Studying Learning and Memory - Chapter 1

What is learning?

The process by which changes in behavior occur as a result of experience interacting with the world.

What is memory?

An internal record of past experiences that were acquired through learning.

What is verbal learning?

An approach to studying memory by having people learn and remember lists of words or nonsense syllables.

What is the Atkinson-Shiffrin modal model of memory?

Information flows from the environment → sensory memory → short-term memory → long-term memory.

What is long-term memory?

A memory store with a very high capacity that can hold information from hours to a lifetime.

Explicit memory

conscious memory for information or experiences.

Episodic Memory

memory for specific events or personal experiences.

Example:
Your last birthday = episodic

What is priming?

When exposure to something earlier influences how you process or respond to it later.

Cued Recall

recalling information with a hint/cue.

What are word-stem/fragment completion tasks?

Tasks where you are given part of a word and asked to complete it. Previous exposure can make you more likely to complete it with a word you saw before.

What does universality mean?

The idea that findings about memory and cognition apply across different people and cultures

What did Ebbinghaus do in his human memory experiments?

He studied his own memory using nonsense syllables under controlled conditions and showed that learning and forgetting could be studied systematically.

What are the duration and capacity of sensory memory?

Back: Duration: 1–3 seconds
Capacity: High

What are the duration and capacity of short-term memory?

Duration: about 1 minute
Capacity: about 7 ± 2 chunks

What are the duration and capacity of long-term memory?

Duration: hours to a lifetime
Capacity: very high

What is the duration of a memory system?

How long a piece of information can stay in memory.

Implicit Memory

learning shown through performance without consciously remembering it.

Sematic Memory

memory for facts and general knowledge.

Example:
Capital of France = semantic

Free Recall

recalling information without hints.