Psycholinguistics 03
Psychological Mechanisms
Psychological Mechanisms
• Memory
– Function
– Structure
• Processing
– Serial and parallel processing
– Top-down and bottom-up processing
– Automatic and controlled processes
The Function of Memory
• The purpose of having a memory is to store
information for later use. What properties
should a good memory have to accomplish
these functions?
– Encoding
– Retrieval
– Forgetting
Encoding
• Levels of processing: the experiment by
Craik (1975) on the processing on visual
appearance, sound of the word and the
meaning of the word proved that these
aspects result in different effects of
processing (levels of processing)
Encoding
• Context effect: an object or event will be
encoded differently in different contexts.
The term context refers to any perceptions,
sensations, or thoughts that was active at the
time a given stimulus is encoded.
Encoding
• Principles of association: contiguity and
frequency. According to the principle of contiguity,
any two mental events that cooccur tend to
become linked. But the actual likelihood of
making the association depends on what Seligman
(1970) called preparedness. A given species of
animal may readily learn some associations but
have great difficulty learning others. For a rat,
'light' 'shock', 'taste' 'the experience of becoming
nauseated' are easier to associate than the other
way round.
Encoding
• The principle of frequency or practice:
each time two items appear contiguously,
the
association
between
them
is
strengthened.
Encoding
• Associative models: the idea that memory
consists of association between mental entities
underlies associative models of human memory. In
such models the contents of memory consist of
mental representations of items and their
associative connections. A basic assumption
common to associative models of memory is that
activation in one part of the network spreads over
time to associated (linked) items. (Collins and
Quillian, 1989)
Retrieval From Memory
• The principle of content addressing is central in
memory retrieval. Content addressing means
starting retrieval with part of the content to be
remembered which provides an 'address' to the
place in memory where identical or similar
material is located. But there are some kinds of
information that cannot be used as retrieval
address, even though the information is in memory.
E.G. What word for a family relationship ends in
w?
Retrieval From Memory
• Retrieval is a two-stage process: the first
stage provides a large amount of material
much of which is only marginally related to
the initial stimulus or query; The second
stage then selects according to some
additional criteria, before passing the result
to a third stage.
Retrieval From Memory
• Remembering is not restricted to deliberate
reminiscence: rather, it is a continuous and
essential accompaniment to thought. Just as
we may fail to retrieve a relevant memory,
we also retrieve memories unintentionally.
Forgetting: Planned
Obsolescence?
• Use it or lose it: memory decays over time. The
forgetting process selects appropriate material to
discard by disuse.
• Interference between memories: memory
changes occur when new information is merged
with or mixed up with previously known
information; Sometimes the new information
becomes distorted, but sometimes the older
information is changed.
Forgetting: Planned
Obsolescence?
• Benefit of interference:
• (A) it promotes the development of general
memories that summarize experience, or updates
memory as revised information is obtained.
• (B) it is helpful to have the most recent occasion
dominate memory for previous instances. The role
of recency mechanism is to orient us in time and
space: where we are and how we got there, what
we have done recently.
Structure of Memory
Sensory Stores
• The sensory stores take in the variety of colors,
tones, tastes, and smells that we experience each
day and retain them, for less than half a second, in
a raw, unanalyzed form.
• Researchers suggest that there is an independent
sensory store for each sensory system, e.g. visual
memory, auditory memory, conceptual memory.
Sensory Stores
• Ordinarily we continue to look at the same point
for 200 or 300 msec., Which is enough time to
recognize most objects and scenes. The iconic
memory is wiped out by a new stimulus (an effect
called backward masking). It is well that the next
stimulus does not mask the last one, or we would
see double images. The only blanks in normal
viewing occur when we blink, or during the 30
msec. That it takes to move our eyes from one spot
to the next; Iconic memory may help to bridge
those gaps.
Sensory Stores
• Auditory sensory store has a longer duration
(2 to 4 seconds).
Working Memory (Short Term Memory)
• A temporary holding place for the
cognitive acts on the information.
• Size: limited, 7±2 units
• Duration: limited, 10 to 20 seconds
Working Memory (Short Term Memory)
• It preserves information in a speechlike or
auditory form.
• It is severely limited in how much
information it can hold.
Working Memory (Short Term Memory)
• Continuous rehearsal (rehearing) can
maintain the contents of the memory
indefinitely.
• Working memory has both storage and
processing functions. Both of them compete
for processing capacity, the total amount of
cognitive resources devoted to a task.
He reckons the current account deficit will narrow to only #
1.8 billion in September
Chunking
Move your cursor over picture A and look at it for a few
seconds, you will probably have trouble remembering
how many figures you saw. Now move your cursor over
Picture B and look at it for a few seconds too. You
should be able to recall now how many figures are there.
Although there are as many figures in B as in A, they are
grouped, or chunked, in B, and are thus easier to count
and remember.
Picture
Permanent Memory
• The repository of our knowledge of
the world. It holds all of the
information we have retained from
the past that is not currently
active.
Permanent Memory
• The dominant form of information in
long-term memory is conceptual, in
the form of propositions, because
that
is
ordinarily
the
most
important information about events
and
therefore
receives
more
attention and processing time than
sounds or appearances.
Permanent Memory
• Two types of permanent memory (Tulving:
1972): semantic memory and episodic
memory
• Semantic memory: organized knowledge of
words, concepts, symbols and objects,
e.G. Motor skills, general knowledge,
spatial knowledge, social skills.
• Episodic memory: traces of events that are
specific to a time and place.
Memory and Language Processing
• Sensory
store:
pattern
recognition
occurs when information from one of the
sensory
stores
is
matched
with
information retrieved from permanent
memory.
• Working memory: chunk the words into
grammatical constituents, process the
meaning.
• Permanent memory: store knowledge and
represent the ongoing discourse, hold information
from previous sentences to establish coreferences.
Summary of Memory
Types
Information stored
Duration
Sensory
Memory
in a raw, unanalyzed
form
1/3 to several
seconds
Working
Memory
in a raw, unanalyzed, a few seconds (e.g.
form, processing
verbal information:
involved
remains 2 seconds,
lost in 39 seconds)
Permanent
Memory
in
the
form
propositions
of forgetting happens
Discussion
• In light of the memory theory, explain
the cognitive process of the following:
–Passage reading
–Read questions in a reading comprehension
test
–Listening test of a statement with multiple
choice questions, a passage with multiple
choice questions
–Writing a composition
Issues in Language Processing
•
•
•
•
Serial and parallel processing
Top-down and bottom-up processing
Automatic and controlled processes
Modularity
Serial and Parallel Processing
• Serial processing: deal with one
task at a time.
• Parallel processing: deal with
multiple tasks at a time
• Rumelhart’s test shows the context helps
decide the identity of the obscured letter.
And thus proves the parallel processing (fig.
3-2) .
Top-down and Bottom-up
Processing
• Bottom-up processing: from the
lowest level to the highest level
• Top-down processing: information at the
higher levels may influence processing at
the lower levels.
Automatic and Controlled Processes
• Tasks that draw substantially from the
limited resources are controlled tasks
and
the
processes
involved
are
controlled processes.
• Tasks that do not require substantial
resources are automatic tasks and the
processes
involved
are
automatic
processes.
• Automatic tasks are not related to the
age of the individual or to the strategy
employed.
Automatic and Controlled
Processes
• Certain automatic tasks appear to be
biologically built into our cognitive
equipment, e.g. frequency counter.
• Other automatic processes are the result
of extensive practice.
• Language processing can be automatic
(recognition of common words) or controlled
(parsing of sentences).
Modularity
• Two meanings of modularity
• An independent processing system usually
taken as a whole (Chomsky) or as
interconnections between language and
cognitive processes, domain specific.
• Linguistic subsystems (e.g. semantics, syntax)
operate independently rather than interactively.
Schema
• Much language is contextually interpreted.
That is, it relates to some integrated and
(usually) coherent domain, and only makes
sense within that domain. Our current term
for this domain to which the discourse
relates is schema (plural schemata).
Gestalt Psychology
• Gestalt psychology is based
on the observation that we
often experience things that
are not a part of our simple
sensations. We see what is
not there.
• The word Gestalt means a
unified or meaningful whole.
• There is only one image here,
and yet, by changing nothing but
our attitude, we can see two
different things.
Example of Schema
A: Did you order it?
B: Yeah, it will be here in about 45 minutes.
A: Oh... Well, I've got to leave before then.
But save me a couple of slices, okay? And a
beer or two to wash them down with?
• What are they talking about?
Schema
• Schemata are composed of generic or abstract knowledge;
used to guide encoding, organization, and retrieval of
information.
• Schemata reflect prototypical properties of experiences
encountered by an individual, integrated over many
instances.
• A schema may be formed and used without the individual's
conscious awareness.
• Although schemata are assumed to reflect an individual's
experience, they are also assumed to be shared across
individuals [in a culture?].
• Once formed, schemata are thought to be relatively stable
over time.
• We know more about how schemata are used than we do
about how they are acquired.