8b. memory - encoding

what are the general 3 stages of memory

encoding

storage and consolidation

retrieval

explain ebbinghaus’ experiment using 3 lettered nonsense words

created nonsense syllables i.e. wux, or caz

tried to learn a list of 16 of these, recording how long it took him to relearn it each time

learning time lessened as he tried more - practice makes perfect

what does practice drive and give an experiment example

structural plasticity

taxi driver study - london taxi drivers have huge hippocampuses because they know every road in london

what impact does new learning have on the brain + the study to support

scanned medical students’ brains before during and after exams

found that new learning increased the amount of grey matter in their parietal cortex and posterior hippocampus

these structural changes lasted for 3 months post exams too

explain how spaced repetition might be more effective than repetition alone

taking breaks in between learning/trials allows time for memory consolidation to happen allowing the memory to become more established in our brains

explain the testing effect as a form of repetition

testing yourself

produces better learning than just repeating content

material that you make errors on is strengthened in memory

how does the testing effect interact with the inference effect

testing allows us to make better inferences

explain how motivation influences learning and the two categories involved

automatic motivation:

• can be external (reward/novelty) or internal (curiosity)

strategic motivation:

• people organising info in a way to help them remember the most important info

explain gruber’s study on the effects of curiosity on learning

looked at curiosity as an internal motivator to learn

found that being curious about a topic made our memory better

we also have enhanced memory for unrelated material presented at the same time (shown in how well p’s remembered a face presented during learning)

explain how novelty interacts with learning

external motivator

being in a novel environment can help encoding

novelty facilitates dopaminergic releases in the ventral tegmental area, which engages hippocampal coding more

explain the timeframe where novelty still has an effect on memory

around one hour before and after novelty

so if you learn information too far away from the novel event, it will not have any benefits to memory

how does motivation impact memory

activate dompamine release from the ventral tegmental area - which stimulates the hippocampus which is related to the encoding of memory

how does organisation influence memory/learning

chunking information helps memory

why does meaning facilitate long term memory - the levels of processing theory

semantic words are remembered best in long term memory

followed by phonological words, then visual

what is a schema

a structured representation of the world, events, people, or actions

how does having prior knowledge help memory

combining new information with previous schemas makes it easier for us to encode the new info

supported by the interactions between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus