Aka subjects with the best working memory reserves

AKA subjects with the best working memory reserves were more likely to choke
 Best way to determine the strategy a person is using to solve a problem is to ask them
o
When Beilock and Marci DeCaro asked their subjects to solve problems and then
describe how they had solved them, they found that in low-pressure situations, the HWM
subjects were more likely to arrive at their answer by doing the calculation

AKA in first example (first equation) they would subtract 8 from 32 and divide
the result by 4

This method always results in the correct answer but places a heavy load on
working memory
o
The LWM subjects were more likely to use a "short cut" that states that if all the
numbers are even, the answer is "no"

This strategy works for many problems (like the first one) but not for all (Second
one)
 This short-cut strategy places a low load on working memory but doesn't always
result in the correct answer
 Strategy used by the HWM subjects in low-pressure condition is clearly better in terms of accuracy
and that's why they score higher in the low-pressure condition

o
BUT increasing the pressure increased likelihood that HWM subjects would shift to the
short-cut strategy
o
When they did this, their performance dropped to the level of the LWM subjects & LWM
subjects continued using the short-cut strategy bc it didn’t use much working memory &
wasn't affected by the pressure

To help deal with the complexity of psychology, cognitive psychologists have created
models that represent structures and processes involved in cognition
THE ROLE OF MODELS IN COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
 Models are representations of structures or processes that help us visualize or explain the
structure or process
STRUCTURAL MODELS
 Structural models are representations of a physical structure

A model can mimic the appearance of an object (e.g plastic model of the brain to show different
structures of it)

Structures can also be represented by diagrams that don't resemble the structure but instead
indicate how different areas are connected (of the brain)

Purpose of models is to simplify

The plastic model isn't anything like a real brain and doesn't show what is happening
inside each structure and how the structures are connected

Amount of detail would need to be increased in the model to represent this
 Even the complex model of the visual system is simplified, because each box represents a
complex structure
 Nonetheless the model helps visualize the layout of a system and how different
components are connected and might interact
 The simplification is actually an advantage bc it makes it easier to study and understand the
system

Important to know that most structural models are designed to represent the structures
involved in specific functions
PROCESS MODELS
 Process models represent the processes that are involved in cognitive mechanisms with boxes
usually representing specific processes and arrows indicating connections between processes

E.g Broadbent's filter model of attention