the perceptual system,
which takes information from the senses an selectively
converts it to meaningful patterns that can be stored and
accessed later when needed
Memory—Spot the Real Penny
Human Memory is Good At:
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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
Memory’s 3 Basic Tasks
• Human memory takes essentially meaningless sensory
information and changes it into meaningful patterns that you
can use and store later…this is called Information- Processing
Model
Memory’s 3 Basic Task
• The memory process:
• Encoding
• Storage
• Retrieval
Encoding
• Involves the modification of information to fit the preferred
format of the memory system.
• You are RECORDING information into your memory.
Encoding
• Deliberate encoding effort called—elaboration.
• Elaboration: You connect a a new concept with existing
information already stored.
• Assimilation: absorbing new information and placing it in already
existing schemas
Encoding Examples
• Typing information into a computer
• Getting a girls name at a party
Storage
• 2nd essential memory task.
• Involves the retention of encoded material overtime.
Storage Examples
• Pressing Ctrl S and
saving information
• Trying to remember
the girl’s name
Retrieval
• 3rd Stage of the Memory Process.
• Involves the location and recovery of information from
memory
Retrieval Examples
• Finding your saved
document and
opening it up.
• Seeing the girl from the
party the next day…and
calling her the wrong
name (retrieval failure)
How Do We Form Memories?
• Core Concept:
• 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
How do we form memories?
• The three stages to forming memories work like an assembly
line to convert the flow of incoming stimuli into meaningful
patterns than can be stored and later remembered.
• Model originally created by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin.
Memory Flow
Sensory
Memory
Working
Memory
Includes shortterm memory
Long Term
Memory
 LT memory also
flows back to
working memory
Sensory Memory
• Most fleeting of the 3 stages.
• Typically holds sights, sounds, smells, textures, for only a
fraction of a second
• One function– is to maintain incoming sensory information to
be screened for possible use and entry into working memory.
Sensory Memory Example
Sensory Memory
• How many letters can you recall?
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.
• There is a separate sensory register for each sense.
• Psychologists believe that, in this stage, memory images take
the form of nerve impulses.
Biological Base of Sensory
Memory
Working Memory
• 2nd Stage of Processing.
• Originally called Short Term memory (STM)
• Preserves recently perceived events or experiences for less
than a minute without rehearsal.
Working Memory
• Takes information selectively from the sensory register and
connects it with items already in long term storage (That Rings
a Bell).
• Working memory is built to hold information for a few
seconds (about 20), making it a useful buffer for temporarily
holding items.
Important Facts
• Everything entering consciousness passes into working
memory.
• Storage capacity is significantly smaller than that of sensory
memory.
• It has the smallest storage capacity of the 3 memory stages.
Structure of Working Memory
• Chunking –
Organizing pieces of information into a smaller number of
meaningful units.
• Phone number
• Maintenance rehearsal –
Process in which information is repeated or reviewed to keep
it from fading while in working memory.
• “Cramming” for a test. Does not help info get to LTM.
Structure of Working Memory
• Elaborative rehearsal –
Process in which information is actively reviewed and related
to information already in LTM.
• Not merely repeated, but actively connected to knowledge
already stored.
Structure of Working Memory
• Working memory consists of:
• A central executive
• A phonological loop
• The sketchpad
Central Executive
Phonological Loop
• “Pop” “Splash”
• Acoustic Encoding
• What lobe?
Sketchpad
• (Visual and Spatial) Sketchpad does what?
What lobes?
Levels of Processing in WM
• Who are Craik and Lockhart? And what did they create?
• What was their experiment?
Encoding and Storage in Working
Memory
• Levels-of-processing theory –
Explanation for the fact that information that is more
thoroughly connected to meaningful terms in LTM will be
better remembered.
7 Dwarfs…
• Who are they?
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Doc
Grumpy
Happy
Sleepy
Bashful
Sneezy
Dopey
Biological Basis of WM
Long Term Memory LTM
• Final Stage of processing
• Stores material organized according to meaning.
• Receives information from WM and can store it for much longer
periods of time.
• Holds varied material (mothers face, favorite song lyrics).
• LTM holds each person’s total knowledge of the world and self.
Structure and Function of LM
• Procedural memory –
Division of LTM that stores memories for how things are done.
• A register for the things we know how to DO.
• Declarative memory –
Division of LTM that stores explicit information
(also known as fact memory).
• A register which acts as storage for the information that we can
describe.
Procedural Memory
• Facts:
Declarative
• Add Facts!
Divisions of Declarative
Memory
• Episodic memory –
Subdivision of declarative memory that stores memories for
personal events, or “episodes”.
• Semantic memory –
Subdivision of declarative memory that stores general
knowledge, including meanings of words and concepts
LTM
LTM
Procedural
Declarative Memory
Includes memory for:
Semantic Memory
Episodic Memory:
Includes memory for:
Events, personal experience
Language, facts, general knowledge
Motor skills, operant and
classical conditioning
Biological Basis of LTM
The search for the “engram” the biological basis of LTM has taken
two approaches.
• Engram –
The physical trace of memory.
• What are the approaches?
1. Neural
2. Synapses
Biological Basis
• What are the approaches?
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1. Neural:
2. Synapses :
Clues from the Tragic Cases of
H.M.
• Who is H.M.? What happened to him? Details/Facts!
Clues from the Tragic Cases of
H.M.
• Anterograde amnesia –
Inability to form memories for new information.
• Retrograde amnesia –
Inability to remember information previously stored in
memory.
Parts of the Brain Associated with
LTM
• What role does each play:
• Hippocampus:
• Amygdala:
Memories, Neurons, and
Synapses
• 2nd approach to the engram has concentrated on the biology
and chemistry of neurons and their synapses.
• Long term potentiation:
• While memories are consolidating they can also be
strengthened by the person’s emotional state—which
accounts for our especially vivid memories of emotionally
arousing experiences.
Flashbulb Memory
• This is the closes most people will come to having a
“photographic memory”.
• It is an exceptionally clear recollection of an important
emotion-packed event—a very vivid episodic memory.
• What are some of your “flashbulb” memories?
Memories
• Whether memories are implicit or explicit, successful retrieval
depends on how they were encoded and how they are cued.
• So….what are implicit and explicit memories?
Memories
• Implicit- memory that can affect your behavior but which you
did not deliberately learn or of which you currently have no
awareness.
• Explicit- Involves awareness. A memory that has been
processed with attention and can be consciously recalled.
• Examples?
Retrieval Cues
• Stimuli that are used to bring a memory to consciousness or
into behavior
• “Search terms” used to activate memory.
• Examples: smelling fresh baked cookies brings back memories of
Grandma’s house.
• Whether a retrieval cue is a good one, depends on the type of
memory being sought and the web of associations its
connected to.
Priming (Implicit Memories)
• Procedure of providing cues that stimulate memories without
awareness of the connection between the cue and retrieved
memory.
Retrieving Explicit Memories
• Anything stored in LTM must be “filed” according to its pattern
or meaning.
• Process Elaborate- best way to add material to LTM is to
associate it, while in working memory, with material already
stored in LTM.
Meaningful Organization
• If you want to store new information in your LTM, you must
make it meaningful while it is in working memory.
• This requires you to associate new information with things you
already know.
• Ex- Thinking of personal examples for new concepts.
Recall vs. Recognition
• Retrieval of explicit memories can be cued in two main ways.
One is required on an essay test while the other is required on
multiple choice.
• 1. Recall
• 2. Recognition
Recall
• (Essay Test) a retrieval task in which you must create an
answer almost entirely from memory.
• Technique for retrieving explicit memories in which one must
reproduce previously presented information
• Example: What are the three memory stages?
Recognition
• (Multiple Choice) Retrieval tasks in which you merely identify
whether a stimulus has been previously experienced.
• Technique for retrieving explicit memories in which one must
identify present stimuli as having been previously presented
• Normally is less demanding than recall because the cues available
for a recognition task are much more complete.
• Also used by police to in a lineup
Encoding Specificity
• Involve situations in which the context affected the way a
memory was encoded and stored—influencing the retrieval
at a later time.
• 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
• Example- seeing your psychology teacher at the grocery store.
• Talking to a childhood friend and being flooded with memories.
Other Factors Affecting
Retrieval
• Influences related to the context in which you encoded a
memory and also the context in which you are remembering
affect the way in which you will retrieve memories.
Mood and Memory
• Moods can create a bias in our perceptions and affect what
we pull out of memory.
• People who are depressed often report that all their thoughts
have a melancholy aspect...why?
Mood-Congruent Memory
• A memory process that selectively retrieves memories that
match (congruent with) one’s mood.
• Also can have important health implications
• Because depressed people are likely to emphasize their
medical symptoms, they may receive treatment that is much
different from someone else.
Tip of your tongue…
• Who has the names of the 7 dwarfs?
• TOT Phenomenon- the inability to recall a word, while
knowing that it is in memory.
• Normally occurs bc of “interference”- when another memory
blocks access or retrieval.
• Normally you can RECOGNIZE words but can’t RECALL them
Why Does Memory Sometimes Fail
Us?
• Core concept:
• Most of our memory problems arise from memory’s “seven sins”
– which are really by-products of otherwise adaptive features of
human memory.
How does memory fail us?
• “Seven Sins of Memory”
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1. Transience
2. Absent-Mindedness
3. Blocking
4. Misattribution
5. Suggestibility
6. Bias
7. Persistence
Transience: Fading memories
causes forgetting
• The impermanence of a long-term memory. Based on the idea
that long term memories gradually fade in strength over time.
• Ebbinghaus Experiment:
• Forgetting curve:
• A graph plotting the amount of retention and forgetting over time
for a certain batch of material.
• Captures the pattern of transience by which we forget the verbal
material we learn.
Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve
Recall decreases rapidly, then reaches a plateau, after
which little more is forgotten
Absent-Mindedness
• A memory hasn’t disappeared from your brain circuits, rather
you have suffered from retrieval failure caused by shifting your
attention elsewhere.
• Forgetting an anniversary because of a big final exam.
• * Forgetting caused by lapses in attention.
Blocking
• Blocking occurs when information has encountered
interference—when 1 item acts as an obstacle to accessing
and retrieving another memory.
• Common cause: old habits getting in the way of a new one
3 Causes for Interference
• 1. The greater the similarity btw two sets of material learned,
the greater the interference btw them is likely to be.
• 2. Meaningless material is more vulnerable to interference
than meaningful material because LTM is organized by
meaning.
• 3. Emotional material is a powerful cause of interference.
Interference
• Three types;
• 1. Proactive
• 2. Retroactive
• 3. The Serial Position Effect
Proactive
• When an old memory disrupts the learning and remembering
of new information.
• Example, your silverware has been in the same draw for years.
You go away to college, come back and its moved. You keep going
to the same draw.
• Pro means “forward” old memories act forward in time to
block you attempts at new learning
Retroactive
• Newly learned information prevents the retrieval of previously
learned material.
• Newer material reaches back into your memory to block
access to old material.
• “Retro” meaning backwards
Interference
Serial Position Effect
• A form of interference related to the sequence in which
information is presented.
• Generally, items in the middle of a sequence are less likely to be
remembered.
• You are more likely to remember the names of those you met
first and last.
Misattribution
• Memories are retrievable, but when they are retrieved they
are associated with the wrong time, place, or person.
• Cause people to believe mistakenly that other people’s idea,
stories, thoughts, are there own.
Suggestibility
• Memories can be distorted or created by suggestion.
• Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmer investigate suggestibility.
• Misinformation effect:
The distortion of memory by suggestion or misinformation.
Suggestibility Experiment
• Memory Distortion Experiment: Participants watched a film of
two cars colliding. Then the experimenters asked them to
estimate how fast the cars were going. The witnesses
responses were prompted by 2 questions.
• 1. How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each
other?
• 2. How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?
Suggestibility Experiment
• The group who got the question with “smash” answered their
question with a higher speed.
• Ironic?
• This distortion of the question cause the misinformation
effect.
Factors Affecting the Accuracy of
Eyewitnesses:
• Recollections are less influenced by leading questions if
possibility of memory bias is forewarned.
• Passage of time leads to increase in misremembering
information.
• Age of the witness matters.
• Confidence in memory is not a sign of accuracy.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFRiDtUbeAQ
Bias
• Refers to the influence of personal beliefs, attitudes, and
experiences on memory.
• Expectancy Bias- In a memory, a tendency to distort recalled
events to make them fit one’s expectations.
• Self Consistency Bias- Commonly held bias that we are more
consistent in our attitudes, beliefs and opinions that we actually
are.
Persistence
• A memory problem in which unwanted memories cannot be
put out of mind.
• Seen in phobias
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.