effective encoding

Question 1

what is pragmatic memory research?

Answer 1

seeking ways to improve people’s abilities to learn and remember

Question 2

what is experimental memory research?

Answer 2

documenting the existence and nature of memory phenomena with observations that are systematically collected

Question 3

what is atheoretical memory research?

Answer 3

characterising memory in an intuitive and informal manner

focusing on phenomena rather than explanations

Question 4

what is theoretical memory research?

Answer 4

explaining the mechanisms of memory with theories, models or metaphors that capture part of a phenomena

Question 5

what kind of research is most currently?

Answer 5

experimental

theoretical

Question 6

what is the most useful type of research?

Answer 6

pragmatic

atheoretical

Question 7

what happened in 4th century BC in memory research?

Answer 7

Aristotle and Plato describe memory metaphors - wax, tablet, aviary, scribe

theoretical

Question 8

what did Aristotle say about memory?

Answer 8

Laws of Association

things that are encoded together are remember together

atheoretical

Question 9

what are mnemonic techniques?

Answer 9

Method of Loci

Cicero’s “de Oratore” 55 BCE

pragmatic

Question 10

what happened in the dark ages in memory research?

Answer 10

little

almost everything written used rhyme as a mnemonic device

pragmatic

Question 11

what happened in the 16th and 17th centuries around memory research?

Answer 11

theoretical interest rekindled

Bacon, Locke, Hume, Kant, Mill on ideas

theoretical

Question 12

what kind of research did Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909) do?

Answer 12

experimental

atheoretical

Question 13

what did Ebbinghaus contribute to memory research?

Answer 13

1885 monograph translated as “Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology”

decided that the scientific study of memory was possible using similar principles as Fechner’s (1860) Elements of Psychophysics (scientific study of perceptions of sensory stimulation)

Question 14

what did Ebbinghaus say was the fundamental unit of memory?

Answer 14

nonsense syllable

nuh, zof, veg

partly successful attempt to circumvent the influence of meaning

Question 15

what was Ebbinghaus’s method of complete mastery?

Answer 15

measured how long it took him to learn a list well enough that he could repeat it perfectly on two occasions

Question 16

what was Ebbinghaus’s method of savings?

Answer 16

key measure of retention was how much less time he took to relearn a list

Question 17

what was Ebbinghaus’s classic forgetting function based on?

Answer 17

serial spaced learning of 1200 lists of 13 nonsense syllables

Question 18

what did Ebbinghaus learn about memory?

Answer 18

encoding information is much faster if it has been learned before - even for nonsense syllables

encoding difficulty increases disproportionality with list length
- encoding up to 7 items is almost instant
- after 7 items, doubling the list length more than quadruples the time to learn the list
- but after that, the rate of increase in difficulty may reduce
- no evidence for any “maximum” list length

Question 19

what was Kappel’s (1964) experiment into massed vs distributed encoding?

Answer 19

8 blocks of learning either all on one day (massed) or 2 blocks a day for 4 days (distributed)

massed conditions MPs (massed on day 1) and MPd (massed on day 4) show steady improvements over time

distributed conditions show cross-day forgetting

testing is either part of the learning (0 days later), 1 day later or 8 days later

Question 20

what are the costs and benefits of massed practice?

Answer 20

achieves goal soonest

inefficient - less learning per hour encoding

Question 21

what did Baddeley & Longman (1978) do in their study?

Answer 21

training postmen to type postcodes

one 1 hour session training per day (1x1) is much more efficient than two 2 hour sessions per day (2x2)

long term retention was also poorer in the 4 hour group (2x2)

but 1x1 group least satisfied with the training

Question 22

why does distributed encoding work?

Answer 22

it’s hard - may also be why it’s difficult to achieve and why people don’t like it, Bjork (2014) - desirable difficulties in training

encoding variability - multiple learning in slightly different contexts produces more available cues

deficient processing hypothesis - don’t pay so much attention to recently encountered things

study-phase retrieval - when distributed learning, tend to retrieve previous episode of learning each time you relearn and retrieval itself benefits memory

Question 23

what did Bower et al (1969) find?

Answer 23

words learned 4x faster if given appropriate network of meanings

Question 24

what are the theoretical structures in memory?

Answer 24

context

schemata

scripts

frames

Question 25

what did Bransford & Johnson (1972) find?

Answer 25

context is vital for efficient encoding if context isn't available at encoding, it can't be added later

Question 26

what did Brewer & Treyens (1981) find when they investigated schematic memory for places?

Answer 26

"have a seat in my office while I check the previous participant has finished" 35 seconds later, collect participant, take them out of the room and do a surprise memory test - "what do you remember being in the room where you were sitting" 9/30 participants recalled there being books in the office when there wasn't schema expectancy and saliency (schema inconsistency) predict recall even though these are negatively correlated with each other - retrieve stuff that is consistent with schema if it isn't there, retrieve stuff that is inconsistent with schema if it is there

Question 27

what was found for stories following general scripts?

Answer 27

stories containing well-scripted sequences of event are learned - some of the items in each story are typical of the script, others would be atypical although recall looks to demonstrate better memory for typical information, particularly with delayed recall, this effect disappears when guessing is controlled for instead atypical items are remembered particularly well schema pointer guides recall atypical tag helps recognition

Question 28

what is important for improving encoding?

Answer 28

relating new information to existing information

Question 29

what is the generation effect?

Answer 29

memory for self-generated items is much better than the items you have been presented with