Human Learning &
Memory
Siena Heights University
Chapters 7 & 8
Dr. S.Talbot

Cognitive Process
◦ Def. – how people ______, ______, ______
and ______ about their environment.
◦ Edward Tolman’s Purposive Behaviorism
 Learning can be internal rather than external
(latent).
 Behavior is purposive (has a purpose).
 Expectations affect behavior.
 Learning results in an organized body of
information.
Chapter 7 & 8 –Cognitive Views of Learning

Gestalt Psychology – we experience our
world beyond the simple sensations
produced.
◦ Perception is often ________ than reality.
Chapter 7 & 8 –Cognitive Views of Learning

Gestalt Psychology – we experience our world
beyond the simple sensations produced.
◦ Perception is often different than reality.
◦ The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
◦ An organism structures and organizes experience
(911).
◦ An organism is predisposed to organize information
in certain ways.




Law
Law
Law
Law
of
of
of
of
proximity
similarity
Pragnanz (kiss)
closure
◦ Problems solving involves insight.
Chapter 7 & 8 –Cognitive Views of Learning

Verbal Learning
◦ Serial Learning (days of the week) v. Paired
Associate Learning (a new language).
◦ Serial Learning
 Primacy effect
 Recency effect
◦ Massed practice v. Distributed practice.
◦ Characteristics of the materials affects the
speed at which we learn and forget.
 Hermann Ebbinghaus
Chapter 7 & 8 –Cognitive Views of Learning

Nonsense syllables (and even
pronunciation BPX v. DNK)
◦ Meaning is important.
◦ We search for meaning.
Chapter 7 & 8 –Cognitive Views of Learning
People Organize what they learn.
 People learn ideas faster than verbatim
words.
 People use encoding strategies (i.e.
images, pneumonic, number sequences).

Chapter 7 & 8 –Cognitive Views of Learning

Cognitive Theory Differences
◦ Some learning is unique to ______(v. universal
to all organisms).
◦ People are ______ involved in learning (v.
passive).
◦ Some learning does not get reflected in
external behaviors.
Chapter 7 & 8 –Cognitive Views of Learning

Human Memory v. Learning
◦ How is learning different than memory?
◦ Memory is the ability to encode, store and
retrieve information.
◦ Learning is the acquisition of new information
and skills.
Chapter 7 & 8 –Cognitive Views of Learning

Dual – Store Model of Memory
Register
◦ Long and short - term memories are distinctly
different.
 Color changing card trick.
Chapter 7 & 8 –Cognitive Views of Learning

Human Memory
◦ Sensory
Attention – Color changing cards
Significance of info, emotion, incongruity,
motion, intensity, novelty, social cues.
Limitations to attention?
◦ Short – term or working memory.
◦ Digit Span: Test of attention and short-term memory; string of numbers is
recalled forward or backward
◦ Typically part of intelligence tests or MSE.
◦ Magic Number 7 (Plus or Minus 2): STM is limited to holding seven (plus or minus
two) information bits at once
◦ Information Bits: Meaningful units of information
◦ Information Chunks
Meaning
◦ Long - term
 Capacity
 Duration?
 What we remember depends on what we find__________, what
we regard as ___________ or what we find ___________
strong.
◦ Debate.
Chapter 7 & 8 –Cognitive Views of Learning

Engrams, Neurons and Brain Mapping
◦ Priming
◦ Constructive Processing
Chapter 7 & 8 –Cognitive Views of Learning