How Do We Learn and Remember?

1. How Do We Learn and Remember? • Some Basic Principles • from Psychology and • Cognitive Neuroscience 1

2. Memory Processes kairos = chronos? 2

3. Memory Processes • Encoding the processing of information into the memory system • Storage the retention of encoded information over time • Retrieval the process of getting information out of memory 3

4. Memory Stages • Sensory Memory • the immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the memory system • Short Term Memory / Working Memory • activated memory that holds a few items briefly for processing; reverberating net • capacity: about 7 items; duration: 30 sec. • Long Term Memory • the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system • chemical change in neural synapses (LTP) 4

5. Attention to important or novel information Short-term memory Long-term memory External events Sensory memory Sensory input Encoding Encoding Retrieving Simplified Memory Model 5

6. Percentage who recalled consonants 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 Time in seconds between presentation of contestants and recall request (no rehearsal allowed) Decay of Short-Term Memory 6

7. cerebellum Memory and the Brain 7

8. Types of long-term memories Explicit (declarative) With conscious recall Implicit (nondeclarative) Without conscious recall Personally experienced events (“episodic memory”) Dispositions- classical and operant conditioning effects Facts-general knowledge (“semantic memory”) Skills-motor and cognitive Long-Term Memory Systems 8

9. LTM and the Hippocampus MRI scan with hippocampus in red cerebellum 9

10. Encoding Failure SELECTIVE ATTENTION • distractions pull attention toward irrelevant info • information overload overwhelms capacity of STM 10

11. Encoding Failure SELECTIVE ATTENTION 11

12. Encoding Tips ORGANIZE • chunking -- organizing information into familiar, manageable units • hierarchies -- arrange info logically in categories and subcategories • acronyms • Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior 12

13. Encoding Tips • Example: 1776149218121941 13

14. Encoding (automatic or effortful) Meaning (semantic Encoding) Imagery (visual Encoding) Organization Chunks Hierarchies Encoding Tips 14

15. Retrieval Failure INTERFERENCE • proactive interference -- prior learning disrupts memory for new info • “forward-acting” • study Greek; study Hebrew; test Hebrew • retroactive interference -- learning new info disrupts old memories • “backward-acting” • study Greek; study Hebrew; test Greek 15

16. 90 Percentage of words recalled 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Position of word in list Serial Position Effect 16

17. Memory Quiz Listen carefully to these 12 items • Don’t write them down as you hear them! • When the list is finished, try to recall as many as you can, in any order, and then write them down 17

18. Memory Quiz • rest • tired • awake • dream • snore • bed • eat • slumber • sound • comfort • wake • night Context errors can generate false memories! 18