Memory and Cognition Resumao PDF

MEMORY AND COGNITION **How is "seeing" not just something the eyes do?** :While the eyes play a crucial role in capturing visual information, vision is a complex process that also involves the brain, attention, interpretation, and experience. **Why was inattentional blindness surprising to percept...

MEMORY AND COGNITION **How is "seeing" not just something the eyes do?** :While the eyes play a crucial role in capturing visual information, vision is a complex process that also involves the brain, attention, interpretation, and experience. **Why was inattentional blindness surprising to perception researchers**?: because it challenged the long-held assumption that our conscious experience of the visual world is a comprehensive and accurate reflection of everything we see. **Attention:** A family of cognitive mechanisms that help us select manageable chunks of information. When we see something, the occipital lobe maps out everything we see, we can't be aware of everything at once only little chunks at a time and that is because of attention. -Attention shapes our perceptual reality, shapes what you are consciously aware of. -Attention binds/integrates simple features together: you don't see chair and green, you see green chair \- We can tune it for certain object features -**Perceptual reality**: refers to the way individual perceives and interpret the world around them based on their senses and cognitive processes. -**Why do we need attention**? Because each moment contains more than we can take in. -**How is attention relevant to health & safety?** : because it directly impacts how effectively we perceive, respond to, and act upon potentially hazardous situations in our environment. -**Overt attention**: Physically directing senses towards a stimuli -**Covert attention**: Mentally directing senses towards a stimuli **Attention Selection:\ **-**Early selection**: focus attention on a single source or attribute of a stimulus. This is processed for meaning, irrelevant aspects are ignored. -**Late Selection:** first process the meaning then focus attention based on that meaning -**Automatic process**: Mental act that occurs without your intention or awareness, it does not require attentional resources like driving a car on a familiar route. -**Semi-automatic process**: mix of automatic and controlled process like walking and writing. -**Controlled processes**: involves awareness and intention, we need to focus our attention in order to achieve our goal like having a conversation, writing an essay. **The cocktail party effect:** Phenomenon in cognitive psychology where individuals can focus on a single conversation even though the environment is noise and has many competing sounds. This shows the brains ability to selectively attend to specific stimuli while filtering out irrelevant background noise. **Eye-tracking studies**: Eye trackers record what people look at. Often used in studies of attention. Indexes overt but not covert attention. People often look directly at the unexpected stimulus (the one they fail to notice) but still fail to report seeing it. This suggests that looking at something does not guarantee conscious awareness of it. People tend to focus their attention on the central part of the scene. Higher cognitive load or task complexity can increase the likelihood of inattentional blindness. Conscious awareness of the stimulus is not guaranteed unless attention is allocated to it. **Primitive features**: basic, fundamental attributes of visual stimuli that are processed by the brain automatically and early in the visual processing system. Also the idea that some basic features don't need attention to be seen. They are found quickly in parallel. **Conjunction features**: targets that combine basic features need attention. Refer to the combination of two or more individual visual features that must be simultaneously processed and attended to in order to identify an object. The more items there are in the area, the longer it takes to find conjunction features. In contrast, primitive features are found quickly regardless of how many items are in the array. **Feature Integration Theory** *(Treisman & Gelade, 1980):* Certain basic features are processed quickly in parallel Attention serves to bind simple features together\ This binding process is slow and serial. Anne Treismans\' Feature Integration Theory: Individual features are processed preattentitively, automatically, and in parallel. **Spatial attention**: cognitive process of selectively focusing on a particular location or area within our visual field, enabling us to process relevant information from that space more efficiently while filtering out irrelevant information **Feature-based attention** refers to the process of selectively focusing on specific features or attributes of an object. **Change blindness**: psychological phenomenon where people fail to notice significant changes in a visual scene. in another words: Failure to update representations between views. We're very bad at noticing even large changes. This concepts highlights that our perception of the world is not as detailed and continuous as we might think, instead its more about the information we focus on and the context in which we process it. **Inattentional Blindness:** Failure to see something we're looking at Occurs because attention is preoccupied **Inattentional blindness and change blindness** reveal that we are often unaware of large amounts of information in our environment, yet it doesn't feel that way because of the way our brain processes and filters sensory input. **Gradual Change Blindness**: phenomenon where we fail to notice gradual or subtle changes in a visual scene over time. **External attention**: how do we attend to the outside word (sound, location, features and objects, time, space attention and feature attention) **Internal attention**: to internal information (LTM, Working memory, selecting responses) **Selecting responses:** Stroop effect: The Stroop Effect shows that when automatic and controlled processes conflict, selecting the correct response takes more time and cognitive effort. "controlled tasks can become automatic with practice like driving". Stroop task demonstrates: Automatic processing can undermine goal-directed behaviour **Memory** **Memory**: The encoding, storing, and retrieving of information from the past. Immense capabilities and absolutely flawed. Research has shown that memory can result as new synapses are formed in the brain and as communication at existing synapses is improved. Several neurotransmitters appear to be involved in the strengthening that occurs at synapses. Human memory depends on a complex mental system. **Memory processes:** 1)**Encoding**: transforms information into some type of mental representation. Codes for auditory (or acoustic) memory: represent information as sounds Codes for visual memory: represent information as images Codes for semantic memory: represent information as general meanings. 2\) **Storage:** maintains information in the memory system over time. 3\) **Retrieval**: re-accessing information, gaining access to previously stored information either through recognition aided by retrieval cues, or through relatively unaided recall. Example: she spends time researching and finding additional information to help aid the lecture content **Recall:** Mentally searching and retrieving information from long-term memory **Three types of memory**: **Declarative-Episodic memory**: contains information about specific events in a person's life **Declarative-Semantic memory**: contains generalised knowledge about the world. **Procedural memory**: contains information about how to do things. **Implicit memory**: refers to the unintentional influence of prior experiences. (**UNCONSCIOUS)** **Explicit memory:** people intentionally try to remember something. **(CONSICOUS)** **Prospective memory**: remembering to do what you planned to do **Retrospective memory**: the content of what you planned to do But executive processes such as planning (i.e. when to retrieve and act) and inhibition (i.e. of other ongoing thoughts and actions) are also required **The memory difficulties often seen in older adults relate more to episodic memory** **Iconic memory**: sensory memory of visual stimuli **Echoic Memory**: sensory memory of auditory stimuli **Flashbulb memory**: a vivid recollection of where you were and what you were doing when something emotional occurred. **Neuroplastic**: It changes with experience (*London taxi drivers with years of experience had a larger hippocampus than normal)* ***Memory athletes**:* were using different brain areas than non- memory-athletes, these were areas involved in visual imagery and spatial navigation, they were using encoding strategies. Brain training programs NOT been shown to effectively help memories consolidate. But sleep has. ***Five theoretical models of memory:*** *1)**The levels-of-processing model of memory**: the most important determinant of memory is how extensively information is encoded or processed when it is first received. Elaborative rehearsal is more effective than maintenance rehearsal in learning new information because it represents a deeper level of processing.* *2) **The transfer-appropriate processing model of memory**: processes used during retrieval match those used during encoding.* 3\) **Neural network models of memory**: such as parallel distributed processing (PDP): new experiences provide specific information, also become part of, and alter, a whole network of associations. Explains how people make spontaneous generalisations about the world and the schemas that shape the memories people construct. *4) **The multiple memory systems approach**: It emphasises the role of different brain areas in different aspects of memory encoding and retrieval.* *5) **The information-processing model of memory**: in order for information to become firmly embedded in memory, it must pass through three stages of processing: sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory.* ***Alan Baddeley's model theory of working memory:*** the central executive is responsible for coordination (managing and coordinating the activities of WM), Attention (focusing attention and switching between tasks or mental operations), Integration (integrating information from various sources and controlling cognitive process such as planning, decision-making, and problem solving). Also says central executive is responsible for overseeing and coordinating the activities of buffers. **Buffers:** 1. Phonological loop: stores auditory information briefly like spoken words and sounds. 2. Visuospatial sketchpad: buffer for visual information about objects such as their features, locations. Includes details like colour, shape and size. 3. Episodic buffer: Integrates information into new representations. We remember the situation with sounds and sights not everything separately. **Central executive**: not localized into a single brain region, its functions are associated with several areas of the brain, particularly the prefrontal cortex. **A multi-store model of memory:** A diagram of a memory Description automatically generated **Sensory memory** (called "iconic memory" in the visual domain): Super detailed visual memory that persists for a fraction of a second, if you don't attend to the information if fades quickly. **Working memory:** What you can hold and manipulate in mind. In order to think, solve problems and make decisions. **STM:** The storage, or maintenance, component of working memory. **Limits of Working Memory**: Capacity of short-term memory (also known as WM) is limited. Miller's magic number (1956): WM has 7 ± 2 "slots". **STM and WM**, but both are temporary/short-term memory stores **LTM:** Long-term memory normally involves semantic encoding, which means that people tend to encode the general meaning of information, not specific details. Has Declarative memory (which is semantic memory and episodic memory) and Procedural memory) **Retrieval cues:** help people remember things; cues help retrieval only if they match some feature of the information that was originally encoded. **Context-specific memory**: memory may be better when one attempts to retrieve information in the same environment in which it was learnt. **State-dependent learning**: person's physiological or mood state can aid or impede retrieval **The retrieval of incomplete knowledge**: The *tip-of-the- tongue phenomenon and the feeling-of-knowing experience* **Forgetting:** most forgetting from long-term\ memory occurs during the first several hours after learning. Decay theory and interference describe two mechanisms of forgetting **False memories:**  memories of events that never actually occurred, or memories that are distorted or altered in ways that make them seem real to the individual. Can be vivid and detailed. **Chunking:** cognitive strategy that allows individuals to group information into larger, meaningful units or \"chunks\". One reason why experts seem able to remember so much more. We structure our memories around meaning, Memory is not a simple readout of stored information. Memory is constructive. **Schemas:** Knowledge or expectations about a domain or event. Memory can be distorted by our biases & assumptions and by misleading information -- *by our schemas*. Bartlett suggested that recollections become increasingly shaped by our schemas as detailed memories fade. Expectations about a schema can make you remember something that it was not actually there. **Memory is suggestible**: can be influenced, distorted, or even entirely changed based on external suggestions or information **Source monitoring:** (we're bad at it)\ We take in information from many different sources **External source monitoring:** distinguishing between external sources (e.g., what I saw vs. what someone told me) **Internal source monitoring:** distinguishing between internal sources (e.g., what I thought vs. what I said) **Reality monitoring:** distinguishing between internal and external sources **Serial Position Effect:** - **Primacy effect** -- The first piece of information has an advantage as it is rehearsed more (theoretically represents retrieval from LTM). - **Recency effect** -- The last piece of information has an advantage as it is still fresh/has not been lost from STM **Spreading activation of semantic network** = spreading activation is a process in cognitive psychology that explains how information is retrieved from a semantic network, which is a mental network of related concepts. **Semantic Network**: In our minds, concepts (words, ideas, memories) are organized in a network of nodes. Each node represents a concept, and related concepts are connected by links or associations. When a particular concept is activated (like hearing or thinking about the word \"dog\"), the corresponding node in the network becomes active bringing related concepts to mind. The strength of this activation decreases with distance, meaning that closely related concepts are activated more strongly than distantly related ones. This model helps psychologists understand how our minds store and retrieve knowledge, how priming works, and why certain associations come to mind faster than others. **Some strategies that can enhance memory**: palace of loci, Mnemonics, self-Testing (Retrieval Practice). Elaborative Encoding: "Tell yourself a story" strategy: Mnemonic device. This is a demonstration of elaborative encoding. Elaborative encoding lets you connect new information to memories that you already have, and that helps you remember the new information. And PQ4R method -- preview, question, read, reflect, recite and review. **Match the self-reference effects**: Making the information you are learning connected/relevant to you  **Craik & Tulving (1975**) found that the deeper the encoding, the better the memory **A study by Roediger and Karpicke** found that people have higher confidence when re-studying compared to testing themselves  **Shallow encoding**: focusing on surface feature like highlighting. **Deep encoding:** focusing on meaning like retrieval practice, spaced practice, elaboration. Since amygdala and hippocampus are side to side that seems to help solidify memories by hormones released with strong emotions. Emotional events tend to be better remembered then non-emotional. Sleep is important for memory consolidation. **Priming**: prior exposure changes performance or judgement **Hippocampus:** Heavily involved in forming new memories, critical for spatial memory and navigation. These structures send nerve fibres to the cerebral cortex, in which memories are probably stored and which is activated during memory retrieval. Memories appear to be both localised and distributed throughout the brain. **Damage to hippocampus**: anterograde amnesia **Amnesia** Failure of the memory system when critical neural structures are damaged. **Retrograde amnesia**: inability to access old memories **Anterograde amnesia:** inability to form new memories. Difficulty in moving information from working memory to LTM. Clive Wearing was able to play the piano despite having significant brain damage and memory loss. Hyperthymnestic Syndrome: Ability to have detailed episodic memories **Multitasking:** depends on 2 things 1. Cognitive load: how difficult each task is. 2. Overlap: how much tasks compete for the same mental resources. -**Scholl, Noles and Sussman (2003)** conducted a study, results: Similar across both controls and those using a mobile phone, significantly lower for those using a mobile phone  \- We are able to multi-task and do two tasks at once when: Only one task demands attentional resources **Cognitive psychology**: how we come to know about the world, is how we encode, store and use information. Uses objective measures to build a science of how the mind works. **Introspection**: the attempt to carefully observe one's own mental experiences as they unfolded. Problem with this is: validity (we may not have conscious access to most basic cognitive processes), Fallibility of memory (memory of what we observe in ourselves may not be accurate), Reliability (subjective observations are hard to replicate from lab to lab. **THOUGHT, LANGUAGE AND INTELLIGENCE** **Thoughts**: don't always come to us in clear, complete sentences. We have to construct those sentences using language we have learnt (words, images, ideas and other mental materials in our minds) **Human cognitive ability**: language **You rely on your intelligence**: like ability to think, solve problems and make judgment and decisions. **Basic functions of thought:** 5 main operations are involved. 1. Sensory system takes information from the world through sensory receptors, does not require attention 2. Perceptual system: describes and elaborates on this information (like make decisions). The information must be perceived and recognised using attentional and perceptual process. Also information during this stage is consciously elaborated on using STM and WM process that allows us to think about it relating to knowledge stored in LTM. 3. Formulate plans. When making decions, choices are based on the positive or negative value or utility. Decision-making also requires attention, It either just store information or acts, response must be planned in this 3^rd^ stage then carried out to 4th and 5^th^ stage. 4. Guide our actions. This action affects environment and provides new information like a "feedback" to cognitive system in stage 5. 5. Then new information comes again So it's a cycle/circle of thought, components that make up the circle: sensory, perceptual, decision-making and response planning. All can occur rapidly and automatic. In information processing system, thinking is defined as the manipulation of mental representations **Information can be mentally represented as:** concepts, propositions, schemas, scripts, mental models, images, and cognitive maps. **Concepts:** categories of objects, events or ideas with common properties. They make it possible to think logically **Formal/concrete concept**: defined by specific, clear criteria or rules. **Natural/Abstract concept**: more flexible and based on experiences or examples. A member of this concept that possess all or most of its characteristic features is called: prototype. The more prototypical a member of a concept is, the quicker people can decide if is an example of the concept. **Propositions:** Mental representation that expresses a relationship between concepts. Can be true or false. **Schemas:** set of propositions form schemas because they are so closely associated. They are generalisations that we develop about categories of objects, places, event and people. They allow us to make sense of the world. They can also create expectations about objects, places, events, and people. **Scripts:** Type of schema, they are schemas about familiar activities. If script is violated, is easy to misinterpret events, then our reactions to it tend to be slower and less effective than our reactions to expected events. **Mental models**: related concepts can be organised not only as schemas and scripts but also as mental models. They are representation of particular situations or arrangements of objects that guides our interactions with them. If mental model is incomplete or incorrect, we are likely to make mistakes. **Images and Cognitive Maps:** Thinking often involves the manipulation of images or mental representations of visual information. We create mental images that serve as mental models of descriptions of what we read or hear. **Thinking strategies**: Our information-processing system combines, transforms and elaborates mental representations in ways that allow us to engage in reasoning, problem-solving and decision-making. **Reasoning**: the process through which we generate and evaluate arguments, as well as reach conclusions about them. **Formal/Logical Reasoning**: process of following a set of rigorous procedures to reach a valid, correct conclusions. Can fail because assumptions are wrong or because the logic applied to those is wrong. Guided by algorithms and rules of logic. **Deductive reasoning**: takes general rule and applies to draw, or deduce conclusions about specific cases. **Informal/Inductive reasoning**: trying to assess the believability of a conclusion based on the evidence available to support it. Its goal is to induce a general conclusion to appear on the basis of specific facts or examples. Psychologists use this informal reasoning when designing experiments whose results will provide evidence for or against a theory. Approach where you base your conclusion on the number of observations you believe is enough. You take a mental shortcut: heuristics, which are helpful but can bias our thinking and result in errors. **Heuristics**: short cuts or rule of thumb for finding a solution to a problem. **Anchoring Heuristics:** people tend to rely heavily on the first piece of information they encounter when making decision which can influence subsequent judgements. This is a cognitive Bias. **Representativeness Heuristic**: Mental shortcut of judging if something belongs in a given class based on similarity to other members. Implications of that: errors in judgement, making mistakes based on misleading similarities. **Availability Heuristics**: Mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method, or decision. Implications: can lead to overestimating the probability of dramatic or vivid events while underestimating more common but less sensational occurrences. You tend to chose the event that is most mentally "available". **Problem-Solving:** Most efficient approach would be diagnose the problem, come up with a plan to solve it, execute the plan, evaluate the results to determine whheter problem remains. **Strategies to problem-Solving:** -If is extremely difficult: it is helpful to allow it to incubate buy setting it aside for a while and a solution may suddenly appear after. -**Means-to-end Analyses**: identify and work on sub-goals instead of trying to solve the whole thing at once. -**Working backwards** -**Using analogies**: find analogies or similarities between problem you facing now and that you faced before. **Obstacles to problem-solving**: difficulties usually occur at the beginning at diagnosis stage when person forms a hypotheses. 1. Multiple Hypotheses: people have difficulty considering 2 or more hypotheses at once, representativeness and availability heuristics may lead to choosing the hypotheses that comes more easily to mind and the right one might never be considered. 2. Mental sets: sometimes people are so blinded by one hypotheses or strategy that they continue to apply even when better alternatives are obvious. Might produce functional fixedness: cognitive bias that limits a person\'s ability to use an object or concept in ways other than its traditional or intended function. This mental set can hinder problem-solving and creativity because it restricts the range of potential uses and solutions we consider. 3. Ignoring negative evidence: absence of evidence is less likely to be notices, people have a hard time using missing evidence to help eliminate a hypotheses from consideration 4. Confirmation bias: Tendency to Favor, seek out, interpret, and remember information that confirms they pre-existing beliefs, ignoring evidence that contradicts their view. Humans have a strong bias to confirm rather than to reject the hypotheses even if there is strong evidence against it. This can be seen in Anchoring Heuristics, because you are anchoring to initial hypotheses and being unwilling to abandon it. -**The gambler\'s fallacy** is a cognitive bias that leads people to believe that the outcome of a random event will be influenced by previous outcomes, even though each event is independent. The outcome becomes \"due\" to happen. **Creativity**: Ability to combine mental elements in a new and useful wau. Mental activity that can be inferred from performance on certain tests, as well as from the writings, computer programs and artwork. Divergent thinking: measures creativity, the ability to think along many paths to generate multiple solutions to a problem. Creative person must be firmly anchored to reality, understand society's needs and learns from experience and knowledge of others. **Cognitive and personality characteristics for creativity:** Expertise in the field of endeavour directly tied to what person has learnt. Set of creative skills like persistence at problem-solving, capacity for divergent thinking, ability to break out of old problem-solving habits (mental sets) and willingness to take risks. Asl well as motivation to pursue work for internal reasons such as satisfactions not money (external factors). Social, economic and political environment in which a person grows and lives also influences creative behaviour. **Decision-making**: The fact that each option has positive and negative features/attributes, complicates decision-making. Multi-attribute decision-making are the ones that are further complicated by difficulties in comparing. Als people's tendency to be unrealistically confident in the accuracy of their predictions. Some decisions are not intended to maximise our expected value but rather satisfy other criteria: minimise losses, produce quick and easy solution and preserving a moral principle. **Risky decisions:** decision made when outcome is uncertain. **Language** Words or symbols, and rules for combing them, that are used to thinking and communication. We can use language to express everything from simple requests to abstract principles. Our language abilities are usually well integrated with our memory, thinking and other cognitive abilities. 2 basic elements: symbols (such as words, we can create and understand an infinite number of sentences) and grammar (combining those symbols). **How we acquire language:** Conditioning, imitation and rules: studies shown that positive reinforcement is not the main motivator for language acquision. Bilingualism: children with this has enhanced performance in each language, balanced bilinguals enjoy more general advantages in creativity, cognitive flexibility and concept formation. Dual perspective makes the brain more flexible and better able to learn new things. Also provides a sort of cognitive reserve in old age. **Morpheme:** smallest meaningful units in a language, such as syllables or words. **Phoneme:** basic speech sounds of language **Intelligence:** Capacity for rational thought, purposeful action and effective adaptation. Is a developed ability, influenced partly by genetics, educational, cultures and other environmental factors and experiences that shape knowledge. **Crystallized Intelligence**: ability to solve problems using already acquired knowledge **Fluid Intelligence**: ability to think logically, reason abstractly, and solve novel problems without relying on prior knowledge or experience **Emotional Intelligence**: the ability to perceive, use, understand, and manage feeling states. **3 main characteristics:** Abstract thinking or reasoning abilities, Problem-solving abilities and the capacity to acquire knowledge. **Psychometric approach**: standard intelligence test are associated with psychometrics which is the scientific study and measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personalities and other psychological characteristics. For intelligence it focus on the products of intelligence including scores on intelligence tests. **6-Factor model of intelligence**: measure of an individual's overall intelligence as opposed to specific abilities **Mental Age**: In intelligence testing is the average cognitive ability displayed by people of a given age. **Norm testing** :refers to the process of comparing an individual\'s test performance to a broader population\'s performance to understand how they rank in relation to others. Cognitive psychologists see the brain as an information-processing system that receives and works on information in ways that allow us to think, remember, and engage in other cognitive activities. In intelligence: focuses on identifying the mental processes involved in intelligent behaviour, not the abilities that result in test scores. **Triarchic theory of Intelligence**: developed by psychologist Robert Sternberg, proposes that intelligence is composed of three interrelated components: analytical, creative, and practical intelligence. Each component represents a different way of thinking and solving problems. **Analytical**: the kind measured by traditional intelligence task, helps solve a physics problem **Creative**: ability to think outside the box, innovate, and come up with original ideas **Practical**: the ability to apply knowledge and skills in real-world contexts. **Multiple** **Intelligences**: Gardner proposes that there are specific intelligences: 1. Linguistic intelligence: related to good vocabulary and reading. 2. Logical-mathematical Intelligence: skills at arithmetic and certain kinds of reasoning. 3. Musical intelligence 4. Body-kinaesthetic intelligence: skills at dancing, athletics and eye-hand coordination 5. Intrapersonal Intelligence: displayed in self-understanding 6. Interpersonal Intelligence: ability to understand and interact with others 7. Naturalistic intelligence: ability to see patterns in nature **IQ**: Terman adapted the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, aim to capture analytical reasoning and problem-solving abilities but often do not fully measure other important forms of intelligence, such as creativity, social skills, or practical knowledge. **Aptitude**: measures person's readiness to learn and perform certain things **Achievement**: measures what person has learnt or accomplished in particular area. **Tests**: systematic procedure for observing behaviour in a standard situation and describing with numerical scale. **Results has to be:** **Statistical reliability**: must be repeatable or stable **Statistical validity:** degree to which tests scores are interpreted and used appropriately. **Content validity**: degree to which the content of a test is a fair and representative sample of that the rest is suppose to measure **Construct validity**: the extent to which scores suggest that a test is actually measuring the theoretical construct that it claims to measure **Criterion validity**: how well test scores correlate with an independent measure **Standardised assessments**: fail to adequately take into account the cultural dimensions of the attributes being assessed. Tests are administered and scored in a only way. Are more closely associated with the theory of intelligence: The psychometric approach. **Environmental conditions**: can help of deter cognitive development **Unusual intelligence**: gifted people **Intellectual disability**: low IQ and impairment in day to day functioning **Psychosocial Intellectual disability:** cases of intellectual disability that have no obvious genetic or environmental cause