Learning & Cognition
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Warm-up
Brainstorm for one minute everything that comes
to mind when you think of the word:
◦LEARNING
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Students will be introduced to the behavioral
perspective in psychology, classical
conditioning in particular.
Students will know that within the study of
psychology the behaviorist perspective
focuses on behaviors that are observable, and
that within the behaviorist perspective
psychologists study classical conditioning,
operant conditioning, and social learning.
Students will be able to explain what is
distinctive about the classical conditioning
perspective.
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Is the way that a creature profits from its
experience; it’s the mechanism by which
past experience guides future behavior.
Learning involves making connections—
between past experiences and current
behavior, pain and response, rewards, etc.
◦ Connections between what you DO and a particular
event that follows (positive or negative)
◦ Actions have consequences!
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Behaviorists use the acronym A-B-C
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◦ Antecedent
◦ What happens before
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B
Behavior
the action performed
C
Consequence
after the action
All learning is a process of conditioning
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Making connections = associations
◦ Associative learning: learning that two events are
associated with each other.
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A way of learning in which two events are
associated with each other
What is learned is that two previously
unassociated stimuli are now “related” or
associated.
◦ Taste aversion learning
◦ Link between particular food and illness (accurate
or not)
◦ Learned that the taste of pesto was “aversive”
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Some key terms:
◦ Neutral Stimulus (NS): something that does not
produce a significant response
◦ Unconditioned stimulus (UC): stimulus that causes
a response that is AUTOMATIC not learned
◦ Unconditioned response (UR): response that is
AUTOMATIC, not learned
◦ Conditioned response (CR): a learned response to a
stimulus that was PREVIOUSLY NEUTRAL
◦ Conditioned stimulus (CS): a previously neutral
stimulus that, because of pairing with an
unconditioned stimulus, now produces a
conditioned response
Was conducting research on
digestion, but became
much more famous for
research on classical
conditioning
Dr. Pavlov was NOT a psychologist, but a
prominent Russian physiologist who won
the Nobel Prize for science in 1904 for his
research on digestion
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Label the different parts in the image:
Neutral Stimuli (NS); Unconditioned stimuli
(US); Unconditioned response (UR);
Conditioned stimuli (CS); Conditioned
response (CR)
Also label scenes 1, 2, 3, 4 in order
Describe what is happening in each scene
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Students will be able to explain and analyze
how learning and cognition are influenced
and shaped by classical conditioning;
students will participate in experiments that
demonstrate the classical conditioning
perspective and analyze the results
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Neutral Stimulus (NS):
something that does not produce a significant response
Unconditioned stimulus (UC):
stimulus that causes a response that is AUTOMATIC not
learned
Unconditioned response (UR):
response that is AUTOMATIC, not learned
Conditioned response (CR):
a learned response to a stimulus that was PREVIOUSLY
NEUTRAL
Conditioned stimulus (CS):
a previously neutral stimulus that, because of pairing
with an unconditioned stimulus, now produces a
conditioned response
Volunteer,
please!
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What is the NS? Bell
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What is the US? Water in the face
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What is the UR? Squint
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What is the CS? Bell
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What is the CR? Squint
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Additional terms
Extinction: when a Conditioned Response
(CR) no longer follows a Conditioned Stimulus
(CS)
 Think of Dwight Shrute: Jim stops giving him the Altoid
after the computer sound; Dwight will eventual “decouple” the sound and the response
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Reappearance of an extinguished response
after a rest period
Jim begins to give Dwight the
Altoid again after playing the
computer sound—the CR
returns!
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Similar stimuli produce similar responses
 Pavlov’s dog: after conditioning,
dog begins to salivate whenever
he hears any sound—not just
tuning fork, but bells, clocks,
music.
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Learned ability to distinguish between a CS
and other similar stimuli
 Dwight Shrute didn’t put his hand out
when he heard any old sound, just the
sound of Jim’s computer.
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Extinction:
◦ when a Conditioned Response (CR) no longer
follows a Conditioned Stimulus
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Spontaneous Recovery:
◦ Reappearance of an extinguished response after a
rest period
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Generalization:
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Discrimination:
◦ Similar stimuli produce similar responses
◦ Learned ability to distinguish between a CS and
other similar stimuli
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Little Albert
Founder of Behaviorism
Psychology should be the
scientific study of observable
behavior
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Neutral stimuli: __________________________
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Unconditioned response: _________________
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Unconditioned stimuli: ____________________
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Conditioned stimuli: ______________________
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Conditioned response: ____________________
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Two methods for reducing fears (extinction)
◦ Flooding: person is exposed to a harmless stimuli
until fear responses to that stimulus are
extinguished
 Fear of heights: How to overcome?
 Exposure to safe, high environments
 Forced exposure (tends to be unpleasant)
◦ Systematic desenitization:
 People taught relaxation techniques
 Exposed gradually to fearful stimuli gradually while
remaining relaxed
 Fear of snakes: show person pictures of snakes while
they are relaxed; then move on to real snakes from a
distance, then slowly bring them closer...and closer
until fear extinguished
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Counterconditioning: pleasant stimulus is
paired repeatedly with a fearful one,
counteracting the fear.
Child fears rabbits; gradually pair the child
with a rabbit while feeding child candy and
cookies; continue to bring animal closer,
paired with the treats, and so on.
Pleasure replaces fear (might, however, lead
to cavities!)
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Bird phobia
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Operant Conditioning
◦ People and animals learn to do certain things—and
not to do others—because of the results of what
they do
 Learn from CONSEQUENCES
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STUDYING
GOOD GRADES
Organisms (people) learn to engage in
behavior that results in desirable
consequences
CAUSE
EFFECT
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learning that is strengthened when behavior
is followed by positive reinforcement.
Voluntary responses are conditioned
(behaviors over which we have control)
“Everything we do and are
is determined by our
history of rewards and
punishments”
—B.F. Skinner
Most significant name in behaviorism
(behavior is controlled by reinforcement,
not your unconscious)
Research on operant conditioning
Creator of the operant chamber (Skinner
Box)
YouTube - Changing Behavior with
Operant Conditioning
Take notes on pigeon’s behavior; answer
questions: what influences pigeon’s
behavior? How might this knowledge be
helpful for people?
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Watch the video, and answer the following:
◦ What influences the puppy’s behavior?
◦ What positive reinforcement does the puppy receive
after performing the trick?
◦ Is there a link between the performance of the trick
and the positive reinforcement?
◦ Training a puppy to roll-over
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What is the stimulus?
◦ The food
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Reinforcement occurs when the rat discovers
that to get the stimulus (food) it must behave
a certain way (hit the lever)
It learns this by repeating the process several
times—hit the lever, food comes out.
Training a puppy: to get the treat, I need to
roll-over
The reinforcer is the treat (food, dog bisquit,
good grades, etc.
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All reinforcement increases the likelihood
that a behavior will be repeated
Primary reinforcers are things like food and
water—essential for life
Secondary reinforcers are learned—money,
attention, social approval; value is ascribed to
these reinforcers by the individual
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Positive reinforcers increase the frequency of
the behavior they follow when they apply
◦ Awards, food, prizes, praise, etc.
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Negative reinforcers increase the frequency of
the behavior they follow when they are
removed
◦ Discomfort, fear, shame
◦ When we are too hot in the sun, we seek the shade;
when something is stuck in our teeth, we use dental
floss, fear of failure motivates one to study for test
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Operant Conditioning
Big Bang Theory
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Watch the video, take notes on the
differences between classical conditioning
and operant conditioning
Conditioning
How did Pavlov condition the dogs to
salivate?
◦ By pairing an unconditioned stimulus (food) with a
neutral stimulus (bell)
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In operant conditioning, what is used to
generate a desired behavior?
◦ Reinforcement (which can be positive or negative)
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Primary
Food, water, air
Secondary
Varies greatly
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Rewards increase the
frequency of a
behavior
However, while
reinforcements remain
somewhat constant,
rewards vary greatly
(money, fame, prizes)
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Punishments are
unwanted events that
decrease frequency of
behavior they follow
NOT always effective
for altering behavior
long-term
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Negative reinforcement—removal of a
stimulus to increase a certain behavior
◦ Moving out of the hot sun into the shade
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Punishment—unwanted events that when they
are applied decrease the frequency of a
behavior they follow
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You are driving too fast, and the police pull you
over and give you a ticket; next time you’re out
driving, you’re more aware of your speed
◦ Punishment (positive)
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Your girlfriend kisses you because you bring her
flowers
◦ Reinforcement (positive)
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When you get in your car, you put on your
seatbelt because it quiets that annoying “ding
ding” sound
◦ Reinforcement (negative)
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Teacher takes a student’s cell phone away from
her in class because she’s texting.
◦ Punishment (positive)
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An accused murderer is executed for his crimes.
◦ Punishment (negative)
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Eating an entire box of chocolates and feeling
sick as a result
◦ Punishment (positive)
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You clean up your room so your mom will stop
nagging you.
◦ Reinforcement (negative)
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In your notebook, answer the following
question: In my life, __________________
reinforcement has worked best in my life.
One way in particular that it has helped me to
learn or change my behavior was when
_____________ (example.)
When you are done, turn and talk to your
neighbor, sharing your answers.
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Continuous reinforcement
◦ Reinforcement follows behavior EVERY time
◦ Every time the pigeon taps the disk, food is
dispensed
◦ Learning happens VERY QUICKLY
◦ However, once you stop the reinforcement,
EXTINCTION occurs quickly
◦ Not likely, virtually impossible to maintain
continuous reinforcement
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Partial reinforcement
Behavior reinforced SOMETIMES
Learning takes longer
Takes longer for extinction to occur
Do you love EVERY movie you see? But you keep
going, don’t you?
◦ Ever have a bad meal at your favorite restaurant?
But you go back…
◦ Learning takes longer—but lasts longer
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If the amount of time (interval) between
reinforcements of a behavior is greater than
zero seconds, it is on an interval schedule.
◦ Time between reinforcements
◦ Fixed interval: every five minutes, reinforcement
for behavior occurs (or whatever constant time)
 Teacher gives a quiz every Friday, you will likely study
every Thursday night (one-week fixed-interval
schedule)
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If the amount of time varies between
reinforcements…
◦ VARIABLE-INTERVAL SCHEDULE
◦ Reinforcement at 10:00, then at 10:05, then at
10:07, then at 10:13, and so on
◦ Pop-quizzes as opposed to quiz every Friday
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If desired response is reinforced EVERY time the
response occurs, there is a one-to-one (1:1) ratio
of response to reinforcement.
What if the response must occur five times before
being reinforced?
◦ 5:1
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Bruster’s Sweet Rewards
◦ Fixed or variable?
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With VARIABLE-Ratio schedule, reinforcement can
come at any time—unpredictability maintains a
HIGH RESPONSE RATE
gambling
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Shaping refers to an operant conditioning technique in
which reinforcers guide behavior closer and closer
towards a desired goal.
Teaching complex behaviors one step at a
time
shaping a child's behavior
Skinner believed that learning
could be broken down into
small steps
Developed teaching machines
that presented material to
students in a series of steps
(frames)
Need to master each frame
before moving on to the next
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Does not punish students for making errors
◦ Reinforces correct responses
◦ All students finish program with grade of 100%, but
do so at their own pace
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For cognitive psychologists learning is not
just behavior, but about the role of the
thought processes in determining behavior
People learn by thinking and watching
Latent Learning and Observational Learning
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Cognitive map—draw a map from memory of
someplace with which you are familiar
Learning that happens without reinforcement
Rats in a maze
learned their way
around even without
food (reinforcement)
They learned about
the layout even when
just wandering
around
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Think about your route to school…or when
you learned to drive
◦ How much you learn just by “wandering around” or
observing, taking “mental notes.”
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Knowledge that remains “hidden” until you
need it is LATENT LEARNING.
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Albert Bandura
bandura
We imitate what we see
Children learn to speak,
eat, play at least in part
by observing parents
and others
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Warm-up
Recover prior learning on observational
learning
Investigate impact of violence in media on
individuals, especially children
Review and analyze the PQ4R method of
learning
Commence study of memory, learning the
three types of memory and examples of each
Exit ticket—provide one example of each type
of memory
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For each image, describe what you see, and
then define the type of learning illustrated,
and explain why you chose that answer.
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A child who watches 2-4 hours of TV daily
will have seen 8,000 murders and another
100,000 acts of violence by the time he/she
has finished elementary school.
Most health professionals agree that media
violence contributes to aggression
◦ “models” of aggressive skills
◦ Violence as an effective means to resolving conflict
◦ Emotional desensitization
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Students learn more when they take an
ACTIVE approach to learning
PQ4R developed by psychologist Francis
Robinson; six steps
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Previewing
Questioning
Reading
Reflecting
Reciting
Reviewing
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Preview the subject matter in a textbook
means getting a general picture of what is
covered prior to reading a chapter
◦ Familiarity with the overall picture will give you a
cognitive map of the chapter
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Phrase questions about the subject matter in
each chapter
◦ Write down chapter headings
◦ Create questions based on those chapter headings;
“what is classical conditioning? Who is Ivan Pavlov?”
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After creating questions, read the chapter
with the purpose of answering them.
◦ Answer each question, jot down key words
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After reading, reflect on the subject matter
◦ Helps you to understand material more clearly
◦ Relate information to your personal life
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After reading, answering questions (reflect),
recite your answers
◦ Helps you to transfer information from short-term
to long-term memory
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Finally, review your work
◦ “disturbed” learning—review once a week
◦ Re-learning is highly effective
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I. What is classical conditioning
◦ A. Who is Ivan Pavlov?
◦ B. What do US, UR, CR, and CS mean?
◦ C. How is adaptation to the environment related to
classical conditioning?
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1. What is taste aversion?
2. What is extinction?
3. What is spontaneous recovery?
4. How do generalization and discrimination relate to
classical conditioning?
◦ (Found in your textbook, page 148)
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Brooke, Chris, Royce
Danny, Corey, Kristinia
Adrian, Samantha, Josh
Danielle, Nathan, Brian
Jonathan, Nikki, Emma
Mark, Tony, Carrington
Jerod, Nellie, Austin Carins
Austin Crockett, Delaney, Ramon
Kayla, Nelson, Claire
Michael, Danielle, Lexi
Henry, Zaria, D’Arcy
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“Memory is what makes our lives…Without it
we are nothing.” Luis Bunuel
◦ Do you agree or disagree?
Create your own statements on memory;
What is memory?
How does it work?
What role does memory play in your
lives and in the lives of those around you?
What is the importance of memory?
EPISODIC
SEMANTIC
IMPLICIT
MEMORY
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The process by which we recollect prior
experiences and information and skills
learned in the past
Copy the NAMES of the two objects you see:
EYEGLASSES
HOURGLASS
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Events (episodes)
Flashbulb memories—of such great
importance it’s like a flashbulb goes off and
we photograph every detail in our minds
Flashbulb memory
Special events that we recall frequently, have
special meaning
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General knowledge
◦ George Washington was the first President, Raleigh
is the capitol of NC
◦ Don’t recall WHEN we acquired the information
◦ Most of what you learn in school falls in this
category
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Both episodic and semantic memory are
examples of explicit memory—memory of
specific information
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Skills and procedures you have learned
◦ Throwing a ball, riding a bike, swimming, using a
computer, etc.
◦ Once a skill is acquired, it usually stays
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On the notecard write
◦ Your name
◦ The three kinds of memory
◦ Explain what flashbulb memories are
◦ Turn in to me on way out!
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BE SMART—DON’T CRAM TONIGHT; GET TO
BED EARLY, EAT A GOOD BREAKFAST—AND
CONQUER THE TEST TOMORROW!
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Learning
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Warm-up:
For each of the images, write down:
◦ 1) What kind of memory is displayed;
◦ 2) Provide one additional example of each kind of
memory.
Image Two
Image One
Image Three
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Warm-up: recover prior learning on three
types of memory
Teacher-led instruction: Three processes of
memory
◦ Students will be able to distinguish between
encoding, storage, and retrieval
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Students will engage in experimental
activities analyzing the three processes of
memory
Exit ticket: three processes of memory
Similar to a computer: write to
file, save to disk, read from disk
1. ENCODING: information into
memory system
2) STORAGE: retention of the information over
time
3) RETRIEVAL: process of getting information
out of the memory system
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We receive information: images,
sounds
1)
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Look at the letters on the screen for 30
seconds and memorize as much of the list as
you can
OTTFFSSENT
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Visual codes: when you looked at the letters,
did you try to see them in your mind as a
picture?
Acoustic codes: read the list aloud to
yourself and repeat it several times
Semantic codes: try and make sense of the
letters—last four letters were sent;
◦ Semantic means “relating to meaning”
King Plays
Chess On
Fat Girl’s
Stomach
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Any guesses as to what this is a list of?
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
nine, ten
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Maintaining stored information over time
Big difference between humans and
computers when it comes to storage?
◦ Computers need to be instructed to save info;
people use strategies
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Maintenance Rehearsal: repeating something
over and over again to keep it in memory
◦ Phone number, address, lines in a play
◦ POOR WAY OF LEARNING—does not make
connection to past learning
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Elaborative Rehearsal: make new information
meaningful by relating it to something you
already know well.
◦ Using new vocabulary words in sentences instead of
just repeating them individually
Organizational Systems:
Memory resembles a vast storehouse of
files and file cabinets in which you
store what you need to remember.
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On a sheet of paper, QUICKLY write down the
names of the 12 months of the year. I will
time you.
Now, QUICKLY write down the names of the
12 months of the year…alphabetically.
What’s the difference in response times? How
the information is organized in your memory.
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The more you learn, the more your memory
organizes new information it receives into
certain groups or classes according to
common features
Ever misplaced something??? Written a
history paper and mistakenly filed it in
your science notebook?
Sometimes our mental filing systems
erroneously organize new information,
making retrieval difficult.
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Locating the stored information and returning
it to conscious thought
Retrieval accomplished by knowing proper
procedures
◦ Different rules apply when remembering our own
names, family, friends as opposed to lines from a
play, mathematical formula
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Try now to retrieve the letters from earlier in
class flashed on the screen.
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How did you retrieve OTTFFSSENT?
◦ Most effective method would be to recall that they
were the numbers 1-10 (semantic code)
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Which word below is spelled correctly?
◦CONCEIVE or CONCIEVE?
◦ Which method of retrieval worked best?
 Acoustic (sounding the word aloud)?
 Maintenance rehearsal (saying it over and over
again)?
 Semantic code (“i before e except after c”)
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Context-dependent Memory: memories
dependent on the place where they were
encoded and stored
◦ Going back to where you grew up
◦ Students did better on a test when they studied in
the room where the test was administered
◦ Police take witnesses back to the scene of a crime
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State-dependent memories: retrieve
memories better when you are in the same
emotional state as when they were first
stored.
◦ Also same state of consciousness (drugs)
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On the Tip of the Tongue
◦ You feel you know something…you are SURE you
know it…but you can’t seem to verbalize it.
◦ Example: the singers name is on the tip of my
tongue
 We’ve associated a sound with a name, and might be
using an acoustic cue when we originally received the
information using a semantic cue.
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In this lesson you will:
◦ Continue to develop your understanding and
mastery of the study of memory
◦ Focus today will be on short-term memory
◦ We will watch a film, Remembering and Forgetting,
which will review concepts and material already
reviewed and will present new content we will
discuss further today and the rest of this week
◦ You will engage in experiential activities that will
challenge you to apply your knowledge and
experience
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Warm-up: Write down EVERYTHING that you
can recall about that conversation Mr. George
and I just had—from the content of the
conversation to what Mr. George was
wearing. Two minutes!
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Remembering & forgetting
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Complete study guide—will be collected!
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Vanishes as quickly as the light fades
First stage of memory, enters through the
senses
Memory trace decays within a second
Iconic memory: Accurate, photographic
memories—last just a fraction of a second
Eidetic imagery: “photographic memory”
◦ About 5% of population
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Echoic memory: mental traces of sounds; last
for several seconds
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Ability to remember visual stimuli over long
periods of time
“photographic memory”
About 5% of children have eidetic imagery;
usually declines with age
eidetic imagery
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Continue research and analysis of short-term
memory
Conduct experiments—full-class and groups
You will devise your own short-term memory
experiments to use on each other and
family/friends (results due Thursday)
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Also known as working memory
Whenever you are thinking about something,
it is in your short-term memory
Information fades (degrades) rapidly
Rehearsal to prevent information from
degrading
German physiologist who pioneered the
experimental study of memory; known for
his discovery of the forgetting curve & the
spacing effect.
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At the beginning, retention is nearly 100%,
but degrades quickly—60% retention after 20
minutes, less than 30% after 2 days
Exponential—in the first days memory
greatest; later the loss slows as time passes
In the first period after learning…WE LOSE
THE MOST!
He found that the more rehearsal he did on
day one, the less he had to do on day two;
“over-learning” increased retention
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Information that is presented over spaced
intervals is learned and retained more easily
and more effectively than over short intervals
◦ PQ4R vs. “cramming” (massed repetition)
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Why?
◦ We pay more attention to material we haven’t seen
in a while
◦ Embeds an item in our minds across a larger range
of contexts
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Robert Bjork
Dr. Bjork makes an interesting claim about
cramming; what is it?
How does spacing work best? Is there such a
thing as spacing things out too long?
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Primacy effect: in a series of numbers, we
tend to recall the initial items in the series
(prim- means “first”)
Recency effect: last items in a series; fresher
in memory, more easily remembered.
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Organizing information into manageable
“chunks” to keep in STM
◦ A method of rehearsing
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OTTFFSSENT
◦ 10 letters (10 chunks)
◦ “other flowers sent”—breaks into three chunks
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Average person can hold a list of seven items
in STM
◦ Telephone numbers, zip codes
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For the next experiment, look at the list of
words that will follow for TWO MINUTES and
then I’ll change screens, and try and write
down on a sheet of paper as many words as
you can recall.
Nine
Swap
Cell
Ring
Lust
Plugs
Lamp
Apple
Table
Sway
Army
Bank
Fire
Hold
Worm
Clock
Horse
Color
Baby
Sword
Desk
Hold
Find
Bird
Rock
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Experiment demonstrates limitations of
short-term memory
◦ How many items can we hold in short-term
memory? For how long?
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Try this next list and see if you do better
Horse
Cat
Dog
Fish
Bird
Orange
Yellow
Blue
Green
Black
Table
Chair
Desk
Bookcase
Bed
Teacher
School
Student
Homework
Class
Apple
Banana
Kiwi
Grape
Mango
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Here’s your task:
Your experiment must answer these questions:
◦ On average, how many words can people remember?
◦ Does gender make any difference? What about age?
◦ Do people tend to remember certain words more than
others?
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In your groups, create your own lists; consider
using random versus similar words, genderassociated versus gender-neutral words (tested
with same and different gender persons)
http://psychology.about.com/library/Psychology
_Experiments/bl-memory-experiment.htm?p=1
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STM is like a small shelf; once it fills up, you
can’t put anything else on it unless
something else falls off!
Interference is that new information that
bumps something off the shelf!
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The continuous storage of information.
Some metaphors we have used?
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How do we get information into LTM?
◦ Rehearsal (maintenance, elaborative)
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Capacity of LTM
◦ Everything in code; all images in color (assuming no
color-blindness); stereo sound; smells, tastes
◦ Psychologists have not discovered a limit to LTM
◦ Not all experiences stored permanently—amount of
attention we pay to things varies (what interests us,
distractions)
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Memory as Reconstructive
◦ Not played back like videos or movies
◦ Memories are reconstructed from bits and pieces of
our experience; we shape them according to our
own views of the world
◦ Me and my sister have different childhood
memories; what about you?
◦ We interpret information differently
◦ Our memories are not perfect
◦ eyewitness memory part 2
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Eyewitness testimony is described as highly
reliable or unreliable?
Recognition memory is practically
instantaneous; the longer we linger with the
line-up, the more likely we are to make a
wrong choice
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Mental representations that we form of the
world by organizing bits of information into
knowledge
◦ Helpful in allowing us to make mental shortcuts
◦ However, sometimes they mislead us….
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Pull out the sheet of paper on which you
wrote the names of the objects you looked at
when we first started this unit
Find the names of the items, and draw those
items
Turn to page 166 in your textbook
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Your drawings—like group one or group two?
You reconstructed from a schema
◦ Schemas help you mentally represent the objects;
you did not recall them exactly, but to fit the
schemas
◦ Reconstructed from memory
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Memories of car accident influenced by
phrasing of questions
◦ Cars “hit” each other versus cars “smashed” into
each other
◦ Which group do you think said the cars were
moving at a faster rate of speed?
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Memories can be mislead and are malleable
lost in a mall
elizabeth loftus
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Forgetting information happens at any of the
three stages of memory:
◦ Sensory (less than a second or no more than a few
seconds)
◦ Short-term (after 10-12 seconds without rehearsal)
◦ Long-term
 Recall errors
 Old learning interferes with new learning
French
Spanish
Italian
Zero
Cero
Zero
Un
Uno
Uno
Deux
Dos
Due
Trois
Tres
tre
• Ebbinghaus’ research revealed how quickly
memory degrades without rehearsal
• Remembering “nonsense syllables” depends
on acoustic coding and mechanical repetition.
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Acoustic coding and mechanical repetition
play a part in recognition, recall, & relearning
RECOGNITION: identifying objects/events
encountered before
◦ Easiest of memory tasks
◦ Mechanical repetition is an example of:
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A)
B)
C)
D)
Operant conditioning
Maintenance rehearsal
Positive reinforcement
Elaborative rehearsal
Research on recognition
Used high school yearbook photos mixed in
with photos of strangers
Recent graduates able to identify former
classmates 90% of the time
Graduates out of school 40 years recognized former classmates less
often—about 75% of the time
Much more difficult to associate NAMES with the FACE
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Time for a “forgetting” check
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RECALL: bring something back to mind;
reconstruct it in your mind.
◦ Paired associates—recall one list of nonsense
syllables by associated with a second set (or
number) (text page 169)
◦ Similar to the peg word pneumonic
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RELEARNING: what we once knew and
thought we had forgotten we can relearn with
relative ease
◦ High school math formulae
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Time for a forgetting check
We forget because of:
◦ Encoding failure or
◦ Storage decay or
◦ Retrieval failure
Freud: we sometimes forget
things on purpose without
knowing we are doing it!
Painful memories are
repressed, pushed out of our
consciousness
Forgetting to go to the dentist
Theory remains controversial
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Severe memory loss caused by brain injury,
shock, fatigue, illness, or repression
◦ Dissociative amnesia: caused by psychological
trauma
◦ Infantile amnesia: forgetting early life events
 College freshman—recall events from age 6+
 Older adults (70-80) can recall events from between
ages 6-10
 Repression (Freud) or just a “brain-dump” of useless
info?
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Infantile amnesia, cont.
◦ Infants not interested in remembering past year!
◦ Infants don’t weave memories into meaningful
stories
◦ Infants don’t use language, can’t encode info well
◦ NOTE: this is EPISODIC MEMORY; we learn as
infants using semantic and implicit memory
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Anterograde amnesia: brain trauma (injury,
surgery)
Retrograde amnesia: events leading up to
traumatic event
concussion and sports
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Drill and Practice (maintenance rehearsal)
◦ Review information over and over again
◦ Fairly effective in transferring information from
sensory to STM to LTM
◦ Flash cards—paired information, then drill
◦ Meet someone new—use their name immediately
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Relate to Prior Knowledge (elaborative
rehearsal)
Form Unusual Associations
◦ Body parts grocery list
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Construct links (elaborative rehearsal)
Mnemonic Devices
◦ Systems for remembering information
◦ Acronym, phrase, jingle
◦ Roy G. Biv—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo,
violet—colors of the spectrum
Playing games with memory
the woman who couldn't forget
Think of all the different stimuli you experience
in any given day—sights, smells, sounds
Some stimuli are welcome—the smile of a
friend—others are not (unkind comments,
cruelty, the unpleasant smell of __________);
imagine what life would be like if everything
were recorded in memory in vivid detail.
Would this be a help or hindrance to
normal, daily life? Why?
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ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
NELLIE
AUSTIN
CAIRNS
JERROD
JOSH
CARRINGTON
NIKKI
DELANEY
DONOVAN
CHRIS
NATHAN
AUSTIN
CROCKETT
ROYCE
COREY
RAMON
SAM
HENRY
LEXI
KAYLA
ZARIA
ADRIAN
BROOKE
CLAIRE
DANNY
JON
KRISTINA
NELSON
TONY
D’ARCY
EMMA
MARC
DANIELLE
BRIAN
MICHAEL
Groups:
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1) BREAK INTO YOUR GROUPS
2) READ AS FOLLOWS:
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◦
◦
◦
GROUP
GROUP
GROUP
GROUP
GROUP
ONE: DRILL & PRACTICE (P. 170-171)
TWO: RELATE TO THINGS… (172-173)
THREE: FORM UNUSUAL ASSOCIATIONS (173)
FOUR: CONSTRUCT LINKS (173)
FIVE: USE MNEMONIC DEVICES (173)
3) WHEN YOU FINISH READING, IN YOUR GROUPS
SUMMARIZE YOUR SECTION AND ON POSTER BOARD
WRITE THE NAME OF YOUR MEMORY DEVICE AT TOP
AND THE IMPORTANT POINTS ON THE POSTER BOARD
(NAME OF PSYCHOLOGIST, WHAT IT DOES, HOW IT
WORKS)
4) WHEN ALL GROUPS FINISH, GO ON GALLERY WALK
WITH YOUR NOTEBOOK AND TAKE NOTES
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Clive Wearing
Write in your notebooks in response to this
statement: life is “Hell on earth…it’s like
being dead…all the bloody time.”