Chapter 6
Thinking: Memory,
Cognition, and Language
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Terms
Cognitive Psychology
Memory
Sensory Memory
Short-term memory
Long-term memory
Chunk
Rehearsal
Declarative memory
Procedural memory
Semantic memory
Episodic memory
Recall
Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon Recognition
Levels-of-processing theory
Explicit memory Implicit memory Flashbulb memories Constructive processes
Schemas Autobiographical memories
Decay
Interference
Cue-dependent forgetting Proactive interference
Retroactive interference
Thinking
Mental imagines
Concepts Prototypes
Algorithm
Heuristic
Means-ends analysis
Functional Fixedness
Mental set
Language
Babble
Telegraphic Speech
Overgeneralization
Learning-theory approach to language development Universal grammar
Nativist approach to language development
Linguistic-relativity hypothesis
Language-acquisition device
Interactionist approach to language development
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2
The Foundations of Memory
Module 18
• Learning Outcomes
– Identify sensory memory
– Define short-term memory
– Define long-term memory
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Sensory, Short-Term, and Long-Term
Memory
• Memory: the process by which we encode,
store, and retrieve information
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Sensory memory
• Sensory memory: initial, momentary storage
of information; lasts only an instant; stores
almost exact replicas of all sensory stimuli
experienced by that person
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Short-term memory
• Short-term memory: second stage of
memory; holds information for 15-25 seconds
– Capacity of 7 +/- 2 chunks (meaningful grouping of
stimuli that can be stored as a unit in short-term
memory)
– Rehearsal: the repetition of information in shortterm memory
• repetitive rehearsal keeps information in short-term,
• elaborative rehearsal moves information to long-term
memory
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Long-term memory
• Long-term memory: third stage of memory;
stores information on a relatively permanent
basis, but can be difficult to retrieve
– Declarative memory - is memory for factual information
and can be divided into procedural memory which refers
to memory for skills and habits
– Episodic memory - which is memory for events that occur
in a particular time, place or context.
– Procedural memory - (non-declarative) refers to memory
for skills and habits.
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Recap
•
•
•
•
•
Sensory memory, corresponding to each of the sensory systems, is the first place
where information is saved.
Sensory memories are very brief, but they are precise, storing a nearly exact
replica of a stimulus.
Roughly seven (plus or minus two) chunks of information can be transferred and
held in short-term memory. Information in short-term memory is held from 15-25
seconds and, if not transferred to long-term memory, is lost.
Memories are transferred into long-term storage through rehearsal. If memories
are transferred into long-term memory, they become relatively permanent.
Long-term memory can be viewed in terms of memory modules, each of which is
related to separate memory systems in the brain. For instance, we can distinguish
between declarative memory and procedural memory. Declarative memory is
further divided in episodic memory and semantic memory.
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/stm0.html http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/games/memory-game
http://neutralx0.net/home/mini04.html
http://www.pbs.org/saf/1402/video/watchonline.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grZuwo_YlY0&feature=related
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8
Recall and Forgetting
Module 19
• Learning Outcomes
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Explain retrieval cues
Discuss levels of processing
Compare and contrast implicit and explicit memory
Define flashbulb memories
Describe the constructive process of memory
Define forgetting
Explain why we forget information
Compare and contrast proactive and retroactive
interference
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Retrieval Cues
• Retrieval cue: a stimulus that allows you to more easily
recall a long-term memory because it is connected to
that memory
• Retrieval cues are important when we are making an effort
to recall information, as opposed to recognizing material
stored in memory.
• Recall: specific information must be retrieved from
memory
• Recognition: when presented with a stimulus, you
determine whether you’ve been exposed to it
previously, or you identify the correct information from
a list of alternatives
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Levels of Processing
One determinant of how well memories are recalled is
the way in which material is first perceived, processed,
and understood.
– Levels-of-processing theory: emphasizes the degree to which new
material is mentally analyzed; the greater the intensity of initial
processing, the more likely we are to remember the information
Information to which we pay greater attention is processed more thoroughly,
therefore it is at a deeper level, and less apt to be forgotten.
– Rote memorization: is unlikely to produce long-term recollection,
however thinking about terms and reflecting on how they relate to
information we already know brings about more effective long-term
recall.
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Explicit and Implicit Memory
The fact that people can sometimes recall information
of which we are unaware. This has led to speculation
that two forms of memory may exist:
– Explicit memory: intentional or conscious recollection of
information
• Example – recalling the name of someone you met last week
– Implicit memory: memories of which people are not
consciously aware, but which can affect subsequent
performance and behavior
• Example – automatic skills like jumping out of the way of a car
about to hit you
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Flashbulb Memories
• Flashbulb memories: specific,
important, or surprising events
that are so vivid in memory it is
as if they represented a
snapshot of the event
• Flashbulb memories illustrate a
more general phenomenon
about memory: exceptional
memories are more easily
retrieved, than are
commonplace events.
• What were you doing on
9/11/2001?
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Constructive Processes in Memory:
Rebuilding the Past
It is clear that we can have detailed recollections of significant and distinctive events.
But it is difficult to gauge the accuracy of such memories.
It is apparent that our memories reflect, at least in part, constructive processes
processes in which memories are influenced by the meaning we give to events.
The memory which is produced is affected not just by our prior experience with the
stimulus, but also by our guesses and inferences about its meaning.
This notion of constructive processes was first introduced by Frederic Bartlett, who
suggested that people tend to remember information in terms of schemas, or
organized bodies of information stored in memory that bias the way new information
is interpreted, stored, and recalled. This implies that memories of our own past may
be partially fiction, or at least a distortion of what actually happened.
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Constructive Processes in Memory:
Rebuilding the Past
Autobiographical memories: our recollections of circumstances and episodes
from our own lives. Culture determines how people frame information
initially, how it is stored, and how they recall it.
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Forgetting
Forgetting is essential to remembering important information.
• Forgetting inconsequential details about experiences helps us
avoid being burdened and distracted by trivial stores of
meaningless data.
– Hermann Ebbinghaus made the first attempts to study
forgetting. His research demonstrated a strong initial
decline in memory, which was followed by a more gradual
decline over time. He also demonstrated that relearning
mastered material is usually faster than learning new
information.
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Why We Forget
We may forget because we did not properly encode information in the first
place. Material that has been encoded into long-term memory can be
forgotten. Several processes can account for memory failure:
• Failure of encoding (paying attention to and placing information in
memory)
• Decay: the loss of information because of nonuse
• Interference: information in memory disrupts the recall of other
information
• Cue-dependent forgetting: forgetting that occurs when there are
insufficient retrieval cues to rekindle information that is in memory
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Proactive and Retroactive
Interference: The Before and After of
Forgetting
• Proactive interference: information learned
earlier disrupts the recall of newer material
• Retroactive interference: difficulty in recalling
information learned earlier because of later
exposure to different material
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Thinking, Reasoning, and Problem Solving
Module 20
• Learning Outcomes
– Explain the concept of mental images
– Discuss the process of categorizing the world
– Describe the processes the underlie reasoning and
decision making
– Explain how people approach and solve problems
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Mental Images: Examining the Mind’s
Eye
• Thinking is defined as the manipulation of mental
representations of information.
– Thinking transforms such representations into novel and
different forms, permitting people to answer questions,
solve problems, and reach goals
• Mental images: representations in the mind of an object or
event (can take the form of any of the senses: visual, auditory,
etc.)
– Some experts see the production of mental images as a
way to improve various skills
– Use of mental imagery can improve various skills; many
athletes use visualization
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Concepts: Categorizing the World
• Concepts: categorizations of objects, events,
or people that share common properties;
enable us to organize complex things into
cognitive categories we can use
– Concepts help us classify newly encountered
objects on the basis of our past experience
– Concepts ultimately influence behavior
– Prototypes: typical, highly representative
examples of a concept
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Reasoning: Making Up Your Mind
Reasoning is the process by which information is
used to draw conclusions and make decisions.
• When faced with making decisions, we often turn cognitive
shortcuts.
– Algorithm: cognitive shortcut in decision making; a rule
that, if applied appropriately, guarantees a solution to a
problem. Algorithms can be used even if we cannot
understand why they work.
– Heuristic: cognitive shortcut that may lead to a solution.
Heuristics enhance the likelihood of success in coming to a
solution, but do not ensure it.
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Problem Solving
Problems vary from well-defined problems
to ill-defined problems.
Step 1 – Preparation:
• The preparation stage of understanding and
diagnosing is critical in problem solving
because it allows us to develop our own
cognitive representation of the problem and to
place it within a personal framework.
• Our ability to represent a problem—and the
kind of solution we eventually come to—
depends on the way a problem is phrased, or
framed.
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Problem Solving
Step 2 – Production: If the problem is simple, we may
already have a direct solution stored in long-term memory,
if we cannot retrieve or do not know the solution, we must
generate possible solutions and compare them with
information in long-and short-term memory.
 At the most basic level we can solve a problem through
trial and error. In place of trial and error, we can use
heuristics.
The most common applied heuristic is a means-ends
analysis, which is repeated testing for differences
between the desired outcome and what currently
exists.
Another heuristic is to divide a problem into
intermediate steps, or subgoals, and solve each of
those steps.
Problem Solving
Step 3 – Judgment: If the solution is clear, we will
know immediately whether we have been successful.
- If the solution is less concrete, or there is no single
correct solution, evaluating the solution becomes
more difficult.
- Theoretically, if we rely on appropriate heuristics and
valid information to make decisions, we can make
accurate choices among alternative solutions.
-Significant obstacles can exist at each of the three
major stages.
Impediments to solutions
• Even though cognitive approaches to problem solving
suggest that thinking proceeds along fairly rational, logical
lines as a person confronts a problem and considers various
solutions, several factors can hinder the development of
creative, appropriate, and accurate solutions.
– Functional fixedness: the tendency to think of
an object only in terms of its typical use
– Mental set: the tendency for old patterns of
problem solving to persist
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RECAP
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•
•
•
•
Problem solving typically involves three major stages: preparation, production of
solutions, and evaluation of solutions that have been generated.
A crucial aspect of the preparation stage is the representation and organization of
the problem.
In the production stage, people try to generate solutions. They may find solutions
to some problems in long-term memory. Alternatively, they may solve some
problems through simple trial and error and use algorithms and heuristics to solve
more complex problems.
Using the heuristic of a means-ends analysis, a person will repeatedly test for
differences between the desired outcome and what currently exists, trying each
time to come closer to the goal.
Several factors hinder effective problems solving. Mental set, of which functional
fixedness is an example, is the tendency for old patterns of problem solving to
persist. Inappropriate use of algorithms and heuristics can also act as an obstacle
to the production of solutions.
Language
Module 21
• Learning Outcomes
– Explain how
language develops
– Describe how
people use
language
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Language Development: Developing a
Way with Words
• Language is the communication of information through
symbols arranged according to systematic rules, an
important cognitive ability.
• Babble: speech-like but meaningless sounds made by
children from around 3 months to 1 year old
– Critical period: time when a child is particularly sensitive to
learning/acquisition of skills; critical period for language
development early in life; difficult to acquire language
skills if critical period is missed
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Language Development: Developing a
Way with Words (cont.)
• By about 1 year after birth, children stop producing sounds that are not in
the language being spoken around them.
• After 1 year, children begin to learn more complicated forms of language.
• By age 2 the average child has a vocabulary of more than 50 words, and in
six months the language increases to a vocabulary of several hundred
words.
• Telegraphic speech: sentences in which words not critical to the message
are left out; used by children beginning around age 2 ½ (ex.: “I show book”
instead of “I showed you the book”)
• Overgeneralization: by about age 3, children employ language rules even
when it results in an error (ex.: adding –ed to “run” to form the past
tense)
• By age 5 children have acquired the basic rules of language.
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Language Development: Developing a
Way with Words (cont.)
• Learning theory approach to language development: language
acquisition follows the principles of reinforcement and conditioning.
– a mother repeating “mama” to her baby until the child repeats it back.
This theory suggests that with repetition comes proficiency. However,
it does not explain how children acquire language rules.
• Nativist approach to language development: a genetically determined,
innate mechanism drives language development (Noam Chomsky)
– Scientists have discovered a gene related to the development of
language abilities. Specific sites in the brain are closely tied to
language.
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Language Development: Developing a
Way with Words (cont.)
– Universal grammar: common underlying structure shared
by all the world’s languages
– Language-acquisition device: a neural system of the brain
that Chomsky thought permits understanding of language
• Interactionist approach to language development:
combination of the learning theory and nativist
approaches (brain’s language-acquisition device is
the “hardware;” exposure to language in the
environment allows us to develop the “software”)
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The Influence of Language on
Thinking: Do Eskimos Have More
Words for Snow Than Texans?
• Linguistic- relativity hypothesis: the idea that
language shapes and may determine the way
people in a specific culture perceive and
understand the world (language produces
thought)
– However, most recent research suggests that
thinking produces language, although language
may influence how we think
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The Influence of Language on Thinking: Do Eskimos
Have More Words for Snow Than Texans?
Linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf contended that, because snow is so relevant to
Eskimos’ lives, their language provides a particularly rich vocabulary to describe it.
•
The contention that Eskimo language is especially abundant in snow-related terms,
led to the linguistic-relativity hypothesis--the notion that language shapes and
may, in fact, determine the way people in a specific culture perceive and
understand the world.
•
Another possibility is that is that, instead of language’s being the cause of certain
ways of thinking, thought produces language.
•
Most current research refutes the linguistic-relativity hypothesis, and suggests,
instead, that thinking produces language.
The Influence of Language on Thinking: Do Eskimos
Have More Words for Snow Than Texans?
• There is evidence that language influences how we think. Thought
influences language, suggesting that language and thinking interact.
• In New York city, one in six students are enrolled in some form of bilingual
or English as a Second Language instruction.
– Many educators maintain that bilingual education is best.
– Other educators support immersion programs where students are Immediately plunged
into English instruction.
• Evidence shows that speaking two languages provides significant cognitive
benefits over speaking only one language.
• Speaking several languages changes the organization of the brain, as does
the timing of the acquisition of a second language.
Critical Thinking Exercise
Is there a cognitive advantage to having
children learn a second language? Why or
why not?
1-2 paragraphs