Theme 6: Implicit memory and skill learning Flashcards
declarative memory
memory than can be described in words
non-declarative memory
memory that is hard to describe in words
what comes first cogn. skills or perceptual motor skills?
in general, the development of perceptual motor skills precede the development of cognitive skills
power law or practice
learning is quick at first, then slow
massed practice vs spaced practice
concentrated continuous practice vs practice spread out over long term
constant vs variabel practice
practice with a limited set of materials or skills vs a more varied set of materials and skills
serial reaction time tasks
pressing a key as soon as a visual cue indicates which one to press
Fitts’ three stages to skill learning:
1) cognitive stage = active thinking to encode the skill
2) associative stage = use of stereotyped actions to perform the skill
3) autonomous stage = less dependent on memories and movements have become automatised
rotary pursuit task
having to keep the end of a pointed stick above a target drawn on a rotating disk (usually used to measure perceptual motor learning)
genetic influence on skills
the more practice people have, the more their performance differences are due to genetic differences
transfer specificity
restricted applicability of some learned skills to specific situations
identical elements theory (Thorndyke)
transfer of learned abilities to novel situations depends on the number of elements int he new situation that are identical to the learning situation
learning set formation
acquiring the ability to learn novel tasks rapidly based on frequent experiences with similar task
brain substrates for learning:
basal ganglia, cerebral cortex and cerebellum: cortical areas –> basal ganglia –> thalamus –> brain stem
function basal ganglia
-important for perceptual motor skill
explanation for rat and platform experiment:
rats with basal ganglia damage have difficulty learning to swim toward a platform and instead learn to swim to a particular location to escape the water (saving = that location, not the platform)
mirror tracing task
using a mirror to trace figure –> cerebellum damage leads to decreased performance because no learning
most effective treatment for parkinson
-deep brain stimulation to change disruptive patterns in activity
savings method of measuring retention
the amount of time needed to learn material perfectly –> savings is measuring how this improves in fewer number of trials or less time taken
roediger et al: tasks they added to complete the square
-graphemic cued recall task = visual similarity, no semantic relation thus episodic & data driven
- general knowledge = GK questions thus conceptual and implicit
roediger et al: goal + results
GOAL: are dissociations found between systems account or modes of processing
RESULTS: dissociations found supported transfer appropriate processing
Distinct memory systems account
distinction between declarative and procedural knowledge
transfer appropriate processing approach
distinction between conceptually driven implicit test and data driven episodic memory
generation effect
information is better recalled when it was generated by themselves rather than read
Gabrieli et al: goal and experiment 1
-goal: examining perceptual implicit memory, conceptual implicit memory, and explicit memory in patient MS
-hypothesis: MS would have impaired visual implicit memory for words and would show reduced priming on perceptual identification task
-method: perceptual identification task and recognition task
-MS showed impaired implicit memory for words as in reduced priming
-double dissociation between explicit memory for words (impaired in amnesiacs) and implicit memory for words (impaired in MS)
Gabrieli experiment 2:
-Hypothesis: MS would show reduced priming in word stem completion in visual words, but intact word stem completion on auditory words
-results: reduced priming after visual words, intact priming on auditory words in MS
Gabrieli experiment 3:
-hypothesis: MS intact conceptual implicit memory for words thus priming
-method: category generation task with semantic and nonsemantic/visual judgments.
-results: MS had normal results
Gabrieli: general results
Pattern of performance in MS: intact explicit memory and contextual implicit memory, but impaired visual implicit memory
