Lecture 16 - Improving Memory

Question 1

What are the six strategies for effective learning?

Answer 1

• Spaced practise: activities are spread out over time
• Interleaving: switching between topics while studying
• Retrieval practise: bringing learned info to mind from LTM
• Elaboration: Asking/explaining why and how things work
• Concrete examples: when studying abstract things, using specific examples
• Dual coding: combining words with visuals

Question 2

What is elaboration?

Answer 2

• Connect new info to pre-existing info
• Thinking in a deeper level e.g accessing meaning
• Improvements in organisation

Question 3

What is elaborative interrogation

Answer 3

• Prompt learners to generate explanation for a fact? e.g why/how
• Process of working out answer with uncertainty that helps you learn

Question 4

What was a study looking at elaboration?

Answer 4

• Series of sentences given
• Three conditions: elaborative interrogation, explanation provided and a reading group who just read the sentence
• Final test with cues for recall
• EI = 72%, other groups = 37%

Question 5

Why does elaborative interrogation work?

Answer 5

• Higher knowledge = more appropriate explanations
• Study asked german students and canadian students about their own geography with high/low knowledge students. EI benefits memory but bolsters it for those with high knowledge

Question 6

Pros/cons of implementations of EI:

Answer 6

P:
- Minimal training needed
- Reasonable time demands
- Consistency of prompt
C:
- Do students make questions?
- What level of knowledge do you direct question at?
- How often do you ask? And how long should students look for answers?

Question 7

What is retrieval practise?

Answer 7

• Low/No-stakes practise: practise recall/problems e.g test yourself

Question 8

Study that shows retrieval practise is effective?

Answer 8

• 3 groups: repeated study where ppl read passage 4 times with no test, single test: passage read 3 studies and 1 test, final group: read once, recalled as much as possible on 3 diff occasions
• Short delays = better for more reading, longer delays = better performance in more test sessions = robust effect

Question 9

Why does practise testing improve learning?

Answer 9

• Direct effect: act of retrieval strengthens memory
• Effect of covert retrieval: ppts need to bring info to find but not say anything, overt is same but you say it. Both groups better than control with no retrieval
• Indirect effects: expectations of testing = better encoding. Frequent tests = less mind-wandering

Question 10

How to implement practise testing technique?

Answer 10

• Across array of practise test formats
• Benefits depends to a certain extent upon how successful retrieval is
• Balance success with difficulty of retrieval
• More testing = better, better for repeated tests to be spaced

Question 11

What is spaced practise?

Answer 11

• Distributed practise

Question 12

Evidence of spaced practise:

Answer 12

• Learning stats over 6 mo or 8 weeks
• 6 mo have better performance

Question 13

How is spaced practise a robust effect?

Answer 13

• Meta analysis where students recalled more after spaced study compared to massed study
• All studies with retention interval more than a month showed a benefit

Question 14

Why is distributed practise good?

Answer 14

• Do not have to work very hard to retrieve straight away
• More sessions = reminding
• Consolidation

Question 15

How should you space learning episodes?

Answer 15

• Longer lags = better
• When lag is 10-20% of desired retention interval = best performances

Question 16

What is a study on highlighting/underlining?

Answer 16

• Asked undergrads to read long articles
• 3 groups: active highlighting group and highlight important things as much as you want, passive highlighting group: get material highlighted by prev group, control group who read the article
• Highlighting groups did not outperform controls

Question 17

What were the results in more detail?

Answer 17

• Active group = better on test items for which relevant was highlighting
• Benefit = greater for active compared to passive
• Small cost for things that were not highlighted in active group but were asked about

Question 18

How does quality of highlighting change memory?

Answer 18

• More you highlight = worse performance = less distinctive
• More processing when you highlight less = checking what is important