Discussion 1 Paper Assignment

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This week we covered chapter 1,2, and 3. The assignment is (Discussion post) 1 to 3 paragraphs (you don’t have to write a reference, if you do please use the one I have uploaded)

The assignment is:

Please read the following Psychological Science article:  Optimizing Learning in College: Tips from Cognitive Psychology .  I wanted to start the course by reviewing an article with a real-world application.  The authors will provide suggestions on how to approach taking courses in college.  They rely on demonstrated principles from the Cognitive Psychology literature to inform readers about the best strategies to succeed in a course.  This article should give you a feel for how the principles of cognitive psychology can be applied in the classroom.  It will be useful for you to read the information in the textbook related to encoding, storage, and recall to produce a high quality primary post.

In your primary post, please answer the following questions:

1. Why are strategies like highlighting (or underlining) as you read, and rereading your text and/or notes often ineffective for learning material?

2. Describe the read, recite, and review method.  Why is this an effective method for remembering information from your textbook and/or lecture notes?

3. Based on the reading, why might a professor have a no laptop policy in the classroom?

4. Why are spaced practice and retrieval practice effective study strategies?

5. What strategies from this article do you think you could successfully implement in this course, or other courses?

 

 

Note:

1. 1 to 3 paragraphs is enough.

2. I have uploaded chapter 1,2 ,and 3 from the book “Cognition: Exploring the science of the mind” + the article “Optimizing Learning in College: Tips from Cognitive Psychology”.

3. Please check the (Rubrics)

 

Points Awarded	0-­‐1	2-­‐3	4-­‐5	6
Criteria	Primary Post addresses few, if any, aspects of the assignment, and demonstrates little to no understanding of the subject matter.	Primary Post indicates that you may not have paid attention to the assignment’s Instructions or subject matter. The ideas presented in the post are not original or supported by course material. The post is largely Based on your personal opinion and experiences.	Primary Post addresses most of the aspects of the assignment. The ideas presented in the post demonstrate some understanding of the academic subject matter. Your post is supported by incomplete, or anecdotal evidence.	Your positing addresses all aspects of the assignment. The ideas presented in The post demonstrates a thoughtful consideration of the academic subject matter. Your post is Supported by strong evidence from the course material.

chapter 1

The Science of the Mind

 

The Scope of Cognitive Psychology

When the field of cognitive psychology was first launched, it was broadly focused on the scientific study of knowledge, and this focus led immediately to a series of questions: How is knowledge acquired? How is knowledge retained so that it’s available when needed? How is knowledge used—whether as a basis for making decisions or as a means of solving problems? Discussion 1 Paper Assignment

These are great questions, and it’s easy to see that answering them might be quite useful. For example, imagine that you’re studying for next Wednesday’s exam, but for some reason the material just won’t “stick” in your memory. You find yourself wishing, therefore, for a better strategy to use in studying and memorizing. What would that strategy be? Is it possible to have a “better memory”? As a different case, let’s say that while you’re studying, your friend is moving around in the room, and you find this quite distracting. Why can’t you just shut out your friend’s motion? Why don’t you have better control over your attention and your ability to concentrate?

Here’s one more example: You’re looking to learn how many people have decided to vote for candidate X. How do people decide whom to vote for? For that matter, how do people decide what college to attend, or which car to buy, or even what to have for dinner? And how can we help people make better decisions- so that, for example, they choose healthier foods, or vote for the candidate who (in your view) is preferable?

Before we’re through, we’ll consider evidence pertinent to all of these questions. Let’s note, though, that in these examples, things aren’t going as you might have wished: You remember less than you want to; you can’t ignore a distraction; the voters make a choice you don’t like. What about the other side of the picture? What about the remarkable intellectual feats that humans achieve- brilliant deductions or creative solutions to complex problems? In this text, we’ll also discuss these cases and explore how people manage to accomplish the great things they do. Discussion 1 Paper Assignment

 

The Broad Role for Memory:

 

The questions we’ve mentioned so far might make it sound like cognitive psychology is concerned just with your functioning as an intellectual-your ability to remember, or to pay attention, or to think through options when making a choice. As we’ve said, though, the relevance of cognitive psychology is much broader-thanks to the fact that a huge range of your actions, thoughts, and feelings depend on your cognition. As one way to convey this point, let’s ask: When we investigate how memory functions, what’s at stake? Or, to turn this around, what aspects of your life depend memory?

You obviously rely on memory when you’re taking an exam-memory for what you learned during the term. Likewise, you rely on memory when you’re at the supermarket and trying to remember the cheesecake recipe so that you can buy the right ingredients. You also rely on memory when you’re reminiscing about childhood. But what else draws on memory? Consider this simple story (adapted from Charniak, 1972):

 

Betsy wanted to bring Jacob a present. She shook her piggy bank. It made no sound. She went to look for her mother.

 

This four-sentence tale is easy to understand, but only because you provided important bits of background. For example, you weren’t at all puzzled about why Betsy was interested in her piggy bank; you weren’t puzzled, specifically about why the story’s first sentence led to the second. This is because you naturally already knew (a) that the things gives presents are often things bought for the occasion (rather than things already owned), (b) one as that buying things requires money, and (c) that money is sometimes stored in piggy banks. Without these facts, you would have wondered why a desire to give a gift would lead someone to her piggy bank. (Surely you didn’t think Betsy intended to give the piggy bank itself as the present!) Likewise, you immediately understood why Betsy shook her piggy bank. You didn’t shaking it in frustration or to find out if it would make a good suppose that she was trying percussion instrument. Instead, you understood that she was trving to determine its contents. But vou knew this fact only because vou alread knew (d) that Betsy was a child (because few adults keep their money in piggy banks). (e) that children don’t keep track of how much money is in their banks, and (f) that piggy banks are made out of opaque material (and so a child can’t simply look into the bank to see what’s inside). Without these facts, Betsy’s shaking of the bank would make no sense. Similarly, you understood what it meant that the bank made no sound. That’s because you know (g) that it’s usually coins (not bills) that are kept in piggy banks, and (h) that coins make noise when they’re shaken. If you didn’t know these facts, you might have interpreted the bank’s silence, when it was shaken, as good news, indicating perhaps that the bank was jammed full of $20 bills-an inference that would have led you to a very different expectation for how the story would unfold from there. Discussion 1 Paper Assignment

Of course, there’s nothing special about the “Betsy and Jacob” story, and we’d uncover a similar reliance on background knowledge if we explored how you understand some other conversation, comprehend a TV show. Our suggestion, in other words, is that many (perhaps all) of your encounters with the world depend on your narrative or follow a or supplementing your experience with knowledge that you bring to the situation. And perhaps this has to be true. After all, if you didn’t supply the relevant bits of background, then anyone telling the “Betsy and Jacob” story would need to spell out all the connections and alll the assumptions. That is, the story would have to include all the facts that, with memory, are supplied by you. As a result, the story would have to be much longer, and the telling of it much slower. The same would be true for every story you hear, every conversation you participate in. Memory is thus crucial for each of these activities.

 

Amnesia and Memory Loss:

 

Here is a different sort of example: In Chapter 7, we will consider cases of clinical amnesia-cases in which someone, because of brain damage, has lost the ability to remember certain materials. These cases are fascinating at many levels and provide key insights into what memory is for. Without memory, what is disrupted?

H.M. was in his mid-20s when he had brain surgery intended to control his severe epilepsy. The surgery was, in a narrow sense, a success, and H. M’s epilepsy was brought under control. But this gain came at an enormous cost, because H.M. essentially lost the ability to form new memories. He survived for more than 50 years after the operation, and for all those years he had little trouble remembering events prior to the surgery. But H.M. seemed completely unable to recall any event that occurred after his operation. If asked who the president is, or about recent events, he reported facts and events that were current at the time of the surgery. If asked questions about last week, or even an hour ago, he recalled nothing. Discussion 1 Paper Assignment

This memory loss had massive consequences for H. M’s life, and some of the consequences are surprising. For example, he had an uncle he was very fond of, and he occasionally asked his hospital visitors how his uncle was doing. Unfortunately, the uncle died sometime after H.M.’s surgery, and horrible shock, but because of his amnesia, H.M. was told this sad news. The information came as H.M. soon forgot about it.

Sometime later, because he’d forgotten about his uncle’s death, H.M. again asked how his uncle was doing and was again told of the death. But with no memory of having heard this news before, he was once more hearing it “for the first time,” with the shock and grief every bit as strong as it was initially. Indeed, each time he heard this news, he was hearing it “for the first time.” With no memory, he had no opportunity to live with the news, to adjust to it. As a result, his grief could not subside. Without memory, H.M. had no way to come to terms with his uncle’s death.

A different glimpse of memory function comes from some of H. M’s comments about what it felt like to be in his situation. Let’s start here with the notion that for those of us without amnesia, numerous memories support our conception of who we are: We know whether we deserve praise for our good deeds or blame for our transgressions because we remember those good deeds and transgressions. We know whether we’ve kept our promises or achieved our goals because, again, we have the relevant memories. None of this is true for people who suffer from amnesia, and H.M. sometimes commented that in important ways, he didn’t know who he was. He didn’t know if he should be proud of his accomplishments or ashamed of his crimes; he didn’t know if he’d been clever or stupid, honorable or dishonest, industrious or lazy. In a sense, then, without a memory, there is no self. (For broader discussion, see Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000; Hilts, 1995.)

What, then, is the scope of cognitive psychology? As we mentioned earlier, this field is sometimes defined as the scientific study of the acquisition, retention, and use of knowledge. We’ve now seen, though, that “knowledge” (and hence the study of how we gain and use knowledge) is relevant to a on our knowledge (and, in particular, huge range of concerns. Our self-concept, it seems, depends on our memory for various episodes in our past). Our emotional adjustments to the world rely on our memories. Even our ability to understand a simple story-or, presumably, our ability to supplementing that experience with some knowledge. Discussion 1 Paper Assignment

The suggestion, then, is that cognitive psychology can help us understand capacities relevant to virtually every moment of our lives. Activities that don’t appear to be intellectual would collapse without the support of our cognitive functioning. The same is true whether we’re considering our movements through the world, our social lives, our emotions, or any other domain. This is physical the scope of cognitive psychology and, in a real sense, the scope of this book.

 

e. Demonstration 1.1: The Broad Impact of Background Knowledge 

The chapter emphasizes the important role of cognition for a range of activities that don’t seem, on the surface, to be deeply “intellectual.” The chapter uses a simple children’s story to make this point -highlighting how much knowledge you have to contribute in order to understand the story. Here is different example, making a similar point. Discussion 1 Paper Assignment

 

Imagine the following bit of dialogue:

Person 1: Where were you on the night of December 4?

Person 2: Come on. You know I had nothing to do with this.

Person 1: Where were you on the night of December 4?

Person 2: I was home watching TV.

Person 1: Alone? Person 2: Of course, I was alone.

Person 1: Want to have dinner with me next week?

 

Think about how you understood these seven lines of dialogue. By the end of the first line, were you already making inferences about who Person 1 might be (e.g., a police detective) and who Person 2 might be (e.g., a suspect)?

Why did Person 1 simply repeat the initial question? Do you believe Person 1 has a hearing problem?

Can you catalogue some of the other inferences and assumptions you made in understanding this dialogue?

Does the last line of dialogue (the dinner invitation) make sense? Why or why not? What knowledge are you using in deciding whether the invitation makes sense?

 

e. Demonstration 1.2: Understanding Depends on Background Knowledge 

Consider the following simple story:

Fred went to his favorite restaurant.

After the waiter took his order, Fred heaved a great sigh. Another dinner alone.

Once again, though, he slogged through the meal and then slowly returned to his lonely apartment.

 

Take a moment and list the things that you now believe to be true about Fred and his life circumstances.

 

As a way of thinking this through, ask yourself questions like these:

 

Would it make sense if I learned that Fred was 5 years old?

Would it make sense if I learned that Fred was in a stable, contented relationship?

 

You might also think through what else you know about Fred’s time in the restaurant. Did he ever see a menu? Did he eat? Did he eat standing up or sitting down? Did he “slog” through the meal in the same way that biology students might slog through a marsh as part of a field study? (In other words, did he stomp on the meal, wearing waterproof boots?) Did Fred pay the check before he left?

All of these questions are likely to be enormously easy for you; but, once more, what knowledge are you using in answering them and, more broadly, in understanding this simple story?

 

The Cognitive Revolution:

The enterprise that we now call “cognitive psychology” is a bit more than 50 years old, and the emergence of this field was in some ways dramatic. Indeed, the science of psychology a succession of changes in the 1950s and 1960s that are often referred to as psychology’s “cognitive went through revolution.” This “revolution” involved a new style of research, aimed initially at questions we’ve already met: questions about memory, decision making, and so on. But this new type of research, and its new approach to theorizing, soon influenced other domains, with the result that the cognitive revolution dramatically changed the intellectual map of our field. Discussion 1 Paper Assignment

The cognitive revolution centered on two key ideas. One idea is that the science of psychology study the mental world directly. A second idea is that the science of psychology must study cannot the mental world if we’re going to understand behavior. As a path toward understanding these ideas, let’s look at two earlier traditions in psychology that offered a rather different perspective. Let’s emphasize, though, that our purpose here is not to describe the full history of modern cognitive psychology. That history is rich and interesting, but our goal is a narrow one-to explain why the were. (For readers interested in the history, see Bartlett they cognitive revolution’s themes were as 1932; Benjamin, 2008; Broadbent, 1958; Malone, 2009; Mandler, 2011.)

chapter 2

The Neural Basis for Cognition

 

Explaining Capgras Syndrome

We began this chapter with a description of Capgras syndrome, and we’ve offered an account of the mental processes that characterize this disorder. Specifically, we’ve suggested that someone with this syndrome is able to recognize a loved one’s face, but with no feeling of familiarity. Is this the right way to think about Capgras syndrome?

One line of evidence comes from neuroimaging techniques that enable researchers to take high- quality, three-dimensional “pictures” of living brains without in any way disturbing the brains owners. We’ll have more to say about neuroimaging later; but first, what do these techniques tell us about Capgras syndrome? The Neural Basis for Capers Syndrome

Some types of neuroimaging provide portraits of the physical makeup of the brain: What’s where? How are structures shaped or connected to each other? Are there structures present (such as missing (because of disease or birth defects)? tumors) that shouldn’t be there, or structures that are This information about structure was gained in older studies from positron emission tomography on magnetic resonance (more commonly referred to as a PET scan). More recent studies usually rely imaging (MRI; see Figure 2.1). These scans suggest a link between Capgras syndrome and abnormalities in several brain areas, indicating that our account of the syndrome will need to consider several elements (Edelstyn & Oyebode, 1999; also see O’Connor, Walbridge, Sandson, & Alexander, 1996). One site of damage in Capgras patients is in the temporal lobe (see Figure 2.2), particularly on the right side of the head. This damage probably disrupts circuits involving the amygdala, an almond- structure that-in the intact brain-seems to serve as an “emotional evaluator,” helping shaped organism detect stimuli associated with threat or danger (see Figure 2.3). The amygdala is also an or of available rewards. With damaged important for detecting positive stimuli-indicators of safety amygdalae, therefore, people with Capgras syndrome won’t experience the warm sense of feeling good (and safe and secure) when looking at a loved one’s familiar face. This lack of an emotional response is probably why these faces don’t feel familiar to them, and is fully in line with the two- systems hypothesis we’ve already sketched. Patients with Capgras syndrome also have brain abnormalities in the frontal lobe, specifically in the right prefrontal cortex. What is this area’s normal function? To find out, we turn to a different neuroimaging technique, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which enables us to track moment-by-moment activity levels in different sites in a living brain. (We’ll say more about FMRI in a later section.) This technique allows us to answer such questions as: When a person is reading which brain regions are particularly active? How about when a person is listening to music? With data like these, we can ask which tasks make heavy use of a brain area, and from that base we can draw conclusions about that brain area’s function. Discussion 1 Paper Assignment

Studies make it clear that the prefrontal cortex is especially active when a person is doing tasks that require planning or careful analysis. Conversely, this area is less active when someone is dreaming. Plausibly, this latter pattern reflects the absence of careful analysis of the dream material, which helps explain why dreams are often illogical or bizarre.

Related, consider FMRI scans of patients suffering from schizophrenia (e.g., Silbersweig et al., 1995). Neuroimaging reveals diminished activity in the frontal lobes whenever these patients are experiencing hallucinations. One interpretation is that the diminished activity reflects a decreased to distinguish internal events (thoughts) from external ones (voices) or to distinguish ability imagined events from real ones (cf. Glisky, Polster, & Routhieaux, 1995). How is all of this relevant to Capgras syndrome? With damage to the frontal lobe, Capgras patients may be less able to keep track of what is real and what is not, what is sensible and what is not. As a result, weird beliefs can emerge unchecked, including delusions (about robots and the like that you or I would find totally bizarre. What Do We Learn from Capgras Syndrome?  Other lines of evidence add to our understanding of Capgras syndrome (e.g., Ellis & Lewis, 2001; Ramachandran & Blakeslee, 1998). Some of the evidence comes from the psychology laboratory and confirms the suggestion that recognition of all stimuli (not just faces) involves two separate on factual knowledge, and one that’s more “emotional” and tied to the mechanisms-one that hinges warm sense of familiarity (see Chapter 7)

Note, then, that our understanding of Capgras syndrome depends drawn from cognitive psychology and from cognitive neuroscience. We use both perspectives to test (and, ultimately, to confirm) the hypothesis we’ve offered. In addition, just as both perspectives illuminate Capgras syndrome, both can be illuminated by the syndrome. That is, we can use Capgras syndrome (and other biological evidence) to illuminate broader issues about the nature of the brain and of the mind.

For example, Capgras syndrome suggests that the amygdala plays a crucial role in supporting the feeling of familiarity. Other evidence suggests that the amygdala also helps people remember the emotional events of their lives (e.g., Buchanan & Adolphs, 2004). Still other evidence indicates that the amygdala plays a role in decision making (e.g., Bechara, Damasio, & Damasio, 2003), especially for decisions that rest on emotional evaluations of one’s options. Facts like these tell us a lot about the various functions that make cognition possible and, more specifically, tell us that our theorizing needs to include a broadly useful “emotional evaluator,” involved in many cognitive processes. Moreover, Capgras syndrome tells us that this emotional evaluator works in a fashion separate from the evaluation of factual information, and this observation gives us a way to think about occasions in which your evaluation of the facts points toward one conclusion, while an emotional evaluation points toward a different conclusion. These are valuable clues as we try to understand the processes that support ordinary remembering or decision making. (For more on the role of emotion in decision Chapter 12.) What does Capgras syndrome teach us about the brain itself? One lesson involves the fact that many different parts of the brain are needed for even the simplest achievement. In order to recognize your father, for example, one part your brain needs to store the factual memory of what he looks like. Another part of the brain is responsible for analyzing the visual input you receive when looking at a face. Yet another brain area has the job of comparing this now-analyzed input to the factual information provided from memory, to determine whether there’s a match. Another site provides the emotional evaluation of the input. A different site presumably assembles the data from all these other sites-and registers the fact that the face being inspected does match the factual recollection of your father’s face, and also produces a warm sense of familiarity.

Usually, all these brain areas work together, allowing the recognition of your father’s face to go smoothly forward. If they don’t work together-that is, if coordination among these areas is disrupted-yet another area works to make sure you offer reasonable hypotheses about this disconnect, and not zany ones. (In other words, if your father looks less familiar to you on some occasion, you’re likely to explain this by saying, “I guess he must have gotten new glasses” rather than “I bet he’s been replaced by a robot.”) Unmistakably, this apparently easy task-seeing your father and recognizing who he is-requires multiple brain areas. The same is true of most tasks, and in this way Capgras syndrome illustrates this crucial aspect of brain function. The Study of the Brain In order to discuss Capgras syndrome, we needed to refer to different brain areas and had to rely on several different research techniques. In this way, the syndrome also illustrates another point-that our theories. this is a domain in which we need some technical foundations before we can develop Let’s start building those foundations. Discussion 1 Paper Assignment

The human brain weighs (on average) a bit more than 3 pounds (roughly 1.4 kg), with male brains weighing about 10 % more than female brains (Hartmann, Ramseier, Gudat, Mihatsch, & Polasek, 1994). The brain is roughly the size of a small melon, yet this compact structure has been estimated to contain 86 billion nerve cells (Azevedo et al., 2009). Each of these cells is connected to 10,000 or so others-for a total of roughly 860 trillion connections. The brain also contains a huge number of qlial cells, and we’ll have more to say about all of these individual cells later on in the chapter. For now, though, how should we begin our study of this densely packed, incredibly complex organ?

One place to start is with a simple fact we’ve already met: that different parts of the brain perform different jobs. Scientists have known this fact about the brain for many years, thanks to clinical evidence showing that the symptoms produced by brain damage depend heavily on the location of the damage. In 1848, for example, a horrible construction accident caused Phineas Gage to suffer damage in the frontmost part of his brain (see Figure 2.4), and this damage led to severe personality and emotional problems. In 1861, physician Paul Broca noted that damage in a different location on the left side of the brain led to a disruntion of lanonade skills In 1911 Édouard Clanarède (1911/1951) reported his observations with patients who suffered from profound memory loss produced by damage in still another part of the brain. Clearly, therefore, we need to understand brain functioning with reference to brain anatomy. Where was the damage that Gage suffered? Where was the damage in Broca’s patients or Claparède’s? In this section, we fill in some basics of brain anatomy.  Hindbrain, Midbrain, Forebrain  The human brain is divided into three main structures: the hindbrain, the midbrain, and the forebrain. The hindbrain is located at the very top of the spinal cord and includes structures crucial for controlling key life functions. It’s here, for example, that the rhythm of heartbeats and the rhythm of breathing are regulated. The hindbrain also plays an essential role in maintaining the Specifically, the hindbrain helps maintain the body’s posture and balance; it also body’s overall tone. helps control the brain’s level of alertness. The largest area of the hindbrain the cerebellum. For many years, investigators believed this structure’s main role was in the coordination of bodily movements and balance. Research indicates, however, that the cerebellum plays various other roles and that damage to this organ can cause problems in spatial reasoning, in discriminating sounds, and in integrating the input received from various sensory systems (Bower & Parsons, 2003).

The midbrain has several functions. It plays an important part in coordinating movements, including the precise movements of the eyes as they explore the visual world. Also in the midbrain are circuits that relay auditory information from the ears to the areas in the forebrain where this information is processed and interpreted. Still other structures in the midbrain help to regulate the experience of pain. Discussion 1 Paper Assignment