psych memory and learning

• Classical conditioning


  A behaviourist approach to learning. Learning to elicit an involuntary behaviour to a stimulus. Involves pairing two stimuli together one that does not elicit a reflex and one that does, so an association can be established between both stimuli
• Before conditioning


  An unconditioned stimulus produces an unconditioned response. A neutral stimulus produces no response.
• During conditioning


  The neutral stimulus is repeatedly presented before the unconditioned stimulus multiple times and the UCS produces the unconditioned response
• After conditioning


  The neutral stimulus is not the conditioned stimulus since on its own it now produces the unconditioned stimulus which is now the conditioned stimulus
• Stimulus generalisation


  • Another stimulus similar to the conditioned stimulus may also trigger a conditioned response
• Stimulus discrimination


  • Only the conditioned stimulus and no similar stimulus triggers the conditioned response
• Extinction


  After learning is occurred, persisting conditioned stimulus ALONE repeatedly without UCS the strength of the conditioned response reflex will decrease over time
• Spontaneous recovery


  • Conditioned response may occasionally occur even after extinctions
• Operant conditioning


  A learning process in which the likelihood of a voluntary behaviour is determined by its consequence
• Operant conditioning process


  1. Antecedent: an event or stimulus that prompts us to produce a behaviour

  2. Behaviour: and observable action that the organism choses to perform or not perform in response to the antecedent stimulus

  3. Consequence: Something that makes the behaviour more or less likely to occur again
• Positive reinforcement


  Giving or adding something
• Negative reinforcement


  Taking something away
• Reinforcement


  Promotes behaviour occurrence
• Punishment


  Discourages behaviour occurrence
• Acquisition in classical conditioning

  The association of the NS with the UCS through repeated pairing
• Acquisition in operant conditioning

  The voluntary behaviour is strengthened by reinforcement or weakened by association with punishment
• Association in classical conditioning

  Organism learns to involuntarily link NS and UCS
• Association in operant conditioning


  Organism learns to associate stimulus with consequence voluntarily
• Similarities and differences between classical and operant conditioning
• Atkinson-Shiffrin multi store model

  Memory: an information processing system that ACTIVELY receives, organises, stores and recovers information
• Encoding


  Converting sensory information from the world around us into a usable form that can be processed by the brain. You have to pay attention for this to happen!
• Storage


  The retention of information in memory stores over time
• Retrieval


  Locating and recovering stored information from memory so we are consciously aware of it. Retrieval relies on the right cues so we can locate the correct piece of information
• Sensory memory


  • Register for all incoming sensory information. Although we are not consciously aware of the information that is held in sensory memory, you must pay attention to important sensory information for it to be further processed and transferred into the next memory store, short-term memory. If you do not attend to this sensory information, it will be lost from your memory forever
• Capacity of sensory memory


  Unlimited (holds all incoming sensory information that we experience at any instant in its original form)
• Duration of sensory memory

  0.2-4 seconds
• Short-term memory


  Sensory memory filters out any unnecessary information, thus preventing us from becoming overwhelmed by the vast amount of sensory information. Any information can be held long enough to decide whether the information is important enough to be attended to and therefore transferred to short-term memory. Also stores sensory impressions long enough for each impression to slightly overlap the first. This allows us to perceive the world around us as continuous, rather than as a series of disconnected images or sounds
• Capacity of short-term memory

  7± 2 items (or 5-9 unrelated items). If short-term memory is at capacity, new items can only be added if some old items are pushed out
• Duration of short-term memory

  12–30 seconds
• Function of short-term memory


  Once information has entered our short-term memory, we can actively manipulate encoded information while we complete everyday tasks. This occurs through receiving and integrating information from both sensory memory and long-term memory. Your short-term memory retrieves and compares existing information that was held by your long-term memory. By comparing this information, your short-term memory can then send new information to your long-term memory for long-term storage
• Displacement


  When you add new items to your capacity of STM, old items are pushed out. Therefore you forget the old items to make way for new ones
• Decay


  If, after 30 seconds, the information is not manipulated in some way, it will fade from short-term memory and be permanently lost
• Maintenance rehearsal


  Repeating the information being remembered either out loud or in your head to preserve it in your short-term memory. Information can be kept in your short-term memory for as long as you repeat the information and are not interrupted
• Elaborative rehearsal


  Involves giving meaning to new information and making associations with other information already stored in your long-term memory
• Long-term memory


  A relatively permanent memory system that holds vast amounts of information for an extended period, possibly for life. When information is transferred into long-term memory, it undergoes further encoding according to its meaning and it once again becomes unconscious. This is to prevent us from being overwhelmed by the vast amount of information that we have stored in our long-term memory
• Capacity of long-term memory

  Unlimited, like sensory memory. The actual limit is unknown and still being researched
• Duration of long-term memory

  Relatively permanent. Some memories can be stored for life. However, some information can decay over time, particularly due to factors like disuse of the memory or brain diseases
• Function of long-term memory

  Information stored in long-term memory is organised semantically, which means that the meaning of the word, phrase, picture, event or thing is encoded, as opposed to its sensory input. Semantic information is stored for a long time in an organised way, according to meaning and importance to your personal experience. When information is required, it is retrieved by locating it in long-term memory and sending it back to its conscious awareness (short-term memory)
• Strengths of Atkinson-Shiffrin multi store model

  • Significant research to support the theory of separate memory stores
  • Explains limitations of memory without encoding - eg displacement and decay, and the importance of attention in memory
  • It makes sense that memories in the LTM are encoded semantically – i.e. you might recall the general message put across in a political speech, rather than all of the words as they were heard
• Limitations of Atkinson-Shiffrin multi store model

  • Model is oversimplified - assumes each store works independently and there is evidence there are multiple STM and LTM stores
  • Does not explain memory distortion
  • Does not explain why some things can be learnt with minimal rehearsal - eg being bitten by a dog once - memory remains vivid after one encounter
  • Sometimes you rehearse info a lot and it is still not transferred into LTM
  • It does not make much sense to think of procedural memory (a type of LTM) as being encoded semantically, i.e. knowing how to ride a bike through its meaning
  • It is only assumed that LTM has an unlimited capacity, as research has been unable to measure this accurately