Memory and Learning Psychology: Experiments and Theoretical Models

Definition of Memory

MEMORY AND LEARNING PSYCHOLOGY
Definition of memory
Memory is the ability to codify, store and retrieve to consciousness the information that has been
learned

• It is the essential cognitive function composed of several systems such as the sensory
  memory, short-term / your working memory and long-term memory and processes such
  as encoding, storage and retrieval of information which tend to depend on the different
  brain structures
• Learning processes and memory depend on other cognitive processes such as attention
  and perception which are influenced by previous knowledge
• 
  Memory helps us know everything necessary to adapt to our environment optimally to
  avoid risky situations, maintain social and ethical norms, understand who we are and
  what we lived in the past to learn new abilities and so on

Key Researchers in Memory Studies

Two main people we need to look at Hermann Ebbinghaus and Frederick Barlett

Ebbinghaus Experiment

• He proved that memory could be studied using a rigorous scientific and experimental
  method
• He thought that the only way to study the complex subject of human memory was to
  simplify the problem
• In order to avoid prior knowledge he invented the nonsense syllable, a
  consonant-vowel-consonant such as zug pij tev
• He tested only on himself as he could control all the conditions
• To better understand the human memory he created the savings method to study
  forgetting over time in a scientific way

Bartlett Experiment

• Bartlett rejected the learning of meaningless words as a proper way of studying memory
  (prior to knowledge, experiences, attitudes and emotions are left behind)
• Instead he used complex material that you could encounter in daily life such as stories
• His approach constitutes an effort towards understanding memory beyond laboratory
  experiments (ecological validity)

Bartlett Experiment Results

• The folk story came to look more like an english story, the canoes because boats,
  foreign names disappeared, the supernatural elements dropped out and the whole
  narrative structure was adapted to english conventions
• Participants used their own cultural schemes to change and reconstruct the story
• Systematic errors and distortions produced in the participants recalls were due to the
  instructions of their schematic knowledge
• He gets rid of the notion that memory is primarily reproductive for reduplication.
  Furthermore, elaboration and intervention are common features of ordinary remembering- A central feature of his approach was to stress the participants effort after meaning,
  exactly the opposite of ebbinghaus's explicit attempt to avoid meaning
• 
  The person plays an active role in the process of remembering
• Socio-cultural elements influence out remembering
• 
  Memory is not 100% reliable

Bartlett gets rid of the notion that memory is primarily reproductive or reduplicative. Furthermore,
elaboration and intervention are common features of ordinary remembering.
Reconstructive memory is remembering is a reconstruction of the past and not a direct copy

UNIT 2: Initial Theoretical Models

Initial Concepts, System and Model

A system is a group of elements that interact with each other to obtain a result or objective

• Natural system (the cycle of water)
• Artificial system (created by humans, companies)
• Psychological systems (memory and attention)

Memory is understood as a system with different elements that interact with each other to obtain
a result
The concept of a model
This is a simplified explanation or representation of a system
A model tried to define the emphasis of the main element and their functioning
Memory models try to explain the memory system

• 
  Structural models
• Functional models

Dual Models of Memory

This was proposed by william james in 1890
Memory would be composed of both primary memory and secondary memory
Primary memory is the immediate memory which is conscious and with a short duration
Secondary memory has a long term duration which is permanent but less accessible

Computer Metaphor and Information Processing

The computer metaphor and the information processing approach
In the 60s and 70s of the last century a new paradigm appears and it was called the information
processing approach
The main idea was that the human mind worked as a computer program.The information is stored in the states or representations of the system to be retrieved and
manipulated later
Any memory system weather is human or electronic required three things

• The capacity to encode, or to enter information into the system
• The capacity to store it
• The capacity to find and retrieve it

Structural Memory Models

Structural memory models
They would try to examine the structure of memory. Memory is not unitary it has different
structures with different functions

Donald Broadbent: The Filter Models of Attention

sense-> buffer: short term -> selective filter-> selected input for attention
Sense: the sensorial information is processed in parallel by out sensory perceptive system
(CNS)
Buffer: it stores informations for a very short amount of time (perception)(perceptive processing
in the primary and second brain areas= process everything)
Selective filter: it allows or denies information to be attended (attention). This filter focuses on
physical characteristics of information. (filter selects the input that you attend to. The info that is
not attended will not be stored.) (S1,S2,primary brodmann's area 22,41,42,V1,V2)

• We are only aware of what goes beyond the filter. (what gets filtered)

The Modal Model (Atkinson and Shiffrin)

Environment -> sensory memory -> short term memory -> long term memory
It is called the modal model because it is representative of many similar models
It establishes the distinctions between three types of memory

• Sensory memory
• Short term memory
• Long term memory

It assumes information simply flows left to right

Sensory Memory Details

Sensory memory
Very brief, roughly half a second, storage of information within a specific modality (auditory or
visual)
Represents the initial senso-perspective process of information
The information is process in parallel
The sensory-perceptual processes involve different brain areas

• Primary and secondary auditory areas
• Primary and secondary visual areas
• Primary and secondary somatosensory areas

Sensory memory
Iconic memory: a term applied to the brief storage of visual information 'visual sensory memory'
Echoic memory: the brief storage of auditory information 'auditory sensory memory'

• The brain process more information you can attend (from the date processed by the
  brain areas, you can attend and declare only part of the information )
• Only the stimuli attended go to short term memory (we are conscious of information ).
  Then the processing goes from being parallel to boeing serial (one stimulus each time)

Short-Term Memory Details

Short-term memory
It has a limited capacity 7+/-2 elements and duration which is forgetting after 30 seconds
The information fades quickly, but not as much as the sensory memory does
The longer the memory is held in the short term memory, the better the learning
Rehearsal or the rehearsal loop, a process through which we maintain the information in the
short term memory longer

Long-Term Memory Details

Long term memory
The information that goes from short term to long term memory (storage)
It has an unknown capacity and a lifetime duration
When i remember the information previously learned, that information goes from the long term
memory to the short term memory and then we retrieve this information
Posterior authors differentiated between the different kinds of long term memory
In this model the stores (the boxes)are fixed but the processes are dynamic
'Working memory concept' -> an extension of the short term memory concept.

UNIT 2: Craik and Lockhart 1972, Levels of Processing

• 
  One problem concerned the assumption that simply holding items in the short term store
  for long enough would guarantee learning
• This view was challenged by C and L, who proposed instead the principle of levels of
  processing, which maintains that learning depends on the way in which material is being
  processed, rather than time in short term storage
• Proposed an alternative to structural models of memory, focussing instead of memory
  processes
• They suggested that information can be processed at different levels, from a superficial
  to a depth and elaborated level
• visual/structural processing (focuses on stimuli's visual aspects)
• Phonological processing (focuses on stimuli's auditory or phonological aspects)
• Semantic processing (focuses on stimuli's meaning)

Structural, it is written in upper or lower case
I
I
Phonological, does this word rhyme with dog
I
I
Semantic, does the word field fit into this sentence

• The way in which information is processed can affect the likelihood of it being stored and
  retrieved in the future
• The more deeply an item is processed, the better will be its retention
• Greater, depth implies a greater degree of semantic or cognitive analysis
• Deeper levels of processing result in more long lasting and more retrievable memories,
  whereas shallow levels of processing result in memories that are less long-lasting and
  less likely to be retrieved

Levels of Processing Aim

Levels of processing
Aim

• Craik and Tulving 1975 investigated the effects of different types of processing on the
  recall of words

Levels of Processing Method

Method

• 
  Participants were shown 60 words, one at a time, and for each word they had to answer
  one of three questions
• In the first task it is simply necessary to process the word structurally, scanning the word
  visually
• To complete the second task it is necessary to carry out sound based processing,
  mentally sounding out the word
• 
  To complete the third task it is necessary to think about the meaning of the word and
  relating it to the rest of the sentence, or put it into a meaningful category

Participants heard each question and then were shown the corresponding word for a brief
period. Participants then answered the question. When the 60 questions had been answered,
participants were given a recognition test. They were shown a list of 180 words that has to pick
out the original 60 words
When the 60 words had been answered, participants were given a recognition test. They were
shown a list of 180 words and had to pick out the original 60 words
Although they emphasise process rather than structure, Craik and Lockhard do assume the
existence of separate STM and LTM systems. however , they see the function of STM in terms
of the process it carries out