1. Learning and Remembering

2. Memory Model Memory Declarative Procedural Explicit Implicit
Semantic episodic skills priming simple nonassociative
Memory memory motor perceptual conditioning habituation
Facts events perceptual cognitive sensitization
cognitive

3. Implicit memory (procedural)
Skills
Motor skills – riding a bicycle; requires conscious effort to learn but becomes automatic with practice
Perceptual skills – we learn how to organize stimuli into complex wholes
Cognitive skills – learning to solve puzzles and problems

4. Implicit memory Priming
Perceptual priming – seeing one member of a category makes recognizing another member of the category quicker
Semantic priming – seeing a related word will speed up recognition of a second word
Meyer et al, 1975 – subjects given a word and then a string of letters. They were told to determine if the second string was a word or not
3 conditions
Words were related bread- butter; nurse – butter
Words phonetically the same bribe – tribe; rumor-fumor
Words graphemically similar phonetically different touch - couch

5. Implicit memory 3 Associative learning
Classical conditioning – learning an association between two stimuli
Operant conditioning – learn to associate a response with a reward or punishment

6. Implicit memory 4 Nonassociative learning
Habituation – reduced response to a frequently presented stimuli
Sensitization – increased response to a frequently presented stimuli

7. Explicit Memory – Episodic and Semantic
Both forms of memory are best remembered when the information is organized – it makes sense
Natural organization – similarities exist between the material to be remembered – material induced organization
Subjective organization – the use of mnemonics – we incorporation or induce an organization because it is not naturally organized

8. Mnemonics
Formal – pre-existing memory aids that usually have been developed and used by others
Method of loci
Peg word device
Acronyms such as HOMES or NOIR
Informal – we invent ourselves, they are personal to us
Mnemonics work by doing 3 things
Provide structure to the information
Assist in the storage of information
Provide retrieval cues to help access memories

9. Early memory research - Ebbinghaus
1st systematic psychological studies of memory
Best know for 3 things:
Used himself as his only subject
Invented the use of nonsense syllables; the C-V-C triad
Use of relearning paradigm and concept of savings
Relearning paradigm seen as innovative use of nonsense syllables recently criticized as being too artificial

10. Metamemory
Ebbinghaus used nonsense syllables because he knew his memory could be influenced by previous learning
This is called metamemory – knowledge about our own memory, how it works and how sometimes it doesn’t work
Generally it increases with age and experience
It allows us to change memory strategies if we feel we are not doing well
We are not always accurate in our knowledge

11. Storage in episodic memory
Key to storing information is rehearsal
Ebbinghaus repeating syllable lists over and over created best memory for lists
Led to theory that the more frequently information is present the better it is remembered
2nd theory based on the idea that making information more distinctive – different from other information makes it easier to understand – von Restorf effect
You should notice that important terms are highlighted in your text book as a cue they are important

12. Levels of processing theory
Craik and Lockhart (1972)
Two fundamental assumptions of levels of processing
1. Memory is produced through perception and comprehension –we have to attend to information and the more attention you pay to it, the better it is remembered, but it does not depend upon conscious intent
2. Memory is different depending upon how information is encoded or how it is rehearsed

13. Levels of processing – types of rehearsal
Type 1 or maintenance rehearsal – nonsemantic rehearsal of information; repetition of information as in memorization
Considered shallow processing because most of the information is lost if rehearsal stops
Type 2 or elaborative rehearsal - semantic processing of information; using the meaning of the material to better remember it
Gets information into long term memory – deep level processing

14. Levels of processing – two predictions
1. Deep processing takes longer than shallow processing
Deep processing results in better memory than shallow processing

15. Levels of processing Supporting studies Craik and Watkins (1973)
Craik and Tulving (1975)

16. Levels of processing - Problems
In ability to define shallow or deep levels independent of performance on memory tests
No method existed for predicting ahead of time whether a rehearsal strategy was shallow or deep
The only way to determine whether a strategy was deep processing was to see if it improved memory
Task effects – Glenberg (1977) – found support for levels of processing on recall memory tests, but not on a recognition test

17. Levels of processing conclusions
Levels of processing is a useful description of how we can improve memory, but not useful from a scientific perspective.
Looking at how material is organized and ways we can organize information is more useful

18. Visual imagery
Why does the method of loci techniques and other uses of visual imagery improve memory?
Paivio’s dual coding hypothesis:
Word’s with concrete referents are remembered better than abstract concepts
These words are encoded into memory twice
Once as a word with meaning
Second as a visual image – you can form a visual image of the object the word stands for

19. Conclusion about the storage of information
Information is best stored in ways that it will be best retrieved
Encoding specificity:
Information should not be stored as isolated facts but incorporated into a mental representation that includes other information related to the new information
This related information can serve as retrieve cues which can help memory retrieval

20. Retrieval from Episodic Memory
Basic competing theories:
Decay theory; forgetting is a storage problem; memory traces decay from storage and are lost
Interference theory – there is no forgetting; memories are permanent, but are sometimes inaccessible as a result of interference

21. Interference theory More popular as a experimental paradigm
Seems to fit the data better than decay Jenkins and Dallenbach (1924)
Interference was much easier to study experimentally and an experimental task already existed – paired associate task

22. Paired associate learning
Proactive interference
proactive interference: learn one list of paired associates; then learn a 2nd list. Learning of the 1st list interferes with memory for 2nd list. Most interference if the same words are used
List list Test list 2
Tall – bone tall - bench
Plan – leaf plan - pencil
Nose – fight nose - wait
Park – flea park - student
Grew – cook grew - window

23. Paired associate learning
Retroactive interference – learn 1st list then learn 2nd list. 2nd list will interfere with your ability to remember the first. Little interference if 2nd list unrelated to 1st.
List list Test list 1
Tall – bone tall - bench
Plan – leaf plan - pencil
Nose – fight nose - wait
Park – flea park - student
Grew – cook grew - window

24. Paired associate learning
Proactive transfer – learning 1st list facilitates or helps learning 2nd list
List 1 List2
Tall – bone smoke – arm
Plan – leaf mess – people
Nose – fight rabbit – several
Smoke – hand tall - skeleton
Mess – crowd plan – tree
Rabbit – few nose - battle

25. Paired associate learning
Negative transfer – learning a 2nd list is more difficult because of same words used, but in different pairs
List 1 list 2
Tall – bone plan - bone
Plan – leaf smoke - leaf
Nose – fight rabbit fight
Park – flea grew - flea
Grew – cook nose - cook

26. Behaviorist interpretation
Reason for interference was that subjects learned A – B associations, which A word was associated with which B words. When they learned new associations, they had to unlearn the A – B associations
Slamecka (1966) – 1st associations (A – B) were not unlearned when A – C associations learned
Subjects presented with A words and told to come up with their own B words using free association
The learned new A – C associations tested on the A- B associations they had made – no interference
Paired associate task irrelevant for memory where meaning was involved

27. Memory failure as retrieval failure
Memories are for the most part permanent – new information interferes with the retrieval not storage of information
Or there is an active inhibition of irrelevant information – you avoid retrieving unimportant information
Tulving and Pearlstone (1966)

28. Retrieval and encoding specificity
Memory is best when you try to retrieve information under the same circumstances under which it was learned – context can provide effective retrieval cues
Thompson and Tulving (1970)
Given word list under 3 conditions
No cue given, just the words to be remembered
Weakly associated cue wind – COLD
Highly associated cue hot - COLD
Memory of words tested under same 3 conditions
Encoding specificity can even cause recall to be better than recognition

29. Two ways retrieval cues can be effective
1. You remember previously learned information and spontaneously encode it while learning new information
2. The retrieval cue is presented along with the information to be remembered
You could be generating your own retrieval cues to information in a lecture
Or I could provide you with retrieval cues

30. Example of the importance of context
Subjects bilingual in Russian and English
Subjects remembered more life experiences from the period when they spoke Russian when interviewed in Russian
Remembered more of their English speaking lifetime when interviewed in English
What does this imply about studying psychology together

31. Amnesia
The loss of memory or memory ability caused by injury or disease
Amnesias can be classified by the type of memory loss and in relationship to where the damage is located

32. Amnesia terms
Retrograde amnesia – loss of memory for information acquired before damage occurred
Anterograde amnesia – disruption of memory for acquiring new information after the damage occurred
Dissociation – one form of memory is impaired while another is intact
Double dissociation – in one patient memory A is impaired but not memory B; in a second patient, memory B is impaired but not memory A

33. Amnesias classified by type of memory loss
Patient K. C. – motorcycle accident –
complete loss of episodic memory after his accident – no old or new memories
Intact semantic memory – remembers and can learn new factual information
Patient H. M. – surgical removal of medial temporal cortex
Anterograde episodic amnesia, semantic and most retrograde episodic memory intact
Korsakoff's syndrome – anterograde episodic amnesia with deficits in metamemory

34. Dissociation of implicit and explicit memory
Schacter and Graf (1987) –study of memory in Alzheimer’s disease
Poor performance on explicit memory test
Normal performance on implicit memory test