6. Episodic memory: Organizing and Remembering

Question 1

Dual-coding hypothesis

Answer 1

Highly imageable words are easy to learn because they can be encoded both visually and verbally

The hypothesis assumes that concrete and imageable words can be encoding in terms of both their visual appearance and their verbal meaning, whereas abstract words are encoded only verbally. The visual representations can then be combined into a single composite image

EX: a crocodile biting a football when one word of the pair is presented, for example crocodile, it automatically tends to evoke the football.

Question 2

Depth of processing

Answer 2

The proposal by Craik and Lockhart that the more deeply an item is processed, the better will be its retention

Question 3

Transfer-appropriate processing (TAP)

Answer 3

Proposal that retention is best when the mode of encoding and mode of retrieval are the same

You read a 200-page book detailing all the rules and facts that one needs to know about bicycling. You spend weeks memorizing everything. If you were given a test on the book, you would score 100%. Then you get on the bicycle and you crash within seconds, unable to keep balanced. You don’t really know what is important about riding bicycles. You have excellent factual knowledge, but no skill.

This illustrates transfer-appropriate processing. This principle states that for a test to reveal prior learning, the processing requirements of the test should match the processing conditions at encoding. So in order to reveal your (factual) knowledge about bicycling, you should be given a test about it.

Question 4

Incidental learning

Answer 4

Learning situation in which the learner is unaware that a test will occur.

Question 5

Maintenance rehearsal

Answer 5

A process of rehearsal whereby items are “kept in mind” but not processed more deeply

Question 6

Elaborative rehearsal

Answer 6

Process where items are not simply kept in mind, byt are processed either more deeply or more elaborative.

Question 7

Intentional learning

Answer 7

Learning when the learner knows there will be a test of retention

Question 8

Subjective organization

Answer 8

A strategy whereby the learner attempts to organize unstructured material so as to enhance learning