Cognitive Psychology

1

• Cognitive Psychology
• Human Memory
• Essential Reading
• Eysenck, M. W., Keane M. T. (2000). Cognitive
  psychology. Hove Psychology Press (chaps. 6-8).
• Dr Sigrid Lipka s.lipka_at_derby.ac.uk

2
Topics

• The multi-store model of memory
• Sensory memory
• Short-term memory (STM)
• Longterm memory (LTM)
• An alternative approach to STM?
• Different types of LTM?

3
Rehearsal
Multi-store model of memory (e.g. Atkinson
Shiffrin, 1968)
stimulus input
attention
Sensory Memory
Short-term memory
Long-term memory
decay forgetting
interference forgetting
displacement forgetting
4
Memory structure

• Sensory Memory
• Short term buffers for sensory information.
• Sperling (1960) studied iconic visual memory -
  transient visual store.
• Showed target stimuli for very short period
  asked pps to recall stimuli.
• Stimulus persists in iconic memory for
  approximately 0.5 seconds then decays.

• P B S I
• R W O K
• G U T V

• X

• Information in echoic memory decays after
  approximately 2 seconds.

5
Memory structure

• Short term memory
• Attended sensory information is passed onto
  limited capacity short-term memory.
• Rehearsal is repetition of material.
• Digit (or letter) span task used to estimate size
  of short-term memory.
• Capacity of 7(/-2) items (Miller1956)

• Read the following list of letters
• Q D V X A J Y L M E G S

• Now write down the letters you can remember!

• Which letters did you get correct?
• Q D V X A J Y L M E G S

6
Memory structure

• Serial position curves
• Recall for digit/letter span tasks produces
  inverted U shape.
• Primacy effects occur because early parts of list
  have been encoded in long-term memory.
• Recency effects occur because late parts of list
  are still held in short-term memory.

• Items from middle of list are displaced before
  being stored in long-term memory.

7
Memory structure

• Chunking effects (e.g. Simon, 1974)
• Short-term memory can hold items of various size.
• Possible to memorise larger lists of items (e.g.,
  telephone numbers) by chunking, or grouping
  items together.
• Acronyms (sequences of capitals) are a useful way
  of demonstrating chunking effects.

• Read the following list of letters
• IBM CIA BPS KFC KLM

• Now write down the letters you can remember!

• Which letters did you get correct?
• IBM CIA BPS KFC KLM

8
Memory structure

• Evaluation of multi-store model
• Clear structure evidence for 3 qualitatively
  different types of memory.
• Predicts obtained patterns of effects for iconic
  memory and the relationship between short-term
  long term memory.
• BUT
• Are short-term and long-term stores unitary
  structures?
• Is there more than one type of short-term memory,
  and more than one type of long term memory?

9
Memory structure

• Baddeley Hitch (1974) argued for complex
  Working Memory model.
• Visual/spatial sketchpad for manipulating visual
  or spatial information.
• Articulatory loop for auditory visual input.
• Central executive control system used for
  cognitively complex tasks (e.g., reasoning).

10
Memory structure

• Working Memory
• Evidence for different types of short term store
  if it is possible to interfere with one without
  interfering with the other.
• In dual task studies, researchers overload one
  part of working memory to determine if it
  disrupts performance on task, using either one
  component or another component.

• Examples of dual tasks
• Robbins et al. (1996)
• Chess playing found to be disrupted by secondary
  visual/spatial task (tapping) but not by
  secondary phonological loop task (repeating
  syllables).

11
Memory structure

• Condition 1
• Your task is to solve some arithmetic problems.
• First, I want you to start counting backwards
  from 171 in threes, continue as you perform the
  task
• e.g., 171, 168, 165 etc

• 267/3
• 448/7
• 228/4
• 94/2
• 306/9

12
Memory structure

• Condition 2
• Again, your task is to solve some arithmetic
  problems.
• But I want you to say aloud the sound LA as you
  perform the task
• e.g., LA LA LA LA LA

• 207/3
• 595/7
• 236/4
• 362/2
• 558/9

13
Memory structure and processes

• Different kinds of long-term memory?
• Semantic memory - memory for meanings of words
  and the relationships between words.
• Autobiographical memory - memory for personal
  experiences and life events.
• Declarative memory - memory for information
  (e.g., where is the Eiffel Tower?)
• Procedural memory - memory for actions (e.g.,
  riding a bike).

14
Memory processes

• Levels of Processing (Craik Lockhart, 1972)
• Ability to remember information depends on how
  deeply it is processed.
• Stimuli APPLE
• Deep / Semantic Is it a kind of fruit?
• Does it rhyme with MAPLE?
• Shallow / Physical Is it typed in capitals?
• Stimuli processed at a deep level are better
  recalled than stimuli processed at a shallow
  level.

15
Memory processes

• Recall versus recognition
• In recall task pp. is asked to report some
  materials that were studied earlier.
• In recognition task pp. is asked if some
  materials belong to those studied earlier.
• Two process theory (e.g. Watkins Gardiner,
  1979) claims that recall involves 2 components
  (RETRIEVAL RECOGNITION), which predicts
• - Recall takes longer than recognition
• - PPs will make more mistakes on recall task
  than on recognition task

16
Memory processes

• Encoding specificity theory (Tulving, 1982, 1983)
• Memory for items is better when information in
  memory during learning matches information in
  memory during retrieval.
• Context-dependent memory
• Memory is improved if material is learned in same
  context or under same conditions as when memory
  is tested.
• Recognition usually better than recall because
  recognition provides greater overlap between
  learning and test conditions.

17
Memory processes

• Godden Baddeley experiments (1975, 1980).
• PPs learned list of words while either on land
  or underwater.
• Recall recognition was tested while pps were
  either on land or underwater.
• gt Context did not influence recognition, but did
  influence recall.

18
Memory structure and processes

• Memory structure
• Multi-store model provides an effective starting
  point for thinking about memory, but is
  oversimplified.
• Working Memory addresses idea that there are
  different types of short-term memory store.

• Memory processes
• Theories of memory must explain how information
  is processed.
• Levels of Processing account emphasises the
  importance of how material is studied.
• Encoding specificity theory demonstrates the
  importance of context-dependent memory.