Cognition Lecture 1 - Learning (Memory 1)

What is meant when it is said that learning and memory are interrelated?

• Capacity to learn from memory depends on how something was presented.

• Capacity to retrieve from memory depends on how something was learned.

• Learning is short term memory and memory is long term memory.

• Learning is long term memory and memory is short term memory.

The ... hypothesis argues that there amount learned is a function of the time spent learning. The critical factor is...

• Total-time / distribution of practice

• Expansion normalisation / total-time

Practice drives brain plasticity, how?

• It causes neurons to grow.

• It undergoes changes in response to memory or environmental demands.

• It undergoes changes in response to learning or environmental demands.

What did the Maguire et al., 2000 - London Taxi drivers study show?

• The posterior hippocampus of taxi drivers was consistently larger and correlated with the amount of time spent as taxi drivers.

• The posterior hippocampus of taxi drivers was consistently the same size - there was no difference between them and normal population.

• Expertise and brain plasticity.

• Expertise does not help with brain plasticity.

What is this hypothesis... These changes are assumed to be part of the process that optimises learning but they are not perpetual. Over time, the brain renormalises the volume in regions enhanced by practice...

• Distributed practice.

• Some structural changes are selected, others are dropped.

• Expansions normalisation hypothesis.

• Practice drives structural plasticity.

What is a better use of time when studying?

• Simple repetition

• Distributed practice

What did the study by Melton (1970) indicate about learning/ studying?

• Learning is linearly related to the amount of study.

• Simple repetition helps understanding.

• Lag effect (the benefit of repeated study increase as lag between study does).

• Spaced learning of word stimuli increases subsequent recall.

Baddeley and Longman (1978) - tested rate of learning typing skills under 4 training schedules. Training was based on sessions lasting for one or two hours occurring once or twice per day. What were the results?

• Keyboard training should be distributed over time, rather than massed.

• The group trained for two daily sessions of two hours performed most poorly.

• Retention was tested after one, three or nine months, and indicated a loss in speed of about 30%.

• Learning was most efficient in the group given one session of one hour per day, and least efficient in the group trained for two 2-hour sessions.

What was the contradiction in Kornell and Bjork's (2008) study on spaced presentation?

• Participants only remembered the famous paintings (because they were older memories).

• Participants reported superiority of distributed learning despite showing the opposite effect.

• Participants reported superiority of massed learning despite showing the opposite effect.

There are 3 theories explaining why distributed practice works: encoding variability, deficient processing and study-phase retrieval, which is which?

• Top: Deficient processing, Middle: Encoding variability, Bottom: Study-phase retrieval

• Top: Study-Phase retrieval, Middle: Encoding variability, Bottom: Deficient processing

• Top: Encoding variability, Middle: Deficient processing, Bottom: Study-phase retrieval

• Top: Deficient processing, Middle: Study-phase retrieval, Bottom: Encoding variability