Lecture 10 - Learning and memory

Question 1

Describe the working memory model.

Answer 1

(see relevant powerpoint slides)

Question 2

What are the two types of long-term memory?

Answer 2

• Explicit/ declarative memory (consciously accessible)
– Episodic Memory
– Semantic Memory

• Implicit memory (unconscious, difficult to verbalise)

Question 3

Describe the episodic memory.

Answer 3

• Episodic Memory: specific events, associated with contextual detail, require reconstruction of event

• Examples include memories of the past (what, where, when?)
– e.g. memory of what you had for breakfast last Tuesday – or where you went on holiday in 2015

• Autobiographical (autonoetic consciousness)
• Mental time travel

REFERENCE
Tulving, E. (2002). Episodic memory: from mind to brain. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 1-25.

Question 4

Describe the semantic memory.

Answer 4

• Semantic Memory: Facts, concepts, general knowledge
• Examples: Snow is white, Boris Johnson is Prime Minister, knowledge of previous lecture

• Do dogs bark?
– May be based on experience of dogs barking (doesn’t have to be, and you don’t have to remember any particular event)

• Do dogs breath air/produce milk?
– Unlikely to be based on specific experiment

Question 5

Describe the implicit procedural memory.

Answer 5

• Procedural Memory: unconscious, difficult to verbalise how we do them

– Examples include cognitive skills like problem- solving, Soduko, playing chess
– Perceptual-motor skills like driving, dancing, swimming
– Perceptual-motor loop: Perception guides motor output which generates perceptual input
– Difficult to teach? Learned via explicit memory processes e.g. learning to drive?

Question 6

What is implicit learning?

Answer 6

• People get faster, but they get even faster on the repeated sequence, even though they don’t notice that the sequence is repeated
• This can happen even when you only observe someone doing the task (Heyes & Foster, 2002)

Question 7

Describe the power law of practice.

Answer 7

(T=BN-α)

Performance improves with practice, but the trial-to-trial improvement in performance decreases with practice.
Diminishing return
from practice.

(see relevant powerpoint slides for graph)

Question 8

What are primacy and Recency effects?

Answer 8

When people learn a list
of words they tend to recall
more words from the
beginning (primacy) and
the end (recency) of the list. 

Primacy: due to more
Rehearsal of first words
Recency: due to words still being in short-term memory

Question 9

List 3 reasons as to why we might forget a piece of information.

Answer 9

• Insufficient encoding?
– Not paying attention (Problems with selective attention)
– Levels of processing (Craik & Lockhart, 1972):
• Information that we process ‘deeply’ (more meaningful, embedding in semantic network) seems to be better retained that information that is encoded in a shallow, superficial way (eg based on physical attributes)
• Problem of circularity

• Loss of information during consolidation?
– Information does not get stored
– Patients with amnesic syndrome

• Effect of retrieval information (how we measure dependent variable)
– Recall tests versus recognition tests
– Free versus cued recall tests

Question 10

Define recall.

Answer 10

• Recall: Retrieval of information from the past
– Free recall: Retrieval of information without any
cues
– Cued recall: Retrieval of information with a cue

Question 11

Define recognition.

Answer 11

• Recognition: Identification of an item as encountered before (as old) amongst novel items (distractors)
– Single probe
– Multiple choice

Question 12

READ PAGES 274-304

Answer 12

(make notes if you want or just teach yourself with whiteboard)

also there are more studies on end of powerpoint.