Test #2 Outline (Psychology 200) PDF

Chapter 4 ========= **Attention** -- focusing on specific features, objects, or locations or on certain thoughts or activities. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ### **Perceptual overload** #### Is a psychological phenomeno...

Chapter 4 ========= **Attention** -- focusing on specific features, objects, or locations or on certain thoughts or activities. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ### **Perceptual overload** #### Is a psychological phenomenon that can occur when a person is unable to process or manage a stimulus ##### Can be caused by any sensation such as touch, smell, hearing, vision, etc. ##### Ex. Perceptual overload can occur when any of the senses are overstimulated: Listening to loud noises, such as multiple people talking at one, or being in a crowded place with bright lights, etc. #### **Perceptual load** -- related to the difficulty of a task. Low-load tasks use only a small amount of a person's processing capacity. High-load tasks use more of the processing capacity. ( in case) ### Theories of attention: Broadbent's filter model & Treisman's Attenuation Model #### **Broadbent's filter model of attention** (also known as bottleneck theory of attention) ##### Model of attention that proposes a filter that lets attended stimuli through and blocks some or all the unattended stimuli. Is also an early theory of selective attention that proposes that people filter stimuli based on basic physical properties, such as color, pitch, or direction. ###### It explains how attention determined what information reaches the pattern recognition stage. ###### Ex. When you are having a conversation at a crowded party and can focus on the person you are talking to white filtering out the surrounding noise, however if someone mentions your name in another conversation it can break your attention to the conversation. #### **Treisman's Attenuation Model of attention** ##### Proposes that selection occurs in two stages. In the first stage, an attenuator analyzes the incoming message and lets through the attended message and the unattended message, but at a lower (attenuated) strength. Proposes that instead of completely filtering out unattended information, our brain acts like a "volume control" by attenuating (lowering the intensity) of irrelevant stimuli, allowing some processing of unattended information while prioritizing the attended message. ###### Which is why we might still pick up on important details like our name in a crowded room even when not actively listening to that conversation. ###### Ex. when you\'re engaged in a conversation at a crowded party but suddenly hear someone mention your name across the room, you instantly become aware of it, even though you weren\'t actively listening to that conversation; this happens because your brain still processes background sounds at a lower level, allowing important information like your name to \"break through\" despite being attenuated (turned down) in the background noise. ### **Dichotic listening** #### The procedure of presenting one message to the left ear and a different message to the right ear. ### **Cognitive load and multitasking** #### Cognitive load refers to the amount of mental effort required to process information at a given time, and multitasking means attempting to perform multiple tasks simultaneously. extra info. : {#extra-info..ListParagraph} ============= Early selection model - Model of attention that explains selective attention by early filtering out of the unattended message. In Broadbent's early selection model, the filtering step occurs before the message is analyzed to determine its meaning. Late selection models of attention -- a model of selective attention that proposes that selection of stimuli for final processing does not occur until after the information in the message has been analyzed for meaning. Attenuator - In Treisman's model of selective attention, the attenuator analyzes the incoming message in terms of physical characteristics, language, and meaning. Attended messages pass through the attenuator at full strength, and unattended messages pass through with reduced strength. Dictionary unit - A component of Treisman's attenuation model of attention. This processing unit contains stored words and thresholds for activating the words. The dictionary unit helps explain why we can sometimes hear a familiar word, such as our name, in an unattended message. Processing capacity -- which refers to the amount of info people can handle and sets a limit on their ability to process incoming information Perceptual load -- which is related to the difficulty of a task. ##### Attention to specific categories of objects, like people or cars, increases the area of the brain devoted to the attended category. This is called attentional warping. {#attention-to-specific-categories-of-objects-like-people-or-cars-increases-the-area-of-the-brain-devoted-to-the-attended-category.-this-is-called-attentional-warping..ListParagraph} Chapter 5 ========= ### Understanding Short term memory: phonological loop, central executive system, and visuo-spatial sketchpad. #### **Short term memory** -- is a memory mechanism that can hold a limited amount of information for a brief period of time, usually around 30 seconds, unless there is rehearsal (such as repeating a telephone number) to maintain the information in short-term memory. Short term memory is one of the stages in the modal model of memory. (stores small amount of info for a brief period of time). #### **Phonological loop** -- the part of working memory that holds and processes verbal and auditory information. ###### Consists of two components: the ***phonological store*** (which has a limited capacity and holds verbal and auditory info for only a few seconds), and the ***articulatory rehearsal process*** (which is responsible for rehearsal that can keep items in the phonological store from decaying) Therefore, when you are trying to remember a person's name or what your cognitive professor is talking about, you are using your phonological loop. #### **Visuospatial sketchpad --** the part of working memory that holds and processes visual and spatial information. ###### The phonological loop and the visuospatial sketch pad are attached to the central executive i.e., when you form a picture in your mind or do tasks like solving a puzzle or finding your way around campus, you are using your visuospatial sketch pad. #### **Central executive system** -- is the part of working memory that coordinates the activity of the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketch pad. The "traffic cop" of the working memory system. ###### Is where the major work of working memory occurs by pulling info from long-term memory and coordinates the activity of the phonological loop and visuospatial sketch pad by focusing on specific parts of a task and deciding how to divide attention between diff. tasks. i.e., imagine you are driving in a strange city, a friend in the passenger seat is reading you directions to a restaurant, and the car radio is broadcasting the news. Your phonological loop is taking in the verbal directions; your sketch pad is helping you visualize a map of the streets leading to the restaurant; and your central executive is coordinating and combining these two kinds of information. In addition, the central executive might be helping you ignore the messages from the radio so you can focus your attention on the directions. ###### {#section.ListParagraph} A diagram of a diagram Description automatically generated {#a-diagram-of-a-diagram-description-automatically-generated.ListParagraph} ========================================================== {#section-1.ListParagraph} ### What is the episodic buffer? #### **Episodic buffer** - Is a component added to Baddeley's original working memory model that serves as a "backup" store that communicates with both long-term memory and the components of working memory. It holds information longer and has greater capacity than the phonological loop or visuospatial sketch pad. ##### It can store info (thereby providing extra capacity) and is connected to LTM (thereby making interchange between working memory and LTM possible). ### Duration and capacity of short-term memory #### Short term memory holds five to seven items for about 15 to 20 seconds ##### Was demonstrated by John Browns, Lloyd and Margaret Peterson who used the method of recall to determine duration of STM ### STM vs. Working memory- although the terms are used interchangeably there are some differences your textbook highlights. ##### **Working memory** - A limited-capacity system for temporary storage and manipulation of information for complex tasks such as comprehension, learning, and reasoning. ###### Short term memory is concerned mainly with storing information for a brief period of time (like remembering a phone number), whereas working memory is concerned with the manipulation of information that occurs during complex cognition (i.e., remembering numbers while reading a paragraph). Extra info: {#extra-info.ListParagraph} =========== Sensory memory -- a brief stage of memory that holds information for seconds or fractions of a second. It is the first stage in the modal model of memory. Phonological similarity effect -- is the confusion of letters or words that sound similar. Word length effect -- occurs when memory for lists of words is better for short words than for long words. Articulatory suppression -- reduces memory because speaking interferes with rehearsal. Chapter 6 ========= ### What are the different types of long-term memory? #### **Long term memory** -- is the system that is responsible for storing information for long periods of time ##### Covers a span that stretches from about 30 seconds ago to your earliest memories. ###### Types of long term memory **Episodic --** memory for specific personal experiences, involving mental time travel back in time to achieve a feeling of reliving the experience. i.e., I remember going to get coffee at Le Buzz yesterday morning and talking with Gil and Mary about their bike trip. **Semantic** -- memory for facts i.e., There is a Starbucks down the road from Le Buzz **Autobiographical** -- people's memories for experiences from their own lives. These memories have both episodic components and semantic components. These semantic components of autobiographical memory are personal semantic memories. I.e., I met Gil and Mary at Le Buzz yesterday morning. We sat at our favorite table near the window, which is often difficult to get in the morning when the coffee shop is busy. ### How do explicit and implicit memory differ? #### **Explicit memories** are a memory that involves conscious recollections of events or facts that we have learned in the past. #### **Implicit memories** are a memory that occurs when an experience affects a person's behavior, even though the person is not aware that he or she has had the experience. ##### **The difference between** explicit and implicit memory is that explicit memories are memories we are aware of, whereas implicit memories are memories we aren't aware of. ### Semantic memory holds our general knowledge and facts. ### Episodic memory is our memory for personal events and includes autobiographical information. ### What is encoding? LTM requires us to use encoding to transfer information from our STM/WM and store that information for later recall. #### **Encoding** -- the process of perceiving and learning new information or inputting Information into the memory system ### **Retrieval of LTM**. What is the process of recalling and errors in recall. #### **Retrieval of LTM** -- involves activating mental representations in long-term memory and copying them into short-term memory. Also can retrieve info out of your long term memory in three ways: recall, recognition, and relearning. #### **Recall** -- accessing information without cues, or the process of retrieving information or events from the past without the use of a specific cue. #### **"Errors in recall"** -- refer to inaccuracies or mistakes that occur when someone tries to remember past events or information, potentially forgetting details, misremembering aspects of an event, or even creating entirely false memories. Overall, not being able to accurately retrieve information from memory when needed. ### Retrieval cues, what are they and how are they used in research? #### **Retrieval cues** -- are stimuli that help people recall memories. They can be external or internal ##### **External cues** -- sounds, smells, sights, or other aspects of the environment ##### **Internal cues** -- physical states or feelings ##### **Perceptual cues/sensory** -- smells, air temp, or physical feelings. #### In research, retrieval cues are used as stimuli to trigger the recall of specific memories or information from a participants mind, allowing researchers to study how effectively people can access and retrieve stored information under diff conditions. #### {#section-2.ListParagraph} ### {#section-3.ListParagraph} ### {#section-4.ListParagraph}