Ch 11 - Human Information Processing, Memory And Learning Flashcards
The 5 Senses
Taste Touch Smell Sight (70%) Hearing
All sense can adapt: habituation
Information Processing Model
1 - Sensory Threshold - 5 Senses; receptors and sensory store.
Sensory threshold - basis of all perception, depends on intensity of stimulus
Absolute threshold - minimum level at which a receptor will act
JND - Minimum Level we notice a change
2 - Attention Mechanism - if info significant enough, picks up attention and we might then use it
3 - Motor Programmes - Reflexes
4 - Perception - Basis of knowledge and experience
5 - Central Decision Maker - 1 decision at a time, multi tasking is just quickly switching back and forth
Two Types of Attention
Selective - 1 piece of information at a time - central decision maker can only make one decision at a time
Divided - Trying to pay attention to a number of different stimuli
- Subconsciously monitoring more than 1 channel
- Peripheral senses to monitor surroundings
Cocktail Party Effect
Talking to 1 person, hear name somewhere else across the room, you can then tune into their conversation and actually rewind it in you head.
You are constantly monitoring your surroundings subconsciously
Vigilance
State of sustained watchfulness/attention and alertness. Closely related to physiological arousal
Related to our central Nervous system
- Degree of activation of CNS - controlle by circadian rhythm.
Simple tasks are performed better at high levels of arousal.
Harder tasks are performed better at lower levels of arousal
Hypo-Vigilance
Linked to micro-sleeps
Causes; boredom, cruise, complacency, monotony, increased temperature, shortly after eating, Low eating, low lighting, constant noise
Affects; Complacency, decreased sensory perception, decreased performance, decreased speed and accuracy, behavioural changes, muscular heaviness, decreases situational awareness
Reduce effects; talk, walk, checks, scan
Proactive outlook on sleep
Hyper vigilance
Causes; stressors, high workloads
Effects; Decreased situational awareness, decreased ability
Hypoxia and Hypervigilance can balance each other out / cancel each other out
Memory
3 Types of Memory; Sensory store, short term/working memory, long term
Sensory Store
Receiving information from 5 senses, each sense has its own. Makes a short story copy and can therefore rewind it if we need to.
Ecoic - Audible short term memory, 2-8s store (radio call ATC)
Iconic - Visual short term memory (0.5-1s store)
If we don’t need the info, we disregard it (in one ear out of the other)
Short Term / Working Memory
<1%/1% sensory info received is transferred to working memory
Between 15-30 seconds
Limited to 7 +/- 2 pieces at a time (5-9)
- Chunking - more info, longer
Distractions effect STM, very sensitive to interruptions
Long Term Memory
Permanent and unlimited store
You do not lose info from Memory - just access
3 types; Implicit, Somantic, Episodic/Explicit
Episodic / Explicit
Experience and life events stored here
Unreliable and highly influenced, changeable
Alzheimer’s and amnesia effect this (only this)
Implicit / Procedural / Motor Memory
Stored actions (sitting/standing) - procedures and motor programmes
Subconscious store, more accurate than episodic explicit
Somantic Memory
Another type of explicit
Where we store knowledge (languages)
More reliable and accurate than episodic
Easier to retrieve it (lasts longer)
Downsides of LTM
Loss of access unless you rehearse or repeat it regularly
To remember things sometimes you need triggers
- Effected by experiences
- Suggestion
- Desires
- Expectations
How to Remember
Rhymes
Mnemonic
Chunking
Overlearning - Practice a lot
Association - Context, link method
Learning
Process of changing behaviour and gaining knowledge and or skills through study, experience or being taught
4 Key ways of Learning
Classic conditioning - pavlovs dog - traininged or learnt to use a different stimulus but same outcome
Operant Conditioning - Through positive and negative feedback, learn from mistakes
Insight Learning (cognitive) - cognitive processes, eureka moment, past knowledge and experience to solve problems
Imitational/ Observational / Model Learning - monkey see monkey do, most common form of training
Factors that effect learning ability
Interruptions Motivation Fatigue/sleep Sickness Discomfort Age (harder to learn when older - new studies contradict that) Stressed / Anxiety Teacher / Instructor Communication
Quality of learning is promoted by feedback, when you know you are doing well you are more likeyl to do well
Mental / Cognitive Schemas
File into a cabinet - each cabinet = scheme
More we know about the scheme, easier it becomes to remember
Schemas are units of information that are categorised
Only downsides have to be thinking of correct schema when receiving new information otherwise it will be lost
Learning a new skill
Skills are an acquired expertise at a task, performance with increased accuracy and reduced errors
- Motor skills and motor programmes are stored in procedural memory
Anderson’s Model (acquiring new skill)
- Cognitive - Learning theoretical knowledge behind skills
- Associative - Practice - practical side (repetition)
- Autonomous (automatic) - Complete task automatically
Effected by; concentration, motivation, stress, lack of practice - you can slip from autonomous to associative
Non declarative knowledge, cant explain how it is performed and cant declare how you are doing it. So natural you forget how
