Chapter 5:

Memory and
Cognition
• Cognitive psychology is the field of psychology dedicated to
examining how people think.
• It attempts to explain how and why we think the way we do by
studying how our memory system functions, how creativity affects
our problem-solving, the impact of language on our development, the
different types of intelligence, and the fundamental errors we make
in decision-making.
• MEMORY - the ability to store and retrieve information over time
• COGNITION - the processes of acquiring and using knowledge
• PROBLEM-SOLVING - the strategies used to find a solution
• Memory and cognition represent the two major interests of cognitive
psychologists.
• The cognitive perspective was influenced by the development of the
computer, and although the differences between computers and the
human mind are vast, cognitive psychologists have used the
computer as a model for understanding the workings of the mind.
• Information processing theory is a theory of cognitive
development that describes the mind as functionally similar to a
computer.
• Our memories allow us to do relatively simple and complex things.
• When people are asked to remember an event, they use current
knowledge to put together a story that makes sense. This story is
assembled using their original perceptions and memory traces,
emotions, beliefs, and other experiences from life. In effect, they
rebuild the memory each time they are asked to recall it.
• Reconstructive memory is a memory for an event that has been
pieced together from past and present knowledge, emotions, and
beliefs
Encoding and Storage: How Our
Perceptions Become Memories
• Psychologists conceptualize memory in terms of three processes.
• 1. Encoding is the process by which we place the things that we
experience into memory.
• 2. Storage is the process of holding information in memory to be
processed or used.
• 3. Retrieval refers to the process of reactivating information that
has been stored in memory.
Encoding
• Not everything we experience can or should be encoded. We tend to
encode things that we need to remember and not bother to encode
things that are irrelevant.
• One way to improve our memory is to use better encoding strategies.
Some ways of studying are more effective than others. Research has
found that we are better able to remember information if we encode
it in a meaningful way.
• When we engage in elaborative rehearsal or elaborative encoding, we
process new information in ways that make it more relevant or
meaningful
• Ineffective encoding, or an encoding failure, is an important cause of
memory failure and forgetting in humans
Storage
• Another way of understanding memory is to think about it in terms
of stages that describe the length of time that information remains
available to us; how long it can be stored.
• Not all information makes it through all three stages; most of it is
forgotten.
Memory can be characterized in terms of stages—the length
of time that information remains available to us.
Figure 1. Memory Duration
Sensory Memory
• Sensory memory refers to the brief storage of sensory information. Unless it
is attended to and passed on for more processing, the memory is quickly
forgotten.

• Iconic memory is sensory memory for visual information. Iconic memory

was first studied by the psychologist George Sperling (1960).
• He showed the image of 12 letters for only about 50 milliseconds
(1/20 of a second). Then, Sperling gave his participants a recall test
in which they were asked to name all the letters that they could
remember.
• To Sperling's surprise, some participants reported a lingering visual
image of all the letters, although the image of the twelve letters
faded quickly.
• In his next experiment he again showed twelve letters in three rows
of four to each participant. Then after the display had been removed,
he quickly signaled to the participants to report the letters from only
the first, second, or third row.
• Participants had access to all of the letters in their iconic memories.
• Echoic memory is the sensory memory for sound. In contrast to iconic
memory, which decays very rapidly, echoic memories can last as long as 4
seconds.

• In some people, iconic or echoic memory seems to last longer than usual. For
visual images, this phenomenon is known as eidetic imagery, having a
photographic memory. People with a photographic memory can report
details of an image over long periods of time.

• There is also some evidence for eidetic memories in hearing; some people
report that their echoic memories persist for unusually long periods of time.
Memory can be characterized in terms of stages—the length
of time that information remains available to us.
Figure 1. Memory Duration
Short-Term Memory
• Most of the information that gets into sensory memory is forgotten, but
information that we turn our attention to, with the goal of remembering it,
may pass into short-term memory. In Short-term memory (STM) small
amounts of information can be temporarily kept for more than a few seconds,
but usually for less than one minute.

• Information in short-term memory is not stored permanently but rather

becomes available for us to process, and the processes that we use to make
sense of, modify, interpret, and store information in STM are known as
working memory.
Working memory is not a store of memory like STM, but rather a set of
memory procedures or operations.
• One way to prevent the decay of information from short-term memory is to
use working memory to rehearse it. Maintenance rehearsal is the process
of repeating information mentally or out loud with the goal of keeping it in
memory.

• If we continue to rehearse information, it will stay in STM until we stop

rehearsing it, but there is also a capacity limit to STM.
• One way we are able to expand our ability to remember things in
STM is by using a memory technique called chunking. Chunking is
the process of organizing information into smaller groupings, or
chunks, thereby increasing the number of items that can be held in
STM.
Memory can be characterized in terms of stages—the length
of time that information remains available to us.
Figure 1. Memory Duration
Long-term Memory
• If information makes it past short term-memory it may enter long-term
memory (LTM), the memory storage that can hold information for days,
months, and years. The capacity of long- term memory is large, and there is
no known limit to what we can remember.

• 2 TYPES OF LTM:

• Explicit/Declarative Memory

• Implicit Memory
Explicit/Declarative Memory
• When we assess memory by asking a person to consciously remember things,
we are measuring explicit memory. Explicit/declarative memory refers to
knowledge or experiences that can be consciously remembered.

• There are two types of explicit memory: episodic and semantic.

• Episodic memory refers to the firsthand experiences that we have had.

• Semantic memory refers to our knowledge of facts and concepts about the
world.
Explicit memory is assessed using measures in
which the individual being tested must consciously
attempt to remember the information:
Recall memory test is a measure of explicit memory that involves bringing
from memory information that has previously been remembered

Free recall is a measure of memory with no prompts or clues.

Cued recall includes a retrieval cue in the request for memory.

Recognition memory test, a measure of explicit memory that involves

determining whether information has been seen or learned before.

Relearning assess how much more quickly information is processed or

learned when it is studied again after it has already been learned, but then
forgotten.
Implicit/Nondeclarative Memory
• While explicit memory consists of the things that we can consciously report
that we know, implicit/nondeclarative memory refers to knowledge that
we cannot consciously access.
• Procedural memory refers to our knowledge of how to do things
• A second type of implicit memory involves the effects of classical
conditioning, in which we learn, without effort or awareness, to
associate a neutral stimulus with another stimulus that creates a
naturally occurring response.
• The final type of implicit memory is known as priming, or changes
in behavior as a result of experiences that have happened frequently
or recently. Priming refers both to the activation of knowledge and to
the influence of that activation on behavior
The Structure of Long-Term Memory:
Categories, Prototypes, and Schemas
• Memories that are stored in LTM are not isolated but rather are linked
together into categories or networks of associated memories that have
features in common with each other.

• Forming categories, and using categories to guide behavior, is a fundamental

part of human nature.

• Members of categories, even those with defining features, can be compared

to the category prototype, which is the member of the category that is most
average or typical of the category.

• Mental categories are sometimes referred to as schemas, or frameworks of

knowledge in long-term memory that help us organize information. We have
schemas about objects, people, events, and social groups.
Retrieval
• Even when information has been adequately encoded and stored, it does not
do us any good without retrieval, which is getting information out of long
term memory.
• The main reason for retrieval failure is that the information was not
adequately encoded to begin with, which is known as an encoding failure.
• Decay theory is an older memory theory proposed to explain the loss of
information, that has not been used over time, from long-term memory.
• Context-dependent learning refers to an increase in retrieval when the
external situation in which information is learned matches the situation in
which it is remembered.
• state-dependent learning refers to superior retrieval of memories when the
individual is in the same physiological or psychological state as during
encoding.
• The primacy effect refers to a tendency to better
remember stimuli that are presented early in a list.
• The recency effect refers to the tendency to better
remember stimuli that are presented later in a list.
• interference theory, our existing memories can influence our new learning

• retroactive interference occurs when learning something new impairs

our ability to retrieve information that was learned earlier.
• proactive interference occurs when earlier learning impairs our ability to
encode information that we try to learn later.

• tip-of-the- tongue phenomenon, in which we are certain that we know

something that we are trying to recall, but cannot quite come up with it.
The Biology of Memory
• Evidence for the role of different brain structures in different types of memories comes
in part from case studies of patients who suffer from amnesia, a memory disorder that
involves the inability to remember information

• retrograde amnesia, a memory disorder that produces an inability to retrieve events

that occurred before a given time. For people who suffer damage to the brain, for
instance, as a result of a stroke or other trauma, the amnesia may work backward.

• Organisms with damage to the hippocampus develop a type of amnesia that works in a
forward direction to affect encoding, known as anterograde amnesia. Anterograde
amnesia is the inability to transfer information from short-term into long-term
memory, making it impossible to form new memories
 Cues to Improving Memory
• Ebbinghaus discovered another
important principle of learning, known
as the spacing effect.
• The spacing effect, also known as
distributed practice, refers to
improved learning when the same
amount of studying is spread out over
periods of time, then when it occurs
closer together, known as massed
practice.
• This means that you will learn more if
you study a little bit every day
throughout the semester than if you
wait to cram at the last minute
• Ebbinghaus also considered the role of overlearning; that is,
continuing to practice and study even when we think that we have
mastered the material.
• If you are having difficulty remembering a particular piece of
information, it never hurts to try using a mnemonic or memory aid
Cognition and Cognitive Biases
• Cognitive biases are errors in memory or judgment that are caused by the
inappropriate use of cognitive processes

• Overconfidence, which is the tendency for people to be too certain about

their ability to accurately remember events and to make judgments.

• flashbulb memory, which is a vivid and emotional memory of an unusual

event that people believe they remember very well
Problem-Solving
Strategies
• A problem-solving strategy is a plan of action used to find a solution
• For example, a well-known strategy is trial and error, which is
continually trying different solutions until the problem is solved.
• Another type of strategy is an algorithm. An algorithm is a problem-
solving formula, such as a mathematical equation, that provides you with
step-by-step instructions used to achieve a desired outcome
• While an algorithm must be followed exactly to produce a correct result, a
heuristic is a general problem-solving framework
• Working backwards is a useful heuristic in which you begin solving the
problem by focusing on the end result.
• Another useful heuristic is Sub-goaling, which is the practice of
accomplishing a large goal or task by breaking it into a series of smaller
steps.