Memory & Cognition Test 2
Simons & Chabris (1999)
Inattention Blindness • Person in a gorilla suit video • Conclusion: It doesn't matter if it is difficult about 40% didn't saw the gorilla
Pham & Taylor (1997)
Influence of Mental Imagery on Memory Performance Method • 1 week prior to an exam, students indicated how much studying they had done for the test. • They then indicated the days and hours they planned to study for the exam along with where and how they planned to study. • Finally, they took the exam in class as scheduled Groups • Control Group: recorded the number of hours spent studying • Study Imagery Group: mentally visualize studying for the test in a way that would lead to a high grade. • Test Imagery Group: mentally visualize getting a high grade on the test. Results: • Consistent across • Imagery influenced study habits and test performance Take Home Point: • But, these effects were rather small • Other research suggests that they are not always consistent • Limitation with self-report • Key: don't just rely on mental imagery and expect to do well on exams!!
central executive
Integrates information from the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad, the episodic buffer, and long-term memory. The central executive also plays a major role in focusing attention, selecting strategies, transforming information, and coordinating behavior.
Chase & Simon (1973)
Method Two chess boards: 1. Board with chess pieces positioned as a real chess game 2. Board with chess pieces positioned randomly Task: reconstruct the position of the chess pieces as quickly and accurately as possible. Given very short time periods, but you can look back at the complete board as much as you like. Groups Chess masters Class A (about 2 steps below a Master) Beginners • Chess masters and Class A - rational have more knowledge so they will be able to chunk better Results for Real Position Board • Supports prediction because master are performing better than class A and they are better than beginners Results for Random Position Board • It is the complete opposite of what we saw. • Class A and beginners they have an advantage because they haves less knowledge and use another strategies • Expertise can help or disadvantage depending on situation Chunking • Knowledge aids in restructuring of information from simple units to more complex "chunks" - BUT, when pieces arranged randomly, no benefit • Expertise can play an important role!
Divided Attention
Multitasking Focus on multiple inputs simultaneously Quantity at the expense of quality of input
What is the early selection theory of attention?
(Broadbent, 1958) All information reaches sensory store Pre-categorical (no meaning) Only attended information reaches working memory Meaningful processing Selection occurs while information is still in sensory store
Landmark Effect
- Shorter if traveling to landmark than not - However, this is a very small effect - Applied example - When driving to a place that you haven't been and the drive seems to take forever. But then the journey home is a lot faster? - Take Home Point - Context can influence cognitive maps!
Chambers & Reisberg (1985)
Research on Ambiguous Images Method • Presented with an ambiguous image and instructed to form a mental image of the figure so they could draw it later. • Draw the image and report what they drew (duck or rabbit). Conditions • Alternative View from Mental Image: prior to drawing the image, decide what the image was and come up with an alternative view. • Alternative View from Drawing: after drawing the image, decide what the image was and come up with an alternative view. Results • (Could a 100% find the mental imaging from their own drawing) • Chambers and Reisberg's research suggests that a strong verbal propositional code - such as "a duck that is facing left" - can overshadow a relatively weak analog code. It is often easy to reverse a visual stimulus while you are looking at a physical picture than that is ambiguous. In contrast, it is usually more difficult to reverse a mental image.
What is the multimode theory of attention?
Attentional mode as a strategic choice • Early selection mode : Unattended information filtered at an early stage of processing • Late-selection mode: Unattended information filtered at a later stage of processing Costs associated with early or late filtering • Early filtering is less demanding • But may miss out on processing of some important information • Late filtering requires more mental effort • may hinder quick processing of information that continues to come into the sensory system
What is consciousness? What is mind wandering?
Awareness of ourselves, surroundings, environment, and internal events as well Conscious of mind, all mental processes? What is your Mother's maiden name? Products vs. Processes Mind wandering: Thoughts shift from external to internal Similar to Daydreaming
phonological loop
Can process a limited number of sounds for a short period of time. The phonological loop processes language and other sounds you hear, as well as the sounds that you hear, as well as the sounds that you make. It is also active during subvocalization, for example, when you silently pronounce words that you are reading.
Challenges to Early Selection
Cock-tail Party Phenomenon Some unattended information can capture your attention Unattended info is not pre-categorical in all cases
Stroop (1935)
Color Congruent Trials: Font color is the same as the typed word Color Incongruent Trials: Font color is different from the typed word Typical Results: Congruent trials: ~60 seconds Incongruent trials: ~100 seconds Much faster (and fewer errors) on congruent trials than on incongruent trials Why does this occur? Interference! Automatic response = read the word
Cherry (1953)
Dichotic Listening General Results (Cherry, 1953) • Can get some information from unattended message • Gender of the speaker • If it is a human voice or noise • However, very little of the content is retained
Mishra & Mishra (2010)
Distortions in Cognitive Maps Method • Participants: lived in 32 states (not including Washington and Oregon) • Imagined they were going to buy a vacation home in the mountains. Specifically, that the search had been narrowed down to: o North Mountain Resort, Washington o West Mountain Resort, Oregon Groups • Earthquake in Wells, Washington: 200 miles from North Mountain Resort, Washington. • Earthquake in Wells, Oregon: 200 miles from West Mountain Resort, Oregon. • Control Group: no information about an earthquake • Given a map clearly showing that Wells was equidistant between the 2 vacation home spots. Results: • Crossover interaction even though earthquake shouldn't influence • If told earthquake was in Oregon people want to buy the house in Washington
McNamara & Diwadkar (1997)
Distortions in Cognitive Maps Method • Study a map that contained 24 locations and 4 regions. • In each region a landmark was designated (capital letters). Instructed to learn the locations in relation to the landmarks Test: Estimated the distance between locations Results • Difference but on conclusion distance longer when we start in the landmark • We see this consistent bias
Shepard and Metzler (1971)
Early Research on Visual Imagery Method • Presented with 1600 (!!) pairs of line drawings • Task: decide if the 2 drawings were congruent or incongruent. • Primary Measure of interest: the amount of time (measured in seconds) to make decisions • Type of Drawing: • Picture-plane pairs: two-dimensional rotation • Depth pairs_: three-dimensional rotation Results • People's decision time was strongly influenced by the amount of mental rotation required to match a figure with its mate. For example, rotating a figure 160 degrees requires much more time than rotating it a mere 20 degrees. Furthermore, the participants in this study performed a three-dimensional rotation almost as quickly as a two-dimensional rotation.
Kosslyn, Ball, & Reiser (1978)
Early Research on Visual Imagery Method • Presented with a map of a fictional island that included a hut, tree, rock, well, lake, sand, and grass. • Task: learn the locations of objects on the map by drawing their relative positions. • Without the map being present, given an object from the map (point A) and mentally pictured the entire map • Given a second location (point B). Then, scan the map from point A to point B and press a button once you reach point B. Measures • Time (seconds) to mentally scan the image • Compare with actual distance between locations on the map Results: • Their results demonstrated the standard linear relationship: As in the earlier research, participants needed more time to scan a large mental distance, compared to a small mental distance.
Primacy effect
Enhanced recall for items at the beginning of the list. These early items are presumably easy to remember for two reasons: • 1. They don't need to compete with any earlier items • 2. People rehearse these items more frequently.
Thorndyke (1981)
Estimating Distance from Cognitive Maps Method • Given a map of a fictitious county with 21 cities. • Task: study the map so you can draw it later • Test: estimate the distance between the cities • Variable of Interest: number of actual intervening cities between the 2 being estimated Results: • Estimates are over • The general pattern is that with more intervining cities, they think the distance is longer Distortions in Cognitive Maps • Distortion: underestimated distance with few intervening cities and overestimated distance with several intervening cities. • Take home points: - Evidence that we rely on heuristics! - Heuristics led to errors in estimating distance
What factors can distort cognitive maps?
Estimating Distance from Cognitive Maps Distortions in Cognitive Maps Border Bias Rotation Heuristic Landmark Effect
Selective Attention
Focus on one input and ignore others Quality at the expense of quantity of input Actually simplifies things! • Four different tasks of selective-attention tasks these include: • Dichotic listening • The Stroop Effect • Visual search • Saccadic eye movements
Pavio, Walsh, & Bons (1994)
Research on Concreteness Method Read 32 pairs of words with no mention of an upcoming test. Two variables of interest: (1) Concreteness (e.g., hurricane versus harmony) (2) Relatedness (two words that go together or that do not go together) Memory Tests: Free Recall or Cued-Recall Type of Word Pairs • Participants studied 4 types of word pairs: • Related & Concrete: Related word pairs that were concrete (hurricane-storm) • Unrelated & Concrete: Unrelated word pairs that were concrete (fox-storm) • Related & Abstract: Related word pairs that were abstract (harmony-peace) • Unrelated & Abstract: Unrelated word pairs that were abstract (idea-peace) Free Recall Results: • Conclusion: It is easier when it is concrete relative to abstract pair • Better memory with related pairs Cued-Recall Results: • Conclusion: Better memory for concrete than abstract. Better memory for related than unrelated same take point as free recall Explanation: Why did concreteness influence memory? • Mental imagability Why did relatedness influence memory? • Relational coding Conclusions for Visual Imagery: • Theory of Visual Imagery • Support for visual code or language code? • Dual code argument • Code concrete via images, and abstract via images
How does being deaf influence visual imagery? Emmorey, Klima, & Hickok (1998)
Special Issues in Mental Rotation Method • Presented with a video of a room containing various objects (e.g., toy furniture). • Then presented with a signed description or auditory description of the room. • Half were from the narrator's perspective (required mental rotation of 180 ) • Half were from the viewer's perspective • Final Task: given the objects, and place them in the correct location and orientation as seen in the video. Participants • Deaf: 15 deaf signers who used American Sign Language (ASL) as their primary language • Hearing: 15 College students with no reported knowledge of ASL Results: • Location accuracy data is about the same for no rotation • Orientation accuracy - same conclusion when the task required no rotation, but when requiring rotation hearing are doing better than deaf • Deaf did better than the hearing when the task demanded mental rotation • Explanations: • Deaf individuals may need to do mental rotation more often than hearing individuals • Flip (?)signs during conversations
Treisman & Gelade (1980)
Visual Search Task • Method • Task: determine whether a given target is present or absent in an display • Distractors T and X • Varied the number of distractors in each display (1, 15, or 30) • Measured the amount of time to determine whether the target was present or absent • Conditions • Condition: • Search for Target T • (look for a single feature "blue") • Search Condition: • Search for Target T • (look for two features "T" and "green") • Results • In general if we average it takes us longer if we have to see more things. Conjunction search more difficult than feature search • Success of Visual Search depends on: • -Number of distractors • -whether you have to attend to 1 thing or multiple things
Treisman & Gelade (1980)
Visual Search Task • Method • Task: determine whether a given target is present or absent in an display • Distractors T and X • Varied the number of distractors in each display (1, 15, or 30) • Measured the amount of time to determine whether the target was present or absent • Conditions • Condition: • Search for Target T • (look for a single feature "blue") • Search Condition: • Search for Target T • (look for two features "T" and "green") • Results • In general if we average it takes us longer if we have to see more things. Conjunction search more difficult than feature search • Success of Visual Search depends on: • -Number of distractors • -whether you have to attend to 1 thing or multiple things • Treisman & Gelade (1980)
Brown/Peterson & Peterson task
demonstrated that material held in memory for less than one minute is frequently forgotten. The Brown/Peterson & Peterson technique presented some items that students were instructed to remember; then the students performed a distracting task, and finally were asked to recall the original items.
Visual code (as in perception)
is a representation that closely resembles the physical object. •According to this mental imagery is a close relative of perception. When you look at a sketch of a triangle, the physical features of that triangle are registered in your brain in a form that preserves the physical relationship among three lines. Those who support analog coding propose that your mental image of a triangle is registered in a somewhat similar fashion, preserving the same relationship among the lines.
What are the components of the working memory (WM) model?
phonological loop visuospartial sketchpad central executive episodic buffer
visuospartial sketchpad
processes both visual and spatial information. This kind of working memory allows you to look at a complex scene and gather visual information about objects and landmarks. It also allows you to navigate from one location to another. Ex: when a friend tells you a story, you may find yourself visualizing the scene.
Serial-position effect
refers to the U-shaped relationship between a word's position in a list and its probability to recall.
episodic buffer
serves as a temporary storehouse that can hold and combine information from your phonological loop, your visuospatial sketchpad, and long-term memory. • The episodic buffer actively manipulates information so that you can interpret an earlier experience, solve new problems, and plan future activities. • Ex: thinking about an experience where you said something that might have offended your friend. You might attempt to recall her facial expression, and verbal response.
Atkinson & Shiffrin's (1968) model
short-term memory are fragile, and they could be lost within about 30 seconds unless they are repeated. • In addition, Atkinson and Shiffrin proposed control processes, which are intentional strategies - such as rehearsal that people may use to improve their memory. The original form of this model focused on the role of short-term memory in learning and learning. This model did not explore how short-term memory plays an important role when we perform other cognitive tasks.
What is they symmetry heuristic and how does it influence cognitive maps?
we remember figures as being more symmetrical and regular and they truly are. These results, follow the general pattern: The small inconsistencies of geographic reality are smoothed over, so that our cognitive maps are idealized and standardized.
What is chunking?
• A chunk is a memory unit that consists of several components that are strongly associated with one another. • Chucking • Regrouping information in short-term memory • Increase the number of items that can be retained • Ex: • N A M A P A = 6 chunks • NA MA PA = 3 chunks • PANAMA = 1 chunk
Language code (as in proposition)
• Abstract perspective • A propositional code is an abstract, language-like representation; storage is neither visual nor spatial, and it does not physically resemble the original stimulus. • According this approach, mental imagery is a close relative of language, not perception. For example, when you store a mental image of a triangle, your brain will register a language-like description of the lines and angles.
Who is Baddeley and what model did he put forth?
• According to the working memory approach proposed by Baddeley, our immediate memory is a multipart system that temporarily holds and manipulates information while we perform cognitive tasks. • It features that phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad, the central executive, and the episodic buffer, which was added more recently.
What is the late selection theory of attention?
• All incoming info is processed for meaning(Deutsch & Deutsch, 1963) • Should recognize information under almost any circumstance • Can only attend to a specific amount of information at response stage • The response stage is where the bottleneck occurs
What is the attenuation theory of attention?
• All information reaches sensory store • All information can reach working memory • Unattended info is weakened (attenuated) • All information can influence a response
timbre
• Another important characteristic of a sound It describes the sound quality of tone. • Ex: A happy birthday tune played on a flute or a trumpet. If we contrast the sound quality with the same song played on a trumpet. Even when the two versions of this song have the same pitch, the flute tune seems relatively pure. • To asses auditory imagery for timbre, Halpern and colleagues asked participants to rate the similarity of timbres is two conditions. • Conditions: • Perception condition • Imagined condition • The results showed that the ratings for timbre perception and for timbre imagery were highly correlated with each other. In other words, the participants showed that their cognitive representation for the timbre of an actual musical instrument is quite similar to the cognitive representation for the timbre of an imagined instrument.
Inattention Blindness
• Attention to certain events, fail to notice if something unexpected is added • Overuse of top-down processing • Simon & Chabris (1999) • Key is easy task and hard task; percentage of people that failed to notice the gorilla • Conclusion: It doesn't matter if it is difficult about 40% didn't saw the gorilla
General Principles
• Cognitive Maps - Extremely useful - But, it's also easy to produce distortions or errors in our maps - That doesn't mean that we are wrong all the time! We can use our cognitive maps with a great deal of success!
Change Blindness
• Failure to detect a change • Overuse of top-down processing • More likely to identify the change when it's important (Rensink & colleagues, 1997) • Explanation: • We don't store specific details about everything in a scene. So we miss things!
Border Bias
• Home selection depended on location of the earthquake, even though it was the same distance from both homes • Border bias - Estimate a distance to be greater if it crossed a geographic border - Explanation: - "Same category heuristic" - A good strategy usually!
Visual search Treisman & Gelade (1980)
• In visual search, the observer must find a target in a visual display that has numerous distracters. Success of Visual Search depends on: -Number of distractors -whether you have to attend to 1 thing or multiple things
How do processes become automatic? What are the explanations for automaticity?
• Increased speed (Schneider & Shiffrin, 1977) • With practice, processes becomes faster • Increase-based (Logan, 1988) • With practice, shift from using algorithm to retrieval-based solutions
Blindsight
• Is a condition in which an individual with a damaged visual cortex claims not to see an object; however, he or she can accurately report some characteristics of that object, such as its location. • Damage to visual cortex • Vision without Awareness • Yet, can still perceive characteristics • Explanation: o Multiple visual pathways o "Where" pathway o Dorsal stream o Activation from V1 to temporal lobe
What is Sensory Memory and what are its features?
• Large capacity • Very brief duration (250 - 300 ms) • Fades rapidly! • Not yet processed for meaning • Current status: • Is this a type of memory? • Many Cognitive psychologists view Sensory Memory as an attentional mechanism.
Example of how the Stroop effect can be useful in the real world.
• Many clinical psychologists have used a related technique called the emotional Stroop task. • Clinical Assessment • Emotional Stroop • Phobias • Eating disorders • Addictions • Suicidal tendencies • Depression
What are Cognitive Maps?
• Mental map of geographic space • Includes relationship among objects • Can integrate information obtained from many different perspectives Research on Cognitive Maps • Emphasis on real-world application • High in ecological validity! • Relevance to urban planning and even construction of video games When do we make Errors? • Distortions in Cognitive Maps • Errors are often systematic! - Why? - We use heuristics (rules of thumb) that usually help, but sometimes cause problems!
Which areas of the brain are active during visual imagery? What does that tell us? What does research with neurological populations (i.e., populations with neurological deficits) show about visual imagery
• Mental rotation • Cortex • Visualizing faces • Fusiform Face Area (FFA) • Take Home point: • Brain areas activated during mental imagery are the same (between 70%-90% of the time) as those activated during visual perception • When people have brain damage in the most basic region of the visual cortex, they have parallel problems in both their visual perception and visual imagery. Furthermore, some individuals with brain damage cannot distinguish between (1) the colors registered during visual perceptions and (2) the visual imagery created in a mental image.
pitch
• One prominent characteristic of auditory It is a characteristic of a sound stimulus that can be arranged on a scale from low to high. • Ex: Intons-Peterson (1992) examined how quickly people could "travel" the distance between two auditory stimuli that differ in pitch.
What is the feature-present/feature-absent effect?
• People can typically locate a feature that is present more quickly than a feature that is absent. The search is rapid when we are looking for a particular feature that is present. When people are searching for a feature that is present, the target item in the display usually captures their attention automatically. When people search for a feature that is absent, they typically examine every item, one item at a time (increased time looking). Another: It is easier to spot a movement-present object than a movement-absent object.
What are some examples of what working memory (WM) predicts?
• Performance on Working memory tasks (like the complex span task) is correlated with: • Higher order cognition • Reading and Listening Comprehension • Language Comprehension • Following oral and spatial directions • Measures of intelligence • Note taking in class • Class Grades • Writing • Hypothesis generation • Complex task learning • People with ADHD often have more difficulty than others on central-executive tasks, especially when they must inhibit a response, plan a project, or work on two tasks at the same time.
What brain regions are associated with the components of Baddelely's working memory (WM) model?
• Phonological Loop - Storage: posterior parietal (left hemisphere) - Rehearsal: motor areas, Fontal (left hemisphere) - Visuospatial Sketchpad - Several areas - depends on the task - Frontal (right hemisphere) - Parietal and Temporal areas (right hemisphere) - Occipital areas associated with vision (right hemisphere) - Central Executive - Frontal lobe areas associated with planning and formulating (both hemispheres)
What is the cocktail-party phenomenon? For which theory of attention does this phenomenon pose a problem?
• Some unattended information can capture your attention • Unattended info is not pre-categorical in all cases • Ex: hearing your name at a social gathering even if several conversations are going on at the same time Early Selection
recency effect
• The curve shows a strong recency effect, with better recall for items at the end of the list
How is working memory (WM) measured?
• The number of items stored in working memory depends on both chunking strategies and word meaning (pg.106). • Ex: Complex Span Task • Operation Span Task (OSPAN) • Instructions: • ~ Read equation aloud • ~ Determine if equation is correct or incorrect (say aloud) • ~ Read the target word aloud & try to remember it for a later recall test • 4-+2 • Can hold 4 items active while actively processing information
Saccadic eye movements
• The rapid movement of the eyes from one spot to the next is known as saccadic eye movement.
What are saccadic movements? How do they relate to reading?
• The rapid movement of the eyes from one spot to the next is known as saccadic eye movement. The purpose of a saccadic eye movement during reading is to bring the center of your retina into position over the words you want to read.
What is the Feature-Integration Theory?
• Two kinds of processing: Distributed Attention: Bottom-up Processing Effortless Relatively Fast Focused Attention: Top-Down Processing Effortful Relatively Slow
What are the theories of mental imagery?
• Visual code (as in perception) • Language code (as in proposition)
Rotation Heuristic
• We tend to remember things in straight lines, rather than as slanted/tilted - E.g., California is long and narrow and to the west of Nevada • This heuristic can lead to errors - E.g., San Diego is actually east of Reno • Take Home Point - Distortions based on Relative position - We use heuristics when we represent relative positions in our mental maps • Explanation: - Rotation Heuristic • Single rotation to make more vertical or horizontal Does Culture influence the rotation heuristic? • Research with people from the US, Israel, Japan, and Italy (Glicksohn, 1994; Tversky et al., 1999) • Result: Not really! We tend to show this bias no matter where we are from
Why did Baddeley deel compelled to propose this episodic buffer?
• Why did Baddeley deel compelled to propose this episodic buffer? • The original theory had proposed that the central executive plans and coordinates various cognitive activities. However, the theory had also stated that the central executive did not actually store any information. Baddeley therefore proposed the episodic buffer as the component of working memory where auditory, visual, and spatial information could all be combined with the information from long-term memory. This arrangement helps to solve the theoretical problem of how working memory integrates information from different modalities.
What is dichotic listening?
• You've probably held a phone to one ear to hear an important message, while your other ear registers the words from a loud nearby conversation. This situation is known as dichotic listening. • Dichotic listening studies by asking people to wear headphones; one message is presented to the left ear, and a different message is presented to the other ear.