Section 7: Implicit Cognition

Question 1

What is implicit cognition?

Answer 1

• Nondeclarative memory (procedural + priming)
• Unconscious, automatic

Question 2

What is the Hebb effect?

Answer 2

• Participants see a list of numbers again & again (721954837); unknown to them, same sequence repeats every few trials
• Result = memory span is greater for a list that is repeated throughout experiment
• Extract patterns automatically, even if you are not aware of it

Question 3

What is retrograde amnesia?

Answer 3

• Loss of memory for events that happened BEFORE brain damage/trauma (retro = backwards)
• Affects more recent memories than older one (e.g., survivor can’t remember hours before accident)

Question 4

What is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 4

• Inability to form new long-term memories AFTER brain damage/trauma

Question 5

Why was patient HM important to implicit cognition?

Answer 5

• HM had surgery that removed hippocampus
• Had severe anterograde amnesia (could carry on conversation but forget minutes later)
• Had some retrograde amnesia (especially for years just before surgery)
• Key = hippocampus essential for forming new memories

Question 6

What is implicit learning vs implicit memory?

Answer 6

• Implicit LEARNING = graduate acquisition of complex patterns without conscious awareness of what is being learned
• Implicit MEMORY = memory that influence behavior without conscious recollection

Question 7

What is artificial grammar learning?

Answer 7

• Participants study strings of letters (strings generated by hidden grammar system), then asked to judge whether new letter strings follow same grammar system
• Result = people classify new strings above chance even if they can’t describe the grammar rule; memory better for sequences that obey the rule

Question 8

What is the serial reaction time procedure?

Answer 8

• Participants see a cue (e.g., light or a letter) appear in one of four locations on a screen, must press corresponding key as quickly as possible
• Sequence seems random but actually repeats (participants not told there is a pattern)
• Result = reaction times gradually get faster; when switching to new random sequence, reaction times get slower again (shows learning of sequence even though you can’t verbalize or explain it)

Question 9

What is the divided attention task?

Answer 9

• While doing SRTP, participants have to listen & count low/high tones
• Result = slows down performance & most do not notice pattern BUT rate of improvement is the same

Question 10

What is repetition priming?

Answer 10

• Stimulus is processed more efficiently the second time you encounter it, even when you don’t consciously remember the first exposure
• E.g., if you saw BANANA earlier, you’ll complete “B_N_N_” faster even if you don’t recall seeing it
• Implicit MEMORY

Question 11

What is Tulving’s repetition priming study?

Answer 11

• Participants studied 96 words then had two tests; recognition test = did you see this word before (explicit memory); word fragment completion = complete fragments like SS_SS (implicit memory)
• Result = recognition declines sharply from 1hr to 7days (explicit memory fades), but fragment completion stays stable (implicit memory preserved)

Question 12

What is stochastic independence (Tulving)?

Answer 12

• Tested whether recognition and fragment completion depend on same memory trace or separate systems
• When recognition tested first, recognition & fragment completion were independent (whether you recognized a word wouldn’t predict priming)
• When fragment completion tested first, recognition & fragment completion were NOT independent (completing fragment likely forced retrieval and made recognition better)
• Separate systems

Question 13

What did Jacoby & Dallas’s recognition task (explicit) show?

Answer 13

-, then did surprise recognition test
- Result = Meaning > rhyme > physical for recognition accuracy… so more deeper encoding, better explicit memory

Question 14

What did Jacoby & Dallas’s perceptual identification study (implicit) show?

Answer 14

• Participants answer questions about words (physical, rhyme, meaning), then for test word flashes really quickly & participant has to identify it
• Result = physical = rhyme = meaning for priming accuracy… so depth of processing doesn’t matter for implicit perceptual identification

Question 15

What did Bob’s intentional vs. incidental encoding task show?

Answer 15

• Did cued recall & word completion priming tasks
• Results = intentional > incidental (trying to learn helps explicit); long exposure > short exposure (time helps explicit); does not matter for implicit

Question 16

What did Mandler’s priming without explicit memory task show?

Answer 16

• Participants saw octagon shapes flashed very briefly; on test, asked to judge which shape they recognized, which they liked better, which was brighter, which was darker
• Results = recognition was at chance (no explicit memory), but participants systematically preferred/judged the shapes they had seen before

Question 17

What is remembering vs. knowing?

Answer 17

• Two key systems in recognition
• Remembering = clear, conscious memory; retrieve contextual details (“I remember seeing this in the list near the top”)
• Knowing = vague sense of familiarity without details; feels “odd” but you don’t totally know why

Question 18

What is the pseudoword effect?

Answer 18

• Participants study words (JOIN, LIVE) & pseudowords (LONK, FING)
• Result = people falsely endorse pseudowords more often than real words because pseudowords feel familiar due to their structure

Question 19

What is recognition without awareness?

Answer 19

• You can correctly recognize something even when you believe you are guessing
• Implicit memory supports explicit decisions