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Stephen van Vlack Sookmyung Women’s University Graduate School of TESOL Human Learning and Cognition Spring 2015 Week 6; April 10 - Answers
Terry (2006) Chapter 7, Human Memory: Conceptual Approaches
Memory Components
Short-term memory
Long-term memory
Episodic
Semantic
Procedural
Priming
Three Approaches to Memory
Stages of Memory
Processes of Memory
Encoding
Depth of Processing
Storage
Shallow rehearsal
Retrieval
Elaborative rehearsal
Transfer-appropriate processing
Terry (2006: 194)
1. What is Dual-Store Theory and how does it explain memory?
Dual-Store Theory (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968) is just one of several possible models
used to explain memory, but has had a huge effect on how people think about
memory (McLeod, 2007). It proposes a system of memory that encodes information
based in large part on time. Memory in this, as we shall soon see oversimplified,
model is thus dived into different systems: either short-term memory (STM) or longterm memory (LTM). In this model, information processing actually begins with what
is called the sensory memory, which contains data received by any of the five senses.
Information in sensory memory is retained for a very brief time unless it is shifted
into/recoded into short-term memory. STM is also brief, lasting only 15 to 30 seconds
under lab testing conditions. It has limited capacity, codes items in verbal form, and is
subject to verbal rehearsals. Moreover, STM is displaced as soon as a new item is
introduced for processing, which explains why forgetting occurs easily in this store.
With maintenance rehearsals, however, information in STM can be encoded into LTM.
The use of short-term memory involves recalling information which was acquired
erewhile, and it lasts a few minutes at best under lab testing conditions. For example,
to recall a counterpart's name in a conference people use their STM, and looking for
new phone number will be quickly forgotten, even before reaching the phone in the
absence of rehearsal. It can be said that people will have a tremendous problems in
daily life if short-term memory does not work properly. Short-tem memory has two
important characteristics. First, short-term memory can contain only a few items,
"chunks" of information. Second, items remain in short-term memory only around
twenty seconds (Miller, 1956). It means that STM is limited both in its duration and its
capacity.
According to Brown-Peterson’s distractor task (1958), there are two reasons for
rapid forgetting with the distractor technique. First, the absence of rehearsal, and the
second reason seemed to occur in the absence of interference. The first reason is
quite obvious for we know that rehearsal is required to keep things in STM, but the
second reason needs to be further explained. Interference refers to a particular
theory in which forgetting was attributed to competition between similar memories.
There are two types of interference, which are proactive and retroactive
interference. Proactive interference is when information acquired prior to the
formation of a target memory leads to forgetting of this newer memory. Retroactive
interference is when information presented after the formation of a target memory
causes forgetting of that previous memory. Since interference was believed to be
primarily determined by similarity between competing memories, digit counting
should not have caused retroactive interference with the recall of words or letters in
the experiment by Brown-Peterson. However, the efficacy of STM depends on the
items to be memorized and interference.
Memory span is the measure of STM capacity. The span of immediate memory is
defined as the longest sequence of items that can be recalled in their correct order
after a single presentation. An important determinant of memory span is the wordlength effect: More items can be remembered when shorter words are the to-beremembered items (Baddeley, Tomson, and Buchanan 1975). Memory span is unfixed
so it can be increased with practice. Activities like the snowball game, in which new
information is carefully tacked onto old information, can be helpful for increasing
memory span.
Even though there has been a large amount of research on short-term memory,
the exact nature or even the postulation of STM is not perfectly clear. It might be
considered as different type of working memory or, in some views even, long-term
memory. There is also the problem of working memory and if it too exists, what its
place may be in this memory triumvirate.
On the other hand, long-term memory is less controversial. LTM is described as
(relatively) permanent and virtually limitless in capacity. It is more durable and can be
encoded in modalities other than verbal, such as images, smells, touch, and emotion.
Because LTM stores vast kinds of information, theorists have hypothesized several
further subdivisions of LTM.
The general scope and perceived complexity of LTM has lead to the development
of many subsequent dichotomies, the most common of which are episodic vs.
semantic and explicit vs. implicit memory. Before moving on it should be made
very clear that implicit memories are going to greatly outweigh explicit memories.
This means there’s going to be, in theory anyway, a large amount of implicit
memories. These implicit memories have a huge effect on how people perform all
types of tasks including of course language and for that reason are things which we
cannot and should not simply ignore even though they are very hard to investigate.
Episodic memory is a personal memory system that consists of autobiographical
accounts that are marked by specific temporal and contextual information. Semantic
memory is a store for general knowledge, which is also referred to as dictionary or
encyclopedic knowledge. This includes facts, words from language, and maybe
subsequent language grammar. Episodic and semantic memories are sometimes
categorized as explicit types of memory because knowledge in this system can be
explicitly recalled and more importantly, declared verbally or explicitly. Another
conflicting tern for this type of information as stored in memory is that of declarative
memory. Implicit memory, on the other hand, is performance that occurs
independently of any conscious attempts to recall. That is, we use the information
stored in memory without realizing we are doing so. This type of memory is not
accessible to conscious verbal recall and is acquired through several means that
include procedural learning and priming. It is also referred to negatively as nondeclarative. It is something that we cannot really talk about and this is one reason that
makes it very hard to investigate.
Thinking about implicit memories, the basic idea is that everything that someone
has perceived is somehow stored in memory but of course the information is stored
in different ways, places obviously, and for their different purposes. Episodic
memories have a specific purpose, they have a role to play in our lives and as a result
are stored in a way that allows them to support that role. The same can be said for
semantic memories, they lack contextual information so that they can be used in
more varied types of contexts, thus allowing us to do varied things with them which,
of course, we cannot do with episodic memories. Implicit memories have a huge
effect on how we perform and represent a massive amount of underlying
information and procedures that we typically do not have direct access to but which
nonetheless are pivotal to normal functioning (behavior). As teachers this means it is
not only the things that you want your students to learn (the specific goals and
objectives you have), but rather everything you do that students potentially commit
to memory. Most of it will go into implicit memory which means they probably don’t
think very much about it, but it is there nonetheless.
Procedural learning involves knowing how to do things through the acquisition of
generalized rules/patterns. It involves perceptual, motor, and cognitive skills, all of
which work together to allow a person to perform a task without necessarily knowing
verbally (declaratively) the sequence or really what they are doing or how. Priming,
as we have discussed previously, facilitates access to information through previous
exposures to the same data. This concept upholds the notion that we remember
better those things that we have been previously exposed to or have been "primed"
to recall. Since we have discussed this previously I don’t think there’s any need to go
into the specific mechanics of priming but it is extremely important to remember that
priming is an extremely important cognitive phenomenon and is something that we
need to learn to make good use of in the classroom.
The concepts of STM and LTM in Dual-Store Theory have found evidence from
different laboratory experiments and clinical studies, thus reinforcing the heuristic
value of this approach to explaining human memory.
2. What variables affect the stages and the process of memory and how can they be
used for better memory and learning?
Memory plays a pivotal role in how the human brain works in relation to learning. This
involves knowing things like which subway station you need to get off at (and the
exit) to get to your home after class or, the code you need to open your door to get
into your house, to what answer should be given in an exam or how to deal with the
strangers you meet on the street. All of them are connected to leaning based on
memory processes. Then, why can’t we remember what we experienced or learned
at the very moment we need it? This question (number 2) is about how to facilitate
memory and remove deficits of memory, that is, forgetting. Terry (2006) deals with
the reason why we cannot recall something, have some problems in memory and
what the reason of forgetting may be, by analyzing the steps and process of
memory. First, one possible reason for forgetting can be found in the different stages
of memory. Information that we get everyday needs first to be formed in the brain
(encoding), retained in the memory system of the brain (storage) and later retrieved
(retrieval).
For the purposes of scientific research into memory and cognition, encoding
basically entails the initial acquisition of information. For us, this is somewhat
problematic because we know that encoding is not something that only happens
once. We may find it necessary to acknowledge that once something has been
encoded a huge amount of subsequent information is further encoded in relation to
that particular concept or bit of memory. This makes defining encoding actually quite
difficult. We may, therefore, define encoding as ‘A process by which new information
is stored in long-term memory’.
Good encoding seems to come down to two main ideas – attention and
connections. The most important aspect in encoding is rehearsal, which has an effect
on recall or use of memory, and amounts to the act of just doing something
repeatedly. Provided more rehearsal with slower pace and immediate test, a memory
can be strongly formed. Once well formed, forgetting can be found in retrieval and
problems in retrieval can exist in both encoding and storage. If retrieval is facilitated
by providing reminder (reinforcement) cues that act as prompts to aid recall, initial
encoding deficits can be cured through recoding. Intention according to exposure
can give the participant to enough information. It means memory should repeatedly
be exposed to prior conditions. Discrimination of a recent memory from those of
earlier lists can be one of the reasons for retrieval deficit. Encoding or retrieval
deficits tell us about the importance of presentation or input and how to deal with the
activities in the classroom. If the previous exposure of the target language with
rehearsal is provided enough, memory or learning can be enhanced and forgetting
can be delayed.
Encoding is an aspect of long-term memory, but it is said to take place as a result
of what we do in short-term or working memory. It is said to enhance the ability to
remember what we have learned in this class, for example, long after we have
graduated. There are a number of variables in encoding. Some variables are:
rehearsal, imagery, serial-position effects, arousal and meaningfulness.
Starting with the idea of rehearsal, it should be clear that all rehearsal is not the same.
We can make a distinction between elaborative rehearsal and maintenance rehearsal.
These two terms derive from the levels-of-processing approach of Craik and
Lockhart, (1972), which posits that information can be processed to a greater, or
lesser extent or different ‘depths’ along a continuum from shallow to deep
processing.
Maintenance rehearsal is shallow processing. It is the recycling of information in
order to keep it available in short-term memory or the phonological store. It is
somewhat passive repetitive thinking. We use maintenance rehearsal when we must
quickly remember a phone number. It is effective in short-term memory relations
with uninterrupted rehearsal until the time of recall.
Elaborate rehearsal is thinking about material in such a way as to require more
cognitive effort, to activate more associations, which is why elaborate rehearsal
represents deep processing. For example we use elaborative rehearsal to remember
a phone number by taking the time to look for meaningful patterns. At least three
hypotheses have been offered to explain exactly what elaboration is: elaboration,
distinctiveness, and effort (Horton and Mills, 1984). Elaboration requires rich
processing in terms of meaning. For example, if you want to understand the concept
‘depth of processing’ you will need to appreciate how this concept is related to both
distinctiveness and elaboration. Unlike distinctiveness, elaboration is especially useful
in enhancing memory when we want to emphasis similarity and relationships between
items. In other words, elaboration helps us synthesize information (Phillips, 1985). It is
important to realize that although encoding is often discussed in relation to what
happens when information is first presented, it is also highly probable that people do
all sorts of rehearsal after the initial encoding, so rehearsal is not just something
related to STM. It can be something related to working memory as well as just
something that occurs within long-term memory.
As sight is arguably one of the most powerful senses that humans have, images
play a very important role in the overall working of memory. This is because images
not only from early but are also very meaningful. Researchers showed that images
are one of the most imports and types of associations that people can make with
verbal learning to try to remember something. It, therefore, seems quite obvious that
as a simple strategy for trying to get our students to learn would be to provide
images along with language so that associations can be made quickly. Once more,
the type of image also has an effect with the reality of being the most effective and
simple lines sketched drawings being the least effective. The reason for this is
probably that more realistic images will contain more contextual information, which is
useful for cueing retrieval.
As has already been discussed at length previously, serial-position effects play an
important role in how well someone will encode information in the list or sequence. It
bears consideration that all language is sequential, so we are not just talking about
presenting words in the list as is often done in the laboratory. Anytime you give your
students any piece of language these serial position effects apply. They will be able
to focus their attention and, therefore, better encode information about the initial and
final elements in an utterance or string of utterances. Within the context of language
we can then see how extremely important these serial-position effect is really are. It
should also be mentioned that language itself is structured around these serial
position affects and this is a strong argument for using more authentic types of
language because when we create contrived structures they may actually fail to
correspond well with serial-position effects.
One’s level of arousal also has an effect on encoding in that arousal puts one in a
position to use more energy on a particular task. If we are roused we will put more
energy into the encoding process and more energy will create stronger connections
from the outset, which is, more or less, one of the main definitions of good encoding.
In discussing arousal we then begin to see the great overlap among all these different
variables related to encoding. The basic question posting class was, how do we
arouse our students? The answer to this question ends up being the answer to other
questions posed here today: things like distinctiveness, meaningfulness, and of course
the ever present brain chemistry. We can basically say that arousal means that we
have piqued our students’ interest and that they want to learn and will be making a
greater effort.
Distinctiveness of the memory hypothesis allows that shallow processing may
sometimes lead to good retention, just as long as the memory representation is
distinctive. In memory recall, distinctiveness is the term describing a stimulus that is
different from all other memory traces in a general sense or in relation to the input
presented. When something is distinctive then attention is focused on that distinctive
element. From a classroom perspective there different ways of making things
distinctive, but one needs to be careful that the distinctiveness does not override or
distract attention away from the actual goal. As I mentioned in class if we can make
the distinctiveness and inherent part of that focal element then it will be much more
effective than if it is somehow different. For example, putting diacritics to the right or
left of a lexical item may not focus attention on that lexical item in the same way that
simply coloring the item differently or using a different font would. The idea of
distinctiveness plays a large role in how we code input for the second language
learning process. It is important to bear in mind that distinctiveness must be used in
connection with some of these other concerns. Since we are aware of serial-position
effects we want to make sure that we do not put distinctive elements at the
beginning or ends of sequences this attention is refocused there. Distinctive elements
are best put in the middle.
Cognitive effort implies that we find ways to work harder at encoding. The
conclusion we come to discussing elaboration is that students will probably learn
more if we find ways to make them work harder at encoding and if they are
encouraged to deal with new information in terms of its meaning and semantic
content. Therefore, just getting students to simply repeat material or spend more
time looking at it is not the most efficient way to help them to learn and remember
content. Effort is primarily bad energy but it can also be about some of the different
ways to form associations, that is, process more deeply.
It is actually the amount of effort expended in a meaningful way that determines
retention. For example the techniques used in the various mnemonic devises
exemplify the use of elaborative processing. These methods require meaningful
analysis of the target words, creation of distinctive representation in memory and
cognitive effort.
Another reason of forgetting can be found in processing approaches of memory.
In cognitive processing, forgetting is caused by shallow processing. In contrast to
shallow processing, sustained retention means deeper or more elaborate processing.
According to Terry (2006), processing is co-related to rehearsal such as maintenance
rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal. Maintenance rehearsal means the passive
repetition of information that is repeating something over and over, on the other
hand, elaborative rehearsal represents a deeper level of processing and more active
form of processing which involves meaningful analysis, comprehension of the
material by using mnemonic devices, forming mental images and relating the to-berecalled material to existing knowledge. Elaborative rehearsal led to longer retention.
Focusing on process of the memory, method of teaching or learning should be
varied for enhancing memory and longer retention by using meaningful materials and
interaction. One important observation we can make in relation to this is that even
when trying to get people just to process in their short-term memory, the
researchers had them do something with the input. When dealing with short-term
memory and rehearsal we need to think about that that it takes for students to do
these things. Instead of bombarding our students with huge amounts of input which
they can process understand or rehearse, things that we really want them to learn
(the goals and objectives) need to be dealt with over a period of time. We need to
slower students down a little bit so they have the opportunity to reverse if we want
certain information to become more explicit and available for exclusive use.
In retrieval, we try to find out the memory of environmental conditions that
presents at encoding. This is transfer-appropriate processing stated reinstatement of
the cognitive operations that were used at encoding. According to the experiments,
implicit and explicit test of memory are not separate system but processing is
different. Implicit memory depends on a match between perceptual operations at
encoding and retrieval. It is said that test of memory should follow the way of the
presentation. This then becomes a problem for us in relation to the way we assess
our students. The assessment should match the learning environment or learning
condition. Unfortunately, here in South Korea we usually do this the other way
around, especially at the secondary and even the tertiary levels. We have a pretty
lame assessment scheme and then we alter our learning environment to match that
lame assessment scheme. So the matching condition is there but the way were
matching these things up is probably actually quite detrimental to our students
because we are being driven by assessment and not by actual sound learning
practices.
3. What are the basic principles of connectionist models and how do they combine to
explain the process of learning and forgetting?
Connectionist models are based on several basic principles. First, as these models
were founded on the principles of neuroscience and the physical brain, but a lot of
the older models took these general bits of information and created computer
models to try to show how they worked. As a result we have a computer model of an
assumed and neurocognitive system, which can become out of date quite fast. All the
same, and especially in the more modern models of connectionism, there is a great
reliance on the neuron and the connectivity of the brain And the general principles
which those theories started with are still valid today. Basically, connectionism states
that cognitive functioning comes from connections between neurons. There are all
different types of connections between your odds differing primarily in their
strength. Furthermore, these neurons combine to form a neural network through
which electronic and chemical messages can move with varying degrees of speed
and efficiency. The speed and efficiency of the connections is determined by the
degree of use the connection undergoes. These neurons and the neural networks
they form have a resting level and activation level determined by the degree of
electronic and chemical signals required to fire them. Priming is an important factor
in the firing of neurons and neural networks. As electronic and chemical signals
activate intended neurons, surrounding neurons (with proximity determined by
pathways, not physical distance) receive signals that combine to lower the remaining
amount of electricity required for activation. These models go a long way in
explaining learning and forgetting. As we have stressed throughout this whole
semester, connections and associations are the keys to learning. This idea is well
supported by connectionist models. Additionally, forgetting can also be explained as
the connections either become inefficient due to a lack of use or simply never gained
the minimally required strength at the initial building stage (due to a lack of
reinforcing information).
Here are several key components of Connectionist Models and key reference words
related to each point:
1. Each neuronal unit can potentially have connections to many other units. *Neural
networks, Connectivity, Neural Pathways*
2. The strength of connections increases with pairings of active neural units and
weakens without the activation of others. *Delta Rule*.
3. The neuronal unit or network can be activated. *Activation, Threshold Levels,
Chemical and Electronic Signals*
4. Activation may require stimulation from multiple input units. *Threshold Level*.
5. Multiple layers. *Hidden layers*
Banich (2004) Chapter 10, Memory
1. What is amnesia and what does amnesia tell us about how memory may work?
Amnesia in its most basic sense is a disorder of memory. Because amnesia affects
memory it is therefore possible to posit memory as a specific and separate system in the
brain. Taking this further, because amnesia affects different parts of memory in
different ways then it seems that memory itself can and must be further broken down
into different components or systems, as we have already discussed briefly above. For
this reason, amnesia studies hold a special place in the filed of memory in much the same
way that aphasia studies have played a pivotal role in the field of psycholinguistics.
Amnesia typically results from damage to the hippocampal region of the midbrain and
occurs for several reasons that do not particularly concern us here. It is, however,
important to note that some amnesia is permanent while other times it is temporary and
this would of course depend on the trauma that caused the amnesia in the first place and
the degree of damage to the focal areas of memory. Amnesia can affect the forming of
new memories (anterograde) or how well one can retrieve past memories (retrograde).
So, there seems to be a temporal gradient to retrograde amnesia. The differences
between these two main types of amnesia have been used to support the encodingretrieval distinction we discussed above. Interestingly, amnesia is also global in that it
seems to affect all perceptual modes and types of material in the same way. Certainly
there are situations in which certain modalities or types of information are affected but
these result from a different kind of trauma than is found in amnesia.
In additional amnesia is seen as a problem in the long-term memory. Short term or
working memory is seen as being unaffected in amnesia. From this we can deduce that
the hippocampal region is involved in forming new long-term memories. The
hippocampal region is not critical in managing older long-term memories. Also,
amnesiacs have been shown to be able to learn implicitly. That is they can learn skills
(such as categorization, which is so pivotal for language) through repetition and practice.
Priming effects (also a part of implicit learning) also seem to be seen in amnesiacs.
Finally, this distinction between implicit and explicit uses of memory are shown in that
amnesiacs are not able to relate arbitrarily paired tokens.
2. What is working memory and what do we know about it?
Amendments to Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968)’s dual store model have lead to the
postulation of a third major component (depending on the on the model) to memory. This
is the component of working memory. Working memory is proposed to be the component
that allows us to hold limited amounts of information while we are making active use of
them. It may also be referred to as processing memory in that we use working memory
to process the information that is encountered in short-term or perceptual memory. On
rather simple view working memory operates to keep information in an active state to
support more processing so that it can be better encoded into long-term memory. This is
a model, which sees WM as a midway point for encoding, but we know WM does more
than this. There are, in fact several different aspects of WM which have been posited.
According to the working memory model, STM actually consists of two different substores, which are phonological and visuospatial. The reason that we can divide STM into
two different sub-stores is from observations about what people actually do in their daily
life. People seem to have no problem to complete two different tasks when the tasks are
from the different sub-stores of working memory. Since the two different tasks have
their own sub-stores in working memory, the interference between the two may be
reduced.
One of the important features of the working memory approach is that dual-task
performances can be assessed by this approach. As mentioned above, if two tasks use
different STM stores, the interference between the two tasks can be decreased.
Furthermore the working memory works like an executive controller, which is
somewhat similar to the convergence zones (Damasio, 1989) we briefly discussed in
relation to episodic memory. It handles, directs, or helps the two sub-stores to organize,
plan, or perform information and actions. By doing this, it lets us know not only what to
do but also what to avoid. Regarding language learning, we can teach learners what they
need to know how to do in the TL, and at the same time also teach them what they need
to avoid such as translation in the FL or SL situation, to become proficient language
users.
The idea behind a working memory model is that there are basically two types of
storage systems or modals and that these two are controlled by some central executive
function. The two modalities are phonological and visuospatial. This idea is simply a
further abstraction based on what has already been observed in Short-term Memory
(STM). The advantage of the working memory idea over that of traditional STM views is
that it allows people to engage in two modalities at once. In this model it is claimed that
people can listen and see at the same time and still process both types of information
without one interference from one or the other. The central executive function works to
make sure that processing is optimally fast and that attention is focused in the right
place for the right amount of time. Thus, processing time and efficiency becomes an
important factor in how the working memory functions.
3. What are some of the different types of memory?
Banich (2004) does not break down LTM into the several conflicting components that
Terry (2006) does. She keeps it simple trying to draw parallels between LTM and WM.
Declarative
Episodic
Semantic
Procedural
4. How do different parts of the brain work together to help form the system of
memory?
This is the main point of this initial and brief introduction to memory: Memory is
complex and diverse. It may be helpful at this point (before we move further and start
clouding the as of yet clearish waters) to simply postulate that there are in deed several
components of memory and that these components are also made up of sub-components.
This basic view of differentiated components is also supported by the different regions of
the brain seemingly implicated in memory. We have different parts of the mid-brain
involved in different memory operations. Different parts of the cortex are also used for
different aspects of long-term memory.
References Atkinson, R. C. and Shiffrin, R. M. (1968). Human memory: A proposed system and its control procedures. In K. W. Spence & T. D. Spence (Eds.) The psychology of learning and motivation (vol. 2) (pp. 89-­‐195). New York: Academic Press. Brown, J. (1958). Some tests of the decay theory of immediate memory. Q J Exp Psychol 10: pp. 12–21. Craik, F. and R. Lockhart. (1972). Levels of processing: A framework for memory research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 11, pp. 671-­‐684. Damasio, A. R. (1989). The Brain Binds Entities and Events by Multiregional Activation from Convergence Zones. Neural Computation, 1(1): 123-­‐132. Horton, D. and C. Mills. (1984). Human learning and memory. Annual Review of Psychology 35, pp. 361-­‐394. McLeod, S. A. (2007). Multi Store Model of Memory -­‐ Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968. Retrieved on April 10, 2015 from http://www.simplypsychology.org/multi-­‐store.html Miller, G. (1956). The magical number of seven plus-­‐or-­‐minus two: Some limits for our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review 63: 81-­‐97.