Introduction to learning and memory Flashcards
What type of memory is used in a Described event?
episodic (can be long or short term)
What type of memory is used to actually use words to an describe event (and retrieved word-meanings to understand my instruction)
semantic (long term memory)
What type of memory is used so you can use hand/types-writing to record/express (could have been spoken or mimed)
procedural (long term memory)
What type of memory is used if you had written down an instruction
sensory or short-term memory
What memory is used to remember the instruction whilst consulting long-term memory
working memory (short-term and processing)
What happens the procedural memory task when looking at dots?
People get faster on the repeated sequence, even though they don’t notice that the sequence is repeating
What are examples of Perceptual-motor skills?
- Kicking a ball, opening a door, driving a car…
- Perceptual input guides motor output
What are perceptual skills which aren’t motor?
Applies also to mental (cognitive) skills; problem solving strategies, doing crosswords, writing essays
-Can be implicit (as opposed to explicit)
What is Obedient memory
memory working very well (e.g. accessible memory)
What is Weak memory
memory not working very well (e.g. remembering names, dates)
What is Tyrannic memory
memory controlling us (e.g. addictions)
What is photographic memory?
- 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
What happened in Stromeyer and Psotka (1970)’s case study about photographic memory?
- 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
What happened in Merritt (1979) ‘none in a million’ case study about photographic memory?
- 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
What type of memory can appear in infants but gradually disappear?
Eidetic memory is sometimes found in young children, but gradually disappears as a person ages (e.g., Haber, 1979).
How can you test for forgetting?
Learn something (retention interval) test memory for same thing
What did Ebbinghaus (1850-1909) do?
- 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
What is the The Method of Savings?
- 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.
Forgetting is …
logarithmic (rapid then slows down)
On a log scale, functions (forgetting) are approximately …
linear
What did (Bahrick, 1984) find out about accessing information after 3 years?
-Forgetting initially quite rapid but if word is still accessible after 3 years then likely to be well-preserved 30 years later
How well do people remember their classmates over the course of 50 years?
-Bahrick et al. (1975)
extraordinarily good recognition of photographs even after 50 years
-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…
- 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
