COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

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COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

• HUMAN MEMORY

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SHORT TERM AND LONG TERM MEMORY

• Memory is the process of retaining information
  when that information is no longer present
• There are close links between learning and memory
• Learning theorists, or Behaviourists dismissed
  memory because it involves (invisible) cognitive
  processes as well a behaviour

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3 STAGES OF MEMORY

• ENCODING registering information and creating a
  memory trace
• STORAGE the information is stored in the brain
• RETRIEVAL recovering the information, i.e.
  recalling or remembering it.

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SHORT TERM MEMORY

• STM has limited capacity and duration.
• We can test CAPACITY by using
• Span measures, where we recall digits
• Free recall of the recency effect.

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SPAN MEASURES

• It has been found that most people can repeat a
  list of 7 items, plus or minus 2. Write this
  numbers down after I say go
• 369
• 2417
• 97648
• 417953
• 6508397
• 21749748
• 854139625
• 5469013728

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CHUNKING

• If information is made meaningful, then it can be
  recalled as one item in STM. So chunking
  improves the capacity of STM
• This affects Millers rule because the amount of
  information can be increased to a very large
  amount, although this may reduce accuracy

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DURATION OF STM

• The duration of STM is 20-30 seconds
• If people are given a list of words to recall,
  they will remember
• those at the beginning (primacy effect)
  those at the end (recency
  effect)
• The recency effect demonstrates that words at the
  end of the list are still in short term memory
• Words in the middle of a long list are forgotten

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GLANZER AND CUNITZ

• They conducted an experiment in which Ps were
  asked to memorise a list of words
• Immediately after, Ps did an interference task
  (counting backwards)
• If they did this for 30 seconds, the recency
  effects was wiped out, but the primacy effect
  still occurred

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ENCODING IN STM

• Telephone task demonstrates that we encode
  ACOUSTICALLY i.e. by sound, in STM. This was
  demonstrated by Baddeley and Conrad
• Procedure Ps were asked to learn acoustically
  and semantically similar and dissimlar words.
• FindingsPs made more errors when recalling
  acoustically similar words in STM, and more
  errors when recalling semantically similar words
  in LTM
• Conclusions STM uses acoustic coding, LTM uses
  semantic coding

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PROBLEMS WITH MEMORY RESEARCH

• Research is frequently conducted in labs, where
  Ps are asked to learn information which is not
  relevant to their lives. These experiments are
  said to lack external validity
• There are different types of memory, and these
  experiments only study the learning of words. So
  it may not be possible to generalise to other
  situations

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STM AND BRAIN DAMAGE

• Some people with brain damage suffer STM
  deficits, whilst others suffer LTM deficits.
  This is evidence that they are different types of
  memory.
• KF motorcycle accident. LTM intact, but digit
  span was 2. However he forgot verbal material but
  not a cat miaowing.
• HM had hippocampus removed to improve his
  epilepsy, but it left him with inability laying
  down new memories.

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LONG TERM MEMORY

• CAPACITY unlimited
• DURATION a lifetime
• ENCODING semantic
• AVAILABILITY information may be stored in the
  brain but it is not available to you when you
  want it
• ACCESSIBILITY this refers to stored information
  which you can access

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CAPACITY IN LTM

• The capacity of the human brain is unlimited. We
  have never reached an upper limit in LTM. So it
  does not seem to be a limited capacity store.
• STANDING presented Ps with 2560 pictures over a
  number of days. Ps could recognise 90 of these!

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DURATION IN LTM

• Bahrick aimed to test the duration of very long
  term memories.
• PROCEDURE Ps aged 17-74 were asked to recall or
  recognise their classmates names and faces.
• FINDINGS Ps showed 90 accuracy in recognition
  tasks. Free recall was less accurate.

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BAHRICKS RESEARCH

• CONCLUSIONS very long-term memories are
  retrievable, but become less accurate with time.
• CRITICISMS the stimulus material faces of
  classmates may not generalise to other
  information in memory
• A natural experiment, which has high mundane
  realism

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VARIETIES OF LTM

• Episodic memory refers to events in a persons
  life
• Semantic memory refers to our knowledge
• and understanding
• Case study Beth and Jon, children with brain
  damage. Both could remember what they had
  learned, but not what they had done. So
  -----------memory was intact, but
  ------------memory was impaired

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DECLARATIVE AND PROCEDURAL MEMORY

• Declarative memory means knowing that
• i.e. being able to state what you did
• Procedural memory means knowing how
• i.e. knowing how to do something
• Spiers reviewed 147 cases of amnesia,
• i.e. people with memory loss. None appeared
  to have lost procedural memory, and were still
  able to learn new skills.

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MULTI-STORE MODEL OF MEMORY

• This was proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin in
  1968. They believed there are separate stores in
  the brain.
• Information is received by the senses through the
  sensory store.
• Some of the information is processed by the
  short-term store which has limited capacity.
• It is then transferred to the long-term store by
  the process of rehearsal. If it is not
  rehearsed, it is forgotten

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Multi-Store Model of Memory
Data
STM
LTM
Forgetting
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EVALUATION OF MULTI-STORE MODEL

• STRENGTHS
• Supporting evidence from brain damaged patients
• Supporting evidence from encoding studies
• Supporting evidence from capacity and duration
  studies

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EVALUATION OF MULTI-STORE MODEL

• LIMITATIONS
• Model proposes that information is transferred by
  rehearsal. But much of memory is incidental
• Some visual and semantic coding occurs in both
  short and long term memory
• Long term memory is oversimplified. There are
  several types of LTM

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LEVELS OF PROCESSING MODEL

• Craik and Lockhart proposed an alternative to the
  multi-store model. They proposed that if it is
  the level at which information is processed (deep
  or shallow) which determines whether it is
  remembered.

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DEPTH OF ANALYSIS

• Deep processing means semantic i.e.
  puttingmeaning to the learning.
• Craik and Tulving asked Ps if a word
• Was written in upper or lower case
• Rhymed with another word
• Fitted into a sentence.
• To do task 3, Ps had to process the word
  semantically, whereas to do task 1, they needed
  to process it visually only.

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FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

• FINDINGS Ps remembered more words if they had
  processed them deeply (semantically) than
  shallowly (visually).
• CONCLUSIONS Deep or semantic processing leads to
  better recall than visual or phonemic (rhyming)
  processing
• EVALUATION the concept of depth is unscientific

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ELABORATION

• Craik and Tulving showed that if you learn
  something deeply and elaborate that memory, it is
  better remembered, e.g. by elaborating the word
  cat remember a cat and add detail to that memory

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ORGANISATION

• MANDLER claimed that to organise is to have
  remembered
• Ps were given 52 picture cards to sort into
  categories. Those who used more categories
  remembered the cards better.

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DISTINCTIVENESS

• If an item appears unique, then it will be
  remembered
• The surname Smith stands out in a list of foreign
  names, but not in a list of English names, and
  will therefore be remembered in the former but
  not in the latter.

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EVALUATION OF LOP

• STRENGTHS
• It does not explain memory in terms of separate
  stores in the brain
• Depth, elaboration and distinctiveness are all
  important in determining LTM
• It has practical applications in revision

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EVALUATION OF LOP

• LIMITATIONS
• There is a lack of measurement between shallow
  and deep
• In experiments, Ps asked to shallow process may
  in fact go on to deep process
• Morris et al found that shallow processing
  sometimes is more effective if it is more relevant