learning and memory Flashcards
conditioning is also known as
associative learning
what did watson and rayner do
the “little albert” experiement
what did B.F Skinner do
studies on operant conditioning - skinners box
does partial or continuous reinforcement lead to more persistent learning
patial, as the learner is used to the fact that reinforcement will not occur on every occasion
what are the 3 Cs of punishment
contingency (the relationship between the behaviour and the punisher must be clear), consistency (the punishment should occur for every occurrence of the behaviour), contiguity (the punishment must follow the behaviour swiftly)
what is latent learning
learning in the absence of rewards or punishments
what did tolman do
he demonstrated that rewards/punishments effect whether or not learner behaviour will be demonstrated, not whether the learning will occur in the first place
what did george sperling do
used a series of experiments to determine the capacity and duration of iconic memory (full report/ partial report - partial report provided a larger estimate of the capacity of iconic memory, also varied the times between being shown an array of letters, and the cue of which row to recall to determine the duration of this memory story)
what is the duration of iconic memory
less than 500ms
what is STM
our conscious representation of the “present moment”. A temporary store where we integrate current sensory information with our long term memory to achieve current goals
what is the average capacity of STM
7 +/- 2 items
what was the Brown-Peterson task
a test used to determine the duration of STM. 3 consonants were provided and then participants were made to count backwards from a number (to prevent rehearsal) for a certain period of time, before being tested on their recall of the letters.
what is the duration of short term memory
up to approximately 30 seconds
what did Craik & Tulving (1975) do
conducted a study on the levels of processing, demonstrating how long-term memory retention will be stronger if the memory is encoded in a more meaningful way
what did Alan Baddeley do
introduced the model of working memory (same as short term memory, but with more emphasis on the importance of meaningful encoding, and the idea of STM acting as a “workspace” that we can use to work towards our current goals). expands the concept of STM to a multimodal system governed by executive processes.
3 subdivisions of the central executive of memory
phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and episodic buffer
what is the phonological loop
mental space for manipulating auditory and verbal information
what is a test of phonological memory
a digit-span backwards test (where a list of digits are read out and the participant must then recite them backwards), as it requires the person to actively manipulate the information in memory, rather than just maintain the sequence
what is the visuo-spatial sketchpad
a temporary store for visual and spatial representations of information such as faces, written words and cognitive maps. Enables the manipulation of visual and spatial info such as the mental rotation of an object
what is the central executive
processes used in planning and coordinating complex behaviour such as goal orientation, attention focus, switching between tasks and problem solving. Governed by the frontal cortex.
where are phonological processes carried out
a left hemisphere fronto-temporal network (particularly wernickes and brocas areas)
where is the visuo-spatial sketchpad
a right hemisphere occipital-parietal network
where does the episodic buffer integrate information
in the parietal lobe
2 types of declarative memory
episodic (life experiences) and semantic (facts)
types of non-declarative memory
procedural memory (motor skills), priming (the ability to better identify a stimulus following prior exposure to the stimulus or a similar stimulus), classical conditioning, operant conditioning and non-associative learning (habituation, which is learning to ignore a stimulus because it is irrelevant , and sensitisation, which is learning to attend to a potentially threatening stimulus)
2 types of priming
repetition priming (for example, prior exposure to a word will make it easier to respond to it the next time that it is encountered) and associative/semantic priming (eg. exposure to a word may make it easier to identify similar words)
role of the hippocampus in memory
involved in the consolidation of episodic and semantic memories, as well as the retrieval of consolidated episodic memories