CognitionChapter 9: Memory

The Phenomenon of Memory

Memory: the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information.

In your notes… Name the Seven Dwarves.

Now Name them:

Recall vs. Recognition

Recall vs. Recognition

CarFlowerDeskKeyVideo CarpetMagnet

RadioIcePeanutBenchClockBriefcaseEnvelopeNail

Information Processing

The Memory Process is a 3 Step Process

1. Encoding: getting the information into our brain

2. Storage: retaining the information

3. Retrieval: getting the information back out

Alkinson-Shiffrin’s 3 Stage processing model of Memory

Encoding: Getting Info In

Encoding

Effortful Automatic

Requires attention and conscious effort• Rehearsal

Unconscious encoding of incidental information

Encoding: Getting Info In

Hermann Ebbinghaus used nonsense syllables (TUV ZOF GEK

WAV)

The amount remembered depends on the time spent learning

Spacing Effect Cramming doesn’t work!!

Serial Position Effect

What do we Encode?

Semantic Encoding encoding of meaning including meaning of words

Acoustic Encoding encoding of sound especially sound of words

Visual Encoding encoding of picture images

Works the best as a way to remember

Storage: Retaining Information

Sensory Memory

Iconic Memory

Echoic Memory

What did you just say… no wait, never mind, I got it!

Storage: Retaining Information

Short Term Memory limited in duration

and capacity “magical” recall

capacity number 7+/-20

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

3 6 9 12 15 18

Time in seconds between presentationof contestants and recall request

(no rehearsal allowed)

Percentagewho recalledconsonants

Storage: Retaining Information

Long-Term Memory◦Essentially limitless

Karl Lashley (1950)◦ Rats learn maze, lesion cortex to find

(memory) part of brain, then test memory

◦ Memories do not reside in single, specific spots

Synaptic Changes◦Long-term Potentiation (LTP)

After LTP has occurred, an electrical current through the brain won’t disrupt old memories, but will wipe out very recent expenses. A blow to head will do same!

Storage: Retaining Information

Types oflong-termmemories

Explicit(declarative)

With consciousrecall

Implicit(procedural memory)Without conscious

recall

Facts-generalknowledge(“semanticmemory”)

Personally experienced

events(“episodic memory”)

Skills-motorand cognitive

Dispositions-classical and

operant conditioning

effects

Retrieval: Getting Information Out

Recall vs. Recognition (Seven Dwarves)

0

10

20

30

40

Water/land

Land/water

Water/water

Different contexts for hearing and recall

Same contexts for hearing and recall

Land/land

Percentage ofwords recalled

• Relearning• Won’t take as long

as the first time

• Mood-Congruent Memory

• State-Dependent Memory

Retrieval: Forgetting

Externalevents

Sensorymemory

Short-term

memory

Long-term

memory

Attention

Encoding

Encoding

Encodingfailure leadsto forgetting

Forgetting as encoding failure Information never enters the long-

term memory

Retrieval: Forgetting

Forgetting as encoding failure

Which penny is the real thing?

Enhancing your Memory

Study repeatedly to boost recall Spend more time rehearsing or actively

thinking about the material Make material personally meaningful Use mnemonic devices

associate with peg words--something already stored

make up story chunk--acronyms

Enhancing your Memory

Activate retrieval cues--mentally recreate situation and mood

Recall events while they are fresh-- before you encounter misinformation

Minimize interference Test your own knowledge

rehearsedetermine what you do not yet know

CognitionChapter 10: Thinking and Language

“The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.”

Lines Pauling

Thinking: What is it?

Concepts: a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people◦Usually based on

Prototypes

Our concept of men might include the following:

But they are all based on our Prototype (ideal) male

Thinking: Solving Problems

How do we solve problems?

1. Trial and Error

2. Algorithm: step-by-step procedure that guarantees a solution

3. Heuristics: rule-of-thumb strategy, usually speedier that algorithm

Unscramble:

S P L O Y O C H Y G

Algorithm: all 907,208 combinations

Heuristics: throw out all YY combinations

Thinking: Obstacles to Problem Solving

Confirmation Bias◦Tendency to search

for info that confirms one’s preconceptions

Fixation◦The inability to see a

problem from a fresh perspective

How would you arrange 6 matches to form 4 equilateral triangles?

Answer:

Thinking: Obstacles in Problem Solving

If I gave another example where the solution would be 3D, you’d probably succeed… you have a Mental Set

Mental Set: repeat solutions that have worked in past

Functional Fixedness◦What can you do with

the following objects

Problem Solving Practice

Imagine that when you die, you will find yourself in a room with two doors, one leading to eternal paradise and the other leading to eternal damnation. You can choose which door to walk through, but the trouble is that the doors are unmarked.

Each door has a guard, and you can ask each guard one “yes” or “no” question before you make your choice. One of the two guards will always answer truthfully and the other guard will always lie. Unfortunately, there’s no way of knowing which guard is which.

What questions should you ask one of the guards to ensure that you wind up in paradise?

Problem Solving Practice

Nine dots are arranged in a grid, as in the diagram to the right.

Draw four straight lines without lifting your pencil from the paper so that the lines pass through each dot.

Problem Solving Practice

There are three lambs and three wolves on the left bank of a river. There is a rowboat on the left bank that can carry up to two animals at a time. All six animals want to get to the right bank of the river. However, if there are ever more wolves than lambs on either bank of the river—even if the wolves remain in the boat—the wolves will eat the lambs. The boat cannot cross the river on its own: it needs at least one animal rowing it. How can all animals get across the river without anyone being eaten?

Problem Solving Practice

If you are in a race and you pass the person in second place, what place will you be in?

Problem Solving Practice

Two fathers and their sons go fishing. Each person on the fishing trip catches a fish. In total they catch three fish. How is this possible?

Problem Solving Practice

4 Simple Questions!

5 Simple Questions!

Problem Solving Practice

Imagine two rooms, one with three switches, and the other with three light bulbs. Each switch controls one of the light bulbs. However, because the light bulbs are in a different room, you can’t see immediately which switch controls which light bulb.

Your task is to figure out which switch controls which light bulb. You can spend as much time as you like in the room with the light switches, but eventually you must go into the room with the light bulbs. Once you enter the room with the light bulbs, you can’t return to the room with the light switches. What’s more, after entering the room with the light bulbs, you have only thirty seconds to figure out which switch controls which bulb.

How do you do it?

Thinking: Making Decisions and Forming Judgments

The Representative Heuristic

The Availability Heuristic

Who went to Harvard? Which place would you be more scared to get mugged or murdered?◦ The Bronx, NY

◦ Gary, Indiana

Or

• If I tell you that Sonia Dara is a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, you would make certain quick judgments (heuristics) about her…like about her interests or intelligence.

• She is an economics major at Harvard University.

Thinking: Heuristics can lead to Overconfidence…

Overconfidence: a tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our knowledge and judgments

Most students are overconfident about how quickly they can do assignments and write papers; they typically expect to finish projects ahead of schedule.

Thinking: Framing

Framing: ◦the way an issue is posed; how an

issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments

• 90% of the population will be saved with this medication…..or

• 10% of the population will die despite this medication.

Condoms only work 95% of the time… meaning, 5% of the time they don’t!

What is the best way to market ground beef--as 25% fat or 75% lean?

Thinking: Bias in our thinking

Belief Bias:◦ The tendency for one’s preexisting beliefs to distort

logical reasoning

Belief Perseverance:◦Clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis

on which they were formed bas been discredited

Premise 1: Democrats support free speech

Premise 2: Dictators are not democrats

Conclusion: Dictators do not support free speech

Premise 1: Robins have feathers

Premise 2: Chickens are not robins

Conclusion: Chickens do not have feathers

Simulation Thinking: AI

Artificial Intelligence:◦The science of designing computer systems to

perform operations that mimic human thinking and do “intelligent” things

Goals of AI: Computer System that can:1. Process info2. Solve problems3. Learn from experience4. Remember

Language: What is it?

Language:◦Spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate language

Language: All language contains…

Phonemes:The smallest

distinctive sound in language

Examples: “ch”, “a”, “t”, “th”

English has about 44

Morphemes:The smallest unit that

carries meaningExamples: “I”, “pre-”,

“-ed” and “s” that indicates plural

Prefix or suffix

How many phonemes does platypus have?

Language: Grammar

Grammar: the rules of language (2 rules)

1.Semantics◦ The set of rules by which we derive meaning in

a language.◦ Ex: adding “-ed” to the end of the word makes

it past tense

2.Syntax◦ The order of words in language◦ Is it White House or House White?

Language Development

Summary of Language Development

Month(approximate)

Stage

4

10

12

24

24+

Babbles many speech sounds.

Babbling reveals households language.

One-word stage.

Two-world, telegraphic speech.

Language develops rapidly intocomplete sentences.

Language Development: How do we learn languages?

B.F. Skinner Noam Chomsky

Imitation◦ Words & Syntax

modeled by other

Reinforcement◦ Smiles & Hugs

when the child says something right.

Language occurs naturally: Inborn

Language

Acquisition Devise – when we hear language the switch turns on for that language

Language Development: Whorf

Linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf (1956)

Linguistic Determinism ◦hypothesis that language

determines the way we think

Example:◦The Hopi tribe has no past tense

in their language, so Whorf says they rarely think of the past.

Language: Bilingualism

The majority of people around the world speak at least two languages.◦ In the U.S. many of us do not speak more than one

language because our country is so big, and we have little “need” for it– except along the borders of Mexico (Spanish) and Canada (French)

◦ In Europe, by the time a person has crossed the space of Texas, they could have travelled through several different countries, with several different languages.

◦ 32 million people in the U.S. (and growing fast) speak English as a second language

◦ Bilingualism has its benefits: it promotes multi-culturalism and develops respect for others’ differences from ourselves

Language: Do Animals use Language?

Kohler exhibited that Chimps can problem solve.Is this really language? What do you think?