From Studyplace

Contents 1 Notes for summer class 1.1 Perception 1.1.1 Visual Agnosia 1.1.2 Object Perception 1.1.2.1 Gestalt Principles of Organization(Anderson 46-47) 1.1.3 Visual Pattern Recognition 1.1.3.1 Template Matching 1.2 Abstraction of Information into Memory --Perception-based Representations-- 1.2.1 Categories 1.2.1.1 Object Categories 1.2.1.2 Episode Categories 1.2.2 Propositions 1.2.3 Dual-code theory 1.2.4 Semantic Networks 1.2.5 Schemas 1.2.6 Degree of Category Membership 1.2.7 Event Concepts 1.3 Human Memory: Encoding and Storage 1.3.1 Flashbulb Memories 1.4 Human Memory: Retention and Retrieval 1.4.1 Interference 1.4.2 Fan Effect 1.4.3 Mood Congruence 1.4.4 State-dependent learning 1.4.5 Encoding-specificity principle 1.5 Problem Solving 1.5.1 Problem Operator 1.5.1.1 Three Ways to Acquire new problem-solving operators. 1.5.2 Problem Space 1.5.3 Solution by Analogy 1.5.4 Problem State

Notes for summer class

Delicious/paulccnmtl/cognitive-psychology bookmarks tagged cognitive-psychology by paulccnmtl Thomas C. Reeves Homepage What is greater than God, More evil than the devil, The poor have it, The rich need it, And if you eat it Creating False Memories Cognitive Tutor Authoring Tools: Home

Perception

Visual Agnosia

The inability to recognize objects that results neither from general intellectual loss nor from a lost of basic sensory abilities.

 Apperceptive Agnosia - Those unable to recognize simple shapes such as circles or triangles or to draw shapes they are known. 
 It is generally believe that these patients have problems with early processing of information in the visual stream.

 Associative Agnosia - Those able to recognize simple shapes and can successfully copy drawings even of complex objects. 
 However, they are unable to recognize the complex objects. It is believed that these patients have intact early processing but have difficulties with
 pattern recognition, which occurs later. 

Object Perception

Gestalt Principles of Organization(Anderson 46-47)

 Principles: Used to segment visual scenes into objects.
 
Proximity: Elements close together tend to organize into units.
 Similarity: Objects that look alike tend to be grouped together.
 Good Continuation: examples on Anderson 46-47
 Closure and Good Form: Anderson 46-47

Visual Pattern Recognition

Template Matching

Proposes that a retinal image of an object is faithfully transmitted to the brain, and the brain attempts to compare the image directly to various stored patterns. These patterns are called templates.

Abstraction of Information into Memory --Perception-based Representations--

Some visual information, such as geometric objects, tend to be store according to spatial position; whereas other information, such as words, tend to be stored according to linear order.

Our memory loss is selective. To study abstraction means to consider the cognitive selection process for choosing information that becomes stored in our memory.

===Mnemonic (memory-assisting) technique A device used to associate elements to improve memory. For instance, this may be a visual interpretation to help trigger the meaning of a word (Anderson 146-147). It is easier to remember less meaningful material if it is converted into more meaningful material.

Semantic networks and schemas are two ways of representing conceptual knowledge. Both are inadequate. Semantic networks do not capture the graded character of categorical knowledge found in schemas. Schemas however are not easily related to behavior. As a result there are two newer ways to consider conceptual knowledge.

• Abstraction Theories

Holds that we have actually abstracted general properties from the instances we study.

Schema theory is an example of a theory of abstraction. 

• Instance Theories

Holds that we actually store only specific instances, with the more general inferences emerging from these instances. When it comes to judge how typical a specific object is of birds in general, we compare it to specific birds and make some sort of judgement of average difference.

Regions in the prefrontal cortext tended to be activated in those that use abstract-rule to catergorize instances, whereas regions in the occipital visual areas and the cerebellum were activated in the instance participants. The recent trend has been that people may sometimes use abstractions and other times use instances to represent categories.

Categories

May be represented either by abstracting their central tendencies or by storing specific instances of categories.

For instance: Children come to believe that all things in a biological category have the same parts (like pectin in apples) but all things in an artifact category have the same function.

Object Categories

How features tend to go together.

Episode Categories

How events tend to go together.

Propositions

Represent atomic units of meaning and can be used to encode the meaning of sentences and pictures. The interconnections among propositions define a network.

Dual-code theory

Paivio claims that there are separate representations for verbal and visual information (Anderson 108).

Semantic Networks

Store properties with concepts (Anderson 155-157).

1) If a fact about a concept is encountered frequently, it will be stored with that concept even if it could be inferred from a higher order concept.

2) The more frequently a fact about a concept is encountered, the more strongly that fact will be associated with the concept. The more strongly facts are associated with concepts, the more rapidly they are verified.

3) Inferring facts that are not directly stored with a concept takes a relatively long time.

Both the strength of the connections between facts and concepts (determined by frequency of experience) and the distance between them in the semantic network have effects on retrieval time.

The importance of a category is that it stores predictable information about specific instances of that category.

When property is not stored directly with a concept, people can retrieve it from a higher order concept.

Schemas

Schemas represent categorical knowledge according to a slot structure, in which slots specify values of various attributes that members of a category possess (Anderson 158).

Schemas represent concepts in terms of supersets, parts, and other attribute-value pairs.

People will infer that an object has the default values for its category, unless they explicitly notice otherwise.

Degree of Category Membership

People are faster to judge a picture as an instance of a category when it presents a typical member of the category. For instance, apples are seen as fruits more rapidly than are watermelons, and robins are seen as birds more rapidly than are chickens. Thus, typical members of a category appear to have an advantage in perceptual recognition as well.

Event Concepts

Scripts are event schemas that people use to reason about prototypical events.

Human Memory: Encoding and Storage

Flashbulb Memories

Events so important that they effectively burn themselves into memory forever.

Human Memory: Retention and Retrieval

Interference

Learning additional associations to a stimulus can cause old ones to be forgotten (Anderson 210).

Fan Effect

A type of interference. The increase in reaction time related to an increase in the number of facts associated with a concept is called the fan effect (Anderson 212).

Mood Congruence

It is easier to remember happy memories when one is in a happy state and sad memories when one is in a sad state. Mood congruence is an effect of the content of the memories rather than the emotional state of the participant during study.

State-dependent learning

People find it easier to recall information if they can return to the same emotional and physical state they were in when they learned the information.

Encoding-specificity principle

People show better word memory if the words are tested in the context of the same words with which they were studied (Anderson 231).

Problem Solving

There is reason to believe that the human ability to solve problems greatly surpasses that of any other species and that this ability depends on the advanced evolution of the prefrontal cortex in humans (Anderson 243).

Problem Operator

Refers to the action that will transform the problem state into another problem state. The solution of the over all problem is a sequence on these known operators (Anderson 245).

Three Ways to Acquire new problem-solving operators.

 Discovery
 Being told by others (uniquely human as it relies on language).
 Observing another using an operator.

Problem Space

A space that consists of various states of a problem that must be searched.

Solution by Analogy

Analogy involves noticing that a past problem solution is relevant and then mapping the elements from that solution to produce an operator for the current problem.

Problem State

A representation of the problem in some degree of solution. The initial situation of the problem is referred to as the start state, the situation on the way to the goal as intermediate states, and the goal as the goal state.