For example, it will take a large amount of effort to memorize the following number:

Memory 65,495,328,463. However, it will be easier to remember if it is chunked into the following:
The process involved in retaining, retrieving, and using information about stimuli, 6549 532 8463.
images, events, ideas, and skills after the original information is no longer present. Working memory: Manipulating information
Episodic memory: experiences from the past Working memory: a limited-capacity system for temporary storage AND manipulation of
Procedural memory: anything that involves muscle coordination information for complex tasks such as comprehension, learning, and reasoning.
Semantic memory: memories of facts or the names of different objects Working memory (WM) is a limited-capacity cognitive system that allows the storage and use
of a limited amount of information for a short period of time. Two WM processes can be
distinguished: maintenance (i.e., storing, monitoring, and matching information) and
manipulation (i.e., reordering and updating information).

Sensory memory:Sensory memories are stored for a few seconds at most. They
come from the five senses: hearing, vision, touch, smell, and taste. They are stored
only for as long as the sense is being stimulated. They are then reprocessed and
associated with a memory that may store in your short-term memory.
Persistence of vision : continued perception of a visual stimulus even after it is no
longer present.
Short-term memory: storage
While many short-term memories are quickly forgotten, attending to this
information allows it to continue the next stage—long-term memory.

■ Digit span: the number of digits a person can remember

■ Digit Span (DGS) is a measure of verbal short term and working memory
that can be used in two formats, Forward Digit Span and Reverse Digit The phonological loop is a component of working memory that handles verbal and
Span. This is a verbal task, with stimuli presented auditorily, and responses auditory information. It consists of the phonological store, which holds the words
spoken by the participant and scored automatically by the software. you hear, and the articulatory control process, which is used for rehearsal. This
Participants are presented with a random series of digits, and are asked to loop helps in the temporary storage and manipulation of verbal information. The
repeat them in either the order presented (forward span) or in reverse phonological similarity effect refers to the decreased ability to distinguish between similar
order (backwards span). sounding items in working memory. This effect occurs when similar-sounding items are more
difficult to recall compared to items that sound different. For example, words that sound
similar, like "cat" and "bat," may be more challenging to recall than words that sound
Chunk: a collection of elements that are strongly associated with one another but are weakly different, like "dog" and "cup." This effect is attributed to the interference caused by
associated with elements in other chunks. similar phonological representations in the phonological loop.
Chunking is one memorization technique that can facilitate the transfer of information into
long-term memory. This approach involves organizing information into more easily learned articulatory suppression is a phenomenon where repeating an irrelevant sound, such as "the,
groups, phrases, words, or numbers. the, the..." out loud, disrupts the operation of the phonological loop. This disruption reduces
memory because speaking interferes with rehearsal. Articulatory suppression overloads the
phonological loop, which is responsible for holding verbal and auditory information.
The visuospatial sketch pad is a component of working memory responsible for processing
visual and spatial information. It allows individuals to temporarily store and manipulate visual
and spatial information in their mind. This component plays a crucial role in tasks such as
mental rotation, visual pattern recall, and spatial awareness.
Mental rotation is the process of imagining an object rotating in three-dimensional space.
This cognitive process allows individuals to mentally manipulate and visualize spatial
relationships between objects. It involves mentally rotating an object to determine how it
would appear from different angles or perspectives. Mental rotation is a key function of the
visuospatial sketch pad within working memory.
Recalling visual patterns involves remembering and reproducing visual patterns from memory.
It works by utilizing the visuospatial sketch pad within working memory, which allows
individuals to mentally manipulate and visualize spatial relationships between objects. This
process involves visual coding in short-term memory, where individuals represent visual
patterns in their mind

The key result of this experiment was that Funahashi found neurons that
responded only when the square was flashed in a particular location and that these
neurons continued responding during the delay.

Activity-silent working memory is a concept proposed by Mark Stokes, suggesting

that information can be stored in working memory through short-term changes in
neural networks, rather than continuous neural firing. This involves brief changes in
the connectivity of neurons in a network, which can hold information for a few
seconds.
Long-term memory
Episodic: memory for specific experiences from the past The results of their experiment confirmed the presence of both the primacy
Semantic memory: memory for facts effect and the recency effect:
Procedural memory: memory for how to carry out physical actions Primacy Effect: Participants were more likely to recall words from the beginning of
the list. This finding suggests that items presented early in a sequence have a
Short-term/working memory: max is 30 seconds better chance of being transferred into long-term memory due to the rehearsal and
Longterm: what happened 5 minutes ago, 10 years ago, etc. encoding processes.
Short-term memory and working memory Recency Effect: Participants also demonstrated a higher recall rate for words
Long-term memory and “active” presented at the end of the list. This effect is thought to be because items at the
end of the list are still retained in short-term memory and can be easily accessed
The serial position curve for immediate recall.
The serial position curve refers to the pattern of recall for items in a list. It shows In the context of short-term memory, semantic coding refers to the process of
that items at the beginning (primacy effect) and end (recency effect) of a list are encoding and storing information based on its meaning. This involves understanding
more likely to be remembered than those in the middle. This curve demonstrates and processing the meaning of the information, which can aid in its retention in
how the position of an item in a list affects its likelihood of being recalled. short-term memory.
Proactive interference occurs when old information interferes with the ability to
The primacy effect in the serial position curve refers to the tendency for items at remember new information. This happens when previously learned information
the beginning of a list to be remembered more easily. This is because these items hinders the recall of newly learned information.
have a better chance of being transferred to long-term memory due to the initial An example of proactive interference is when previously learned information, such
focus and rehearsal, resulting in better recall. as learning French vocabulary words, makes it more difficult to learn a list of
Spanish words later on. This occurs when the old information (French words)
Rundus experiment interferes with the ability to remember new information (Spanish words)
In Rundus's experiment, participants were presented with a list of words. After Semantic coding in long-term memory refers to the process of encoding and storing
studying the list for a certain period, participants were then asked to recall as information based on its meaning. This involves making connections and associations
many words as they could remember. Rundus observed that participants were more with existing knowledge, which can enhance the retention of the information. For
likely to remember the words at the beginning (primacy effect) and the end example, relating new information to personal experiences or prior knowledge can
(recency effect) of the list, but they tended to forget or recall fewer words from facilitate semantic coding and improve long-term memory retention.
the middle of the list. An example of semantic coding in long-term memory is when you remember a list of
The serial position effect refers to the tendency for people to recall the first and words better by relating them to each other or to personal experiences, rather
last items in a list more effectively than those in the middle. than just repeating them mindlessly. This type of encoding, known as elaborative
Murray Glanzer & Anita Cunitz (1966) rehearsal, enhances memory retention through meaningful connections.
In their experiment, Glanzer and Cunitz presented participants with a list of words In the Sachs experiment of 1967, participants were given lists of words. When
to remember. After presenting the list, participants were immediately asked to words were semantically related, participants showed better recall, indicating that
recall as many words as they could. Additionally, to prevent participants from long-term memory benefits from semantic coding. This means that organizing
rehearsing the list, they had participants count backward by threes for a short information based on meaning or semantic relationships enhances its storage and
period before being asked to recall the words. retrieval from long-term memory.
Locating Memory in the Brain
Neuropsychology:
Henry Molaison (HM): removal of hippocampus. Eliminate the ability to form new
long-term memories.
KF: suffered damage to parietal lobe.
Reduced digit span
Reduced recency effect
Brain imaging
Sample face presented for 1 second followed by a 7 second delay.
Coding: the form in which the stimuli are presented
Visual coding in short-term memory involves temporarily storing visual information,
such as images or spatial arrangements. In contrast, visual coding in long-term
memory refers to the encoding and storage of visual information for an extended
period, allowing for the retrieval of detailed visual memories over time.
What happens to episodic and semantic memories as time passes?
In the context of auditory coding in memory, it involves the encoding and storage
In the context of familiarity (semantic) and recollection (episodic), semantic
of auditory information. In short-term memory, this can include temporarily holding
memories tend to remain relatively stable over time, retaining factual and
and processing auditory stimuli, such as remembering a phone number that was just
conceptual information. On the other hand, episodic memories may lose specific
heard. In long-term memory, auditory coding allows for the retention and retrieval
details and become more generalized as time passes, a process known as the
of meaningful auditory information over an extended period, such as remembering a
semanticization of remote memories.
favorite song or a memorable speech.
Episodic memory system is not only to remember the past but to enable people to
stimulate possible future scenario, in order to help anticipate future needs and
episodic and semantic memory
guide future behavior.
Differences in Experience
Episodic memory- remembering & Mental Time Travel
Semantic memory- knowing
Neuropsychological Evidence
KC: damage to hippocampus. Lost his episodic memory
LP: experienced encephalitis. Lost semantic memory
Brain Imaging

Autobiographical Memory has both Semantic and Episodic Components

 nitrogen levels rise), and after diving using tasks that measured working memory
Procedural memory refers to the type of long-term memory that involves knowing and other cognitive functions. The findings indicated that cognitive performance,
how to do things, also known as "knowing how." This type of memory is responsible particularly working memory tasks, was impaired as divers ascended due to the
for storing information about how to perform various procedures or skills, such as effects of nitrogen narcosis on the central nervous system.
riding a bike, typing, or playing a musical instrument.
Expert-induced amnesia refers to the phenomenon where individuals with deep Consolidation:The process that transforms new memories from a fragile state, in
expertise in a specific domain struggle to recall or explain basic concepts within which they can be disrupted, to a more permanent state, in which they are resistant
that area. This occurs due to their reliance on advanced, automatic processing and to disruption.
organized schemas, sometimes overlooking foundational knowledge. Synaptic consolidation involves structural changes at synapses, which are the small
LTM: Encoding, retrieval, and consolidation -7 spaces between neurons. This process occurs over minutes or hours and is
Maintenance rehearsal responsible for transforming new memories from a fragile state to a more
Maintenance rehearsal refers to the process of repeatedly verbalizing or thinking permanent state, making them resistant to disruption.
about a piece of information in order to maintain it in short-term memory. This Systems consolidation involves the gradual reorganization of neural circuits within
repetition helps to prevent the information from being forgotten and can aid in the brain over months or even years. This process is responsible for the long-term
transferring it to long-term memory. storage of memories and the transfer of memories from the hippocampus to the
Elaborative rehearsal refers to a memory technique that involves actively thinking neocortex.
about the meaning of the information and relating it to knowledge already stored in The standard model of consolidation proposes that memory retrieval initially
long-term memory. This process helps to create strong associations between new depends on the hippocampus during consolidation, but after consolidation is
information and existing knowledge, leading to better retention and recall . complete, retrieval involves the cortex, with the hippocampus no longer being
Levels of Processing Theory, proposed by Craik and Lockhart, distinguishes between involved. However, recent research indicates that retrieval of episodic memories
shallow processing and deep processing. Shallow processing involves little attention can still involve the hippocampus, which supports the multiple trace model.
to meaning, while deep processing involves close attention and elaborative rehearsal
focusing on an item's meaning and its relationship to something else. The multiple trace model of consolidation suggests that the hippocampus is involved
Retrieval practice, also known as the testing effect, refers to the strategy of both in the establishment and retrieval of remote episodic memories. Recent
actively and repeatedly retrieving information from memory. This practice has been research supports this model, indicating that the hippocampus can be involved in
shown to enhance long-term retention and learning, making it an effective study the retrieval of episodic memories even after consolidation is complete.
technique
Consolidation during sleep enhances memory by eliminating environmental stimuli
Retrieval cues are stimuli or pieces of information that help trigger the retrieval of that might interfere with consolidation and by enhancing the consolidation process
a memory. They can be anything from specific smells, sounds, or sights to words or itself. Research has shown that memories are more likely to be consolidated during
phrases associated with the memory. When a retrieval cue matches the conditions sleep, and important memories may be selectively strengthened during this process.
at encoding, it can enhance the retrieval of the memory. For example, returning to
the location where a memory was formed can serve as a powerful retrieval cue. This EVERYDAY MEMORY & MEMORY ERRORS
process is known as encoding specificity. Research differences
Matching conditions of encoding and retrieval The traditional memory research appears to focus on flashbulb memories, vividness,
1. encoding specificity – context belief in accuracy, and the constructive nature of memory. On the other hand,
2. state-dependent learning – internal mood everyday memory research delves into false recall and recognition, the
3. transfer-appropriate processing – matching the task misinformation effect, creating memories for events in people's lives, and legal
In the 1975 study by Alan Baddeley and Peter J. Golding, the researchers examined implications of false memory research.
the effects of deep-sea diving, specifically nitrogen narcosis, on cognitive Saying-is-believing effect: we often remember what we said previously even though
performance. Experienced divers were assessed before, during ascent (when we knew it was inaccurate at that time
 General Events: Memories tied to recurring themes or events across different
Autobiographical memory Episodic memory times, like family holidays or academic milestones.
Often trivial events Often trivial events both Event-Specific Knowledge: Detailed memories associated with specific moments or
Simpler memories Simpler memories episodes in one's life.
Often short-lasting memories Often short-lasting memories Working Self:
Little semantic memory involvement Little semantic memory involvement Represents an individual's current self-concept and future aspirations or what one may
become.
Relatively few brain areas activated Relatively few brain areas activated
Goals:
Influential factors guiding the retrieval and organization of autobiographical memories based
Personally experienced and Susceptible to proactive and retroactive influence
on current aspirations, values, and life circumstances.
-Brain areas activated in autobiographical memory, episodic memory and mentalising
Autobiographical Memories Retrieved Through:
(understanding mental states)
Generative Retrieval: Actively constructing or reconstructing memories based on current
-Autobiographical memory involved more brain areas than episodic memory: it goals and self-perceptions.
overlaps much more with brain areas involved in mentalising Direct Retrieval: Spontaneously accessing memories triggered by external cues or stimuli.
In summary, the SMS model highlights the hierarchical organization of autobiographical
Flashbulb memories memories, the role of the Working Self and goals in memory processes, and the distinction
Special neural mechanism for remembering dramatic events between deliberate (generative) and spontaneous (direct) memory retrieval.
Includes information about the:
informant: where news was heard
ongoing activity: one’s emotional state
consequences for the individual
Allegedly produces very strong, long-lasting memories
Flashbulb memories typically NOT special: Subject to ordinary forgetting + distortion
Exception: strong memories when high emotion + amygdala activation at memory formation
Memories across the lifetime
Infantile or childhood amnesia refers to the phenomenon where adults have limited or no
memory of events that occurred during early childhood, typically before the age of three or
four. This phenomenon is a common experience and has been attributed to the ongoing
development of cognitive and brain systems during early childhood, which may impact the
encoding and retrieval of early memories.
Infantile (childhood) amnesia
Participants report very few autobiographical memories before the age of three.
Reminiscence bump
Many memories reported between 10 and 30 years of age (rather than earlier or
later)

Autobiographical memory: Theoretical approaches

Pleydell-Pearce (2000) focuses on understanding autobiographical memories and
their integration into the self-concept. Here's a concise explanation based on the
provided information: Themes: major life domains (e.g., work)
Autobiographical Memory Knowledge Base: Three Levels of Specificity Life story: general factual and evaluative knowledge about oneself
Lifetime Periods: Broad memories organized around extended phases of one's life, Depressed patients and previously depressed patients (remitted) have many negative
such as childhood or adolescence. memories and poorly integrated sense of self
Eyewitness testimony
Memory for people, words and events Remembering to carry out some
Confirmation bias(Lindholm & Christianson, 1998)
Eyewitnesses’ memory influenced by their expectations encountered or experienced in the past intended action in the absence of any
Design: Generally involves remembering what explicit reminder
Swedish and immigrant students watched a simulated robbery where the burglar was we know about something Focuses on when to do something
Swedish or an immigrant Usually has high information content Usually has low information content
Students asked to pick the perpetrator from a line-up holding four Swedish and four Greater availability of external cues Relevant to plans and goals we form for
immigrants Forgetting: “faulty brain” our daily lives
Results: Forgetting: “flaky person”
Swedish students were twice as likely to select an innocent immigrant as an innocent Swede
Conclusion:
Over-representation of immigrants in Swedish crime statistics likely influenced participants’
Event-based Time-based
expectations
Remembering to perform an action Remembering to perform a given action
The misinformation effect refers to the phenomenon where misleading information when the appropriate circumstances at a particular time
presented after a person witnesses an event can alter how they describe that event later. arise E.g., meeting a friend at a coffee shop
This misleading information, known as misleading postevent information (MPI), can influence E.g., passing along a message when you at 4 pm
memory reports and lead individuals to incorporate false details into their recollections of an see someone Fewer external cues; greater reliance
event. The effect of MPI is often demonstrated through experiments where participants are Triggered by external cues on self-generated cues
exposed to misleading information and then tested on their memory of the original event. Less thought is given to the future task Results in more time spent thinking
Yields better performance about the future task
Weapon focus effect: eyewitnesses attend to criminal’s weapon which reduces memory for
“Simple” More likely to be forgotten
other information
Weapon focus makes it harder for eyewitnesses to discriminate between culprit and innocent “Difficult”
individuals in a line-up.
Weapon focus effect greater when presence of a weapon unexpected (e.g., woman with a
Flight operation Demand Example
knife) (Pickel, 2009)
Stress and anxiety Episodic tasks Have to remember to Reporting when the
Recognition of culprits’ faces is reduced in high stress compared to low stress (42% vs 54%) later perform a task plane passes below
(Deffenbacher et al., 2004) 10,000 feet
Stress causes narrowing of attention leading to impaired memory for peripheral details
(Yegiyan & Lang, 2010) Habitual tasks Remember to perform The roughly 100 actions
habitual tasks in the needed to prepare for
correct order departure
The own-age bias and other-race effect are phenomena related to face recognition. Atypical actions Deviating from standard Unusual weather
The own-age bias refers to the tendency for individuals to better recognize faces substituted for habitual procedures in special conditions
of their own age group compared to other age groups. The other-race effect, also ones circumstances
known as the cross-race effect, describes the tendency for individuals to have
Interrupted tasks Remember to return to a Taking the helm after
more difficulty recognizing faces of individuals from a different racial or ethnic
task after they have been visiting the lavatory
group than their own. Both phenomena highlight the influence of familiarity and interrupted
experience on face recognition abilities.
Prospective memory Interleaving tasks Carry out two or more Monitoring taxiing while
tasks together handling radio
communications
Retrospective memory Prospective memory
Event-based prospective memory refers to the ability to remember to perform a Heuristics are mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that people use to make
particular action or task at a specific time in the future or in response to a specific decisions and solve problems quickly. They can be helpful in reaching conclusions
event. This type of memory involves remembering to execute an intended action in rapidly but are not always foolproof, potentially leading to errors in judgment.
the future, such as remembering to take medication at a certain time or to Two more commonly used heuristics include the availability heuristic and the
complete a task when prompted by a specific event. representativeness heuristic
Ongoing task + prospective memory (PM) task at same time Availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that
The multiprocess framework is a theoretical model that describes memory as come to a person's mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method, or
involving multiple processes, such as encoding, consolidation, and retrieval. This decision. For example, if a person has recently read several news articles about
framework acknowledges the complexity of memory and the various cognitive plane crashes, they may overestimate the likelihood of being in a plane crash
processes involved in forming and recalling memories. themselves.

The Dual-Pathway Model, also known as the Dual-Systems Model, is a psychological The representativeness heuristic is a cognitive bias where people make judgments
framework that proposes the existence of two distinct pathways for information about the probability of an event based on how similar it is to a typical example or
processing in the brain. This model is often applied in the context of emotional prototype.
processing and decision-making. According to this model, there are two pathways when someone assumes that a person who wears glasses, reads a lot of books, and is
involved in emotional responses: a fast, automatic pathway and a slower, more introverted is likely to be a librarian. This assumption is based on the stereotype or
deliberate pathway. These pathways interact to influence an individual's emotional prototype of what people think a librarian typically looks and acts like, rather than
and behavioral responses to stimuli. The dual-pathway model has been influential in on actual evidence about the individual's occupation.
understanding emotional processing and has implications for various aspects of Conjunction rule
psychology, including clinical psychology and neuroscience. • Probability of conjunction two events cannot be higher than the probability of the
single constituents
Judgment, Decisions and Reasoning • Because feminist bank tellers are a subset of bank tellers, it is always more likely
Emotion that someone in a bank teller than a feminist bank teller.
• Intense, short-lasting and specific Law of large numbers
Mood a theory that as a sample size grows its mean gets closer to the avarage of the
• Longer duration, less intense and vague whole population
Affect Myside bias Tendency for people to generate and evaluate evidence and test their
• Broader, emotions and mood hypotheses in a way that is biased toward their own opinions and attitudes
Valence Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall
• Positive or negative character of information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses.
emotional experience deductive reasoning Deductive reasoning is a logical approach where you progress
from general ideas to specific conclusions.
Syllogism
Decisions and Reasoning All birds are animals. (All A are B)
Inductive reasoning is the process of making generalizations or predictions based All animals eat food. (All B are C)
on specific observations or evidence. Factors contributing to the strength of an Therefore, all birds eat food. (All A are C)
inductive argument include the representativeness of observations, the number of Belief bias
observations, and the quality of the evidence. Inductive reasoning is commonly used The tendency to think that a syllogism is valid if its conclusions are
in everyday experiences to make predictions based on past observations without believable
realizing it.
mental model
A mental model is a specific situation represented in a person’s mind that can be
used to help determine the validity of syllogisms in deductive reasoning. The basic
principle behind mental models is that people create a model, or an imagined
representation of the situation, for a reasoning problem. They generate a tentative
conclusion based on this model and then look for exceptions that might falsify the
model. If they do find an exception, they modify the model. Eventually, if they can
find no more exceptions and their current model matches the conclusion, they can
conclude that the syllogism is valid.

The Wason Four-Card Problem is a classic reasoning task used to study how people think
when evaluating conditional syllogisms. It involves participants determining which cards need
to be turned over to test a specific rule. The problem has been studied in both abstract and
The dual system
real-world versions, with research showing that people often perform better when the
problem is stated in real-world terms. The concrete version is often easier for participants
because it involves familiar regulations or schemas that they can apply to the task.
Conditional reasoning refers to making inferences based on a conditional statement of the
form “if p, then q,” which is called the major premise in a conditional reasoning task. In this
setting, p is called the antecedent, and q is called the consequent

Decision Making: Expected utility theory

Utility:
• outcomes that are desirable because they are in the person’s best interest
• Maximum monetary payoff
• Advantages for utility approach
– Specific procedures to determine the “best choice”
• Problems for utility approach
– Not necessarily money, people find value in other things
– Many decisions do not maximize the probability of the best outcome

Incidental emotions are emotions that are not caused by having to make a decision. These
emotions can influence decision making, even though they are not directly related to the
decision. For example, incidental emotions like feeling happy or sad, or being in a positive or
negative environment, can affect decisions.

Decisions depend on how choices are presented

– Opt-in procedure
§ Active step to be organ donor
– Opt-out procedure
§ Organ donor unless request not to be

Status quo bias

• Tendency to do nothing when faced with making a decision
COGNITION AND EMOTION
Emotion • Distraction: less cognitively demanding, used early to control negative emotion
• Intense, short-lasting and specific • Reappraisal: more cognitively demanding, produces longer lasting benefits Implicit emotion
Mood regulation
• Longer duration, less intense and vague • No conscious monitoring; can happen without insight and awareness; explicit instruction is
Affect absent (Etkin et al., 2015)
• Broader, emotions and mood • Use of explicit-regulation strategy repeatedly leads to the development of implicit
Valence processes (Braunstein et al., 2017) Cognitive resources
• Positive or negative character of Deficit in depression
emotional experience They hypothesised that reappraisal would be effective in situations where stress was
uncontrollable but not those where it was controllable. In the latter situations,
Bottom-up condition: occipital, temporal and parietal lobes, and amygdala were associated problemfocused coping would be superior to changing one’s emotional state.
with visual perceptual
processing AUTOMATIC/IMPLICIT Troy et al.’s (2013) findings confirmed their hypotheses. Participants with high appraisal
Top-down condition: dorsolateral and medial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate and ability were less depressed than those with low appraisal ability when high stress was
amygdala uncontrollable. However, high appraisal ability was associated with more depression when
CONSCIOUS/EXPLICIT high stress was controllable.
Inhibitory control influences the experience of negative emotional states (Tang &
Schmeichel, 2014) Three-stage neural network model (Kohn et al., 2014)
1. Emotion evaluation: initiates appraisal and signals the need to regulate emotion
Appraisal theories 2. Initiation of regulation: processes emotion regulation
Cognitive processes influence when we experience emotional states and what state we 3. Execution of regulation: regulates affective arousal
experience
• Emotional responses occur due to evaluation of environmental changes (Brosch, 2013) Affect and cognition: attention
• Distinction between appraisal involving deliberate conscious processing and appraisal “Tunnel vision” is a result of high negative affect
involving automatic processes (Easterbrook, 1959)
(Smith & Kirby, 2009) The range of cues processes decreases as arousal/ anxiety increases e.g. Anxious drivers
• Multiple appraisal mechanisms (Smith & Lane, 2015) attend less than non-anxious ones to peripheral information
Fast appraisal responds to relevance to the individual’s concerns AUTOMATIC Eyewitness memory (Janelle et al., 1999; Briggs et al., 2011)
Slow appraisal responds to information about goals and norm compatibility DELIBERATE • Positive affect produces broadening of attention rather the narrowing of attention
Situational appraisal (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005)
• Motivational intensity (Gable et al., 2015a) (having the goal of approaching or avoiding a
Self-reported emotional response depending on appraisal conditions stimulus)
Attentional narrowing – helps individuals to acquire desirable objects and avoid unpleasant
Schartau et al. (2009) had participants watch films of humans and animals experiencing ones
marked distress. Some participants received training in positive cognitive appraisal (e.g.,
“silver lining: there are usually some good aspects to every situation”). This training reduced Attention for detail (Talarico et al., 2009)
horror, distress and physiological arousal indexed by the galvanic skin response. Good recall of peripheral details for all types of positive memories
Positive moods occur with low motivational intensity
Emotional reactions can depend on non-conscious processes (Winkielman et al., 2005) • (Frederickson & Branigan, 2005; Gable et al., 2015)
Affective blindsight Discrimination of emotional stimuli without conscious perception Positive affect enhances memory for peripheral details when low motivational intensity but
Emotional processing bypasses the cortex (Tamietto et al, 2009) • Two routes (Diano et al., not high motivational intensity
2017) (Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2010)
1. Cortical route (consciously perceived) • Positive affect helps maintaining previous cognitive processes
2. Subcortical route (not consciously perceived) • Negative affect helps change those processes
Emotion regulation (Huntsinger et al., 2014)
Attentional deployment strategies (Sheppes et al., 2014) Affect and cognition: memory
Emotional events are forgotten more slowly than neural ones • When mood at retrieval matches that at learning • Mood-state-dependent memory can be
(Bowen et al., 2018) found in free recall but not cued recall (Kenealy, 1997)
• “Flashbulb” memory research (Sharot et al., 2007) (vivid memories of dramatic events such Encoding specificity principle Absence of mood-statedependent memory with cued recall
as 9/11) - especially long-lasting when there is an • Mood state has less influence when crucial information is presented explicitly at retrieval
initial intense emotional experience. Participants viewed a map and learned a given route. The next day they received tests of
• Amygdala involvement free recall (no cues) and cued recall (the map’s visual outline). Happy or sad mood states were
90% connections to cortical regions and network involvement created at learning and test. Mood-statedependent memory was found in free recall but not
(Murty et al., 2010) cued recall.
Emotion’s memory-enhancing effects depend in part on Affect and cognition: judgement and decision-making
amygdala activation (Dolcos et al., 2017) Deontological judgements
• Longer-lasting activation • Based on moral rules/obligations respond mailing based on the first, affective system •
Urbach-Wiethe disease Very common with the footbridge dilemma Utilitarian judgements
• Surround-areas of the amygdala (including the amygdala itself) are • Based on maximising the consequences use the second, cognitive system
destroyed • Very common with the trolley problem Different brain regions are associated with the two
• Patient BP had poorer recall of a very emotional story event than of systems
an emotionally neutral event (Cahill et al., 1995) • Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is involved in cognitive control
Affect and cognition: memory • Ventromedial prefrontal cortex is involved in emotion generation
Emotional events are forgotten more slowly than neural ones (Bowen et al., 2018) Four mood states:
• “Flashbulb” memory research (Sharot et al., 2007) (vivid memories of dramatic events such • anxiety; sadness; anger; and positive mood
as 9/11) - especially long-lasting when there is an initial intense emotional experience. Integral vs incidental emotions (Lerner et al., 2015)
• Amygdala involvement Integral emotions: arise from the current judgement or choice
90% connections to cortical regions and network involvement (Murty et al., 2010) e.g. an individual deciding whether or not to gamble a lot of money on a risky project may
Emotion’s memory-enhancing effects depend in part on amygdala activation (Dolcos et al., experience
2017) anxiety
• Longer-lasting activation Urbach-Wiethe disease Incidental emotions are unrelated to the current task e.g.
• Surround-areas of the amygdala (including the amygdala itself) are destroyed the positive affect you experience having passed an important examination may influence
• Patient BP had poorer recall of a very emotional story event than of an emotionally neutral your subsequentjudgements and decisions on totally different issues
event (Cahill et al., 1995) Effects on judgement and decision-making are often weaker than those of integral emotion
Two main brain mechanisms involved in the memory enhancing effects of emotion (Yip & Côté, 2013) e.g. individuals high in emotional intelligence
1. The medial temporal lobes (MTL, including the hippocampus) and the amygdala (AMY) (including the ability to understand emotions) are better able to identify the event causing
(BOTTOM-UP / EMOTIONAL AROUSAL) their emotions and so minimise the impact of incidental emotions on decision-making)
2. The medial, dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (mPFC; dlPFC; and vlPFC, The weather influences people’s mood (Schwarz and Clore, 1983)
respectively) (Dolcos et al., 2017) (TOP-DOWN / COGNITIVE PROCESSES) • Participants’ ratings were lower on rainy than on sunny days
Mood congruity • But, the negative effect of bad weather disappeared when they could attribute it to
• Emotionally-toned material is learned and retrieved best when its affective value matches weather
the learner’s mood state Anxiety
• Depressed individuals recall more negative information than positive or neutral information • Optimism bias
(Rinck & Becker, 2005) • Individuals who experience fearful moods are more pessimistic than those in a happy or
• Positive mood is associated with mood congruity but is less apparent with negative mood neutral mood (Lench & Levine, 2005)
(Holland & Kensinger, 2010) • Those in an anxious mood state are less likely to choose a high-risk option (Raghunathan &
Encoding specificity principle (Tulving, 1979) Pham, 1999)
• Memory depends on the overlap between information available at retrieval and in the Sadness
memory trace • Is more strongly associated with an absence of positive affect (Clark & Watson,1991)
• Overlap is stronger when congruent information (remembered) is congruent with the • Sad individuals choose high-risk options due to finding the environment unrewarding and are
individual’s mood state especially motivated to obtain rewards (Raghunathan & Pham,1999)
Mood-state-dependent memory (Kenealy, 1997) Misery-is-not-miserly effect (Cryder et al., 2008)
• Sad individuals paid more than others to obtain a given commodity
• Sadness increases the motivation to acquire possessions to enhance the self
Myopic misery – «sader but wiser»
(Lerner et al., 2013)
• Sad individuals have a sense of loss and are so impatient to obtain rewards to replace what
has been lost
Depressed individuals experience a combination of high negative affect and low positive mood Anxiety, depression and cognitive biases
(Clark & Watson, 1991) Cognitive biases
Anger 1. Attentional bias
• Although regarded as a negative affect, it can be experienced in a pleasant way as it leads • Selective attention to threat-related stimuli
individuals to believe they can control the situation and dominate those they dislike (Lerner 2. Interpretive bias
& Tiedens, 2006) • Tendency to interpret ambiguous stimuli as threatening
• Schadenfreude is increased by anger (Hareli & Weiner, 2002) (experiencing pleasure at the 3. Explicit memory bias
misfortune of disliked others) • Tendency to retrieve negative, not positive, memories
• Associated with optimistic judgements about the likelihood of negative events (Waters, 4. Implicit memory bias
2008) • Tendency to exhibit superior performance for negativeor threatening stimuli in tests not
Sense of certainty about what has happened and with perceived control over the situation involving conscious recollection
(Litvak et al., 2010) Functional approach
• Impairs decision-making • Anxiety and depression both have adaptive functions even though they often involve high
Anger causes judgements to be made using relatively shallow or heuristic processing short-term costs(Del Guidice & Ellis, 2015)
Can lead to shallow processing rather than systematic or analytical processing (Litvak et al., • Depression is mostly associated with a past orientation;anxiety is associated with a future
2010) orientation
Positive mood • Worry is associated with a greater future orientation than
Eight different positive moods (Campos et al., 2013) rumination which is associated with greater past orientation(Watkins et al., 2005)
Common neural reward system, including the involvement of dopamine • Mood impacts on perceptual and conceptual processes
• Single broad category of positive affect on judgement and decision-making (Williams et al., 1997)
• Optimism bias (Lench & Levine, 2005) Perceptual processes are bottom-up
Individuals in a happy mood had greater optimism bias than fearful individuals Conceptual processes are top-down
• Overconfidence (Koellinger & Treffers, 2015) • Tripartite model (Watson, 2009)
Regarded as providing positive feedback on performance Attentional bias in
• The positive emotion “family tree” Anxiety
• The trunk represents the neural reward system • Attentional bias is present in all anxiety disorders and in high trait-anxious healthy
• The branches represent nine semidistinct positive emotions individuals (Bar-Haim et al., 2007)
• Happy people are more likely to use a heuristic processing strategy than sad people • Two aspects of biased attention:
Happy people use implicit attitudes to make a decision 1. Speed of attentional engagement with negative stimuli
(Holland et al., 2012) 2. Subsequent attentional disengagement from such stimuli
Heuristic processing forhappy individuals but analytical thinking for sad people • Anxious individuals had faster engagement to negative stimuli; however anxiety did not
Mood affects how easily one is persuaded influence the time taken to fixate emotionally positive stimuli (Armstrong & Olatunji, 2012)
(Griskevicius et al., 2010) Depression
• Three positive emotions (anticipatory enthusiasm, amusement, attachment love) involve • Severely depressed patients do not show rapid engagement with negative stimuli but do
heuristic or shallow processing have slow disengagement(Kircanski & Gotlib, 2015)
• Experience of two other positive emotions (awe and nurturant love) exhibit less heuristic Interpretive bias
processing than those in a neutral mood state • Trait anxiety positively correlates with the number of negative or
Mood states differ in effects on judgement and decision-making threatening homophone interpretations (Eysenck et al., 1987)
• People high in trait anxiety have an interpretive bias for interpersonal
threats
 Ambiguous situations only; involving social or intellectual threat, but not Anxiety reduces the available capacity of working memory
physical or health-related (Walsh et al., 2015) Impairs efficiency of attentional or cognitive control in two ways:
Interpretive bias in depression (Everaert et al., 2017) 1. Impairs inhibitory control
• Strong association between depression and interpretive bias for both 2. Impairs ability to shift attention or cognitive control optimally within and between tasks
patients with clinical depression and depressed healthy individuals • Attentional/cognitive control is important in determining attention bias (Derryberry &
• Relationship is stronger with self-referential material Reed, 2002)
• Uses both rapid, automatic processes and slow strategic processes
Cognitive bias modification
Memory biases Cognitive bias modification (CBM) Modifies cognitive factors that maintain psychiatric
Depression conditions such as anxiety and depression (Lau, 2015)
• Positive memory bias is sometimes absent in depressed • Form of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) Uses psychological methods to change
individuals (Foland-Ross & Gotlib, 2012) unhelpful distorted or biased cognitions and behaviour
• Explicit memory biases is stronger and is present in wide variety of neuropsychological • Cognitive control CBM of attentional bias may depend on improved top-down attentional
assessments control Attentional control is important (Booth et al., 2014)
• Orientated towards the past (Eysenck et al., 2006) • CBM of attentional bias in anxious patients was ineffective when the conditions reduced
Anxiety patients’ ability to use attentional control
• Explicit memory bias in anxiety for free recall but not cued or recognition memory
• More extensive retrieval processes are required for free recall Extremely depressed patients have showed a decline in
• Emotion is involved more cognitive vulnerability with cognitive control training
• Implicit memory bias is absent in anxious individuals (Koster et al., 2017)
• Cognitive control and cognitive biases interact to determine an individual’s level of anxiety
Combined cognitive biases hypothesis or depression
• Cognitive biases often interact with each other (Hirsch et al., (Everaert et al.,2017a)
2006) • There are no direct effects of deficient cognitive control on depressive symptoms.
• Attentional and interpretive biases reflect the operation of shared mechanisms (Amir et • Deficient cognitive control influences depressive symptoms indirectly through its effects
al., 2010) on attentional bias.
Training in reducing interpretive bias helped participants to disengage attention from threat • Deficient inhibitory control influences interpretive bias which is in turn associated with
• Memory biases associated with depression is mediated by attentional and interpretive bias depressive symptoms.
(Everaert et al., 2014)

Cognitive or attentional control

• Anxious and depressed individuals are sensitive to emotionally negative or threatening
information
• General processes also play a part
Increase attentional bias to help disengage from negative stimuli
Increase interpretive bias to help supress threatening interpretations
• Anxiety and cognitive biases are strongly associated to limited cognitive control use (Booth
et al., 2017)
Cognitive control processes
• Inhibition: overriding dominant responses and resisting distraction
• Shifting: switching flexibly between tasks
Impairment in cognitive control causes problems in disengaging attention from negative
individuals (Joorman et al., 2007)

Attentional control theory:(Eysenck et al., 2007)