Learning and Memory

Question 1

What are the three types of memory?

Answer 1

• Episodic
• semantic
• procedural

Question 2

What is the difference between semantic and episodic memory in terms of pastness?

Answer 2

Episodic memory has a feeling of pastness whereas semantic memory does not.

Question 3

Define encoding

Answer 3

Encoding is how we represent memories in our mind

Question 4

Define encoding specificity

Answer 4

Encoding specificity is the how the way in which we encode affects our ability to retrieve that information at a time of remembering

Question 5

Why is it difficult to verbalise to others how we are doing procedural skills?

Answer 5

They become automatic and we become experts in them.

Question 6

Can procedural memories be learnt implicitly rather than explicitly?

Answer 6

Procedural memories ca be learnt implicitly, shown in research where people will slowly get faster at a pattern the have to do with their hands when you ask them to repeat something over and over. Even watching someone else they will get faster (heyes and foster 2002)

Question 7

What are the aspects of this T=BN-α (power)

Answer 7

T is the time it takes to something, B is the baseline, time taken to perform the first trial, N is the number of times the trial is done and alpha is the rate of change in performance time with the negative value indicating that time taken decreases at the rate specified by alpha.

Question 8

What is the power law of practise?

Answer 8

This is how reaction time follows a trajectory, performance improving with practice.

Question 9

What regions are involved in semantic memory?

Answer 9

• Left prefrontal cortex
• parietal temporal cortex
• posterior temporal cortex

Question 10

What did Shing et al 2010 look at?

Answer 10

They looked into how episodic memory develops over a lifespan and how it is susceptible to impairment

Question 11

What are two interacting processes of episodic memory? Which are children and old people susceptible to problems with?

Answer 11

-Strategic component involves control of memory formation and retrival from elaboration, organising memories at encoding and evaluation for result of retrieval
Associative component binds together memories to form a coherent representation
Children have trouble with strategic, old with both

Question 12

What is the difference between explicit learning and implicit learning?

Answer 12

Implicit learning is not making a conscious effort to learn, we are unaware. Explicit is where we are aware we are learning

Question 13

What are the sex differences of memory?

Answer 13

women

• better autobiogrpahical memories richer in detail and better dated
• better recognition memory

Question 14

Why are there these sex differences in memory?

Answer 14

Heisz et al 2013 said womdn scan stimulusmore than men during encoding, women recognised more faces and spent more time scanning stimulus when first presented

Question 15

What is the consolidation hypothesis of memory?

Answer 15

It says memories enter the short term memory, are rehearsed and therefore transferred to the long term memory by consolidation.
Responding to stimuli triggers neural activity, this is sustained, causing changes in brain structures- long term memory

Question 16

Issue with the consolidation hypothesis of memory?

Answer 16

Assumes information has to enter the short term memory first and we have seen this is not always the case. Also says amount of time in short trm memory determines whether info is kept in long term memory which is not the case.

Question 17

Craik and Lockart 1972 believed memory was …….. How much memory persists is dependent on …….. Rates of forgetting are a function of …..

Answer 17

a by product of perceptual analysis
how deep something is analysed
type and depth of encoding

Question 18

What does deep and shallow processing result in

Answer 18

Deep processing results in long term memory whereas short does not

Question 19

What are the 2 rehearsal types put forward by Craik and Lockart 1972?

Answer 19

• Elaborative rehearsal where we attend to the meaning of information, form associations, take more info in - results in deep processing
• Maintenance rehearsal where we repeat verbal information so it remains in the short term memory not resulting in any lasting changes

Question 20

Is deep processing type 1 or type 2?

Answer 20

Deep processing is type 2 processing

Question 21

What are the limitations of the levels of processing theory?

Answer 21

• Unfalsifiable
• Hard to get a valid measure of processing depth, we have to assume
• Sometimes distinctive items cause people to remember things well without deep processing, bucking the trend of labels of processing.
- doesnt explain long term memory where no learning took place

Question 22

Give a supporting study for levels of processing

Answer 22

Craik and Tulving 1975
Presented people with a question then a word. They tested peoples recognition of the word. When the questions had been more semantically orientated the performance in the recognition test was better

Question 23

What did danker and anderson say about memory?

Answer 23

They said when we remember things it is because the regions of the brain that were active during encoding are the same at the time of retrieval. We are returning to the brain state present during the episode

Question 24

Is schematic or non schematic knowledge worse at declining?

Answer 24

It is said non schematic knowledge declines greater than schematic knowledge

Question 25

What does schematic knowledge mean?

Answer 25

Conceptual

Question 26

What arr twp ways we can test memory?What is the difference

Answer 26

Recall test (free or prompted
recognition test
Recognition tests simply ask whether someone has seen something before or not whereas recall is where we are actively bringing something to the surface that we learnt.

Question 27

Is recognition easier than recall?

Answer 27

No, as shown in Muter 178 famous names research

Question 28

What is the tip of the tongue phenomenon?

Answer 28

We know something but we cant assess it

Question 29

Discuss remembering as a creative process

Answer 29

Reconstruction
The idea that people remember things in terms of what they think should have happened or what they wished had happened rather than remembering them accurately. When there are only key details of a story we construct the missing portion in accordance to our expectations

Question 30

Bartlett’s research on reconstruction

Answer 30

he asked people to read a story then tested them by asking them to tell the story after several times after different periods of time. Each time the participants would tell the story slightly differently, never the same. This shows inaccuracy and people adding imagination into their memories.

Question 31

Discuss malleability of memory

Answer 31

Our subjects beliefs about the content or context of memory can influence recall of events.
Can occur through pressure to conform, bending to other peoples beliefs and internalising their memories rather than our own

Question 32

Outline the interference theory of forgetting

Answer 32

• retroactive interference is when new memories or learning starts to interfere with the old.
• Proactive interference is when old memories start to interfere with the new

Question 33

An issue with interference theory

Answer 33

The way lab studies study this theory may be more susceptible to interference than real life examples

Question 34

What is state dependent recall?

Answer 34

Recollection is aided by the contextual variable which act as retrieval cues. These can be mood, images, words etc. The usefulness of these cues is dependent on encoding specificity.

• place dependent
• mood dependent
• odour

Question 35

How can we manipulate mood in order to investigate mood dependent recall

Answer 35

• hypnosis
• drugs
• altering environmental context

Question 36

Whats more key to state dependent memory according to Eich 1995, mood or environment?

Answer 36

Mood more important than environment as more was remembered when the mood as reinstated than the environment

Question 37

Gooden and Baddeley state dependent recall research

Answer 37

Divers 1975
They taught divers information on land then tested then either underwater or on land, when tested on and their state is the same in learning as it was during recall. They also reversed this teaching them in water and the testing on land and in water. When learning and recall environment are coherent then recall is better than when learning environment and recall environment are different, as the retrieval cues are not present