A CQUIRING, P ROCESSING, & R ETAINING I NFORMATION

F ACTORS THAT I NFLUENCE L EARNING  Practice = repetition of a task  Attention = detecting the stimulus to attend to  ex. Teacher’s voice  Chemicals = stimulants & depressants  Emotions = humor, etc.  Feedback = discovering the consequences of a behavior or the results of a performance  ex. Garbage can game  Implications of feedback activity = people need to know how they have done in order to learn

T RANSFER OF L EARNING  Transfer = learning of one set of materials influences the later learning of another set  Positive transfer = facilitates learning in a new situation  ex. Learn stick shift car, then learn stick shift truck  Negative transfer = hinders learning in a new situation  ex. Study French, then German

I NFORMATION P ROCESSING  Schema = pattern; plan for solving problems  ex. How do you get to your next class? [Think about which class it is, remember where you are now, see the layout of the school, see the position of the next class, follow the hallway to that class from this one.]  Elaboration = add associations & details to information so that it is easier to remember  ex. “Jack’s birthday is February 9.” becomes “Jack’s birthday is the day before my dad’s birthday…it is February 9.”  Mnemonic devices = unusual associations to help you remember  ex. Roy G. Biv (colors of the rainbow)

 Principle learning = learn the underlying theme of the material; look for the pattern in the details  ex. Adam is 4 & needs 10 hours of sleep per nigh; Joe is 10 & needs 9 hours; Sandi is 16 & needs 8 hours; Maddy is 30 & needs 6 hours. SO, you need less sleep as you get older.  Chunking = organize information in “chunks” or groups  ex. Phone numbers, social security number I NFORMATION P ROCESSING

R ETAINING I NFORMATION (M EMORY )  Types of storage  sensory = unprocessed; held here until you decide to pay attention to it or ignore it iconic = visual  ex. Man walks by door acoustic = sound  ex. Fan kicks on  short-term = 1-30 seconds after exposure; 7-9 pieces of info used & discarded unless rehearsal takes place to move it into long-term ex. Look up number in phone book, dial, forget number (unless it’s important & you want to learn it)  long-term = information in sensory & short-term memory is processed & rehearsed; unlimited retention possibility ex. Song lyrics from the 1980s

 Photographic/eidetic = very rare; person can remember every detail of information after looking at picture/text  eyewitness memory = often wrong because people fill in details they don’t remember  Forgetting: Increase in errors when trying to bring learned material out of memory storage R ETAINING I NFORMATION (M EMORY )

M EASURES OF R ETENTION  Recognition = must identify the correct answer by picking one of the choices given  ex. Multiple choice questions  Recall = must remember the answer without cues/choices.  ex. Essay questions  Relearning = subject may have to relearn materials that he/she learned before  learning should be faster the 2nd time