Reading Activity Week #10 (Due Monday)

1a) The first thing I found interesting in this chapter was the set-theoretical model.

1b) This was interesting because it expanded more on semantic concepts, a term which we already learned, and explains a bit how we organize them internally in our brains. In a set-theoretical model, semantic concepts are represented by sets of elements and collections of information. In this model concepts are represented into the LTM in terms of concepts and features. The example you provided of the canary was very helpful and allowed me to better understand the concept. Next, items in our memory can be stored in association with more than one of concept and retrieval involves verification.

2a) The next thing I found interesting in this chapter was the semantic feature-comparison model.

2b) I found this interesting because it built off of the previous model but then provided information on some of the differences. This model is different because it says that the meaning of a word is represented as a set of semantic features which are broad and vary. Some of the different features which are essential or define an aspect of a word are defining features, whereas features that are only incidental or characteristic are characteristic features. Once again the example provided along with table 9.1 provided me with a better grasp on the concept and helped me to understand better how linguistic hedges are used to expand conceptual representations of a word.

3a) One last thing I enjoyed reading about was the a la carte section: I never forget a face, it’s names I can’t remember.

3b) This title is what alone intrigued me because I have a very hard time remembering people’s names, I know that they are familiar or even that I have met them before but I just can’t remember their name. This section basically told of an experiment done to try and explain all of this and what they found is that expanded retrieval is the single best method for remembering names, and if combined with other methods such as, semantic associations, it is even better. Again the example you provided of the messy bedroom vs. organized bedroom helped put things into perspective.

4a) The one thing I found uinteresting from this chapter was the Human Associative Memory.

4b) This section was very hard to understand when we discussed it in class, even when Dr. M. tried explaining things it was hard for him, so trying to learn it from text was especially difficult. What I got from the text is basically that this representation of knowledge deals with propositions about the nature of the world and how they are represented in sentences to tie ideas/concepts together.

5) I believe that knowing about adaptive control of thought will be the most important in understanding cognitive psychology in the future because it deals a lot with the different types of memories. Working memory is a type of STM which contains information the system can access currently it is also known as our active memory. Declarative memory is the knowledge we possess about the world (knowing that…). Last productive memory is the knowledge we possess dealing with knowing what/how about the world….

6) This chapter builds off of previous chapters because it goes even more in depth with the way we organize our knowledge but this time verbally. It expands more on semantic memory and provides us with different theories, models, and different types of memories.

7a) Honestly there is nothing from this chapter I am interested in learning more about, but since I have to choose something I will go with semantic organization.

7b) Semantic organization refers to the way concepts are organized and structured in memory. I am interested in learning more about this and hopefully read up on some case studies where people lack this in some type of disorder.

8) All in all I was very uninterested with this chapter, it was all very dry, boring, and hard to understand. I didn’t have many ideas while reading, but I did try to make different connections to example you provided, and I did think about the class discussion we had on HAM.

9) Terms: set-theoretical model, semantic, concepts, LTM, retrieval, semantic feature-comparison model, defining features, characteristic features, linguistic hedges, expanded retrieval, semantic associations,Human Associative Memory, adaptive control of thought, declarative memory, working memory, productive memory.

Reading Activity Chapter 9

1a) Semantic network models were interesting to me.
1b) It is interesting that network models store concepts in our memory as independent units, but yet are interrelated by meaningful connections. For example, our brain stores the concept of “an eagle is a bird” in order for our memory to retrieve information on concepts we are already familiar with. This model really looks at how our brain interprets the meaning of different concepts.

2a) The spreading activation model is also an interesting semantic process.
2b) This model is more complex than the network models. The spreading activation model is a complex network that matches simple associations together in conceptual space. This model is very interesting to me as it has facilitating effects that allow our brain to recover a word or concept from our memory when it is preceded by a related word. For example, blue and sky form together to remind us that the sky is blue. When saying the two words separately in a sentence, it jogs our memory that the sky is blue.

3a) The two types of knowledge are interesting.
3b) When I think of knowledge or someone being smart, I think of “street” smart or “book” smart. “Street” smart is having common sense while “book” smart is being more intelligent when it comes to schooling and studying a textbook. However, there are actual two types of knowledge: declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge. Declarative knowledge is fact-based while procedural knowledge is sampled through performance. It was interesting to learn about the two types of knowledge and to know there is more than just “street” and “book” smart.

4a) The associationist approach to the study of semantic organization was least interesting.
4b) This approach was the least interesting as it only focuses on the functional relationships between concepts. The cognitive approach was much more interesting to read as it focused on mental structures that explain the relationship between our memory and its meaning. I could not as easily connect my everyday life to examples used within the associationist approach as I could with the cognitive approach.

5) Adaptive control of thought (ACT) will be most important in understanding cognitive psychology. ACT looks at many different types of memories and how the different types of memories affect our knowledge. Throughout this course we have focus a lot on memory and how our brain functions, so ACT may come more into play as the semester goes on; drilling deeper into these concepts.

6) This chapter discusses memory and cognitive skills as we have in previous chapters. This chapter goes more into depth in the way we organize our memory and knowledge and looks at it in a verbal manner. The chapter goes more in depth with memory by providing different models and theories of memory.

7a) I would like to learn more about semantic organization of knowledge.
7b) This chapter was very complex compared to past chapters. Therefore, I think it would be good to research a topic that is more high level and broad. By learning more about semantic organization, it will provide me a better understanding of some of the complex models and theories as well as the different types of memory.

8) Overall, the chapter was very complex and difficult to understand. Therefore, I did not think about many concepts outside of what I was reading. With each theory and model I read about, I tried to tie it back to my own life experience as having a visual helps me to understand things better.

9) Semantic network models, spreading activation model, associations, declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, associationist approach, cognitive approach, semantic organization, adaptive control of thought (ACT)

1a&b) I thought the set-theoretical model was interesting. I found it interesting because I hadn’t thought about how our brain categorizes and retrieves information in this way before. It is also interesting how many different places associations for one word can be stored which allows our brains to find different pathways and make different associations. The book uses the word canary as an example. In my brain canary is associated with the bird concept as well as the color concept. In our brains we compare the overlap of attributes and decide if the association is correct. So I would look at a canary and decide that due to its physical appearance it has enough attributes for me to be able to believe it’s a bird.

2a&b) I found the semantic feature-comparison model interesting as well because I have not been introduced to some of the terms involved and it is interesting to see the different methods our brains use to verify associations. This model is similar to the set-theoretical model but they differ as well. The semantic feature-comparison model can either be represented by features that are characteristics or defining features. The defining features are essential and characteristic features are incidental. This model involves three different terms: technically speaking, loosely speaking, and appear to be. These are all linguistic hedges. A technically speaking statement is based on defining but not characteristic features whereas the loosely speaking statement is based on characteristic features but not defining features. A true statement would be based on both features. This concept seems a little confusing to me still but it also has really caused me to stop and think about how we make associations and interpretations.

3a&b) The last section that I found interesting was the small section on how we forget people’s names before we forget their face or their occupation. I am always interested in face recognition and this section seemed to bring our retrieval processes and uses that to help explain why we forget names so easily. Our brains recognize faces before any semantic information is recalled. And the way our brains process we are going to recall their occupation before their name. If there is a breakdown along any of those paths then we are likely to forget the person’s name. Research has found that it is better to practice our retrieval skills than to work on encoding. If we are able to simply find things with more ease in our brains we’ll be better off than trying to tidy information up and categorize it better so that it’s easier to find.

4a&b) I disliked the section about human associative memory (HAM). I disliked it because I didn’t really understand it. I believe I have a good grasp of what a proposition is but this section just doesn’t seem to really play into what we have been learning. I feel like many of the concepts while they do associate in some way to what we’re talking about, they don’t seem to be presented at a level that we can understand. I felt like I walked into an English class that I am not prepared for. I think it this was explained better the concept would probably be pretty simple but the book wasn’t able to help me understand it very well.

5) I think the models were important in helping me understand Cognitive Psychology. Sometimes the models can get overwhelming because there are so many but in this chapter they were each similar in some ways and helped to explain some association techniques that we have.

6) This chapter really expands on the chapters about memory, LTM, and the remembering and forgetting chapters. It gets more in depth about how we retrieve and store information as well. I think it kind of goes out on its own unique branch and this chapter seemed to be more difficult to really understand.

7a&b) I would like to learn more about the differences between working, declarative, and productive memory. I think by gaining this knowledge I will have a better idea of understanding adaptive control of thought (ACT) and possibly HAM.

8) This chapter was more challenging to me so I was really just attempting to comprehend what I was reading. I was also trying to insert my own examples within the model sections to get a better understanding of how they apply to myself.

9) Terminology: set-theoretical model, associations, attributes, semantic feature-comparison model, adaptive control of thought, human associative memory, loosely speaking, technically speaking, appear to be, recognition, retrieval, LTM

1a) What did you find interesting?

I thoroughly enjoyed the sections about neuroscience as it relates to knowledge.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
So far we have learned that all cognitive processes are the results of activities in the brain, and although it is a little depersonalizing, and fairly more confusing, it is incredibly fascinating. I would love to learn how knowledge is stored in the brain. The book talked about the connectionism and the parallel distributed network as it relates to learning being the strengthening of synapses. I have read some about this online before, and it makes some sense but also leaves me with questions. For example, if it has been found that there is a specific neuron for information about Jennifer Aniston, then it should be assumed the brain stores at least some information in singular neurons. If learning is the strengthening of synapses between pre-existing neurons, then how would new information be accommodated into this system? Obviously this is a broad field of research with little conclusive findings, but I will be interested to see the breakthroughs that come out in the upcoming years.
2a) What did you find interesting?

I thought the ACT/ACT-R model was somewhat interesting.
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
I liked the distinction between working, declarative and productive memory more than the working, short-term, long-term distinctions. It made more sense to me that productive memory be it’s own stand alone form of memory, as it requires no recall of knowledge. This made me think of the case of K.C. from the earlier chapter who lost all episodic and semantic memories but retained all of his procedural memories. The focus on declarative memory covering episodic and semantic knowledge also seems to make sense to me. It seemed to me that this was just a good model of memory, although I am not aware of all the research findings in support of the separate models to say which one is more feasible.
3a) What did you find interesting?

I thought the section on organization was kind of interesting.
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
It was said that the amount of information was not the only deciding factor in constituting expertise, and that organization was important as well. They cited a study that involved experts and novices sorting physics problems in terms of surface analysis or analysis of principals. They didn’t state any findings like faster recall of the problems or anything, but it was still interesting to see how those with a different (better) understanding of things organized them differently, and presumably more efficiently.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? 

I thought the beginning of the chapter was fairly dull.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
As I said earlier, I really enjoy the neuroscience aspects of this, so when I have to read about models assessing word structure it just seems so trivial. I felt like the first couple pages were a waste. The universal affirmatives and particular affirmatives seem like they belong in an introductory philosophy book rather than a book on cognitive psychology.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Cognitive Psychology?
I think the last section about connectionist models and parallel processing is probably the most useful. It related to the other models that didn’t attempt to account for neural activity, by focusing on associations. Rather than working through an intricate system of associated nodes however, it talked about how synapses between these similar concepts are strengthened to be accessed more easily, and simultaneously.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter talked about the verbal representation of knowledge, which meant they had to discuss memory as well. Memory has been discussed in detail in chapters 5, 6, and 7. Models were also talked about a lot, which was a central focus in the first chapter. We also built on the knowledge of neuroscience that we learned in the second chapter.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about? 
7b) Why?
I would like to learn more about the connectionist models and how memories are stored in the brain. I am incredibly intrigued with brain stuff, and love to read what I can understand about it. After my further readings on the last chapter (consciousness) I decided that consciousness is most certainly a result of brain activity, as is everything else. This means that instead of looking for answers about life, instead of turning to religious shamans, or searching the globe for meaning, I can try to learn about the brain, as all purpose resides within that lump of neurons.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
For a little bit of the chapter I was just thinking about how much I hated my junior high grammar teacher because she made us do these stupid sentence structure activities that I felt would never be useful to anything. The propositional networks closely resembled these and I thought they were useless again, but I suppose I could have just not grasped the importance.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Connectionism, neuroscience, synapses, PDP, ACT/ACT-R, working memory, declarative memory, productive memory, propositional networks,

1. One thing I found interesting was how useful schemas are. I guess I never really thought about how valuable it is to be able to conceptually organize and represent ideas and objects by how they are related to each other. As Bower and his team said, if you are able to categorize, which humans do very well, then you are more likely to be able to accurately predict your environment, and then you will be more successful in it. I found this really interesting to think about because it was something that I had never really thought about before. We always take for granted things that are extremely useful that we are naturally good at, however if we were unable to easily categorize and recognize objects, especially for prehistoric man this would have been a huge problem. In fact, it is likely that this ability is primarily responsible for keep humans in existence because we’re so small and slow and weak in comparison to the rest of the animal kingdom.
2. I also found the Spreading Activation Model to be really interesting because the book compared it to a neural web. I then related to when we discussed a tip of the tongue state, and how your brain is using different pathways to get to the information that you are seeking. The map or web in the book looks a lot like how I would imagine such a neural web, and when you’re trying to think of a word how you might end up being able to describe all of the related items, but not be able to find the actual word until later. For example if you couldn’t think of red, then perhaps you would think of the names of other colors because red is a color, then you might think of things that are that color like apples, and fire, and fire trucks. So your brain would test all of these pathways until it finally found one that led it straight to red, in this example based on the web in the book it might another color or the word fire because they are most closely associated with the word red.
3. I found connectionism to be interesting, I also feel that it makes more sense that the brain would be set up in this way rather than how serial processing theories describe it. To me it would be more logical that the brain would be a web or excitation and inhibition, rather than a straight line, especially when it comes to concepts and conceptual memory/thoughts. If we only processed ideas in a line, and recalled them in the same straight line I think we would be pretty bad at making associations between items, and as a result be awful at categorizing. However, as Bower found, humans are profoundly good at categorizing, so logically I would assume that it is more of a web as connectionism seems to state.
4. I found most of this chapter very interesting, and I wasn’t bored reading at all. I’ve always found semantic memory/knowledge interesting, and I’ve always enjoyed learning about how we conceptualize.
5. I think the little summary and reiteration of the structure of memory was very helpful because too often do we forget that there are many ways that our brain’s store information, and that there are even different ways of storing that information within those areas.
6. This chapter builds a lot on the memory chapters, and just goes more in depth into the ways that we store our knowledge and how we represent it consciously.
7. Something I would like to learn more about is the Human Associative Memory, that sounded really interesting to me, but I didn’t quite understand how the book was describing it. However, the idea that we understand our world and conceptualize it in a series of propositions is a bit odd, but very interesting to me.
8. One thing that I always think about is why we think in words. Not only do we talk aloud to help ourselves understand concepts, but also, at least I, think “aloud” and read “aloud” in my head. I can hear my own voice “speaking” in my head when I’m thinking about things. I’m doing it right now as I type this post, and I’ve always wondered why that is. I also always wonder if people who are truly deaf and have never heard in their lives think in words, or hand gestures?
9. Schemas, conceptually, Bower, Spreading Activation Model, a neural web, connectionism, serial processing theories, excitation, inhibition, concepts, conceptual memory/thoughts, recalled, semantic memory/knowledge, Human Associative Memory

After reading chapter 10 there were a lot of things that I found interesting. The section on mental rotation was interesting because it was something that I had heard about before, but in the class of developmental psychology. The second thing that I found to be interesting was the section on cognitive maps. Cognitive maps are interesting to me because they are something that I use on a daily basis. The last thing that I found to interesting was the section on Synesthesia. This was an interesting topic because it was brought up in an earlier section in class. Some student had done a topical blog on the topic, and it was interesting to hear about then. The section that I did not find interesting was on the historical perspective. I thought that this was not the most fun section because the information was not to my liking. I think that stuff like cognitive maps that I use on a daily basis tend to be more interesting to learn about. I will also talk about what section I would like to learn more about, how this related to previous chapters, how this chapter helped with my understanding of cognitive psychology, and thoughts that I had while reading the chapter.

I liked the section mental rotation because it was a topic that I had heard about before in a different class. I also liked this section because it was something that I could relate to because I have done a mental rotation task before. The book talks about the degrees of rotation and how it effects the rate of how a person can comprehend the rotation. They did an experiment and found out that there was a correlation between the amount of rotation of the object and the time it takes for a person to notice the change. If I remember right, there are other uses for the mental task rotation experiment. I remember that I did one of these experiments in industrial psychology. I think that it is used in the army as well. Either way this is an important experiment that can be used in a bunch of other fields in psychology, and why this topic was interesting to read about.

The second topic that I found to be interesting was the section on cognitive maps. I thought that this section was interesting as well because it is something that I use everyday as well. Cognitive maps can be used everyday for any aspect of a persons life. An example of a cognitive map that I use if when I go to school. When I was first going to UNI I did not have the best cognitive map of the campus. Now my cognitive map is pretty extensive because I have walked and seen most of the campus. I can use the cognitive map that I have developed to help me when I get a new schedule for an upcoming semester. When I get a new schedule I can map out what path to take to make my time between classes more efficent, so I get to class on time. I think that cognitive maps are fascinating because they can be used for a numerous amounts of things. Like mneumonics, you can use cognitive maps for studying purposes. If a time a term that I am trying to remember I can use a cognitive map to remember a large number of terms as long as I tie the term to the map that is already existing.

The last section that I thought was interesting was on synesthesia. Synesthesia is when we time sensation to another sensation. A person can tie smell to auditory. A student had done a topical blog on the topic a while back and I thought that it was interesting to learn about. Scientist did some experiments and actual found out that some senses are actually closer to each other than we think. An example that the book gives is that a sneeze has a brighter sense than a cough. This section was interesting to read about and I could see myself doing a topical blog on this topic in the future.

The section that I did not reading about was the history perspective. This was a section on the eras of mental imagery. I thought that this section was not very interesting because I found that the other sections had information that I found to be more interesting. The information in the historical perspective section was important in my understanding of psychology, but it is something that I found to be hard to read unlike the other topics in the chapter. I think that if a history aspect of the chapter is to be interesting, it should have an example that goes along with it to make is easier for the reader.

This section was helpful in the understanding of psychology because some of the information was something that I use everyday. Cognitive maps are something that I use everyday so it was easy to understand the information that was talked about in the chapter. Mental rotation was also helpful in the understanding because it is also something that I have heard about before in other classes. When you have heard about a certain topic before reading about it in one of these chapters it makes it easier to comprehend the information, and then apply the information.

Something that I would like to learn more about is cognitive maps. I think that cognitive maps are interesting because they are something that I use everyday, and something that I use everyday. I think that if I did some more research on the topic that it would be beneficial to my understanding of cognitive psychology along with other areas of psychology. I remember hearing about the cognitive maps in other classes, so if I did some more research then I would have extended knowledge in other areas of psychology.

This chapter builds off other previous chapters in a couple of ways. A student had mentioned that he did a topical blog about synesthesia a couple of chapters ago. I believe that this means that the chapters are pretty closely tied together, and this makes it easier for the reader to have a better understanding of cognitive psychology. I believe that we also had a section that dealt with cognitive maps in an earlier chapter, but in a different context. This book has moved away from the brain and memory aspect, and is now leaning towards how the memory is stored in the brain. It has really come full circle.

Some ideas that I had while reading the chapter had to do with cognitive maps. I know that I use them everyday, but could they be used for something else? I know that someone could use a map for studying purposes, but what if we could use them for other memory purposes. It is just an idea, but it would be interesting to see if one could tie cognitive maps to other memory storage purposes.

Terms: Cognitive maps, mental rotation, mental rotation task, synthesia, historical perspective,

1. One thing that I found interesting from this chapter was the connectionism theory of the representation of knowledge. This model theorizes that the mind is made up of a large number of simple units that are connected to one another and distributed throughout the brain. This theory suggests that different areas work in a parallel manner and is based upon the exciting or inhibiting of the various connections. The more that connections are used the stronger those connections become and this is how we are able to store and obtain our knowledge. I found this theory particularly interesting because of how different it is from the other theories covered in this chapter. A big difference in this model is that it describes that the patterns of information and knowledge is not stored, rather the connection strength is stored. This strength of connections is what this theory basis learning and understanding of rules that guide behavior, we do not actually internalize the rules themselves. This model focuses on cognitive neuroscience. This model is used for other cognitive operations other than memory as well.

2. I found the propositional network models for the representation of knowledge to be interesting. These models use propositions, which are the smallest units that carry meaning, as the base of the framework for the theories. These propositions tie together ideas and concepts. The HAM theory and the ACT theory are both examples of propositional theories. The ACT uses working memory, declarative memory, and productive memory as umbrellas that cover all of the types of memory ad processes that occur. In this theory there are three different ways that information is encoded into these different memories. There is a temporal string encodes the sequence of the information or event that takes place. The spatial image encodes the configuration information that is brought it so that we are able to recognize the object. Finally, the abstract proposition encodes the different propositions that connects all of the information together. I found all of the different ways that our brain is theorized to encode information and how we are able to quickly put together all of the different information and types of encoding together to be remarkable.

3. I found the semantic feature-comparison model of the organization of knowledge to be interesting in this chapter. I liked the idea that there are different representations and features that are used to identify information. The idea that we have typical prototypes for each category of stored information and use lenient definitions for certain things that fit into the categories, though they do not fit our prototype for that category was easy to related to information and knowledge use in everyday life. This model breaks down features of a word to encode its meaning. There are defining features that encompass the features that most distinctly define the meaning of the word while the characteristic features are those that do not distinctly allow for the word to be identified. It is important to note that not one feature is responsible for identifying an object.

4. The thing that I found the least interesting in this chapter was the semantic network model section. I thought the original Collins and Quillian based on a computer model was too simplistic to cover the vast amount of information that we take in everyday. This model suggests that we code and recall knowledge through the relationships that the word has with other words. This theory says that our system of semantic memory stores information and elements of entry only once and then connects other incoming information with the same elements rather than re-encoding the same information for that different item. The different sized lines in the spreading activation model representing the different strengths of associations made sense as the longer the lines got, the further off the base word and the end word connected getting to a point where without the middle words a connection would not be made. I personally found the other models and theories to be more interesting because I felt that they were better explanations for how our mind and knowledge recall work.

5. I think that the understanding that our cognitive organization is seen to be an adaptive function that has allowed for humans to be successful is important to understand. Though we do not have a clear and concise answer for how exactly our knowledge is organized and recalled it is easy to see what advantage it gives us. It has become clear throughout this course that we do not have exact answers for many of our questions, but rather a number of theories that have been provided to attempt to answer those questions. It is clear that our recall of knowledge and the outcomes of those processes in which we attempt to understand have allowed for humans to predict events and happenings in our environment and allows for us to plan and prepare the best ways to survive.

6. This chapter gave examples of the different neuroscience technologies that have been developed, such as the PET scan, to test a number of these theories. The connectionism model builds on the neuroscience chapter where it is described how processes occur throughout the brain and neurons are responsible for the connections and communication for all of the parts of each process to make it possible. In an earlier chapter the idea of prototypes was introduced and it was built on in this chapter being used in the semantic feature comparison model. This model shows that we use those prototypes to develop a general idea of a category and if an object does not fit that general idea of the prototype we question its fit. The idea of priming was backed by the spreading activation model, theorizing how the organization of the brain by associations allows for priming to be effective.

7. I would like to learn more about the ACT model. This model has a lot of different aspects to it that were only briefly described in this chapter and I am sure that there is far more to them. I would like to learn about how the different memories play a part in this model and how the three different types of codes interact together to allow for the incoming knowledge to be used later. I want to understand exactly how all of these aspects work together to code verbal representation and the process that it requires to recall that knowledge that is encoded.

8. While reading this chapter I would read each theory and try to think about how each theory would work for the information that I was reading out of the textbook. I liked comparing the different theories and determining which theory that I most supported and bought into. While reading the chapter and many of the others in this book it amazes me how much our brains do so automatically without our awareness that all of these processes are taking place to create the world and the knowledge base that we have of it.

9. Terms Used- connectionism, knowledge, proposition, HAM, ACT, working memory, declarative memory, productive memory, encode, semantic feature-comparison model, prototype, defining feature, characteristic feature, semantic network model, spreading activation model, PET scan, priming

Chapter 9 Blog

The first thing that I found interesting in chapter 9 was the information on propositions. The book defines propositions as “the smallest unit of knowledge that can stand as a separate assertion.” I have never really been big into the subject of English, so I have never heard of this term. An example of a proposition would be saying, “Dogs bark.” I think the reason I find this so interesting is because I had just never realized that it was an actual thing. I have never sat down and thought about what kind or short sentences I could make, or the shortest sentence I could make. I also think that these propositions happen much more in our everyday communication than we realize. It’s not something that I have ever realized. And I also didn’t know that they are used to describe the representation of knowledge.

The second thing that I found interesting about chapter 9 was the information on declarative memory. Declarative memory is the knowledge that we possess about the world. Declarative memory comes in different forms. The first is in proposition, which I talked about earlier. An example of this would be, “Paul loves Mary.” This is something that we can observe from our environment and then proclaim as a proposition. The next way to express declarative memory is in strings. An example of this would be our alphabet. We have knowledge about our alphabet and it’s set up in a string order (ex: A, B, C, etc.). And the third way is through spatial images. An example of this would be saying, “There is a triangle above the circle.” Declarative memory and all of its forms are interesting to me because I think that it’s not something that most people consider. We don’t realize that we store information in so many different ways. I have never realized that there are so many types of memory and so many ways to remember.

There is another type of memory that this chapter talks about and it is called productive memory. Productive memory is the third thing that I found interesting in this chapter. Productive memory is the knowledge that we store and then use in order to do things. Examples of this would be how to ride a bike or how to tie shoes. This is something that we don’t realize we are doing either. I think that all of this stuff is interesting because we don’t realize it’s happening when it is. People have always said, “It’s like riding a bike.” And this expression means that once you learn, it is nearly impossible to forget how to do it. In order to learn how to ride a bike and tie shoes, a person will have to practice a lot. But once the skill is learned, these are skills that the person won’t even have to think about. That is just so fascinating to me! There are so many things that we do throughout the day, that we don’t even need to concentrate or think about, and we can still do them.

There were actually several things from chapter 9 that I found uninteresting. This chapter was very hard to me to read though, and there were several things that I had to re-read several times. The very beginning of the chapter talks about a lot of different models on how to best organize knowledge. There is the set-theoretical model, the feature-comparison model, the network models, and the spreading activation model. All of these models are part of the semantic organization of knowledge. All of these were so uninteresting to me. It was too much information in a short amount of pages. I felt that they were all very hard to understand. This chapter was awfully hard for me to get through. I was very unable to wrap my mind around the information.

I think the only information from this chapter that I will take with me and that will be helpful is the information on memory. The three things that I found interesting will help me go on in this course. I can understand why the information on memory would be in this book about cognitive psychology, but the other stuff I just really don’t understand. I’m hoping that once we have class, some of this information will be better explained.

Like I said earlier in my blog, I think that the only information that relates to the other chapters in this book is the information on memory. There are three types of memory that this chapter talks about. The three types of memory are working memory, declarative memory, and productive memory. I wrote about declarative memory and productive memory earlier because I thought that they were both pretty interesting. And I can see why types of memory relate to the other chapters because there are two chapters specifically about memory. There is one chapter on short term memory and there is another chapter on long term memory. Memory is obviously a huge part of cognitive psychology. They both deal greatly with a person’s thoughts and a person’s mind.

I really don’t know what I would like to learn more about from this chapter. I think it would have to be between declarative memory or productive memory. I found both of those topics interesting. I think that I could look into one of them more. I would probably like to look into the topic of productive memory. I want to know the extent of the concept. How many things do we usually store into productive memory?

While reading this chapter I was thinking that it was so different than any other chapter. No one really likes reading for school. I don’t like it anyway. And it is a struggle for me to read through chapters as assignments, but usually I understand the material and I find parts that are interesting to me. This chapter was so different than any other chapter I have read in this class thus far. I could not wrap my mind around most of the information. And even after I re-read it, I still didn’t find much of it interesting.

Terms: Proposition, Declarative Memory, Productive Memory, Set-Theoretical Model, Semantic Feature-Comparison Model, Semantic Network Models, Spreading Activation Model, Working Memory

1) I found the section on set-theoretical models to be interesting because it focuses on how we look at the features of something and we use those to almost explain what that thing is suppose to do. Also the two types of logical relationships made me think a little bit because it was very confusing but as I read it again I then understood better what it was trying to explain. The two types of logical relationships tries to explain how our brains work on categorizing things by either “All A are B” or “Some A are B”.

2) I thought that the semantic feature-comparison model was quite interesting mainly because I have heard of this term in previous classes and it just always interests me. I always think it is interesting that our brain will just take almost the basic form of what we see then places it into a category. The semantic feature-comparison model looks at more of the most common characteristics or the features that stand out the most. There are three basic levels that are associated with sematic feature-comparison which are technically speaking, loosely speaking, and appear to be. These are all linguistic hedges. technically speaking tries to explain what something is. Loosely speaking does not focus on explaining what something is but what are the basic characteristics that make it what it is. Finally a true statement focuses on both the characteristics and defining features. I like the example of the “bat being a bird” since that example has been brought up in a previous class of mine.

3) I thought the adaptive control of thought was quite interesting. ACT has three subcategories within it which are working memory, declarative memory, and productive memory. ACT has many characteristics with previous chapters on memory, but ACT tries explaining that we acquire memories to complete tasks like our memory to tie our shoes.

4) In general I actually did not find much of this chapter to be interesting like previous chapters but I would have to say that the least interesting topic was the connectionism and the representation of knowledge section. I found this least interesting because I really don't know maybe because it didn't have any interesting topics or statements but I just didn't like it.

5) What I believe was best for understanding this section of cognitive psychology was the models because the other sections I really didn't like them or just didn't understand them.

6) This chapter builds on previous because it focuses on memory and how we process our environment.

7) I thought adaptive control of thought would be most interesting to learn about since it relates to previous chapters of memory.

8) I did not think about very much while reading this chapter other then how I have previously heard of them or how they were kinda boring. This might be a little funny but when I came to the section on human associative memory the title made me think the the food ham.

Terms: Set-theoretical models, semantic feature-comparison model, defining features, characteristic features, working memory, declarative memory, and productive memory

1a) What did you find interesting?
Semantic organization of knowledge.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
The first concept I found interesting was in the definition of the word knowledge at the start of the chapter. The book states that when we mean knowledge we actually are talking about storage, integration and organization of information into our memory. In this line of thinking our knowledge is essentially our memory but the way we organize those memories allows us to access knowledge more quickly. The ability to construct and organize objects in our environment allows us to better understand and predict what will or is happening in our environment. In set-theoretical models of memory, semantic concepts or abstract ideas of information, are usually represented by groups of data. The models help us narrow down any stimuli we might encounter into a much smaller and finer group that allows us to distinguish and interpret it.
2a) What did you find interesting?
Productive memory.
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
This interested me when I read the difference between procedural and productive memory, the two are similar but the difference between lies in knowing what and knowing how. When Anderson introduced ACT he provided three codes that represent knowledge, temporal string, spatial image and an abstract proposition. The temporal string records events like a movie, spatial image can tell us the type of information being displayed and the abstract proposition allows us to make sense of what is happening.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Connectionism.
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
This section interested me because it reminded me of how close we are to figuring out artificial intelligence. Which will ultimately lead to the end of human-beings as we know it. Connectionism tell me that one day humans will either become machine/human hybrids or will be completely replaced by machines. It basically states that the mind is made up of a large set of simple units connected in a parallel distributed network and scientists/psychologists are working to map those networks to build an artificial mind.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
Semantic priming.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
This was only the least interesting because I felt like we had covered it at least twice during the course of this class. I have also learned about priming in other psychology classes, this was mostly review and I skimmed over it.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Cognitive Psychology?
While a lot of this chapter was difficult to comprehend I felt like after reading through some of the sections a few extra times I was able to find a good enough grasp on the concepts of semantic knowledge and how we are able to effectively communicate on a daily basis.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
As I said earlier one of the topics that was covered in this chapter as well as previous chapters was cognitive priming. Many areas or fields of psychology cross over to one another, this chapter includes how we access our knowledge and convey it to the world. Knowledge is nothing more than memory, which is what we have been discussing for more than a few weeks.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
Connectionism.
7b) Why?
After reading the section I was curious to know more about the developments being made in this field today, especially because we are so close to launching AI.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
What I thought about the most while reading this chapter was how sensitive our knowledge is, as I said above knowledge is nothing more than our ability to access our stored memory. As we have already learned there are many ways to forget and even more ways to damage or lose memories. Some individuals are gifted with incredible intelligence and it is usually these people who we determine are genius level but perhaps they also have an exceptional memory that gives them an edge.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
-knowledge, semantic organization of knowledge, set-theoretical model, concepts, semantic priming, ACT, productive memory, connectionism

1a) What did you find interesting?

-Spreading activation model. I think this is an interesting topic because we do this daily. Like they showed in the book one line of thought leads to another. A fire truck can lead to red, which can go to a number of other ways. I think it is interesting how we think of one thing and it can lead to getting new concepts. Fire truck would get us to red and red to apple.

2a) What did you find interesting?
-”I never forget a face, it’s names I can’t remember.” I think this is interesting to me because it happens all the time. I have friends who moved away for college. I go to visit them and they introduce me to all of their friends. After I leave I forget their names all together and when I go back to visit I know the faces of them but I can never put a name to it. I didn’t know that there was different ways of retrieving things. I thought it was interesting that you can learn something different way that will make it easier to retrieve. I also liked how they described the room and how you retrieve things because it’s an easier way to make sense of how we try to recall things.

3a) What did you find interesting?

-Semantic Network Models. I thought this was an interesting topic because of how it worked. This model works by taking one word defining it and looking at its relationship with other words. The took a canary made categories then each of those categories brought more items and definitions. You can get information on one type of animal by following that and seeing where it started. Like the shark being able to move and helps us validate it.

4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? 

-I wasn’t too interested in Human Associative Memory (HAM). From what I got out of it is that it is a proposition that ties together ideas and concepts. I didn’t really like ready about it because I didn’t understand it as much as the other items. If I looked into it more it would could be something of interest because I would know a little more background on the topic.

5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Cognitive Psychology?
-I think all the models and how they work would be most beneficial to understanding cognitive psychology. This chapter helped in learning retrieval and connecting thoughts. I think all the models gave a good idea of how things relate to each other and how our thinking about these topics comes into play.

6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
-As with the other chapters they are all building onto each other. It is just going deeper into different topics that are vital to learning how cognitive thinking works and what is involved.

7a) What topic would you like to learn more about? 

- I wanted to learn more about aphasia. I didn’t get a lot of information about it in the book. This was an interesting topic because of how it affects speech, reading, and writing. I have never seen this first hand so I wanted to read more about how people deal with it. I wanted to learn more about how it works and what causes it.

8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
-Im starting to realize more and more that there is so much more to learn about cognitive psychology and we are only learning to a little bit about it.

9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.

-Spreading activation model, Semantic Network Models, Human Associative Memory (HAM), aphasia.