Transcript Psychology 394U: Cognitive Concepts in Clinical and Social

Psychology 394U: Cognitive
Concepts in Clinical and Social
Psychology
First Day’s lecture
Gordon Bower
Why Study Learning and
Memory?
• Fascinating intellectual puzzles; importance of
memory in getting through daily life
• Significant Applications of its concepts to
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Conceptual Development
Social and Personality Psychology
Education, Training, Rehabilitation
Behavior Mod, Cognitive Behavior Therapy
Health Promotion Campaigns, Behavioral Med
Brain Sciences, Psychopharmacology
Some Topics We’ll Touch On
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Our memories and our sense of personal identity
How memories reveal our interests & knowledge
Memory constructs & revises our autobiography
How accurate is memory? Distortions, illusions, biases in
reconstruction
How do emotions influence memory? Memory arouses emots.
Do unconscious memories influence our behavior?
Memory in social stereotypes; person-memory; implicit
attitudes.
The role of memory in the construction of personality
Memories contribute to clinical disorders - anxiety, depres’n
So, what is memory?
• Common things we remember
• Qualitatively different modes of remembering
So, what is memory?
• Common things we remember
• Qualitatively different modes of remembering
• Preliminary classification of types of memory-- personal
(episodic), “generic” knowledge, and procedural
Classification of Types of
Memory
• Episodic or personal memory: for autobiographic events in
time & space; imagery; re-experiencing (“being there”);
time travel; often fits in the linguistic frame “I remember
X”(e.g., “seeing the thief as he was stealing my car”).
• Generic (“semantic”) memory underlying knowledge:
facts, abstract propositions, schema & images. Typically no
re-experiencing of context of learning. Fits into frame “I
recall THAT X”.
• Procedural skills: cognitive & motor skills (are
generative), rote linguistic (not generative). Typically no
re-experiencing of learning it. Fits into frame “I recall
HOW TO do X”.
So, what is memory?
• Common things we remember
• Qualitatively different modes of remembering
• Preliminary classification of types of memory-- personal
(episodic), “generic” knowledge, and procedural
• The phases of a prototypic “memory experience”
(encoding, storage, retrieval). Reconstructing fragments
Even t Sequen ce of a Prototypical “ Learning Episode”
Time
0
1
2
3
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Events/Inferred State
S’s prior state of know le dge
E presents Even t X to S
S exper iences Ev ent X
S’s new state of kno wledge
……….
………..
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N
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S’s altered state of
know ledge
E cue s S to test S’s
know ledge about Even t X
S produce s response or
construc ts answer
N+1
N+2
Psychologists’ Label
“Pretest’ &Prior Know ledge
Presentation/Study Tria l
Perception, Encoding
Trace Formation & Storage
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Trace Retention
(Maintenan ce)
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Trace Retrieval
Trace Utili zation
S = the sub ject or learner; E = the env ir onm ent, “teache r” or “expe rim enter”
“Memory trace” = the internal representation of the encoded Even t X
Existence of a memory trace of Even t X is always an inference from inputs & outpu ts
Other terms:
Acqui sition (pha se 1, 2, 3 above ); Repetition (repeating the abov e cycle)
Retention: usuall y refers to “succe ssful” remembering
Forge tting (obver se of r etention; assumes initi al learning)
Retrieval Cue(s): a que stion; partial description of even t to be fill ed out
Interfering Eve nts: presentations before or after Time 1 of this episode
Trace Utilization (at least in peop le ) may co mbine know ledge of Even t X wit h any
number of other facts and /or reasoning processes, e.g., I tell you the population o f Aus tin,
then later ask you to estim ate how many coun try-music musicians li ve in Au stin? (and
suppo se 5% a re known to be coun try-music musicians ).
So, what is memory?
• Common things we remember
• Qualitatively different modes of remembering
• Preliminary classification of types of memory-- personal
(episodic), “generic” knowledge, and procedural
• The phases of a prototypic “memory experience”
(encoding, storage, retrieval). Reconstructing fragments
• Other constructs:
– short-term vs long-term memory;
– Explicit (aware, direct) vs.
Implicit memory (unaware, indirect)
• Brain correlates of different types of memory.
Jones’ Chapter 1
• Therapists often probe clients’ memories
• Wide-spread beliefs about memory
Jones’ Chapter 1
• Psychotherapists often probe clients’ memories
• Wide-spread beliefs about memory
• Yapko’s survey of therapists : Agree or disagree ?
– The mind is like a computer, accurately recording events
– Events we know occurred but can’t remember are repressed
memories.
– If we can’t remember our childhood, it was probably traumatic.
– One’s certainty about a memory indicates its accuracy.
– Memories from the 1st year of life are accurately stored and are
retrievable.
– Hypnosis enables people to accurately remember things they
otherwise could not.
– Hypnosis can be used to recover memories of actual events as far
back as birth.
Jones’ Chapter 1
• Psychotherapists often probe clients’ memories
• Wide-spread false beliefs about memory
• Yapko’s survey of therapists: Agree or disagree ?
– The mind is like a computer, accurately recording events (33% agree)
– Events we can’t remember are repressed (59%)
– If we can’t remember our childhood, it was probably somewhat traumatic
(49%)
– One’s certainty about a memory indicates its accuracy (24%)
– Memories from the 1st year of life are often accurately stored and are
retrievable (41%)
– Hypnosis enables people to remember things they otherwise could not.
(75%)
– Hypnosis can be used to recover memories of actual events as far back as
birth (54%)
How Permanent are Memories?
1. Everything we learn is permanently stored in the mind, although
sometimes details are not accessible. With hypnosis or other special
techniques, these inaccessible details can eventually be recovered;
OR
* 2. Some details that we learn may be permanently lost from memory.
Such details would never be able to be recovered by hypnosis, or any
other special technique, because these details are simply no longer there.
Debra Poole’s Survey of
Licensed PhD Psychotherapists
• Widespread use of suggestive memory techniques
• 41% used dream interpretation to recover accurate
memories of life events.
• 40% used family photos & journaling to boost clients’
recall.
• 32% used hypnosis extensively to enhance recall
• Extensive disagreement among them regarding
appropriateness of the different suggestive techniques.
• All 3 methods are known to increase suggestibility, reduce
recall accuracy, and boost confidence in the “memory”.
Jones’ Chapter 1
• Psychotherapists often probe clients’ memories
• Wide-spread false beliefs about memory
– Accurate?Repressed?Early?Hypnosis?Trauma?
• The typical gap between clinical and experimental
psychology training and knowledge.
• Book written to inform therapists about memory
Jones’ Chapter 2
• Brief history of “memory” studies: 3 lines --The
Neurologists (Broca, Kosakoff, Claparede); Unconscious
“hysteria” (Freud, Charcot, Janet); Laboratory studies
(Ebbinghaus)
• Behaviorism, then “cognitive revolution”
• More recently it’s moving beyond lab studies
• Memory terminology: short/long term; multiple memory
systems & brain correlates
• Autobiographic memory --- episodic & semantic; different
levels --life periods, themes, generic events, specific
episodic event-memories.