COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Introduction

 Theoristand Philosopher have been

speculating about the thought process
more than 23 years ago.

 Wilhelm Wundt a German Physiologist

living in Leipzeig between 1832- 1920
created a new discipline of psychology.
Introduction

 He separated Psychology form Philosophy by analyzing the working of

mind in more structured way, with the emphasis being on objective
measurement and control.

 He started the first laboratory dedicated to psychology in Germany and

its opening is often thought as the beginning of modern psychology.
Introduction

 He wanted to study mental process by a technique called

Introspection. His aim was to record thoughts and sensations and to
analyze them into their constituent element.
 Introspection means through training observing own sensations and
reporting objectively to self to understand ASTU
(Acquisition, Storage, Transformation And Understanding)
Introduction

 Wundt wanted to study human mind through introspection and

believed in Reductionism.

 He believed that consciousness could be broken down to its basic

element without its own property loss.

 And then introspecting based on personal interpretation or

experiences.
Introduction

 Subject reflected what stimulus made them feel or think.

 Same stimulus was given around to every person to made and feel and
think.

 Wundt concentrated on three areas: Thoughts, images and feelings.

These are the basic areas today in cognitive psychology.
Introduction

 With the emergence of computers in 1950’s psychologists started

comparing thought process with computers with two mental
component:

 It can be compared with operations of computers

 Mental process can be interpreted as series of stages one step at a

time.
Introduction

 No of models were proposed by Researchers to study Human memory.

 Richard Attkinson & Shiffrin (1968) propose “Modal Model”.

 Memory can be understood as sequence of discrete steps in which

information is transferred from storage area to another.
Memory

 Memory is the faculty of the brain by

which data or information is encoded,
stored, and retrieved when needed.

 Itis the retention of information over time

for the purpose of influencing future
action.
Memory

 Sensory memory holds sensory

information less than one second after
an item is perceived. The ability to look
at an item and remember what it
looked like with just a split second of
observation, or memorization, is the
example of sensory memory. It is out of
cognitive control and is an automatic
Memory

 The first experiments exploring this form of sensory

memory were precisely conducted by George
Sperling (1963) using the "partial report paradigm".
Subjects were presented with a grid of 12 letters,
arranged into three rows of four. After a brief
presentation, subjects were then played either a
high, medium or low tone, cuing them which of the
rows to report.
Memory

 Based on these partial report experiments, Sperling was able to show

that the capacity of sensory memory was approximately 12 items, but
that it degraded very quickly (within a few hundred milliseconds).
Because this form of memory degrades so quickly, participants would
see the display but be unable to report all of the items (12 in the
"whole report" procedure) before they decayed. This type of memory
cannot be prolonged via rehearsal.
Sensory Memory

 External Stimuli from environment enters into sensory memory.

Sensory Memory is a storage system that records information from
every sense. In 1960 & 1970 Psychologist studied either (visual
sensory memory) Iconic or (auditory sensory memory) Echoic. It is said
that any information is stored in sensory memory not less than 2secs
than it is forgotten.
Sensory Memory

 From here it is passed on to short tem memory. Over here also

information ia also fragile nut not than sensory memory & stays upto
30 secs.

 From this some information is passed on to the Long Term Memory. It

has an enormous capacity and information stored over here is
permanent.
SENSORY MEMORY

 Three types of sensory memories exist. Iconic memory is a fast

decaying store of visual information; a type of sensory memory that
briefly stores an image which has been perceived for a small duration.
 Echoic memory is a fast decaying store of auditory information,
another type of sensory memory that briefly stores sounds that have
been perceived for short durations.
 Haptic memory is a type of sensory memory that represents a
database for touch stimuli.
Short-term memory

 Short-term memory (or "primary" or

"active memory") is the capacity for
holding, but not manipulating, a small
amount of information in mind in an
active, readily available state for a short
period of time.
For example, short-term memory can be
used to remember a phone number that
has just been recited.
Short-term memory

 The duration of short-term memory (when

rehearsal or active maintenance is prevented)
is believed to be in the order of second
 Short-term memory should be distinguished
from working memory, which refers to
structures and processes used for temporarily
storing and manipulating information's.
Short-term memory

 Short-termmemory often encompasses

events over a period anywhere from 30
seconds to several days. Because short-
term memories need to be recalled for a
lesser amount of time than long-term
memories, the ability of the brain to store
Short-term memory items is more limited.
Capacity

 ShortTerm Memory. Short-term

memory (STM) is the second stage of
the multi-store memory model
proposed by the Atkinson-Shiffrin.
The duration of STM seems to be
between 15 and 30 seconds, and
the capacity about 7 items.
Characteristics

 Short-term memory has 3 main characteristics:

 Brief duration that can only last up to 20 seconds.
 Its capacity is limited to 7 ±2 chunks of independent information
(Miller’s Law) and is vulnerable to interference and interruption.
 Its weakening (due to many reasons, such as medication, sleep
deprivation, a stroke, or a head injury, for example) is the first step to
memory loss.
Short Term memory

 Short-term memory is responsible for 3 operations:

 Iconic: Ability to store images.
 Acoustic: To store sounds.
 Working Memory : Ability to store information until it’s put to use. For
some scientists, working memory is synonymous to short-term
memory, but truth is that working memory is not only used for
information storage, but also for the manipulation of information.
What’s important is that it’s flexible, dynamic and makes all the
difference in successful learning.
Memory Code

 Memory encoding allows information to be

converted into a construct that is stored in the
brain indefinitely; once it is encoded, it can be
recalled from either short- or long-
term memory. The four primary types of
encoding are visual, acoustic, elaborative, and
semantic.
Memory Code

 Visualencoding is the process

of encoding images and visual sensory
information. The creation of mental pictures
is one way people use visual encoding. This
type of information is temporarily stored in
iconic memory, and then is moved to long-
term memory for storage.
Memory Code

 Acoustic encoding is the processing

and encoding of sound, words and other
auditory input for storage and later retrieval.
This is aided by the concept of the
phonological loop, which allows input within
our echoic memory to be sub-vocally
rehearsed in order to facilitate remembering.
Memory Code

 Elaborative. Elaborative encoding uses

information that is already known and
relates it to the new information being
experienced. The nature of
new memory becomes dependent as
much on previous information as it does
on the new information.
 Semantic memory refers to a portion of long-
term memory that processes ideas and
concepts that are not drawn from personal
experience. Semantic memory includes things
that are common knowledge, such as the
names of colours, the sounds of letters, the
capitals of countries and other basic facts
acquired over a lifetime
Long Term Memory

 Long-term memory (LTM) is the stage of

the Atkinson–Shiffrin memory model
where informative knowledge is held
indefinitely. It is defined in contrast to
short-term and working memory, which
persist for only about 18 to 30 seconds.
 According to the dual store memory model
proposed by Richard C. Atkinson and Richard
Shiffrin in 1968, memories can reside in the
short-term "buffer" for a limited time while
they are simultaneously strengthening their
associations in long-term memory. When
items are first presented, they enter short-
term memory for approximately twenty to
thirty seconds but due to its limited space, as
new items enter, older ones are pushed out.
 The limit of items that can be held in the short
term memory is an average between four and
seven, yet, with practice and new skills that
number can be increased. However, each time an
item in short-term memory is rehearsed, it is
strengthened in long-term memory. Similarly, the
longer an item stays in short-term memory, the
stronger its association becomes in long-term
memory.
Characteristics of the Long-term Memory

 Information in Long-term memory is stored as

a network of schemas, which then converts
into knowledge structures. This is exactly why
we recall relevant knowledge when we
stumble upon similar information.
 Foreg: Graphics designer has to provide
existing structures in new way., like with
graphics, movies, curiosity-provoking
questions, etc.
Characteristics of the Long-term Memory

 Long-term memory is responsible for 3 operations

 Encoding,which is the ability to convert
information into a knowledge structure.
 Storage,
which is the ability to accumulate
chunks of information.
 Retrieval,
which is the ability to recall things we
already know.
Autobiographical Memory

It is a memory system consisting of episodes

recollected from an individual's life, based on
a combination of episodic (personal
experiences and specific objects, people and
events experienced at particular time and
place) and semantic(general knowledge and
facts about the world)memory
Autobiographical Memory

 It is memory about self and personal

experiences.

 Memory about emotions and facts and also

helps us control our moods.

 Memory for specific event or event memory.

Autobiographical Memory
Self
description

emotion Autobiographical Life

s memory history

General
Specific Events
events
Autobiographical Memory

Cues for remembering events:

Dutch psychologist called Willem Wagenaar

made an interesting research in the study of event memory is a small set of
questions:

who was involved

what the event was
where it occurred
when it occurred