Introduction to learning and memory

Question 1

What type of memory is used in a Described event?

Answer 1

episodic (can be long or short term)

Question 2

What type of memory is used to actually use words to an describe event (and retrieved word-meanings to understand my instruction)

Answer 2

semantic (long term memory)

Question 3

What type of memory is used so you can use hand/types-writing to record/express (could have been spoken or mimed)

Answer 3

procedural (long term memory)

Question 4

What type of memory is used if you had written down an instruction

Answer 4

sensory or short-term memory

Question 5

What memory is used to remember the instruction whilst consulting long-term memory

Answer 5

working memory (short-term and processing)

Question 6

What happens the procedural memory task when looking at dots?

Answer 6

People get faster on the repeated sequence, even though they don’t notice that the sequence is repeating

Question 7

What are examples of Perceptual-motor skills?

Answer 7

• Kicking a ball, opening a door, driving a car…

- Perceptual input guides motor output

Question 8

What are perceptual skills which aren’t motor?

Answer 8

Applies also to mental (cognitive) skills; problem solving strategies, doing crosswords, writing essays
-Can be implicit (as opposed to explicit)

Question 9

What is Obedient memory

Answer 9

memory working very well (e.g. accessible memory)

Question 10

What is Weak memory

Answer 10

memory not working very well (e.g. remembering names, dates)

Question 11

What is Tyrannic memory

Answer 11

memory controlling us (e.g. addictions)

Question 12

What is photographic memory?

Answer 12

• The ability to recall images, sounds or objects in memory with great accuracy and without limit
• Known as eidetic memory
• Flashing an image and making participant recall

Question 13

What happened in Stromeyer and Psotka (1970)’s case study about photographic memory?

Answer 13

• Described a Harvard student named Elizabeth with photographic memory.
• She was able to mentally fuse two images seen on successive days into a three-dimensional image.
• To do this, Elizabeth must have been able to store an exact image of the first dot pattern in her brain for a whole day

Question 14

What happened in Merritt (1979) ‘none in a million’ case study about photographic memory?

Answer 14

• Took out advertisements in magazines and newspapers across the country – “Can you see the hidden image?”
• Only 30 people wrote in with correct answer
• 15 allowed him to visit them to see if they could do it again – not one could

Question 15

What type of memory can appear in infants but gradually disappear?

Answer 15

Eidetic memory is sometimes found in young children, but gradually disappears as a person ages (e.g., Haber, 1979).

Question 16

How can you test for forgetting?

Answer 16

Learn something (retention interval) test memory for same thing

Question 17

What did Ebbinghaus (1850-1909) do?

Answer 17

• Father of experimental memory research
• Wanted to study memory stripped of meaning
• To do this, used nonsense syllables (GAX, FOZ, KIF)
• Discovered the forgetting function

Question 18

What is the The Method of Savings?

Answer 18

• Learn a list to some criterion level — how many trials did it take? (t1)
• Re learn list (t2)
• If it takes you fewer trials the second time (t2 < t1), the difference must be due to memory.

Question 19

Forgetting is …

Answer 19

logarithmic (rapid then slows down)

Question 20

On a log scale, functions (forgetting) are approximately …

Answer 20

linear

Question 21

What did (Bahrick, 1984) find out about accessing information after 3 years?

Answer 21

-Forgetting initially quite rapid but if word is still accessible after 3 years then likely to be well-preserved 30 years later

Question 22

How well do people remember their classmates over the course of 50 years?
-Bahrick et al. (1975)

Answer 22

extraordinarily good recognition of photographs even after 50 years

Question 23

-Blodgett (1929): maze learning in rats
-Hungry rats ran in a complex maze
-Two groups:
I - Rewarded every day/trial
II – Not rewarded until day 3

FINDINGS…

Answer 23

• Group II performance didn’t improve over nonrewarded days…
• But then, once rewarded, their no. of errors immediately dropped to the level of Group I
• The initially non-rewarded group had learned the maze, but learning was latent.
• Distinction between performance/behaviour and learning