Chapter 7
If your mental image of your aunt's face is stored in an analog code,
the representation would resemble the specific features and facial arrangements found on your aunt's face
the category "stuffed crust, pepperoni pizza" is an example of a
subordinate-level category
According to the prototype approach to semantic memory,
we judge whether an item is similar to the prototype in order to decide whether it belongs to a category
Shepard & Metzler
conducted research on the mental image vs the actual object
-showing a series of objects at different rotations and judging if objects are same or different was influenced by the amount of mental rotation required to make the decision.
-noted that large rotations take more time
what is schema
generalized, well-integrated knowledge about a situation, event or person
-based on prior experience, helps us to process complex situations and events
Those who argue that we store mental-imagery information in terms of propositions would claim that
storage is most like language
Basics of network models
propose a network-style organization of concepts in memory, many interconnections, meaning of a concept depends on the concepts to which it is connected
in a family resemblance category, each example has at least one attribute in common with some other example of the concept
Brewer & Treyens
wait in an office waiting room, once out of the room (later) recall items from that room; memory selection study recognized that people were highly likely to remember details consistent with the office schema, reported remembering schema consistent items even though they weren't there (ex: books).
script and life script- what are they, give example
script= simple, well-structured sequence of event in specified order (narrower schema)
-example=restaurant
life script= list of events that a person believes would be the most important throughout their lifetime
-example=same cultures share similiar life scripts, in the U.S. most important things to take place in ones' life is school, job, marriage, kids, etc.
In the Shepard and Metzler study, people judged whether two figures that were in different orientations were the same or different. What did this study demonstrate?
the amount of rotation necessary before making "same-different" judgements influences decision speed
According to the research on auditory imagery and pitch,
people take longer to mentally "travel" the distance between two sounds that differ greatly in pitch, compared to "traveling" the distance between two similar sounds.
which approach to semantic memory emphasizes that our memory stores many specific members of a category
the exemplar approach
Anderson's ACT-R Approach
Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational;
meaning of sentences represented by series of proposition networks
people are especially likely to remember schema-inconsistent material when
I discussed meta-analyses that focus on gender comparisons in cognitive abilities. What is an area in which gender differences are typically the largest?
spatial abilities such as mental rotation
Give an example of the symmetry heuristic and an example of the rotation heuristic
drawing a map and representing two sides the same, even if one is not,..
showing a map in the wrong direction it would normally face.
according to network models of semantic memory
when a name of a concept is mentioned, the node representing that concept is activated
Kosslyn, Thompson et al.
primary motor cortex activated during mental rotation but only for group with "hands on" experience rotating the object
-rotate self instructions (left temporal) vs standard instructions (right frontal and parietal)
-implications for those recovering from a stroke
boundary extension, abstraction and integration
extension=storing a scene
abstraction=strong the meaning but not specific details
integration=forming a well-integrated representation of the material
the neuropsychology evidence on the imagery question shows that
during mental imagery, some portions of the visual processing regions of the cortex seems to be activated
Who conducted research around gender stereotypes and what did they find?
Dunning & Sherman, discovered that participants are more likely to make stereotype-consistent inferences (example=women must have been gossiping)
gender stereotypes are widely shared beliefs and opinions that we associate with males and females
According to the parallel distributed processing approach to semantic memory,
several patterns of activation can proceed at the same time
Bransford & Franks
researched abstraction
results- participants falsely remembered new items, more likely to make false alarm when a complex sentence was schema-consistent, less likely when violated meaning of earlier sentences
what is memory integration?
background knowledge encourages people to take in new information to memory in a schema-consistent manner
-people may remember schema-consistent info, even though it was not part of the original stimulus material
-schemas dont always operate