PSYC 248 Exam 2 Study Guide: Learning and Memory Concepts

Total Time Hypothesis

The amount learned depends on the time spent learning.

Deliberate practice

The engagement (with full concentration) in a training activity that is designed to improve a particular aspect of performance, including immediate feedback, opportunities for graduate refinement over repetitions, and problem solving.

Distributed practice

Studying repeatedly with time intervals between study sessions.

Massed practice

Studying repeatedly with little or no time passing between study sessions.

Deficient Processing hypothesis

People pay less attention to recently encountered things and thus do not process them as well as something seen longer ago.

Encoding Variability

Encoding the same item in more different environments is more successful.

Reminding

Focus on how reminded with greater strength during retrieval of spaced items than massed items.

Testing effect

The finding that long-term memory is enhanced when much of the learning period is devoted to retrieving the to-be-remembered information.

Test-enhanced learning

The tendency for a period of study to promote much greater learning when that study follows a retrieval test of the studied material.

Consolidation

The time-dependent process by which a new trace is gradually woven into the fabric of memory and by which its components and their interconnections are cemented together.

Implicit Memory Test

A test that measures memory without requiring conscious recollection.

Stem completion

A task whereby retention of a word is tested by presenting the first few letters.

Word fragment completion tests

A technique whereby memory for a word is tested by deleting alternate letters and asking participants to produce the word.

Encoding variability hypothesis

Encoding the same item in more different environments is more successful.

Expanding Retrieval practice

Commonly thought that recalling at greater time intervals improves learning.

Dual-coding hypothesis

Items that are easy to visualize are encoded as images and words, and are therefore easier to retrieve.

Depth of processing

The proposal by Craik and Lockhart that the more deeply an event is processed, the better later episodic memory will be.

Transfer-appropriate processing

Proposal that retention is best when the mode of encoding and mode of retrieval are the same.

Incidental learning

Learning situation in which the learner is unaware that a test will occur.

Intentional learning

Learning when the learner knows that there will be a test of retention.

Rote/Maintenance rehearsal

Repeatedly rehearsing an item on the same level.

Elaborative rehearsal

Adding information to items as you rehearse them.

Encoding

Moving info from short-term memory into long-term memory.

Mere exposure effect

Just being exposed to something more makes you like it more.

Schema

Long-term structured knowledge used to make sense of new material and subsequently store and recall it.

Retrieval

The process of getting information back out of long-term memory.

Cues

Pieces of information that are associated with a memory.

Target memory

The thing that you actually want to get back.

Association

How memories are linked together.

Spreading activation

Activated when we see, hear, or think about a concept. Activation then spreads rapidly to other concepts.

Pattern completion

A cognitive process where partial information triggers the retrieval of a complete memory.

Encoding specificity principle

Retrieval is more likely to be successful if the conditions at recall are similar to those that occurred at encoding.

Retrieval mode

The cognitive set, or frame of mind, that orients a person towards the act of retrieval, ensuring that stimuli are interpreted as retrieval cues.

Direct/explicit memory tests

Any of a variety of memory assessments that overtly prompt participants to retrieve past events.

Implicit Memory Tests

Tests such as stem completion, fragment completion, and lexical decision that assess memory without direct prompts.

Source monitoring

The process of examining the contextual origins of a memory in order to determine whether it was encoded from a particular source.

Context-dependent memory

Memory benefits when the spatio-temporal, mood, physiological, or cognitive context at retrieval matches that present at encoding.

State-dependent memory

Memory retrieval that is influenced by the individual's state, such as being drunk or high.

Mood-dependent memory

Memory retrieval that is influenced by the individual's mood, such as being happy or sad.

Recall and Recognition memory

Different types of memory tests where recall involves retrieving information without cues, while recognition involves identifying previously learned information from a set of options.

Signal detection theory

Focuses on the memory decisions we make during recognition tasks.

Tip of the tongue state

Occurs when we know information but cannot successfully retrieve it.

Incidental forgetting

Occurs without the intention to forget.

Motivated forgetting

Occurs when people purposefully engage in processes/behaviors that intentionally diminish a memory's accessibility.

Forgetting curve/retention function

Ebbinghaus (1913) studied memory for nonsense syllables and plotted a forgetting curve showing a rapid rate of forgetting initially followed by less additional forgetting at longer delays.

Exponential forgetting

Proportion loss is constant with time.

Power-law forgetting

Proportion loss decreases with time.

Accessibility

Whether the memory can be retrieved, given that it is stored.

Availability

Whether or not an item is in the memory store.

Trace decay

The gradual weakening of memories resulting from the mere passage of time.

Retroactive interference

The tendency for newer memories to interfere with retrieval of older memories.

Proactive interference

The tendency for older memories to interfere with retrieval of more recent experiences.

Retrieval-induced forgetting

The tendency for the retrieval of some target items from long-term memory to impair the later ability to recall other items related to those targets.

Inhibition (in retrieval-induced forgetting)

When you are trying to recall a specific memory, but related, irrelevant memories are actively suppressed.

Directed forgetting

Told to forget words but then later tested on all words.

Item-method directed forgetting

Instructs participants to forget specific items in a longer list.

List-method directed forgetting

Asks participants to forget an entire set of items.

Selective rehearsal

Items that receive a 'remember' instruction are encoded more deeply.

Encoding suppression

Encoding is stopped for items that receive a 'forget' instruction.

Retrieval inhibition hypothesis

It becomes more difficult, but not impossible, to retrieve items from the 'Forget' list.

Context shift hypothesis

The mind shifts into a different mental context when it begins to encode the 'Remember' list.

Cognitive control

The ability to activate wanted thoughts and prevent unwanted thoughts from distracting us.

Think/no think paradigm

Memorizing a set of cues and then having to recall or suppress retrieval.

Direct suppression

Directly prevent the unwanted thought from being retrieved.

Thought Substitution

Think of something different instead of the unwanted thought.

Spontaneous recovery

The re-emergence of a previously extinguished behavior after a rest period.

Hypermnesia

The improvement of memory over time after repeated testing.

Reminiscence

Remembering items that were unrecallable in past sessions without additional relearning.

Cue Reinstatement

When someone returns to a place where they previously experienced a significant event, causing vivid memories of that event to resurface.