Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive Psychology

1. The MSM

   • 1) sensory information enters the sensory store, 3-4 items can be held for half a second before they decay
   • 2) If we pay attention to any of this info, it is transferred to STM. If it is not rehearsed, the info is forgotten through decay or displacement
   • 3) If we rehearse this info, it is transferred to LTM, where info can be stored here for potentially a life time, but info can be lost through interference or failure with retrieval
   • Idea of separate stores supported by Glazer & Cunitz 1966: on a memory word list p's recalled more words from beginning and end but few from middle. Words from beginning had the chance to be rehearsed into LTM, words from end were still in STM
   • Separate stores supported by case study of HM: his STM was unaffected but his LTM was damaged
   • Useful: practical applications - helping students revise
   • Most of evidence comes from lab experiments (Glazer & Cunitz) - low ecological validity
   • Limited: Working Memory Model suggests that STM is more active and complicated
   • Criticised for over emphasising rehearsal. EG rehearsal is not always necessary for info to transfer into LTM, we can learn things without consciously trying to

2. Case Study of HM

   • After age of 16, began having major epileptic seizures
   • Underwent a bilateral mesial temporal lobe resection, which successfully controlled his epilepsy
   • The procedure had serious effects on his memory
     • Forgot daily events almost straight away
     • Could not recognise hospital staff
     • Could not learn new words
     • Lost recent memories and unable to form new ones
   • However
     • He had normal intelligence levels and personality remained the same
     • He could acquire new motor skills
     • Spatial memory was in tact
     • Sensory memory was in tact

3. Working Memory Model

   • Central Executive: Allocates data to the subsystems and deals with cognitive tasks such as mental arithmetic and problem solving
   • Visuo-spatial Sketchpad (inner ear): stores & processes info in a visual or spatial form - used for navigation
   • The Phonological Loop: deals with spoken and written material
     • Phonological Store (inner ear): linked to speech perception - holds info in speech-based from for 1-2 seconds
     • Articulatory control process (inner voice): linked to speech production - used to rehearse and store verbal info from phonological store
   • Episodic Buffer (2000): acts as a backup store which communicates with both LTM and the components of working memory
   • Supported by evidence: Baddeley 1976: p's used pointer to track moving light whilst mentally following edges of letter F & say out loud if angles were at top or bottom of image. Ps struggled to do both as they had to compete for resources from visuospatial sketchpad
   • Little testable evidence for how CE works: it has not been measured in capacity or functioning
   • Useful applications: explain reading problems, problem solving, navigation
   • Other explanations: MSM

4. Long Term Memory (Tulving)

   • Declarative: can be consciously recalled (EG info about a certain topic)
     • Semantic: memory for facts
     • Episodic: individual memories of personally experienced things
   • Non-Declarative: works at unconscious level (EG how to ride a bicycle)
   • Supported by evidence: Case study of KC - motorbike accident let to difficulty with episodic but not semantic, supporting idea of separate stores
   • Practical Applications: Knowing relationship between semantic and episodic (eg retrieval & encoding) can be helpful for revision
   • Uses many case studies so findings may not generalise
   • Testability: difficult to test semantic and episodic separately because using semantic recall in an episodic memory test is very common

5. Reconstructive Memory

   • We try and reconstruct memories on the basis of what we think probably happened, based on our previous memories and knowledge
     • We use Schemas: packets of stores info or mental representations of ino which we use to help understand the world based on previous experience
   • The War of the Ghosts 1932
     • Became shorter
     • Became more coherent: omissions/ transformations/ rationalisation

6. Classic Study: Baddeley 1966

   • Aim: To use a lab exp to investigate influence of acoustic & semantic similarity on learning & sequential recall of work lists in STM and LTM
   • Procedure: 10 words on projector for 3 secs each. Interference task of 6 8 digit sequences read out at 1 sec rate, ps given 8 secs to write out each sequence. Ps then given 1 min to write word list in order. This happened 4 times. Ps did another interference task for 15 mins of copying 8 digits at their own rate. Surprise retest of word list
   • Results: Acoustic: similar list was harder to initially learn, neither group showed signs of forgetting between test 4 and retest. Semantic: similar list showed slower learning, neither showed signs of forgetting between test 4 and retest
   • Conclusions: STM is largely acoustic. LTM encoding is largely but not exclusively semantic
   • High Reliability: Lab exp, standardised ps (eg words presented for 3 secs each)
   • Low ecological validity: artificial task and setting
   • Low generalisability: all ps from same area of UK and part of psychology subject panel
   • No ethical concerns

7. Contemporary Study: Sebastian & Hernandez Gil (2012)