Cognitive Psychology

1
Cognitive Psychology
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• Study of thinking processes
• Based on computer metaphor i.e. we try to
  understand the mind by comparing it to a computer

2
Memory
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• How many different memory stores do people have?
• How do they differ from each other?

3
Glanzer Cunitz (1966)
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• Serial position experiment
• PPs hear a list of words. Asked to recall them
  in any order (free recall)
• Cond 1 immediate free recall
• Cond 2 free recall after interference task
• To obtain results, plotted position of each word
  in the list against how many of the PPs recalled
  it

4
Glanzer Cunitz (1966)
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recall by PPs
Position in word list
5
Glanzer Cunitz (1966)
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• Results
• PPs recalled more words at beginning (primacy)
  and end (recency) of the list
• The interference task removed the recency but not
  the primacy effect
• Implies that primacy words were stored somewhere
  different to recency words
• We have two separate memory stores

6
STM LTM
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• STM and LTM differ in a number of ways including
• Function (what they are used for)
• Capacity (how much info they can hold)
• Duration (how long info can be held for)
• Encoding (the form in which info is stored)
• Forgetting (how info is lost from storage)