Cognitive Psychology (Free Access)

MEMORY

  • Memory is a process involving encoding, storage and retrieval of information.  
  • According to studies conducted by Atkinson and Shiffrin, memory has the following components:
  • Sensory Memory: here incoming sensory information is held briefly by sensory registers.
    • Iconic storage is the visual sensory register which holds incoming visual information. 
      •  First studied by George Sperling. 
      • If visual memory can be held for a longer period of time then it is called eidetic imagery.
    • Echoic storage is the auditory sensory register which holds incoming sounds for a brief amount of time.
    • Iconic storeholds lesser information than the echoic store.
    • Because sensory information is very rapid, new incoming information quickly covers up old information in a process called Masking.
    • Information passes from sensory memory to short term memory if selective attention is paid to the specific sensory information.
  • (Study Tip: Iconic from icon which comes from sight. Echoic from echo, which comes from hearing. And we can hear a lot more compared to what we can see. Therefore, echoic storage is more)
  • Short term memory: Specific sensory information is paid selective attention and this information is stored for a limited amount of time in the STM.
      • Information is stored in memory codes which are mental representations of the type of information e.g. visual, phonological, semantic and motor codes.
        • Auditory information is stored for longer than any other type of memory code
      • Capacity to hold information:
        • Numerical is 7 numbers plus or minus 2. (7+2 or 7-2). This was studied by George Miller
          • More information can be stored if the information is chunked into smaller more meaningful units. This is calledchunking.E.g. phone numbers. 
        • Time: 20 seconds (Peterson & Peterson)
      • Baddeley added another component to this process known as the working memory which is a replacement for the short term memory.
    • Working Memory: According to Baddeley, working memory is a limited capacity system that temporarily stores and processes information. It has the following 4 components:
      • Phonological Loop: incoming auditory information is stored here as mental representations
      • Visuospatial sketchpad: incoming visual and spatial information is stored here as mental representations
        • Both phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad can be active simultaneously.
      • Episodic buffer: this is temporary storage area where information from long term memory, visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop are integrated, manipulated and made available for use.
      • Central Executive: directs the overall functioning of all the units.
    • Long term memory: stores information of our durable memories. It is considered unlimited therefore information is often said to be stored and available but due to forgetting they are inaccessible.
      • Serial position effect is an interesting phenomenon that occurs between STM and LTM. Here the ability to remember any item on a list depends on its position on that list. This is related to recall and not recognition. There are two types of retrievals:
        • Primacy effect: we remember the first few items on a list. This is because this information has transferred from the STM to the LTM and hence, retrievable.
        • Recency Effect: we remember information which were present at the end of the list. This is due to the information still present in our STM
        • Most items at the middle of the list are forgotten or inaccessible.
    • (Study Tip: Primacy comes from primary meaning early, therefore information that comes first is remembered; Recency comes from recent, therefore information that comes recently is remembered)
  • Information Processing Model describes the process involved in memory. It says that memory progresses in three steps called Encoding, Storage and Retrieval.
    • Encoding: where stimuli are translated into neural codes that are then processed by the brain.
      • Clearer the encoded material the better they are stored and retrieved.
      • Encoding is of two major types:
        • Effortful processing: encoding of information with purpose or with conscious attention e.g. rehearsing information, making lists
        • Automatic processing: encoding information without conscious attention e.g. spatial location, sequence of events.
      • Levels of processing (Craik and Lockhart): if information is processed more deeply, it is remembered better. There are three levels of processing:
        • Structural processing: shallow and related to the structural properties of the words
        • Intermediate processing: related to phonological sounds of the word
        • Semantic processing: is deep processing as it is involved with understanding the meanings of words and sentences
      • To encode material into long term memory it is important to rehearse and not merely expose oneself to new information. Moreover organisation of information into hierarchies or chunks, associating between concepts, creating visual imagery can aid in this process as well.
        • Rehearsal is of two major types:
          • Maintenance rehearsal: rote repetition to keep in memory.
          • Elaborative rehearsal: understanding meaning of information and expanding upon it (Tony and Helga Noice)
      • Dual Coding Theory (Allan Pavio): encoding using both verbal and visual codes enhances the odds of remembering as we may remember one code and then retrieve the other code to recall the information. This works better for concrete concepts.
      • Method of Loci is another memory aid which involves the association of information with mental images of physical locations.
      • Mnemonic devices help improve encoding and support recall.
        • Acronyms involve taking the first letter of a list of words and creating a word to remember information better. E.g. VIBGYOR
        • Rhyming: involves creating rhyme schemes with the item of recall to remember better
      • Prior knowledge especially schemas enhances encoding (Willian Chase and Herbert Simon) 
      • K. Anders Ericsson suggested that exceptional memory is nothing but the use of memory aids.
    • (Study Tip: All mnemonics and memory aids are being used here!)
    • Storage: the translated neural codes are retained over time with minimal loss of information. This retaining is done with cognitive mechanism known as the network approach.
      • Associative Network: Long-term memory is an associative network which is basically a huge network of associated ideas and concepts (Collins & Loftus).
      • Items are stored in singular nodes and items of similar category have the strongest associations and are clustered closer in the network. An associative network is a mental framework of our organized information and how we understand the world.
        • Allan Collins and Elizabeth Loftus theorized that when a particular item is thought about, it sends a signal to all the items in that network. This is called the method of spreading activation. 
        • When one concept triggers another concept it is known as priming.
      • Neural Network: In this method, unlike associative network, memory is not stored in a particular node (unit) rather memory is stored in patterns of interconnected nodes called units. This is also known as parallel distributed processing.
    • Retrieval: in this stage the processed and stored information are accessed. Memories are often retrieved in the presence of retrieval cues, which are internal or external stimuli that activate LTM.
      • More associations between concepts the better is that concept retrieved (Mantlya)
      • Sometimes, however, extremely distinctive stimuli are also better remembered.
      • Arousal is related to retrieval such that memory is better stored and retrieved in a state of arousal, however, excessive arousal may inhibit memory functioning. Emotional arousal activates autobiographical memory.
        • Flash bulb memories are vivid recollections and feel like they are accurate snapshots of the events however they are not always accurate.
    • (Study Tip: Named appropriately because the memory is similar to a bulb suddenly coming on for a specific moment)
      • Context: Context provides many retrieval cues for memory. Tulving described them in his encoding specificity principle.
        • Encoding specificity principle: He said that memory is enhanced and retrieval is easier when conditions present during retrieval match the stimuli during its encoding.
          • Context dependent memory is for external cues. It is easier to remember information in the same environment as it was encoded in.
          • State dependent memory is for internal cues. It is easier to remember information in the same internal state as it was encoded in.
          • Mood dependent memory is not considered a reliable phenomenon.
            •  Fielder theorized the mood congruent recall: which is remembering things in line with one’s present mood. This is more reliable than mood dependent memory.
  • Forgetting is the lack of retrieval of information from memory. 
    • Pioneered by Hermann Ebbinghaus attempted to remember nonsense syllables (e.g. bis, tmk). 
      • He attempted to use relearning as a method to memorize the information.
      • This led to the creation of the forgetting curve
      • Forgetting curve shows how memory of information falls drastically immediately after learning takes place, however, the loss of information begins to become lesser over time and the amount of information remembered comes to a stable level after some time.
      • Why do we forget? There are many theories propagated to understand this.
    • Encoding Failure: Brad Bushman and Angica Bonacci suggested that the fact that we forget is simply down to our failure to encode the incoming information clearly and this failure leads to forgetting or loss of information.
    • Decay of Memory Trace: According to this theory the nervous system creates traces for memories and due to less use or passage of time, the memory trace begins to decay. This is not a very reliable theory and is mostly related to LTM.
    • Interference theory: According to the interference theory we forget information because other items of information block our ability to retrieve the information we desire. There are two types of interference:
      • Proactive interference: Here information that was learned earlier interferes with the learning of new information
      • Retroactive interference: Here new information interferes with the ability to retrieve information that was learned at an earlier time.
  • (Study Tip: Think of pro as pre, then it becomes pre interference, meaning pre-existing information affects the learning of new info. If you remember this than retro is the opposite or retro meaning late, therefore information that came late interferes with remembering already stored information)
    • Tip of the tongue phenomenon occurs when we can almost remember something but are somehow not capable of retrieving that information. This is a failure in recall.
    • Motivated Forgetting: This is similar to repression where a person purposely forces themselves to forget something. This phenomenon is difficult to prove experimentally.
    • Often we have to remember to do something in the future such as pick up keys or go for a dinner at night. This type of memory is known as prospective memory. 
    • Amnesia: Memory loss caused due to special conditions such as brain injury, illness or psychological trauma. There are different types of amnesia:
      • Retrograde Amnesia: memory loss of events that took place before the onset of amnesia (similar to korsakoff’s syndrome except that korsakoff’s is related to alcohol misuse)
      • Anterograde Amnesia: Memory loss of events that occur after the initial onset of amnesia
      • Dementia: Memory loss and loss of functioning associated with neural or brain degeneration. Most common in elderly adults after 65.
        • Alzheimer’s disease: is a type of dementia. It is related to progressive brain degeneration.
          • Affects the subcortical brain regions and hippocampus
          • Is related to the creation of an abnormal amount of plaques (protein clusters)
          • The acetylcholine system is the most attacked system
          • Is genetically related.
      • Infantile Amnesia: memory loss of one’s early years. Affects most of the population.
        • Memory is considered as a constructive process where previously created information fills in gaps in our memory of certain events.  Medial temporal love and prefrontal cortex (schemas) are responsible
  • (Study Tip: Infantile or infant)
    • Misinformation effect is the distortion of a memory due to different/misleading post event information. 
      • Eye witness testimony is a type of misinformation effect. The major problem with eye witness testimony is that suggestive questioning can often distort the memory, especially with children.
        • This is related to error in recognition.
        • It can be affected by anxiety/stress, reconstructive nature of memory, suggestive questioning and if it is related to murder or homicide where a weapon is used, then the individual may focus too much on the weapon and cannot recall everything creating error in eye witness testimony (loftus).
      • Source confusion is a type of misinformation effect where an individual recall something as being familiar but not know where it was seen.
      • Culture and memory have a reciprocal relationship where they both have an effect on one another. 
    • Brain and Memory: Karl Lashley suggested that there exists a physical trace in the brain when a memory is formed and called it an Engram
    • Working memory: Prefrontal cortex in the frontal lobe is responsible
    • Long term memory: Hippocampus (converts STM to LTM by memory consolidation) and adjacent areas. Cerebellum is responsible for procedural memory
    • STMàLTM takes place via synaptic change which is structural in nature 
      • Long term potentiation is responsible for learning and memory
      • Types of memory:
    • Declarative memory: is our memory of factual events and knowledge. This is subdivided into two parts:
      • Episodic: related to personal experiences of events
        • Autobiographical memory is a type of episodic memory about things that have happened to one.
      • Semantic: factual knowledge of the world, words and concepts
    • Procedural memory: memory of skills and actions
      • Cerebellum
  • (Study Tip: Procedural is for procedure or actions. Declarative is for personal events (Episodic) and facts (Semantic). Personal events are called autobiographical for obvious reasons)
    • Explicit memory: is the conscious retrieval of memory by recognition or recall
      • Recognition is to know and understand stimuli as being familiar with a stored fact or image. 
      • Recall is related to actual stimulus recovery with no external cues
        • Cued recall is recall assisted by hints
      • Relearning is to learn previously learnt material.
      • Easiest to hardest = Relearning–>Recognition–>Recall
  • (Study Tip: Recognition is an MCQ exam, recall is a normal essay type exam, relearning is revision for any exam)
    • Implicit memory: the type of memory that influences our behavior without our conscious awareness

THINKING (Read: Thinking, Fast and Slow (Penguin Press Non-Fiction) )

  • Associationism
    • Based on causal history- this is how one’s thoughts are formed.
    • Can be used as a theory of learning, thinking, mental structures, and implementation of thought.
  • Gestalt Theoretical Perspectives
    • Principle of Totality
      • Any conscious experience must be considered globally as the mind is a dynamic part of the whole system.
    • Principle of Psychophysical Isomorphism
      • correlational between conscious experience and cerebral activity
    • Productive Thinking
      • Max Weitheimer
      • solving a problem with insight
      • situation and environment interaction
    • Reproductive Thinking
      • solving a problem with previous knowledge
    • Fuzzy Trace Model – Dual Model
      • memory and reasoning
      • encoding information through verbatives and gist
        • Verbatives – exact memory in detail
        • Gist – semantic and conceptual
  • Concept formation is the process by which we learn to form classes of things, events, people and so forth.
    • Concepts are of 3 types:
      • Conjunctive – presence of at least two features
      • Rational – how objects relate to something else
      • Disjunctive – at least one of several features
    • Prototypes
      • Eleanor Posch
      • ideal models used as a prime example
      • They are highly representative
    • Faulty concepts
      • Thinking errors 
      • related to behaviour or personality maladjustment
      • All or nothing thinking
  • Strategies of Concept Attainment for Problem Solving
    • Simultaneous scanning
      • Rational thinking : use of information to rationally eliminate hypothesis and think through to reach the one that can be true
      • Ideal strategy if reasoning and memory are good
      • Rigorous
    • Successive scanning
      • Tests a hypothesis at a time and moves towards a conclusion
      • Guessing game. It is easier, requires less time and memory 
    • Conservative focusing
      • Taking an example as representing the concept and using it to judge other examples
      • Less efficient if the chosen concept is incorrect
      • Best strategy for conjunctive problems
      • Require less thinking and time
      • Much better than successive scanning
    • Focus gambling
      • Uses one card but changes more than one feature at a time
      • If lucky less time or else more time
      • Do it
        • if solving the problem in a few trials brings big rewards
        • less to lose 
  • Semantic Dimension
    • Understanding meanings of word
    • Takes longer and is slower than syntax
    • Maybe dependent on intellectual development and maturity
  • Semantic Differential
    • Rating scale to measure commutative meaning of objects, events and concepts
    • Commutative is the suggestive significance of a word apart from its explicit and recognized meaning
    • Evaluation, potency and activity
      • Evaluation
        • good-bad
      • Potency
        • strong-weak
      • Activity
        • active-passive
  • Recognition by components
    • Irving Biedesman (1987)
    • recognition of objects by breaking them up into smaller recognizable shapes called geons.
    • Geons are 3D shapes
      • Eg. cylinder, cones
        • can be assembled in many ways
        • < 36 geons present as components
    • While perceiving objects we focus on
      • Edges
        • enables to maintain the same perception of the object regardless of viewing orientation 
      • Concavities
        • the area where two geons meet,
        •  helping in separation of geons
    • Perception of objects doesn’t change regardless of angle because of viewpoint invariance
      • may be due to invariant edge properties:
        • curvature, parallel lines, co-termination, asymmetry, co-linearity
    • Template matching model
      • whole image to a stored representation of the whole object
    • Feature matching model
      • discriminating features from the images and matches them with known features of the object
    • Configurable model
      • Distinguishing among objects that share same basic parts of structure with a prototype

LANGUAGE

  • Language is a system of symbols and rules that can generate an infinite number of possible messages and meanings.
  • Properties of language-
  • Phoneme-It is the smallest unit of speech sound.
  • Morpheme-It is the smallest unit of meaning.
  • Semantics-It refers to the meaning of words and sentences
  • Syntax-It is the rules that govern the order of words.
  • Grammar-It is a set of rules that dictates how symbols can be combined to create meaningful units of communication.
  • Discourse-It refers to the sentences that are formed into paragraphs, articles etc. It is the unit of language longer than a single sentence.
  • Two major functions:
  • Generative- Language and symbols can be combined to create infinite number of messages that have novel meaning.
  • Displacement- It refers to the fact that language allows to communicate about events and objects that are not physically present.
  • Structure of language
  • Surface-It consists of symbols that are used and placed in their order (e.g.-syntax).
  • Deep-It underlies the meaning of the combined symbols (e.g.-semantics).
  • Language can have many different surface structures but same deep meaning. The structure is always progressing from surface to deep.
  • Language processing
  • Bottom-up processing– individual elements of stimuli are analysed to form one unified perception.
  • Top-down processing– sensory information is interpreted in light of existing knowledge, concepts, ideas and expectation (e.g.-speech segmentation, pragmatics).

SPEECH PROBLEMS-

  • APHASIA– It refers to the impairment in speech comprehension and/or production that can be permanent or temporary.
    • (Study Tip: APHA – no length or type of impairment is specified)
  • APRAXIA-It refers to the inconsistent production of sound and rearrangement maybe due to a stroke or progressive illness.
    • (Study Tip: APRA – caused due to a stoke and is only about production)
  • DYSARTHRIA- It refers to the weakness of speech muscle caused by neuronal damage.
    • (Study Tip: DYSA-Neuron related damage for production)
  • AGNOSIA-It refers to the inability to interpret sensation and recognise things
    • (Study Tip: AGNO – related to sensation and recognition)
  • Language acquisition-
    • Chomsky’s Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
      • He propagated an innate biological mechanism that contains general grammatical rules which are common to all languages. 
      • Dependent on the initial exposure of culture and society a particular type of language learning develops. It is compared to electric switchboard.
    • Jerome bruner’s Language Aquisition Support System (LASS)-
      • It propagates that there are factors in the social environment that facilitate learning of a language.
      • (Study Tip: LAD is personal, LASS is social)
    • Other concepts:
    • Animal learning-
      • Washoe, the female chimpanzee who was the first non-human to learn to communicate using American sign language on a research-based training by R. Allen Gardener and Beatrice T. Gardener
      • Other extended research on animal language acquisition is Project Nim led by Herbert S. Terrace, on a chimpanzee named NimChimpsky.
    • Bilingualism- It is the ability to use and understand two languages in daily life. 
      • The earlier one is exposed to a language, the easier it is to learn (i.e the evidence of a critical period).
      • Bilinguals are better than monolingual children at perceptual tasks involved in inhibiting/dividng attention.
    • Language and thinking-According to Benjamin Lee Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis, language determines and influences thoughts.
    • Rosch heider’s cognitive universalism- The theory states that concepts are universal and influence the development of language.
    • Current position-
    • Language influences how we think, categorize information and attend to our daily experiences. It may also influence how well we think.

Suggested Reading(s):

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