Transcript Psych 11 Learning and Memory

MEMORY
GOALS FOR TODAY
 1. Identify some uniquely human aspects of learning and memory
 2. Examine the differences between short term and long term memory and
how they are created.
 3. Explore some strategies and devices for improving memory
WHAT MAKE HUMAN’S UNIQUE?
 TAG: Think, Air, Group
 Are we actually unique and different?
 Physically?
 Emotionally?
 Mentally?
 Socially?
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?
 We are created in the image of God Gen 1:27
 We are created to serve. Adam? Gen 2:15
 To love the Lord our God, and to love one another. Servants?
 We are valued and treasured by God above all creation
 Jesus was sent for us. John 3:16
 Our need for salvation through Jesus.
 Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
 Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not
from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast
HUMAN LEARNING AND MEMORY
 We can learn through observational learning and insight
 Wolfgang Köhler, one of the founders of Gestalt psychology, contributed
to our knowledge of insight learning. Although his research applies to
humans, Köhler observed how a chimpanzee solved a problem. Bananas
were placed high up in the top of a cage out of reach of the chimp. After
its efforts were unsuccessful, the chimp stopped and thought over the
situation. The chimp finally reached the food, not by gradually learning
from its previous failed attempts, but by suddenly coming to the
realization of a solution. Using a stick, he could reach the bananas.
WERE DIFFERENT BECAUSE (LEARNING)
 Without a doubt, the human trait that sets us apart the most from the
animal kingdom is our extraordinary brain. Humans don't have the largest
brains in the world — those belong to sperm whales. We don't even have
the largest brains relative to body size — many birds have brains that make
up more than 8 percent of their body weight, compared to only 2.5 percent
for humans.Yet the human brain, weighing only about 3 pounds when fully
grown, give us the ability to reason and think on our feet beyond the
capabilities of the rest of the animal kingdom.
 Also we have the capacity for a greater variety of learning, both
observational and insightful. We can even think about thinking.
 Our language is comes in a wide variety, written, oral, symbolic and is simply
more organized and perhaps most importantly flexible.
 SUMMARY: The human brain enables our species to perform many
complex tasks involving symbolic thought, such as using language, making
music, creating art and developing elaborate tools and technologies.
MEMORY:
 ‘Memory’ labels a diverse set of cognitive capacities by which we retain
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information and reconstruct past experiences, usually for present purposes.
Memory is a key aspect of personal identity. Memory seems to be a source
of knowledge.
We remember experiences and events which are not happening now, so
memory differs from perception. We remember events which really
happened, so memory is unlike pure imagination. Yet, in practice, there can
be close interactions between remembering, perceiving, and imagining.
Remembering is often filled with emotion, and is closely involved in both
extended affective states such as love and grief, and socially significant
practices such as promising and commemorating.
Memory is essential for much reasoning and decision-making, both
individual and collective. It is connected in obscure ways with dreaming.
Some memories are shaped by language, others by imagery. Much of our
moral and social life depends on the peculiar ways in which we are
embedded in time
WE ARE WHO WE ARE BECAUSE OF
MEMORIES?
 True or false?
 Memories allow us to hold on to and recall what we once perceived.
 Without memory, we wouldn’t exist?
 It is the combination of our memories, collective intelligence and ability
to learn from others as well as insight that make us unique.
SHORT TERM AND LONG TERM
 http://brainworldmagazine.com/learning-memory-how-do-we-
remember-and-why-do-we-often-forget/
MEMORY CATEGORIZATION
 The length of time and way in which you remember something has to
do with categorized memories, or memory categorization. Every
day we encounter thousands of things that go into and out of our
memory - way too many things to keep track of. The brain uses memory
categories to slot memories where they belong.
 The very shortest-term memory is called sensory memory, and, like
the name implies, it's more of a feeling rather than an actual memory
 Two main types of sensory memory are iconic and echoic
LONG TERM TYPES
 Sensory memories disappear after a split second, and if we only had sensory
memories, we'd never remember anything at all! Fortunately, we all have
long-term memory as well. There are several types of long-term
memory.
 One type, semantic memory, helps you remember information and
concepts, (Details!)
 while another type, episodic memory, helps you remember specific
events or people. If you go to the museum with your best friend, your
semantic memory will help you remember the difference between Monet's
Impressionistic landscapes and Rembrandt's portraits.Your episodic
memory will help you remember the fun lunch you and your friend had
after seeing the artwork (Experiences/ Episodes).
DECLARATIVE / PROCEDURAL
LONG TERM
 Both your memories of the artwork and of your lunch conversation are
clear - you can picture them in your head and maybe even hear your
friend's voice. A memory that you can clearly picture in your head is
called declarative. Another word for this type of clear memory is
explicit. An explicit memory is anything you have to think about in
order to remember.
 procedural memories are the way you can get things done like
walking, talking and getting dressed in the morning without too much
thought.
HOW DO WE STORE INFO?
 What is attention, exactly? Attention is the ability to focus on specific
information. It has two important components. First, you need the
cognitive resources to focus on a particular object.
 Second, even when you have the cognitive resources to focus, attention
also involves choice.You don't always have complete control over the
things that win your attention, but when you do, you have to choose
where to direct your focus.
 This ability to focus on certain things while ignoring others is called
selective attention.You're much more likely to remember the things on
which you have selected to direct your attention than you are to
remember things you have not selected.
HOW DO WE CHOOSE WHAT TO PAY
ATTENTION TO?
 bottom-up processing where you begin by examining small details
and piece them together into a bigger picture. When you first arrive in a
new city, do you initially drive around and remember the street names,
slowly building a map in your head?
 top-down processing and it's driven by previous knowledge. With this
method, rather than beginning by noticing small details, like street
names, you start with expectations from looking at a map, and direct
your attention toward details that might fulfill your goal.
SUMMARY
 To summarize, the things you remember are dependent on your
attention. In order to focus your attention on something, you must have
the cognitive resources to do it, and often, you must choose where to
direct your focus. Choosing what to focus on is called selective
attention. When you employ bottom-up processing to make these
choices, your attention is caught in the details. Top-down processing
begins with the big picture and relates details to it.
SHORT TERM/WORKING MEMORY
 Is it possible to improve your working memory? Studies have shown
that most people have similarly-sized working memories, but we may
employ certain cognitive strategies to squeeze more information into a
limited number of slots.
 Let's look at a series of numbers for a few seconds:
 2 6 9 31 20 6 3 3 25 1 17 9 5
HOW MANY OF THE NUMBERS DID YOU
REMEMBER?
 If you recalled somewhere between 5 and 9 digits, then you've
reinforced a study conducted by psychologist George Miller.
 Miller published the study under the title, 'The Magical Number 7,
Plus or Minus Two.' It has long been understood to mean that there
are limits on how many new items we can introduce at any one time to
our short-term memory, and that the limiting number is 'seven, plus or
minus two.'
 At first glance this seems fairly straightforward. But think: what
constitutes an 'element'? Look at this string of numbers:
269326332119
CHUNKING
 If you string together the numbers into groups of three, 2-6-9 then
becomes one element (269), instead of three separate pieces of
information. One 3-digit element is easier to remember than three
separate numbers. The principle of chunking, or organizing a bigger
string of new information into smaller chunks, can potentially increase
the number of individual items that our short-term memories can recall
at any given time. Grouping the single-digit numbers into groups of
three is chunking.
 269 326 332 119
 Now let's try to remember this string of numbers:
98712390210
 Now see how many you can remember:
 987 123 90210
 Were you able to remember more of this string than the first one? If so,
it might be because, even though it contained the same amount of
numbers, you may have found more memorable chunks within the larger
sequence
J F K O R D L A X
JFK
ORD
LAX
OTHER FACTORS
 Factors, such as how difficult or foreign the new material is to us,
 and how well it's presented, affect our ability to remember.
 But in general, if you can find a way to chunk information into less than
seven groups, you'll have a much easier time storing it in working
memory.
IMPROVING LONG TERM MEMORY
 Here's a handy mnemonic to remember these four techniques:
 Shakira's Memory Serves Right (Acronym)
 can help you remember
 Self-referencing , Mnemonic devices, Spaced repetition, and Rehearsal.
 September, 1961, Appollo 11/12/13, Kejang Kejang.
 HOMES
NATURE AND NURTURE IN
INTELLIGENCE
DO YOU THINK OF INTELLIGENCE
AS AN INHERITED OR A LEARNED
CHARACTERISTIC?
GENETIC INFLUENCES ON INTELLIGENCE
Francis Galton (1822-1911)- heredity
Environmentalists- intelligence product of …..
Kinship studies
 IQ scores of identical twins (MZ) are more alike than for any other pairs
 Moderate correlations between fraternal twins, siblings and parents and their
children
 Weak correlations between children and their foster parents and between
cousins
GENETIC INFLUENCES ON INTELLIGENCE
Twin Studies
 IQ scores of MZ twins reared together have higher correlation than MZ twins
reared apart
Being reared together is related to IQ
similarities
Minnesota Center for Twin and Adoption
Research (Bouchard (1997), - reported that
various types of twin studies have consistently
yielded heritability of .60 to .70 for intelligence
GENETIC INFLUENCES ON INTELLIGENCE
Adoption Studies
 Stronger relationship between IQ scores of adopted children and their
biological parents than between children and adoptive parents
HERITABILITY OF INTELLIGENCE
Heritability is between 40% and 60%
 About half the difference between your IQ score and the IQ scores of other
people can be explained by heredity
Environment is also important
Being reared together is related to IQ
similarities
FINDINGS OF STUDIES OF THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN IQ SCORES AND HEREDITY
THE COMPLEX WEB OF FACTORS THAT
AFFECT INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONING