Learning Ms. Carmelitano

Historically: Behaviorism The theory that the mind can be understood by studying external behavior Behaviorism and Learning: Classical conditioning Learning occurs due to patterns of stimulus and response (Watson, 1913) Watson denied the existence of the mind or consciousness Learning occurs due to association Two stimuli are linked together to produce a new learned response Ie: Pavlov (1928) Operant conditioning Learning occurs due to consequences Actions are intentional (not just a response to stimuli) in order to get a reward or avoid punishment Skinner, 1938 Associative learning Learning is based on the gradual building up of associations between stimuli (Conditional) or behavior and its consequences (Operant) Social Learning We learn through observing others We now know learning is more complex

Activity Write down the number of days in each month of the year. What are the colors of the rainbow? What are the order of operations? What are the musical scales?

Learning as a cognitive process When we enter into a learning situation we already have some judgements made This influences how we organize our information The way in which we have learned something will affect how we retrieve it later

Different ways we learn Mnemonic devices Techniques a person can use to help them remember something These better help your brain encode and recall important information Chunking Grouping together connected items or words so that they can be stored and processed as single concepts Listing Encoding a string of words or numbers as a list Narrative Encoding a series of items as a story or prose

Deep VS. Shallow Processing Techniques used to encode information (Craik and Lockhart(1972)) The theory states that there is no distinction between STM and LTM, different memories are a by-product of the depth of processing of information Shallow: (The only type of processing in the multi-store model) Structural processing: The encoding of only physical qualities of something (typeface of a word or how letters look) Phonemic processing: The encoding of sounds Deep: (Proof of more complex models of memory) Semantic processing: When a person encodes the meaning of a word and relates it to similar words with similar meanings More meaningful analysis leads to better recall – giving a word meaning

Craik and Tulving levels of processing http://new-learning.newham.ac.uk/ims-repository//nln-materials- new/Health%20Care,%20Medicine,%20Health%20And%20Safety/Psychology/ act_PK1_Levels%20of%20processing/B658A8DD-0D14-4A95-82CF- 7B0EAED4628B/s03three_levels/010a_introduction.htm

Craik and Tulving (1975) Aim: To compare processing information deeply and more shallow Procedure: Participants were presented a series of 60 words about which they had to answer three questions Some required participants to process deeply other shallow Participants were then given a long list of 180 words which had the original mixed in They were asked to pick out the original words

results The participants recalled more words that were semantically processed compared to phonemically and visually

Levels of Processing Craik and Tulving concluded that the level at which information is processed depends on three things: 1.The type of information - whether it is visual, auditory or semantic. 2. The processing time available. 3. The purpose of remembering it. Many day-to-day events are trivial and fleeting. We can't or don't need to process them at a semantic level, therefore we do no remember it

Criticisms The theory does not explain HOW deeper processing results in better memories Eysenck (1990) – argued the levels of processing theory simply describes but does not explain how memory occurs. Bransford et al (1979) – Argued that deeply processed items can only be recalled if they are usual connections. Unusual links will not be recalled even if they are processed deeply: Ie:  The sentence: “A mosquito is like a doctor because both draw blood” is more likely to be recalled than the more elaborated sentence, “A mosquito is like a raccoon because they both have head, legs and jaws.”