ZeePedia

Memory:Chunking, Individual differences in chunking

<< Memory:Activation in a network, Magic number 7, Chunking
MEMORY:THE NATURE OF FORGETTING, Release from PI, Central Executive >>
img
Cognitive Psychology ­ PSY 504
VU
Lesson 26
Memory
Chunking
Chunking is a way to increase capacity. Capacity of STM varies with meaningfulness of the
material. A chunk is a memory unit. STM capacity is not limited by a physically defined unit but by
a meaningfulness unit. Through chunking we can learn 21 digits at a time. Words limit is seven.
But the capacity of sentence is much lower than letters and words.
In nursery classes chunking is used to learn the lesson to children. Like, 1, 2 buckle my show, 3,
4 shut the door. This (shut the door) became one unit or chunk. And 5, 6 pick up sticks.
Individual differences in chunking
Example of Chess Players:
Chess is a queen of games. Because it needs high level of thinking.
De Groot wrote a book on chess in 1965. The name of book was Thought and Choice in Chess.
He combined his all researches on chess in this book.
Chess Masters differ because of different perception and Memory rather than thinking. Grand
master automatically plays games. But a new or inexperienced person takes long time to play.
We all have same working memory limits. But the orientation is different. There are 16 black
pieces and 16 white pieces on chess board. At a time we are able to use only 7 pieces. If we
make a chunk of meaningful pieces. Then we are able to use more. For example we make a
chunk of 3 pieces. Then we can use 21 pieces (7 chunks) then we easily remember our 16
pieces.
In experiment, People were asked to look at picture of chess board. And subjects were told that
20 moves had done into the game. They were asked to view the board- removed pieces for 5
seconds. Subjects put pieces back. Experimenter removed incorrect pieces-try again. Subjects
were given 12 trials. The picture of chess board is given below.
Results & Implications
Results of experiment were that grandmasters performed 90% accurately on first trial. And
novices played 40% accurately on first trial. The difference decreases over 12 trials. No
differences between them on guessing. The grandmasters performed best because they chunk
pieces together into patterns. So they can remember it better. And may be the other reason of
77
img
Cognitive Psychology ­ PSY 504
VU
their performance is that they were told that the 20 moves had done. And what is the pattern?
Grandmasters are expert they can guess what the board situation is after 20 moves.
Memory Aided Pattern Perceiver (MAPP)
MAPP is a computer chess program. Simon & Gilmartin (1973) extended the De Groot's work.
And they made a computer chess program for computers. They made 572 chunks with different
pattern from 2 to 7 pieces each. Program was more effective than a class-A player but not as
good as a master player. There is a high correlation between pieces remembered by MAPP &
Master Players. Those people make chunks and store different patterns they can perform best.
Chunking for chess is over time chunking. It is changed within time or moves.
Individual differences
Master Players have between 10,000 and 100,000 chunks stored in Long Term Memory.
They have large pattern of chunks that's why they perform best in doing chess. These chunks are
activated into Short Term Memory.
Alan Baddeley's Model of Working Memory
Alan Baddeley's presented a model of working memory. The simple representation of his model
is given below.
He said about sound rehearsal not meaning. He talked about a phonological rehearsal loop
because of sound rehearsal. For example we revise telephone numbers not because of meaning
but because we want to remember that. But on chess board we can not verbally rehearse visual
image. In our short term memory we have a sketch pad. On that sketch pad we watch important
things.
He also said about central executive that control all the memory system. This central executive
decides about attention, and memory. This central executive makes decision about the
information that it match with long term information or not. This is the broader concept of
Baddley's model. According to this sloop process every decision is made by this central
executive.
78
img
Cognitive Psychology ­ PSY 504
VU
79
Table of Contents:
  1. INTRODUCTION:Historical Background
  2. THE INFORMATION PROCESSING APPROACH
  3. COGNITIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY:Brains of Dead People, The Neuron
  4. COGNITIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY (CONTINUED):The Eye, The visual pathway
  5. COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY (CONTINUED):Hubel & Wiesel, Sensory Memory
  6. VISUAL SENSORY MEMORY EXPERIMENTS (CONTINUED):Psychological Time
  7. ATTENTION:Single-mindedness, In Shadowing Paradigm, Attention and meaning
  8. ATTENTION (continued):Implications, Treisman’s Model, Norman’s Model
  9. ATTENTION (continued):Capacity Models, Arousal, Multimode Theory
  10. ATTENTION:Subsidiary Task, Capacity Theory, Reaction Time & Accuracy, Implications
  11. RECAP OF LAST LESSONS:AUTOMATICITY, Automatic Processing
  12. AUTOMATICITY (continued):Experiment, Implications, Task interference
  13. AUTOMATICITY (continued):Predicting flight performance, Thought suppression
  14. PATTERN RECOGNITION:Template Matching Models, Human flexibility
  15. PATTERN RECOGNITION:Implications, Phonemes, Voicing, Place of articulation
  16. PATTERN RECOGNITION (continued):Adaptation paradigm
  17. PATTERN RECOGNITION (continued):Gestalt Theory of Perception
  18. PATTERN RECOGNITION (continued):Queen Elizabeth’s vase, Palmer (1977)
  19. OBJECT PERCEPTION (continued):Segmentation, Recognition of object
  20. ATTENTION & PATTERN RECOGNITION:Word Superiority Effect
  21. PATTERN RECOGNITION (CONTINUED):Neural Networks, Patterns of connections
  22. PATTERN RECOGNITION (CONTINUED):Effects of Sentence Context
  23. MEMORY:Short Term Working Memory, Atkinson & Shiffrin Model
  24. MEMORY:Rate of forgetting, Size of memory set
  25. Memory:Activation in a network, Magic number 7, Chunking
  26. Memory:Chunking, Individual differences in chunking
  27. MEMORY:THE NATURE OF FORGETTING, Release from PI, Central Executive
  28. Memory:Atkinson & Shiffrin Model, Long Term Memory, Different kinds of LTM
  29. Memory:Spread of Activation, Associative Priming, Implications, More Priming
  30. Memory:Interference, The Critical Assumption, Limited capacity
  31. Memory:Interference, Historical Memories, Recall versus Recognition
  32. Memory:Are forgotten memories lost forever?
  33. Memory:Recognition of lost memories, Representation of knowledge
  34. Memory:Benefits of Categorization, Levels of Categories
  35. Memory:Prototype, Rosch and Colleagues, Experiments of Stephen Read
  36. Memory:Schema Theory, A European Solution, Generalization hierarchies
  37. Memory:Superset Schemas, Part hierarchy, Slots Have More Schemas
  38. MEMORY:Representation of knowledge (continued), Memory for stories
  39. Memory:Representation of knowledge, PQ4R Method, Elaboration
  40. Memory:Study Methods, Analyze Story Structure, Use Multiple Modalities
  41. Memory:Mental Imagery, More evidence, Kosslyn yet again, Image Comparison
  42. Mental Imagery:Eidetic Imagery, Eidetic Psychotherapy, Hot and cold imagery
  43. Language and thought:Productivity & Regularity, Linguistic Intuition
  44. Cognitive development:Assimilation, Accommodation, Stage Theory
  45. Cognitive Development:Gender Identity, Learning Mathematics, Sensory Memory