Transcript Cognitive level of analysis

Cognitive level
of analysis
What is cognitive psychology
?
 Study
of mental processes
 Study of the way in which the brain
processes information
 It concerns the way we take in
information from the outside world, how
we make sense of that information and
what use we make of it.
Stimulus - response
What is this ?
What are mental processes?
( the thing in the black box)
Decision-making – perceptionlanguage- memory-attention ??
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Billy is walking across the school campus. He spots a
friend and they have a quick chat about last night’s
football training. He then apologises as he rushes off to
his own football training, unsure of whether to cycle or
catch the bus.
Such an every-day sequence of seemingly trivial
events actually involves a sequence of complex
cognitive processes. Which process is being used ?
Billy is able to find his way across campus and
recognize his friend.
He focuses on only a portion of the campus as he
makes his way across it
He remembers his friend, details of the match the
night before and his training session
They chat about the football match
He then has to working out the best form of transport
to get home.
Outline principles
that define the
cognitive level of
analysis:
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Outline principles that define the
cognitive level of analysis:
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Humans are information processors
 2.
Mental processes can be scientifically
investigated
 3.
Cognitive processes are influenced by
social and cultural factors
1. Humans are
information
processors
 Human
behaviour is determined
by a set of mental
tasks/processes
 Mental
tasks/processes include;
perception, thinking, problem
solving, memory, language and
attention
 They
are also known as
cognitions
 Cognitive
psychologist see these
cognitions/mental tasks as active systems;
 In between taking in and responding to
information a number of processes are at
work.
 Information can be transformed, reduced,
elaborated, filtered, manipulated,
selected, organized, stored and retrieved
 Therefore the human mind is seen as an
active system processing information, and
cognitive psychologists aims to study these
processes.
 Central
to this information processing approach is
the computer metaphor.
 One of the difficulties facing cognitive psychologists
is that they were trying to study processes that are
not directly observable.
 Consequently the computer revolution of the 1950
provided the terminology and metaphor they
needed.
People,
like
computers, acquire
information from the
environment ( input ).
Both people and
computers store
information and
retrieve it when
applicable to current
tasks;
 both
are limited in the amount of
information they can process at a
given time;
 both transform information to
produce new information; both
return information to the
environment ( output).
 This
information processing approach can
be seen in;
 Models of memory
 Schema theory
(more about each of these later).
Principle 2: Mental processes can
be scientifically investigated
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Cognitive processes are difficult to study.
They often occur rapidly, and inside the mind
so they cannot be observed directly.
It is only the responses that participants make
when given some cognitive task to perform
that can tell us about cognitive processes.
These tasks usually take place under tightly
controlled lab experiments where the main
aim is to isolate a particular component of
the cognitive process for the study.
The stroop effect
 One
of the earliest and most famous
experiments into cognitive processes is the
Stroop Effect.
 The stroop effect is a phenomena involved in
attentional processes.
 Although we will actually focus on the
process of memory this is a good study to look
at.
 People are often introduced to the Stroop
Effect in beginning psychology classes as
they learn about how their brains process
information.
The stroop effect
 It
demonstrates the effects of interference,
processing speed (reaction time) and automaticity
in divided attention.
 The effect is named after John Ridley Stroop who
first published the effect in English in 1935.
Stroop effect
 This
is a classic laboratory experiment that
involves the manipulation of an independent
variable ( colour or name of word ) to see what
effect it has on the dependent variable (
reaction time).
 It attempts to control the influence of all other
extraneous variables – such as other cognitive
processes or skills.
 It also allows us to establish a cause and effect
relationship between task and mental process.
Mental processes can be
scientifically studied
A
further example of the laboratory
experiment was conducted by
Ebbinghaus (1885).
 His experiment intended to isolate the
process of pure memory and show that it
could be studied scientifically under
carefully controlled conditions.
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The aim of the study was to study forgetting, i.e. how
quickly a person forgets what has been learned
100%.
He used himself in most of the studies , i.e. the design
was N=1 and he tested his memory using nonsense
syllables.
 Learned lists of nonsense syllables (e.g., DAX, QEH)
 Why nonsense syllables?
Did not want actual words to influence his ability to
memorize or recall certain words
 He manipulated the independent variable of ‘time
delay before recall’ to find the effect on the dependent
variable of ‘the amount of information retained’ thus
being able eventually to draw the famous ‘forgetting
curve’.
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Principle 3:
Cognitive processes are influenced by
social and cultural factors
 Cognitive
processes can be influenced by
our culture
 Bartlett found that schemas ( past
knowledge) can affect our memories –
 Cole and Scribner found that non-schooled
children in parts of Africa struggled with
aspects of memorisation.
 MORE ABOUT THIS LATER……….
Evaluate schema
theory with reference
to research studies
 What is schema
theory ?
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Schema Theory
What is a Schema?
“A mental model or representation built up through
experience about a person, an object, a situation, or
an event.” (Head, 1920)
“Organised structures of knowledge and
expectations of some aspect of the world.” (Bartlett,
1932)
Schema of an “egg”
What is a schema ?
 Schema
theory seeks to explain our
interpretation of the world from a
psychological perspective, which stems from
cognitive science.
 Schemas (or schemata) are cognitive
structures (mental templates or frames) that
represent a person's knowledge about objects,
people or situations.
 Schemas are derived from prior experience
and knowledge. They simplify reality, setting up
expectations about what is probable in relation
to particular social and textual contexts.
What is a schema ?
 Schemas
are used to organise our knowledge,
to assist recall, to guide our behaviour, to
predict likely happenings and to help us to
make sense of current experiences.
 Schema theory predicts that we interpret our
experiences by using relevant social and
textual schemas. Bartlett (1932) described how
schemata influence memory in his research
with 'Story of the ghosts'.
 A schema can be seen as a kind of framework
with 'slots' for 'variables', some of them filled-in
and others empty.
What is a schema ?
 Schema
theory predicts that we interpret our
experiences The slots are either filled in already
with compulsory values (e.g. that a dog is an
animal) or 'default values' (e.g. that a dog has
four legs) or are empty (optional variables) until
' instantiated' with values from the current
situation (e.g. that the dog's colour is black).
 When what seems like the most appropriate
schema is activated, inferences are generated
to fill in any necessary but inexplicit details with
assumed values from the schema.
 If
no relevant schema is retrieved from longterm memory a new schema is created.
Explicit events and inferences, as well as new
schemas, are stored in long-tern memory.
 Schema-driven processing is a top-down
perceptual process that guides a selective
search for data relevant to the expectations
set up by the schema.
 Schema-driven processing interacts with
bottom-up data-driven processes (which may
lead to the activation, modification or
generation of a schema).
 Schema
theory is consistent with the notion of
both perception and recall as constructive and
selective cognitive processes.
 Schemas are culturally specific: schemas for
common routines vary socio-culturally- even
within a single country.
Evaluation of Schema theory
 Support
for the influence of schemas on
cognitive processes is widespread. Bartlett
(1932) described how schemata influence
memory in his classic study based on a
Native American folktale.
War of the Ghosts (1932)
 This
was an unusual story for people
from a Western culture to
understand because it contained
unfamiliar supernatural concepts
and an odd, causal structure.
 After an interval participants were
asked to recall as much of the story
as possible.
methodology
 Serial
reproduction – participant reads
and recalls the story, second person reads
and recalls the second
reproduction…….and so on
 Repeated reproduction – partipants
reads the story and repeats it over various
recall intervals
The War of the Ghosts
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dlvalenc/PSY307/LINKS/GH
OSTWAR.HTM
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One night two young men from Egulac went down to the river to hunt seals, and while
they were it became foggy and calm. Then they heard war cries and they thought;
'Maybe this is a war-party.' They escaped to the shore, and hid behind a log.
Now canoes came up, and they heard the noise of paddles and saw one canoe coming
up to them. There were five men in the canoe and they said; 'What do you think? We
wish to take you along. We are going up the river to make war on the people.'
One of the young men said; 'I have no arrows.'
'Arrows are in the canoe,' they said.
'I will not go along. I might be killed. My relatives do not know where I have gone. But
you,' he said, turning to the other, 'May go with them.'
So one of the young men went, but the other returned home. And the warriors went on
up the river to a town on the other side of Kalama. The people came down to the water
and began to fight, and many were killed. But presently, one of the young men heard
one of the warriors say; 'Quick let us go home. That Indian has been hit.'
Now he thought; 'Oh, they are ghosts.' He did not feel sick, but he had been shot. So the
canoes went back to Egulac, and the young man went back to his house and made a
fire. And he told everybody and said; 'Behold, I accompanied the ghosts, and we went
to fight. Many of our fellows were killed and many of those that attacked us were killed.
They said I was hit, but I did not feel sick.'
He told it all, and then he became quiet. When the sun rose, he fell down. Something
black came out of his mouth. His face became contorted. The people jumped up and
cried. He was dead.
War of the Ghosts (1932)
 Bartlett
found that their accounts were
distorted in several ways that, generally,
made them more consistent with a
Western world – view.
 Specifically he found the following;
Findings/Results
 Some
things in the story were changed by the
participants, especially parts of the story that
were difficult for the participant to
comprehend (i.e. ghosts and the Indian's
death). Ghosts coming out of the mouth of the
unconscious Indian was commonly written. The
excuse for not fighting "I have run out of arrows"
was avoided and instead put down to "worried
relatives", because it was more familiar to the
participant.
 Every participant rationalized the.story to some
degree
Findings/Results
Some added material to the story to bring it
into closer agreement with their prior
knowledge and beliefs (for example he had a
fever before he died).
 There was a tendency for males to forget the
'no arrows' excuse for joining the war. This was
because many men were going off to war and
relatives would miss him were in the forefront of
the participants minds.
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Findings/Results
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Bartlett found that participants tended to alter
their memories in order to make the story more
coherent. This often involved them down
playing the things they did not understand,
such as the supernatural elements: The
participants were not reading back a copy of
the story but reconstructing it from the main
details held in their memory.
Evaluation of Bartlett’s study
 The
ecological validity of the War of the
Ghosts lab study has been questioned.
 Whilst Bartlett rejected the artificiality of
traditional stimulus such as nonsense
syllables ( Ebbinghaus) and word lists to
test memory, his use of a native American
folk tale was " about as similar to normal
prose as nonsense syllables are to words
Evaluation of Bartlett’s study
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Wynn & Logie (1998) did a similar study with
students using " real - life" events experienced
during their first week at university at various
intervals of time ranging from 2 weeks to six
months.
They found that the initial accuracy of recall
was sustained throughout the time period,
suggesting that schema-induced memory
distortions may be less common in naturalistic
conditions than in the laboratory.
Evaluation of Bartlett’s study
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Furthermore Bartlett’s study wasn't a very well
controlled study. Bartlett did not give very
specific instructions to his participants ( Barlett,
1932 " I thought it best, for the purposes of
these experiments, to try to influence the
subject's procedure as little as possible".)
As a result, some distortions observed by
Bartlett may have been due to conscious
guessing rather than schema-influenced
memory
Gauld and Stephen ( 1967) found that the
instructions stressing the need for accurate
recall eliminated almost half the errors usually
obtained.
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support for the influence of
schemas on memory at encoding point
was reported by Anderson and Pichert (
1978).
2nd supporting study
schema theory
( Anderson & Pichert, 1978)
 Subjects
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asked to adopt a particular perspective:
Home-buyer
Burglar
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read a passage about two boys playing truant
from school...
Schemata and Memory
(Anderson & Pichert, 1978)
[Coding: Burglar items (18); Homebuyer items (18)]
There are three color TV sets in the house. One is in the large
master bedroom (which has a three piece bathroom en suite), one is
in the main floor family room, and one is in Tom's bedroom. The
house contains four bedrooms in all, plus an office, family room,
and three washrooms. In addition to the TV, the family room
contains a new stereo outfit , a microcomputer, a VCR, and a rare
coin collection.
The boys enter the master bedroom. Beside the jewelry case
in the closet they find Tom's father's collection of pornographic
video tapes. They select their favorite (an encounter between a guy
and 12 women in a park in downtown Kitchener) and go to the
family room to watch it.
Evaluation of schema theory
Anderson & Pichert ( 1978)
 In
a classic experiment, Pichert and Anderson1
asked participants to read a story in which a
house was described.
 The participants were told to read the story from
one of two perspectives, either a potential home
buyer or a burglar.
 After a delay, participants were asked to recall
as much as they could about the story.
Proportion Recalled
During this first recall session, participants recalled
significantly more information about the house that was
relevant to their perspective
• (e.g., the potential home buyer might remember
defects in the house,
• burglars might remember information about the
entrances and exits)
• than information that was relevant to the other
perspective,
Identity
Items
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After the first recall session, participants were told to think
about the story again, but this time, from the other perspective
(potential home buyers were now told to be burglars, and vice
versa).
Then, without reading the story again, they were told to recall
as much as they could about the story again.
During this second recall, participants were able to recall
information about the house that was relevant to their new
perspective, but which they had not recalled before.
First identity/second identity
Change in
proportion
recalled
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Items
This result shows two things:
 1.) The information that was irrelevant to their
original perspective (schema) was actually learnt (
encoded ) and
 2.) This information was not accessible unless a
relevant perspective (schema) was activated.
Evaluation of Anderson &
Pichert (1978)
 This
experiment was also conducted in a
lab, so ecological validity may also be an
issue here.
 However the strength of the experiment
was its variable control, which allowed
researchers to establish a cause-andeffect relationship how schemas affect
memory processes.
General comment on schema
theory
 Finally,
one of the main problems of
the schema theory is that it is often
very difficult to define what a schema
is.
 Cohen (1993) points out that "the
whole idea of a schema is too vague
to be useful' and argues that schema
theory provides no explanation of how
schemas work.
 Schemas are untestable
General comment on schema
theory
Nevertheless, there is enough research to
suggest schemas do affect memory
processes knowledge, both in a positive
and negative sense.
They do simplify reality, and help us to
make sense of current experiences.
Schemas are useful concepts in helping
us understand how we organize our
knowledge.
Evaluate two
models of
memory
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Memory – Types
Memory – Types
 Explicit/Declarative Memory
Explicit memory requires conscious thought—such as recalling who
came to dinner last night or naming animals that live in the rainforest.
 Episodic
Episodic memory represents our memory of experiences and specific
events in time in a serial form, from which we can reconstruct the
actual events that took place at any given point in our lives. It is the
memory of autobiographical events (times, places, associated
emotions and other contextual knowledge) that can be explicitly
stated.
 Semantic
Semantic memory is a more structured record of facts, meanings,
concepts and knowledge about the external world that we have
acquired. It refers to general factual knowledge, shared with others
and independent of personal experience and of the spatial/temporal
context in which it was acquired.
Memory – Types
 Implicit/Non-declarative Memory
Implicit memory is a type of long-term memory that stands in
contrast to explicit memory in that it doesn’t require conscious
thought.
 Procedural
Procedural memory is the type of implicit memory that enables us
to carry out commonly learned tasks without consciously thinking
about them. It's our "how to" knowledge. Riding a bike, tying a shoe
and washing dishes are all tasks that require procedural memory.
 Priming
Implicit memory can also come about from priming. You are
"primed" by your experiences; if you have heard something very
recently, or many more times than another thing, you are primed to
recall it more quickly.
Models of memory
1. Multistore model
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There are three types of store; sensory, short term and long term stores
The sensory stores are modality specific and hold information only very
briefly ( Sperling )
The STM has limited capacity, limited to +/- seven items ( Miller) and a
duration of about 6-12 seconds
Information from this store can be lost due to interference ( Brown
Peterson) or decay
The LTM has unlimited capacity and is divided into two systems.
Retrieval from LTM can be distorted, affected by such things as
schemas
Capacity of STM
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Capacity refers to the amount of information
that can be stored in the short-term memory.
Miller (1956) suggested that most people
store about seven independent or discrete
items in short term memory.
These items may be numbers, letters or words
etc. Miller referred to each of these items as
chunks.
For example: 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 = Seven discrete
chunks
Long Term Memory
 According
to this model of memory.
 Long term memory has a potentially
limitless capacity and duration but it is
very difficult if not impossible to prove this.
 It's encoding is semantic, that is the
meaning and understanding of
something
Evidence of MSM
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Glanzer & Cunitz, 1966
Presented partisipants with list of 15 familiar words.
Half recalled the words immediately after presentation
(immediate free recall condition – IFR). Half after delay
of 30 seconds (delayed free recall condition – DFR)
In DFR condition, participants had to count backwards
aloud (to prevent further rehearsal).
Glanzer and Cunitz obtained the expected Serial
Position curve with pronounced primacy and recency
effects. The last few words were still in STM store –
primacy effects resulted from words being recalled from
LTM store. The first few items attracted attention – thus
were rehearsed more than subsequent words.
Findings support the MSM
Evidence of MSM
Case studies of brain-damaged
patients provide evidence for
separate memory stores.
If STM and LTM are really distinct
there should be certain kinds of
brain damage which impair one
without affecting the other
Read through the two case studies …..
Case studies of
brain – damaged
patients ( eg. HM
and Clive Wearing )
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1. the case of clive wearing
 Clive
Wearing was a highly
respected musician who, in
his 40’s, contracted a viral
infection – encephalitus in
1985.
 Tragically this disease left
him with extensive brain
damage (parts of his
hippocampus – important in
forming new memories – are
damaged).
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He is still able to talk, read and write
and retained remarkably intact musical
skills.
His memory for past events is hazy, but
he still has long-term memories formed
before the onset of the disease.
In all other respects, however his
memory is dramatically impaired.
He lives totally within the most recent
one or two minutes of his life.
He remembers what just happened but
forgets everything else. Clive is unable
to form new long-term memories.
Because of his inability to form new
memories he constantly feels he has just
become conscious for the first time.
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Clive is convinced he has just woken up and he keeps
a diary in which he records hs obsessive thoughts “ I
have just woken up” “I am conscious for the first
time”……
It is now 20 years since the onset of the illness which has
left Clive trapped in an eternal present.
He can’t enjoy books or TV as he is unable to follow the
thread, he cant read newspapers as he has no context
in which to embed the new stories.
He can’t go out alone because he immediately
becomes lost.
Clive describes his situation as “hell on earth”
 Damage
to the hippocampus usually results in
profound difficulties in forming new memories
(anterograde amnesia), and normally also affects
access to memories prior to the damage
(retrograde amnesia).
– Retrograde versus anterograde amnesia. In retrograde amnesia, memory for events that
occurred prior to the onset of amnesia is lost.
In anterograde amnesia, memory for events that occur subsequent to the onset of amnesia
suffers. ie CLIVE WEARING & HM
 Although
the retrograde effect normally extends
some years prior to the brain damage, in some
cases older memories remain - this sparing of older
memories leads to the idea that consolidation over
time involves the transfer of memories out of the
hippocampus to other parts of the brain.
Fig 7.27 – Theories of independent memory systems. There is some evidence that different types
of information are stored in separate memory systems, which may have distinct physiological bases.
The Case of H.M.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7584970
 H.M
was an active teenager from Conneticut,
USA.
 However he suffered from epilepsy and had
frequent fits to the point when in 1953 he was
having up to 11 fits a week.
 The drugs available at the time couldn't control
them. For a young person, this was devastating.
 Without any intervention, there was no chance
that he would be able to apply for a job, let
alone leave the house.
 It was then, that the idea of surgery was floated.
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In 1953, aged 27-year-old he entered a hospital for
surgery that would cure him of the devastating fits
that resulted from his epilepsy.
For H.M. he had the most common form of
intractable psychomotor epilepsy, that which is
localised in the temporal lobes.
So, to stop the fits from continuing, the only option
was remove parts of these lobes.
An apple-sized chunk of his temporal lobes on both
sides of his brain were removed and the fits never
returned.
However, something else, something quite
extraordinary, yet equally saddening, happened.
Positioned just underlying the temporal lobes is the
hippocampus.
It was never really known what it was for, until this
point. When his surgeon removed parts of H.M's
temporal lobes, he would have had no option but to
disturb the hippocampus too. The effect of this on
H.M was marked.
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From 1953 onwards, he couldn't remember anything
you told him for any reasonable length of time. Every
time a doctor who was assigned to his case came to
chat to him, they had to reintroduce themselves every
time they met because he couldn't remember who they
were.
If you talked to him, and a loud noise, say a slamming
door, distracted him for a moment, he would have no
recollection of what you said to him, moments before.
He could no longer form long term memories.
He was able to talk normally and to recall accurately
events and people from his life before surgery, and his
immediate digit span was within normal limits.
He was, however, unable to retain any new information
and could not lay down new memories in LTM.
 It
was a breakthrough in
understanding the
damage to H.M.s brain
when researchers could
use the MRI scanner in
1997
 He had been subject to
study for 44 years before
his brain was ever scanned
 Scans showed the extent
of damage ( which was
less than originally thought)
to the hippocampus and
other areas close
HM / Clive
Wearing
Damage to LTM
Damage to STM should also affect access to LTM – KF
should be impossible.
Evaluation of MSM
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HOWEVER the model oversimplifies the process of
memory. The linear order from STM-LTM oversimplifies
the many ways in which the two stores interact with
each other.
STM and LTM involve different encoding. STM uses
semantic encoding whereas LTM uses multiple ways of
encoding including visual, acoustic and semantic.
Baddeley & Hitch demonstrate the STM is not just a
store but a working process – divided STM into a
number of sub-components (WMM)
LTM is more complex – different types of memories
including procedural and declarative – declarative
includes semantic and episodic memories.
Emphasis on STRUCTURES and not on PROCESSES –
does include some processes (eg rehearsal) but
inadequate to explain complexity
Baddeley’s (1998) Criticism
– Memory is complex and dynamic.
• Short-term memory is not like a passive
storehouse with shelves to store
information until it moves to long-term
memory.
• It is more complex than that.
 The
Working Memory Model (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974)
Central executive
Key
component in model
Functions:
Direct
attention to tasks
Determine how resources
(slave systems) are
allocated.
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Limited Capacity
Phonological Loop
Limited
Capacity
Deals with auditory information and
preserves word order
Baddeley (1986) further subdivided it
into
 Phonological
store ( holds words heard)
 Articulatory process ( holds words
heard/seen and silently repeated (
looped) like an inner voice.
Visuo-spatial sketch pad
Visual
and/or spatial information
stored here
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Visual = what things look like
Spatial = relationships between things
Limited
capacity
Logie (1995) suggested
subdivision:
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Visuo-cache (store)
Inner scribe for spatial relations.
Episodic Buffer
 Baddeley
( 2000) added episodic buffer as he
realised model needed a more general store.
 Slave
systems deal with specific types of information.
 Central
 Buffer
executive has no storage capacity
extra storage system but with limited capacity.
 Integrates
information from all other areas.
2. Model of memory 2
Levels of Processing
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
This influential theory of memory is often seen
as the main alternative to the multi-store
model.
They suggested that memory is not three or
any specific number of stores
Memory is based on depth of encoding.
The strength of a memory trace does not
depend on the type of store within which it is
located, but on how much attention is paid
to the information at the time of encoding.
Shallow processing
Structural
Weak memory trace
Deep processing
Phonological
Semantic
Strong memory trace
www.psychlotron.org.uk
Levels of processing
 Concerned
with Process rather than Structure
 Strength of memory depends on how deeply
information (eg. Words )are processed
Shallow
Eg.Physical
Deep
Rhyming
Semantic / Meaning
Levels of Processing
 Deep,
meaningful kinds of information
processing lead to more permanent
retention, than shallow, sensory kinds of
processing.
 Depth is defined in terms of the amount of
meaning extracted from the stimulus
rather than on the number of rehearsals
 This suggests that straightforward
rehearsal through repetition may not be
the best way of remembering, more
elaborate strategies are more effective
Craik & Tulving (1975) experiment……..
Levels of Processing
Craik & Tulving, 1975
100
90
80
70
Percent
Recognised
60
50
yes
no
40
30
20
10
0
case
rhyme
Question Type
sentence
LOP and rehearsal
 The
multi-store model claimed that
rehearsal of any type could benefit LTM.
 However, Craik & Lockhart suggest that
there are two types of rehearsal:
Only elaborative leads to
better remembering.
 Two


Types of Rehearsal
maintenance rehearsal: holds information
active at a given level.
elaborative rehearsal: increases "depth" of
analysis. leads to longer lasting memory
traces.
Elaboration and distinctiveness
 It
is not just depth of processing that
affects storage but also elaboration (how
much processing of any kind) and
distinctiveness (how unusual the
processing).
Evaluation of LOP
 Emphasises
the interdependence of perception,
attention and memory rather than seeing
memory as series of separate processing stages
(as in MSM).
 No convincing measure of Processing depth.
 More descriptive than explanatory
 Questions of the ordering (Semantic better than
Phonological better than Structural) not always
supported by research. Some evidence that
deeper processing does NOT guarantee better
memory (eg – when encoding is semantic but
RETRIEVAL is phonological – learner encodes
‘table’ semantically but is asked to retrieve word
that rhymes with ‘cable’). LOP does not address
RETRIEVAL stage of memory
Retention test performance (eg.20)
Depth of processing
•It is difficult to measure depth independently of a person’s
actual retention (memory) score.
•SO if ‘depth’ is defined as the ‘number of words remembered’
and ‘the number of words remembered’ is taken as a measure
of ‘depth’ this definition of depth is circular
•(What’s being defined is part of the definition!)
depth
=
no. of words =
no. of words
depth
 Elias

& Perfetti (1973)
PPs had greater recognition of words they had
thought of similes for (semantic) than word they
had thought of rhymes for (phono)
 Craik

& Tulving (1975)
Highest recognition of semantically processes
stimuli, followed by phono, followed by
structural
www.psychlotron.org.uk
Levels of processing - Support
 You




will recall more if you use…
Depth – make sure you understand & make
connections between the topics & ideas
Spread – use several different techniques on the
material
Elaboration – mental effort is required to store
material effectively
Distinctiveness – make the material your own
www.psychlotron.org.uk
LOP and revision
Hyde & Jenkins (1973)
 Presented
a list of words
 4 Different Instructions:
1. Memorise the word list
2. Estimate frequency of usage
3. Count how many times the letter ‘e’ appears in the
list
4. Rate the Pleasantness of the words
Explain how
biological factors may
affect one cognitive
process (memory)

how
brain damage can affect
memory
 How
does damage to the hippocampus
( biological factors ) affect memory
(cognitive process)?
 To answer this we need to look at the link
between the hippocampus and memory
 How do we know about the effects of the
hippocampus on memory ?
 Case studies of brain – damaged patients
and animal studies
 Case-studies
of brain damaged patients
show that hippocampal damage can
affect`our memory
 Specifically explicit/declarative memories
 Look at the case studies of H.M and Clive
Wearing again
 Look at the animal studies
Fig 7.27 – Theories of independent memory systems. There is some evidence that different types
of information are stored in separate memory systems, which may have distinct physiological bases.
Mirror-drawing task
.
On this task, the patient sits down
in front of a mirror and is given a
pencil and a line drawing of a star.
Then he's asked to trace the star
while looking at the reflection of his
hand and the paper in the mirror.
 When people try to do this, they
move the pencil left when they
mean to go right, up when they
mean to go down, and so on.
 Over 3 days trials H.M became
quite skilled at this task
Delayed nonmatch to sample tests
Animal studies
V. Delayed nonmatch to
sample tests (DNMS)
 C.
Effects of lesions
 1. bilateral medial temporal
lobe lesion (23.12)

a. normal test with short
delay

b. increasing errors with
increasing delay (19.10)
Discuss how
social or cultural
factors affect
memory

 If
one assumes that cognitive processes
follow universal laws then all humans all
over the world, regardless of culture,
would perform the same cognitive tasks
with the same results.
 Human
cognition is culturally dependent – ie.
Cognitive abilities are influenced by the social and
cultural context in which people live
 Although the processes – memory,perception,
language etc may be universal how they function
may differ
 We shall look at one study that support this notion
 Cole & Scribner ( 1974 ) Memory Strategies in
different cultures
 But you could also refer to Bartlett’s War of the
Ghosts study
Scribner ( 1977)




Researchers gave an unschooled farmer this
reasoning problem, a standard western
syllogism
“ all Kpelle men are rice farmers. Mr. Smith is
not a rice farmer. Is he a Kpelle man?”
The farmer insisted that the information
provided did not allow a conclusion
“ If I know him in person” the famer said “ I
can answer that question, but since I do not
know him in person I cannot answer that
question”





The interviewer concluded that because the
farmer was accustomed to drawing on personal
knowledge alone to reach conclusions, he could
not reason deductively.
Yet the kpelle farmer was reason deductively,
Premise: if I do not know a person, I cannot draw
any conclusions about that person
Premise: I do not know Mr. Smith
Conclusion: Therefore I cannot draw any
conclusion about Mr. Smith.
 The
answer that the kpelle farmer gave was
not what his interviewer expected but it was
perfectly smart in his culture’s term.
 Basic cognitive capacities are universal, but
because cultures differ in which of these
abilities they foster and which they regard as
unecessary, the very meaning of
‘intelligence’ is culturally determined.
 Thus people like the kpelle are able to learn
to reason deductively but the areas in which
they apply such reasoning will depend on
their experiences and needs.
Cole & Scribner ( 1974)
 Argued
that cognitive processes are universal but
not cognitive skills.
 Cognitive skills are dependent on the environment
– education, social interaction, culture and
technologies make up the environment
 Cole & Scribner investigated memory strategies in
different cultures – USA and Liberia.
 They observed the effects formal schooling /
education ( culture) had on memory
Cole & Scribner ( 1974)



Cognitive psychologists have traditionally
conducted research in western countries
If one assumes that cognitive processes follow
universal laws than all humans all over the
world, regardless of culture would perform the
same cognitive task with the same results
Following this logic the same memory test
could be applied globally – but this is not the
case
Cole & Scribner ( 1974)
 When
researchers from the West performed
memory tests with participants in non-western
countries they found they did poorly on many
memory tests
 This could be misinterpreted as memory
processes/strategies being better in Western
society
 However it is the test that is not valid when
applied to other cultures, not the inability of the
participants
Cole & Scribner ( 1974)



They compared recall of a
series of words in the US and
amongs the Kpelle people
They were aware they couldn’t
use the same list of words in
the two different countries so
they started by observing
everyday cognitive activities in
Liberia
They devised word lists that
were culturally specific
Cole & Scribner ( 1974)
 The
researchers asked
liberian children to
recall as many items as
possible from 4
categories – utensils,
clothes, tools and
vegetables
 They found striking
differences in memory
between schooled and
non-schooled children
in Liberia
Results
 In
general educated Kpelle children
performed better in the recall of list than
non-educated Kpelle children
 Overall American children performed
better than Kpelle children
Analysis
 Analysis
showed that non-educated did
not use strategies such as chunking –
grouping bits of information into larger
chunks – to help them remember
 Kpelle children also appeared not to
apply rehearsal as the position of the
word in the list did not have an effect on
the rate of recall
Analysis
 HOWEVER
in later trials the researchers
varied the so that the objects were now
presented in a meaningful way as part of
a story.
 This is called a narrative
 The non-educated children recalled the
objects easily when presented as a story
Discussion
 There
is a danger that one could conclude that
memory skills amongst certain non-western children
are inferior to those of Western children.
 But this overlooks the influence of culture.
 Western schooling emphasises certain cognitive
strategies such as clustering / categorising.
 It is unlikely such parallels exist in traditional
societies like the Kpelle
 People learn to remember in ways that are relevant
for their everyday lives, and these do not always
mirror the activities that cognitive psychologists use
to investigate mental processes
 To what extent is
memory reliable ?
You could refer to Bartlett’ study (
cultural schemas affect memory, and
therefore make it unreliable) or Loftus
& Palmer study

Elisabeth Loftus ( 1983)
 Elizabeth
Loftus is a leading figure
in the field of eyewitness testimony
research.
 She expressed concern at the
over-reliance on eyewitness
testimonies in court, knowing that
research shows;
 Our memories can be affected
( interefered) with by post – event
information such as misleading
questions
 Our memories can reconstruct
information
Eyewitnesses are the Most Persuasive
Form of Evidence Loftus (1983)
Type of Evidence
votes
 Eyewitness testimony
 Fingerprints
 Polygraph
 Handwriting
% guilty
78
70
53
34
Loftus & Palmer ( 1974 )
 The
aim of this study was to investigate how
information supplied after an event, influences
a witness's memory for that event
AND MORE SPECIFICALLY
 Loftus
was interested to see the extent to
which interference from misleading questions
( often asked by lawyers and police ) could
alter a witness’s subsequent recall of a crime
Misleading questions
 Did
you beat your wife ?
 How often did you beat your wife ?
 Have
you ever taken drugs ?
 When was the last time you took drugs ?
Methodology




The study actually consists of two laboratory
experiments.
They are both examples of an independent
measures design.
The independent variable in both of the
experiments is the verb used.
The dependent variable in the first experiment is
the participant’s speed estimate and the
dependent variable in the second experiment is
whether the participant believed they saw glass.
Method / Procedure / Sample
 The
participants were 45 students of the
University of Washington.
 They were each shown seven film-clips of
traffic accidents.
 The clips were short excerpts from safety
films made for driver education. The clips
ranged from 5 to 30 seconds long.
 Following
each video participants were
given a questionnaire asking them to give
an account of what they had just seen.
 They were asked to answer a number of
questions, but most of these questions were
‘filler’ questions.
 However there was one critical question
which was asked…….
Loftus & Palmer ( 1974 )
There
were five conditions in
the experiment (each with nine
participants)

Condition 1: 'About how fast were the cars going when they
smashed into each other?‘

Condition 2: 'About how fast were the cars going when they
collided into each other?‘

Condition 3: 'About how fast were the cars going when they
bumped into each other?‘

Condition 4: 'About how fast were the cars going when they hit
each other?

Condition 5: 'About how fast were the cars going when they
contacted each other?'
Loftus & Palmer ( 1974 )
The
independent variable was
manipulated by means of the
wording of the questions.
The dependent variable was
the speed estimates given by
the participants.
Results of the first experiment
Table 1. Speed estimates for the verbs used in the
estimation of speed question
VERB
MEAN ESTIMATE
OF SPEED (mph)
Smashed
40.8
Collided
39.3
Bumped
38.1
Hit
34.0
Contacted
31.8
Explanation of findings
Loftus and Palmer give two interpretations/explanations of the findings of
their 1st experiment

.
1.Firstly, they argue that the results could be due to a
distortion in the memory of the participant.
 The
memory of how fast the cars were travelling could
have been distorted by the verbal label which had been
used to characterise the intensity of the crash.
 2.
Secondly, they argue that the results
could be due to response-bias factors,
 in
which case the participant is not sure of the
exact speed and therefore adjusts his or her
estimate to fit in with the expectations of the
questioner.
 (This is also an example of a demand
characteristic)
They wanted to prove the former
was the case…..to increase the
validity / reliability of the results
So they conducted a second
experiment..
 The
researchers aimed to show that information
provided after an event is capable of distorting
memories.
The second experiment……
Once again, participants were shown a film of a car
crash. They were split into 3 different groups
 1.
the first group were asked “how fast were
the cars going when they smashed into each
other ?”
 2. The second group were asked “ how fast
were the cars going when they hit each other ?
 3. The third group formed a control and were
not asked a question about the speed of the
cars
Participants were recalled one week later;
 Again
they were asked questions about the film. Again, 9
of the questions were filler questions
 The critical question this time was;
“ did you see the broken glass ?”
(there was no glass in the actual film footage they saw)
Results……
1
week later: Did you see any broken
glass?
smash group: 32% said yes
hit group: 14% said yes
Loftus & Palmer ( 1974 )
 The
results of this experiment show that
the labels attached to the car-crash by the
researcher affected the memories of the
participants – altering their perception of
events a week later….
 The
idea that the cars had “smashed”into
each other had led participants to
incorporate the notion of broken glass into
their memories (as “smashed” implies that
glass was broken)
So,….
Memories are unreliable
because they are
reconstructive ( we draw on
schemas to aid our
memory)

 Discuss the use of
technology in
investigating memory
What is alzheimer’s disease?




Alzheimer's disease is a degenerative brain
disorder that results in memory loss, impaired
thinking, difficulty finding the right word
when speaking, and personality changes.
Its course is marked by a continual loss of
neurons (nerve cells) in areas of the brain
that are crucial to memory and other
mental functions.
Levels of brain chemicals known as
neurotransmitters, which carry complex
messages back and forth among billions of
nerve cells, are also diminished.
After the symptoms first appear, people live
anywhere from 2–20 years in an increasingly
dependent state that exacts a staggering
emotional, physical, and economic toll on
families.
 No
blood test, brain scan, or physical
exam can definitively diagnose
Alzheimer's disease.
 And because so many conditions can
produce symptoms resembling those of
early Alzheimer's, reaching the correct
diagnosis is complicated.
 Nevertheless the following tools are
available to doctors;
A
complete medical history includes information
about the person's general health, past medical
problems, and any difficulties the person has
carrying out daily activities.
 Medical tests - such as tests of blood, urine, or
spinal fluid - help the doctor find other possible
diseases causing the symptoms.
 Neuropsychological tests measure memory,
problem solving, attention, counting, and
language.
 Unfortunately,
the
definitive signs of
Alzheimer's, namely
the presence of
amyloid plaques
and neurofibrillary
tangles, can only
be seen after
death, when brain
tissue can be
examined during
biopsy.
However brain scanning is increasingly
being used;




Brain scans allow the doctor to look at a
picture of the brain to see if anything does
not look normal.
Brain scans such a Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (MRI) and Positron Emission
Tomography (PET) can be used to confirm
diagnosis, but in the very early stages they
often fail to show very much change.
Later on, there will be a significant and
clear loss of brain tissue and an
enlargement of the fluid-filled spaces
(ventricles) in the brain, but by then the
diagnosis is probably fairly certain.
Scans are most likely to be performed in
early-onset cases or to eliminate other
causes, for example, if a brain tumour is
suspected.
Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
 Positron
Emission
Tomography (PET) scans
detect special
radioactively labeled
tracers which are injected
into a patient's body
before the imaging
procedure starts.
 PET scans can be used to
accurately monitor brain
activity while a patient's
memory and cognition
are being tested.
PET scans
 The
scans are made by injecting the
patient with a form of sugar that has been
altered to carry a weak, short-lived
radioactive element.
 The sugar hits the bloodstream and flows
to the brain, which needs huge amounts
of energy to keep all its nerve cells
running.



The most active areas of the brain need the most sugar -while damaged and less active areas need much less.
By detecting the weak radiation signal from the sugar
molecules as they travel throughout the brain, PET scanners
can make a picture of brain cell activity.
The resulting scans show the level of activity using a scale of
colors; red and orange for high activity, and blue and purple
for low.
Technology now used for early
detection




Researchers from the New York University School of
Medicine have developed a brain-scan-based computer
programme that quickly and accurately measures
metabolic activity in the hippocampus – an important brain
structure in memory processes.
Using PET scans and the computer programme the
researchers showed that in the early stages of Alzheimer’s
disease there is a reduction in brain metabolism in the
hippocampus.
In a longitudinal study they followed a sample of 53 normal
and healthy participants – some for 9 years and others for
as long as 24 years.
They found that individuals who showed early signs of
reduced metabolism in the hippocampus were associated
with later development of Alzheimer’s disease.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
 MRI
scans use magnetic and radio
waves, instead of X-rays, to
provide very clear and detailed
images of brain or other internal
organs.
 MRI scans provide static three
dimensional images of brain
structure.
 Currently MRI is used to mainly rule
out other possible causes for
cognitive impairment, such as a
brain tumor or blood clot.




However use of MRI scans is turning to images of shrinkage in
the hippocampus.
Cells in the brain’s hippocampus, a region involved in memory
and learning, progressively deteriorate and die in Alzheimer’s
disease
MRI imaging can detect atrophy (shrinkage) of the
hippocampus that occurs when substantial numbers of cells
die.
Research has found that shrinkage can be detected even
before symptoms interfere with daily function.




In a 2000 Researchers* looked at MRI results for 119
patients with varying degrees of cognitive impairment.
Some patients were normal, some had cognitive
impairment at the time of the MRI, and others were
already diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
The researchers (who did not have access to the
patients' files) were 100% accurate when determining
which patients had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's
disease and which had no symptoms.
The study reported a 93% accuracy rate when
researchers were asked to distinguish between patients
with no symptoms and patients who had only mild
cognitive impairment, but were not yet diagnosed with
Alzheimer's disease.
To
what extent
do cognitive and
biological factors
interact in
emotion
 What
is emotion?
 A feeling?
 Then what is a feeling?
 These terms are difficult to define and
even more difficult to understand
completely.
 25
yrs ago, experimental psychology silent
on emotions
 Psych wants to be a science, emotions
too flakey
 How do you even study emotion?
 Emotional revolution (1990 – and ongoing)
R. Zajonc: Humans have emotions!
Emotions affect thinking and behavior.
 The
mainstream definition of emotion
refers to a feeling state involving thoughts,
physiological changes, and an outward
expression or behavior.
 But what comes first? The thought? The
physiological arousal? The behavior?
There are three basic components of emotions:
 Physical: The physical component of emotion is
the arousal of the autonomic nervous system and
endocrine system. We are not consciously aware
of this arousal.
 Cognitive: The cognitive component is our
interpretation of a stimulus or feeling. For
example; if you are alone, sitting in the dark,
watching a scary movie, and you hear a loud
noise, you may become scared.
 Behavioral: This component is the associated
behavior. We cry because we are sad or run
because we are scared.
Biological theories of Emotions
1.James – Lange theory
James-Lange Somatic Theory of
Emotions
 The
body informs the mind (we know we
are sad because we cry)
 Distinctive body changes/symptoms are
accompanied by different emotions
 Perception of these changes/symptoms
determines the experience of emotion
 Differences between emotions are a
direct result of the different patterns of
physiological response associated with
them
Support for james-lange
theory
facial feedback hypothesis






Such a theory can be supported by research such
as Laird’s ( 1974) Facial feedback hypothesis.
According to facial feedback theory, emotion is
the experience of changes in our facial muscles.
In other words, when we smile, we then
experience pleasure, or happiness.
When we frown, we then experience sadness.
It is the changes in our facial muscles that cue our
brains and provide the basis of our emotions.
Just as there are an unlimited number of muscle
configurations in our face, so to are there a
seemingly unlimited number of emotions
 In
his study he induced participants
to make facial expressions
corresponding to specific emotions
(with electrodes attached to face).
 He found that participants reported
emotions consistent with the facial
expression e.g., those told to “pull
brows together” reported feeling
angry . Subjects also had stronger
emotional reactions to stimuli
consistent with the emotion of a
particular facial expression they
made e.g., subjects who smiled
found cartoons funnier than
subjects using other facial muscles
Criticism of james-lange theory





However a study by Maranon ( 1924) contradicts
the James-Lange theory. Participants were
injected with adrenaline (which is associated with
fear).
71% of participants reported only physical
sensations, with no emotional reaction.
The remaining participants merely reported ‘as if’
they were feeling an emotion.
This suggests that physiological arousal is not
sufficient to produce emotional experiences.
This suggests that cognitive factors need to be
brought into a theory of emotions.
Schacter ( 1964 ) Two – factory theory





Schacter ( 1964) was the first theorist to
bring together the two elements of
physiological arousal and cognition.
It is sometimes known as the two-factor
theory of emotion.
For an emotion to be experienced, a
physiological state of arousal is
necessary AND situational factors will
then determine how we interpret this
arousal.
In other words, an event causes
physiological arousal first.
You must then identify a reason for this
arousal and then you are able to
experience and label the emotion.
For example you are walking down a dark alley
late at night. You hear footsteps behind you
and you begin to tremble, your heart beats
faster, and your breathing deepens. Upon
noticing this arousal you realize that is comes
from the fact that you are walking down a dark
alley by yourself.
This behavior is dangerous and therefore you feel
the emotion of fear.




The strength of physiological arousal will determine
the strength of emotion experienced, while the
situation will determine the type of emotion.
These two factors are independent of each other
BUT both are necessary for the emotion to be
experienced.
A classic study by Schacter & Singer ( 1962) supports
these ideas, in which participants, unable to label
certain emotions looked to the behavior of
confederates in order to provide cues for their
emotions.
This suggests that feelings/emotions are meaningless
in isolation, and it is our labeling of them which helps
us make sense of them.
IN the history of emotion theory, four major
explanations for the complex mental and physical
experiences that we call "feelings" have been put
forward.
They are;
 the James-Lange theory in the 1920's,
(event ==> arousal ==> interpretation ==> emotion)
 the Cannon-Bard theory in the 1930's,
(event ==> Simultaneous arousal and emotion)
 the Schacter-Singer theory in the 1960's,
(event ==> arousal ==> reasoning ==> emotion
 Lazarus theory, developed in the 1980's and ‘90's.
(event ==> thinking ==> Simultaneous arousal and
emotion)

Schacter & Singer
Aim
 To
investigate ‘2 factor theory’ which states
that arousal, plus cognition to make sense
of emotional experience
Method
 Lab experiment
184 Male college students
 IV = information given about adrenaline
 IV = euphoria ( happy ) or angry situation
Schacter & Singer
Procedure
 4 x physiological conditions
 ‘Ignorant’ - adrenaline + no info
 ‘Informed’ - adrenaline + correct info
 ‘Misinformed’ - adrenaline + wrong info
 Placebo
 2 x emotional conditions
 'euphoria'
 'anger'
Schacter & Singer
Results
 Subjects who were misled or naive ( conditions 1
& 3 )about the injection's effects needed to
explain the arousal they were experiencing. The
behaviour of the confederates acted as a cue to
identify this arousal as anger or euphoria.
Conclusions
 This suggests that subjects who were informed
were able to cognitively attribute the
physiological effects of the adrenaline, while the
uninformed or misinformed groups could perform
no such attribution.
 Schachter's cognitive labelling theory derives from
these findings and forms the basis of the Two
Factor theory of emotion
Ethics in Schacter & Singer
 No
informed consent or proper right of
withdrawal (participants were bribed to
take part).
 Participants were deceived and some
were harmed by being made angry.
Schacter & Singer
Other
theories
have built on the
work of Schacter
& Singer and
current research
now focuses on
cognition as a
central factor of
emotion
Lazarus ( 1982 ) appraisal theory
 Whilst
there are some problems with
Schacter’s theory it has nonetheless
been an important influence on
theoretical accounts of emotion.
 Lazarus has built on the work of
Schachter and also proposed a theory
that demonstrates the interaction of
cognitions and biology in
understanding emotions.
He has however, emphasised the role of
cognitions or ‘cognitive appraisals’.
 He argued that an emotion-provoking stimulus
triggers a cognitive appraisal, which is followed by
the emotion and the physiological arousal.
 He suggested we initially make a brief analysis of a
situation in terms of whether or not it represents a
threat ( we appraise a situation).
 Cognitive appraisal of the situation determines the
level of physiological arousal and the specific type
of emotion to be experienced

 Put
simply you must first think about your
situation before you can experience an
emotion.
 For example you are walking down a dark alley
late at night.
 You hear footsteps behind you and you think it
may be a mugger
 so you begin to tremble, your heart beats
faster, and your breathing deepens and at the
same time experience fear
stimulus
Lazarus




His theory focuses on the appraisal
of the situation and he identified
three stages of appraisal
Primary appraisal (relevance) – in
which we consider how the
situation affects our personal wellbeing or how threatening the
situation is.
Secondary appraisal (options) - we
consider how we might cope with
the situation
Reappraisal ( ability to handle
emotion) - Reappraisal refers to
whether the emotion / situation is
changeable or manageable
Primary & secondary appraisal
generates emotion/level of physical
arousal
But a reppraisal may occur depending our
coping strategy for the emotion
We may aim to change the problematic
situation
( problem – focused
coping)
OR we may be able to handle the
emotion ( emotion – focused coping )
Reappraisal may change quality and
intensity of emotion/level of
physical arousal
Speisman et al ( 1964 )






A study that supports Lazarus theory is that conducted by Speisman.
He showed college students a film called ‘Sub-incision’, a graphic
film about an initiation ceremony involving unpleasant genital
surgery.
The aim was see if the people’s emotional reactions could be
manipulated. The experiment deliberately manipulated the
participants appraisal of the situation and evaluated the effect of
the type of appraisal on their emotional response.
Group 1: One group saw the film with no sound. ( control )
Group 2: Another group heard a soundtrack with a "trauma"
narrative emphasizing the pain, danger, and primitiveness of the
operation.
Group 3: A third group heard a "denial" narration that denied the
pain and potential harm to the boys, describing them as willing
participants in a joyful occasion who "look forward to the happy
conclusion of the ceremony."
Group 4: The fourth group heard an anthropological ( cultural,
scientfic )interpretation of the ceremony.
Speiseman et al
 Physiological
( heart rate ) and self-report
measures of stress were taken.
 Those who heard the trauma narration reacted
with more stress than the control group (no
sound);
 those who heard the denial and scientific
narrations reacted with less stress than the control
group.
 Such results seem to support Lazarus’s theory that
it is not the events themselves that elicit emotional
stress but rather the individual’s interpretation or
appraisal of those events.
 Discuss
the use of technology in
investigating memory
Evaluate one
theory of how
emotion can
affect one
cognitive process

Emotion and memory
 Where
you were ?
 What you were doing ?
 How you were
informed ?
 How you reacted ?
When;
 Princess Diana died
 World trade centre (
NY) was attacked
 Micheal Jackson died
Flashbulb memory
 Originally
described by Brown & Kulik (1977):
 A theory that refers to vivid and detailed
memories of highly emotional events that
appear to be recorded in the brain as though
with the help of a camera’s flash
 Brown + Kulik suggested that a special
mechanism in the brain is activated by
events which produce high levels of emotion
and surprise, and which are seen as
particularly significant. As a result, the entire
scene is 'printed' in memory as a 'flash'.
Survey by Brown & Kulik 1977
 Participants
were asked a series of questions
testing their memories of ten major events,
such as the assasination of President John F.
Kennedy in 1963 (14 years earlier).
 Results showed Memories for such events were
particularly vivid, detailed and long lasting.
 People usually remembered where they were
when they heard the news, how they heard it,
what they and others were doing at the time,
and the emotional impact of the news on
themselves and those around them
Evaluation
 Other
events such as graduating from
college or a first romance can be recalled
in the same way as flashbulb memories.
Suggesting that FLASHBULB MEMORIES ARE
NO DIFFERENT from ordinary memories.
 Flashbulb memories are sometimes quite
INACCURATE. McCloskey et al, 1988, found
that people who were asked to recall the
Challenger explosion recalled an increasing
amount of inaccurate details over time.
Neisser ( 1982)
 Questioned
the idea of flashbulb
memories on the basis that people do
not always know an event is important
until later
 He suggested that the memories are so
vivid because the eventis rehearsed and
reconsidered after the event
Neisser ( 1982)
 According
to Neisser what is called a
flashbulb memory may simply be a
narrative convention.
 The flashbulb memories are governed by
a storytelling schema followed by a
specific narrative, such as place ( where
were we?), activity ( what were we
doing?), informant ( who told us?), and
affect ( how do we feel about it/)
Neisser & Harsch (
1992)
 28
January 1986 7
astronauts aboard the
spaceship Challenger
were killed on launch
 It was a shocking
experience for those who
watched the shuttle
launch in person or on TV
Evaluation study





Neisser & Harsch investigated people’s memory accuracy of
the incident 24 hours after the accident and the again 2
years later
The pps were very confident there memories were correct,
but the researchers found that 40% of the participants had
distorted memories in the final reports they made.
Possibly post-event information had influenced their
memories.
The researchers concluded that inaccuracy of emotional
memories is common
Talarico & Robin ( 2003) found that emotional intensity was
often associated with greater memory confidence but not
with accuracy
Evaluating the Cognitive
Perspective
•
Contributions of this Perspective
Innovative methods for exploring the “Black box” of the
mind
o An understanding of how cognition affects behavior and
emotion
o Findings of tremendous social and legal relevance
o Understanding and improving mental abilities from
infancy to old age
o
•
Misuses and Misinterpretations of the
Perspective
o
o
o
Cognitive reductionism
Errors of cause and effect
Cognitive relativism
Strength of cognitive
approach



A main strength of cognitive psychology is that this
approach has tended to use a scientific approach
through the use of laboratory experiments
. A strength of using laboratory experiments is that
they are high in control therefore researchers are
able to establish cause and effect.
For example Loftus and Palmer were able to control
the age of the participants, the use of video and
the location of the experiment. All participants
were asked the same questions (apart from
changes in the critical words), and the position of
the key question in the second was randomised.
Strength of cognitive
approach
 Furthermore,
such standardised
experiments are easy to test for reliability.
However, as many cognitive studies are
carried out in laboratory settings they can
lack ecological validity. When cognitive
processes such as memory and theory of
mind are studied in artificial situations it
may be difficult to generalise the findings
to everyday life
 It
has been argued that a weakness of
the cognitive approaches reliance on
the computer analogy leads to a
reductionist and mechanistic description
of experiences and behaviour.
 Reductionism is the idea that complex
phenomena can be explained by
simpler things. The cognitive approach
often takes this narrow focus and ignores
social and emotional factors which may
impact on cognition
Misc stuff after
this – please
ignore
 Ebbinghaus
invented several tests of
retention, as listed and described below:
 Recall -- simply try to remember each
item. Ebbinghaus used two types of recall
task:


Free recall -- attempt to recall the list items;
order is not important.
Serial recall -- attempt to recall the list items
in the order studied.
Three ways to measure
emotions
Physical
Thoughts
–
blood pressure
–
heart rate
–
adrenaline levels
–
muscle activity
when smiling,
frowning, etc.
–
neural images
–
posture
–
tears,
–
perspiration
–
lie detector
readings
–
–
–
Behaviour
spoken and
written words on
rating scales
-facial expressions
answers to openended questions
on surveys and
during interviews
responses to
projective
instruments,
sentence stems,
etc.
–
self-assessments
or perceptions
regarding the
behavior and
intentions of
others
–
other cognitive
operations such
as
–
activity level
–
alertness
–
screaming
–
laughing
–
Smiling
–
aggression
–
approach/avoidance
–
attention/distraction
–
insomnia
–
anhedonia
Kandel ( 1990)
 Our
knowledge about biological factors
involved in memory is in its infancy but
research is providing major new insights
 Research is showing that memory is not in
fact etched in brain cells but are stored in
the intricate circuitry of neurons in the
brain ( known as neural networks).




Memory is a not a trace but syntactic
process.
It is a sequence of cellular events that leads
from temporary to permanent memory
New information is absorbed and retained
through a process characterized by
changes in synaptic interconnections
among neurons in the hippocampus and
cerebral cortex, regions of the brain
associated with memory.
Very simply, we make and store memories
by forging new neural pathways to the brain
from things we take in through our five
senses
In other words;
 Kandel
studies the sea snail
Kandel
( 1990) that;
aplysia
and discovered
 Short-term storage for implicit
memory involves functional
changes in the strength
of pre-existing synaptic
connections.
 Long-term storage for implicit
memory involves the synthesis of
new protein and the
growth of new connections
Cultural differences in
perception
 Proceeding
within this framework, we
predicted that people in different cultures
would be differentially susceptible to
geometric illusions because they have
learned different, but always ecologically
valid, visual inference habits.
Cultural differences in
perception
 Recall
Perception is the ability to make sense
of information coming in through the senses
 Again, although perceptual processes are
universal certain perceptual skills may differ
between cultures
 Depth perception is the ability to see the world
in three dimensions and to perceive distance.
 Research has found differences in depth
perception, illustrated by certain visual
illusions
Which is line is longer ?
Müller-Lyer illusion
Are lines in top image of same or different
lengths?
Most people say that right-hand line is
longer.
Illusion may occur because of familiarity with
vertices in buildings and other
environments.
 one explanation of why the right hand
figure appears to be so much larger
involves interpreting the images in depth.
 The right hand figure can be easily
interpreted as representing the inside
corner of a room whilst the arrowlike left
hand figure can be seen as the outside
corner of a building.
 As an inside corner the right hand figure
may appear to be nearer (and therefore
larger) than the outside corner.
Cultural differences in Perception
Segall ( 1966)
 Segall
et al suggested that the Müller-Lyer illusion
may be absent or reduced amongst people who
grow up in certain environments.
 They tested some Zulu people in South Africa
who, at the time, lived in circular huts with
arched doorways and had little experience of
Western rectangular buildings.
 The Zulus seemed less affected by the Müller-Lyer
illusion.
The Carpentered – world
hypothesis
 The
argument is that these people lived in a
'circular culture' whereas those who are more
subject to the illusion live in a 'carpentered
world' of rectangles and parallel lines (Segall,
Campbell & Herskovits 1966).
 Europeans and Americans are more likely to
interpret oblique and acute angles as displaced
right angles and to perceive two-dimensional
drawings in terms of depth