Chapter 7 Cognitive psych PDF

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Chapter 7: The Landscape of Memory: Mental Images, Maps, and PropositionsMENTAL REPRESENTATION something that stands for these people- of what you know about them. KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION the form for what you know in your mind about things, ideas, events, and so on, in the outside world. Mental Re...

Description

Chapter 7: The Landscape of Memory: Mental

-

Images, Maps, and Propositions

methods: (1) they observe how the normal

MENTAL REPRESENTATION -

brain

responds

to

various

cognitive tasks involving, knowledge

something that stands for these peopleof what you know about them.

representation, -

or (2) they observe the links between various

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION -

researchers typically use one of two

deficits

representation

the form for what you know in your mind

in and

knowledge associated

pathologies in the brain.

about things, ideas, events, and so on,

Communicating Knowledge: Pictures versus

in the outside world.

Words Knowledge can be represented in different ways

Mental Representation of Knowledge -

Direct empirical methods for observing knowledge

representations

are

not

picture, or in words, or abstract propositions. PICTURE

available at present and not soon.

-

INTROSPECTIONIST APPROACH observation of one's mental state

-

asking people to describe their own representations

-

are similar to the features and properties of the real-world object the picture

RATIONALIST APPROACH

represent

we try to deduce logically how people -

represent knowledge.

-

1. Declarative (knowing that)

-

represent

looks.

SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION

2. Procedural (knowing how) refers to knowledge of procedures that

-

simply arbitrary

Two Main Sources of Empirical Data on -

Knowledge Representation

indirectly

example, in forming words, the sounds

study

or letters also must be sequenced

knowledge representation because

according to rules

they cannot look into people’s minds

WORDS

directly They

Because symbols are arbitrary, their use requires the application of rules. For

1. Standard Laboratory Experiments researchers

meaning that the relationship between the word and what it represents is

can be implemented.

-

capture concrete and spatial information in a manner analogous to whatever they

your best friend, or the way a rabbit

-

no arbitrary rules for looking at the picture

Refers to facts that can be stated, such as the date of your birth, the name of

-

most aspects of the picture are grasped simultaneously

Two Kinds of Knowledge Structures -

shows concrete attributes, such as shape and relative size. These attributes

and

knowledge representation processes -

it is relatively analogous (i.e., similar) to the real-world object it represents.

-

knowledge

in your mind: It can be stored as a mental

observe

how

people

-

information in a manner that is symbolic

handle various cognitive tasks that

of whatever the words represent.

require the manipulation of mentally represented knowledge. 2. Neuropsychological Studies

handily capture abstract and categorical

-

Representations

in

words

usually

convey information sequentially. They do so according to arbitrary rules that have

little

to

do

with

what

the

words

-

Ex: movements of the hands on an analog clock are analogous to the

represent.

passage of time SYMBOLIC CODE -

form of knowledge representation that

Pictures in Your Mind: Mental Imagery

has been chosen arbitrarily to stand for

IMAGERY

something that does not perceptually

-

that are not currently seen or sensed by

-

resemble what is being represented.

It is the mental representation of things -

the sense organs

chiefly are represented in a symbolic

may involve mental representations in

code

any of the sensory modalities, such as

-

most research on imagery in cognitive

Storing Knowledge as Abstract Concepts:

psychology

Propositional Theory

has

focused

on

visual

imagery, such as representations of objects or settings that are not presently

PROPOSITIONAL THEORY -

-

can represent things that you have

mere words but by symbols -

We

may

images are epiphenomena—secondary

all outside the mind of the person

and derivative phenomena that occur as

creating the image

a result of other more basic cognitive processes.

used to solve problems and to answer

-

According to propositional theory, our

Dual-Code Theory: Images and Symbols

called

DUAL-CODE THEORY

resemble

These two codes organize information

-

“mentalese”) the

(sometimes

more

abstract

closely

form

of

a

What Is a Proposition? -

A proposition is the meaning underlying a particular relationship among concepts

into knowledge that can be acted on, stored somehow, and later retrieved for

representations

proposition.

we use both pictorial and verbal codes for representing information in our minds

-

mental

may represent things that do not exist at

mental

-

our

representations as images, but these

questions involving objects

-

experience

never experienced

VISUAL IMAGES -

suggests that we do not store mental representations in the form of images or

visible to the eyes MENTAL IMAGERY -

ex: sand represent flow of time in hourglass

hearing, smell, or taste -

our mental representations for words

-

Propositions may be used to describe

subsequent use.

any kind of relationship. Examples of

Paivio is consistent with his dual-code

relationships include actions of one thing

theory, noted that verbal information

on

seems to be processed differently than

positions of a thing, class membership

pictorial information.

of a thing, and so on

Pictures are better recalled in random order and words in sequential order.

ANALOG CODES

another,

attributes

of

a

thing,

Limitations of Mental Images -

Mental images are results of a stimulus and when asked to distort or manipulate

-

mental images are analog codes.

the image at hand, it is hard to do so

-

Analog codes resemble the objects they

unless we see a visual representation of

are representing.

it. Limitations of Propositional Theory

Mental reinterpretation of ambiguous figures

Mental Manipulations of Images

involves two manipulations:

functional-equivalence hypothesis

1. The first is a mental realignment of the

-

we represent and use visual imagery in

reference frame. This realignment would

a way that is functionally equivalent

involve a shift in the positional orientations of the

(strongly analogous) to that for physical

figures on the mental “page” or “screen” on

percepts

which the image is displayed. In Figure 7.6(a),

-

Functionally

equivalent things

are

the shift would be of the duck’s back to the

strongly analogous to each other—they

rabbit’s front, and the duck’s front to the rabbit’s

can accomplish the same goals.

back.

-

This view essentially suggests that we

3. The second manipulation is a mental

use images rather than propositions in

reconstrual (reinterpretation) of parts of

knowledge representation for concrete

the figure. This reconstrual would be of

objects that can be pictured in the mind. Principles of Visual Imagery

the duck’s bill as the rabbit’s ears. Manipulations occur when participants are given

1. Our mental transformations of images

the right context or hints:

and our mental movements across

1. Implicit reference-frame hint. Participants

images correspond to those of physical

first were shown another ambiguous figure

objects and percepts.

involving realignment of the reference frame

2. The spatial relations among elements of

[e.g., see Figure 7.6(b); a hawk’s head/a goose’s

a visual image are analogous to those

tail, and a hawk’s tail/a goose’s head].

relations in actual physical space.

2. Explicit reference-frame hint . Participants

3. Mental images can be used to generate

were asked to modify the reference frame by

information that was not explicitly stored

considering either “the back of the head of the

during encoding

animal they had already seen as the front of the

4. The construction of mental images is

head of some other animal” (Peterson et al.,

analogous to the construction of visually

1992, p. 111; considered a conceptual hint) or

perceptible figures

“the front of the thing you were seeing as the

5. Visual imagery is functionally equivalent

back of something else” (p. 115; considered an

to visual perception in terms of the

abstract hint).

processes of the visual system used for

3. Attentional hint. Participants were directed to

each.

attend

to

regions

of

the

figure

where

realignments or reconstruals were to occur.

Mental Rotations -

4. Construals from “good” parts. Participants were asked to construe an image from parts

object’s visual mental image -

determined to be “good” (according to both objective [geometrical] and empirical [inter-rater

involves rotationally transforming an

distracter forms: these forms were not rotations of the original stimuli

-

response times are longer for degraded

agreement] criteria), rather than from parts

stimuli—stimuli

determined to be “bad” (according to similar

incomplete,

criteria).

informative than for intact stimuli

Functional Equivalence -

that or

are

blurry,

otherwise

-

more advantageous for younger ones

-

The benefits of increased familiarity also

refers to individuals using about the

may

same operations to serve about the

improvements

same purposes for their respective

associated with increased practice.

domains.

less

lead

to

practice in

effects—

performance...