Cognitive Flashcards

Question

What is information encapsulation?

Answer 1

Modules do not need to interact with other modules to operate successfully

Answer 2

Not necessarily e.g. damaging an object recognition module does not affect STM

Answer 3

- Modules correspond to anatomically defined brain areas - Modules are similar across humans - Module processing is fast and obligatory (happens without conscious thought and cannot be suppressed)

Answer 4

Activation of horizontal and vertical faculties e.g. naming a face might draw on a visual module, memory faculty and linguistic module

Answer 5

- Process incoming sensory information - Transfer information to central processors - Domain specific (only process a particular class of information) Typically these are vertical faculties

Answer 6

Makes decisions and plans actions (not modular)

Answer 7

These execute responses

Answer 8

A manipulation that affects one cognitive task but not a different task e.g. Spatial memory - saccades disrupt this (eye movements) Verbal memory - saccades do not disrupt - we know that verbal and spatial are different

Answer 9

Completing two tasks that must be controlled by different cognitive modules e.g. After doing task that affects spatial but not verbal, also do task that affects verbal but not spatial Spatial memory - articulative rehearsal has no effect Verbal memory - articulative rehearsal disrupts this Can conclude that they are separate modules

Answer 10

Looks at what brain damage can tell us about normal cognition - Reverse engineering cognition - Localisation of functions less important - Typically investigate single cases Same idea as dissociations - lesions instead of interfering task Single dissociation: e.g. DF - cannot recognise objects, but can use them - shows ventral part of brain deals with object recognition Double dissociation: Patients with parietal cortex lesions - can recognise objects but cannot use them

Answer 11

Had neurosurgery to cure epilepsy - Could not form new memories (severe anterograde amnesia) - Short term memory OK, could learn new skills - Showed that LTM, STM and procedural memory must be different systems - Revolutionised understanding of how memory functions

Answer 12

Rarely know normal performance - how good a person was at a task before injury Does not account for functional reorganisation of cognition - patients could adopt compensatory strategies Can't say anything about time-course of information processing Damage is rarely focal (e.g. stroke affects large brain area)

Answer 13

Filters out irrelevant stimuli

Answer 14

The taking possession of the mind of one out of several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought Focalisation, concentration of conciousness

Answer 15

Concious perceptual experiences

Answer 16

Up to 100 megabits (MB) per second

Answer 17

Input - selection of relevant sensory information - what cognitive mechanisms? Central process - resource for switching between different tasks, concentration, active processing - once we have processed, how do we decide what action to take?

Answer 18

Better to conceive of it as an 'Attentional Network' of several different modules and processes that interact to guide behaviour

Answer 19

1) Alerting: a system that regulates arousal level to maintain optimal vigilance (central process) 2) Orienting: prioritising relevant sensory signals (input module) 3) Executive: the conscious control of behaviour (central process)

Answer 20

Hemispatial neglect - deficit of attention to right brain and left body - Orienting problems with no executive or alerting deficit Alien hand syndrome - commissurotomy and frontal lobe injury - no control over a hand - failure of executive network - Deficit of conscious control with no deficit of orienting or alerting

Answer 21

How can people attend to one person while ignoring other conversations? Ignoring speech from most people to listen to one person talking

Answer 22

Different word lists played to left and right ear Participant must repeat words from one ear - Participants cannot recall words presented to unattended ear - fail to detect language changes or backwards words

Answer 23

It acts like a filter that prevents information in the unattended channel being processed

Answer 24

First information processing theory of attention - Information about physical properties (e.g. tone, pitch, loudness) of stimuli are processed pre-attentively - This information is used for channel selection: choosing which source of input to process - Attention module filters out irrelevant info - Attended information is processed and acted on - Information in the unattended channel is lost Sensory processing - Channels 1 and 2 Input modules: Attention module - Channel 1, channel 2 is stopped Central process: Channel 1 continues through to semantic processing and working memory

Answer 25

Not all unattended information is lost: “breakthrough” from unattended ear - when word in unattended ear makes sense in the context of the message in the attended ear The persons’ name occurs in the unattended ear (e.g. Moray 1959)

Answer 26

Filter limits the amount of stimulus information that can be processed - Attended stimuli analysed in detail Processing attenuated in unattended channel, but not extinguished - Much less information available to identify the stimulus Breakthrough occurs when - Stimuli can be identified using limited information (e.g. a beep in spoken language) - Stimuli is consistent with ongoing tasks - Stimuli are very easily identified (e.g. own name) Channel 1 and 2 are processed all the way through, but more attention is payed to channel 1 after they both pass through the attenuating filter and carry on to semantic processing and working memory - Revision of Broadbent's filter theory

Answer 27

Spotlight a filter that moves through space (Posner 1980) Zoom-lens (Erikson & St. James 1986) - Spotlight is flexible - Wide focus, little detail - Tightly focused, lots of detail Generalising a filtering module from auditory to visual system

Answer 28

A movement of the eyes to fixate the location of interest

Answer 29

Orienting attention to a location that is not being fixated (no eye movement)

Answer 30

Fixate the centre of the screen and a cue orients attention to one or other side Participant must respond as quickly as possible to the appearance of the target Usually 3 types of trial: Valid: Target appears at cued location Invalid: Target appears opposite cued location Neutral: Cue does not indicate any location Experiment 1: Cue is valid on 80% of trials, Experiment 2: Cue valid on 50% of trials (no incentive to attend to cued location) On experiment 1 people preferentially look at invalid cues on both central and peripheral cues On experiment 2 people look more at invalid than valid for peripheral cue, equal looking for central arrow cue - 80% valid - Shows that you can look at one thing and pay attention to something else - 50% valid - if arrow is informative then people do not use it - Peripheral cue - stronger response than central cue

Answer 31

Orient to salient location - orienting of attention towards unexpected visual targets Involuntary Stimulus-driven Fast (Max effect @ 150ms) Transient Inferior Parietal Lobe & ventral frontal regions (right) Inhibitory after-effect

Answer 32

Orient to task relevant location - orienting of attention towards visual targets Voluntary Goal-directed Slow (Max effect after 300ms) Sustained Superior Parietal Lobule, FEF (bilateral)

Answer 33

Consistent with attenuating filter theory that prioritises information at the attended location

Answer 34

Integrates attention into information processing model of perception Paying attention - bind visual features together - this forms an object Input modules e.g. colour, shape, location, texture Visual representation Attentional spotlight leads to: Central processing - relates to memory (episodic, declarative, procedural) Output modules

Answer 35

Visual processing splits objects into component features - Paying attention - bind visual features together - this forms an object - Target identified by single unique feature - tends to pop out, does not matter how many distractions there are - Conjunction - more difficult, affected by distractors How does the visual system know which ones belong together? Triesman & Gelade (1980) explored this using visual search tasks

Answer 36

Find a target in a cluttered display Set size (the number of items) Target Type Target Present (Pos) Target Absent (Neg) Disjunction (feature) Conjunction

Answer 37

Preattentive, when objects defined by single, salient feature Attentive, when features need to be combined Attention acts like a ‘glue’ that binds features into objects

Answer 38

Participants identify numbers then identify shapes in briefly presented displays (200ms) Participants incorrectly report letter/colour combinations that are not present Paying attention to the peripheral would mean issues with binding the colour letter combinations in the middle Triesman argues this shows attention needed to bind features into objects

Answer 39

Filter capacity limited to ~3-4 items

Answer 40

Change blindness: which object changes? One object changes after a black screen - hard to detect the change with six objects on screen - limited capacity filter For 3 items, less of a change blindness effect Multiple Object Tracking (Pylyshyn & Storm 1988) Monitor specific objects moving - usually limited to three or four objects of a group Participants can accurately (85% correct) track up to 5 objects

Answer 41

Some argue for multiple loci (up to~4) (Baldauf & Deubel 2010) Different filters for different effector systems? Other argue for a single, indivisible locus of attention (Jans, Peters & De Weerd., 2010)

Answer 42

Early filter theories argue that attention module prevent the processing of irrelevant stimuli. Broadbent, Cherry & Treisman argued for early selection - Filtering occurs between perception and semantic processing - Unattended receive limited or no semantic processing

Answer 43

Broadbent (1958) argued that unfiltered stimuli are not processed at all! - Shadowing (Broadbent 1958):Very poor recall for information presented to unattended ear - Selective looking (Neisser & Becklen 1975) - Change blindness (Rensink et al. ,1997) - Inattentional Blindness (Mack & Rock 1998)

Answer 44

Irrelevant information can pass through filter if capacity not filled by relevant information Depends on capcacity

Answer 45

Participant views video, has to count either how many ball passes or how many hand slaps Ppt shown overlapping streams but only attend to one Same thing happens but with an unexpected event Attention is focused in such a way that unexpected event is not realised

Answer 46

Magnitude of change is measured When attending to a stimulus and ignoring another one, the magnitude of ERP is smaller than when new stimulus is attended to Shows it is an intentionally selective mechanism

Answer 47

Attention enhances spatial resolution (Yeshurun & Carrasco 1998) Attended locations have higher perceived contrast (Carrasco, Ling & Reid 2004)

Answer 48

- Phosphene: An illusory visual experience triggered by stimulation of the visual cortex - Attention modulates the responses of early visual areas such as V1, V2, V4 and V5 - Attention lowers phosphene thresholds in visual cortex

Answer 49

- Perceive difference between light and dark as greater when they pay attention to it - Lower phosphene thresholds - more sensitive to changes

Answer 50

That filtering occurred AFTER semantic processing Selection based on which items are consistent with the observers’ goals

Answer 51

Identify direction of central chevrons/arrows (L/R) when the surrounding arrows are either pointing the same way or a different way Reaction times faster and fewer errors in congruent condition because of less interference

Answer 52

PS has hemispatial neglect: inattention to left side of space PS - lesions to right brain She does not consciously perceive the flames when shown image of burning house (and reports the houses as identical) But, when asked to pick one to live in she picked the non-burning house of 9/11 trials!

Answer 53

Participants attend to one ear, ignore the other Detect occasional probe stimuli in a stream of ‘standards’ (non-target sounds) - Big spike in ERP associated with early processing in attended ear - Also evidence for late processing - late perception (300ms after stimulus starts) Suggests attention can modulate both early and late processing

Answer 54

Reconciling evidence for early and late selection: Perceptual load = How hard it is to process the perceptual features of a display Low load: all items in a display pass through the filter and get analysed Irrelevant items interfere with processing of relevant ones High load: only task relevant items pass through filter Irrelevant items cannot interfere with processing of relevant stimuli

Answer 55

Early, passive, fixed capacity filter filters incoming signal before semantic processing Late, active, central resource used for selecting relevant stimuli after semantic processing Task: Attend to the central line, identify whether the probe is a Z or an X More letters in centre = higher perceptual load - People performed better when there was a higher perceptual load - filtering out of irrelevant stimuli

Answer 56

Yes, not with high perceptual load (just semantically processed)

Answer 57

Low load= words in upper/lower case High load= how many syllables Irrelevant= motion field in background When motion stimulus starts during high load - no corresponding neural activity

Answer 58

Perform letter ID task TMS delivered over MT/V5 Higher intensity TMS required during high load Exp 2 no load condition Exp 3: TMS delivered 500ms after array onset When attention was payed, less TMS stimulation was required for a phospehene to be produced. Therefore, attention produces more electrical activity in MT/V5 and more phosphene intensity

Answer 59

Early perception - orienting module (high load) irrelevant items filtered out - no semantic processing of irrelevant items Late perception - executive decision making module (low load) everything passes through filter and is processed semantically

Answer 60

An attentional control module A module that allows the conscious processing of information

Answer 61

(Capacity is limited) 1) Reasoning and decision making (e.g. which stimulus should I react to?) 2) Planning (what actions are needed to achieve a goal) 3) Response selection (what action shall I take?) 4) Response inhibition (I want to inhibit a reflexive or habitual response) 5) Monitoring behaviour (Am I doing this task correctly?) 6) Switching between tasks Module provides resources to make sense of input Similar to Posner's idea of a central control

Answer 62

We have one pool of cognitive resources that has a limited capacity Used flexibly across tasks If demands of task exceed capacity, performance suffers This pool of resources is also known as ‘attention’ or the ‘central executive’ (e.g. in Baddeley & Hitch’s working memory model) This resource is only needed when we consciously control behaviour - Allocation policy - what we do with information - Enduring dispositions - what we like and do not like, long term goals - If you do not have the capacity to do the task -> arousal/anxiety - Flexible mechanism - Yerkes-Dobson - not enough or too much arousal is bad - Cognitive capacity only for conscious attention

Answer 63

Attention is limited, but flexible Motivation and arousal increase cognitive resources

Answer 64

The central executive is composed of sub-modules (e.g. Wickens 1984) Tasks that engage the same module compete with a module for the same resources Tasks engage distinct modules do not compete for resources Some resource needed to switch between tasks?

Answer 65

Measure performance on Task A on its own Measure performance on Task B on its own Task A & B together: If they rely on the same resource, performance should be impaired Rub tummy and pat head

Answer 66

Similarity Practice Task Difficulty

Answer 67

How similar is the input (‘stimulus modality’) Read map while and scanning road for landmarks (both visual input) Listen to directions while scanning road for landmarks (auditory and visual inputs) How similar is the output (‘response modality’) Strum with right hand, fret with left hand (both manual responses) Answer a question while steering (Vocal and manual response) Performance is worse when tasks are similar!

Answer 68

Practiced task become automatic, and doesn’t require any attention - Habitual/reflexive - Automatic -> less conscious, less insight into operations necessary to generate a response Fast Do not disrupt other tasks (i.e. require no attention) Unconscious Reflexive (always occur when the appropriate stimulus is presented) Touch-typing? Knitting? An example of automaticity is when people drum their fingers while thinking

Answer 69

Harder tasks require more information processing: They require more ‘attention’ Answering easy questions while cruising on the motorway Answer a difficult question while steering along narrow winding country roads Giving a lecture while monitoring a chat feed May also require extra coordination Processing requirement more than the sum of the two tasks

Answer 70

The more a dual task is practiced, the better performance becomes Even on tasks that are similar! Spelke, Hirst & Neisser (1976) Taught 2 students to read stories and take dictation Initially had poor handwriting and reading speed 6 weeks of training 5 x 1 hour sessions for 17 weeks (!) Reading speed & comprehension increased to normal levels during dictation

Answer 71

People develop effective new strategies that minimise interference? Effectively interleave the different tasks Practice reduces the amount of cognitive resources the tasks need? i.e. they become easier Practice helps to differentiate between tasks? i.e. they become more different Practice reduces the number of different cognitive processes required? - Become less cognitively demanding - Reduce number - able to skip stages of cognition e.g. learning times tables

Answer 72

Theoretical distinction between controlled and automatic processes Controlled Processes Require engagement of limited attentional resources Are conscious Can be used flexibly in changing circumstances Automatic Processes Have no capacity limit Do not require attention Hard to modify when learned (e.g. learning bad driving habits…) We can categorise voluntary attention as a controlled process, and reflexive attention an automatic process

Answer 73

Fully automatic processing controlled by schemas e.g. Writing your signature Cognitive computational model

Answer 74

Chooses between simultaneously active schema Biased by goals and desires but does not require attention

Answer 75

System for overriding automatically generated behaviours Generating novel responses Doing anything for the first time (e.g. learning to ski)

Answer 76

Action slips: Unintentionally performed actions ‘Action Slips’ in healthy participants (e.g. Reason 1979, Jonsdottir et al., 2008)) Diary study of 35 neurotypical people reported 400 action slips Identified 5 main categories of action slips Typically action slips are habitual actions that occur when attention elsewhere (e.g. daydreaming, very tired)

Answer 77

1) Storage failure: A previous action is forgotten or recalled incorrectly (refilling a cup that is already full) 2) Test failure: Failure to monitor an action, resulting in an unintended action occurring (taking the turn to work, not the shops) 3) Subroutine failure: correct actions occur in wrong sequence, or omitted (pour water into cup before the coffee granules) 4) Discrimination failure: selecting an inappropriate object for the task (pick up the wrong utensil) 5) Programme assembly failures: inappropriate combinations of actions (e.g. unwrapping a sweet, but putting the wrapper in your mouth and throwing the sweet away)

Answer 78

Absent mindedness or action slips Weak positive correlation between action slips and scores on a memory failures questionnaire

Answer 79

How does practice lead to automaticity? Each encounter with a stimulus produces a separate memory trace Repeated encounters (practice) produces a greater store of information about the stimulus and how to process it This increase in knowledge means retrieval of relevant information about the stimulus is fast Automaticity occurs when the stimulus directly triggers the retrieval of a past solution from memory In other cases the solution must be arrived using conscious strategies or heuristics.

Answer 80

Internal representation that creates the experience of sense-perception in the absence of appropriate sensory input: Visual Auditory Kinaesthetic Proprioceptive Gustatory Olfactory

Answer 81

What is imagined is re-created in the mind as a picture

Answer 82

Functional Equivalence (e.g. Kosslyn 1980, Decety 1996) Imagery is generated using neural machinery used for sensation and motor control Visual imagery relies on visual system Motor imagery relies on motor system Activating parts of brain that have already seen the picture in order to imagine it Directly manipulating the mental image

Answer 83

Do not have mental imagery

Answer 84

Imagery is an epiphenomenal product of propositional codes Images are manipulated by manipulating symbolic representations, NOT the image itself (e.g. changing the code in a computer program) Imagery is independent of sensory and motor systems - Theory that mental imagery does not rely on the visual system - Use a mental code - Change underlying code that represents an object - manipulate x and y co-ordinates of image

Answer 85

Kosslyn argues imagery uses same machinery as perception, whereas Pylyshyn argues imagery and perception use fundamentally different mechanisms Analogy: in powerpoint I can drag and drop a shape using the mouse (manipulating a pictoral representation), or I can can specify shape, colour and location with numbers (manipulating propositions)

Answer 86

- Mental rotation = pictoral - Mental scanning = further away target is, slower the response to say whether it was there or not, takes time to mentally move across this space (pictoral) Experiments demonstrated that more time is required to scan further distances across visual images, even when the same amount of material falls between the initial focus point and the target. Not only did times systematically increase with distance but subjectively larger images required more time to scan than did subjectively smaller ones. Finally, when subjects were not asked to base all judgments on examination of their images, the distance between an initial focus point and a target did not affect reaction times.

Answer 87

Imagery activates visual areas involved in perception (O’Craven & Kanwisher 2000) Activation depends on the task High resolution imagery tends to activate early visual areas E.g. comparing two gratings and deciding which has the thickest stripes Spatial judgements tend to activate more dorsal visual areas Nonspatial judgements that don’t require high-res comparisons (e.g. faces vs places) activates ventral areas TMS over primary visual cortex (V1) disrupts visual imagery (Kosslyn et al., 1999) - Brain imaging shows association with mental process, not causation - Left FG not in primary visual system - instead important for linking visual info to semantic info (could support propositional codes) Left FG injuries - associated with aphantasia

Answer 88

MS (an achromatopsic patient) can’t imagine colours Imagine sky on a summers day, a policebox and the sea on a summers day Which blue is the darkest? Some patients with left-neglect & hemianopia (blindness on one side) can’t generate images (Bisiach & Luzzatti 1978) Making eye-movements reduces intensity of visual imagery (Andrade Kavanagh & Baddeley 1997; expt 4) Ask patient to recall traumatic event and make eye movements at same time - can process images without causing too much psychological distress

Answer 89

Pylyshyn (1981) modified the mental scanning task P’s had to report compass bearing of other landmark Now RT unrelated to distance from starting point. Tacit knowledge used during task? Knowledge that is unconscious or that cannot be articulated P’s ask themselves “how would I do this in the real world” Simulate as many of the details as possible, including irrelevant ones! P’s perform the task in the same way as they would in the real world, even if they don’t have to! Change the instructions (i.e. the way in which the participant represents the problem) and you change the way the task is performed Imagery based on ‘propositional codes’? Non-visual symbolic representation (like a line of computer code that draws a square) Not telling people to scan the image - no correlation - Participants unconsciously include distance between points of image in their mental image as it would take longer for them to look to it in the real world - simulating irrelevant details of time taken to scan

Answer 90

DF - patient with visual agnosia - inability to discriminate between objects and patterns of different shapes, sizes, and orientations, however could still perform visual imagery tasks when the images were drawn from long term memory?

Answer 91

Double dissociations between imagery and visual problems: (Evidence for seperate modules) Some hemianopes have no problem with imagery (Bartolomeo 2002) JB has deficit of imagery but not visual perception (Sirigu & Duhamel 2001) ‘Congenital Aphantasia’: inability to generate images in otherwise neurotypical participants (e.g. Zeman, Dewar & Della Salla 2015)

Answer 92

Mental imagery ability varies across individuals (e.g. Zeman, Dewar & Della Salla 2015) Some neurotypical people are even ‘aphantasic’ Mental imagery (VVIQ score - Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire) declines with age (Gulyas et al., 2022) Neuropsychological studies tend to rely on older participants…

Answer 93

No - different types of imagery activate different brain areas

Answer 94

May use both

Answer 95

Distinguishes between imagery content (what is being imagined) and imagery function (why it’s being imagined) Levels: specific and general Functions: cognitive and motivational

Answer 96

Making spatial judgements Skill rehearsal Can mental imagery really be used to modulate behaviour? Yes Driskell, Copper & Moran (1994) Meta analysis of cognitive specific imagery to enhance skill Imagery effective, but not as effective as real practice (effect size of 0.261 vs 0.382) Experts benefit more from mental practice than beginners Effects of mental practice fade over time Is there an optimum amount of mental practice? Probably not: the more the better!

Answer 97

Developing strategies for play (e.g. visualising route) Case reports of athletes using general imagery Canoe Racers (MacIntyre & Moran, 1996) American Football (Fenker & Lambiotte, 1997) Wrestling (Rushall, 1988) Gymnastics (Mace et al. 1987; White & Hardy 1998)

Answer 98

Visualising the achievement of a specific goal Imagining winning or being praised for good performance Endorsed by many athletes (e.g. Moran 2008) “I have been visualizing myself every night for the past four years standing on the podium having the gold placed around my neck” Megan Quann (US gold meal winner) Novice golfers practice more (Martin & Hall, 1995) Imagery may be important for goal-setting (Munroe et al., 1999)

Answer 99

Arousal: Visualise emotional aspects of a situation - Imagery can increase physiological arousal (Heart-rate: Heckor & Kaczor 1998) - Used for both increasing and controlling arousal (e.g. Hanin 1987) - Useful for limiting effects of anxiety e.g. Munroe et al., (2000), Vadocz, Hall & Moritz (1997) Mastery: Visualise effective coping strategies - Interventions tend to increase confidence - Badminton players report increased confidence (Callow, Hardy & Hall, 2001) - Improved self-efficacy (Feltz & Riessinger 1990) - Imagine feeling confident and in control on an endurance task - Reported higher levels of confidence and efficacy than controls - Fewer negative visualizations about performance

Answer 100

1) Goal directed 2) Requires cognitive processes (requires information processing) 3) Lack of relevant knowledge to produce an immediate solution Example: My boiler broke down last week. The pressure was too low. I needed to raise the pressure. So the problem is, how do I increase the pressure in the boiler? Why is this a problem? 1 I have a goal , 2 I need to think about how to achieve this goal, 3 I lack the relevant knowledge to immediately solve the problem

Answer 101

All aspects of the problem are specified Assembling flat-pack furniture Escaping from a maze Solving arithmetic problems Most experiments use well defined problems

Answer 102

Some aspects of the problem are unspecified How should I vote? How do I get a 1st class degree? Most real life problems are ill-defined!

Answer 103

Specific prior knowledge is required writing a good psychology essay Solving a crossword

Answer 104

Little prior knowledge is required Everything that is required to solve the problem is contained within it Solving Sudoku

Answer 105

Relies on experience to solve problem. A typical example of this is trial and error learning. This can be overt (actual tries) or covert (imagining what the consequences will be)

Answer 106

Coming up with new response or strategies for solving a problem. Requires re-structuring of the problem by mentally simulating possible solutions. Problem can be solved by engaging in mental simulation The problem must be restructured so that the solution suddenly becomes clear: An Insight

Answer 107

Kohler (1925) Sultan the ape Has to get a banana from outside his cage Provided with two bamboo sticks that can be joined Accidentally pushed one stick into the other. This seemed to trigger an insight, as he immediately attempted to used the joined sticks to solve the problem. - Evidence of productive thinking Birch (1945) Apes raised in captivity can’t solve the task Sultan had experienced trial and error learning in the wild?

Answer 108

Couple of minutes to think about this problem. Maier would brush past one of the strings after 10 minutes without a solution, then 10 minutes later offer the pliers. 39% solved without hints, 38 with hints (avg solution occuring 42 s after hint 1), 14 never reached ‘pendulum’ solution Gestaltists claim that this problem is very difficult to solve in trial-and-error fashion. Rather, participants must restructure the problem (i.e, understand the pliers can be used to make a pendulum) until a solution presents itself. Participants typically report ‘seeing’ the solution as a single insight. Swinging pendulum - when he brushed against rope and made it swing this caused a moment of insight

Answer 109

Melt candle, use wax to stick pin tray to the wall People think they cannot use the tray - see it as storage and not its use as a shelf - functional fixity

Answer 110

Failure to perceive new uses for old objects Participants who fail to solve problem often don’t remember the boxes!

Answer 111

Studied effect of experience on problem solving Controlled the past experience ½ trained on complex 3-jar problems Rest given no training New problem with 2 jar solution 95% of no training group used 2 jars 64% of trained group FAILED to solve the problem!

Answer 112

Mental Set: A strategy is used to solve a problem even when it is inappropriate or inefficient Experience can make you worse!

Answer 113

Introduced and investigated insight as a method of solving problems Emphasised restructuring and ‘representational change’ – very influential concept Showed that experience does not always help problem solving

Answer 114

Focus on knowledge-lean, well specified problems Insight and restructuring very vague Describes what happens during problem solving, but not how it happens

Answer 115

Problem solving is conceptualised as a series of cognitive operations that transform information from one state to another Problem solving = changing the initial state into the goal state via a series of intermediate states (i.e. processing information) Each operation changes the state of the problem. Sometimes called ‘searching’ the problem space

Answer 116

Problem Space: Representation of a problem (Newell & Simon 1972) Initial State (a representation of the problem) All possible allowable operations to change the state of the problem All possible problem states between the initial state and the goal state Goal State

Answer 117

Newell & Simon (1972) developed a computer simulation of human problem solving: “General Problem Solver” Based on ‘think aloud’ paradigm, where participants verbalised their thought processes Retrospective interviews Designed to solve well defined problems Problems with a clear goal state

Answer 118

Information processing is serial We have limited short-term memory capacity Relevant information can be retrieved from LTM

Answer 119

- Evidence of computational information processing - could program computer to solve this However, different programs needed for different problems - never able to derive general rules of problem solving

Answer 120

Means-end analysis and hill climbing

Answer 121

Identify difference between current state and goal Form a SUBGOAL that reduces this difference Perform operation that will attain subgoal e.g. following instructions to assemble IKEA furniture by making sub-components

Answer 122

Change current state to a state that more closely resembles the goal Used if you don’t really know how to solve the problem! e.g. assembling IKEA furniture WITHOUT instructions…

Answer 123

Elaboration: Adding more information about the problem Constraint Relaxation: changing what is permissible to solve the problem e.g. use box containing pins, Re-encoding: changing how some aspect of the problem is interpreted See box as shelf, not container, scrambling letters in anagrams Similar to Gestalt theory, but more specific about how insight is achieved

Answer 124

Task - move one stick to make the equation true (had to turn plus into minus) Change the values: Typical of arithmetic Change the operators: Not allowed in arithmetic

Answer 125

Insight occurring. Non-solvers did not. Eye-movements offer an alternative to ‘think aloud’ paradigm

Answer 126

Ideas of problem space and heuristic search appear critical to understanding problem solving Works well with well defined, knowledge poor problems Restructuring does appear to help with many insight problems

Answer 127

General Problem Solver may not always operate in the same way as humans Better at remember previous states Worse at planning future moves (only 1 at a time) Not a general theory of problem solving. Cannot account for phenomenological experience of insight May ultimately be specific to certain types of problem

Answer 128

Creative people: Study of Individual Differences Is there something special about creative people ? Why are some people more creative than others? Creative processes: Cognitive Psychology What cognitive processes contribute to creativity? How can understand creative thought? Creativity is a form of problem solving

Answer 129

Creativity a form of ill-defined problem solving Don’t really know what the goal is until you get there! Original or novel ideas do not have to be useful or worthwhile Creative ideas are both novel and useful or worthwhile e.g. Camera-phone, new form of artistic expression

Answer 130

Creativity in the arts… Set a new style or movement, eg. Andy Warhol & Pop Art, Picasso & Cubism Notoriously difficult to evaluate ‘worth’ of artistic creations …and sciences New paradigm New invention which is useful New theory which explain more phenomena with same or fewer assumptions

Answer 131

Yes e.g. Hermann Helmholtz: Breaks and physical freshness helped him solve creative problems

Answer 132

(Based on his own introspection and the reports of ‘great thinkers’) 1) Preparation Systematic, conscious, fruitless work on problem 2) Incubation Problem set aside for other work Unconscious work? Rest? Light exercise? 3) Illumination Solution to problem presents itself – a sudden insight 4) Verification Solution is developed and tested

Answer 133

Smith & Blankenship (1991): Remote associates task What links wheel, electric and man? 57% of p’s given break solved problem, only 27% of non-break solved problem.

Answer 134

Forgetting: Allows the ‘forgetting’ of unnecessary constraints or decay of mental sets (e.g. Simon 1966, Woodworth & Schlosberg 1954) Unconscious Work: representations related to problem are still active and interacting with LTM, but are not strong enough to reach awareness Spreading Activation: similar to unconscious work account

Answer 135

Useful framework for describing creativity Empirical support for concept of incubation Descriptive not explanatory Is illumination really a stage? Is there always insight?

Answer 136

Divergent and convergent thinking Use together for optimal problem solving

Answer 137

Fluency and novelty Search for new solutions, e.g. ‘Uses of a Brick’ test

Answer 138

Search for an ‘optimal’ solution Remote Associates Test (Mednick 1968) Anagrams & ‘Polygon’ word puzzles

Answer 139

Creative thought has two stages: Generation Exploration

Answer 140

Develop ‘preinventive forms’: ideas that don’t solve the problem, but that might be useful Forms are based on prior knowledge Divergent thinking

Answer 141

Using preinventive forms to try and solve problem Convergent thinking If no solution or idea is produced, cycle back to generation and start again

Answer 142

Participants were most creative when given category after creating forms Least creative when P’s chose category Concluded that pre-inventive forms facilitate creative thinking Bit like the restructuring - problem solving

Answer 143

Rely heavily on existing knowledge to create new forms Often an unconscious constraint Ward (1994) Imaginary Forms task Draw creatures from another plant that’s nothing like earth (1 min) Animals structured like earth animals Bilateral symmetry Sensory receptors Manipulatory appendages

Answer 144

Some empirical evidence that generation and exploration are important processes Deferring evaluation of forms does seem to increase novelty Does not describe processes involved in generating preinventive forms Focus is on originality, rather than creativity per se

Answer 145

Alex Osborn (1956) Increase idea production 2 main principles: Deferment of Judgement Quantity breeds Quality 4 rules: No criticism Free-wheeling is welcome (no constraints on ideas) Quantity is encouraged Everyone is free to combine and improve ideas

Answer 146

Lots of positive results from the lab Meadow et al., (1959) Think of uses for a broom and a coat-hanger Ideas rated for uniqueness and usefulness. Good idea had to score on both Brainstorm group produced more good ideas than control group Brilhart & Jochem (1964) Investigated deferment of judgement Most creative when ideas produced 1st, then evaluated Similar to geneplore findings? However, not specific on HOW to generate ideas

Answer 147

Allen (1962) Use a 2 or 3 dimensional matrix to represent different aspects of a problem New ideas found by combining 2 points in the matrix Ideas then evaluated Literally table with two axes - forming novel combinations

Answer 148

Warren & Davis (1969) Compared 3 methods for generating ideas Short checklists of idea-spurring suggestions (e.g. add something, change colour) Long checklist of questions organised into categories Morphological Synthesis Morphological Synthesis produced the most ‘good’ ideas in the fastest time

Answer 149

Decision Making: Choosing between various options What should I eat for dinner? What should I study? Which horse should I bet on? Who should I vote for? Decisions assessed relative to their consequences Typically measured in terms of gains and losses

Answer 150

Risky vs Riskless Risky: Which horse should I bet on? Riskless: Which chocolate should I eat?

Answer 151

Single: Buying wine when you know nothing about wine - just basing decision on price Multi - basing decision on lots of things - wine connoisseur

Answer 152

One stage: buy cheapest wine Multiple stages: buying a house - where to live, how many bedrooms etc - takes a lot more individual decisions

Answer 153

“Normative” approach - Based on economic and philosophical models A rational decision maker will choose the option with greatest value Assumes 1) Full knowledge of all possible options, and the value of all outcomes 2) Infinitely sensitive to subtle differences in value 3) Decision makers are motivated to maximise value Led to development of Expected Value Theory

Answer 154

Calculate the expected value of different decisions, choose most valuable decision Assumes - We know the relevant probabilities of the outcomes - We can assign a value to the outcome (e.g. monetary value, lower mortality, higher student ratings…) - Either decision is better than no decision Expected value = probability of outcome x value of the outcome EV based on outcome over a number of trials…

Answer 155

What if we don’t know probabilities? Use subjective estimate of probability This can be problematic: we’re not very good at estimating probability, particularly of rare but emotive events Utility: the subjective value we attach to an outcome Is the subjective value of cash always the same? Would a rich man cross the street to pick up a pound? Expected utility = probability of outcome x utility of outcome

Answer 156

Loss Aversion Risk Aversion Risk Seeking

Answer 157

How big a prize would be needed for you to risk your £10 on the toss of a coin? Tversky & Kahneman: American UGs wanted at least $30! We are more sensitive to loss that would be predicted by SEU theory: Which would you prefer? 1) A certain prize of £800 2) 85% chance of £1000, but 15% chance of NOTHING Most people go for option 1, even though the utility is less!

Answer 158

Which would you prefer? 1) A certain loss of £800 2) 85% chance of losing £1000, but 15% chance of losing NOTHING People pick option two even though utility is less - people take more risks to avoid losses

Answer 159

Utility (value we attach to the outcome) The utility of a gain is disproportionate to the disutility of a loss

Answer 160

Does the presentation of a problem affect our decisions? Imagine that the U.S. is preparing for the outbreak of an unusual disease, which is expected to kill 600 people. Two alternative programs to combat the disease have been proposed. Assume that the exact scientific estimates of the consequences of the programs are as follows: Program A: 200 people will be saved. Program B: A one-third probability that 600 people will be saved and a two-thirds probability that no people will be saved. Which of the two programs would you favour? Program C: 400 people will die Program D: A two-third probability that 600 people will die and a one-third probability that no people will die Which of the two programs would you favour? Expected values of programs are the same, but people prefer A and D: - Program A framed in terms of gains - encouraging loss aversion bias against B which risks that positive gain Program D - risk seeking bias to D

Answer 161

Anticipated regret is greater for own actions (as opposed to inactions) Ritov & Baron (1990): Your child has 10 chances in 10000 of dying from flu There is a vaccine that is certain to prevent flu BUT, it has potentially fatal side-effect What is the maximum death-rate from the vaccine you would be willing to tolerate? Average was 5 deaths per 10000 (i.e. less than the death rate of the disease!)

Answer 162

Expected Utility theory delivers best, most ‘rational’ decisions However: Many of biases which are inconsistent with EUT Risk seeking Loss aversion Framing effects

Answer 163

Prospect Theory accounts for many biases in decision making However: We rarely make decisions based only on utility Can be difficult to evaluate the probability of many outcomes Doesn’t reflect the social, moral and emotional aspects of decision making Doesn’t account for individual differences in decision making What about more complex decisions?

Answer 164

Identify all relevant attributes, give them a weighting, rate each attribute for all options, calculate utility for each option, pick option with maximum utility Gives ‘best’ outcome, but is time consuming, complex, and requires knowledge of what all the relevant attributes are e.g. picking uni

Answer 165

Decision making is as rational as possible, given situational and cognitive constraints (e.g. time, WM capacity) Satisficing: Identifying minimum requirements and selecting first option that meets them Gives good, but not optimal decisions Associated with better quality of life! (Schwartz et al., 2002)

Answer 166

Consider each aspect in turn, selecting best options & eliminating others until only 1 remains May be used to reduce options to make MAUT more manageable

Answer 167

Tetlock (2002): Need to understand the goals of the decision maker in order to evaluate decisions and understand biases. - We are motivated to justify our decisions to ourselves and others Expected Value approach assumes we are ‘intuitive economists’ - Try to maximise value We may adopt other roles: - Intuitive Politicians: Justify decisions to other people - Intuitive Theologians: Trying to protect ‘sacred values’ - Intuitive Prosecutors: Trying to prevent violations of ‘normal’ rules of society

Answer 168

Couldn't justify decision to themselves in the don't know category, so most paid the £5 fee

Cognitive Flashcards

(193 cards)