DAY 2

In a 9 year experiment, Harry Bahrick and three of his family members practiced foreign language word translations for a given number of times, at intervals ranging from 14 to 56 days. Their consistent findings: the longer the space between practice sessions, the better their retention up to 5 years later.

Continuing with Effortful Processing

Spacing Effect: we retain information better when our rehearsal is distributed over time (as when learning our classmates’ names.)

This essentially states that for true learning to occur, cramming is NOT the way.

The Practical Implication?Spreading out learning over –over a semester or a year, rather than over a shorter term—should help you not only on comprehensive final exams, but also in retaining the information for a lifetime.

This is related to the Testing Effect. Testing is a powerful means of improving learning, not just assessing it.

Testing yourself is a part of effective studying.

Serial Position EffectOur tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list.Associated Words: primacy and recency.

The von Restorff EffectAnother phenomenon related to the serial position effect is the von Restorff Effect. The von Restorff Effect occurs when information in a list is unique or strange in some way. Presidents who were assassinated tend to be remembered in a list of U.S. Presidents regardless of where they fall in the list. Their unique status makes them easier to recall than presidents whose terms were uneventful.

What We EncodeProcessing through our sensory output is like sorting through e-mail. Some items we instantly discard. Others we open, read, and retain. We process information by encoding its meaning, encoding its image, or mentally organizing it.

Types of EncodingVisual Encoding: the process of encoding

picture images.

Acoustic Encoding: the encoding of sound, especially the sound of words

Semantic Encoding: the encoding of meaning, including the meaning of words

Example of Acoustic EncodingJohnnie Cochran didn’t say “if it doesn’t fit,

you must find him not guilty.”The rhyme is what caused it to be etched in people’s minds.

Similarly you say “what sobriety conceals, alcohol reveals” rather than “what sobriety conceals, alcohol unmasks.”

How many F’s are in the following sentence?

Finished files are the results of years of scientific study combined with the experience of years.

EXPERIMENTWhich type of processing would best prepare you to recognize a key word at a later time. 2 students were asked to remember the following passage: The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do…after the procedure is completed one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part of life.

Can you remember the quote from the previous slide?Very few people could.

However, when told the paragraph described washing clothes they remembered much more of it.

For all you thespians…

How do actors and actresses remember all of their lines?

It is easier to remember information (such as lines in a play) by first coming to the flow of meaning.

Ebbinghaus theorized that it was far easier to learn meaningful information than more trivial information.

Visual EncodingImagery: mental pictures, a powerful aid to effortful processing, especially when combined with semantic encoding.

Mnemonics: Memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices.EX—peg-word system.One is a bun, two is a shoe, three is a tree.

ChunkingWhen we organize information into meaningful units, such as letters, words, and phrases, we recall them much more easily.

SENSORY MEMORY

Iconic Memory: a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second.

Echoic Memory: a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3-4 seconds.

LONG-TERM MEMORY“Our memories are flexible and superimposable, a panoramic blackboard with an endless supply of chalk and erasers.”--Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Ketcham

Quote from Myers“I marveled at my aging mother-in-law, a retired pianist and organist. At age 88 her blind eyes could no longer read music. But let her sit at a keyboard and she would flawlessly play any of hundreds of hymns, including ones she had not thought of for 20 years.

Where did her brain store those thousands of sequenced notes?”

Actually…Memories do NOT store info in single, specific spots.

Despite the brains’ vast storage capacity, we do not store information the way that libraries store their books in discrete, precise locations.

Lab rats that had sections of their brains removed continued to navigate their way around mazes.

FRQA good friend, unhappy over his low grades in Japanese class, has asked you for advice about how to improve his memory. Explain about how to improve his memory. Explain how human memories are processed. Include specific recommendations for improving memory.

Rubric for Grading the FRQ Think of this as a 10 point question: 1 point for a description of encoding as the stage where

information gets into the brain 3 points for identifying the 3 stages of memory storage: sensory

storage, short-term/working memory, and long-term memory. 1 point for discussing retrieval as the process of getting

information back out of memory. 4 points for explanations of encoding strategies discussed in the

text. These would include effective use of rehearsal, chunking, the spacing effect, the serial position effect, levels of encoding (visual, acoustic, semantic or mnemonics.)

1 point for explanations of retrieval strategies discussed in the text such as priming, retrieval cues, or mood congruence.