Cognitive level of analysis

1. Cognitive level of analysis

2. What is cognitive psychology ? • Study of mental processes • Study of the way in which the brain processes information • It concerns the way we take in information from the outside world, how we make sense of that information and what use we make of it.

3. Stimulus - response

4. What is this ?

5. What are mental processes?( the thing in the black box)

6. Decision-making – perception- language- memory-attention ?? Billy is walking across the school campus. He spots a friend and they have a quick chat about last night’s football training. He then apologises as he rushes off to his own football training, unsure of whether to cycle or catch the bus. Such an every-day sequence of seemingly trivial events actually involves a sequence of complex cognitive processes. Which process is being used ? • Billy is able to find his way across campus and recognize his friend. • He focuses on only a portion of the campus as he makes his way across it • He remembers his friend, details of the match the night before and his training session • They chat about the football match • He then has to working out the best form of transport to get home.

7. Outline principles that define the cognitive level of analysis:

8. Outline principles that define the cognitive level of analysis: • 1. Humans are information processors • 2. Mental processes can be scientifically investigated • 3. Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors

9. 1. Humans are information processors

10. Human behaviour is determined by a set of mental tasks/processes • Mental tasks/processes include; perception, thinking, problem solving, memory, language and attention • They are also known as cognitions

11. Cognitive psychologist see these cognitions/mental tasks as active systems; • In between taking in and responding to information a number of processes are at work. • Information can be transformed, reduced, elaborated, filtered, manipulated, selected, organized, stored and retrieved • Therefore the human mind is seen as an active system processing information, and cognitive psychologists aims to study these processes.

12. Central to this information processing approach is the computer metaphor. • One of the difficulties facing cognitive psychologists is that they were trying to study processes that are not directly observable. • Consequently the computer revolution of the 1950 provided the terminology and metaphor they needed.

13. People, like computers, acquire information from the environment ( input ). • Both people and computers store information and retrieve it when applicable to current tasks;

14. both are limited in the amount of information they can process at a given time; • both transform information to produce new information; both return information to the environment ( output).

15. This information processing approach can be seen in; • Models of memory • Schema theory (more about each of these later).

16. Principle 2: Mental processes can be scientifically investigated • Cognitive processes are difficult to study. • They often occur rapidly, and inside the mind so they cannot be observed directly. • It is only the responses that participants make when given some cognitive task to perform that can tell us about cognitive processes. • These tasks usually take place under tightly controlled lab experiments where the main aim is to isolate a particular component of the cognitive process for the study.

17. The stroop effect • One of the earliest and most famous experiments into cognitive processes is the Stroop Effect. • The stroop effect is a phenomena involved in attentional processes. • Although we will actually focus on the process of memory this is a good study to look at. • People are often introduced to the Stroop Effect in beginning psychology classes as they learn about how their brains process information.

18. The stroop effect • It demonstrates the effects of interference, processing speed (reaction time) and automaticity in divided attention. • The effect is named after John Ridley Stroop who first published the effect in English in 1935.

19. Stroop effect • This is a classic laboratory experiment that involves the manipulation of an independent variable ( colour or name of word ) to see what effect it has on the dependent variable ( reaction time). • It attempts to control the influence of all other extraneous variables – such as other cognitive processes or skills. • It also allows us to establish a cause and effect relationship between task and mental process.

20. Mental processes can be scientifically studied • A further example of the laboratory experiment was conducted by Ebbinghaus (1885). • His experiment intended to isolate the process of pure memory and show that it could be studied scientifically under carefully controlled conditions.

21. The aim of the study was to study forgetting, i.e. how quickly a person forgets what has been learned 100%. • He used himself in most of the studies , i.e. the design was N=1 and he tested his memory using nonsense syllables. • Learned lists of nonsense syllables (e.g., DAX, QEH) • Why nonsense syllables? • Did not want actual words to influence his ability to memorize or recall certain words • He manipulated the independent variable of ‘time delay before recall’ to find the effect on the dependent variable of ‘the amount of information retained’ thus being able eventually to draw the famous ‘forgetting curve’.

23. Principle 3:Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors • Cognitive processes can be influenced by our culture • Bartlett found that schemas ( past knowledge) can affect our memories – • Cole and Scribner found that non-schooled children in parts of Africa struggled with aspects of memorisation. • MORE ABOUT THIS LATER……….

24. Evaluate schema theory with reference to research studies • What is schema theory ?

25. Schema Theory What is a Schema? “A mental model or representation built up through experience about a person, an object, a situation, or an event.” (Head, 1920) “Organised structures of knowledge and expectations of some aspect of the world.” (Bartlett, 1932)

26. Schema of an “egg”

28. What is a schema ? • Schema theory seeks to explain our interpretation of the world from a psychological perspective, which stems from cognitive science. • Schemas (or schemata) are cognitive structures (mental templates or frames) that represent a person's knowledge about objects, people or situations. • Schemas are derived from prior experience and knowledge. They simplify reality, setting up expectations about what is probable in relation to particular social and textual contexts.

29. What is a schema ? • Schemas are used to organise our knowledge, to assist recall, to guide our behaviour, to predict likely happenings and to help us to make sense of current experiences. • Schema theory predicts that we interpret our experiences by using relevant social and textual schemas. Bartlett (1932) described how schemata influence memory in his research with 'Story of the ghosts'. • A schema can be seen as a kind of framework with 'slots' for 'variables', some of them filled-in and others empty.

30. What is a schema ? • Schema theory predicts that we interpret our experiences The slots are either filled in already with compulsory values (e.g. that a dog is an animal) or 'default values' (e.g. that a dog has four legs) or are empty (optional variables) until ' instantiated' with values from the current situation (e.g. that the dog's colour is black). • When what seems like the most appropriate schema is activated, inferences are generated to fill in any necessary but inexplicit details with assumed values from the schema.

31. If no relevant schema is retrieved from long-term memory a new schema is created. Explicit events and inferences, as well as new schemas, are stored in long-tern memory. • Schema-driven processing is a top-down perceptual process that guides a selective search for data relevant to the expectations set up by the schema. • Schema-driven processing interacts with bottom-up data-driven processes (which may lead to the activation, modification or generation of a schema).

32. Schema theory is consistent with the notion of both perception and recall as constructive and selective cognitive processes. • Schemas are culturally specific: schemas for common routines vary socio-culturally- even within a single country.

33. Evaluation of Schema theory • Support for the influence of schemas on cognitive processes is widespread. Bartlett (1932) described how schemata influence memory in his classic study based on a Native American folktale.

34. War of the Ghosts (1932) • This was an unusual story for people from a Western culture to understand because it contained unfamiliar supernatural concepts and an odd, causal structure. • After an interval participants were asked to recall as much of the story as possible.

35. methodology • Serial reproduction – participant reads and recalls the story, second person reads and recalls the second reproduction…….and so on • Repeated reproduction – partipants reads the story and repeats it over various recall intervals

36. The War of the Ghostshttp://cla.calpoly.edu/~dlvalenc/PSY307/LINKS/GHOSTWAR.HTM • One night two young men from Egulac went down to the river to hunt seals, and while they were it became foggy and calm. Then they heard war cries and they thought; 'Maybe this is a war-party.' They escaped to the shore, and hid behind a log. • Now canoes came up, and they heard the noise of paddles and saw one canoe coming up to them. There were five men in the canoe and they said; 'What do you think? We wish to take you along. We are going up the river to make war on the people.' • One of the young men said; 'I have no arrows.' • 'Arrows are in the canoe,' they said. • 'I will not go along. I might be killed. My relatives do not know where I have gone. But you,' he said, turning to the other, 'May go with them.' • So one of the young men went, but the other returned home. And the warriors went on up the river to a town on the other side of Kalama. The people came down to the water and began to fight, and many were killed. But presently, one of the young men heard one of the warriors say; 'Quick let us go home. That Indian has been hit.' • Now he thought; 'Oh, they are ghosts.' He did not feel sick, but he had been shot. So the canoes went back to Egulac, and the young man went back to his house and made a fire. And he told everybody and said; 'Behold, I accompanied the ghosts, and we went to fight. Many of our fellows were killed and many of those that attacked us were killed. They said I was hit, but I did not feel sick.' • He told it all, and then he became quiet. When the sun rose, he fell down. Something black came out of his mouth. His face became contorted. The people jumped up and cried. He was dead.

37. War of the Ghosts (1932) • Bartlett found that their accounts were distorted in several ways that, generally, made them more consistent with a Western world – view. • Specifically he found the following;

38. Findings/Results • Some things in the story were changed by the participants, especially parts of the story that were difficult for the participant to comprehend (i.e. ghosts and the Indian's death). Ghosts coming out of the mouth of the unconscious Indian was commonly written. The excuse for not fighting "I have run out of arrows" was avoided and instead put down to "worried relatives", because it was more familiar to the participant. • Every participant rationalized the.story to some degree

39. Findings/Results • Some added material to the story to bring it into closer agreement with their prior knowledge and beliefs (for example he had a fever before he died). • There was a tendency for males to forget the 'no arrows' excuse for joining the war. This was because many men were going off to war and relatives would miss him were in the forefront of the participants minds.

40. Findings/Results • Bartlett found that participants tended to alter their memories in order to make the story more coherent. This often involved them down playing the things they did not understand, such as the supernatural elements: The participants were not reading back a copy of the story but reconstructing it from the main details held in their memory.

41. Evaluation of Bartlett’s study • The ecological validity of the War of the Ghosts lab study has been questioned. • Whilst Bartlett rejected the artificiality of traditional stimulus such as nonsense syllables ( Ebbinghaus) and word lists to test memory, his use of a native American folk tale was " about as similar to normal prose as nonsense syllables are to words

42. Evaluation of Bartlett’s study • Wynn & Logie (1998) did a similar study with students using " real - life" events experienced during their first week at university at various intervals of time ranging from 2 weeks to six months. • They found that the initial accuracy of recall was sustained throughout the time period, suggesting that schema-induced memory distortions may be less common in naturalistic conditions than in the laboratory.

43. Evaluation of Bartlett’s study • Furthermore Bartlett’s study wasn't a very well controlled study. Bartlett did not give very specific instructions to his participants ( Barlett, 1932 " I thought it best, for the purposes of these experiments, to try to influence the subject's procedure as little as possible".) • As a result, some distortions observed by Bartlett may have been due to conscious guessing rather than schema-influenced memory • Gauld and Stephen ( 1967) found that the instructions stressing the need for accurate recall eliminated almost half the errors usually obtained.

44. Further support for the influence of schemas on memory at encoding point was reported by Anderson and Pichert ( 1978).

45. 2nd supporting study schema theory ( Anderson & Pichert, 1978) • Subjects asked to adopt a particular perspective: • Home-buyer • Burglar • Then read a passage about two boys playing truant from school...

46. Schemata and Memory(Anderson & Pichert, 1978) [Coding: Burglar items (18);Homebuyer items (18)] There are three color TV sets in the house. One is in the large master bedroom (which has a three piece bathroom en suite), one is in the main floor family room, and one is in Tom's bedroom. The house contains four bedroomsin all, plus an office, family room,and three washrooms. In addition to the TV, the family room contains a new stereo outfit , a microcomputer, a VCR,and a rare coin collection. The boys enter the master bedroom. Beside thejewelry casein the closet they find Tom's father's collection of pornographic video tapes. They select their favorite (an encounter between a guy and 12 women in a park in downtown Kitchener) and go to the family room to watch it.

47. Evaluation of schema theoryAnderson & Pichert ( 1978) • In a classic experiment, Pichert and Anderson1 asked participants to read a story in which a house was described. • The participants were told to read the story from one of two perspectives, either a potential home buyer or a burglar. • After a delay, participants were asked to recall as much as they could about the story.

48. Identity • During this first recall session, participants recalled significantly more information about the house that was relevant to their perspective • (e.g., the potential home buyer might remember defects in the house, • burglars might remember information about the entrances and exits) • than information that was relevant to the other perspective, Proportion Recalled Items

49. First identity/second identity Change in proportion recalled Items • After the first recall session, participants were told to think about the story again, but this time, from the other perspective (potential home buyers were now told to be burglars, and vice versa). • Then, without reading the story again, they were told to recall as much as they could about the story again. • During this second recall, participants were able to recall information about the house that was relevant to their new perspective, but which they had not recalled before.

50. This result shows two things: • 1.) The information that was irrelevant to their original perspective (schema) was actually learnt ( encoded ) and • 2.) This information was not accessible unless a relevant perspective (schema) was activated.