Memory, Cognition and

Thinking
Memory is essential for normal human
functioning. Without a memory we would not:
--recognize people
--remember what we had for breakfast
--recall the route that we take from home to
school or visa versa
--our girlfriend or boyfriend, parents, siblings,
spouse or children
Memory Impairment
People with memory impairments show great
distress about not knowing what happened (e.g.
an alcoholic in a blackout will ask "what did I
do?")
 Clive Wearing--Living Without
Memory: Introduction
• Studies of malfunctions of memory have helped researchers
understand how we form (encode), store, and retrieve memories.
Memories are recorded successively as sensory memory (the
immediate initial stage), short-term memory (or working memory),
and long-term memory.

• In one extreme type of memory deficit, caused by accident or

disease, a person is unable to form new memories and lives in an
eternal present.

• Clive Wearing, a world-renowned choir director and musical

arranger, suffered brain damage following viral encephalitis, which
destroyed both temporal lobes, the entire hippocampus, and much
of the left frontal lobe. He lost his ability to form new memories. He
has no memory of anything beyond the last minute or two.

(c) 2003 Worth Publishers

http://www.learner.org/resources/series150.html

Digital Media Archive 25 - Clive Wearing: Living Without Memory

The Brain DVD #16 The nature of learning and memory - very good

The Brain DVD 2 #17 Learning as synaptic change - shows the relationship of learning
and memory
Memory Defined- retention of information or
skill that has been learned that can be retrieved
for use in the present time.

Human memory capacity is remarkable:

Haber (1970) showed people 2500 slides of

faces and places and they were viewed for 10
seconds each. Later, 280 slides observed were
paired with 280 slides not observed. Subjects
were to pick the slides they had seen and were
able to do this accurately about 90% of the time.
Flashbulb Memory
People also show vivid recall of significant
events in life called "flashbulb memory." For
example, think of the 9/11 attack on America?
Where were you?
Who were you with?
What were you doing?
How did you feel?
Information Processing Sequence

1. Encoding - the processing of information into

the memory system

2. Storage - the retention of information that we

take in

3. Retrieval - using information in the memory

system
How does Memory Work?
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)

Three stage processing model of memory

External Stimulus ------------------- Sensory Memory

(e.g., iconic, echoic)

Sensory Memory -------------------- Short Term

Memory (limited capacity)

Short Term Memory --------------- Long Term

Memory
 Memory Systems

1. Sensory Memory - iconic or echoic

memory for visual images or sounds that
are lost very rapidly

2. Short Term Memory (working memory)

attention to important images, sounds or
other sensory data will cause information
in sensory memory to be processed into
short term memory (Capacity 7 + or – 2 units)

3. Long Term Memory - information may be

further processed (encoded) into long term
memory and is available for later retrieval.
 Memory Processes

Encoding -- Getting Information into the

Memory System
Automatic versus Effortful Processing
1. Automatic processing is the encoding of
information without a great deal of conscious
effort.

For example,

-the location of your bed in your bedroom

-morning preparation for work or school
-meaning of words
-route to school from home
-memory of passing the same person in the hall
5 times today
2. Effortful processing is encoding of
information that requires sustained effort
and conscious effort
For example, learning the principles of memory
and cognition in a psychology course
Rehearsal: conscious repetition of novel
information in order to learn it. The effect
of rehearsal was originally demonstrated in
the work of Ebbinghaus (1830-1909).
Ebbinghaus found that the more times a list
of novel stimuli (nonsense syllables such as
BAZ KEL DAX) were practiced at trial 1
(one day), the fewer repetition required on
trial 2 (day 2) to relearn the information to
some criterion (e.g. no errors in recall).
The more time spent learning novel
information, the more we retain.
Spaced Versus Massed Practice
- given some fixed interval of time for study
(e.g. 1 hour)

- massed practice: study 1 hour at one occasion

- spaced practice: study 15 minutes at four

occasions

Greater retention of information with

spaced practice

College students should use spaced

practice in all courses
Serial Position Effect
When a person learns a list of stimuli (words,
odors, names, dates) and is then asked to recall
the list, the serial position effect is observed.

- we will focus on an immediate recall paradigm

WHY THE
SERIAL POSITION EFFECT?

-proactive inhibition: the initial items in the list

interfere with memory for the middle items
-retroactive inhibition: the last items in the list
interfere with memory for the middle items
WHAT FACILITATES
ENCODING?

1. MEANING
2. IMAGERY
3. ORGANIZATION
MEANING
1. We encode stimuli based on meaning.

Information processing is active rather than

passive; consequently meaningful information is
more easily processed

When Meaning and Sensory Data are in Competition

(Stroop Example Below)
 List 1 – meaning facilitates encoding of
information

List 2 – meaning interferes with encoding of

information
 ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF
MEANING BASED ENCODING

"The angry rioter threw the rock at the

window."

STOP DON'T SHOW BELOW

------- will likely be remembered as ----------

"through the window" rather than “at the

window”

Memory is (to some degree) constructive and

may conform to what we think occurred rather
to what actually occurred.
Elizabeth Loftus video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=PB2OegI6wvI

Link to Innocence Project Video (very good)

http://www.innocenceproject.org/understand/
Eyewitness-Misidentification.php
http://www.innocenceproject.org/understand/
Eyewitness-Misidentification.php
link to this table online

81% of wrongful convictions are due to

mistaken identity of the perpetrator (60 of 74)
2. A schema is an organized cognitive structure
that aids (among other things) memory

- Schema concept is important in developmental,

social and cognitive psychology

A schema facilitates information processing:

A) helps encode otherwise ambiguous

information
B) by providing meaning for the encoding of
details of the information
 Exercise

The procedure is actually quite simple. First,

you arrange things into different groups. Of
course one pile may be sufficient depending on
how much there is to do. After the procedure is
completed one arranges the materials into
different groups again. They can then be put
into the appropriate places. Eventually they will
be used once more and the whole cycle will then
have to be repeated. However, that is part of
life.
Without the schema (steps in doing laundry) the
words are meaningless for many people.

Research by Bransford and Johnson (1972)

shows that memory for the paragraph is weak,
but when told that it is about washing clothes
there is much greater recall of the details of the
paragraph.
ENCODING
IMAGERY
-People have very good memory for vivid
mental images (e.g. hijacked planes crashing
into the twin towers on 9/11).

If we encode both the language ( "hijacked

planes crashing twin towers 9/11) and the mental
images of the event we are likely to have
excellent recall of the information.
ORGANIZING
INFORMATION
FOR ENCODING

Chunking: We have greater recall for

information that can be organized into
meaningful units called "chunks."

We recall information better if we can organize

it into personally meaningful arrangements.
ROY G. BIV (Red Orange Yellow Green Blue
Indigo Violet)
Expertise and Memory – expertise permits
organization of information

-chess maters recall of the position of chess

pieces after a 5 second exposure

-basketball players recall of player position

given a 4 second exposure
Hierarchies: Bower (1969) presented subjects
with words either randomly or grouped into
categories.

Random: dog book painting cup window

paperclip vase shirt pillow

Grouped: poodle chair lamp German Shepherd

table Retriever

When words were presented in groups, recall

was 2 to 3 times better
Class Example: Holiday Card Exercise
DETOUR: AMNESIA – WHEN
MEMORY FAILS
http://www.learner.org/resources/series142.html
STORAGE:
RETAINING
INFORMATION

Sensory Memory: initial recording of sensory

information in the memory system.
Sperling (1960) did very important research on
visual sensory memory as part of his doctoral
research.

- showed subjects 9 letters arranged in a 3 x 3

matrix for 1/20th of a second (similar to reading
something illuminated by a flash of lightning).

- after the letters disappeared subjects were able

to recall about half of them.
-did subjects not have the time to look at all the
letters?

- Immediately after the letters disappeared, a

high, medium or low tone was presented that
directed the subject to report the 3 letters of the
first, second, or third row. Under this procedure,
subjects recalled with near perfect accuracy.
Why the excellent recall with this cue?
- People have a fleeting photographic memory
for visual stimuli after they are no longer present
called iconic memory. The tone directed the
subject to the information before it was lost and
demonstrated that all 9 letters were available in
sensory memory but were lost very rapidly.
-We have a similar sensory memory for auditory
stimuli called echoic memory. When your
attention drifts to the TV during a conversation
and the person you were talking to says "What
did I say" you will likely recall the last few
words (those spoken in about the last 4 seconds).
Short Term Memory
Rehearsal Effect
For verbal information it will be quickly
forgotten unless it is rehearsed. For example,
you find a pizza shop open at 2am online and
walk to your phone.

Forget the number as you try to dial unless

you ??????????????

Peterson and Peterson (1959)

subjects learned groups of 3 consonants (CHJ)
but to prevent rehearsal subjects were instructed
to count backward from 100 by 3's.
When rehearsal is blocked, there is a rapid decay
in memory for the 3 consonants and by 18
seconds after presentation they are almost lost
entirely.

Storage Capacity Effect

George Miller (1956) research on "the magic
number 7 + or - 2

-The short term memory system can retain

between 5 and 9 bits of information
Long Term Memory
For practical purposes, the capacity of the long
term memory for retention of information is
limitless
Theories of how Memories Stored in the
Brain?
Penfield, a neurosurgeon, electrically stimulated
the brain of patients and occasionally they would
report memories from the past long forgotten.
Perhaps all that is experienced is stored in the
brain.
However,
Loftus and Loftus (1980) reviewed the reports of
Penfield's cases and found that only a handful
had recalled long forgotten memories.
Memory as Location

The physical basis of memory is not fully and

clearly known.

Karl Lashley (1950) trained rats to run a maze

and then extracted different sections of brain
tissue. Most rats retained some memory of how
to run the maze, showing that memories do not
reside in a single spot in the brain.
Memory as Electrical Activity
Gerard (1953) trained hamsters to turn right or
left for a food reward. After they learned this,
their body temperature was lowered until the
electrical activity of the brain stopped. After
they were "thawed out" the hamsters retained the
learned information.
Memory as Synaptic Change
D. O. Hebb hypothesized that with learning
clusters of neurons are activated as a "phase
sequence" and that multiple clusters of phase
sequences function as "superordinate phase
sequences."
With increased activity of a given neural tract,
neural interconnections form or are
strengthened.
Kandel & Schwartz (1982) studied the sea snail
APLYSIA with a very small number (20,000) of
nerve cells that are large and readily observed in
the laboratory.
K&S classically conditioned gill withdraw in
response to a squirt of water and observed their
neural activity at the synapse before and after
conditioning.
Their observations revealed:

1) greater release of serotonin at the synapse

after learning

2) synapses became more efficient at

transmitting signals.
Increased synaptic activity ---- more efficient
neural circuits -- increases their sensitivity to
stimulation by other neurons.
Prolonged strengthening of potential neural
firing is called LPT (long term potentiation)
and appears to be the neural basis of learning
and memory
Electron microscope view of one receptor site
(gray) with one synaptic connection to a sending
neuron (red)

Following LTP there are two connections (gray)

directed toward the sending neuron (red) (From
Toni et al., 1999)

- drugs that block LPT interfere with learning

- drugs that enhance LPT – rats learn a maze

more rapidly than rats not given the drugs
Stress Hormones and Memory
When humans encounter stress, stress hormones
are released that trigger the fight or flight
response.

These hormones affect the brain by signaling

that an important event has occurred.

Memory for stressful events is consequently

enhanced by stress-hormones and likely is an
adaptive evolutionary mechanism.
e.g., our memories of events on 9/11/01
automobile accident
attack by someone
Implicit and Explicit Memories
People have two memory systems
operating in tandem.
1. implicit memory - (procedural memory) :
learning how to do something

2. explicit memory - (declarative memory) :

memory of facts and experiences that one
consciously knows

Amnesia patient - plays a golf course and will

improve with experience but will not recall that
they played golf on the course.
Hippocampus

Explicit memory is processed by the

hippocampus and then sent to multiple brain
regions

- Chickadees and other birds hide food and can

later locate it, but not if their hippocampus is
destroyed
- Similar effects with monkeys
Retrieval from Memory
Bahrick et al. (1975) found that 25 years after
graduation people could not recall classmates
but could recognize 90% of their pictures and
names.

Thinking and Cognition

Cognition - processes of thinking, knowing,
planning, memory processes

Limits on Knowing in science and by humans:

“Cousin of the amoeba, how can I know for

certain?” Donald T. Campbell
Basic Questions Regarding Cognition:

- What can be known?

- Can people know with certainty?
- How do people survive under uncertainty?
- Are human beings biased or rational
thinkers?

Communication via language - a medium for

transmitting what is known to others
Categorization in Cognition

- A basic process of assigning an object or a

person to a category based on meaning

-Categorization entails assigning

meaning to the stimulus based on its
features (Rosch, 1978) e.g. tools,
family, furniture

-Categorization is a basic cognitive

process in inter-group relations (Brewer
& Brown, 1998).

-People hold tenaciously to the defining

features of a category and are inclined
to seek confirming rather than
disconfirming information (Snyder &
Swann, 1976)
AKA "Confirmation Bias"

Schema "Irish are jolly drunks"

- meet an Irish person one will likely

search for information consistent with
the cognitive expectation
 -However unambiguous stimulus
information can negate the
confirmation bias (Baron, Albright, &
Malloy, 1995).

Hanna Study
Rich Hanna (West Hartford)
Working Class Hanna (East Hartford)

Hanna get 50% correct and 50% Incorrect

on an academic task

Social class stereotypes affect evaluation of

Hanna's cognitive ability (Darley & Gross,
1983)

Experimental Manipulation of Performance

Hanna got 50% correct and 50% incorrect

25% correct and 75% incorrect
75% correct and 25% incorrect
Performance determines cognitive ability
judgments in 25% and 75% correct
conditions

Social stereotypes determine cognitive

ability judgments in the 50% correct
condition.

Cognitive Bias operates under ambiguous

stimulus information

Prototypes and Exemplars

Prototype: objects (or people) that have

features that best fit the criteria for category
membership
Which of the above is more prototypic of the
category "bird?"

Which of the following faces best fits the

category:

Perpetrator of a Crime
Victim of a Crime
WHY?
Prototypic Features  Infer that stimulus
(object, person) has features that
characterize the category

Exemplar: When an example of the category

is generalized to every member of
the category.

What are Yale University students like?

"Well I know a guy from Yale and ….."

Generalize from the single instance to the

entire category
 Problem Solving
Effective problem solving is essential for
adaptation and survival among all animals,
including humans.

- All animals have genetic endowment to

solve problems related to survival

- Much of this learning occurs within the

context of play. This is a social basis of
problem solving.
- Cognitive mechanism for problem
solving:

1. an algorithm is a logical rule or

procedure that guarantees successful
problem solving.

examples:

y = mx + b
2. a heuristic is less systematic and
mathematically formal but:

- faster because we exclude some

possibilities

- effective based on past experience

- more prone to error

3. Insight is a sudden realization of the

solution to a problem and is very different
from the use of algorithms and heuristics.
 Impediments to
Problem solving
1. Confirmation Bias

2. Fixation- inability to see a problem from a

fresh perspective

3. Functional Fixedness - thinking of things

only in terms of their usual or
typical functions

How would the object below be arranged to

form 4 equilateral triangles?
Using these material how would you mount
the candle on a wall?
Using and Misusing Heuristics

A heuristic can be viewed as a "cognitive

rule of thumb"

For example “How much of a problem is

road rage in America?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOzAxhu6w2s

This demonstrates how readily available

information comes to mind and can lead to a
biased assessment of risk. This is called the
availability heuristic.

The representativeness heuristic is making

judgments of objects or people based on
how well they represent the prototype.
Nisbett and Ross (1980) asked students to
make the following judgments:

"A stranger tells you about a person who is

short, slim, and likes poetry" and then asks
you to guess if this person is more likely a
professor of classics at an Ivy League
University or a truck driver?

http://truck-driver-salary.org/how-many-
truck-drivers-are-there-in-the-united-states/

23 on faculty of Yale and 15 on faculty of

Harvard in the Department of Classics (19
average) – there are 8 Ivy League
Universitites (152)
Perceived Risk: people who will not fly
since 9/11 but drive to work every day.

By focusing on low probability threats

(anthrax attack, dirty bombs) and defending
against them we may ignore more probable
disasters (cigarette smoking, obesity, drug
abuse, violence and poverty).
-----------------Class Exercise-------------

What food do you like best?

Italian, Mexican, or Chinese

Estimate the percentage of the population

that prefer Italian, Mexican, or Chinese
(sum should add to 100%).
False Consensus Effect- belief that others
believe and prefer what you believe and
prefer

Overconfidence Effect: overestimate of

the accuracy and generality of one's
beliefs and judgments.

Framing of Information affects judgment.

People are more likely to by beef labeled
75% lean and less likely to by if labeled
25% fat.
 Belief Perseverance occurs when people
maintain a belief even after the basis for
forming the belief has been demonstrated to
be invalid.

Lord et al. (1979) had people with opposing

views (pro and con) regarding capital
punishment. People were presented with 2
"new research findings" in which 1 showed
that CP deters crime and 1 showing that CP
does not deter crime.

-- People believed the study consistent with

their view

-- People were highly critical of the study

that was inconsistent with their view

-- information inconsistent with initial

position actually strengthened that position.
-Rosy Retrospection: we tend to recall the
positive features (great fun camping with friends
in Colorado) of an event and often forget the
negative features (hours of hiking into the high
country, blisters, sleeping on the hard ground in
the snow).