1
Q
Tolman’s radical idea
A
Rats put in a maze were able to learn and navigate their surroundings even when there was no food reward
(and when there was a food reward, this learning accelerated to faster than the rats who started with the food reward)
2
Q
Memory scanning experiments process
A
Giving participants a set of numbers and asking them if a number was part of the set
3
Q
Mental chronometry is?
A
Estimate of stimulus evaluation time or time taken to think
4
Q
who proposed the four stages in the memory chronometry task
A
Stenberg
5
Q
what are the four stages in the memory chronometry task
A
stimulus encoding
serial comparison
binary decision
translation and response organisation
6
Q
Estimate of stimulus evaluation time = ?
A
Choice RT - Simple RT
7
Q
Mental chronometry calculation
A
Simple Reaction Time: press button to any light
Choice Reaction Time: press one button to red light and another button to green light
Estimate of stimulus evaluation time = Choice RT - Simple RT
8
Q
Why do we have to investigate cognitive processes so indirectly?
A
Cognitive biases
Consciousness
Introspection
9
Q
attention is limited – what theory does this contradict?
A
Simple stimulus-response learning would not have a limit to attention, thus proven too simplistic
10
Q
T/F: technology is designed to fit our attentional requirements
A
true
11
Q
Focused vs diffused attention
A
Focused attention is a state of concentrated, conscious concentration on a single task
Diffused attention is a relaxed, subconscious state where the mind wanders, allowing for creative connections and new insights
12
Q
Memory scanning experiments proposed what type of cognitive searches/processes?
A
Parallel
Thinking about everything at once (impossible in humans)
Serial self-terminating
Stop at what you look for
Serial exhaustive
Look through everything even if passed what we were looking for
Humans do this
13
Q
what happens during a parallel search?
A
Thinking about everything at once (impossible in humans)
14
Q
what happens during a serial self-terminating search?
A
you stop after you find what you want
15
Q
what happens during a serial exhaustive search?
A
Look through everything even if passed what we were looking for
Humans do this
16
Q
what is focused attention
A
a state of concentrated, conscious concentration on a single task
17
Q
what is diffused attention
A
a relaxed, subconscious state where the mind wanders, allowing for creative connections and new insights
18
Q
according to prospect theory, in the face of a sure gain, human beings are ?
A
risk-averse
19
Q
according to prospect theory, in the face of a sure loss, human beings are ?
A
risk-seeking
20
Q
Increase/decrease in joy/utility occurs at an increasing or decreasing rate as the amount of gain/loss increases?
A
decreasing rate
21
Q
Gain gives more or less joy in comparison to pain of loss of the same amount
A
less joy
22
Q
Steps for processing information and responding
A
- Stimulus
- Sensory detection
- Early selection of information
- Recognition of meaning
- Late selection of response
- Response
23
Q
Multitasking involves? what does this suggest?
A
Attentional snippage – suggests a struggle to focus
24
Q
Spotlight theory of attention
A
We can zoom our attention in or out spatially
25
Spotlight theory of attention counter theory
Not true – we pay attention to people/things, not general areas in our field of vision
26
Inattentional blindness says what?
Not paying attention ⇒ no information processed
27
Inattentional blindness example
Eg. colour changing card trick but many other things also change
28
what is being processed without attention?
nothing
29
Reason for limited attention
limited processing resources in the brain
30
because of limited attention, what must we do?
select what goes on to further processing
31
selection for action theory says?
Human brain gives us limited info because we cannot process and act on everything or else we would be uncoordinated
32
Evidence for early locus of selection
If we are unaware of things we are not paying attention to
33
Evidence for late locus of selection
If we process some information that we are not paying attention to
34
Locus of selection experiment
different dialogues in each ear and saying to focus on one only.
When dialogues switched ears, the meaning was still continuous to the participant even though what was being input in one ear should not have made sense
This suggests late locus of selection
35
Treisman’s (1986) Feature Integration Theory
we process features independently in a preattentive manner (doing this very quickly and in parallel), and the role of attention (the ‘attention spotlight) was to bind these features together into objects (a slow and serial process)
36
Treisman’s (1986) Feature Integration Theory says that processing of features is done how?
independently in a preattentive manner (doing this very quickly and in parallel)
37
Treisman’s (1986) Feature Integration Theory says that the role of attention is to? describe this process
bind features together into objects (slow and serial process)
38
types of Control of attention
Exogenous / involuntary / stimulus driven
Endogenous / voluntary / controlled
39
Change blindness implies that?
Completeness is an illusion
Amount encoded is limited
Role of attention is key in cognitive processes
40
types of memory
Iconic and echoic / Sensory memory / sensory buffer
Short-term memory / Working memory
Long term memory
41
conversion from sensory to short-term memory occurs with?
attention
42
conversion from long-term to short-term memory occurs with?
retrieval
43
Something in short term stays in short term with?
rehearsal
44
iconic sensory memory involves which sense?
vision
45
echoic sensory memory involves which sense?
sound
46
how long does iconic sensory memory last?
<200ms
47
how long does echoic sensory memory last?
8-10 secs
48
what allows echoic sensory memory to last so much longer than iconic?
Sheer amount of visual input does not allow it to last as long
Single-channel nature of sound allows it to last longer
49
Short-term memory / Working memory uses what to store things?
sounds -- storage is phonological
50
T/F: Verbalising unrelated things wrecks short-term memory
true
51
T/F: Trying to remember letters that rhyme in the short-term is more difficult
true
52
short-term/working memory capacity
Limited (7 +/-2)
53
short-term/working memory decays within?
20secs if not rehearsed
54
long-term memory capacity
unlimited
55
long-term memory forgetting is due to?
interference
rather than decay
56
long-term memory is encoded how?
semantically
57
T/F: Serial-position affects short-term recall
true
58
Serial-position effects in short-term recall
Primacy → information transferred to LTM
Recency → information “dumped” from short-term buffer
59
Short-term vs long-term memory differences
Coding differences
Neuropsychological evidence
Hippocampus plays a role in converting short-term to long-term memory
60
case study examples of neuropsychological evidence for difference between short-term and long-term memory
Eg. HM had his hippocampus removed
Eg. Clive Wearing
Struck by a brain infection—a herpes encephalitis—affecting especially the parts of his brain concerned with memory
Cannot convert short-term memory to long-term so only remembers/lives 20 seconds, moment-to-moment consciousness
61
Working memory system consists of
Central Executive & Episodic Buffer
2 “Slave” systems
62
2 "slave" systems of the working memory system
Phonological loop
Visuo-spatial scratch pad
63
example of working memory's phonological loop
Counting demonstration
64
increased speed of speech correlates to increased capacity of ?
working memory and phonological loop capacity
65
increased language efficiency / digit span correlates to increased capacity of ?
working memory and phonological loop capacity
66
types of long term memory
Explicit
implicit
67
describe hierarchical network models – Collins & Quillian (1969); Collins & Loftus (1972)
Logical hierarchical structure with interconnected “nodes”
68
Hierarchical network models propose a cognitive economy -- what does this mean?
Each concept/ property only stored once ⇒ no redundancy
69
within a Hierarchical network model, properties are stroed at the lowest or highest level of network?
highest
70
Spreading activation retrieves?
meanings
71
in Hierarchical network models, presenting a concept leads to “activation” of the appropriate node and?
to a spread of activation to related nodes
72
If two concepts are related, spreading activation from two concepts will?
intersect
73
Sentence Verification task measured?
time to verify sentences: “Is this true?”
74
in the sentence verification task, Time to verify sentence depends on?
distance between concepts (plus time to evaluate intersection), the strength of the initial activation, the amount of time since the initial activation
75
Parallel distributed processing (PDP) models are computational models that say sets of interconnected processing nodes (~neurons) communicate by?
by sending activation or inhibition
76
Parallel distributed processing (PDP) models suggest a "learning rule". What happens in this?
adjusting connections throughout the network
77
what is category learning in Parallel Distributed Processing models?
generalisation: exposure to a new example that shares features with known things will allow it to “inherit” other properties that the known things have
78
where/how are memories stored in Parallel Distributed Processing models?
in particular patterns of activation
79
what is a Schema
generalized mental representations, or concepts, describing a class of objects, people, scenes or events
80
example of a schema?
stereotypes (racial, gender, etc.)
81
function of schemas
memory efficiency by generalisation
82
The structure of the schemas in your long term memory governs?
How you perceive events happening in front of you
How you encode and remember what you have experienced
The expectations you have of everything: people, events, the world, yourself etc.
How well you cope
83
what are scripts?
subset of schemas that apply to events -- things about events that happen
84
Script transference is not always successful. Give an example
Eg. applying the steps you took in school to uni
85
types of explicit long-term memory
Episodic: experiences
Semantic: facts, general knowledge
86
types of implicit long-term memory
Procedural: motor skills, habits
Classical conditioning effects: unconscious stimuli associations
Priming: implicit activation of concepts in long term memory from the mention of another concept
87
what is procedural memory (long-term)? describe the learning process and awareness
Memory for how to do things – not verbalisable, not available to conscious awareness
Learnt through gradual, incremental experience; not “one-trial” learning
88
Explicit and implicit memory differ in terms of:
Levels of processing
Importance of Modality/Format, e.g. case or font -- important for implicit memory only
Delay / Retention interval
Amnesic patients
89
HM learnt how to do mirror drawing and did not remember explicitly but he did remember in what way?
procedural memory
90
Importance of Modality/Format to explicit memory
not important
91
Importance of Modality/Format to implicit memory
important
92
possible causes of false memory
Misleading ‘post-event’ information
Eyewitness “Misinformation paradigm” -- Loftus (1974)
Leading questions and wording of questions
Social pressure
Fitting memory to Schemas and Scripts
Source confusion
Hypnosis?
“spreading activation” in semantic memory
93
Flashbulb memories concept
People have very vivid and detailed memories surrounding dramatic world events
94
flash memories vs normal memories: compare confidence and accuracy
we are more confident about flashbulb memories, but they decay just like other memories
95
Study on September 11th memories by Conway, Skitka, Hemmerich and Kershaw (2009)
In 2001, 678 people completed a survey between September and October
In 2002, half were retested before the anniversary and half were tested after
In 2003, a final survey was given (to the remaining 319 participants)
Each survey asked for recollections and confidence ratings for each
96
define Infantile amnesia
inability of adults to recall episodic memories from the first few years of life, generally before the age of three or four
97
infantile amnesia cause
Related to ongoing changes in the brain, particularly in memory systems like the hippocampus, and the emergence of a "sense of self" needed for autobiographical memory.
98
Reminiscence bump occurs around what age? what does this mean?
20yrs old -- more memories are stronger at this age
99
How to remember better
Attitudes to study / Effort
Self-schema (strengths, weaknesses, age)
Learn, don’t collect
Use context
Avoid interference
Study at the best time of day for you
Deep encoding
Prepare before lectures and tutorials
Evaluate your study technique
Put effort into finding the best strategy
Visualisation and the method of loci
100
With age, what happens in the brain
removal of unnecessary neurons, loss of myelination
101
recall vs recognition
Recognition: explicit memory task where the thing you are trying to remember is in front of you
Recall: needing to remember something on your own
102
describe recognition task
Select previously studied items from mixture of old and new items
103
describe Free recall task
report items from earlier study episode
104
T/F: Recognition is better than recall in older people. Why/why not?
true
they stop trying as hard to remember because there is less of a need to
105
Rahal, Hasher and Colcombe (2001) memory task
Memory task where half the subjects were told it was testing memory ability and the other half were told it was assessing their ability to learn trivia
Older people who were told it was a memory task performed worse due to their own self biases
106
Multiple-choice exams
Difficult because of?
distractors, which play on recognition
107
you should study for recognition or recall?
recall
108
Retrieval is best when context of what and what match?
context of encoding and retrieval match
109
Retrieval is best when context of encoding and retrieval match. What elements have an impact?
Mood
Time and place
Thoughts and feelings
Smells
Images
Nature of the task
110
Godden and Baddeley (1975)
recall test
Recall was best when learnt in the same environment as the test (wet/dry)
111
interference is caused by ?
competition from other material
Silence is best
Music interferes as much as speech
Seek serenity before or after study periods
Sleep
Walk/Jog/Swim/Kayak with your phone switched OFF
112
Retroactive interference concept
new material affects old material
113
to prevent retroactive interference, you should?
study things last
114
to prevent proactive interference, you should?
study it first with a big gap
115
proactive interference concept
old material affects new material
116
Semantic structuring of information allows for?
more effective chunking, and allows you to relate the information you are trying to learn to what you know
117
what things help with deep encoding of information?
Asking questions / Elaboration of material
Structuring material semantically
Self-referent encoding
Reading the same information from different sources, different authors
Is the logic circular?
More transformation
118
elaboration creates?
more retrieval cues
119
More transformation ⇒?
better learning
120
T/F: Understanding is necessary for transformation
true
Repetition without understanding does very little
Your memory and understanding is doubled if you understand the context beforehand
121
efficacy of Summarisation
low
122
efficacy of Highlighting and underlining
low
123
efficacy of Rereading
low
124
efficacy of Distributed Practice
high
125
Test-Enhanced Learning
(Roediger & Karpicke, 2006)
Considered prose passages: ~260 words
Participants:
Studied for 7 minutes; then Studied for 7 minutes OR
Studied for 7 minutes; then ‘tested’ for 7 minutes
Recall test: 5 minutes, 2 days, 7 days after
The recall ‘test’ was just a blank page with the title of the passage
higher recall after more repetitions
126
T/F: sensory memory has limited capacity
false
PSYC1002
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