Download Psychology Chapter 19: Group Interaction

Dr. Zimbardo Video #9
1. The Process of Memory
A. Memory – the storage and retrieval of what has been learned or experienced.
B. First Memory Process is Encoding – the transformation of information so the
nervous system can process it
i. Use your senses of hearing, sight, touch, taste, temperature etc to encode
and establish a memory
ii. Acoustic codes are when you attempt to memorize by saying something out
loud or to yourself repeatedly
iii. Visual codes are when you attempt to memorize by keeping mental pictures
of the object, etc.
iv. Semantic codes are when you attempt to memorize by making sense of the
object, etc.
C. Second Memory Process is Storage – the process by which information is
maintained over a period of time
i. How much is stored is dependent upon the effort in encoding the material.
(100 trillion bits or more/11.5 tb BUT doesn’t represent all capacity)
ii. Information can be stored for seconds or forever
iii. Like a filing cabinet
D. Third Memory Process is Retrieval – the process of obtaining information that
has been stored in memory
i. How quickly and easily is dependent upon how efficiently it was encoded
and stored (as well as genetics etc.)
2. Three Stages of Memory(Figure 10.2)
A. Sensory Memory – very brief memory storage immediately following initial
stimulation of a receptor
i. Senses of sight and hearing hold information/input for a fraction of a second
before it disappears
a. Example of a movie or TV where one doesn’t see the blank spaces or
gaps between frames
ii. Visual Memory = Iconic Memory, duration 1 sec
iii. Auditory Memory = Echoic Memory, duration 1 to 2 sec
iv. Serves 3 functions
a. Keeps the person from being overwhelmed with information
a) Billions of senses felt every day, many a one time
b. Gives a person decision time
a) Can decide whether or not to pay attention
c. Allows for continuity and stability
B. Short-Term Memory – memory that is limited in capacity to about 7 items and in
duration by the subjects active rehearsal (20 secs without rehearsal)
i. Maintenance Rehearsal – system for remembering that involves repeating
information to oneself without attempting to find meaning in it
a. Helps keep information in short-term memory longer
ii. Chunking – grouping items to make them easier to remember
a. Seven items of any kind
b. Chunk items as fast as they come
iii. The Primary-Recency Effect – we are better able to recall information
presented at the beginning and end of a list
a. Forgetting things in the middle.
iv. Working Memory
a. Short term memory is also know as this
b. Serves as a system for processing and working with current information
C. Long-Term Memory – Storage of information over an extended period of time
i. Capacity is seemingly endless
ii. Contains representations of countless faces, experiences and sensations
iii. In the process of long term memory, the least important information is
dropped and the most important is retained to long-term memory
iv. Types of Long-Term Memory
a. Semantic Memory – knowledge of language including its rules, words
and meanings.
b. Episodic Memory – memory of one’s life, including the time of
occurrence
c. Declarative Memory – memory of knowledge that can be called forth
consciously as needed
d. Procedural Memory – memory of learned skills that does not require
conscious recollection
Write Figure 10.2 (Page 275) on board
3. Memory and the Brain
a. What happens to the brain when something is stored in long-term memory?
i. A change in neuronal structure of nerves
ii. Molecular or chemical changes in the brain
Up and to the Left
Indicates: Visually Constructed Images (Vc)
If you asked someone to "Imagine a purple buffalo", this would be the direction their eyes moved
in while thinking about the question as they "Visually Constructed" a purple buffalo in their mind.
Up and to the Right
Indicates: Visually Remembered Images (Vr)
If you asked someone to "What color was the first house you lived in?", this would be the
direction their eyes moved in while thinking about the question as they "Visually Remembered"
the color of their childhood home.
To the Left
Indicates: Auditory Constructed (Ac)
If you asked someone to "Try and create the highest the sound of the pitch possible in your
head", this would be the direction their eyes moved in while thinking about the question as they
"Auditorily Constructed" this sound that they have never heard of.
Video – PBS: The Mind
and the Brain: Learning
and Memory
Section 1 Review
To the Right
Indicates: Auditory Remembered (Ar)
If you asked someone to "Remember what their mother's voice sounds like", this would be the
direction their eyes moved in while thinking about the question as they "Auditorily Remembered"
this sound.
Down and to the Left
Indicates: Feeling / Kinesthetic (F)
If you asked someone to "Can you remember the smell of a campfire?", this would be the
direction their eyes moved in while thinking about the question as they used recalled a smell,
feeling, or taste.
Down and To the Right
Indicates: Internal Dialog (Ai)
This is the direction of someone eyes as they "talk to themselves".
The problem of memory is to store many thousands of items in such a way that you can
find the one you need when you need it.
The solution to retrieval is organization
1. Recognition – memory retrieval in which a person identifies an object, idea or
situation as one he or she has or has not experienced before
A. You may not be able to remember a particular person, but if their name is said,
you will recognize the name
B. We can recognize the sound of a particular instrument no matter what tune is
being played on it. We can also recognize a tune, no matter what instrument it
is being played on.
i. Shows that information may be indexed under several headings so that it
can be reached in a variety of ways
ii. The more categories the features are filed in, the more easily they can be
retrieved
2. Recall – memory retrieval in which a person reconstructs previously learned material
A. Involves a person’s knowledge, attitudes and expectations
B. Reconstructive Process – the alteration of memories that may be simplified,
enriched or distorted depending on an individual’s experiences, attitudes or
inferences
i. Confabulation – the act of filling in memory gaps
a) Remembering information that was never there in the first place
C. Schemas – conceptual frameworks a person uses to make sense of the world
i. Sets of expectations about something that is based upon on past
experiences
D. Eidetic Memory – the ability to remember with great accuracy visual information
on the basis of short-term exposure
i. Photographic memory
ii. Extremely rare
E. State-Dependent Learning – occurs when you recall information easily when
you are in the same physiological or emotional state or setting as you were
when you originally encoded the information
3. Relearning
A. Measure of both declarative and procedural memory
B. You will relearn material you have “forgotten” with fewer repetitions than
someone learning the information the first time
4. Forgetting
A. May involve decay, interference or repression
B. Decay – fading away of memories over time
i. Items quickly decay in sensory storage and short-term memory
ii. Not certain if long-term memories ever decay
iii. Some “forgotten” memories can be recovered through meditation, hypnosis
or brain stimulation
C. Interference – blockage of a memory by previous or subsequent memories
i.
Proactive Interference – An earlier memory blocks you from remembering related new
information
a. Move into a new home and new phone number but your old address or phone
number gets in the way
ii. Retroactive Interference – A later memory or new information blocks you from
remembering information learned earlier
a. The new information is remembered but having trouble remembering the old data
iii. 2 separate concepts, one doesn’t necessarily cause the other
iv. Repression - a person may subconsciously block memories of an embarrassing or
frightening experience
D. Amnesia – loss of memory caused by a blow to the head, the result of brain
damage, drug abuse or severe psychological stress
i. Infant amnesia – relative lack of early declarative memories
a. We don’t remember earlier than 2 or 3 years old
5. Improving Memory
A. Meaningfulness and Association
i. Elaborative Rehearsal – the linking of new information to material that is
already known.
a. remembering the letters DFIRNE by the word FRIEND
ii. You will remember more vividly information that you associate with things
already stored in memory or with a strong emotional experience
iii. The more categories that information is indexed under, the more accessible
it is
iv. Overlearn information
v. Space out learning
vi. Study a little at a time
A. Mnemonic Devices – techniques for using associations to memorize and
retrieve information
i. Using rhymes or other verbal clues
a. Thirty days has September
b. My dear aunt Sally
c. Every good boy does fine
d. Roy G. Biv
ii. Forming Mental Picture
Section 2 Review
Chapter 10 Review
Video - PBS: The Mind and the Brain: Thinking
1. Thinking – changing and reorganizing information stored in memory to create new information
A. Units of Thought
i. Image – a visual, mental representation of an event or object
a. Only highlights of the original
b. An effect way of thinking about concepts
ii. Symbol – an abstract unit of thought that represents an object or quality
a. A sound, object or design
b. Words, stand for something other than itself
c. Where an image represents a specific sight or sound, a symbol may have
numerous meanings
d. Numbers, letters, punctuation marks and icons
iii. Concept – a label for a class of objects or events that have a least one attribute in
common
a. Animals, music, liquid, beautiful people
b. Enables us to chunk large amounts of information
iv. Prototype – a representative example of a concept
a. Has most the characteristics of the particular concept
v. Rule – a statement of relation between concepts
a. Complex unit of thought
b. A person can’t be in 2 places at one time; mass remains constant despite
changes in appearance
B. Kinds of Thinking
i. Directed Thinking – a systematic and logic approach/attempt to reach a
specific goal or answer
a. The solution to a problem
b. Also know as convergent thinking
c. Depends on symbols, concepts and rules
d. Deliberate and purposeful
e. Solve problems, formulate and follow rules and set, work toward and
achieve goals
ii. Non-Directed Thinking – consists of a free flow of thoughts with no
particular plan and depends more on images
a. Rich in imagery and feelings such as daydreams, fantasies and
reveries
b. When relaxing or escaping from boredom or worry
c. Also known as divergent thinking
d. May provide unexpected insights into one’s goals and beliefs
iii. Metacognition – the awareness of one’s own cognitive process
a. Thinking about thinking
b. Thinking about a strategy may cause one to change to another strategy
2. Problem Solving
A. One of the main functions of directed thinking is to solve problems, bridge the
gap mentally between the present situation and a desired goal
i. Strategies – specific methods for approaching problems
ii. Break down a complex problem into smaller, more easily solved, subgoals
iii. Work backward from the goal you have set
iv. Use strategies you have used before
i. We tend to shy away from new situations that require new strategies
ii. The more unusual the problem, the more difficult it is to devise a
strategy for dealing with it
v. Algorithm – a fixed set of procedures that will lead to a solution if followed
correctly
i. Mathematical and scientific formulas
ii. Playing chess or checkers
vi. Heuristics – experimental strategies, or rules of thumb
Basically shortcuts
Lead to quick decisions that can result in bad decisions
3. Obstacles to Problem Solving
A. Mental Set – when a particular strategy becomes a habit
i. Starting tic-tac-toe in the middle box, always attempt to control a position of
a chess board
ii. Rigidity – when a set interferes with problem solving
a. Reading “read” for “red”
b. Functional Fixedness – the inability to imagine new functions for
familiar objects
c. Making a wrong assumption about a problem
d. Many people look for direct methods to solve problems and don’t see
solutions that require several immediate steps
e. Can be overcome
Thinking and Problem Solving Pages (Activity)
4. Creativity – the ability to use information in such a way that the result is somehow
new, original and meaningful
i. Flexibility – the ability to overcome rigidity
a. Imagining many different uses for a single object
ii. Recombination – rearranging the elements of a problem to arrive at an original
solution
a. Football and Basketball, there are no new moves, just a recombination of
old ones
b. Using the discoveries and formulas of other to develop new scientific and
mathematical formulas and ideas
iii. Insight – the apparent sudden realization of the solution to a problem
a. A continuation of a subconscious process
b. The “aha” experience
Section 1 Review
Dr. Zimbardo Video #6
1. The Structure of Language
i. Language – the expression of ideas through symbols and sounds that are
arranged according to rules
a. Allows us to communicate
b. The study of meaning (semantics) is the most complex aspect of language
ii. Phonemes – an individual sound that is the basic structural element of language
a. Represented by a letter or combination of letters
b. We can produce about 100 different, recognizable sounds
c. English uses 43, some 15 and others up to 85
iii. Morphemes – the smallest unit of meaning in a given language
a. A words, letter, prefix or suffix
iv. Syntax – language rules that govern how words can be combined to form
meaningful phrases and sentences
a. Ex. Placing adjectives in front of nouns
b. Rules differ from language to language
v. Semantics – the study of the meaning in language
A word being both a noun and a verb
2. Language Development
i. BF Skinner – children learn language through operant conditioning
ii. Other Psychologists – children learn language through observation, exploration
and imitation
iii. Noam Chomsky – children inherit a mental program that enables them to learn
grammar
a. Reinforcement and imitation contribute to language development as well
3. How Language Develops
i. Birth – crying and sounds indicating distress
ii. 2 months – cooing, “ooooh” and “eeeeh”
iii. 4 months – babbling, “dadada” and “bababa”
iv. 9 months – learn to control vocal chords, make/change/repeat/imitate sounds of
parents
v. 12 months – uttering single words (objects/people), “dada” or “doggie”
a. Single words can describe longer thoughts
vi. 24 months – 2 words together to express an idea, “milk gone”, “me play”
a. Learning rule of grammar, 50 - 100 words
vii. 2-3 years – form sentences of several words
a. Telegraphic speech – leaving out article such as “the’, prepositions such as
“with” and parts of verbs
viii. 5 years – language development is largely complete
Vocabulary and sentence complexity continue to develop
4. Do Animals Learn Language
i. In a word, no!
ii. Animals tend to communicate as a response to a stimuli (fear, hunger), not to
share ideas, communicate information, solve problems, express dreams or
goals, or even for fun
iii. Some primates though are thought to be able to obtain the basics of
communication, the greatest example being Koko the Gorilla who learned over
1000 American Sign Language Signs, using them to express not just needs, but
to ask questions and express emotions
iv. One last thing to think about, animals can not or do not use their communication
methods to deceive or lie (outside of primates)
5. Gender and Cultural Differences
i. Language affects our basic perceptions of the physical world
ii. Linguistic Relativity – idea of language influencing thoughts
a. Inuit have many words for snow, where we have but 1
iii. Words also create gender stereotypes
Section 2 Review
Chapters 10 and 11 Study Guide
Chapters 10 and 11 Test