learning and memory

Question 1

classical conditioning

Answer 1

refers to a type of learning that occurs through the repeated association of two (or more) different stimuli

• Learning is only said to have occurred when a particular stimulus consistently produces a response that it did not previously produce.

Question 2

operant conditioning

Answer 2

a type of learning where the consequences of behaviour determine the likelihood that it will be performed again in the future

Question 3

3 phases of operant conditioning

Answer 3

1. Antecedent (A) – stimulus that occurs before the behaviour
2. Behaviour (B) – occurs due to the antecedent
3. Consequence (C)– to the behaviour (reinforcement/punishment)

Question 4

reinforcement

Answer 4

Reinforcement: when a stimulus strengthens or increases the frequency or likelihood of a response that it follows

• Positive reinforcement:giving or applying a positive reinforcer after the desired response has been made (e.g. Getting praise after answering a questioncorrectly in class)
• Negative reinforcement: removal or avoidance of an unpleasant stimulus (e.g. If you do all your homework you don’t have to go to homework club after school)

Both types of reinforcement strengthen behaviour

Question 5

punishment

Answer 5

Punishment: the delivery of an unpleasant consequence following a response, or the removal of a pleasant consequence following a response.Decreases the likelihood of a response that it follows.

• Positive punishment: giving a negative punishment after an undesired response has been elicited (e.g.Having to go to detention after being late to school)
• Negative punishment:removal of a pleasant stimulus (e.g. If you were out past your curfew – not allowed to go to a party tomorrow night)

Both types of punishment weakenbehaviour

Question 6

response cost

Answer 6

• the removal of any valued stimulus, whether or not the stimulus causes the behaviour
• There is a ‘cost’ for your‘ response’

(negative punishment)

Question 7

observational learning

Answer 7

occurs when someone uses the observation and consequences of a model’s actions to guide their future actions

involves being conditioned indirectly by observing someone else’s conditioning (vicarious conditioning)

Question 8

social learning theory

Answer 8

attention, retention, reproduction and motivation/reinforcement (this last one is one step!)

Question 9

social learning theory steps

Answer 9

attention: we must be paying attention to or closely watch a model’s behaviour and the consequences

retention: We need to store the information in our memory to be used later

reproduction: We must have the ability to be able to produce the behaviour that we have observed.

motivation/reinforcement: If we have watched and remembered and are able to reproduce the behaviour, we now have to be motivated to reproduce it. Unless the behaviour is useful or is reinforced, we are unlikely to imitate it.

Types of reinforcement in observational learning include:

• Vicarious reinforcement: more likely to imitate behaviourafter watching a model reinforced
• Self - reinforcement: reinforced by meeting certain standard of
  performance we set for ourselves

Question 10

memory

Answer 10

Memory is the processing, storage and retrieval of information acquired through learning.

3 fundamental processes:
encoding: converting info into usable form
storage: retaining info for period of time
retrieval: accessing info from storage

Question 11

atkinson shiffrin model

Answer 11

represents memory as consisting of three separate stores (components); sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory.

Question 12

sensory memory

Answer 12

function: the entry point of memory where new info is stored for a very brief period
duration: momentary, up to 10 sec
capacity: vast, potentially unlimited

• If the sensory information is attended to -> transferred to STM
• If the sensory information is NOT attended to -> lost forever
• We are not consciously aware of much of the information in sensory memory

Iconic: visual
Echoic: auditory

Question 13

Short Term Memory

Answer 13

function: info received into stm is processed (encoded) and stored for a brief period, unless a conscious effort is made to keep it there longer
duration: 18-20 sec
Capacity: 7+/-2 (5-9 items at one time)

• A conscious effort is continually rehearsing the information, called ‘maintenance rehearsal’
• The information stored in STM is not an exact replica of the sensory stimulus, but an encoded version

Question 14

displacement in stm

Answer 14

When short-term memory is ‘full’, new items can only enter through displacement - pushing one item out

Question 15

stm as working memory

Answer 15

emphasises the active processing and use of information that occurs there.

‘short-term memory’ understates its roles and importance.

• As our ‘working memory’, STM enables us to actively ‘work on’ and manipulate information while we undertake our everyday tasks.
• Information from sensory memory is processed in working memory and information is retrieved from LTM to be used and manipulated in working memory.
• Once the required task has been completed, the info stored there is no longer required, and is either transferred to LTM or discarded.

Question 16

long term memory

Answer 16

function: storage of memory for a long period of time\
duration: potentially unlimited
capacity: potentially unlimited

Question 17

LTM - Explicit

Answer 17

Involves memory that occurs when information can be consciously or intentionally retrieved and stated, also called declarative memories

Explicit memory is broken up into 2 subtypes:

• Episodic memory: The memory of personally experienced events (‘episodes’ in ourlife), include details of the time, place, and our psychological and physiological state when the event occurred
• Semantic memory: - The memory of facts and knowledge about the world

It includes our specialised knowledge of:

• facts and knowledge of the kind learned in school
• Everyday facts and general knowledge
• The meaning of words (e.g. that ‘assist’ means to help)
• Rules (e.g. the formula for calculating the area of atriangle)
• Areas of expertise (e.g. knowledge about particularareas)

Question 18

LTM - Implicit

Answer 18

Memory that does not require conscious or intentional retrieval.

2 subtypes:

• Procedural memory: The memory of motor skills and actions that have been learned previously (how to do something/behaviours)
  Examples: how to drive, how to brush your teeth, how to write
• Classically conditioned memory: Conditioned responses to conditioned stimuli acquired through classical conditioning are also considered to be a type of implicit memory
  For example: if you immediately experience fear or anxiety at the sight of a spider because of past associations with anxiety, fear or pain,implicit memory is involved

Question 19

hippocampus

Answer 19

involved in formation of long term explicit memories and their transfer to the cerebral cortex for storage

• important for spatial memory
• part of the limbic system, works with amygdala in the formation of emotional memories, particularly explicit memory component of an emotional event

Question 20

amygdala

Answer 20

encodes implicit memories to do with emotions, and then activates the hippocampus to encode the explicit event as significant.

Question 21

interactions between amygdala and hippocampus

Answer 21

The presence of noradrenaline is believed to stimulate the amygdala to attach more emotional significance to the experience and signal the hippocampus to encode and ensure long-term storage of the relevant emotional details during the memory consolidation process.

Question 22

neocortex

Answer 22

Stores explicit memories for a long time
- Memories are permanently stored in the areas where the sensory input was first processed but linked by neural networks so when required, the separate parts are brought together, reconstructed and retrieved into consciousness as a single, integrated memory.

                                                                                       For example, music is stored in the temporal lobe, the vision of the musicians is stored in the occipital lobe and the sensation of the people brushing against you on the dance floor is stored in the parietal lobe.

Question 23

basal ganglia

Answer 23

encoding of implicit procedural memory,specifically habits

• forms habits by associating movement with reward or reinforcement by communicating with other regions of the brain to acquire motor and cognitive skills gradually through practice.
• Habituation: process of growing accustomed to a situation or stimulus. It involves a decrease in responsiveness following repeated exposure to a stimulus.
  without conscious awareness

Question 24

cerebellum

Answer 24

involved in the encoding and temporary storage of implicit procedural memories and motor skill memories

However, is the key storage site for implicit classically conditioned simple reflexes, and helps contribute to navigation and spatial learning

Question 25

autobiographical memory

Answer 25

memory system consisting of episodes recalled from person’s life, based on a mixture of episodic and semantic memory.

Question 26

episodic future thinking

Answer 26

projecting yourself forward in time to pre-experience an event that might happen in your personal future

Question 27

Alzheimer’s disease

Answer 27

a type of dementia characterised by the gradual widespread degeneration of brain neurons, progressively causing memory decline, deterioration of cognitive and social skills and personality changes.

Question 28

medical imaging and alzheimers

Answer 28

incurable, and most people die within 8–10 years of onset.

There is no simple diagnostic test to identify the presence of Alzheimer’s disease.
- diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease through brain scans such as CT
or MRI
- CT and MRI scans reveal the anatomic structure of the brain and are used to rule out such problems as a tumour, haemorrhage (bleeding of the brain) and stroke, which can mask Alzheimer’s disease.

Question 29

symptoms of alzheimer’s

Answer 29

• Cortical areas tend to be damaged first, which disrupts STM.
• As the disease progresses to deeper parts of the brain such as the hippocampus and surrounding medial temporal lobe areas, LTM is increasingly impaired.
• Explicit episodic and semantic memories are primarily affected.
• Post-mortem studies typically show extensive brain shrinkage and damage.

Question 30

alzheimer’s disease - brain changes

Answer 30

Amyloid plaques: occur when beta-amyloid proteins build up. This abnormal build-up forms plaques between the synapses of neurons, and so interferes with neural communication.

Neurofibrillary tangles: occur when protein builds up inside the neuron and are associated with cell death. This interferes with the flow of information within and between neurons, disrupting communication.

• There is a lack of the important memory neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Alzheimer’s disease systematically destroys the neurons that produce acetylcholine.
• Brain atrophy occurs. Amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles progressively damage neurons, which die, causing the brain tissue to shrink.

Question 31

alzheimer’s and imagined futures

Answer 31

• The hippocampus is one of the first structures affected; up to three-quarters of the neurons die and the rest are damaged.

This means new explicit memories cannot be encoded and consolidated, resulting in anterograde amnesia.

The loss of neurons then spreads to the cerebral cortex, resulting in the loss of stored explicit (including episodic, semantic and autobiographical) long-term memories (retrograde amnesia) as well as problems with attention and changes to personality and emotions.

• When autobiographical memories are lost, the person also loses their capacity for episodic future thinking.

Question 32

aphantasia

Answer 32

people who are unable to visualise imagery.
People with aphantasia might:

• struggle to remember or ‘relive’ autobiographical events
• have difficulty imagining future or hypothetical events
• have problems with factual memory
• dream less
• have decreased imagery involving other senses such as sound or touch
• have trouble recognising faces.

Question 33

causes of aphantasia

Answer 33

• unaware of causes

it has been suggested that areas of the brain involved in visual imagery, such as the visual cortex, may be underactive.

• Other theories suggest that people with aphantasia do experience mental imagery but cannot access the image in their conscious thoughts.

two forms:
congenital (present from birth) and acquired (present after brain injury or significant psychological event, such as depression or anxiety).

Question 34

mneumonic devices

Answer 34

Any technique used to assist memory

Question 35

how does a mneumonic work

Answer 35

• During the encoding process, if you are using a mnemonic device, the retrieval cues are also encoded
• These cues help make the information easier to locate and retrieve from our LTM
• Doesn’t reduce the amount of info Mnemonics tend to organise information into a cohesive whole, and to connect new information to existing information, so that retrieval of part of it generally assists retrieval of all of it.
• In this way, mnemonics help make less meaningful information more meaningful, and therefore more memorable.

Question 36

acronyms

Answer 36

pronounceable words formed from the first letters of a group of words. The letters of the acronym act as retrieval cues to prompt recall of the associated information. E.g ANZAC

Question 37

acrostics

Answer 37

phrases in which the first letter of each word functions as a cue to help with recall. E.g. ‘Never Eat Soggy Weet-bix’, which identifies the layout of north, south, east and west on a compass. ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit’. In music class.

Question 38

methods of loci

Answer 38

items to be remembered are converted into mental images and associated with specific positions or locations.

• For instance, to remember a shopping list, each product could be imagined at a different location along a familiar street.
• The method of loci is particularly useful when you want to remember a list of items in a particular order; for example, if you had to remember the sequence of a number of historical events in chronological order or the sequence of steps in a particular process.

Question 39

sung narratives

Answer 39

singing allows us to create bigger chunks of information that can be stored in STM

auditory aspects of sings aid in encoding as the individual associates words with a certain beat, tempo or melody

Question 40

songlines

Answer 40

memory codes used by aboriginal and torres strait islander people that trace journeys & describe how a traveller should respectfully make a journey across country

• describes landmarks
• by giving landmarks characteristics within the song, encoding them further

Question 41

random sampling

Answer 41

Random sampling: each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected, e.g pulling names from a hat

strengths: a large enough random sample is likely to be representative of the population, improving external validity

weaknesses:
small random samples may not be representative of the population

It may be difficult, time consuming, impossible or unethical to obtain names of all the participants

Question 42

stratified sampling

Answer 42

stratified: dividing the population into subgroups, and then randomly selecting participants from each subgroup in the proportion that they appear in the population.

strengths:
a large enough random sample is likely to be representative of the population, improving external validity

important subgroups of a population are ensured fair representation

weaknesses:
It may be difficult, impossible or unethical to obtain names of all the participants

It is more time consuming than random sampling because you need to form subgroups and any pre testing required

Question 43

between subject design

Answer 43

Participants are either randomly allocated to the control or experimental condition. Also known as independent groups design.

strengths:
most time efficient subject design because both groups can be tested at the same time and no pretesting is required

lower rate of withdrawals because participants only complete 1 condition

better control of participant knowledge of the study and no effect of prior participation extraneous variables influencing results

weaknesses:
more participants are needed

less control over extraneous variables of participant variables between groups

Question 44

within subject design

Answer 44

All participants in the sample are in both the control and experimental conditions. Also known as repeated measuresdesign.

strengths:
no extraneous variables of participant variables between groups

fewer participants are needed

weaknesses:
less control over participant knowledge of study (prior participation)

more time consuming

higher rate of participant withdrawal

Question 45

mixed subject design

Answer 45

A combination of a between subjects design and a within subjects design. In the mixed design there are two or more IVs, one of which is a between subjects variable and one of which is a within subjects variable. In the example presented the music type is a between subjects variable and physiological arousal is a within subjects variable.

strengths:
differences in participant variables between groups are controlled in the within subject design

can test the effect of multiple IV on a DV in one investigation

testing multiple IVs in on experiment rather than more can be more time and cost-effective

weaknesses:
higher rate of participant withdrawal

less control over participant knowledge of study (prior participation)

less control over differences in participant variables

Question 46

types of data

Answer 46

Primary data:collected through first-hand experience for an intended purpose, e.g questionnaire to conduct their own study.

Secondary data: obtained second hand through research conducted or data collected byanother person for another purpose. Secondary data may be used when it is not possible tocollect primary data because of time or cost, or if participants are unavailable

Qualitative data: describes characteristics and qualities. Qualitative data can be in the form ofwords, photographs, videos, audio and other recordings that are not measured with a number.

For example, in a study on the imaginative play behaviour of children, an observer might collect qualitative data by writing adescription of behaviours that they see or recording a video of the child describing their game in their own words.

-Quantitative data:involves measurable values and quantities and can be compared on anumerical scale. Quantitative data can be in the form of measurements such as length, weightor time, or in the form of frequencies and tallies.

For example, in a study on the imaginative play behaviour of children, an observer could record the number of timesthey observe a child exhibiting a certain behaviour and the number of minutes that the behaviour was displayed.

Question 47

percentage change

Answer 47

a calculation of the degree of change in a value over time

new value - old value / old value x 100/1%

Question 48

accuracy

Answer 48

how close a measurement is to the true value of the quantity beingmeasured.

Question 49

precision

Answer 49

how close a set of measurement values are to each other. It describes howexact a measurement is, and how much a value agrees or is consistent within a set of valuesthat were measured under the same conditions.

Question 50

repeatability

Answer 50

how close successive measurements of the same quantity are when carried outunder the same conditions.

Question 51

reproducibility

Answer 51

how close measurements of the same quantity are when carried out underdifferentconditions.

Question 52

validity

Answer 52

refers to whether a measurement measures what it issupposed to be measuring.

Question 53

story sharing

Answer 53

approaching learning through narrative. We connect through the stories we share

Question 54

learning maps

Answer 54

explicitly mapping/visualising processes. We picture our pathways of knowledge

Question 55

non-verbal

Answer 55

applying intra-personal and kinaesthetic skills to thinking and learning. We see, think, act, make and share without words

Question 56

symbols and images

Answer 56

using images and metaphors to understand concepts and content. We keep and share knowledge with art and objects

Question 57

land links

Answer 57

place-based learning, linking content to local land and place. We work with lessons from land and nature

Question 58

non-linear

Answer 58

producing innovations and understanding by thinking laterally or combining systems. We put different ideas together and create new knowledge

Question 59

deconstruct/reconstruct

Answer 59

modelling and scaffolding, working from wholes to parts (watch then do). We work from wholes to parts, watching then doing.

Question 60

community links

Answer 60

centring local viewpoints, applying learning for community benefit. We bring new knowledge home to help our mob.

Question 61

indigenous vs non-indigenous cultures

Answer 61

traditional non-Indigenous schools teach students how to learn in a way that is mostly separate from how to live day to day. By contrast, Indigenous Australian culture combines both aspects in its teaching for knowing.

Western culture tends to compartmentalise its ways of knowing. For example, Western culture usually regards scientific culture as separate from arts culture; or a plumber’s job is completely separate to a teacher’s job.

Indigenous cultures tend to integrate them and treat them as aspects of one culture. For example, Indigenous artwork often communicates scientific knowledge passed on through the generations.

Furthermore, each member of the local Indigenous community is responsible for both aspects of daily life and teaching the next generation skills and knowledge.