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How Do We Learn
and Remember?
Some Basic Principles
from Psychology and
Cognitive Neuroscience
1
Memory Processes
kairos = chronos?
2
Memory Processes
• Encoding
the processing of information into
the memory system
• Storage
the retention of encoded
information over time
• Retrieval
the process of getting information
out of memory
3
Memory Stages

Sensory Memory
◦ the immediate, initial recording of sensory
information in the memory system

Short Term Memory / Working Memory
◦ activated memory that holds a few items
briefly for processing; reverberating net
◦ capacity: about 7 items; duration: 30 sec.

Long Term Memory
◦ the relatively permanent and limitless
storehouse of the memory system
◦ chemical change in neural synapses (LTP)
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Simplified Memory Model
Sensory input
Attention to important
or novel information
Encoding
External
events
Sensory
memory
Encoding
Short-term
memory
Retrieving
Long-term
memory
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Decay of Short-Term
Memory
Percentage
who recalled
consonants
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
3
6
9
12
15
18
Time in seconds between presentation
of contestants and recall request
(no rehearsal allowed)
6
Memory and the Brain
cerebellum
7
Long-Term Memory
Systems
Types of
long-term
memories
Explicit
(declarative)
With conscious
recall
Facts-general
knowledge
(“semantic
memory”)
Personally
experienced
events
(“episodic
memory”)
Implicit
(nondeclarative)
Without conscious
recall
Skills-motor
and cognitive
Dispositionsclassical and
operant
conditioning
effects
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LTM and the
Hippocampus
MRI scan with
hippocampus in red
cerebellum
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Encoding Failure
SELECTIVE ATTENTION
 distractions
pull attention toward irrelevant info
 information overload
overwhelms capacity of STM
10
Encoding Failure
SELECTIVE ATTENTION
11
Encoding Tips
ORGANIZE
• chunking -- organizing information
into familiar, manageable units
• hierarchies -- arrange info logically
in categories and subcategories
• acronyms
• Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior
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Encoding Tips
• Example: 1776149218121941
13
Encoding Tips
Encoding
(automatic
or effortful)
Meaning
(semantic
Encoding)
Imagery
(visual
Encoding)
Chunks
Organization
Hierarchies
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Retrieval Failure
INTERFERENCE
• proactive interference -- prior
learning disrupts memory for new info
 “forward-acting”
 study Greek; study Hebrew; test Hebrew
• retroactive interference -- learning
new info disrupts old memories
“backward-acting”
 study Greek; study Hebrew; test Greek
15
Serial Position Effect
Percentage
of
words
recalled
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Position of word in list
10
11 12
16
Memory Quiz
Listen carefully to these 12 items
•Don’t write them down as you hear
them!
•When the list is finished, try to recall
as many as you can, in any order, and
then write them down
17
Memory Quiz






rest
tired
awake
dream
snore
bed






eat
slumber
sound
comfort
wake
night
Context errors can generate false memories!
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