Forgetting

Question 1

Describe how metaphors have been used to discuss memory.

Answer 1

• In ancient times, people discussed memories like marks on a wax tablet.
• In the Renaissance, experience wrote on a blank slate that can be read so long as the slate isn’t erased. In the
• Industrial age, memos and snapshots were store in mental filing cabinets.
• In the 20th Century, Edison’s recording cylinder held experiences that could be replayed so long as the needle was in the right place.
• Now computers are used, measuring experiences in bytes and storing them in memory banks.
• all approach memory as an internal record/representation of past experience.

Question 2

Explain Skinner’s contribution to the understanding of memory.

Answer 2

He proposed that memories don’t get stored and retrieved, but rather that the experiences shape the organism’s behavioural tendencies.

Question 3

Define forgetting

Answer 3

The deterioration in learned behaviour following a period without practice; or changes in behaviour that are not due to aging, injury or disease.

Question 4

Define retention interval

Answer 4

A period in which the learned behaviour is not performed. This is used to test in various ways for evidence that the learned behaviour is still in tact after the period of non-performance

Question 5

Define free recall

Answer 5

The learner is given opportunity to perform previously learned behaviour following retention interval

Question 6

Define prompted/cued recall

Answer 6

variation of free recall, consisting of presenting hints/prompts to increase the likelihood that the behaviour will be produced.

Question 7

Define the relearning method

Answer 7

reinstates the training procedure and it assumes that the less training required to reach the previous level of performance, the less forgetting has occurred

Question 8

Define the savings method

Answer 8

Another term for relearning method. Compares savings to the original training program.

Question 9

Describe how Ebbinghaus studied forgetting

Answer 9

He did the first experiments on forgetting and used the relearning method. He memorized lists of nonsense syllables until he could produce the list twice without error. After a retention interval, he released the list. If it took fewer trials the second time, this savings provided a measure of forgetting. The greater the savings, the less forgetting.

Question 10

Define recognition.

Answer 10

• Identify the material previously learned.

- Typically done by presenting the original learning material in addition to novel material.

Question 11

Define delayed matching to sample (DMTS)

Answer 11

Type of recognition procedure similar to that of matching to sample procedure, except that the animal is prevented from performing following presentation of the sample, as the stimulus is to be “matched.”The failure to recognize the training stimulus represents forgetting.

Question 12

Define the extinction method.

Answer 12

Teach the task, and either start the extinction behaviour right away, or after an interval period. If extinction proceeds more rapidly after the retention interval, forgetting has occurred.

Question 13

Define gradient degradation.

Answer 13

The flattening of the generalization gradient. The extent that training establishes stimulus control, any decline in the steepness (aka degradation) of the generalization gradient indicates forgetting.

Question 14

Which two individuals contributed to the popular notion that memories are permanently stored in the brain? How did these individuals support this idea?

Answer 14

Sigmund Freud and Wilder Penfield contributed to the notion that memories are permanently stored, ready to be brought to awareness. Freud believed that memories were permanently held in the mind, but might be repressed due to anxiety. He thought that they could be brought back to consciousness with techniques like hypnosis, free association and dreams. His evidence, however, was only case studies and anecdote. Penfield was a neurosurgeon who worked on providing surgical treatment of epilepsy. He found that when applying electrical currents directly to the brain, the alert patient would often relive past experiences. He found that the stimulation of a specific area would reliably produce a specific experience. This supported Freud’s theory that there was a permanent memory record in everyone that could be accessed with the right stimulation. This support, however, is not strong enough by today’s standards. There is the risk that the events never occurred and were just manifestations of the mind in response to stimulation.

Question 15

What is the general relationship between the length of the retention interval and forgetting?

Answer 15

The longer the interval between training and relearning, the greater the deterioration in performance

Question 16

What is the dominant view of the forgetting process as seen from outside the laboratory?

Answer 16

Most people outside of academia believe that memories are records that are activated by remembering, and if too long passes between activation, the memory will decay.

Question 17

Does the relationship between the length of the retention interval and forgetting necessarily mean that the passage of time causes forgetting?

Answer 17

John McGeoch argued that the passage of time doesn’t cause forgetting, though, as time is not an event and cannot then be said to cause other events, such as forgetting. We must then identify the events that occur within the time frame that can account for the forgetting.

Question 18

How did Ebbinghaus demonstrate the relationship between how well something is learned and the likelihood of forgetting

Answer 18

He found a systematic correlation between the number of learning trials and the amount of forgetting. By practicing a list 8 times, he’d remember little the next day, but when practicing 64 times, he remembered it nearly perfectly.

Question 19

Describe Krueger’s study of overlearning.

Answer 19

He asked that adults learn 3 lists of words. He presented one word every two seconds. After going through the list the first time, participants had to say each word before it was presented. Then they are separated into 3 groups: those who stop after getting all the words correct, those who study the list half as many times as it took to learn it the first time (150%), and those who do twice as many trials (100% overlearning). Those who overlearned recalled more words.

Question 20

What is overlearning?

Answer 20

Studying beyond the point of mastery.

Question 21

What is fluency?

Answer 21

• the measure of the degree of learning that took place in a task
• can be in units of number of correct responses per minute, or the number of trials required for accurate performance

Question 22

How can fluency be used to measure overlearning?

Answer 22

measuring how many times the person can go through the list in a given time

Question 23

Describe the relationship between the degree of overlearning and long-term retention

Answer 23

More overlearning is related to better long-term retention.

Question 24

Describe Bahrick’s study on overlearning.

Answer 24

He found that a good indication of how well someone years later remembered the Spanish that he taught them was how thoroughly they had learned Spanish. The difference is due to how well it was used originally, not the opportunity to practice the language over the years.

Question 25

Describe the general relationship between meaningfulness of verbal material and forgetting.

Answer 25

Meaningful material is easier to remember. Nonsense syllables, random digits or unrelated words are more quickly forgotten.

Question 26

What governs whether something is meaningful?

Answer 26

Meaning is established by prior learning, in that the person needs to know the importance and message of the words/sentences.

Question 27

Describe the study about chess masters vs novices in recalling positions on a chess board to illustrate the relationship between memory and meaning.

Answer 27

Chess players were asked to reproduce the mid-match arrangement of chess pieces on the board after looking at it for 5 seconds. Chess masters were correct 90% of the time, whereas club players (novices) were correct only 40% of the time. This suggested that their prior knowledge of the masters aided their memory. To verify that this was true and that chess masters did not have inherently better memories, Chase and Simon (1973) duplicated the study but arranged the pieces randomly opposed to mimic the middle of a game. They found that the masters did not perform better than the novices, and that their superior memories were only in relation to patterns that they have become familiar with after years of playing the game. Previous learning can reduce forgetting.

Question 28

Define proactive interference.

Answer 28

When old learning interferes with recall

Question 29

Describe Bartlett’s study of of proactive interference.

Answer 29

People read a Native American folktale that was only 400 words, but is often confusing to readers of modern Western culture. Participants read the story twice and then tried to tell it as accurately as they could. He had them reproduce the story many times over the next few weeks and months. He found that the story became simpler, more coherent and more modern over time. The participants’ previous learning of how stories are constructed interfered with their recalling a different sort of story.

Question 30

Describe and Levine and Murphy’s study of proactive interference

Answer 30

College students read a passage and then, 15 min later, reproduce it as accurately as possible. They did this again with a second passage. They read and attempted to reproduce the two passages weekly for 4 weeks. Both passages were about communism which was very controversial. The students’ personal feelings about communism affected how they remembered the story, with those that were pro forgetting more of the anti parts of the passage, and the anti forgot more of the pro parts of the passage. This demonstrates that learned attitudes towards the subject can affect recall.

Question 31

Define paired-associate learning

Answer 31

The subject learns a list of word pairs, such as hungry-beautiful. The list is taught by repeatedly presenting the subject with the first word, hungry, and then the subject produces the second word, beautiful, and then presenting the correct word afterwards. All participants learn the A-C list (e.g., hungry-beautiful), but some learn the A-B list (e.g., hungry-fortunate). Studies reliably show that the A-B list interferes with recall of items later learned on the A-C list. In addition, the more lists learned before the test, the more interference that there will be. This method is often used to study proactive interference

Question 32

Define retroactive interference

Answer 32

When what we learn interferes with our ability to recall earlier learning

Question 33

Describe the experimental paradigm researchers use to study retroactive interference

Answer 33

participants learn an A-B list, then relearn the list after a 20 min delay. During that delay, some students rested and others learned the A-C list. The A-C list interfered with the recall of the A-B list, and the more trials of the A-C list, the more that it interfered with the A-B list

Question 34

Define cue-dependent forgetting.

Answer 34

the cues/context of where the learning occurred are missing and performance suffers

Question 35

How did Greenspoon & Ranyard study cue-dependent forgetting

Answer 35

Students learned lists of words either standing up or sitting down. After this, the students recalled the lists as well as they could. Students performed better when tested under conditions similar to those under which they had learned (i.e., if learned standing up, they performed better standing up).

Question 36

What is reminiscence?

Answer 36

When performance improves with the passage of time b/c the physiological conditions present during testing resemble those during training

Question 37

Can animals remember certain types of things better than others

Answer 37

Animals are better at remembering things that impact their survival, such as where food is stored

Question 38

Describe the recall abilities of Clark’s nutcrackers

Answer 38

The Clark’s nutcracker (bird) feeds on pine seeds and needs about 10 thousand to survive winter. They store more than 30 thousand in 6 thousand places. While their ability to remember the location of caches declined over time (6 months), they still had a high level of success that was beyond that of chance. Learning appears to be involved because the birds are very likely to find their own caches, but very unlikely to find caches that a different bird set up, meaning that they did not sniff out the seeds, but instead remembered their location.

Question 39

Describe Loftus’ work in eyewitness testimony

Answer 39

She would show participants short films of traffic accidents and then ask questions about what they saw. Some questionnaires would say “did you see a broken headlight,” whereas others said “did you see the broken headlight,” when there wasn’t a broken headlight at all. She found that the way that the questions were phrased influenced the answers given. Another example is replacing the word hit with smashed, collided, bumped or contacted, in which the estimated speeds varied. Students that were exposed to the word smash were twice as likely to report seeing broken glass when questioned a week later, when there wasn’t any glass in the footage at all.

Question 40

What are the implications of these studies for the accuracy of reports of past events?

Answer 40

o Research on eyewitness reports shows that the impact of environmental events on the accuracy of reports about witnessed events. How accurately the event is described is in part dependent on how the questions are asked.

Question 41

How can the results from these studies be partially explained using reinforcement history?

Answer 41

o Our previous experiences with the words “the” and “a” and “hit” and “smashed” (i.e., our reinforcement history) influence how we respond to the questions. This differential learning history (i.e., having learned that “the” is definite, “a” is indefinite, “hit” is mild, “smashed” is intense) means that the words are likely to produce different reports about observed events.

Question 42

Describe Ericsson and Chase’s research showing how ordinary people can improve their recall.

Answer 42

They worked with a student which they call SF. He had no special memory skills but worked diligently with the researchers for almost two years. Over time, his memory span seemed to stretch, enabling him to recall more digits over time. SF eventually broke the record of 18 for remembered digits and set a new record of 82. Memory is something that needs to be practiced, and there are techniques that can be used to improve learning/reduce forgetting.

Question 43

Describe the SAFMEDS technique and the rationale behind this method.

Answer 43

Say All Fast Minute Each Day Shuffle (SAFMEDS) is a method of using flashcards that Lindsley thinks is superior for learning. SAY the answer before you turn the card over. GO through ALL of the cards, or as many as you can, as FAST as you can, in one MINUTE. Do this EACH DAY. After you go through the cards, SHUFFLE them. By counting how many cards you get through in a minute, you can easily assess your learning (i.e., 20 cards vs 40 cards). It’s important to do them daily to avoid the forgetting associated with cram studying. Shuffle to avoid the sequence of the cards giving you cues for the answer - this will set you up for the test when you’ll have no cues.

Question 44

What are mnemonics?

Answer 44

Any device that aids recall. They typically involve learning cues that will later prompt the behaviour to be recalled
E.g., rhymes, acronyms

Question 45

What is the method of loci?

Answer 45

Mnemonic system that fixes each fact to be recalled to a particular location. Later on, we simply “go to” that location and “see” what is there.

Question 46

Describe the peg-word system in mnemonics.

Answer 46

o Peg-word system is a mnemonic system in which one memorizes a list of pegs that can later have items hung on them. The pegs and numbered and made easy to remember by making them rhyme with their numbers.
E.g., peg word for number one is bun, two is shoe, three is tree, four is door, five is hive, etc.
Anything that is a concrete object and easily imagined can be a peg. Abstract concepts like beauty don’t work as well because we can’t “see” them.

Question 47

Describe how to make use of context cues to facilitate remembering.

Answer 47

Identify cues that will be present during recall and then learn in the presence of those cues. Students should study in a classroom similar to that of the test instead of in their bed at home.

Question 48

Describe how to use prompts to aid recall

Answer 48

o A prompt is an S+ that can be used to evoke behaviour. An example would be to put an appointment in our calendar, or make a grocery list (i.e., memoranda). It is important that the prompt occur when it’s needed, so making sure that the prompt is visible at the correct time. Phone reminders are useful for this. If you can’t remember something, try doing the action (i.e., how to search a document with the keyboard) and it might jog your memory