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PROCESSES OF MEMORY NOTES
Memory - The
,
and later measured
of a response that was previously acquired.
The Learning Process is made up of Two Stages: Acquisition & Retention
Acquisition – The initial
of information.
Affected by…
1.
Process
2. Degree of
3.
of the Learner
4. Type of
Followed
5.
of Material to be Learned
6. Transfer of
(Application)
Situational Factors that Influence Acquisition:
Attention:
o Sensory Gating – process by which the brain sends messages to some of the
sensory systems to
the amount of information they must deal
with.
o Example:
o Parallel vs. Sequential Attention (parallel sensory processing)
o Parallel – Useful only when receiving
info. Brain processes
several different stimuli
o Sequential Attention –
Level, treat each piece of info
in order.
o Feature Extraction (Decoding) – Sensory System selects which
stimuli to process then establishes
for these stimuli.
o Example: “r” is different from “f”
Characteristics of the Learner:
o
Differences: development, motivation, expression of
emotions
o Preparedness –
. Example: Chimps can’t
speak but are prepared for signing.
The Learning Curve:
o Performance is not always an accurate indicator of
.
Methods that Influence Acquisition:
1. Overlearning – any
over the point of acquisition
o Follows the law of
returns – more is not always better.
2. Knowledge of Results: Feedback – any info about the
of a response.
o Leads to
acquisition of new material
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
o
feedback is more beneficial than
Distribution of Practice –
. (Take Breaks)
Whole-Part Distribution – Deciding whether to learn the
amount of
material as a whole or divide it into
to learn. Depends on the task.
Active vs. Passive Approach – The more
(active) you are in your
learning the better you will remember it.
Primacy & Recency Effects – Tend to remember info that came
and
.
Content – We are better able to remember info that we can make
to and infer meaning from.
The Information Processing Model:
 Encoding - getting information
the memory system
 Storage - the
of encoded information over time
 Retrieval - getting encoded information
of memory storage
How is our memory like a computer?
 Both
data
 We can activate information from our
term memory (hard drives)
 Information on the screen disappears if not used right away –
term
memory
Encoding:
 Serial Position Effect - The tendency to recall the
and
items in a list
o Primacy effect – the ability to recall information near the
of a
list
o Recency effect – the ability to recall information near the
of a list
 Spacing Effect - The tendency for distributed practice to yield better
than is achieved through massed practice (
)
o Distributed Practice - Spreading rehearsal out in
sessions
separated by period of
o Usually
the recalling of the information
 Mass Practice - Putting all rehearsal together in
session
(cramming)
o Not as effective as
practice
3 Types of Encoding:
 Semantic Encoding – Encoding of
o Self-Reference Effect - Making information
person by making it
to one’s life
to a
 Acoustic Encoding - Encoding information based on the
information
 Visual Encoding - •Encoding information based on the
information
 Which one of these is best for retention?
of the
of the
Encoding: Organizing Information
o Chunking - Organizing information into
units
o More information can be encoded if organized into meaningful
o Which of the tips for becoming a better encoder can you use to improve
your encoding skills?
Mnemonic Devices:
 A memory
or technique for remembering specific facts
 Write an example of one that you’ve used in the past:
o Method of
- A mnemonic device in which the person associates items to
be remembered with imaginary
Example:
o Peg-word System - A mnemonic device in which the person associates items to
remember with a
of peg words already memorized
o Goal is to
the items to remember with the items on the pegs
Example:
o Categorical Clustering: Grouping items you want to remember by
Example:
o Acronyms - Set of letters from a word or phrase in which each
stands of a certain other word or concept.
Example:
o Acrostics - Initial letters that taken in order form a word or phrase that
what you want to remember.
Example:
o Interactive Images - Link a set of
words by creating visual
representations for the words and then picturing
among the items.
Examples:
o Keyword System - Learning isolated words by linking
meanings together.
Example:
and
3 Storage Systems:
1. Sensory Memory - The
, initial coding of sensory information in
the memory system
–Iconic store –
information,
second
–Echoic store –
information
second
o Information held just long enough to make a
on its importance
2. Short-Term Memory - •
, activated memory which holds
information briefly before it is stored or forgotten
o Holds approximately
, plus or minus two, chunks of information
o Can retain the information as long as it is
o Also called “
memory”
3. Long-Term Memory - The relatively
and
storehouse of the memory system
o Holds memories
conscious effort
Retrieval: - The process of getting information out of memory
Two forms of retrieval
1. Recall - A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information
o Example:
2. Recognition - A measure of memory in which a person must
items learned earlier
o Example:
o Context Effect - The enhanced ability to retrieve information when you are in an
similar to the one in which you encoded the information
o State Dependent Memory - The enhanced ability to retrieve information when the
person is in the same
state they were in when they
encoded the information
o The retrieval state is
with the encoding state