Cognition daniel reisberg 7th edition

Psychology Research Paper

Cognition seventh edition

7eCognition exploring the science of the mind

Daniel Reisberg reed college

n W. W. Norton & Company

New York • London

W. W. Norton & Company has been independent since its founding in 1923, when William Warder Norton and Mary D. Herter Norton first published lectures delivered at the People’s Institute, the adult education division of New York City’s Cooper Union. The firm soon expanded its pro- gram beyond the Institute, publishing books by celebrated academics from America and abroad. By midcentury, the two major pillars of Norton’s publishing program—trade books and college texts—were firmly established. In the 1950s, the Norton family transferred control of the com- pany to its employees, and today—with a staff of four hundred and a comparable number of trade, college, and professional titles published each year—W. W. Norton & Company stands as the largest and oldest publishing house owned wholly by its employees.

Copyright © 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2006, 2001, 1997 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America

Editor: Ken Barton Project Editor: David Bradley Assistant Editor: Eve Sanoussi Editorial Assistant: Katie Pak Manuscript Editor: Alice Vigliani Managing Editor, College: Marian Johnson Managing Editor, College Digital Media: Kim Yi Production Managers: Ashley Horna and Jane Searle Media Editors: Scott Sugarman and Kaitlin Coats Associate Media Editor: Victoria Reuter Assistant Media Editors: Alex Trivilino and Allison Nicole Smith Marketing Manager: Ashley Sherwood Design Director: Rubina Yeh Art Director: Jillian Burr Designer: Lisa Buckley Photo Editor: Ted Szczepanski Photo Researcher: Lynn Gadson Permissions Manager: Megan Schindel Composition/Illustrations: GraphicWorld Manufacturing: LCS Communications—Kendallville

Permission to use copyrighted material is included in the credits section of this book, which begins on page C1.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Reisberg, Daniel. Title: Cognition : exploring the science of the mind / Daniel Reisberg, Reed  College. Description: Seventh Edition. | New York : W. W. Norton & Company, [2018] |  Revised edition of the author’s Cognition, [2016]o | Includes  bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018022174 | ISBN 9780393665017 (hardcover) Subjects: LCSH: Cognitive psychology. Classification: LCC BF201 .R45 2018 | DDC 153—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc. gov/2018022174

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110 wwnorton.com W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., 15 Carlisle Street, London W1D 3BS

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

https://lccn.locgov/2018022174
https://lccn.locgov/2018022174
http://www.wwnorton.com
With love — always —

for the family that enriches every

aspect of my life.

 vii

Brief Contents

CONTENTS ix PREFACE xiii

PART 1 THE FOUNDATIONS OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 1 1 The Science of the Mind 2 2 The Neural Basis for Cognition 24

PART 2 LEARNING ABOUT THE WORLD AROUND US 61 3 Visual Perception 62 4 Recognizing Objects 106 5 Paying Attention 148

PART 3 MEMORY 193 6 The Acquisition of Memories and the Working-Memory System 194 7 Interconnections between Acquisition and Retrieval 238 8 Remembering Complex Events 278

PART 4 KNOWLEDGE 323 9 Concepts and Generic Knowledge 324 10 Language 364 11 Visual Knowledge 410

PART 5 THINKING 453 12 Judgment and Reasoning 454 13 Problem Solving and Intelligence 498 14 Conscious Thought, Unconscious Thought 546

Appendix: Research Methods A-1 Glossary G-1 References R-1 Credits C-1 Author Index I-1 Subject Index I-13

PREFACE xiii

PART 1 THE FOUNDATIONS OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 1

1 The Science of the Mind 2 The Scope of Cognitive Psychology 3 • The Cognitive Revolution 8 • Research in Cognitive Psychology: The Diversity of Methods 17 • Applying Cognitive Psychology 19 • Chapter Review 21

2 The Neural Basis for Cognition 24 Explaining Capgras Syndrome 26 • The Study of the Brain 31 • Sources of Evidence about the Brain 37 • The Cerebral Cortex 44 • Brain Cells 49 • Moving On 55 • Cognitive Psychology and Education: Food Supplements and Cognition 55 • Chapter Review 58

PART 2 LEARNING ABOUT THE WORLD AROUND US 61

3 Visual Perception 62 The Visual System 64 • Visual Coding 70 • Form Perception 80 • Constancy 87 • The Perception of Depth 92 • Cognitive Psychology and Education: An “Educated Eye” 99 • Chapter Review 103

4 Recognizing Objects 106 Recognition: Some Early Considerations 110 • Word Recognition 112 • Feature Nets and Word Recognition 116 • Descendants of the Feature Net 127 • Face Recognition 133 • Top-Down Influences on Object Recognition 140 • Cognitive Psychology and Education: Speed-Reading 142 • Chapter Review 145

Contents

ix

x • Contents

5 Paying Attention 148 Selective Attention 150 • Selection via Priming 158 • Spatial Attention 164 • Divided Attention 177 • Practice 183 • Cognitive Psychology and Education: ADHD 188 • Chapter Review 190

PART 3 MEMORY 193

6 The Acquisition of Memories and the Working-Memory System 194 Acquisition, Storage, and Retrieval 197 • The Route into Memory 198 • A Closer Look at Working Memory 205 • Entering Long-Term Storage: The Need for Engagement 214 • The Role of Meaning and Memory Connections 221 • Organizing and Memorizing 224 • The Study of Memory Acquisition 230 • Cognitive Psychology and Education: How Should I Study? 232 • Chapter Review 235

7 Interconnections between Acquisition and Retrieval 238 Learning as Preparation for Retrieval 241 • Encoding Specificity 244 • The Memory Network 246 • Different Forms of Memory Testing 250 • Implicit Memory 254 • Theoretical Treatments of Implicit Memory 261 • Amnesia 267 • Cognitive Psychology and Education: Familiarity Can Be Treacherous 273 • Chapter Review 275

8 Remembering Complex Events 278 Memory Errors, Memory Gaps 280 • Memory Errors: A Hypothesis 282 • The Cost of Memory Errors 288 • Avoiding Memory Errors 296 • Forgetting 297 • Memory: An Overall Assessment 302 • Autobiographical Memory 304 • How General Are the Principles of Memory? 315 • Cognitive Psychology and Education: Remembering for the Long Term 317 • Chapter Review 320

PART 4 KNOWLEDGE 323

9 Concepts and Generic Knowledge 324 Understanding Concepts 326 • Prototypes and Typicality Effects 329 • Exemplars 334 • The Difficulties with Categorizing via Resemblance 337 • Concepts as Theories 343 • The Knowledge Network 350 • Concepts: Putting the Pieces Together 358 • Cognitive Psychology and Education: Learning New Concepts 358 • Chapter Review 361

10 Language 364 The Organization of Language 366 • Phonology 368 • Morphemes and Words 377 • Syntax 378 • Sentence Parsing 382 • Prosody 390 • Pragmatics 391 • The Biological Roots of Language 392 • Language and Thought 399 • Cognitive Psychology and Education: Writing 404 • Chapter Review 407

Contents • xi

11 Visual Knowledge 410 Visual Imagery 412 • Chronometric Studies of Imagery 415 • Imagery and Perception 422 • Visual Imagery and the Brain 424 • Individual Differences in Imagery 430 • Images Are Not Pictures 435 • Long-Term Visual Memory 439 • The Diversity of Knowledge 447 • Cognitive Psychology and Education: Using Imagery 448 • Chapter Review 450

PART 5 THINKING 453

12 Judgment and Reasoning 454 Judgment 456 • Detecting Covariation 463 • Dual-Process Models 466 • Confirmation and Disconfirmation 471 • Logic 476 • Decision Making 480 • Cognitive Psychology and Education: Making People Smarter 491 • Chapter Review 494

13 Problem Solving and Intelligence 498 General Problem-Solving Methods 500 • Drawing on Experience 504 • Defining the Problem 509 • Creativity 514 • Intelligence 522 • Intelligence beyond the IQ Test 530 • The Roots of Intelligence 533 • Cognitive Psychology and Education: The Goals of “Education” 539 • Chapter Review 542

14 Conscious Thought, Unconscious Thought 546 The Study of Consciousness 548 • The Cognitive Unconscious 549 • Disruptions of Consciousness 557 • Consciousness and Executive Control 560 • The Cognitive Neuroscience of Consciousness 566 • The Role of Phenomenal Experience 572 • Consciousness: What Is Left Unsaid 579 • Cognitive Psychology and Education: Mindfulness 580 • Chapter Review 583

Appendix: Research Methods A-1

Glossary G-1

References R-1

Credits C-1

Author Index I-1

Subject Index I-13

Preface

I was a college sophomore when I took my first course in cognitive psy-chology. I was excited about the material then, and, many years later, the excitement hasn’t faded. Part of the reason lies in the fact that cognitive psychologists are pursuing fabulous questions, questions that have intrigued humanity for thousands of years: Why do we think the things we think? Why do we believe the things we believe? What is “knowledge,” and how secure (how complete, how accurate) is our knowledge of the world around us?

Other questions asked by cognitive psychologists concern more immediate, personal, issues: How can I help myself to remember more of the material that I’m studying in my classes? Is there some better way to solve the problems I encounter? Why is it that my roommate can study with music on, but I can’t?

And sometimes the questions have important consequences for our social or political institutions: If an eyewitness reports what he saw at a crime, should we trust him? If a newspaper raises questions about a candidate’s integrity, how will voters react?

Of course, we want more than interesting questions—we also want answers to these questions, and this is another reason I find cognitive psychology so excit- ing. In the last half-century or so, the field has made extraordinary progress on many fronts, providing us with a rich understanding of the nature of memory, the processes of thought, and the content of knowledge. There are many things still to be discovered—that’s part of the fun. Even so, we already have a lot to say about all of the questions just posed and many more as well. We can speak to the specific questions and to the general, to the theoretical issues and to the practical. Our research has uncovered principles useful for improving the process of educa- tion, and we have made discoveries of considerable importance for the criminal justice system. What I’ve learned as a cognitive psychologist has changed how I think about my own memory; it’s changed how I make decisions; it’s changed how I draw conclusions when I’m thinking about events in my life.

On top of all this, I’m also excited about the connections that cognitive psychology makes possible. In the academic world, intellectual disciplines are often isolated from one another, sometimes working on closely related problems

xiii

xiv • Preface

without even realizing it. In the last decades, though, cognitive psychology has forged rich connections with its neighboring disciplines, and in this book we’ll touch on topics in philosophy, neuroscience, law and criminal justice, econom- ics, linguistics, politics, computer science, and medicine. These connections bring obvious benefits, since insights and information can be traded back and forth between the domains. But these connections also highlight the importance of the material we’ll be examining, since the connections make it clear that the issues before us are of interest to a wide range of scholars. This provides a strong signal that we’re working on questions of considerable power and scope.

I’ve tried in this text to convey all this excitement. I’ve done my best to describe the questions being asked within my field, the substantial answers we can provide for these questions, and, finally, some indications of how cognitive psychology is (and has to be) interwoven with other intellectual endeavors.

I’ve also had other goals in writing this text. In my own teaching, I try to maintain a balance among many different elements: the nuts and bolts of how our science proceeds, the data provided by the science, the practical implications of our research findings, and the theoretical framework that holds all of these pieces together. I’ve tried to find the same balance in this text. Perhaps most important, though, I try, both in my teaching and throughout this book, to “tell a good story,” one that conveys how the various pieces of our field fit together into a coherent package. Of course, I want the evidence for our claims to be in view, so that readers can see how our field tests its hypotheses and why our claims must be taken seriously. But I’ve also put a strong emphasis on the flow of ideas—how new theories lead to new experiments, and how those experiments can lead to new theory.

The notion of “telling a good story” also emerges in another way: I’ve always been impressed by the ways in which the different parts of cognitive psychology are interlocked. Our claims about attention, for example, have immediate impli- cations for how we can theorize about memory; our theories of object recognition are linked to our proposals for how knowledge is stored in the mind. Linkages like these are intellectually satisfying, because they ensure that the pieces of the puzzle really do fit together. But, in addition, these linkages make the material within cognitive psychology easier to learn, and easier to remember. Indeed, if I were to emphasize one crucial fact about memory, it would be that memory is best when the memorizer perceives the organization and interconnections within the material being learned. (We’ll discuss this point further in Chapter 6.) With an eye on this point, I’ve therefore made sure to highlight the interconnections among various topics, so that readers can appreciate the beauty of our field and can also be helped in their learning by the orderly nature of our theorizing.

I’ve tried to help readers in other ways, too. First, I’ve tried throughout the book to make the prose approachable. I want my audience to gain a sophis- ticated understanding of the material in this text, but I don’t want readers to struggle with the ideas.

Second, I’ve taken various steps that I hope will foster an “alliance” with readers. My strategy here grows out of the fact that, like most teachers, I value the questions I receive from students and the discussions I have with them. In

Preface • xv

the classroom, this allows a two-way flow of information that unmistakably improves the educational process. Of course, a two-way flow isn’t possible in a textbook, but I’ve offered what I hope is a good approximation: Often, the questions I hear from students, and the discussions I have with them, focus on the relevance of the course material to students’ own lives, or relevance to the world outside of academics. I’ve tried to capture that dynamic, and to present my answers to these student questions, in the essay at the end of each chapter (I’ll say more about these essays in a moment). These essays appear under the banner Cognitive Psychology and Education, and—as the label suggests— the essays will help readers understand how the materials covered in that chapter matter for (and might change!) the readers’ own learning. In addition, I’ve writ- ten a separate series of essays (available online), titled Cognitive Psychology and the Law, to explore how each chapter’s materials matter in another arena—the enormously important domain of the justice system. I hope that both types of essays—Education and Law—help readers see that all of this material is indeed relevant to their lives, and perhaps as exciting for them as it is for me.

Have I met all of these goals? You, the readers, will need to be the judges of this. I would love to hear from you about what I’ve done well in the book and what I could have done better; what I’ve covered (but should have omitted) and what I’ve left out. I’ll do my best to respond to every comment. You can reach me via email (reisberg@reed.edu); I’ve been delighted to get comments from readers about previous editions, and I hope for more emails with this edition.

An Outline of the Seventh Edition The book’s 14 chapters are designed to cover the major topics within cogni- tive psychology. The chapters in Part 1 lay the foundation. Chapter 1 pro- vides the conceptual and historical background for the subsequent chapters. In addition, this chapter seeks to convey the extraordinary scope of the field and why, therefore, research on cognition is so important. The chapter also highlights the relationship between theory and evidence in cognitive psychol- ogy, and it discusses the logic on which this field is built.

Chapter 2 then offers a brief introduction to the study of the brain. Most of cognitive psychology is concerned with the functions that our brains make pos- sible, and not the brain itself. Nonetheless, our understanding of cognition has certainly been enhanced by the study of the brain, and throughout this book we’ll use biological evidence as one means of evaluating our theories. Chapter 2 is designed to make this evidence fully accessible to the reader—by providing a quick survey of the research tools used in studying the brain, an overview of the brain’s anatomy, and also an example of how we can use brain evidence as a source of insight into cognitive phenomena.

Part 2 of the book considers the broad issue of how we gain information from the world. Chapter 3 covers visual perception. At the outset, this chapter links to the previous (neuroscience) chapter with descriptions of the eyeball and the basic mechanisms of early visual processing. In this context, the chapter introduces the crucial concept of parallel processing and the prospect of mutual influence

mailto:reisberg@reed.edu
among separate neural mechanisms. From this base, the chapter builds toward a discussion of the perceiver’s activity in shaping and organizing the visual world, and explores this point by discussing the rich topics of perceptual constancy and perceptual illusions.

Chapter 4 discusses how we recognize the objects that surround us. This seems a straightforward matter—what could be easier than recognizing a tele- phone, or a coffee cup, or the letter Q? As we’ll see, however, recognition is surprisingly complex, and discussion of this complexity allows me to amplify key themes introduced in earlier chapters: how active people are in organizing and interpreting the information they receive from the world; the degree to which people supplement the information by relying on prior experience; and the ways in which this knowledge can be built into a network.

Chapter 5 then considers what it means to “pay attention.” The first half of the chapter is concerned largely with selective attention—cases in which you seek to focus on a target while ignoring distractors. The second half of the chapter is concerned with divided attention (“multi-tasking”)—that is, cases in which you seek to focus on more than one target, or more than one task, at the same time. Here, too, we’ll see that seemingly simple processes turn out to be more compli- cated than one might suppose.

Part 3 turns to the broad topic of memory. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 start with a discussion of how information is “entered’’ into long-term storage, but then turn to the complex interdependence between how information is first learned and how that same information is subsequently retrieved. A recurrent theme in this section is that learning that’s effective for one sort of task, one sort of use, may be quite ineffective for other uses. This theme is examined in several contexts, and leads to a discussion of research on unconscious memories—so-called mem- ory without awareness. These chapters also offer a broad assessment of human memory: How accurate are our memories? How complete? How long-lasting? These issues are pursued both with regard to theoretical treatments of memory and also with regard to the practical consequences of memory research, including the application of this research to the assessment, in the courtroom, of eyewitness testimony.

The book’s Part 4 is about knowledge. Earlier chapters show over and over that humans are, in many ways, guided in their thinking and experiences by what they already know—that is, the broad pattern of knowledge they bring to each new experience. This invites the questions posed by Chapters 9, 10, and 11: What is knowledge? How is it represented in the mind? Chapter 9 tackles the question of how “concepts,” the building blocks of our knowledge, are represented in the mind. Chapters 10 and 11 focus on two special types of knowledge. Chapter 10 examines our knowledge about language; Chapter 11 considers visual knowl- edge and examines what is known about mental imagery.

The chapters in Part 5 are concerned with the topic of thinking. Chapter 12 examines how each of us draws conclusions from evidence—including cases in which we are trying to be careful and deliberate in our judgments, and also cases of informal judgments of the sort we often make in our everyday lives. The chapter then turns to the question of how we reason from our beliefs—how we

xvi • Preface

check on whether our beliefs are correct, and how we draw conclusions, based on things we already believe. The chapter also considers the practical issue of how errors in thinking can be diminished through education.

Chapter 13 is also about thinking, but with a different perspective: This chapter considers some of the ways people differ from one another in their abil- ity to solve problems, in their creativity, and in their intelligence. The chapter also addresses the often heated, often misunderstood debate about how different groups—especially American Whites and African Americans—might (or might not) differ in their intellectual capacities.

The final chapter in the book does double service. First, it pulls together many of the strands of contemporary research relevant to the topic of consciousness—what consciousness is, and what consciousness is for. In addi- tion, most readers will reach this chapter at the end of a full semester’s work, a point at which they are well served by a review of the topics already covered and ill served by the introduction of much new material. Therefore, this chapter draws many of its themes and evidence from previous chapters, and in that fashion it serves as a review of points that appear earlier in the book. Chapter 14 also highlights the fact that we’re using these materials to approach some of the greatest questions ever asked about the mind, and, in that way, this chapter should help to convey some of the power of the material we’ve been discussing throughout the book.

New in the Seventh Edition What’s new in this edition? Every chapter contains new material, in most cases because readers specifically requested the new content! Chapter 1, for example, now includes discussion of how the field of cognitive psychology emerged in the 1950s and 1960s. Chapter 4 includes coverage of recent work on how people differ from one another in their level of face-recognition skill. Chapter 5 discusses what it is that people pay attention to, with a quick summary of research on how men and women differ in what they focus on, and how different cultures seem to differ in what they focus on. Chapter 8 discusses a somewhat controversial and certainly dramatic study showing that college students can be led to a false memory of a time they committed a felony (an armed assault) while in high school; this chapter also now includes coverage of the social nature of remembering. Chapter 10 now discusses the topics of prosody and pragmatics. Chapter 12 discusses the important dif- ference between “opt-in” and “opt-out” procedures for social policy, and Chapter 14 now includes discussion of (both the myths and the reality of) subliminal perception.

In this edition, I’ve also added three entirely new features. First, my students are always curious to learn how cognitive psychology research can be applied to issues and concerns that arise in everyday life. I’ve therefore added a Cognition Outside the Lab essay to every chapter. For example, in Chapter 4, in discuss- ing how word recognition proceeds, I’ve tackled the question of how the choice of font can influence readers (sometimes in good ways and sometimes not). In

Preface • xvii

Chapter 7, I’ve written about cryptoplagiarism, a pattern in which you can steal another person’s ideas without realizing it!

Second, I have always believed that, as someone teaching cognitive psychol- ogy, I need to respect the practical lessons of my field. As one example, research suggests that students’ understanding and memory are improved if they pause and reflect on materials they’ve just heard in a lecture or just read in a book. “What did I just hear? What were the main points? Which bits were new, and which bits had I thought about before?” Guided by that research, I’ve added Test Yourself questions throughout the book. These questions are then echoed at the end of the chapter, with the aim of encouraging readers to do another round of reflection. All these questions are designed to be easy and straightforward—but should, our research tells us, be genuinely helpful for readers.

Third, the topics covered in this book have many implications, and I hope readers will find it both fun and useful to think about some of these implications. On this basis, every chapter also ends with a couple of Think About It questions, inviting readers to extend the chapter’s lessons into new territory. For example, at the end of Chapter 3, I invite readers to think about how research on attention might help us understand what happens in the focused exercise of meditation (including Buddhist meditation). The question at the end of Chapter 7 invites readers to think through how we might explain the eerie sensation of déjà vu. A question at the end of Chapter 8 explores how your memory is worse than a video recorder, and also how it’s better than a video recorder.

Other Special Features In addition, I have (of course) held on to features that were newly added in the previous edition—including an art program that showcases the many points of contact between cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience, and the “What if . . .” section that launches each chapter. The “What if . . .” material serves several aims. First, the mental capacities described in each chapter (the ability to recognize objects, the ability to pay attention, and so on) are crucial for our day-to-day functioning, and to help readers under- stand this point, most of the “What if . . .” sections explore what someone’s life is like if they lack the relevant capacity. Second, the “What if . . .” sections are rooted in concrete, human stories; they talk about specific individuals who lack these capacities. I hope these stories will be inviting and thought- provoking for readers, motivating them to engage the material in a richer way. And, third, most of the “What if . . .” sections involve people who have lost the relevant capacity through some sort of brain damage. These sections therefore provide another avenue through which to highlight the linkage between cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience.

This edition also includes explicit coverage of Research Methods. As in the previous edition, this material is covered in an appendix, so that it’s easily acces- sible to all readers, but set to the side to accommodate readers (or instructors) who prefer to focus on the book’s substantive content. The appendix is divided into separate essays for each chapter, so that the appendix can be used on a

xviii • Preface

chapter-by-chapter basis. This organization will help readers see, for each chapter, how the research described in the chapter unfolds, and it will simultane- ously provide a context for each methods essay so that readers can see why the methods are so important.

The appendix is surely no substitute for a research methods course, but none- theless it’s sequenced in a manner that builds toward a broad understanding of how the scientific method plays out in our field. An early essay, for example, works through the question of what a “testable hypothesis” is, and why this is so important; another essay works through the power of random assignment; another discusses how we deal with confounds. In all cases, my hope is that the appendix will guide readers toward a sophisticated understanding of why our research is as it is, and why, therefore, our research is so persuasive.

I have already mentioned the end-of-chapter essays on Cognitive Psychology and Education, which show students how cognitive psychology is connected to their own learning. Readers often seek “take-home messages” from the material that will, in a direct way, benefit them. We are, after all, talking about memory, and students obviously are engaged in an endeavor of putting lots of new information— information they’re learning in their courses—into their memories. We’re talking about attention, and students often struggle with the chore of keeping themselves “on task” and “on target.” In light of these points, the end-of-chapter essays build a bridge between the content in the chapter and the concerns that fill students’ lives. This will, I hope, make the material more useful for students, and also make it clear just how important an enterprise cognitive psychology is.