Week 1: Implicit Learning

• What is the main idea of the Levels of Processing Approach?

  The deeper the processing of information, the more likely it is stored in the LTM due to depth of elaboration
• According to the Levels of Processing Approach, which type of processing is the best?

  Semantic Processing
• Why is semantic processing deemed the best by the LoP Approach?

  It uses the deepest form of information processing and requires the most elaboration.
• From the deepest to the shallowest, order the three types of processing.

  1. Semantic
  2. Phonemic
  3. Visual
• From the classic study of Craik and Tulving (1975), what task did PP complete?

  • Recall words only shown once or twice
  • Had to recall as many as they could after 48hrs
  • Had to use different processing methods
• What findings did Craik and Tulving (1975) report?

  Found that elaboration when using semantic processing (whether a word fits into a sentence) was recalled more than words recalled using visual processing (had to identify whether it was the lower case).
• How did Craik and Tulving (1975) interpret their findings?

  Psychologists Craik and Tulving determined that learning is better with deeper processing and elaboration.  They found a levels-of-processing effect.
• Could you describe the study by Craik & Tulving (1975)?

  PP Task: Recall as many words as possible after 48 hours using different processing methods after stimuli are shown once or twice.

  Findings: Found that elaboration when using semantic processing was recalled more than visual processing.

  Interpretation: Learning better, deeper processing, and elaboration = LoP Effect.
• What did Craik (2002) have to say about the elaboration of processing?

  Focused on richness of elaboration.
• What did Craik & Tulving say about the elaboration of processing?

  The more complex elaboration used, the recall doubled.

  Example:"The great bird swooped down and carried off the struggling ____”
• What is the Transfer Appropriate-Processing (TAP) for LTM?


  Deeper processing may not be as effective in every context and the fit between encoding and retrieval is essential.
• What is the counterargument to Craik & Tulving (1975)'s LoP?

  Transfer-Appropriate-Processing view
• How did Morris, Bransford, and Franks (1977) test the predictions of the TAP view?

  PP task: Recall words using a recognition test with one of 3 different types of processing. For the rhyme recognition test, they asked PP to recognise whether a given word rhymed with words on the list.
• Describe the predictions of the TAP view.


  When encoding and retrieval do not fit, the recall will be significantly lower regardless of processing deepness.
• What was the critical variable in Morris et al. (1977) study, and why?

  The critical variable was whether the words were recalled in either a standard recognition test using semantic processing or a rhyme recognition test using phonemic processing.