Cognitive Psychology Fundamentals

Cognitive Psychology

• This is the branch of psychology studying the mind scientifically.
• The mind creates and controls mental functions like perception, attention, memory, emotions, language, decision-making, and reasoning.
• The mind's purpose is to create representations of the world to enable us to interact with it and achieve our goals.

The Fall of Behaviorism and the Cognitive Revolution

• Behaviorism was once prominent in American psychology.
• However, some researchers did not adhere to the strict behavioral doctrines.
• Cognitive maps challenged the stimulus-response-based approach (Tolman, 1931).
• The controversy over language acquisition highlighted the inadequacy of purely behavioral explanations (Chomsky, 1959).
• The findings from the "misbehavior of organisms" studies showed that learned behaviors might not always override ingrained instincts (Breland & Breland, 1961).
• Social Learning Theory demonstrated that learning could occur through observation and modeling (Bandura, 1963).

Cognitive Maps

• Edward Tolman, despite calling himself a behaviorist, used behavior to infer mental processes.
• Tolman's studies involved maze learning, suggesting that rats developed cognitive maps of the maze, enabling them to navigate efficiently.

Controversy Over Language Acquisition

• Skinner argued that children learn language through operant conditioning.
• Chomsky proposed that children possess an innate Language Acquisition Device (LAD).
• The LAD is a biological program that underlies the universality of grammar across cultures.
• Evidence for an innate language acquisition device includes children's universal language acquisition sequence, cooing, babbling, telegraphic speech, and infant-directed speech.
• The vocabulary explosion is an important stage of child language development.
• Children have an innate need to communicate, which is reflected in sign language development in deaf communities.

The Misbehavior of Organisms

• Research indicated that animal learning could not be fully explained by conditioning principles alone.
• Animal's natural instincts and behaviors could often override learned behaviors.

Social Learning Theory

• Albert Bandura studied the impact of models on behavior.
• The Bobo Doll studies demonstrated that children learn aggressive behaviors through observation.
• Participants' learning could be influenced by whether a model received reinforcement or punishment for their actions.

Attention

• Attention is the focusing of cognitive resources on specific stimuli.
• Different tasks and distractions can influence how quickly and effectively information is processed.

Retention

• Information storage in the mind maintains the memory trace for a specific time period before further processing or retrieval.

Reproduction

• This relates to how learned behaviors or concepts are demonstrated.

Motivation

• Motivation refers to the internal drives or factors encouraging goal-directed actions.

The Cognitive Revolution

• A shift occurred from the stimulus-response-based approach to explaining behavior in terms of the mind.
• Information-processing approach emerged, drawing parallels with digital computers.
• Modules like input, sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory were described.

Artificial Intelligence

• Artificial intelligence is the attempt to create machines that exhibit intelligent behavior
• Theorists like McCarty et al. (1955) defined intelligent behavior in machines and explored possibilities such as logical theorem provers and the Turing test.

Ulrich Neisser

• A significant figure in the field of cognitive psychology, emphasizing the cognitive revolution.
• His book, "Cognition and Reality," contributed to the field.

Sensory Memory

• A very brief storage of information from the senses.
• Visual sensory memory is called iconic memory.
• Auditory sensory memory is called echoic memory.
• Touch sensory memory is called haptic memory.

Persistence of Vision

• The perception of a visual stimulus after it's been removed.
• A sparkler's trail is an example.

Sensory Memory (Iconic) Capacity

• Subjects can quickly perceive much more information than they can report.
• Capacity involves the retrieval rate rather than the storage capacity.
• Early experiments, such as the Whole Report and Partial Report experiments, showed that there is a limitation on how much information can be reported from the sensory memory at any one time.

Sensory Memory (Iconic) Duration

• Sensory memory fades quickly.
• This rapid decay affects how quickly we perceive and react to stimuli. The shorter the decay time, the faster the reaction.

Short-Term Memory (STM)

• A brief storage of information, capable of manipulation and encoding.
• Primary memory or immediate memory is how STM is sometimes referred to.
• Rehearsal plays a role in maintaining this information.

STM Capacity

• Miller (1956) proposed that STM capacity is about 7 +/- 2 chunks of information.
• A chunk is a unit of information that's meaningfully grouped together.

STM Duration

• STM duration is relatively brief, typically lasting about 20 seconds without rehearsal.
• Proactive interference occurs when previously learned information blocks the retrieval of new information.
• Retroactive interference occurs when newly learned information disrupts the recall of old information.

Working Memory

• Working memory is a limited-capacity system involved with temporary storage and manipulation of information.
• It plays a vital role in complex cognitive tasks.

Working Memory Components

• Model includes a central executive, phonological loop, and visuospatial sketchpad.
• The central executive manages attention, switching between tasks, and prioritizing information processing.
• The phonological loop processes verbal and auditory information.
• The visuospatial sketchpad handles visual and spatial information.

The Phonological Loop

• Plays a role in verbal processing, especially in tasks involving a sequence of spoken items (i.e., recalling phone numbers).
• The phonological similarity effect shows how similar-sounding items are harder to recall.
• Word length effect shows longer words are harder to recall from the loop.
• Articulatory suppression occurs when a task hinders the repetition of the phonological loop, affecting recall or retention.

The Visuospatial Sketchpad

• Handles visual and spatial information.
• It's important for tasks with spatial reasoning and mental imagery.

The Central Executive

• The control center for working memory.
• It manages attention, task switching, retrieval, and integration of information from other components.
• Prefrontal cortex damage can impact central executive functions.
• Performance on tasks involving the central executive, such as the Stroop task or tasks requiring conflict resolution, may be impaired.

The Episodic Buffer

• It's a component of the complex working and long-term memory system in the revised Baddeley (2000) working memory model.
• It handles the temporary storage of episodic memories when other components are engaged.
• It links information from different sources (i.e. sensory memory, the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad) to long term memory by encoding them.

Long-Term Memory (LTM) Encoding and Retrieval

• LTM stores information for a very long period (or indefinitely).
• Encoding involves putting information into LTM.
• Retrieval involves getting information out of LTM.

Common Study Habits

• Rereading
• Taking practice tests
• Cramming for exams
• Studying in one place can influence encoding and retrieval effectiveness.

Spacing and Interleaving

• Spacing effect refers to better learning when studying materials over longer intervals.
• Interleaving refers to alternating between different topics instead of studying one topic at a time.
• Spacing is the friend of recall but the enemy of induction (Rothkopf and Bjork).

Inductive Learning

• Ability to generalize concepts from multiple exemplars.
• Effective for quickly recognizing examples of a given entity.

Retrieval Cues

• When recalling a memory, it can be helpful to use self-generated or other-generated retrieval cues.
• Self-generated retrieval cues can be more effective than other-generated cues.

Encoding Specificity

• Memory performance is improved when the encoding and retrieval conditions match.
• This relates to the physical environment (e.g., studying in a quiet room, then taking a test in the same quiet room) and also mental state (e.g., studying when happy and then being tested when happy).

Transfer-Appropriate Processing

• The memory process relies on the coding used during learning to be relevant to those needed for the retrieval of a memory.
• For example, to be effective at learning it can be helpful to review information relevant the information you are learning in a similar way you will be tested.

Other Encoding Aids

• Forming visual images
• Deep processing
• Making information self-relevant
• Organizing the information being stored or learned can assist encoding.

Visual Imagery

Levels of Processing Theory

• Deeper processing leads to better memory.
• Deeper processing involves semantic processing and making the retrieved information more meaningful.

Self-Reference Effect

• When information is related to oneself, the memory recall is enhanced. This is often referred to as personalizing the information learned.

Effects of Organization on Memory

• Organization can improve memory recall.
• Structuring related and unrelated items/concepts into categories can increase efficiency of memory.

An example of organizing information

• When organizing an auditory message, the spatial location/organization influences whether it's recalled correctly.