The mind as an information processor

• Mental processes — perception, attention, memory, thinking — can be studied scientifically.
• Information is encoded, stored and retrieved, and represented through models and schemas.
• Memory is reconstructive, not a perfect recording — a key theme of the whole approach.

The multi-store model

The multi-store model (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968) describes memory as a flow through three stores:

Evidence: patient HM (Milner) could hold information briefly but not transfer it to LTM, and the serial position effect suggests separate short- and long-term stores.

Limitation: the model treats STM as a single passive store — too simple, which motivated the working memory model.

Which is right?

The working memory model

Baddeley and Hitch (1974) argued short-term memory is an active system, "working memory", with separate parts:

• Central executive — directs attention and coordinates the subsystems.
• Phonological loop — handles sound and language.
• Visuospatial sketchpad — handles visual and spatial information.
• Episodic buffer (added by Baddeley, 2000) — integrates information across the subsystems.

Strength: explains why we can do a visual and a verbal task at once, but not two verbal tasks — they compete for the same subsystem.

Which is right?

Schema theory and reconstructive memory

A schema is a mental framework of prior knowledge that guides how we interpret and remember information.

• Bartlett (1932) had English participants repeatedly recall the Native American folk tale "The War of the Ghosts". Through serial reproduction, the story became shorter and more conventional — people unconsciously altered it to fit their own cultural schemas, showing memory is reconstructive.
• Brewer and Treyens (1981) found participants left in an "office" later recalled objects that fit an office schema (e.g. books) that were never there.

Which is right?

Dual-process thinking

Kahneman's dual-process model describes two systems of thinking:

• System 1 — fast, automatic, intuitive and effortless (but prone to bias).
• System 2 — slow, effortful, logical and deliberate.

Tversky and Kahneman (1981) showed framing effects: in the "Asian disease" problem, people chose the safe option when outcomes were framed as lives saved but the risky option when framed as lives lost — the same facts, different decisions.

Which is right?

The reliability of memory

Because memory is reconstructive, it can be distorted — important for eyewitness testimony.

• Loftus and Palmer (1974) showed a car-crash film, then asked how fast the cars were going when they "smashed" versus "hit". The word "smashed" produced higher speed estimates, and a week later those participants were more likely to falsely recall broken glass — leading questions reshape memory.
• Loftus and Pickrell (1995) implanted a false childhood memory of being "lost in a shopping mall" in a quarter of participants.

Which is right?

Emotion and cognition

Emotion influences how memories are formed and recalled.

• Brown and Kulik (1977) proposed flashbulb memories — vivid, detailed memories of shocking events.
• Neisser and Harsch (1992) found people were confident but often inaccurate about hearing of the Challenger disaster — flashbulb memories are not immune to distortion.
• Sharot et al. (2007) linked vivid 9/11 memories to greater amygdala activity in those near the event.

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Cognition and technology

Digital tools change how we use cognition.

• Sparrow, Liu and Wegner (2011) found people who expected information to be saved on a computer recalled it less well but remembered where to find it — the internet acts as an external "transactive memory".

HL extension — cognitive processing in a digital (technological) world

At HL you evaluate how modern technology affects cognitive processes such as memory and attention.

• Positive/adaptive: the internet as transactive memory (Sparrow et al., 2011) frees capacity for other tasks.
• Negative/concerns: research on media-multitasking and attention suggests possible costs to focus and deep encoding.
• Method note: much of this evidence is correlational, so causal claims about technology "harming" cognition must be cautious.

Which is right?

The big ideas to know

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