Cognition II

Memory, Language and Thinking

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PL1101E: Introduction to Psychology

Lecture Outline

Memory
Remembering Forgetting

Thinking
Concepts Reasoning Problem Solving Mental Imagery

Language
Elements and Structure Acquisition Language and Thought

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Types of Memory

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Remembering

Retrieval cue
A stimulus that is used to help retrieve the targeted memory.

Recall
Information must be pulled from memory with very few external cues. Retrieval failure recall has failed (at least temporarily). Serial Position Effect will be discussed in tutorial.
Tip of the tongue phenomenon.

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Remembering
Recall:

In recall, a specific piece of information must be retrievedsuch as that needed to answer a fill-in-the-blank question or write an essay on a test. Try to recall the names all the seven dwarves in Disneys Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
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Remembering

Encoding specificity
Memory tends to improve if related information (such as surroundings or physiological state) available when the memory is first formed is also available when the memory is being retrieved.
State-dependent learning
Memories formed during a particular physiological or psychological state will be easier to recall while in a similar state.

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Remembering
Recognition:
Matching information with stored information. Occurs when people are:

Presented with a stimulus and asked whether they have been exposed to it previously, Asked to identify it from a list of alternatives.

Answer this recognition question: Which of the following are the names of the seven dwarves in the Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarves?

Goofy Sleepy Smarty Scaredy

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Dopey Grumpy Wheezy Bashful

Meanie Doc Happy Angry

Sneezy Crazy

PL1101E: Introduction to Psychology

Remembering

Constructive processing
Retrieved memories are often altered, revised, or influenced by newer information.
E.g. spread of rumours.

Hindsight bias
False belief, through revision of older memories to include newer information, that one correctly predicted the outcome of an event.
E.g. I knew all along that Spain will win the World Cup!
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Remembering

Eyewitness testimony
What people see and hear about an event after the fact can easily affect the accuracy of their memories of that event. Misinformation effect
The tendency of misleading information presented after an event to alter the memories of the event itself.

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Forgetting

Why do we forget? Encoding failure

Failure to process information into memory.

Trace Decay Theory

Memory trace
Physical change in the brain that occurs when a memory is formed.

Decay
Memory loss due to the passage of time, during which the memory trace is not used.

Disuse
Unused memories will eventually decay and disappear.
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Forgetting

Interference Theory
Proactive interference
Previously acquired information prevents or interferes with the retrieval of newer information.

Retroactive interference
Newly acquired information prevents or interferes with the retrieval of older information.
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Language

What is it?
A system of symbols and rules for combining these symbols in ways that can generate an infinite number of possible messages and meanings.

Psycholinguistics
The scientific study of the psychological aspects of language.

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Language

Adaptive Functions
Evolved as people gathered to form larger social units.
Development of language made it easier for humans to adapt to environmental demands

Allows us to share thoughts, feelings, needs, etc. with others. Powerful learning mechanism.

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Elements and Structure

Grammar

Rules governing the structure and use of a language. Includes syntax and morphology. Rules for combining words and phrases in sequences that would be grammatically correct.

Syntax

Morphemes

The smallest units of meaning within a language. E.g. the word reading contains two morphemes read and ing. How many morphemes does the word cats have?
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Elements and Structure

Semantics
Rules for determining the meaning of words and sentences.

Phonemes
Basic sound units in language.
E.g. the word caught contains 3 phonemes, /k/, /:/, and /t/, even though it written with 6 letters.

Pragmatics
Practical and social communication aspects.
Conversational turn taking. Gestures. Intonation.

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Elements and Structure

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Acquisition
Course of Normal Language Development in Children

Age
1-3 months

Speech Characteristics
Infant can distinguish speech from nonspeech sounds and prefers speech sounds (phonemes). Undifferentiated crying gives way to cooing when happy.

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Acquisition
Course of Normal Language Development in Children

Age
4-6 months

Speech Characteristics
Babbling sounds begin to occur. These contain sounds from virtually every language. Child vocalizes in response to verbalizations of others.

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Acquisition
Course of Normal Language Development in Children

Age
7-11 months

Speech Characteristics
Babbling sounds narrow to include only the phonemes heard in the language spoken by others in the environment. Child discriminates between some words without understanding their meaning and begins to imitate word sounds heard from others.

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Acquisition
Course of Normal Language Development in Children

Age
12 months

Speech Characteristics
First recognizable words typically spoken as one-word utterances to name familiar people and objects.

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Acquisition
Course of Normal Language Development in Children

Age
12-18 months

Speech Characteristics
Child increases knowledge of word meanings and begins to use single words to express whole phrases or requests.

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Acquisition
Course of Normal Language Development in Children

Age
18-24 months

Speech Characteristics
Vocabulary expands to between 50 and 100 words. First rudimentary sentences appear, usually consisting of two words with little or no use of articles (the, a). This condensed, or telegraphic speech is characteristic of first sentences throughout the world.

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Acquisition

Can animals learn language?

Studies have been somewhat successful in demonstrating that animals can develop a basic kind of language, including some abstract ideas.

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Acquisition
Controversy exists over the lack of evidence that animals can learn syntax, which some feel means that animals are not truly learning and using language.

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Language and Thought

Linguistic relativity hypothesis (Whorf, 1956) (a.k.a. the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis).

Thought is governed by language.
Inuit have 23 words for snow. English only 1 (but not true sleet, slush, flurries etc.) Hopi have 1 word for all flying things (i.e. aphids, airplanes, and aviators are all the same).

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Language and Thought

Cognitive universalism
Theory that concepts are universal and influence the development of language. Language may reflect relative importance of certain concepts in different cultures. Does not mean that different cultures cannot perceive differences in snow, colours, or flying objects etc.

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Thinking

What is it?
Create and manipulate mental representations.
Representations are things that stand for other things.

Mental Representations
Images, ideas, concepts, and principles.

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Concepts
How do you view these structures? Two houses of worship (A & B), two similar examples of architecture (B & C), or three buildings: all illustrate the use of concepts.

A.

B.

C.

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Concepts

Concepts
The terms categories and concepts are often used interchangeably. Ideas that represent a class or category of events or objects. Enable us to organise complex phenomena into simpler, and therefore more easily usable, cognitive categories. Help us classify newly encountered objects on the basis of our past experiences

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Concepts

Types of Concepts
Superordinate concepts
The highest level or most general form
E.g. plants, furniture

Basic level concepts

Still general, but probably used most often by people.
E.g. trees, chairs

Subordinate concepts
Most specific category.
E.g. flame-of-the-forest, sofa

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Concepts
Formal concepts
A.k.a. classical concepts Defined by specific rules
E.g. even numbers: any number that does not leave a remainder when divided by 2.

Natural concepts
Real world categories. Fuzzy, hard to find explicit rules. Often have exceptions
E.g. ostrich, kiwi are not typical birds as they cant fly.

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Concepts
Prototypes: typical, highly representative examples of a concept.
High agreement exists among people in a particular culture about which examples of a concept are prototypes, as well as which examples are not.

Ranking of Exemplars: Most to Least Typical Furniture

Concept Category Vehicle Weapon

Vegetable

Most Typical

Least Typical

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Concepts
Ranking of Exemplars: Most to Least Typical Furniture Concept Category

Vehicle

Weapon

Vegetable

Most Typical

Least Typical

Chair Sofa Table Dresser Desk Bed Bookcase Footstool Lamp Piano Radio Stove

Car Truck Bus Motorcycle Train Trolley Car Bicycle Airplane Boat Tractor Raft Sled

Gun Knife Sword Bomb Grenade Spear Cannon Bow&Arrow Club Tank Fists Rocket

Peas Carrots String beans Spinach Broccoli Asparagus Corn Cauliflower Lettuce Beets Eggplant Onion

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Concepts
Protoypes
Most prototype theories of categorisation do not consider specific exemplars to be a prototype
Abstract, average entity.

An example of a concept that closely matches the defining characteristics of the concept.

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Reasoning

Deductive Reasoning
Reasoning from the top down (from general principles to a conclusion about a specific case).
Begin with set of premises. If premises are true, then conclusion cannot be false.

Inductive Reasoning
Reasoning from the bottom up, starting with specific facts and trying to develop a general principle.
Involves likelihood, not certainty.

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Reasoning

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Reasoning

Inductive and deductive reasoning may be used at different points in the scientific process
Inductive Reasoning
Observations and previous research findings lead to the development of tentative explanations and theories.

Deductive Reasoning
Specific hypotheses are derived from theories and tested.

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Problem Solving

Problem Solving
Behaviour and processes that occur in order to attain a particular goal.

Methods
Mechanical solutions
Trial-and-error keep trying until something works. Rote applying a set of rules.
Algorithms type of rote solution, will always lead to solution if there is one.

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Problem Solving
Heuristics
Rule of thumb developed from prior experience. Does not guarantee success, but will work most of the time.
E.g. working backwards, subgoals, means-end analysis.

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Problem Solving

Problem Solving Barriers

Functional fixedness
Tendency to see common objects only in terms of their typical functions
E.g. spoons and coins can also function as screwdrivers.

Confirmation bias
People tend to remember things which support their beliefs and ignore contrary evidence.
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Problem Solving
Mental set
Tendency to persist using methods which worked before. Unable to think outside the box.

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Mental Imagery

The minds eye.

Internal representations that stand for objects or events and have a picture-like quality.
A representation of a stimulus that originates inside your brain, rather than from external sensory input.
Example: dreams

Used in everyday life

E.g., giving directions, describing things or places to people.

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Mental Imagery

Mental Rotation Task (Shepard & Metzler, 1971):

Asked people to judge whether two objects were different, or merely the same object rotated to different spatial orientations

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References
Shepard, R. N., & Metzler, J. (1971). Mental rotation of three-dimensional objects. Science, 171, 701-703. Whorf, B. L. (1956). Science and linguistics. In J. B. Carroll (Ed.),

Language, thought and reality: Selected writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf.

Cambridge: MIT Press.

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Summary

Remembering is influenced by
Retrieval cues and encoding specificity. Reconstructive processes during retrieval.

Forgetting could be due to

Encoding failure. Trace decay and disuse. Interference.

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Summary

Language can be analysed at many different levels, such as syntax, morphology, and phonology.
There is no evidence supporting a strong form of the linguistic relativity hypothesis. There is presently no concrete evidence that animals can learn and use human-like languages.
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Summary

Mental representations such as imagery and concepts are used in thought processes.
Concepts categorise objects and events around us so that it is easier for us to interact with the world.

Problem solving behaviour involve the use of mechanical solutions and heuristics, and are also sometimes hampered by functional fixedness, biases, and mental sets.
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Take Home Message

See you in PL3233 Cognitive Psychology!

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