L5: Learning and Long-Term Memory Flashcards
What is Explicit Learning?
Conscious, intentional learning of new information
What is Implicit Learning?
When you learn something without trying to learn or being aware that learning has taken place
Characteristics of Implicit Learning
Robustness, Age and IQ Independence, Low Variability (in terms of individual differences), common to most species
Which parts of the brain are in charge of EL and IL?
EL -> Hippocampus
IL -> Striatum
Damage in either shows double dissociation
What are the levels of processing?
Structural Processing (Appearance) -> Phonemic Processing (Sound) -> Semantic Processing (Meaning)
What is the Survival Processing Effect?
Finding that the items processed for their survival relevance are remembered better than other encoding strategies
What is Transfer-Appropriate Processing
How well you remember depends on the match between the way the information is encoded and the way the information is tested
How does the retention compare after one week for 1. Repeated Study 2. Single Test 3. Repeated Test
Repeated Test > Single Test > Repeated Study
Is Short Answer or MCQ better fostering long-term retention?
Short Answer
What kind of memory does declarative memory hold?
Semantic, Episodic and Autobiographical memory
What kind of memory does non-declarative memory hold?
Procedural and other implicit memory
Declarative vs Non-Declarative Memory
Declarative memory is conscious while non-declarative memory is unconscious
What is Episodic Memory
Storage and retrieval of specific events at a particular place and a particular time
Is Episodic Memory constructive?
Yes
Recollection vs Familiarity
Specific details vs no specific details
What is Semantic Memory
Stores the general knowledge about the world and is context-free (cannot associate memory with specific event)
What is Procedural Memory
Motor skills (amnesia patients unaffected)
What is Perceptual Representation System?
Helps perceive and mentally represent sensory information from the environment
What is amnesia?
Long-term memory problems esp. episodic & autobiographical
Retrograde vs. Anterograde amnesia
Retrograde: Inability to recall memories of events that occured before the onset of amnesia
Anterograde: Inability to form new memories or retain information after the onset of amnesia
Is non-declarative memory impaired by amnesia?
No, performance on implicit learning tasks remain good and amnesics can drive
What is forgetting?
Cases where the material is available in memory (encoded and stored) but for some reason cannot be retrieved
What is the shape of the forgetting curve
Logarithmic -> very steep at the start, plateaus
Retrieval Problems mechanisms
- Decrease in activation
- Suitable cues not used
- Interference from stronger memory traces
Encoding Specificity Principle
The probability of successfully retrieving a memory is a function of the overlap between the information present at retrieval and the information stored in memory
State Dependent Memory
Memory is better when there is a match between state at encoding and state at retrieval
Interference
Our ability to remember is disrupted by what we learned earlier (proactive interference) and what we learn after (retroactive interference)
Consolidation
Process that fixes long-term memory over time
Reconsolidation
Initial Experience: A fearful experience while public speaking gets consolidated over time.
Memory Reactivation: Have to give another presentation and thinking about it reactivates the fear memory
Destabilisation: The reactivation makes the memory temporarily susceptible to change
Intervention: Manages to present very calmly
Reconsolidation: The modified memory with reduced fear gets re-stabilised in long term storage
Outcome: Fear of public speaking is reduced
Hindsight Bias
Tendency to exaggerate how accurately they would have predicted some event in advance after they know what actually happened
