Bennett
IB Psychology
Cognitive Level of Analysis
Review
Cognitive psychologyconcerns itself with the structure and functions of the mind.
Cognitive psychologistsare concerned with finding put how the mind comes to know things about the world and how it uses this knowledge.
Cognitive neurosciencecombines knowledge about the brain with the knowledge about cognitive processes.
Cognition refers to processes such as perception, thinking, problem solving, memory, language, and attention. Cognition is based on one’s mentalrepresentations of the world, such as images, words, and concepts. People have different experiences and there for they have different mental representations. Example: what is right or wrong is different for everyone.
Principles of the cognitive level of analysis
- Human beings are information processors and mental processes guide behavior.
- Mind is seen as a complex machine – rather like an intelligent, information-processing machine using hardware (the brain) and software (mentalimages or representations.)
- According to this line of thinking, information input to the mind comes via bottom-up processing – that is from the sensory system. The information is processes on the mind by top-down processing via pre-stored information in the memory.
- Cognition is important in understanding, there is a subtle relationship between how people think about themselves and how they behave – for example how they deal with challenges.
- People’s memory are not as infallible as they think, this is because of the reconstructive nature of memory. Researchers have discovered that people do not store exact copies of their experiences, but rather an outline which is filled out with information when it is recalled.
- People often have false memories, because they cannot distinguish between what they have experienced and what they have heard after the event. The brain is able to fabricate illusions so realistic, we think they are real.
- The mind can be studied scientifically by developing theories and using a number of scientific methods.
- Theories and models of cognition are discussed and continuously tested.
- New finding result in new amendments to original models, or a model or theory is rejected because evidence no longer supports it.
- Cognition is studied in the laboratory as well as in a daily context.
- Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors
- Frederic Bartlett, coined the term schema, which is a mental representation of knowledge.
- Bartlett was interested in how cultural schemas influence remembering.
- He found that people have trouble remembering a story from another culture, and that they constructed the story to fit into their own culture schema.
Cognitive Processes
Studying the Mind
Researchers have favored the controlled experiment that takes place in a laboratory, because the variables canbe controlled. The limit is that if may suffer from artificiality.
◦Other methods of research include: case studies, CT,MRI, PET, and EEG.
◦Neuroscientists can study which brain areas are active when people make decisions.
◦They also study how cognitive processes can be disrupted by brain damage – for example, amnesia or Alzheimer's disease.
◦Researchers then use their data to support or refute cognitive models – or to propose new models.
Cognitive Processes
The human mind is quite sophisticated. It can manipulate abstract symbols like words and images. These mental representations can refer to objects, ideas, and people in the real world; people use them when they think, make plans, imagine, or daydream. You have an idea of how you look somewhere in your mind – a self-representation. You also have ideas about how other people are. Mental representations are organized in categories, and the mind contains all sorts of mental representations stored in memory.
Cognitive schemas – pre-stored mental representations.
Mental representations – how we store images and ideas in memory.
- Researchers believe that what we already know (cognitive schemas) affects the way we interpret events and store knowledge in out memory.
A theory of cognitive process: schema theory
Schema - “how to score knowledge”
Schema theory – a cognitive theory about information processing.
Cognitive schema – defined as networks of knowledge, beliefs, and expectations about particular aspects of the world.
◦Schemas can describe how specific knowledge is organized and stored in memory so that it can be accessed and used when it is needed.
◦It is not possible to see a schema inside someone’s head, but using concepts like schemas help psychologists to understand and discuss what it would otherwise not be possible to do.
◦Schema theory suggests that what we already know will influence the outcome of information procession. This idea is based upon the assumption that humans are active processors of information (principle #1).
◦People do not passively respond to information. They interpret and integrate it to make sense of their experiences, but they are not always aware of it.
◦If information is missing, the brain fills in the blanks based on existing schemas, or it simply invents something that seems to fit in. This can result in mistakes – called distortions.
Office Schema
Cognitive Schemas
◦Organize information about the world with fixed and variable slots; if a slot is left out or unspecified, it is filled by a “defaultvalue” – meaning a best guess.
◦Are active recognition devices (pattern recognition)
◦Help to predict future events based on what happened before.
◦Representgeneral knowledge rather than definitions.
Schema theory and memory processes
Schema theory has been used to explain memory processes, into three main stages:
◦Encoding: transforming sensory information into meaningful memory
◦Storage: creating biological trace of the encoded information in memory, which is either consolidated or lost.
◦Retrieval: using the stored information.
It is now believed that schema processing can affect memory at all stages.
Anderson and Pichert (1978)Participants read a story about two boys playing in a house. The participants were asked to take one of two perspectives: as a potential home buyer or burglar. The story was about two boys who decided to stay home from school one day; instead they went to the house of one of them because the house was always empty on that particular day. The house was described as being isolated and located in an attractive neighborhood, but also having a leaky roof, a deck that needed repair and damp basement. The story also mentioned various objects in the house, such as a 10-speed bike, a color TV, VCR, and a rare coin collection. Participants had to recall what they remembered about the story. On the first recall the participants that took the potential buyer perspective remembered the leaky roof and the deck that needed repair. The participants who to took the burglar perspective remembered the TV, VCR and coins. On the second recall the participants were asked to change their perspectives. Now they were able to recall previously unrecalled information relevant to the new perspective. Research showed that people encoded information that was irrelevant to their prevailing schema, since those who had the buyer schema at encoding were able to recall burglar information when the schema was changed, and vice versa.
Actual Story:
[Coding: Burglar items (18); Homebuyer items (18)]
There are three color TV sets in the house. One is in the large master bedroom (which has a three piece bathroom en suite), one is in the main floor family room, and one is in Tom's bedroom. The house contains four bedrooms in all, plus an office, family room, and three washrooms. In addition to the TV, the family room contains a new stereo outfit, a microcomputer, a VCR, and a rare coin collection.
The boys enter the master bedroom. Beside the jewelry case in the closet they find Tom's father's collection of pornographic video tapes. They select their favorite (an encounter between a guy and 12 women in a park in downtown Kitchener) and go to the family room to watch it.
RECALL #1RECALL #2
Evaluation of schema theory
An abundance of research has supported the idea that schemas affect cognitive processes such as memory.
◦Theory helps people categorize information, interpret stories, and make inferences.
◦Theory helps us understand memory distortions as well as social cognition
◦Psychologists often refer to “socialschemas” when trying to explain stereotyping and prejudice.
A model of memory: the working memory model
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) were the first to suggest a basic structure of memory, with their multi-store model of memory.
◦Memory consists of a number of separate stores
◦Memory processes are sequential
◦Model is very simplistic and reflects knowledge of 1960s
Multi-store model of memory
For permanent memory storage, processes such as attention, coding, and rehearsal are essential.
You need to pay attention to something in order to remember it; you need to give the material a form which enables you to remember it. Rehearsal simply means keeping material active in memory by repeating it until it can be stored. Rehearsal plays a key role in determining what is stored in LTM.
Sensory memory – modality specific, meaning related to different senses (e.g. hearing, vision)
Short-Term Memory (STM) – capacity limited to 7 items, duration is about 6-12 seconds. Material is quickly lost if not given attention.
Long-Term Memory(LTM) – unlimited capacity, stored in outline form. LTM is vast storehouse of information – unlimited although psychologists don’t know how much can be stored. The material is not an exact copy, it’s in outline form. Memories may be distorted when retrieved, because we fill in gaps to create a meaningful memory as predicted by schema theory.
The working memory model
The central executive
The central executive is a kind of controlling system that monitors and coordinated the operations of other components, which are called slave systems. It is the most important part of the model because it is seen as a kind of CEO of the memory system. The central executive has a limitedcapacity and can process sensory information. The central executive drives the system, decides how attention is directed, allocates the resources, has no storage capacity, and has limited capacity so cannot attend to many things at once.
Baddeley has worked on the model since it was devised in 1974 and now suggests that the most important job of the central executive is attentional control. This happens in two ways:
◦The automatic level is based on habit and controlled more or less automatically by stimuli from the environment. This includes routine procedures like riding a bike to school.
◦The supervisory attentional level deals with emergencies or creates new strategies when the old ones are no longer sufficient – for example, when a car is suddenly coming at you when you are riding a bike.
The episodic buffer
The episodic buffer has general storage space for both acoustic and visual information; it integrates information from the central executive, the phonological loop, the visual sketchpad and the long-term memory. It has limited capacity.
The phonological loop
Deals with auditory information and the order of information. Baddeley (1986) divided it into two components:
◦The auditory store(the inner ear) which holds information in speech based form for 1-2 seconds.
◦The articulatory control process:Used to rehearse verbal information from the phonological store. Memory traces in the auditory store decay in 1.5 -2 seconds but can be maintained by articulatory control process.
The visuo-spatial sketchpad
Holds visual (what things look like) and spatial (relationship between things) information for a very short time.You use it when you are planning a spatial task i.e. going from your home to the college.
Dual-task techniques – also called interference experiments, a participant is asked to carry out a cognitive task that uses most of the capacity of working memory. (Example telling a story to someone, while also trying to learn a list of numbers two cognitive tasks at once). Baddeley and Hitch (1974) provide evidence for this by people being able to carry out more than one task at once where both tasks involve STM functions. Experiment had the students study a list of numbers while also reading prose.
Baddeley (1996)
Asked participants to think of random digits that bore no connection to each other (by tapping in numbers on a keyboard). Either carried out its own, or with one of the following tasks:
- Reciting the alphabet
- Counting from 1
- Alternating between letters and numbers e.g. A1 b2 c3
Generated number stream was much less random in condition 3 – Baddeley said they were competing for the same central executive resources.
Baddeley, Thompson & Buchanan (1975)- word length effect.Presented words for very brief periods of time. One condition – 5 words, one syllable, familiar. Two conditions: 5 polysyllabic words. Average correct recall over several trials showed participants remembered the short words much better. This is the ‘word length effect’.
Baddeley, Grant, Wight & Thompson (1973) - Participants were given a visual tracking task- track a moving line with a pointer at the same they were given one of two tasks:
- To describe the angle of the letter F (which system did this task involve?)
- To perform a verbal task (which system did this task involve?)
Evaluation of the model
The working model can explain why people are able to perform different cognitive tasks at the same time without disruption – known as multi-tasking.
Working memory plays an important role in learning as seen in Pickering and Gathercole (2001). In this study the Working Memory Test Battery for Children was used and found that there is an improvement performance in working memory capacity and h from the age of 5 years until about 15 years.
Memory and the Brain
Memory is the job of the brain and science is continuously exploring the way memory is organized in the human brain.
Eric Kandel – winner of Nobel Prize in 2000, he studied learning and memory at a cellular level in the sea snail aplysia, a very simple organism. He found that STM as well as LTM result in synaptic changes in the neural network. The snail’s memory is located in synapses, and changes in these synapses are important in memory formation.
Some biological factors in memory
Kandel’s research shows that learning means formation of a memory – that is growing new connections or strengthening existing connections between neurons to form neural networks. Over the years, researchers have used animals to study how areas of the brain are related to memory. Typically, animals learn to perform a specific task. Example: running through a maze, then a memory is formed. To find out what areas of the brain are involved in a specific task, researchers cut away areas of the brain involved in such a task, researchers cut away brain tissue and the animal has to run through the maze again. This procedure is called lesioning, is repeated a numner of times until the animal can no longer perform the task.
The long-term memory system
Explicit Memory - memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare, also called declarative memory.
◦Semantic memory - memory for general knowledge.
◦Episodic memory – memory for personal experiences and events.
Implicit Memory- retention independent of conscious recollection, also called procedural memory.
◦Procedural memory – non-conscious memory for skills, habits, and actions – “knowing how.”
◦Emotional memory – (not well understood) emotional memories can be formed via the limbic system and they may persist even when brain damage has destroyed other memories.
The hippocampus-neural center in limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage. Research has shown that people with damage in the hippocampus can no longer form new explicit memories, but they still can form new implicit memories.
The amygdala plays a role in the storage of emotional memories. Because emotions are used to evaluate experience, it would explain why memories based on emotional vents are remembered better.
The case of HM
In the 1940s, HM had a lobotomy performed on him to correct epileptic seizures.
After the surgery, HM was no longer able to form new long-term memories. For many years, he believed that he was 27 years old, and the year was 1953.
HM had kept his procedural memory (memory for skills) but not his episodic memory (memory of events).
Clive Wearning
Clive Wearing (May 11, 1938) is a British musicologist, conductor, and keyboardist suffering from an acute and long-lasting case of anterograde and retrograde amnesia. Specifically, this means he lacks the ability to form new memories.
On March 27, 1985, Wearing, then an acknowledged expert in early musicat the height of his career with BBC Radio, contracted a virus which normally causes only cold sores, but in Wearing's case attacked the brain. Since this point, he has been unable to store new memories. He has also been unable to control emotions and associate memories well.
Because the hippocampus, an area required to transfer memories from short-term to long-term memory is damaged, he is completely unable to form lasting new memories – his memory only lasts between 7 and 30 seconds.He spends every day 'waking up' every 20 seconds, 'restarting' his consciousness once the time span of his short term memory elapses (about 30 seconds). He remembers little of his life before 1985; he knows, for example, that he has children from an earlier marriage, but cannot remember their names. His love for his second wife Deborah, whom he married the year prior to his illness, is undiminished. He greets her joyously every time they meet, believing he has not seen her in years, even though she may have just left the room to fetch a glass of water. When he goes out dining with his wife, he can remember the name of the food (e.g. chicken); however he cannot link it with taste, as he has forgotten.