Cognitive Psychology

Chapter 7: Forgetting

 Retrieval pulls memory from LTM to the STM/WM

 Forgetting is the failure to retrieve memory
 The #1 cause of memory loss is encoding failure
 Another common cause of memory loss is retrieval failure

Retrieval Failure Theories

 Decay Theories: memories fade away gradually if unused

 Biology based, when memory formed a physical change occurs, when unusual
metabolic processes erode memory trace.
 Falling out of favor due to new research
 Interference Theories: “Memories interfering with memories”
 Forgetting caused by memories completing and replacing another memory
o Retroactive Interference: New into old
o Proactive Interference: Old into new
 Retrieval Cue Theory: a clue or hint that can help memory retrieval.
 Forgetting as a result of using improper retrieval cues

Recall vs. Recognition Teats: Retrieval Cues Important

o Recall=remember everything: fill-in-the-blank

o Recognition=recognize the correct answer (multiple choice test)

 Encoding specific principles—cues used during initial learning more effective during
later retrieval than novel cues.
 State-Dependent Effect: recall improves when the same state is held during learning
and testing
o Context-Dependent: external, environmental factors—connection between
learning and testing in regards to environment.
o State-Dependent Effects: internal, physiological factors; mood & emotions are
key factors. –Bipolar patients remember what they learned during manic and
depressive modes better when in those modes.
 Eyewitness Testimony: recall is not an exact replica of original events, recall is
constructed.
 o We often fit memories into existing beliefs of schemes.
 Schema=mental representation of an object, scene of event—Freud and repression
 Script=type of schema, a mental organization of events in time.
 Memory Distortion: memory distorted as it enters to fit into schema
o giving misleading info after an event causes subjects to unknowingly distort
their own memories to incorporate the new misleading information
 Loftus Experiment=car crash scene that subjects have to reconstruct by telling facts
about it to a researcher.

Chapter 8—Metacognition

 Metacognition involves thinking about cognitive processes, thinking about thinking—an

act of control over thinking
1) Metacognitive knowledge: knowledge about self
2) Metacognition Regulation: control learning, moderating
3) Metacognitive Experiences: cognitions of present control in situation

Three Lessons

a. checks assumptions and accurateness of beliefs

i. Ineffectual Knowledge—inaccurate knowledge of ability
b. know your weaknesses; remedy & expands strengths
c. know when you adept control; change effectiveness of strategy

Types of Judgments about knowledge

 ways in which metacognitive is assessed

 judgments of learning (JOL) rating the likelihood of correctly recalling given item on a
test.
 Feeling of Knowing (FOK)—likelihood of recognizing correct response
 Confidence Judgment—likelihood that an alternative is indeed correct
o Key: a person must reflect on the current state of their knowledge
o JOL: estimate of knowledge, usually poor—delayed JOL is better than quick
o FOK(!): people are good predictors of what they won’t know.
 Cue familiarity hypothesis: metacognition judgments are based on the familiarity of the
info to a memory cue. example Texas’s capital versus Rhode Island’s
 Accessibility Hypothesis: metacognition judgments are inferential. How much/accurate
will you know on a topic if asked.
o Cue is specific, access is generated
 Direct-Access Hypothesis: metacognition judgments are based on the availability of the
memory trace of the targeted info.
o Individuals monitor the memory trace of sought after info
 o Prediction accuracy good, Ben-Bjork-Schwartz
 BBP Research: participants were asked to rate what they would remember from trivia
questions later.
o Evidence does not support direct access.
o Improving accuracy can improve control
 BOTTOM LINE: developing awareness of one’s own memory/knowledge builds vital
cognitive skills for optimal performance

Chapter 9—Knowledge: The Structure of Concepts

 concept: mental representation of an item and associated knowledge and belief

o they classify objects that we have not encountered before
o improve efficient communication
o learn new concepts
o combine to create new concepts

Types

 Natural Concepts: occur naturally; plants, cats, people, fungus, and Godzilla)
 Artifact Concepts: hammers, computers, street signs, robots, and ray guns)
 Ad Hoc Concepts: created individually to suit need; things needed for happening, the
ideas you have about something.

--Different Theories on Concept Theories;

1. Defining Features (classical view)

 Examine particular features of an item to determine whether it is a particular concept

 A defined feature must have; must have this to be a member, widows don’t have a partner
—do not have to be women
 Defining feature problem: it can be difficult to define a feature based on culture

2. Prototype

 An abstracted representation of a category containing salient features that are true of most
instances
 Characteristic features which describe what members look like
 Deals well with “fuzzy” concepts
o concepts with hard to define categories that are not easily defined
 To categorize simply compare to a prototype
3. Exemplars

 No single prototype but multiple examples convey an idea that the concepts represents
(episodic nature)
 more similar a specific exemplar is the faster to categorize
 representation is not a definition

4. Synthesis

 Combines prototype & Defining feature

 A “core” idea defines object—this prototype characterizes it
 understanding of defining features—Keli & Batterman (1984)
 Two scenarios presented; children asked which person (a woman and a man) was
a robber. Kids answered that the dirty man taking a TV because their parents said
he could have it was a robber, while a nice woman who steals a toilet is not.

5. Semantic Network Model

 Nodes represent concepts in memory, relations between them

 Collins & Quillian’s Teachable language comprehender
o Superordinate: overall basic core name Dog vs. Aniaml
o Basic: a broad general definition Dog vs. Hound
o Subordinate: a very specific definition Hound vs. Beagle
 People in research usually use basic naming in naming tasks
 Children learn basic first
 Basic is more commonly used
 Cultures tend to use the same basic level naming

Bonus Round

 Semantic Memory is organized as networks of interconnected concepts

 Each concept is a node
 Activation of one spreads to interconnections of nodes
 Economy of representation