Acquisition of Memories

1
Acquisition of Memories

• How to create a memory trace that would last for
  a long time?
• Important factors
• strength
• elaborateness of processing
• representation

2
Strength

• How to increase the strength of memory trace?
• Repeat the item.
• How does it increase?
• negatively accelerated fashion
• We often use power function to describe it.

3
Power function

• Use natural logarithm
• Negatively accelerated function become a linear
  function.
• Can be applied to many different learning
  situation.
• Power law of learning

4
Why is it important?

• Because we are trying to find the simplest way of
  describing learning.

5
Complication

• Strength isnt the only factor.
• More important - elaboration
• Idea came from Levels of Processing theory.
• Processing proceeds from shallow to deep.

6

• Shallow - perceptual
• Deep - semantic
• Deeper the processing, longer the memory lasts

7
Experiment

• Hyde Jenkins (1973)
• presented words
• asked subjects to one of two orienting task
• check letters for e or g
• rate pleasantness
• found - deeper is better.
• no difference between the intentional and
  incidental learning condition.

8

• Intention doesnt influence memory
• Processing does.
• Educational implication.

9
Does elaboration increase strength?

• No.
• Bradshaw Anderson (1982)
• presented sentences
• Mozart made a long journey from Munich to
  Paris.
• in another condition, two additional sentences to
  elaborate the meaning

10

• Found
• better performance for the elaborated condition
  than the single sentence condition.
• but, no difference in recognition reaction time.
• If the trace was stronger - faster reaction time.

11
Why does elaboration help?

• Create alternative retrieval routes.
• Apple
• fruit
• sweet and sour
• red
• Newton
• gravity

12
Generation Effect

• Slamecka Graf (1978)
• generate your own answer.
• Increase elaboration.
• Experiment
• Generate Hot - c----
• Read Hot - cold
• found - generate was better than read.