Psy270 (Cognitive Psychology) Final Exam

Front 1

What is reaction time?

Back 1

How long it takes to respond to the presentation of a stimulus.

Front 2

Donders and reaction time

Back 2

- Donders was interested in how long it takes a person to make a decision.

- He measured reaction time (how long it takes a person to respond to the presentation of a stimulus).

- He first measured simple reaction time (aforementioned), and then he measured choice reaction time, how long it takes someone to choose between stimuli - this was longer than the former.

- He subtracted simple reaction time from choice reaction time and found that choice RT was 1/10 of a second longer than simple RT.

Front 3

What is a savings curve?

Back 3

A plot of percent savings versus time. Based on Ebbinghaus' research with retention. It shows that memory drops rapidly for the first 2 days after learning, and then levels off.

Front 4

Ebbinghaus and savings

Back 4

- Ebbinghaus measured how long it took him to memorize a list of nonsense syllables.

- He allowed some time to pass (called a retention interval), and then determined how long it took him to relearn the list.

- The first time he relearned the list, it was faster than the initial learning because he had retained some memory of the list.

- He did this several times, with different lists, at different lengths of intervals from the initial learning.

- He used a measure called savings to determine how much was forgotten after a particular delay. Savings = (Original time to learn list) - (Time to relearn list after delay). He found that the longer the delay, the smaller the savings.

- A savings curve can be plotted using this data - it is a plot of percent savings vs. time.

Front 5

What is structuralism?

Back 5

Structuralism is an approach to psychology that says that our overall experience is determined by combining basic elements of experience, called sensations.

Front 6

What is analytic introspection?

Back 6

- Analytic introspection is a method used by Wundt to find the basic elements of experience (sensations) that make up the overall experience theorized by structuralists.

- It was a technique in which specially-trained subjects described experiences and thought responses to stimuli using special vocabulary.

Front 7

Wundt and structuralism

Back 7

- Structuralism is an approach to psychology that says that our overall experience is determined by combining basic elements of experience, called sensations.

- Analytic introspection is a method used by Wundt to find the basic elements of experience (sensations) that make up the overall experience theorized by structuralists.- It was a technique in which specially-trained subjects described experiences and thought responses to stimuli using special vocabulary.

Front 8

What is behaviourism?

Back 8

Behaviourism is an approach to psychology founded by John Watson.

Observable behaviour, as opposed to consciousness (which is not observable), is the main object of study. It does not go beyond behaviour to make assumptions about the nature of consciousness.

Front 9

Describe the Little Albert experiment.

Back 9

- The Little Albert experiment was conducted by Watson and Rayner.

- It involved the classic conditioning of fear into a 9-month-old boy.

- A rat was paired with a loud noise to frighten the infant, so that the infant would then associate that fear with the rat.

- Not only was Little Albert afraid of the rat, but also afraid of other furry animals and furry things. This is called generalization.

Front 10

What does the Little Albert experiment show?

Back 10

Little Albert's conditioned fear of the rat generalized to other stimuli that were like it (other furry animals and furry objects).

- This shows that there is more to the experiment than what was observed - that is, more than mere stimulus and response. The unobservable mind that behaviourism theorizes against does something that affects response in important ways.

Front 11

What is operant conditioning?

Back 11

Behaviour is strengthened by the presence of positive reinforcers or the withdrawal of negative reinforcers.

Front 12

Skinner and conditioning

Back 12

- Skinner's experiments were centred around operant conditioning, the idea that behaviour is strengthened by the presence of positive reinforcers or the withdrawal of negative reinforcers.

- Skinner showed that positively reinforcing a rat with food for pressing a bar maintained or increased the rat's rate of bar pressing.

Front 13

What is a cognitive map?

Back 13

A cognitive map is a conception in one's mind of the layout of a geographical area they have travelled.

Front 14

Tolman and rats

Back 14

- Tolman conducted an experiment in which rats were repeatedly placed in one part of the maze, and cheese was consistently placed in another specific part, so that the rats knew to turn left in that part of the maze for the cheese.

- Then, Tolman placed the rats at another part of the maze - if behaviourism was true, they would simply continue to turn left for the cheese. However, the rats turned right. They had formed a cognitive map of the maze, and used it to find the cheese.

Front 15

What does Chomsky think about children and language?

Back 15

Chomsky thinks that language is learned based on an inborn biological program - it is not just acquired or conditioned. Children can say things that they've never heard.

Front 16

What is the logic theorist?

Back 16

A machine designed to create proofs for logic problems

Front 17

Discuss Newell & Simon, and the logic theorist.

Back 17

The logic theorist was a machine designed to create proofs for logic problems, something it was thought that only humans could do. It was a "thinking machine" because it did more than simply process numbers - it thought about problems in a humanlike way.

Front 18

What questions did the Cognitive Revolution ask?

Back 18

2 questions:

(1) How much information can the mind absorb?

(2) Does the mind absorb all incoming information, or only some of it?

Front 19

What is emergence?

Back 19

A process where a larger entity or pattern arises from a complex system of smaller processes or patterns, that themselves do not exhibit the same properties of the larger entity.

This entity may be (1) immaterial, arising from material, or (2) immaterial, affecting material.

Front 20

What are the examples given in class of emergent entities?

Back 20

3 examples:

- Life – life emerges from biological systems

- Wind – emerges from weather systems

- Mind – emerges from a particular type of biological system

Front 21

What is specificity coding?

Back 21

It is the representation of a specific stimulus by firing of specifically tuned neurons specialized just to respond to a specific stimulus.

Front 22

What is population coding?

Back 22

Representation of a particular object by the patter of firing of a large number of neurons that combine together.

Front 23

What is sparse coding?

Back 23

When an object is represented by a pattern of firing of only a small group of neurons, with the majority of neurons remaining silent

Front 24

What is coding, and what are the different kinds?

Back 24

The representation of an object in the brain's neural network.

There are 3 kinds of coding:(1) population, (2) sparse, and (3) specificity.

Front 25

What is the localization of function?

Back 25

Even though each of our brains are uniquely wired, they each follow a similar structure, namely the localization of function, in which specific functions are served by specific areas of the brain.

Front 26

What is distributed representation?

Back 26

Different areas of the brain fire in different locations during certain experiences or functions.

Front 27

What does distributed representation have to do with localization of function?

Back 27

Although they appear to contradict each other, they are actually complementary.

Front 28

What is perception?

Back 28

Perception involves experiences resulting from stimulation of the senses. It is not the mere sensation (detection) of stimuli. It involves higher order processing of stimuli. It is a process of awareness.

Front 29

What is the inverse projection problem?

Back 29

The perceptual system does not begin by determining an object's projection on the retina. Instead, it begins with the retinal image and extends rays out from the eye. The image on the retina is ambiguous, meaning that it could have been caused by a number of different things. We have to figure out what caused it.

Front 30

What is ambiguity as it relates to perception?

Back 30

The retinal image of an object on the retina is ambiguous because it could have been cast by many different objects. For example, a square, a tilted trapezoid, and a tilted rectangle could all produce a square retinal image. It is up to the brain to figure out what object caused it.

Front 31

What are the basic concepts of perception?

Back 31

Involves a process similar to reasoning or problem solving Percep,ons can change based on added informa,on Percep,ons occur in conjunc,on with ac,ons It is possible that true human perceptual processes areunique to humans – has to do with the structure of ourbrains and how we problem solve

Front 32

What are the 4 theories of perceptual problem solving?

Back 32

They are:

(1) Helmholtz’s Theory of Unconscious Inference

(2) Gestalt Theories of Perceptual Organization (3) Regularities in the Environment

(4) Bayesian Inference

Front 33

What is Helmholtz’s theory of unconscious inference?

Back 33

- This is a top-down processing theory, meaning, that it has to do with perception triggered/governed by the brain as opposed to the stimuli in question.

- It theorizes that some of our perceptions are the result of unconscious assumptions we make about the world. We use existing knowledge to inform and make sense of our perceptions.

- It theorizes that one way we make sense of our perceptions is using the likelihood principle, in that we perceive the world in a way that is most likely based upon past experiences.

Front 34

What are the Gestalt theories of perceptual organization?

Back 34

- They theorize that the mind groups patterns according to principles of perceptual organization.

- These principles are:

(1) good continuation: lines tend to be seen as following the smoothest path;

(2) simplicity or (pragnanz or good figure): stimulus patterns are seen in such a way that the resulting structure is as simple as possible; and

(3) similarity: similar things appear to be grouped together; and

(4) closure: our experience with objects leads us to fill in gaps to create objects.

- They theorize that these principles are intrinsic, not learned -- but they do not account for why we have these principles.

Front 35

What is the theory of regularities in the environment?

Back 35

- This theorizes that perception is influenced by our knowledge of regularities in the environment - that is, characteristics of the environment that occur frequently.

- It theorizes 2 kinds of regularities:

(1) physical regularities, regularly occurring physical properties of the environment.

a) The oblique effect is an example of the influence of physical regularities. It is the tendency for people to more easily perceive horizontal and vertical lines than oblique (angled) lines. This is because there are more vertical and horizontal lines in our environments (trees, buildings) than there are oblique ones.

b) The light-from-above assumption is exactly that - the assumption that a light source in a given scene is above it/us. We assume that light comes from above because light in our environments (the sun, artificial lights) are above us.

(2) semantic regularities, the characteristics associated with the functions carried out in different types of scenes.

a) A scene schema is the knowledge of what a given scene typically contains. So, when one visualizes a particular scene, one also visualizes certain details about these scenes that are based on pre-existing knowledge of different kinds of scenes.

Front 36

What is Bayesian inference?

Back 36

Bayes theorized that our estimate of the probability of an outcome is determined by 2 factors:

(1) the prior probability (or prior), our initial belief about the possibility of an outcome, and

(2) the likelihood of an outcome, the extent to which the available evidence is consistent with the outcome.

Front 37

What is attention?

Back 37

Attention is the bringing of the world into awareness, selecting, enhancing, and organizing information for further processing.

It is the medium through which we experience the world

Front 38

What is the likelihood principle?

Back 38

We perceive the world in a way that is most likely based upon past experiences. This is a tenet of Helmholtz's theory of unconscious inference.

Front 39

What are the models of attention discussed in class?

Back 39

There were 5 models discussed in class.

The models of attention discussed in class were:

(1) The spotlight model,

(2) The zoom lens model,

(3) The biased competition model,

(4) The early filter model, and

(5) The late filter model.

Front 40

What is the spotlight model of attention?

Back 40

Visual selective attention is like a beam of light that selectively illuminates a region of space deemed salient.

It is purely space-based.

Front 41

What is the zoom lens model of attention?

Back 41

Attention is like a zoom-lens, where the attended region can be adjusted in size and resolution.

Front 42

What is the biased competition model of attention?

Back 42

Attention acts to bias representation at the neural level. There is competition at the neural level for representation. Instead of there being an increase in neural signal when there are two items, there is a decrease as the brain focuses on one item instead.

Front 43

What other functions does attention affect?

Back 43

Attention affects a wide range of cognitive functions - almost all of them, if not all of them.

Front 44

What is top-down attention?

Back 44

Top down attention is attention mediated by consciousness.

Front 45

What is bottom-up attention?

Back 45

Bottom-up attention is attention mediated by external stimuli.

Front 46

Compare top-down and bottom-up attention.

Back 46

Top down attention is attention mediated by consciousness.

Bottom-up attention is attention mediated by external stimuli.

Front 47

What is covert attention?

Back 47

Covert attention is "secretive" - while the eyes are focused on one thing, the attention focuses on another thing.

Front 48

What is overt attention?

Back 48

Overt attention is when it is obvious what one is paying attention to. The attention goes where the eyes go.

Front 49

Compare covert and overt attention.

Back 49

Covert attention is "secretive" - while the eyes are focused on one thing, the attention focuses on another thing.

Overt attention is when it is obvious what one is paying attention to. The attention goes where the eyes go.

Front 50

What is object-based attention?

Back 50

A space is perceived differently depending on how objects are in it. Attention spreads through an object differently than it does through multiple objects.

Front 51

What is feature-based attention?

Back 51

Attention can be mediated by features of an object or space.

Front 52

What is mind-wandering?

Back 52

Mind-wandering is the drawing of attention inward, disengaged from external tasks and the world. Attention is divided between the internal and external world.

Front 53

What is multitasking?

Back 53

Multitasking is the division of attention between 2 or more tasks. It can result in a decrease of necessary attention to either task, but can also be proof of intelligence.

Front 54

What is meditation?

Back 54

Meditation is the focusing of one's mind through concentration on one's breath.

Front 55

How does meditation affect attention?

Back 55

Meditation can strengthen attention, and subsequently improve other cognitive functions.

Front 56

How does pain relate to short-term memory?

Back 56

Pain, a seemingly instantaneous experience, is based on memory. The sharp sensation of pain occurs after the damage is done.

Front 57

What is iconic memory? What is echoic memory?

Back 57

Iconic memory is a short term sensory memory that stores all/most information that hits our visual receptors. It decays within less than a second. Echoic memory is the auditory equivalent. Iconic memory is the fastest kind of memory that we have, and it is the closest we can get to the present.

Front 58

Sperling's iconic memory experiment

Back 58

Sperling wanted to know how much information people can take in from briefly-presented stimuli.

He flashed a grid of 12 letters at participants for 50 milliseconds, and asked them to report as many letters as possible. This is called the whole report method. They reported less than half of the letters. However, some of Sperling's subjects reported seeing all of the letters, but that their perception had faded rapidly as they reported them - by the time they had reported some letters, the rest had faded.

As a result, Sperling devised a partial report method. He flashed the same grid, but played a tone after it was displayed that indicated which row of the grid the subjects needed to report. The participants got 3.3 out of 4 letters correct.

To ensure that the decrease in performance was due to memory decay rather than interference, he varied the length of the delay, and found that performance decreased as the delay between the stimulus and the report increased. This is in support of the iconic memory theory and decay.

Front 59

What is the modal model of memory?

Back 59

Atkinson and Schiffrin introduced a modal model of memory that has three parts:

(1) Sensory memory, an initial stage that holds all incoming information for a second/fractions of a second; with attention, information passes to the

(2) short term memory, which holds 5 to 7 items for 15 to 20 seconds, and is where all memory (recalled from LTM or otherwise) is outputted from. With rehearsal, the information passes to the

(3) long term memory, which can hold a large amount of information for years or even decades.

Front 60

What is the capacity of short term memory?

Back 60

3-5 items.

Front 61

What is the duration of short term memory?

Back 61

15-20 seconds or less.

Front 62

Describe the Peterson et al. experiment about the duration of the short term memory. What did Keppel et al. later observe?

Back 62

Peterson et al. asked subjects to remember three letters, and then repeat a number out loud and count down from that number by 3s. This prevented them from rehearsing the letters. This is called articulatory suppression -- speaking aloud reduces memory. Then, the experimenters said "Recall," and the subjects would have to repeat the letters they were initially told to remember.

Peterson et al. found that the longer the subjects had to count backward by 3s, the less they remembered the letters. The memory of the letters had decayed.

However, Keppel et al. looked at the experimental data and found that the subjects' memory accuracy was still high at later delays in earlier trials. The more trials they did, the less accurate the subjects were. They suggested that this was due to proactive interference, interference with memory that occurs when information we learned previously interferes with new information.

Front 63

Describe the Keppel et al. observations of the Peterson STM duration experiment.

Back 63

Keppel et al. looked at the experimental data from Johnson et al. and found that the subjects' memory accuracy was still high at later delays in earlier trials. The more trials they did, the less accurate the subjects were. They suggested that this was due to proactive interference, interference with memory that occurs when information we learned previously interferes with new information.

Front 64

What is proactive interference?

Back 64

It is the disruption of the learning of new information by prior information.

Front 65

What is retroactive interference?

Back 65

It is the disruption of the learning of information by new information.

Front 66

What is Baddeley's model of working memory?

Back 66

Baddeley concluded in his research that because people can multitask and the tasks themselves can be individually complex, the working memory must also be dynamic and consist of components that can function separately.

There are 3 parts:

(1) the phonological loop for verbal and auditory information, which consists of the a) phonological store, which holds information briefly, and b) the articulatory rehearsal process, which can keep items in the phonological store from decaying;

(2) the visuospatial sketchpad, which holds visual and spatial information; and

(3) the central executive, which coordinates the activity of the former 2 parts. It is an attention controller, which determines how attention is devoted to tasks.

Front 67

What is working memory?

Back 67

According to Baddeley, it is a limited-capacity system for temporary storage and manipulation of information for complex tasks such as comprehension, learning, and reasoning.

Front 68

What is articulatory suppression?

Back 68

It is when speaking interferes with rehearsal, thus reducing memory.

Front 69

How does attention affect working memory?

Back 69

The central executive system of Baddeley's working memory model is described as an attention controller, which determines how attention is focused on a specific task, how it is divided between tasks, and how it is switched between tasks.

Front 70

Describe the Vogel et al. experiment about the capacity of visual short term memory.

Back 70

- Vogel et al. wanted to determine how many items the working memory could hold.

- Subjects were presented with 1-8 coloured squares, and then 1 second later a second set of coloured squares. They were asked to determine if the sets were the same or different.

- Subjects were rigged up with EEG to record their brain activity throughout the task.

- Performance rapidly declined if the sets contained more than 4 squares.

-EEG brain activity increased up until about 4 squares, and then stayed the same no matter how many more squares there were.

- It was concluded that the capacity of the working memory was 3-5 items.

Front 71

Describe the Vogel et al. experiment about individual differences in capacity of visual short term memory.

Back 71

- Vogel et al. separated subjects into groups of individuals with high-capacity and individuals with low-capacity visual STM.

- Cued subjects to direct their attention to either the right or left side of an array of red bars, and determine whether the right and left were the same.

- Added blue bars that served as nothing but a distraction - subjects had to focus on red bars.

- High-capacity individuals showed little to no difference in performance.

- Low-capacity individuals showed a heavy decrease in performance.

- Concluded that there are individual differences in visual STM.

Front 72

What is mental imagery?

Back 72

It is the ability to recreate the sensory world in the absence of physical stimuli. It does not just apply to vision.

Front 73

What is the imagery debate? What are the competing theories of mental imagery?

Back 73

- The imagery debate is a debate about whether mental imagery is based on spatial mechanisms, or on mechanisms related to language.

- The two competing theories are spatial imagery theory and propositional imagery theory.

(1) In spatial imagery theory, mental images are represented like visual pictures. Mental imagery contains a spatial representation, in which different parts of an image correspond to locations in space.

(2) Propositional imagery theory argues that although we experience imagery as spatial, we don't necessary represent it as spatial. Instead, the spatial experience of mental images are epiphenomenal, meaning they accompany the real mechanism but aren't actually part of the mechanism.

Front 74

How are mental imagery and memory related?

Back 74

Mental imagery plays an important role in (and shares mechanisms with) long term memory.

Front 75

What is the different between short term memory and long term memory?

Back 75

The short term memory extends backward in time about 30 seconds, while the long term memory extends from greater than 30 seconds to the beginning of one's life.

Front 76

What is long term memory (LTM)?

Back 76

Long term memory is the system responsible for storing information for long periods of time. It is an archive of information about past events and knowledge we have learned.

Front 77

What is the primacy effect?

Back 77

It is more likely for one to remember words at the beginning of a list, because by the time one is asked to recall a list, these words could have been rehearsed and transferred into the LTM.

Front 78

What is the recency effect?

Back 78

It is more likely for word at the end of a list to be remembered, because these words are still in the STM and are therefore easy to remember.

Front 79

What is the levels of processing theory?

Back 79

The levels of processing theory suggests that memory depends on the depth of processing. The "deeper" the level of processing, the better memory is encoded (transferred to the LTM).

Front 80

What are the criticisms of the levels of processing theory?

Back 80

It is difficult to define what is shallow processing and what is deep processing.

Front 81

What is the method of loci?

Back 81

It is a strategy for remembering a list of items that involves "placing" them along a familiar spatial/geographic route.

Front 82

What are the theories of forgetting?

Back 82

There are 2 theories of forgetting:

(1) The decay theory, and

(2) The interference theory.

Front 83

What is the decay theory of forgetting?

Back 83

It theorizes that memory fades passively with time - it becomes less available with the passage of time.

Front 84

What is the interference theory of forgetting?

Back 84

It theorizes that distracting information actively prevents information from being consolidated.

It manifests in two ways:

(1) Proactive interference is when the distracting material occurs prior to the information studied. Old information confuses the learning of new information.

(2) Retroactive interference is when the distracting material occurs after the studied information. New information confuses the learning of prior information.

Front 85

What are explicit and implicit LTM?

Back 85

- Explicit LTM is consciously acquired long term memory. The explicit LTM encodes (1) semantic (facts and knowledge) and (2) episodic (personal events) memory.

- The hippocampus in the medial temporal lobe is implicated in explicit LTM.

- Implicit LTM is unconsciously acquired long term memory. Implicit LTM encodes procedural memory, and is involved in priming and conditioning.

The basal ganglia and the cerebellum are implicated in the implicit LTM.

Front 86

What does the explicit LTM encode? What parts of the brain does it involve?

Back 86

The explicit LTM encodes (1) semantic (facts and knowledge) and (2) episodic (personal events) memory.

The hippocampus in the medial temporal lobe is implicated in explicit LTM.

Front 87

What does the implicit LTM encode? What is it involved in? What parts of the brain does it involve?

Back 87

Implicit LTM encodes procedural memory.

It is involved in priming and conditioning.

The basal ganglia and the cerebellum are implicated in the implicit LTM.

Front 88

Describe patient HM (Henry Molaison).

Back 88

- Patient HM underwent a surgery to remove his hippocampus and some surrounding structures because they were causing him to have severe seizures.

- It was found that his long-term memory was almost completely gone. He had forgotten a decade's worth of memories, and wasn't able to form and new LTM. It was concluded that the hippocampus was an integral part of LTM.

- However, he did have short term memory, and could retain information for up to 15 minutes if he was allowed to rehearse.

Front 89

How is implicit LTM involved in amnesia?

Back 89

It remains intact. According to research, procedural memory, priming, and conditioning are all relatively unaffected.

Front 90

What is anterograde amnesia? How is cognition affected?

Back 90

It is an inability to form new memories. Existing information cannot be updated.

The STM remains intact, and retains information for up to 30 seconds.

Implicit memory remains intact, but gets more impaired leading up to the time of the injury.

Other cognitive functions remain intact.

Front 91

What is retrograde amnesia? How is cognition affected?

Back 91

It is the forgetting of events that occurred prior to the memory loss.

Implicit LTM is unaffected by retrograde amnesia.

Front 92

What are single and double dissociation?

Back 92

In order to say two functions are truly independent, we have to show that two different patterns of symptoms are possible with distinct neural damage.

Double dissociation means that given 2 brain regions and 2 functions, we can reliably associate one function with one area and the other with the other area. That is:

(1) Function A does not occur when only Area A is damaged, and does when only Area B is damaged, and

(2) Function B does not occur when only Area B is damaged, and does when only Area A is damaged, so

(3) Area A is responsible for Function A, and Area B is responsible for Function B.

In single dissociation, given 2 functions and 2 brain areas, only 1 function can be associated with a particular brain area, while the other could be associated with either (or neither). This is also done through lesioning.

Front 93

Describe patient KF and his STM deficits.

Back 93

Patient KF had damage to his parietal lobe.

Patient KF had 2 STM deficits:

(1) a reduced digit span, and

(2) no recency effect.

However, his LTM remained intact - he could remember his life before his accident, and could form new memories.

Front 94

What is episodic memory?

Back 94

It is the memory of personal events.

Front 95

What is semantic memory?

Back 95

It is the memory of facts and knowledge.

Front 96

Compare episodic and semantic memory.

Back 96

(1) They contain different kinds of information. Episodic memory is the memory of personal events, while semantic memory is the memory of facts and knowledge.

(2) They differ in the experience of retrieval. Episodic recollection is like "mental time travel", while semantic recollection is like accessing a database of facts.

Front 97

What is semantic dementia?

Back 97

It is caused by damage to the anterior temporal lobe. SD patients are only able to describe things very generally - if asked for specifics, they cannot respond. For example, one can ask an SD patient what they like to do, but they can't ask them if they have any hobbies, because this would require them to retrieve the definition of a hobby.

They can only identify very common things, and cannot remember specific details about objects. For example, if asked to recall the colour of a carrot, they may not know.

Front 98

What is the Deese-Roediger-McDermott procedure?

Back 98

- It is used to study false memory in humans. It involves the oral presentation of a list of words, and then requires the subject to remember as many words as possible.

- Studies show that subjects recall a related but non-presented word, with the same frequency as they remember presented words. This indicates a false memory.

Front 99

How is imagination related to LTM amnesia?

Back 99

Some LTM amnesic cases have reported being unable to imagine future events.

The constructive episodic simulation hypothesis suggests that episodic memories are extracted and recombined to construct simulations of new events. Because episodic memory is associated with the hippocampus and the LTM, LTM amnesic patients can't construct simulations.

The scene construction hypothesis suggests that the primary function of the hippocampus is supporting coherent scene representations. So, any mental imagery that needs a scene context (past memories, future events, fictitious events) cannot be supported by LTM amnesic patients.

Front 100

What is the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis?

Back 100

It suggests that episodic memories are extracted and recombined to construct simulations of new events. Because episodic memory is associated with the hippocampus and the LTM, LTM amnesic patients can't construct simulations.

Front 101

What is the scene reconstruction hypothesis?

Back 101

It suggests that the primary function of the hippocampus is supporting coherent scene representations. So, any mental imagery that needs a scene context (past memories, future events, fictitious events) cannot be supported by LTM amnesic patients.

Front 102

What is the encoding and retrieval model?

Back 102

It is a model that describes the process of the use of the LTM.

Encoding is the process used to get information into the LTM.

Retrieval is the process of transferring information from the LTM into the STM/WM.

Front 103

What is encoding?

Back 103

Encoding is the process used to get information into the LTM.

Front 104

What is retrieval?

Back 104

Retrieval is the process of transferring information from the LTM into the STM/WM.

Front 105

What are the kinds of encoding we learned in lecture?

Back 105

There were 2 kinds:

Maintenance rehearsal, the mere repetition of a piece of information without any consideration of its meaning or making connections with other information. This kind of rehearsal typically results in poor memory.

Elaborative rehearsal is the repetition of a piece of information while considering its meaning and relating it to other information. This kind of rehearsal typically results in better memory.

Front 106

What is maintenance rehearsal?

Back 106

It is the mere repetition of a piece of information withoutany consideration of its meaning or making connections with other information. This kind of rehearsal typically results in poor memory.

Front 107

What is elaborative rehearsal?

Back 107

Elaborative rehearsal is the repetition of a piece of information while considering its meaning and relating it to other information. This kind of rehearsal typically results in better memory.

Front 108

What is a mnemonic? Which mnemonics did we discuss in class?

Back 108

A mnemonic is a strategy that aids in our ability to remember.

We discussed 4 mnemonics in class:

(1) Visual imagery, in which visual images are used to remember words,

(2) Self-reference effect, in which words are remembered better when related to oneself,

(3) Generation effect, in which words generated by someone are better remember than words that are simply presented,

(4) Organizing to-be-remembered information, in which words that are similar or have a similar context are organized together for better remembering.

Front 109

What is the visual imagery mnemonic? Describe the Bower et al. experiment that involves it and paired associate learning.

Back 109

It is a mnemonic in which visual images are used to remember words.

- Bower et al. conducted an experiment in which groups learned a list of pairs of words. This is called paired associate learning.

- One group silently repeated the pairs while the other group was asked to make visual images in which the words interacted with each other.

- The latter group remembered the word pairs better.

Front 110

What is the self-reference effect? Describe the Rogers et al. experiment and the Symons et al. meta-analysis.

Back 110

This is a mnemonic in which words are remembered better when related to oneself.

- Rogers et al. conducted an experiment in which subjects read a question for three seconds and were presented a word. They answered yes if the word was related to the question and no if it wasn't.

- There were 4 types of questions, one of which was a self-reference question (i.e., "Does this word describe you?").

- Afterward, Rogers tested his subjects' recall by asking which words they had responded "yes" to. Subjects best remembered the ones related to the self-reference questions.

Front 111

What is the generation effect?

Back 111

It is a mnemonic in which words generated by someone are better remember than words that are simply presented.

Front 112

What is organizing information to-be-remembered?

Back 112

It is a mnemonic in which words that are similar or have a similar context are organized together for better remembering.

Front 113

What is retrieval practice? Describe the Roediger et al. experiment about the testing effect.

Back 113

It is the practicing of retrieving information from the LTM.

- Roediger et al. did an experiment in which they had subjects read a prose passage. After a delay, they were either tested on the passage, or allowed to read the passage again.

- Then, after a delay of 5 min, 2 days, or 1 week, all subjects were given a recall test. There were no differences in the 5 minute condition but in the 1 week condition, the tested group fared much better than the rereading group.

- The enhanced performance due to retrieval practice is called the testing effect.

Front 114

What is cued recall?

Back 114

Cued recall is the use of words or other stimuli to aid in the recall of information stored in the LTM.

This results in increased performance over free recall.

Front 115

What is encoding specificity?

Back 115

We encode information along with its context. For example, if you're going to sit at a desk for an exam, you're more likely to remember what you studied if you studied at a desk as opposed to on your bed or on the floor.

Front 116

What are the contexts of encoding specificity we discussed in lecture?

Back 116

There are 3 contexts we discussed:

(1) Environment, in which best recall occurs when encoding and retrieval take place in the same physical environment (i.e., study at a desk, test at a desk)

(2) Emotional landscape, in which learning is associated with a particular internal state (this is called state-dependent learning), and thus their retrieval is best when they are in that same internal state, and

(3) Cognitive landscape, in which the kind of cognitive processing done in encoding and retrieval is the same (this is called transfer-appropriate processing).

Front 117

What is state-dependent learning?

Back 117

It is learning in which learning is associated with a particular internal state, and thus one's retrieval is best when they are in that same internal state.

Front 118

What is transfer-appropriate processing?

Back 118

It is a kind of processing in which the kind of cognitive processing done in encoding and retrieval is the same, allowing for better recall.

Front 119

What is consolidation?

Back 119

It is the process that transforms memories from a fragile state in which they can be disrupted, to a more permanent state in which they are resistant to disruption.

Front 120

What is synaptic consolidation? What is systems consolidation? Compare them.

Back 120

Synaptic consolidation involves structural change at the synapse. It takes place over minutes or hours.

Systems consolidation involves the gradual reorganization of neural circuits in the brain over months or years.

They are not steps; they occur together at different levels of the nervous system.

Front 121

Talk about Hebb and synaptic consolidation.

Back 121

Hebb theorizes that learning and memory are represented in the brain by physiological changes that take place at the synapse.

A repeated activity can strengthen the synapse by causing structural changes and increased firing.

The changes that occur can provide a neural record of the experience.

Front 122

What is long-term potentiation (LTP)?

Back 122

It is the enhanced firing of neurons after repeated stimulation.

Front 123

What are the types of systems consolidation discussed in lecture?

Back 123

There are 2:

(1) The standard model of consolidation, and

(2) The multiple trace theory.

Front 124

What is the standard model of consolidation?

Back 124

- It is a model of systems consolidation.

- It theorizes that incoming information activates a number of areas in the cortex. Activation is distributed across the cortex because memories typically involve many sensory and cognitive areas.

- It theorizes that the major mechanism of consolidation is the hippocampus, which replays the neural activity associated with the memory i. a process called reactivation. Over time, the hippocampus is less and less involved as direct connections in the cortex are formed.

- There is disagreement about how involved the hippocampus - whether it is involved just in the beginning of consolidation, or if it continues to be important.

Front 125

What is the multiple trace theory of consolidation?

Back 125

- It is a model of systems consolidation.

- It theorizes that the hippocampus is involved in the retrieval of episodic memories, even if they originated long ago.

- Experimental evidence supports this - hippocampus activity during retrieval of recent and remote episodic memories.

Front 126

Compare the standard model of consolidation and the multiple trace theory.

Back 126

The former theorizes that the hippocampus is involved in the continual reactivation of memories until direct connections in the cortex are formed - at which point, researchers are unsure if the hippocampus remains involved or if it is only involved at the beginning of consolidation. The latter theorizes that the hippocampus retrieves remote episodic memories, and experimental evidence suggests that the hippocampus is involved with both recent and remote episodic memories.

Front 127

What is reconsolidation?

Back 127

When a memory is retrieved, it becomes fragile again, and it needs to be consolidated again.

This is important because when a memory is in the fragile state, it can be changed or eliminated. So, retrieving a memory doesn't just allow us to access it. It also allows us to modify or forget it.

Front 128

What is cued fear conditioning? How does it involve reconsolidation? Discuss the Nader et al. experiment with rats

Back 128

- Nader et al. first conditioned a rat to freeze at the sound of a tone by repeatedly pairing it with an electric shock. Thus, memory for the tone-shock pairing is indicated when the rat freezes to the tone.

- Nader et al.

- Following this, there are 3 conditions, each spanning 3 days. In each of them, the rat was injected with a drug that prevented memory reconsolidation.

In Condition (1), the shock-tone pairing was administered on Day 1 and the drug is administered right away, before even consolidation has occurred. On Day 3, the tone is administered and the rat does not freeze. This indicates that the memory did not consolidate.

In Condition (2), the shock-tone was administered on Day 1, and the rat does not receive the drug until Day 2. On Day 3, the tone is played and the rat freezes, meaning that it remembers the shock-tone.

In Condition (3), the shock-tone was administered on Day 1. On Day 2, the tone is played, and the rat freezes. The drug is immediately injected. On Day 3, the tone is played again, and the rat does not freeze. This means that when the memory was retrieved on Day 2, it returned to a fragile state, and was disturbed by the drug before it could be reconsolidated.

Front 129

What are autobiographical memories?

Back 129

Memory for specific experiences from our lives, which can include both semantic and episodic components.

Front 130

What is the amygdala implicated in?

Back 130

Fear and aggression.

Front 131

What does stimulation of the amygdala cause?

Back 131

Fear, anxiety, increased vigilance, and aggression.

Front 132

What does lesioning the amygdala do in animals? What does it do in humans?

Back 132

Animals with amygdala lesions express decreased fear and aggression.

People with lesioned amygdalae show decreased emotional memory.

Front 133

What diseases are associated with the amygdala?

Back 133

There are 2 diseases associated with the amygdala.

(1) Klüver-Bucy syndrome, namely characterized by hypersexuality - but also involves oral fixation, memory loss, placidity, and a lack of fear;

(2) Urbach-Wiethe syndrome, a genetic disease in which people have a lack of fear and cannot recognize fear in others.

Front 134

What are the effects of emotion on memory?

Back 134

Emotion has 2 effects on memory:

(1) Emotion enhances memory; emotional events are remembered more vividly (e.g., flashbulb memories), and emotion even improves memory over time.

(2) Emotion disrupts memory;

Front 135

What is a flashbulb memory?

Back 135

It is a memory for experiences and events that were highly shocking and emotionally charged. (e.g., the memory of seeing the second plane crash into the Twin Towers). It is highly emotional, vivid, and detailed.

It is important to remember that flashbulb memories are for people who heard about the event, not people who were present.

Front 136

Discuss the Talarico et al. experiment with flashbulb memories and everyday memories.

Back 136

- Talarico et al. asked college students several questions about 9/11. Some of the questions were about the actual attacks (i.e., "Where did you first hear the news?") and others were about everyday experiences in the days leading up to 9/11.

- Then, the subjects were tested either 1 week, 6 weeks, or 32 weeks later about the terrorist attacks or the everyday experience they described.

- The subjects all remembered fewer details and made more errors at longer intervals after the events - there was little difference between flashbulb and everyday memories.

- However, the difference was that people's belief that their memories remained accurate remained high for flashbulb memories and dropped for everyday memories.

Front 137

Discuss the Rimmele et al. experiment with memory, emotions, and photos.

Back 137

Rimmele et al. conducted an experiment in which they showed subjects 60 photos, each bordered with 1 of 4 colours. 30 of the photos were neutral, and 30 were negative.

- An hour later, they showed the subjects the same 60 photos along with 60 new ones, and asked the subjects to do 3 things:

(1) rate each photo based on how confident they were that they had seen it before,

(2) say whether they remembered the photo, or knew they had seen it but didn't remember it, or if it was a new photo, and

(3) for the pictures they rated as "remember", indicate the colour of the frame that had surrounded the original photo.

- Subjects were more likely to say that they remembered the negative photos than the neutral ones.

- Over 2/3rds of the negative photos received the highest confidence rating, but only half of the neutral photos received the same rating.

- However, despite these two things, subjects were less likely to correctly name the colour of the frame around the original photo.

- Researchers concluded that while emotions enhance our ability to remember that an event occurred and general things about it, it does not enhance our memory for details.

Front 138

What is the narrative rehearsal hypothesis?

Back 138

We may remember shocking events not because of some special neural mechanism, but because we rehearse the events after they occur.

Front 139

What is the "war of the ghosts" experiment?

Back 139

- Bartlett had his subjects read a story called The War Of The Ghosts, a Canadian folk tale.

- After they had read it, Bartlett asked them to recall it as accurately as possible.

- He then used the technique of repeated reproduction, in which he asked them to recall the story at longer and longer intervals.

- The longer the interval, the shorter the recalled version of the story was than the original, and the more omissions and errors were made.

- More importantly, the errors made the recalled story more consistent with the subjects' culture than the original.

Front 140

What is source monitoring?

Back 140

It is the process of determining the origins of our memories, knowledge, or beliefs.

Front 141

What is a source monitoring error?

Back 141

It is the misidentification of the source of a memory.

Front 142

Discuss the "becoming famous" experiment by Jacoby et al.

Back 142

- Jacoby tested subjects' ability to distinguish between famous and non-famous names.

- Jacoby had subjects read non-famous, made-up names.

- Then, subjects were split into 2 groups.

(1) The immediate test group, in which the subjects were asked to pick out famous names from a list that also contained the previous nonfamous names in it as well as new nonfamous names. Before they did the test they were told that the first list they were given was nonfamous names.

- Because they did the test immediately after seeing the list, accuracy was high.

(2) The delayed test group was tested 24 hours after seeing the nonfamous list. They were also told the initial list was nonfamous. However, this group was more likely to indicate that the old nonfamous names were famous.

- This experiment is an example of source monitoring error.

Front 143

What is confabulation? What neural regions and cognitive processes are involved?

Back 143

- It is a range of errors in memory as well as distortions in other cognitive domains.

- It results from damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

- There are 2 cognitive processes involved:

(1) Disturbed chronology, or the mixing up or mixing together of timelines, and

(2) Impaired strategic retrieval, or the retrieval of the wrong memory and a failure to check that it is correct.

Front 144

How do inferences impact memory? Provide examples.

Back 144

- Memory can be influenced by inferences people make based on their experiences or knowledge.

- Pragmatic inference occurs when a person reads a sentence that leads them to expect something that is not explicitly stated in the sentence.

Front 145

What is pragmatic inference?

Back 145

It occurs when a person reads a sentence that leads them to expect something that is not explicitly stated in the sentence.

Front 146

What is a schema?

Back 146

They are adaptable associative networks of knowledge that can be applied to multiple similar experiences.

Front 147

What is a script?

Back 147

It is a conception of a particular sequence of actions that usually occurs during a particular experience (i.e., when we go to a restaurant, we are seated, we order from a menu, we wait for our meal, etc).

Front 148

What is the difference between a schema and a script? What are their advantages and disadvantages?

Back 148

A schema is to a script as an aspect is to a sequence.

They can influence memory.

The advantages are that (1) they can fill in the blanks, and (2) they allow for creativity in problem-solving and decision-making.

The disadvantage is that they can result in source monitoring errors - did an aspect of the memory come from the event, or from a schema/script?

Front 149

What is the SLIMM model?

Back 149

It is a neurological model of encoding schema-congruent and schema-incongruent information.

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is engaged when the to-be-encoded information is schema-congruent - that is, congruent with an existing schema. It encodes gist-like information, since details are not needed. It inhibits the MTL from creating episodic memories.

The medial temporal lobe (MTL) (i.e., the hippocampus) holds schema-incongruent information. It encodes rich, episodic details.

Front 150

What is a false memory?

Back 150

It's... a memory that is false.

Front 151

What is the misinformation effect? What explanations are there for it?

Back 151

Misleading information presented after a person witnesses an event can change how that person describes the event later.

There are 2 explanations for the misinformation effect:

(1) Retroactive interference, in which the presentation of new information disrupts encoding of previous information, and

(2) Source monitoring error, in which a person fails to distinguish the source of a memory (the actual event vs. the misleading information).

Front 152

What is a phoneme?

Back 152

It is the shortest segment of speech, that if changed, changes the meaning of a word. Think phon- like -phone like "sound".

Front 153

What is a morpheme?

Back 153

It is the smallest unit of language that has a definable meaning or a grammatical function.

Front 154

What is statistical learning?

Back 154

It is the taking-in of data (in the case of language, sounds) calculating probabilities, and making predictions, estimates, and decisions.

Front 155

What are transitional probabilities?

Back 155

It is the learning of sound pairs that go together in words in a language. This varies from language to language.

Front 156

What is the phonemic restoration effect?

Back 156

It occurs when phonemes are perceived in speech when a phoneme is covered up by an extraneous noise.

Front 157

How is word frequency related to language learning?

Back 157

- Words that we experience more frequently are processed more quickly.

- Words that we experience as occurring together more frequently are also processed more quickly.

Front 158

What is a lexical decision task?

Back 158

Participants need to make a decision about whether a string of letters they are presented make up an English word or a nonsense word.

Front 159

Discuss EEG and semantic and syntax violations.

Back 159

We have implicit expectations about syntax and semantics, which we have learned.

EEG studies show that we have an automatic neural reaction to violations of these expectations.

Front 160

How does language representation in the brain differ for bilingual individuals?

Back 160

It depends on when the second language was learned.

Late bilinguals (who learned the language after the critical period) show distinct representation of the second language in the Broca's area.

Early bilinguals (who learned during the critical period) show overlap between the two.

There is no difference in the Wernicke's area for early and late bilinguals.

Front 161

What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

Back 161

The nature of a culture's language can affect the way the people who speak it think.

Front 162

Discuss Winawer et al. and Russian-speaking and English-speaking subjects.

Back 162

Both English and Russian subjects saw 3 blue squares in a triangular orientation. The two squares on the bottom were either both labelled siniy, or one was labelled siniy and the other was labelled goluboy. These are Russian words. They were asked to pick which shade of blue of the two on the bottom matched the blue square on top.

- Russian speakers responded more quickly in the siniy/goluboy condition than in the siniy/siniy condition.

- English speakers showed no difference in response between the two conditions.

Front 163

What are the theories of how information is organized in the mind?

Back 163

There are 3 theories:

(1) Hierarchical, a kind of organization in which larger, more general categories are divided into smaller, more specific categories, creating levels of categories.

(2) Semantic, in which concepts are arranged into networks (as opposed to necessarily in a hierarchy).

(3) Connectionist, a dynamic model in links between nodes represent the transfer of information between them.

Front 164

What is inductive reasoning?

Back 164

Inductive reasoning is reasoning based on observations, or reaching conclusions from evidence.

Front 165

What is the availability heuristic?

Back 165

It states that events that are more easily remembered as judged are judged as being more probable than events that are less easily remembered.

For example, many plane crashes were reported in 2015. Does this mean that plane crashes are more common than car crashes? Absolutely not.

Front 166

What is the representativeness heuristic? What do people ignore in favour of this heuristic?

Back 166

It states that the probability that A is a member of class B can be determined by how well the properties of A resemble the properties we usually associate with B.

When it comes to determining which people belong to which groups or professions, people often ignore:

(1) the base rate of a population in favour of the representativeness heuristic - that is, the relative number of different classes in the population.

(2) the conjunction rule, which states that the probability of the conjunction of two events AB cannot be higher than the probability of event A or event B (i.e., it is more likely for a person to have a Corvette than it is for them to have a red Corvette).

Front 167

What is a heuristic?

Back 167

They are "rules of thumb" that are likely to provide the correct answer to a problem, but are not foolproof.

Front 168

What is expected utility theory?

Back 168

- It assumes that people are basically rational.

- It theorizes that if people are given all of the relevant information, they will make a decision that results in the maximum expected utility (outcomes that achieve a person's goals).

Front 169

What are expected emotions?

Back 169

Expected emotions are emotions that people predict they will feel for a particular outcome. Expected emotions are one of the determinants of risk aversion - the tendency to avoid taking risks. One of the things that increases risk aversion is the tendency to believe that a particular loss will have a greater impact than a gain of the same size.

Front 170

Discuss the Kermer et al. experiment about expected emotions.

Back 170

- Kermer et al. did an experiment in which they compared people's expected emotions with their actual emotions.

- They gave subjects $5 and told them that base don a coin flip, they would either win an additional $5 or lose $3.

- Subjects rated their happiness before the experiment started, and then predicted how their happiness would change if they won the coin toss or lost it.

- After the coin toss, the subjects rated their happiness again.

- The results showed that subjects greatly overestimated their unhappiness at losing, and slightly overestimated their happiness at winning.

Front 171

What are incidental emotions?

Back 171

Incidental emotions are emotions that are not caused by having the make a decision. They can be related to a person's disposition, something that happened earlier in the day, or the general environment.

Front 172

Discuss the Lerner et al. experiment involving incidental emotions.

Back 172

- Lerner et al. provide an example of how emotions can affect the economic decisions of establishing selling and buying prices.

- Subjects viewed 1 of 3 film clips that either elicited sadness, disgust, or nothing (neutral). Subjects were also asked to write about how they would feel if there were in the situation shown in the clip.

- They then gave subjects a set of highlighters and determined (1) the price the subjects were willing to sell the set for (sell condition), and (2) the price at which they would be willing to choose the set instead of accepting money (choice condition) - which is roughly equivalent to setting the price they would pay for it.

- The disgust and sadness groups were willing to sell the set for less than the neutral group.

- The sadness group were willing to pay more for the set than the other 2 groups.

Front 173

Discuss the Tversky et al. experiment involving risk strategies and the framing effect.

Back 173

Tversky et al. devised 2 situations in which a disease outbreak is expected to kill 600 people. In each situation 2 programs have been proposed to combat the disease.

- In situation 1, a) 200 people will be saved if A, and b) 1/3 possibility that 600 people will be saved, and 2/3 possibility that no one will be saved if B.

- In situation 2, a) 400 people will die if C, and b) 1/3 possibility that no one dies, and 2/3 possibility that 600 people will die if D.

- 72% of people picked A in sit. 1. This suggests a risk aversion strategy.

- 78% of people picked D in sit. 2. This suggests a risk taking strategy.

However, the four programs are identical pairs. All that changed between the two was the framing of the choices.

Front 174

What is the framing effect?

Back 174

Decisions are influenced by how the choices are stated, or framed.

Front 175

What is deductive reasoning?

Back 175

In deductive reasoning, we determine if a conclusion logically follows from statements called premises.

Front 176

What is a syllogism?

Back 176

A syllogism consists of two premises, followed by a conclusion (i.e., If A, and if B, then C).

Front 177

What are categorical syllogisms?

Back 177

The premises and conclusion are all statements that begin with All, No, or Some.

Front 178

What is validity in relation to syllogisms?

Back 178

A syllogism is valid when the form of the syllogism indicates that its conclusion follows logically from its two premises. This does not mean that the syllogism is true. It only means that it is valid. Likewise, if a syllogism is valid, that doesn't mean that it is true.

Front 179

What are conditional syllogisms?

Back 179

Conditional syllogisms follow the form "if... then".

Front 180

What is the Wason 4-card problem?

Back 180

Lmao