Learning and Remembering
Memory Model
Memory
Declarative
Explicit
Semantic
Memory
Facts
Procedural
Implicit
episodic
skills
priming
simple
nonassociative
memory
motor
perceptual conditioning habituation
events
perceptual cognitive
sensitization
cognitive
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
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
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
Implicit memory 4
• Nonassociative learning
– Habituation – reduced response to a
frequently presented stimuli
– Sensitization – increased response to a
frequently presented stimuli
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Levels of processing – two
predictions
• 1. Deep processing takes longer than
shallow processing
• Deep processing results in better
memory than shallow processing
Levels of processing
• Supporting studies
– Craik and Watkins (1973)
– Craik and Tulving (1975)
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 1
list 2
Test list 2
– Tall – bone
tall - bench
– Plan – leaf
plan - pencil
– Nose – fight
nose - wait
– Park – flea
park - student
– Grew – cook grew - window
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 1
Tall – bone
Plan – leaf
Nose – fight
Park – flea
Grew – cook
list 2
tall - bench
plan - pencil
nose - wait
park - student
grew - window
Test list 1
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
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 – leaf
Nose – fight
Park – flea
Grew – cook
plan - bone
smoke - leaf
rabbit fight
grew - flea
nose - cook
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 AB associations they had made – no interference
– Paired associate task irrelevant for memory where
meaning was involved
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)
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
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
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
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
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
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
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