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American Psychologist,
48(5), 577–580. Can the psychologists logically explain the research on eyewitness testimony to a
jury?
Loftus, E., & Ketcham, K. (1991). Witness for the Defense: The Accused, the Eyewitness, and the Expert
Who Puts Memory on Trial. New York: St Martin’s Press. A collection of true stories based on Dr.
Loftus’ experience as an expert witness. Real-life courtroom dramas are used to illustrate
principles of memory and general psychology.
Loftus, E. (1993). Psychologists in the Eyewitness World. American Psychologist, 48(5), 550–552.
Discussion of accurate identification of perpetrators and efforts to minimize false identifications.
Neath, I. (1998). Human Memory: An Introduction to Research, Data, and Theory. Pacific Grove:
Brooks/Cole Publishing Co. An introduction to the field of human memory. Strikes a balance
among history, theory, and current empirical research. Imparts an appreciation for experimental
design.
Pressley, M. (1997). Introduction to Memory: Development During Childhood and Adolescence. Mahwah:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Summarizes theory and research on memory development in
children and adolescents from a broad perspective. Includes European, Soviet, and American
contributions.
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CHAPTER 8: MEMORY
DISCOVERING PSYCHOLOGY
PROGRAM 9: REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING
Overview
A look at the complex process called memory: how images, ideas, language, physical actions,
sounds, and smells are translated into codes, represented in the memory, and retrieved when
needed.
Key Issues
Long-term versus short-term memory, the chunking process, the peg-word mnemonic, painting
from memory, memory engrams, and organic amnesia.
Demonstrations
Gordon Bower demonstrates the peg-word mnemonic, a memory enhancing technique.
San Francisco artist Franco Magnani’s painting from childhood memories of Italy illustrates
the artist’s remarkable memory and his significant boyhood distortions.
Interviews
Gordon Bower explains mnemonic techniques.
Richard Thompson discovers one memory engram in his investigation of the neural circuits
involved in the memory of rabbits.
New Interview
Diana Woodruff-Pak experiments with “eyeblink classical conditioning.”
FILMS AND VIDEOS
The Brain: Learning and Memory (1984). PBS, 60 minutes
This program uses theories about brain organization, synaptic activity, and the hippocampus tor />
explain learning and forgetting.
Human Memory (1978). HARBJ, 25 minutes
Graphic demonstrations conducted by Gordon Bower of the processes of memory, memory aids,
and the cognitive distortions created while reconstructing memories. Shows what it is like to have
no memory at all, how real learning involves the transfer of information from short-term to long-
term memory, and how the use of retrieval cues can improve one’s ability to remember.
Memory (1990). Insight Media, 30 minutes
Biological and cognitive research findings related to how we store, encode, and retrieve memories
are discussed by leading memory researchers. The program shows what memory disturbances are
and how certain problems can results from accidents or disease. Memory of dramatic events is
analyzed and the practical application of memory research to witness recall in criminal trials is
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discussed.
Memory: Fabric of the Mind (1998). FFHS, 28 minutes
Examines information storage and retrieval in human memory. A good review of memory research
and theory. Selected for preview at the APA convention in 1989.
The Life of the Mind: Cognitive Processes and Memory (1991). The Teaching Company, in
collaboration with the Smithsonian.
One of eight lectures with Richard Gerrig from an award-winning teacher series. This volume
explores cognitive processes and memory.
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CHAPTER 9
Cognitive Processes
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
On completion of this chapter, students should be able to:
1. Describe the differences and similarities between automatic and controlled processes
2. Define Grice’s maxims for language production
3. Describe the various forms of ambiguity in language comprehension
4. Explain the significance of inference in the cognitive processing of language
5. Demonstrate understanding of the significance of Paivio’s dual-coding theory
6. Define “problem space,” and its relationship to problemsolving
7. Suggests techniques to improve problem solving skills
8. Elaborate on the difference between deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning
9. Understand the heuristics and biases involved in judgments and decision making
10. Articulate the significance of framing and reference points relative to decision making
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Studying Cognition
A. Definitions
1. Cognition is a general term for all forms of knowing />
2. The contents of cognition are what you know—concepts, facts,
propositions, rules, and memories
3. Cognitive processes are how you manipulate these mental contents
4. Cognitive psychology is the study of cognition
B. Discovering the Processes of Mind
1. Donders devised the subtraction method, one of the fundamental
methodologies for studying mental processes
2. He proposed that extra mental steps will often result in more time
required to perform a given task
3. Response selection requires more time than stimulus categorization,
because response selection includes stimulus categorization
4. Reaction time has replaced the subtraction method as a method of
testing specific accounts of how a given cognitive process is carried
out
C. Mental Processes and Mental Resources
1. Demands on mental resources may help determine if a process is
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serial or parallel
a) Serial processes require separate examination of each
individual element in an array, one after another
b) Parallel processes entail the simultaneous examination of all
elements in an array
2. Reaction time is often used to try to determine if a specific mental
process is carried out in parallel or serially
3. A key assumption is that limited processing resources must be spread
over different mental tasks
4. Attentional processes are responsible for distributing these resources
5. Some processes place higher demands on mental resources dm do
others
6. Controlled processes require attention and thus greater allocation of
mental resources
7. Automatic processes generally do not require attention and can often be
performed along with other tasks without interference
D. The goal of much cognitive psychological research is to invent experiments that confirm
each of the components of models that combine serial and parallel, and controlled and
automatic processes
II.Language Use
A. Language Production
1. Language production concerns what people say, as well as the
processes they go through to produce the message
a) Includes both signing and writing, as well as speaking
b) Refers to language producers as speakers and to language
understanders as listeners
2. Audience design requires that, on producing an utterance, one must
have in mind the audience to which that utterance is directed and
what knowledge you share with members of that audience
a) The Cooperative Principle is instructs to speakers to produce
utterances appropriate to the setting and meaning of the
ongoing conversation. There are four maxims that cooperative
speakers should live by:
(i) Quantity: Make your contribution as informative as is
required, but do not make it more informative than
required
(ii) Quality: Try to make your contribution one that is true
(iii) Relation: Be relevant
(iv) Manner: Be perspicacious, avoid obscurity of
expression, avoid ambiguity, be brief, be orderly
b) A presumption of the listener knowing all that you know is
referred to as common ground. Judgments of common ground
are based on three sources of evidence:
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(i) Community membership: Assumptions made by
language producers about what is likely to be
mutually known, based on shared membership in
communities of various sizes
(ii) Linguistic copresence: Assumptions made by language
producers that information contained in earlier parts
of a conversation, or in past conversations, are
common ground
(iii) Physical copresence: Exists when a speaker and a
listener are directly in the physical presence of objects
or situations
3. Speech Execution and Speech Errors
a) Speech errors give researchers insight into the planning
needed to produce utterances
(i) Speakers must choose content words that best fit their
ideas
(ii) Speakers must place the chosen words in the right
place in the utterance
(iii) Speakers must fill in the sounds that make up the
words they wish to utter
b) Spoonerisms–one type of speech error–consist of an exchange
of the initial sounds of two or more words in a phrase or
sentence. Spoonerisms are more likely to occur when the error
will still result in real words
c) Spontaneous and laboratory induced errors provide evidence
about processes and representations in speech execution
B. Language Understanding
1. Resolving ambiguity involves detangling two types of ambiguity
a) Structural ambiguity involves determining which of two (or
more) meanings the structure of a sentence implies, and is
dependent largely on prior context for resolution
b) Lexical ambiguity involves determining which of the various
meanings of a word may be appropriate in this context. To
eliminate this ambiguity is referred to as “disambiguating”
the word. Two models are proposed for disambiguation.
(i) The constant order model states that, regardless of the
context preceding the use of a word, its meanings are
always tested in constant order, from most to least
likely
(ii) The reordering by context model states that the
context that precedes a word can change the order in
which one tests its multiple definitions
(iii) Context actively affects listener’s consideration of the
meanings of ambiguous words
2. Products of Understanding
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a) Research suggests that meaning representations that follow
understanding of utterances or texts begin with basic units
called propositions. Propositions are the main ideas of
utterances.
b) Listeners often fill gaps in information with inferences.
Inferences are logical assumptions made possible by
information in memory.
C. Language, Thought, and Culture
1. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that differences in language create
differences in thought. The hypothesis contains two tenets:
a) Linguistic Relativity suggests that structural differences
between languages will generally be paralleled by
nonlinguistic cognitive differences in the native speakers of
the two languages
b) Linguistic Determinism suggests that the structure of a
language strongly influences or fully determines the way its
native speakers perceive and reason about the world
2. Research does not support the strong claim of linguistic determinism
that language is destiny, although it does support the weaker claim
that language differences yield parallel cognitive differences
III. Visual Cognition
A. Using Visual Representations
1. Reaction time required for mental manipulation of rotated visual
images was in direct proportion to the degree that the image had been
rotated
2. Consistency of reaction time suggested that the process of mental
rotation was very similar to the process of physical rotation of objects
3. People scan visual images as if they were scanning real objects
B. Combining Verbal and Visual Representations
1. Spatial mental models are often formed to capture properties of real and
imagined spatial experiences
2. In reading descriptive passages, people often form a spatial mental
model to keep track of the whereabouts of characters
3. When people think about the world around them, they almost always
combine visual and verbal representations of information
IV. Problem Solving and Reasoning
A. Both require combination of current information with information stored in memory to
work toward a particular goal, a conclusion or a solution
B. Problem solving
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1. The formal definition of a problem space, of how a problem is defined in
real life, captures three elements:
a) An initial state—the incomplete information or unsatisfactory
conditions with which you start
b) A goal state—the set of information or state of the world you
hope to achieve
c) A set of operations—the steps you may take to move from the
initial state to the goal state
2. Well-defined problems have the initial state, the goal state, and the
operations all clearly specified
3. An ill-defined problem exists when the initial state, the goal state,
and/or the operations may be unclear and vaguely specified
4. Algorithms are step-by-step procedures that always provide the right
answer to a particular type of problem
5. Heuristics are strategies or “rules of thumb” that problem solvers often
use when algorithms are not available
6. Think-aloud protocols ask participants to verbalize their ongoing
thoughts
7. Problem solving can be improved by planning the series of operations
that it will take to solve the problem. This assures that the small steps
needed to solve the problem do not overwhelm processing resources.
a) Finding a way to represent a problem so that each operation is
possible, given processing resources
b) Practicing each of the components of the solution so that, over
time, those components require fewer resources
8. Functional Fixedness is a mental block that adversely affects problem
solving by inhibiting the perception of a new function for an object
C. Deductive Reasoning
1. Deductive reasoning is a form of thinking in which one draws a logical
conclusion from two or more statements or premises
2. Requires reformulation of an interchange to fit the structure of a
syllogism, thus defining the logical relationships between statements
that will lead to valid conclusions
3. Involves the correct application of logical rules, and is impacted by/>
both the specific knowledge possessed about the world and the
representational sources that can be brought to bear on a reasoning
problem.
a) What is invalid in logic, however, is not necessarily untrue in
real life, and information that is accepted as true can result in
biased beliefs:
b) In the belief-bias effect, people tend to judge as valid those
conclusions for which they can construct a reasonable real-
world model and as invalid those for which they cannot
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c) Experience improves the individual’s reasoning ability, such
that when a posed problem is familiar in real life, you can use
a pragmatic reasoning schema
d) Mental models may be used when pragmatic reasoning
schemas are not available. Mental models reproduce the
details of a situation as accurately as possible, given the
limitations of working memory. Mental models work best
when a unique model of the world can be created
D. Inductive Reasoning
1. Inductive reasoning is a form of reasoning that uses available evidence
to generate likely, but not certain, conclusions
2. Allows access to tried-and-true methods that speed current problem
solving
a) Analogical problem solving permits establishment of an analogy
between features of the current situation and those of previous
situations
b) Past experience permits generalization of a solution from an
earlier problem to a new problem
c) Caution must be employed with inductive reasoning, in that
the belief that a solution has worked previously may impair
problem solving in the current situation
d) Mental sets are preexisting states of mind, habit, or attitude
that can enhance the quality and speed of perceiving and
problem solving, under some but not all conditions
V. Judging and Deciding
A. Definitions
1. Bounded rationality suggests that decisions and judgment might not be
as good, as rational, as they always could be, but that they result from
applying limited “rational” resources to situations that require
immediate action
2. Judgment is the process by which you form opinions, reach
conclusions, and make critical evaluations of events and people.
Judgments are often made spontaneously, without prompting
3. Decision making is the process of choosing between alternatives,
selecting and rejecting available options
r /> 4. Judgment and decision making are interrelated processes
B. Heuristics and Judgment
1. Heuristics are informal rules of thumb that provide shortcuts,
reducing the complexity of making judgments; they generally increase
the efficiency of thought processes
a) The availability heuristic suggests that people often make
decisions based on information that is readily available in
memory. The availability heuristic may lead to faulty
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decisions when:
(i) Memory processes give rise to a biased sample or
information
(ii) Information stored in memory is inaccurate
b) The representativeness heuristic is captures the idea that people
use past information to make judgments about similar
circumstances in the present. The representativeness heuristic
may lead to faulty decisions when:
(i) It causes you to ignore other types of relevant
information
(ii) You fail to be guided by representativeness
c) The anchoring heuristic suggests that people often do not adjust
sufficiently up or down from an original starting value when
judging the probable value of some outcome. The anchoring
heuristic may lead to faulty decisions when:
(i) The anchoring information has no validity
C. The Psychology of Decision Making
1. Framing of gains and losses
a) A frame is a particular description of a choice, most often
perceived in terms of gains or losses
(i) Framing a decision in terms of gains or in terms of
losses can influence the decision that is made
(ii) Knowledge of framing effects can help you
understand how people come to radically different
decisions, when faced with the same evidence
2. Decision aversion is a situation in which the individual will try hard to
avoid making any decision at all
a) Decision aversion is most often seen in the tendency to avoid
making difficult decisions
b) Psychological forces at work in this process include:
(i) People do not like making decisions that will result in
some people having more of some desired good and
others less
(ii) People are able to anticipate the regret they will feel if
the option chosen turns out worse than the rejected
option
(iii) People do not like being accountable for decisions
that lead to bad outcomes
(iv) People do not like to make decisions for other people>
3. In some situations, people are decision seeking. People are generally
happier to make decisions for themselves than to let others make
decisions for them
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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. The “Turing Test” is used to determine whether a computer possesses artificial intelligence.
In the test, a participant sits at a computer in one room and has a conversation with a
computer set up in another room. If the participant cannot tell whether he or she is having
a conversation with a real person or with a computer, then the computer passes the test.
The participant can ask anything that he or she wants; there are no restrictions on
questions. Have the class discuss what questions they would ask if they were participating
in a Turing test. What responses would lead them to believe that they were having a
conversation with a computer or with a human?