Brainstorm… What is learning? How would you define it? Are there different types of learning? How do you learn new facts? New skills? Is all knowledge due to a conscious processes, or is some knowledge acquired by unconscious processes?

Explicit vs. implicit learning chart Theorists believe that there are multiple forms of long-term memory that differ in their basic information processing properties and in the brain structures that support them. These various forms of memory are thought to fall into two general classes, described as declarative and nondeclarative. Declarative memory (also known as explicit memory) refers to forms of long-term memory that can ordinarily be consciously recollected and “declared,” or described to other people, such as memory for facts, ideas, and events. Declarative memory encompasses episodic memory, the memory of events in our own personal past, and semantic memory, our general knowledge about things in the world and their meaning, a distinction proposed by Endel Tulving in 1972. Tulving defined episodic memory as the conscious knowledge of temporally dated, spatially located, and personally experienced events or episodes. Tests that assess declarative memory are termed explicit memory tests because they require the retrieval of an explicit description or report of knowledge from memory. Declarative memory is highly flexible, involving the association of multiple pieces of information into a unified memory representation; thus, we may have different routes to retrieval of a given memory. Both forms of declarative memory, episodic and semantic, depend on the operation of the medial temporal lobes. Semantic memories are memories for facts; meaning-based memory. They are explicit, and thus declarative. For instance, you may be able to state, “I know the first president of the United States was George Washington.” Episodic memories are memories for specific events of “episodes” in time. They, too, are explicit, and often involve personally-experienced events. For instance, you may remember the first roller coaster experience you had, or your first kiss. With episodic memories, you should be able to recollect the details revolving around that particular event. Procedural memories are skill-based memories. They involve knowledge of “how to” do things. Procedural memories begin as explicit, but with practice and experience, become implicit. For instance, when you first learned to ride a bike, you had to watch the sidewalk, watch your hands, watch your feet. You had to balance your body and the bike, and think about which foot was cycling; left then right. You had to steer the handlebars. You had a lot on your mind and your body was involved in many simultaneous tasks. Each part of this task was explicit (you had to pay attention to and consciously monitor). Then, with practice, the task of riding your bike became easier. Over time, you no longer had to think about your feet, or focus on balancing. You didn’t have to think about it at all. The memory, with practice, became implicit. You don’t recollect the details, now, in how to ride a bike, you just “do it”. The same could be said about how to drive a car (remember all the training you had to go through and how you had to recall and think about each detail!); not any more. When someone asks you “how to drive a car”, it is difficult for you to explain explicitly, because the memory has become implicit. (From http://psiexp.ss.uci.edu/research/teachingP140C/Lectures2009/2009_memory_partI.ppt) http://psiexp.ss.uci.edu/research/teachingP140C/Lectures2009/2009_memory_partI.ppt

Implicit Learning Passive process People acquire knowledge of new information through exposure. Evolve outside of awareness, and cannot be consciously recalled, but causes changes in behavior. “Muscle Memory” Discuss: What have you learned using Implicit Learning?

Implicit Learning

H.M. and Implicit Learning H.M. is a famous patient who had part of his brain removed and was no longer able to form new memories. When performing tasks, such as mirror tracing, he was able to improve over time. This result shows that he was capable of some types of implicit learning or “motor memory”

Explicit Learning Active process People seek out the structure of any information that is presented to them. “Declarative Memory” -- one can talk about the details of explicit memories and discuss them as fact “Explicit learning is a more conscious operation where the individual makes and tests hypotheses in a search for structure” (Nick C. Ellis) Discuss: What have you learned using Explicit Learning?

Implicit v. Explicit Learning http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=frcogimp&part=ch12&rendertype=figure&id=ch12.f7

Explicit & Implicit Memory Tests Look at the following words. This will test your memory for these words in various ways.

Memory Test Explicit test of memory: recall Write down the words you remember from the list in the earlier slide Implicit test of memory: word fragment completion On the next slide, you will see some words missing letters, some “word fragments” and some anagrams. Guess what each word might be.

Implicit Memory Tasks Word-fragment completion is an implicit memory task. Fragments are (often) completed with words previously studied in the absence of an explicit instruction to remember the word Amnesiacs often showed spared implicit memory dissociation suggest different systems for implicit and explicit memory systems

Implicit vs. Explicit Memory Graf, Squire, & Mandler (1984): Study words: cheese, house, … Explicit memory test: cued recall. Complete fragment to a word from study list: ch _ _ _ _ Implicit memory test: word stem completion. Complete fragment to form any word: ch _ _ _ _

Bean Bag Toss Experiment Objective To investigate and quantify different types of learning (implicit and explicit) in the context of a bean-bag toss game using Fresnel prism goggles. Hypotheses ???

Post “Bean Bag Toss” Debriefing: Which trial used implicit learning? Why? Which trial used explicit learning? Why? Which type of learning is easier? Why? Can explicit and implicit learning be separated or are they interdependent with one being more prevalent that the other depending of the learning context? Does explicit learning lead to implicit knowledge?

Debrief Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior that marks an increase in knowledge, skills, or understanding thanks to recorded memories. Human memory is fundamentally associative. It is easier to remember new information if it is associated with previously acquired knowledge that is already firmly anchored in memory. The more meaningful the association, the more effectively it will help remember.

Extension: Tower of Hanoi The objective of the puzzle is to move the entire stack to another rod, obeying the following rules: Only one disk may be moved at a time. Each move consists of taking the upper disk from one of the rods and sliding it onto another rod, on top of the other disks that may already be present on that rod. No disk may be placed on top of a smaller disk. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tower_of_Hanoi_4.gif

Tower of Hanoi Experiment What type(s) of learning is used to perform this type of task? Will your performance increase as you play the game over the course of several days? Design an experiment to test your hypothesis.