memory lecture 3

Question 1

what is pragmatic research?

Answer 1

seeking ways to improve people’s ability to learn and remember

Question 2

what is experimental research?

Answer 2

documenting the existence and nature of memory phenomena with observations that are systematically collected

Question 3

what is atheoretical research?

Answer 3

characterising memory in an informal manner- focus on phenomena rather than explanations

Question 4

what is theoretical research?

Answer 4

explaining the mechanisms of memory with theories

Question 5

what is current memory research?

Answer 5

experimental and theoretical

Question 6

what is the most useful memory research?

Answer 6

pragmatic and atheoretical

Question 7

who was the first person to study memory?

Answer 7

Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)

Question 8

what did Plato and Aristotle find out about memory in 4BC?

Answer 8

described memory metaphors

eg) aviary model- memories are like birds- flutter around the head but cannot always catch them

Question 9

what did Aristotle find out about memory?

Answer 9

Laws of Association- things that are encoded together are remembered together

Question 10

what is the method of Loci?

Answer 10

used to remember speeches etc- asign a memory to a certain place

Question 11

what did Ebbinghaus do to experiment with memory?

Answer 11

did systematic experiments on his own brain

studied nonsense syllables with no meaning

Question 12

what is the method of complete mastery?

Answer 12

Ebbinghaus measured how long it took him to learn a list well enough that he could repeat it perfectly on two occasions

Question 13

what is the method of savings?

Answer 13

Ebbinghaus measured retention- how much less time he took to relearn a list

Question 14

is initial or re-encoding faster?

Answer 14

re-encoding

Question 15

what does the forgetting function suggest?

Answer 15

after learning things we do forget, but initial rapid forgetting does plateau after a period of time

Question 16

what does the learning function suggest?

Answer 16

longer list is harder to learn

encoding 7 items is almost instant

no evidence for maximum list length

Question 17

what is massed encoding?

Answer 17

learning all at once during one period of time

Question 18

what is distributed encoding?

Answer 18

learning during separate periods of time

Question 19

is massed encoding or distributed encoding better for initial learning?

Answer 19

massed encoding means you learn quicker

Question 20

is massed or distributed encoding better over a period of time?

Answer 20

distributed

Question 21

what happened in Baddeley and Longman (1978) experiment?

Answer 21

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

Question 22

why does distributed encoding work?

Answer 22

hard (but more effective)

encoding variability

deficient processsing hypothesis

study phase retrieval

Question 23

what is encoding variability?

Answer 23

multiple learning experiences in different contexts produce more available cues

Question 24

what is the deficient processing hypothesis?

Answer 24

don’t pay as much attention to recently encountered things

Question 25

what is study phase retrieval?

Answer 25

with distributed learning, tend to retrieve the previous episode of learning each time you re-learn, retrieval itself benefits memory

Question 26

what is encoding in context?

Answer 26

when we are asked to remember words, easier to remember when the words aren’t mixed up and are grouped into common categories

Question 27

what theroretical structures exist in memory?

Answer 27

context
schemata
scripts
frames

Question 28

what did Brewer and Treyens (1981) research?

Answer 28

schematic memory for places

Question 29

what did Brewer and Treyens find out about schematic memory for places?

Answer 29

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

Question 30

what happened in a variation of Brewer and Treyens (1981) experiment?

Answer 30

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

Question 31

what did Smith and Graesser (1981) find out about schema expectancy?

Answer 31

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

Question 32

how can we enhance encoding?

Answer 32

relating new information to existing knowledge

Question 33

what is the generation effect?

Answer 33

memory for self generated items is better than items you have been presented with

Question 34

what is the testing effect?

Answer 34

revising is always best done by testing knowledge rather than just elaborating it