memory lecture 3 Flashcards
what is pragmatic research?
seeking ways to improve people’s ability to learn and remember
what is experimental research?
documenting the existence and nature of memory phenomena with observations that are systematically collected
what is atheoretical research?
characterising memory in an informal manner- focus on phenomena rather than explanations
what is theoretical research?
explaining the mechanisms of memory with theories
what is current memory research?
experimental and theoretical
what is the most useful memory research?
pragmatic and atheoretical
who was the first person to study memory?
Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)
what did Plato and Aristotle find out about memory in 4BC?
described memory metaphors
eg) aviary model- memories are like birds- flutter around the head but cannot always catch them
what did Aristotle find out about memory?
Laws of Association- things that are encoded together are remembered together
what is the method of Loci?
used to remember speeches etc- asign a memory to a certain place
what did Ebbinghaus do to experiment with memory?
did systematic experiments on his own brain
studied nonsense syllables with no meaning
what is the method of complete mastery?
Ebbinghaus measured how long it took him to learn a list well enough that he could repeat it perfectly on two occasions
what is the method of savings?
Ebbinghaus measured retention- how much less time he took to relearn a list
is initial or re-encoding faster?
re-encoding
what does the forgetting function suggest?
after learning things we do forget, but initial rapid forgetting does plateau after a period of time
what does the learning function suggest?
longer list is harder to learn
encoding 7 items is almost instant
no evidence for maximum list length
what is massed encoding?
learning all at once during one period of time
what is distributed encoding?
learning during separate periods of time
is massed encoding or distributed encoding better for initial learning?
massed encoding means you learn quicker
is massed or distributed encoding better over a period of time?
distributed
what happened in Baddeley and Longman (1978) experiment?
trained postmen to type poscodes
training for one hour was most efficient, and training for four hours per day was the least efficient
however the one hour group were the least satisfied with training
why does distributed encoding work?
hard (but more effective)
encoding variability
deficient processsing hypothesis
study phase retrieval
what is encoding variability?
multiple learning experiences in different contexts produce more available cues
what is the deficient processing hypothesis?
don’t pay as much attention to recently encountered things
what is study phase retrieval?
with distributed learning, tend to retrieve the previous episode of learning each time you re-learn, retrieval itself benefits memory
what is encoding in context?
when we are asked to remember words, easier to remember when the words aren’t mixed up and are grouped into common categories
what theroretical structures exist in memory?
context
schemata
scripts
frames
what did Brewer and Treyens (1981) research?
schematic memory for places
what did Brewer and Treyens find out about schematic memory for places?
asked participants what they remembered about a room they sat in
9 people recalled books even though there were no books present- all false recall as it fits their schema of a student office
what happened in a variation of Brewer and Treyens (1981) experiment?
14 participants rated objects for schema expectancy- how likely the objects would be appear in a room like this
14 participants rated objects for saliency- how noticeable the object is
were good at remembering things scoring high for schema expectancy and salient objects
false recall almost always associated with high schema expectancy
what did Smith and Graesser (1981) find out about schema expectancy?
looked at memory for stories following general scripts
learned stories
some items in each story were typical of the script and others were atypical
atypical items were remembered particularly well- less likely false alarms for atypical items as tagged individually
how can we enhance encoding?
relating new information to existing knowledge
what is the generation effect?
memory for self generated items is better than items you have been presented with
what is the testing effect?
revising is always best done by testing knowledge rather than just elaborating it
