Learning and Remembering

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Long-Term Memory

Memory stages:

1. Encoding: putting

2. Storage: keeping

3. Retrieval: pulling

Taxonomy of LTM

Long-Term Memory

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Metamemory and Metacognition

Metamemory - knowledge about one's own memory.

Metacognition - knowledge about one's own cognition and its function.

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Encoding

Physical codes become meaning codes.

Encoding by meaning: attaching a meaning to a set of words makes it easier to put into long-term memory.

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Mnemonic Devices

A mnemonic is an active, strategic learning device or method. Formal mnemonics rely on pre-established sets of aids and considerable practice. Informal mnemonics (self-invented) generally are less elaborate and more suited to smaller amounts of information.

1. Repetition

2. Integration into existing memory framework

3. Retrieval is easy

First mention is in Cicero's De oratore. Method of loci method: remember physical locations by using mental images of each location. Peg word mnemonic: peg words are used to remember other words, e.g., one is a bun, two is a shoe, three is a tree, etc.

Mnemonic principles:

1. Structure

2. Visual images

3. Effective cues

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Hermann Ebbinghaus

German researcher. Used himself as a participant. Used nonsense syllables (CVC). Wanted to study the fundamentals of memory and forgetting. Relearning task: learn and recall then learn again.

Results:

Repetitions are more effective the more it's repeated. People will invent meaning no matter what. People in experiments are active. Ecological validity: need to apply results to external world.

The Role of Practice: memory is better with practice; massed practice is much worse than distributed practice.

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Episodic Memory Storage

von Restorff effect: also known as the isolation effect, it is easier to remember unusual, unexpected or distinctive events.

Three memory steps:

1. Rehearsal: deliberate recycling or practicing of information in the short-term store.

2. Organization: structuring of information as it is stored in memory.

3. Imagery: mental picturing of a stimulus that affects later recall or recognition.

Rehearsal

Maintenance rehearsal: low-level repetitive information recycling.

Elaborative rehearsal: using meaning of information to store and remember.

Generation and enactment:

1. Self-reference effect: memory is better for information that one relates to oneself in some way.

2. Generation effect: information generated by oneself is better remembered compared to information heard from another source.

3. Enactment effect: improved memory for self-performed tasks compared to vicariously-performed tasks.

Organization

Subjective organization: developed by oneself for structuring and remembering information.

Imagery

Paired-associative learning: learn the list so that the correct response can be reproduced whenever the stimulus is presented.

Dual coding hypothesis: words that denote concrete objects can be encoded into memory twice. E.g., book as a word and a visual image.