HPS203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Gestalt Psychology, Necker Cube, Memory Span
HPS203 Week 2
Discuss how a concurrent articulation task affects working memory capacity, sound-alike
errors, and memory span for complex visual shapes
• Concurrent articulation task: a requirement that someone speak or mime speech while
doing some other task. In many cases, the person is required to say “Tah-Tah-Tah” over and
over, or “one two three one two three”.
o These procedures occupy the muscles and control mechanisms needed for speech,
and so they prevent the person from using these resources for subvocalisation.
• When people take a span test (to measure working memory), some of the to-be-
remembered items are stored in the phonological loop
o With concurrent articulation, the loop isn’t available for use à now measuring
capacity of working memory without the rehearsal loop
• Concurrent articulation cuts memory span drastically o Span is ordinarily ~7 items
o With concurrent articulation: ~4-5 items
• Concurrent articulation eliminates sound-alike items
o Concurrent articulation blocks use of the articulatory loop-
this is where sound-alike errors arise
• People’s memory span can be measured using complex visual
shapes- people are shown these shapes and then must echo the sequence back by drawing
what they have just seen
o Shapes not easily namedàcannot be rehearsed via inner voice/inner ear
combinationàno effect of concurrent articulation
• Concurrent articulation blocks use of the loop but has no effect on someone’s ability to
read brief sentences, do simple logic problems, etc.
Define form perception and object recognition and describe why they are important for
our interactions with the world
• Form perception: the process through which people see the basic shape, size, and position
of an object.
• Object recognition: the steps or processes through which people identify the objects they
encounter in the world around them
o Essential whenever you want to apply your knowledge to the world
o Crucial for learningàcombining information from different occasions
Describe how Gestalt psychologists found evidence that form perception goes beyond the
stimulus itself
• Early 20th century, Gestalt psychologists noted that our perception of the visual world is
organised in ways that the stimulus input is not
• They argued that the organisation must be contributed by the perceiver- the perceptual
whole is often different from the sum of its parts
• Jerome Bruner (1973) voiced similar claims and coined the phrase “beyond the
information given” to describe some of the ways that our perception of a stimulus differs
from and goes beyond the stimulus itself
• Necker cube- can be interpreted in two ways- view from above or below
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