Transcript “Ostberg Morning Eveningness” Are you a `lark` or an `owl`

Psyc 1002
Dr Caleb Owens
Cognitive Processes
Lecture 6 :
Encoding & retrieving memories
Studying and memory
Lifetime memories
• Infantile amnesia:
– Almost no memories from the first three years
of life
• Reminiscence bump
– A surprisingly large number of memories
coming from the years between 10 and 30
(especially 15-25), see Rubin, Rahhal & Poon
(1998) – not just personal memories either
Encoding
• Good things for encoding:
– Picturing information, visual imagery
• See textbook p.262
– Using context
– Avoid distractions
• E.g. chattering, television – clearly these clog up your
working memory; don’t let your mind wander
– Study at the ‘optimal’ time of your day (May, Hasher, and Stoltzfus, 1993)
• See: http://www.totse.com/en/technology/science_technology/circadia.html
• Or google “Ostberg Morning Eveningness” Are you a ‘lark’ or
an ‘owl’ ?
– Deep processing
• Asking questions / Elaboration of material
• Structuring material semantically
• Self-referent encoding
Visual imagery
• Textbook p.262-263
• Words easier to
visualize are better
remembered:
– High-high (juggler-dress)
– Low-low (quality-necessity)
• Make concrete examples of
abstract concepts to help
yourself remember
Encoding
• Good things for encoding:
– Picturing information, visual imagery
• See textbook p.262
– Using context
– Avoid distractions
• E.g. chattering, television – clearly these clog up your
working memory; don’t let your mind wander
– Study at the ‘optimal’ time of your day (May, Hasher, and Stoltzfus, 1993)
• See: http://www.totse.com/en/technology/science_technology/circadia.html
• Or google “Ostberg Morning Eveningness” Are you a ‘lark’ or
an ‘owl’ ?
– Deep processing
• Asking questions / Elaboration of material
• Structuring material semantically
• Self-referent encoding
Context
• Retrieval is best when encoding and
retrieval MATCH
– Mood
– Time and place
– Thoughts and feelings
– Smells
– Images
– Nature of the task
Retrieval is best when encoding
and retrieval MATCH
• Known as the ‘transfer appropriate processing’
principle (Roediger & McDermott, 1993)
– E.g. Morris, Bransford & Franks (1977) found levels
of processing effects are affected by the match
Adapted from Morris, Bransford & Franks (1977)
0.9
Proportion recognized
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
Standard test
Rhyming test
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Rhyme
Semantic
Orienting task
Adapted from Godden & Baddeley (1975)
– Recall was best when
the contexts matched
– Recognition was
unaffected by context
14
Mean words recalled
13
12
Wet learning
environment
Dry learning
environment
11
10
9
8
Dry
Wet
Recall environment
Adapted from Godden & Baddeley (1980)
77
76
Percentage recognized
Godden and Baddeley
(1975) asked
participants to learn
words either on land or
20 feet underwater;
and were asked to
later recall the words
on land or underwater
75
74
Wet learning
environment
Dry learning
environment
73
72
71
70
69
68
Dry
Wet
Recognition environment
Encoding
• Good things for encoding:
– Picturing information, visual imagery
• See textbook p.262
– Using context
– Avoid distractions
• E.g. chattering, television – clearly these clog up your
working memory; don’t let your mind wander
– Study at the ‘optimal’ time of your day (May, Hasher, and Stoltzfus, 1993)
• See: http://www.totse.com/en/technology/science_technology/circadia.html
• Or google “Ostberg Morning Eveningness” Are you a ‘lark’ or
an ‘owl’ ?
– Deep processing
• Asking questions / Elaboration of material
• Structuring material semantically
• Self-referent encoding
Avoid interference
•
•
•
•
Competition from other material
Retroactive – new material affects old material
Proactive – old material affects new material
Similarity is important:
McGeoch &
McDonald (1931),
reported in Weiten
(2007) from p.279
Encoding
• Good things for encoding:
– Picturing information, visual imagery
• See textbook p.262
– Using context
– Avoid distractions
• E.g. chattering, television – clearly these clog up your working
memory; don’t let your mind wander
– Study at the ‘optimal’ time of your day (May, Hasher, and Stoltzfus, 1993)
• See: http://www.totse.com/en/technology/science_technology/circadia.html
• Or google “Ostberg Morning Eveningness” Are you a ‘lark’ or
an ‘owl’ ?
– Deep processing
• Asking questions / Elaboration of material
• Structuring material semantically
• Self-referent encoding
Encoding
• Good things for encoding:
– Picturing information, visual imagery
• See textbook p.262
– Using context
– Avoid distractions
• E.g. chattering, television – clearly these clog up your
working memory; don’t let your mind wander
– Study at the ‘optimal’ time of your day (May, Hasher, and Stoltzfus, 1993)
• See: http://www.totse.com/en/technology/science_technology/circadia.html
• Or google “Ostberg Morning Eveningness” Are you a ‘lark’ or
an ‘owl’ ?
– Deep processing
• Asking questions / Elaboration of material
• Structuring material semantically
• Self-referent encoding
‘Deep’ processing
• Is the logic circular?
• Semantic structuring of information allows for
more effective chunking, and allows you to relate
the information you are trying to learn to what
you know
– E.g. for neuroscience
• No structure: learn 100 parts of the brain and their function
• Structure: learn the lobes, what each lobe generally does,
then sections of each lobe
• Elaboration creates more retrieval cues
Organize your
memories
Gray, 2002
(“Psychology”, p.356)
Gray, 2002
(“Psychology”, p.356)
Weiten, 2007 (“Psychology”, p.270)
• Bower and Clark (1969) asked half of their subjects to
make up their own stories from the words.
From Weiten,
2007, p.292
From Weiten,
2007, p.277
•Recall vs recognition
•Free recall task: report items from earlier study episode
•Recognition task: Select previously studied items from
mixture of old and new items
•Recognition is better than recall, why?
•Recognition task provides a cue (the studied item) that can
activate (“prime”) the memory network
•However cues may prime the wrong information
Multiple-choice exams
•
Easier because information provided and only have to
recognise it?
•
BUT harder because you have to discriminate between
exactly right and nearly right => wrong answer might
activate an incorrect memory
•
Need to have processed elaboratively to retrieve
related information and choose correct answer
–
•
Study for RECALL not RECOGNITION
During the exam:
–
–
–
Read question while covering options
Attempt to recall the answer, and write down what you think it
is
Uncover the options and decide
Attitudes to study
• “I’m not very good at statistics because I’m
an arts student.”
• “It’s been a long time since I went to
school and my brain is old.”
• “I’m not good at this….”
• (report writing/ multiple choice exams)
Who are you?
• University student
– Scholarly attitude towards knowledge
– An attitude or stance towards the world
– Commitment to lifelong learning
• In the Faculty of Science
– No authorities
– Ideas and explanations are judged, not people
• Studying Psychology
– You can reflect on human frailty
– You can consider human behaviour and human
problems in the context of a huge amount of research
Study for mastery and pride
Mastery and pride
attitude
• I need to understand
this thoroughly
• Knowing only half the
story is not useful
• I can make a
difference
• Much more needs to
be done
Short-term attitude
• I want to go well in
the exam
• I’ll start this
assignment when I
finish my others
• “What is the least that
I have to
do/read/study?”
• I’m just a student
Memory and aging
• Yes, neurons die across our lifespan, and
myelination is reduced, affecting
processing speed
• Forgetting should not be considered the
loss of information, but simply retrieval
failure
• ‘Active’ remembering, generating cues,
rehearsing, elaborating, asking questions,
always helps memory
Aging and attitudes, and memory
• American schema of “old people”
– slow, forgetful, frail
• Chinese schema of “old people”
– friendly, kind, wise
• What Levy & Langer (1994) found:
• Use it or lose it, e.g. memory among university
professors just as good as those younger (Shimamura,
1995) but not if they were not professors
– “I’ve given up because old people can’t learn and remember things.”
– leads to abandonment of ‘active learning strategies’
• Rahal, Hasher and Colcombe (2001)
– memory task where half the subjects were told it was testing
memory ability and the other half were told it was assessing their
ability to learn trivia
• For these lectures, assessable reading:
– Weiten (2007), Chapter 7, pp.259-297
– Snodgrass (refer to lecture 1).
– This means questions can be from these sources on
material which has NOT been mentioned in lectures.