Transcript COGNITION Chapter 7 Memory

COGNITION
Chapter 7
Memory
Cognition
The mental processes
involved in acquiring
knowledge.
Literal: “to know.”
Take a yearning for pizza for example…
Cognition encompasses everything from
knowing/remembering what pizza is (and
that you like it)…to realizing that you are
hungry and making plans to have it
delivered.
• For minds to make sense of the near
infinite details of our surroundings a
large part of cognition involves the
organization of our thoughts
into associations or categories.
• These range from “things one might
find in a kitchen” to “what toppings I
like”.
• Simple symbols such as the word
“food” are used to group more
complex learned associations such
as those between New York Style,
Chicago Style, Frozen Pizza, Pizza
Rolls.
• Although important, these cognitive
categories are overlapping and not
always clearly distinct
Perception, attention,
memory & executive function are one
way of divvying up thinking process.
Perception - the fact that you feel
hungry and that there is no food
in the fridge, is what gets the
whole process moving. It
involves seeing, hearing, feeling,
tasting and or smelling your
surroundings, allowing you to
respond appropriately.
Memory - stores the name of your
favorite pizza parlor. Enables you
to dial the number & give
directions to your house.
Includes
– short term/working memory,
– long-term memory &
– subconscious/implicit
knowledge.
Executive Function enables the planning of logistics, such as timing the pizza delivery to
coincide with the start of the football game.
Improvising - guessing what toppings everyone will enjoy
Problem Solving figuring how much to tip
Controlling Impulses - not ruining your appetite by eating a whole bag of Doritos while
waiting also come into play here.
Attention processes kick in by having you shift your focus from reading Weiten’s Psychology
Themes and Variations, 5th edition to answering the door upon hearing that long awaited
knock. They also help in multi-tasking a slice of pizza with figuring out how your football
team can come back from an embarrassing early deficit while ignoring the heckling antics
of your so called “friends.”
It is the interplay of all of these systems working simultaneously which makes up the process
of cognition; allowing us to adapt to our surroundings & take action towards obtaining our
goals.
Name the 7
Dwarfs
Was this difficult for you?
It depends on what factors?
Whether you like Disney
movies.
How long ago you watched the
movie.
How loud or distracting the
people are around you when
you are trying to remember.
How Does Memory Work?
encoding, storage, &
retrieval
In short, these are the
processes by which
we get info in
(encoding), hang
on to it (storage),
and get it back out
(retrieval).
Encoding
• Information from the environment is encoded when
it enters the body through the senses.
• 3 primary ways visual, acoustic, & semantic
encoding. Visual is most effective, but the most
successful way is to encode in all three ways.
This would be like the computer taking input from
a keyboard, mouse or touch screen smart
phone or tablet.
The typical brain has about 100 trillion synapses,
which are the points where nerve cells in the human
brain connect with other cells.
Storage
• Involves previously mentioned
sensory memory, short-term
memory, and long-term memory.
• STM has a limit not only on the
number of items it can hold but
also on duration (20 seconds or
so). AKA - Working Memory.
• Use of rehearsal helps to
increase the likelihood that those
memories will be recalled.
• LTM is divided into explicit
(knowing facts) and implicit
memories (remembering how to
move your body when walking).
Flashbulb Memory
A clear moment of an emotionally or
historically significant moment or
event.
Where were you when?
1. You heard about 9/11
2. Hurricane Ike (2008)
3. Death of a close friend or family member.
Studies have shown that, although people believe
such memories are more complete and accurate,
they are actually just as flawed as those stored in
less emotional situations.
Retrieval
• Key to accessing information from LTM
is to have an appropriate retrieval
cue.
• Mnemonics is a memory aid that relies
on reorganization of information for
easy retrieval. (Song to know
information for a test)
• Encoding Specificity or Transfer
Appropriate Processing: Retrieval is
better when the context in which we
are trying to retrieve something
matches the context in which it was
learned.
• The context is part of the overall
memory. By reinstating that context
when retrieval is occurring, we are
creating an optimal recall situation.
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one,
Save February, with twenty-eight days cle
And twenty-nine each leap year.
Capacity of STM – Short Term Memory
Learning the sounds and meanings of
new words, or seeing pictures while a
storyteller tells a tale.
If we want to remember large amounts of
information, our recall will be easier if
we can use chunking to group
information together.
Learning the sounds and meanings of
new words, or seeing pictures while a
storyteller tells a tale.
The Magic Number 7 digits,
plus or minus 2.
Chunking storage in STM
If we want to remember large
amounts of information,
our recall will be easier if
we can use chunking to
group information together.
Remembering a 10-digit
phone number is much
easier if we remember the
pattern 3-3-4 rather than
trying to recall 10
unconnected numbers.
You only have 150
“Friends”
• Dunbar's number is suggested to
be a theoretical cognitive limit to the
number of people with whom one
can maintain stable social
relationships = 150.
• Our memories can keep track of
groups about this size. Beyond it
our interactions become more
anonymous.
• Past a group size of 150 we start
needing formal organizational
structures to handle interactions.
• Further, the group we consider
"friends and family" clusters around
this size.
Organization
2 biggest assumptions of long
term memory:
1. capacity is unlimited, and
2. once the information gets into
long-term memory, it is there
forever.
3. Nodes/Links: Activation is the
process of "thinking" about a
concept. When we activate a
node, that activation spreads
down the links to related nodes.
Recently, psychologists have divided memory into
explicit and implicit memory.
Explicit memory - memory for
information that you are aware of.
Implicit memory - memory that
influences your behavior but for
which you have no conscious
awareness.
Turn to a blank sheet of paper. Pick
out the names of the 7 dwarfs.
Grouchy Gabby Fearful Sleepy
Smiley Jumpy Hopeful Shy
Droopy Dopey Spiffy Wishful
Puffy Dumpy Sneezy Pop
Grumpy Bashful Cheerful
Teach Sporty Nifty Happy
Doc Wheezy Stubby Poppy
How many did you remember this time?
Did you do better on the first
or second dwarf memory
exercise?
Recall vs. Recognition:
• With recall - you must
retrieve the information
from your memory (fill-inthe blank tests).
• With recognition - you
must identify the target
from possible targets
(multiple-choice tests).
• Which is easier?
Can you identify the “real” penny?
We tend to have poor memory for things that don’t
matter, even if we see them frequently.
How did you do?
Its obverse has featured the profile of
President Abraham Lincoln since 1909,
the centennial of his birth.
From 1959 (the sesquicentennial of
Lincoln's birth) to 2008, the reverse
featured the Lincoln Memorial.
Four different reverse designs in 2009
honored Lincoln's 200th birthday and a
new, permanent reverse - the Union
Shield - was introduced in 2010. The
coin is 0.75 inches (19.05 mm) in
diameter and 0.061 inches (1.55 mm) in
thickness.
The U.S. Mint's official name for a penny is
"cent“ and the U.S. Treasury's official
name is "one cent piece".
The colloquial term "penny" derives from
the British coin of the same name;
however, the British plural form pence is
never used.
As of 2010, it cost the U.S. Mint 1.79 cents
to make a cent because of the cost of
materials and production.