Explicit Memory, Forgetting and Amnesia Flashcards
Describe a study which demonstrates the importance of level of representation
Text shown in 1) surface form (italics)
Text shown in text base form
Tex shown in mental model form (the prince holds the princess vs princess is_held by_prince- ) asked to picture in minds eye
And just asked whether it is in italics or not (low level of processing-implicit memory)
This effects how well it is remembered- the mental model is remembered best. This is a strong effect. Surface form remembered least well
What “but” is there to this representation conclusion? (describe a study)
It depends what you want the person to get from the learning experience. (Transfer-appropriate learning)
students responded to words using either a meaning-based (deep-level) task, such as whether the word “plane” made sense
in the sentence “The __________ had a silver engine,” or a rhyme-based (shallow-level) task, such as whether the word “eagle” made sense in the sentence “__________ rhymes with legal.” Later, students took either a standard recognition test (a direct memory test) or a rhyming recognition test (an indirect test) in which they indicated whether a new word rhymed with one that they had heard earlier (e.g., “regal”). The results reveal that memory is better when the encoding and retrieval processes match than when they do not.
What are context effects? How effective are they?
Episodic memory improved when tested in the same context as you learned (Divers learning and testing underwater or on land). Or is it? Effects, if any, are usually very weak.
How did the lecturer improve Baddeley’s study in a replication and could he replicate it?
could not replicate the context effect myself (60% of the experiments in psychology cannot be replicated)
But important difference with Godden and Baddeley: I removed a large confound–Divers underwater had to always get out, even in the water-water condition (and into the water in the land-land condition)
–In the original they could just rest
–But not in the land-water or water-land conditions
Describe state-dependent memory with an example
While sober studying and sober testing results in best performance, sitting an exam sober after studying drunk results in a worse exam than sitting it drunk: i.e in the same state
What is meant by the retrieval practice effect?
If you try to remember something and with some effort are just able to do so, this gives a large learning effect. The learning benefit is much greater than merely relearning the material
What depends one how effective this practice effect is?
- The more you repeat, the better your memory performance
- Long intervals are more effective than short
- There is often an optimum repetition interval but how long depends on the person, the material, and the degree of prior learning
- The computer can help optimise this, given a good learning model (Brainscape :))
- Conclusion: testing yourself (at increasingly long intervals) is a very effective wayto learn
How effective is mere exposure?
little effect (what is on a 10e bill?, periodic table)
Why is mere exposure not that effective
you must pay attention to and consciously elaboratethe to-be-learned materials
Describe spacing effects
- Performance appears to depend on distribution
- At a short retention interval: performance decreases with increasing P1-P2 (temporal distance)
- At a long retention interval: performance increases with increase in P1-P2
where P1 and P2 are learning events
What reasons are suggested for these spacing effects?
Longer inter-session intervals ensures
–More consolidation in between sessions
–Less habituation (less efficient processing)
–More diverse memory trace, responsive to more different cues (more contextual variability)
What did Jaap the chap discover from his study on memory and news stories?
Could formulate a decent forgetting curve
What did Ebbinghaus use to formulate his forgetting curve?
Non-sense syllables
First tried but decided against
- Poem stanzas
- Tones
- Numbers
Describe how to calculate savings in two ways
The relative relearning time:
10 minutes vs 5 minutes = 50% savings
Initial learning:
8 times relearning until perfect vs 4 time = 50% savings
What did Jaap change in his replication of the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve study? Describe the participants
Ebbinghaus 7 months, Jaap 2.5
E: 12-45 replications per time interval, J:10
J: Used dutch and removed syllables with too much meaning like SEX E: did not
E: does not state in detail when he learned what list, so we had to guess how many interfering lists there were
The subject was also a co-author and acted like an experimenter like ebbinghaus and did 70 hours of re-learning
What materials did Jaap use in his study?
70 lists (10 per retention interval). Each list consisted of 104 syllables
–8 ‘rows’ of 13 syllables
–Rows were the main unit of learning
–They were rehearsed until once correct in ordered recall
Following Ebbinghaus, Jaap did a practice phase. Why was this and what did it consist of?
To familiarize the subject with the savings measure, so there would be no ‘meta-learning’ during the actual experiment
- 14 lists were learned and relearned after 20 min (1 list = 8 ‘rows’ of 13 syllables)
- 19 lists were learned (and not relearned)
Describe the experimental phase of Jaap’s study
- 69 lists learned between 1 Dec ’11 and 13 Feb ’12
- Lists distributed as much as possible over the 10 weeks
- Not possible for the 31-day interval
- Lists for 31-day interval were learned at the beginning (early Dec) to fit within internship period
How was a 13-syllable row recounted and why?
One row was softly spoken at 150 beats per minute (following Ebbinghaus qua speed)
- About 5.2 seconds per list
- More like a complicated foreign sentence or long word than standard word list
Words specified in a specific rhythm (dih-dah, dih-dah dih-dah), E rathered a 3/4 rhythm (dih-dih-dih-dah, dih-dih-dih-dah)
