Cognition: Memory and design

Question 1

What is the role of memory?

Answer 1

• Key factor in task performance
• Contributes to extremely flexible, expert
  performance
• Limitations can lead to performance problems
  and errors
• Like all other “systems”, people have predictable
  strengths and failure modes

Question 2

What are the two resources of memory?

Answer 2

1. Working memory (RAM)
2. Long Term Memory (Hard Drive)

Question 3

What is the form of stored information?

Answer 3

Codes

Question 4

What is the limitation of working memory?

Answer 4

Limited by How much, for How Long

Question 5

Design implications for working memory.

Answer 5

Minimize WM load

Exploit chunking

Minimize confusability

Exploit different WM codes

Procedure design: don’t expect people to remember future steps

Question 6

What are the different types of information?

Answer 6

Semantic

Autonomic

Episodic

Prospective

Question 7

What are the two types of semantic information?

Answer 7

Declarative

Procedural

Question 8

What is declarative information?

Answer 8

Facts

Question 9

What is procedural information?

Answer 9

How to do things

Question 10

What is autonomic information?

Answer 10

The visceral response associated with a past experience.

How you physically felt.

Feeling sick when you smell something

Question 11

What is Episodic memory

Answer 11

Past – memory of lived experiences

Question 12

What is prospective information?

Answer 12

Remembering to do something in the future

Question 13

What affects the retrieval process of information from the long-term memory?

Answer 13

Strength of memory – stronger “trace” or path

• More frequent activation
• More recent activation
• (repetitive training, cramming for a test)

Question 14

What do associations do in long term information

Answer 14

Linking through association creates easier retrieval from working information to long term information

Question 15

Why do people forget?

Answer 15

Weak links

Few associations

Interference from similar associations

Role of schemas/mental representations…

Question 16

What is a semantic network?

Answer 16

Related pieces of information; based on meaning

Question 17

What are schemas?

Answer 17

Knowledge about a particular topic

Question 18

What are mental models?

Answer 18

Models of how things work

Question 19

What are internal memory aids?

Answer 19

Act purely on the brain and its internal operations and structures, does not involve any changes to the environment

(EX: mnemonics)

Question 20

What are external memory aids?

Answer 20

Modifying one’s environment in order to remember something (ex: these flashcards)

Question 21

What are the 7 sins of memory?

Answer 21

• Transience: forgetting information over time
• Absent-mindedness: lapses in attention that produce forgetting
• Blocking: temporary inability to retrieve information
• Misattribution: confusing the source of a memory
• Suggestibility: incorporating misleading information into memory
• Bias: influence of present knowledge and beliefs on recollections of the past
• Persistence: unwanted memories

Question 22

What are some Memory Building Techniques?

Answer 22

• Organization ▫ Information is organized it is easier to memorize.
• Being Physical ▫ If you involve your senses it is easier to memorize.
• Clarity ▫ If you clear your mind of noise it is easier to memorize.
• Brilliance ▫ If you use your memory techniques it is easier memorize.