1. Constructive Nature 

(of memory)

2. Schemas

3. Scripts

4. Problem w/Constructive Memory

1. We do not remember everything we know about the world so we construct memories based off of schemas and scripts of the world.

2. Mental representations of a certain environment

3. Procedural schemas for events (i.e. what to do when eating out at a resteraunt)

4. People construct memories that are inaccurate based on schemas & scripts

Constructive Memory Experiment

(Schemas)

-Bransford & Johnson (1973)

-Have pts. listen to a dictated story containing two different sentences

-Cond.1: "John pounded a nail into..."

-Cond. 2: "John looked for a nail..."

-Test: Pts. are asked if "John used a hammer.." was a part of the story (when it was not)

-Results: % 'Yes' responses were ~60% for Condition 1 and ~20% for condition 2

**Significance: These results show that we strongly and falsely recall things as a result of our experiences, when they are actually a result of our schemas of the situation

Constructive Memory Experiment

(Scripts)

-Bower (1979)

-Presents pts. with a story about a procedural event (i.e. process of going to the dentist) while omitting a certain step in the process. (i.e. being called into the examination room)

-Test(Cond. 1): Asks pts. if they recognize a sententence which describes the missing step

-Results: Most pts. say yes.

-Test (Cond. 2): When pts. retell the story, they include the missing step as if it were included in the story itself

**Significance: Shows that people make inferences based on scripts therefore suggesting that there is a bottom-up/Top-down interaction while encoding and retreiving information

Problem with Constructive Memories

1. Misinformation Effect

2. Retroactive Interference

3. Connection btwn 1 &2

1. Memory bias that occurs when exposure to misinformation affects people's reports of their own memory

2. When newly learned information interferes with and impedes recall of old information

3. The misinformation effect is a direct result of retroactive interference

Why does the Misinformation Effect happen so easily?

1. Retroactive Interference

2. Memory Trace Replacement (Loftus)

3. Source Memory Error

1. Knowledge of an event (never been lost in mall) is established. New information presented (experimenter telling pts. that they have been lost in mall according to parents) interferes with established lack of memory of said event.

*Note: Under Response Interference the established memory SHOULD interfere with new false info BUT IT DOES NOT.*

2. Idea that if a memory is not established strongly, it can be easily replaced by a memory that never occured. 

3. We have a hard time pinpointing the source of a memory.

-When presented "false" memory multiple times, we lean toward the familiarity based on the repeated exposure to the false memory

-Explains the fact that we are unable to know that the source of the "false" memory is the experimenter and not the participants' parents

Misinformation Effect Experiments

1. Loftus

2. Loftus & Palmer

3. Loftus (1999)

1. -Cond. 1: Shows pts. slideshow w/ a car stopping @ stop sign, making a turn, and hitting a pedestrian.

-Asks pts. questions about the scene including: "Did the car make a full stop @ the Yield sign?" (inserts misinformation)

-Cond. 2: Shows Pts. same slideshow using a yield sign instead

-TEST:When Pts. are asked if they saw the scene from condition 2 previously: Most report YES. 

______________________________________________

2. Show pts. video of a car accident

-Cond. 1: "How fast...When they hit each other?"

-Cond. 2: "How fast...When they smashed into ea. other?"

-Results: Pts. in cond. 2 overcompensate speed of cars more than pts. in Cond. 1

Suggesting that the way we ask a question affects the response

**Significance of both of these experiments provides evidence that we can make ppl. remember events incorrectly.

_____________________________________________

3. Lost in Mall Experiment

-Tries to convince pts. that they were lost in the mall @ age 3 under the assumption that emotional memories should be harder to implant but they are just as easily affected by misinformation effect

-Control Cond.: Asks pts. if they have ever been lost in mall -- They report NO

-Experimental: Tell Pts. that their parents informed experimenters that they have been lost in mall (inserts misinformation)

-Test: ~2 weeks later Pts. are asked again & they report that they have been lost in mall with much detail about the event

Problem solving--Gestaltists

1. Problem

2. Gestaltists

3. Reconstructing

a) Insight

4. Obstacles to Problem Solving

a) Fixation

b) Functional Fixedness

1. When present state is different from goal state and the path is unclear

2.Take a perceptual approach to psychology

-Believe that problem solving involves (1) how people represent a problem in their mind and (2) how solving a problem involves a reorganization or reconstruction of this representation 

3. Process of changing the representation of a problem in order to solve it

a) a sudden realization of a problem's solution/discovery of a crucial element that leads to solution

4. a) tendency to focus on a specific characteristic of the problem that keeps them from arriving at a solution

b) Restricting the use of an object to it's familiar functions 

Problem Solving

1. Newell & Simon

2. Tower of Hanoi Problem

3. Intermediate State

4. Problem Space

1. Focus on problems w/ intermediate states between the present and goal states. (i.e. tower of hanoi problem)

2. Three pegs--Stack of three blocks of different size on far left peg.

-Objective is to move all blocks to the far right. 

-Can only move one block at a time

-Can only move block that is not covered

-Blocks must stay in same formation(can't put large block on small block)

3. Stable states which you can stay in for a long period of time

4. Set of all possible intermediate states that can be defined by multiple points on the path toward the problem's solution

**Significance: Newell & Simon suggest that the solution to problem solving relys on finding the appropriate path as opposed to the gestaltist method of reconstructing the problem

Problem Solving--Newell & Simon (Cont'd)

How do problem solvers move through the problem space?

1. Hillclimbing

-Iterative Change

2. Means-End Analysis

1. Characterized by an Iterative change: a change in present state & reanalysis (trial & error)

-Occurs when humans don't know what the first step in solving a problem therefore they jump right in using any step and then reanalysis of choice provides a better path until the optimal path is found.

**NOT RECONSTRUCTION because it is a technique w/respect to intermediate states & it does not make the goal state clear**

2. Using sub-goal states to approach the final goal state=> Planning ahead

-it is a means of simplification: if problem is too difficult, work on the smaller problem first

**Significance Newell & Simon find that humans use Means-End analysis more freq. than Hillclimbing to move through problem space**

Problem Solving

Why are some problems more difficult than others to solve?

1. Kotovsky

-Problem Presentation

2. Acrobat Problem

-Reverse Acrobat Problem

1. Shows that problem presentation is very important in terms of solving a problem

2. 3 acrobats form a human tower while standing on poles:

-only one acrobat can move at a time

-acrobats can share a pole as long as one is on the shoulders of another

-acrobat cannot jump if there is another on their shoulders

-a big acrobat cannot stand on a smaller acrobat

*the reversed problem is the same except small acrobats cannot stand on big acrobats

Finds: that pts. take almost twice the amt. of time to solve the problem when it is reversed Suggesting that when ppl are asked to abide by rules that are outside of their realm of experience (small ppl cannot support larger ppl in real world) it provides enormous difficulty.

Problem Solving

1. Problem solving by analogy (Analogical Thinking)

2. Gick & Holyoak

(Example of Prob. Solv. by Analogy)

1. Discovering rules & abstract patterns through familiar tasks so that it is easier to impliment the problem space steps once the goal state is clear

-These analogous situations are similar in structural features NOT surface features

2. Problem: Patient has stomach tumor that can be killed w/ small bit of strong radiation, but it would also kill healthy tissue

-Weaker radiation would not hard healthy tissue or tumor

-How do we solve this? 

==> Gick & Holyoak suggest the problem in a diff. way:

- We have a castle w/4 bridges

-Each bridge can hold 20,000 troops

-We need 70,000 to damage the castle

-What do we do? 

Solutions: Split up the troops/Split up the radiation

Problem Solving

1. Reasoning

2. Deductive Reasoning

3. Inductive Reasoning

1. The act of coming to a conclusion based on something else

2. Drawing conclusions from some concept that has truth value (All women are mortal=> I am a woman, therefore I am mortal)

3. Putting together inferences based on observations from elsewhere

-Predicting future events based on past events

-Inferring patterns based on incomplete data

Availability Heuristic

-Tversky & Kahneman (1973)

Idea that when problem solving, we are biased by what information is salient & readily available

-Tversky & Kahneman(1973): ask ppl to make judgements about whether or not there are more words that begin with 'R' or have 'R' as the 3rd letter

-Most ppl assume words that begin with R (incorrect) because recalling words from their initial phoneme is an easier memory task than from their contained phonemes (beginning of words are more salient to us than the 3rd letter)

**Significance of Heuristics: they are likely to lead people astray causing us to be succeptible to illusory correlation & confirmation bias

Representativeness Heuristic

-Tversky & Kahneman (1974)

 Rejection of statistical information in favor of using representative information instead

-Tversky & Kahneman (1974): Present pts. with 3 characteristics of a man: wears glasses, speaks quietly, & reads a lot

-Ask pts. whether it is more likley that he is a librarian or a farmer

-Finds: most ppl assume the man to be a librarian because they reject the statistical rate of male librarians at the time(which was low) in favor of the representative information provided in the problem.

**Significance of Heuristics: they are likely to lead people astray causing us to be succeptible to illusory correlation & confirmation bias

 Confirmation Bias

-Wason (1960)

 Tendency to search for confirmation of information from a pattern we already know and ignore what they don't know.

-Wason (1960): gives inductive reasoning task consisting of a set of #'s following a certain target pattern

-Example given: 2,4,6

-Target Pattern: any 3 numbers in ascending order

-Asks pts. to figure out the target pattern

-Pts. come up with their own set of #'s to see if they fit the target pattern

-Pts. stick with ascending even numbers because experimenter confirms that they fit the pattern

-When pts. guess that the target pattern is 'Ascending even numbers' they are incorrect bc they made the assumption based on confirmation of what they already knew fit the pattern

-They should have tried to confirm other patterns (odd numbers) as false before formally guessing the pattern.