Cognitive approach

• Models of Memory

  Attempts to describe complex phenomena, clarify how memory might work, developed based on research findings
• Models of Memory

  • Multi-store memory model
  • Working memory model
• Multi-store memory model


  1. Input

  2. Attention

  3. Rehearsal

  4. Retrieval
• Recall accuracy is higher for the first and last items on a list (primacy and recency effects)
• Working memory model


  • Central executive
  • Phonological loop
  • Visuo-spatial sketchpad
  • Episodic buffer
• Schema theory


  Branch of cognitive science concerned with how the brain structures knowledge, mental representations of the world called schemas
• Schemas


  • Culturally specific

  Guide behaviour

  Predict what will happen

  Organise knowledge to assist recall
• Schema theory was founded by Jean Piaget in 1926
• Accommodation


  Existing schema is replaced
• Assimilation


  New information is added to existing schema
• Schema types


  • Social schemas

  Scripts

  Self schemas
• Dual processing model


  System 1 (fast, automatic, prone to mistakes) and System 2 (slow, reliable, uses conscious reasoning)
• Reconstructive memory


  Active process of reconstructing information, can lead to distortion based on schemas and prior knowledge
• When we remember, we literally reconstruct the memory again
• Iowa gambling task


  Participants shown four decks of cards, they pick cards from the decks
• Iowa gambling task


  1. 44 decks

  2. Participants pick cards
• Decks in Iowa gambling task

  • 2 decks have low risk, low reward
  • 2 decks have high risk, high rewards
• Participants with ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) lesions


  They couldn't move away from the high risk deck
• Participants without vmPFC lesions

  They couldn't move from System 1 (intuitive) to System 2 (analytical) thinking
• Research on Iowa gambling task is highly standardized and regulated
• Research on Iowa gambling task has an oversimplistic model of decision making
• Research on Iowa gambling task doesn't consider emotion when making decisions
• It's unclear when System 1 (intuitive) thinking starts and ends
• The Iowa gambling task assumes fast, intuitive thinking (System 1) is unreliable
• Reliability of memory


  Theory of reconstructive memory - memory is an active process that requires reconstruction, not just retrieval
• Distortions in memory


  • Ghosts in the story
  • Car crash recall
• Reconstructive memory


  • When we remember, we literally reconstruct the memory again
• Schema processing


  Our prior knowledge (schemas) can lead to distortions when recalling an event
• Schema distortion


  • Seeing a chair and knowing what it is
• Bartlett's 1932 study investigated how prior knowledge (schemas) affects memory distortions
• Bartlett's study procedure


  1. Participants were told a story called "The War of the Ghosts" which was unfamiliar to them as British participants

  2. Participants retold the story over weeks/months (repeated measures) or passed it on to others (serial production)
• Bartlett's conclusion: Remembering is an active process that is affected by schemas
• Bartlett's study lacked ecological validity but had high reliability
• Loftus & Palmes (1974) study

  45 students watched 7 films, then were asked questions about the films using different critical words (e.g. "smashed" vs "hit")
• Leading questions can change memory of an event
• Cognitive bias


  Humans rely on intuitive, automatic cognitive processes and mental shortcuts (heuristics) which can lead to errors in thinking and decision making
• Cognitive biases


  • Confirmation bias (only listening to news that confirms your opinions)
  • Anchoring bias (relying heavily on the first piece of information offered)
• Heuristics


  Mental shortcuts used to make decisions on complex problems, but they can lead to errors
• Heuristics


  • Availability heuristic (basing decisions on what immediately comes to mind)
  • Representativeness heuristic (basing decisions on what an object represents)
• Tversky & Kahneman study

  1. Participants were asked to quickly calculate either an ascending or descending series of multiplications

  2. Descending group gave higher estimates compared to ascending group