1. Study Skills Learning & Memory
Topic 7
Learning & Memory
PowerPoint by JoAnn Yaworski
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2. ©2003 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers.
Learning & Memory
How does learning and memory work?
What are the three stages of remembering?
How can you improve your ability to learn?
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3. ©2003 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers.
Memory
Encoding (or acquisition) is a process of acquiring information.
Storage occurs when information is stored, briefly or permanently.
Retrieval is the process of getting at and using information held in storage.
Selective Attention sorts out the more important signals from the less important ones.
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A Model of Memory
Encoding
Storage
Retrieval
Short-
Term
memory
Long-
Term
memory
Environmental
Stimuli
Sensory
storage
Discard
Forgetting
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5. Time Lapse from Initial Learning: Amount of Material Remembered:
Rate of Forgetting
Time Lapse from Initial Learning:
1 day
7 days
14 days
21 days
28 days
63 days
Amount of Material Remembered:
54%
35%
21%
18%
19%
17%
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6. ©2003 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers.
Short-Term Memory
Holds the information acquired from your sensory storage system.
Lasts 20 seconds or less.
Stores an average of 7 pieces of information at a time.
Example: Your ability to remember a telephone number temporarily until you have a chance to dial it.
Example: Your ability to remember a lecture’s words until you have a chance to write them down.
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7. Transferring Information from Short-term to Long-term Memory
Rote learning
Elaborative rehearsal
Recoding
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Rote Learning
Repeating information over and over again until you can remember it.
Examples:
Learning the spelling of a word.
Memorizing the exact definition of a word.
Repeating a formula until you can remember it.
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9. Elaborative Rehearsal
Learning information by connecting new material with already learned material through the process of asking questions and making associations.
Example – Relating your experiences to what you read in a textbook, as in
Relating your need for food, clothing, and shelter to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in a psychology textbook.
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Recoding
The process of grouping information so that you can remember it.
Example – Eggs, carrots, bleach, oranges, laundry, soup, milk, onion, yogurt, cheese, plums, ammonia.
Dairy
Produce
Cleaning
eggs
carrots
laundry soup
milk
onions
ammonia
cheese
oranges
bleach
yogurt
plums
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Long-term Memory
Contains facts, details, impressions, and experiences that you have accumulated throughout your life.
Three types of long-term memory coding:
Linguistic
Imaginal
Motor
Dual Coding is using more than one type of coding to store information.
Produces better recall if more than one type of coding is used.
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12. Linguistic Coding of Long-term Memory
Verbal information – Ideas, concepts, and facts can be encoded and stored as language.
Activities that require linguistic coding:
Taking lecture notes.
Underlining text.
Writing outlines.
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13. Imaginal Coding of Long-term Memory
Involves creation of mental or visual images.
Examples of Imaginative Coding:
Drawing a picture of a process.
Sketching the human body to learn its parts.
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14. Motor Coding of Long-term Memory
Refers to physical activities.
Examples of motor coding:
Driving a car
Riding a bicycle
Hitting a baseball
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Retrieval
Pulling stored information from your memory.
Reasons why we are sometimes unable to retrieve information.
Never completely learned the information.
Did not study the information immediately.
Not asking the correct questions to retrieve it.
Forgot the information.
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16. Proactive Interference: Retroactive Interference:
Forgetting
Proactive Interference:
When old knowledge interferes with recently acquired knowledge.
Example:
Forgetting a new math formula that is similar to one learned in the previous week.
To prevent forgetting, examine similarities and differences between old and new learning.
Retroactive Interference:
When new learning interferes with the recall of old learning.
Example:
You cannot remember a lecture from two weeks ago because this week’s lecture is blocking it.
To prevent forgetting, review previously learned material frequently.
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17. Strategies for Improving Encoding
Block out everything that does not relate to what you want to remember.
Use visual, auditory, and motor learning modes.
Carefully and specifically define your purpose.
Use previewing.
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18. Strategies for Improving Storage (1)
Review the learned information immediately:
Review the chapter immediately.
Review all major headings and bold-face print.
Form a question for each heading.
Answer each of your questions.
Recall the chapter’s basic organization.
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19. Strategies for Improving Storage (2)
Organize and recode information to be stored.
Search for organizational pattern of the material.
Look for similarities and differences.
Look for sequences.
Look for obvious divisions of the material.
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20. Strategies for Improving Retrieval
Use visualization.
Use categorization.
Complete several reviews to complete master material.
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21. Visit the Longman Study Skills Web Site
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