W1 Learning ✅

Question 1

What is meant by the Total time hypothesis and the effect of practice on memory?

Answer 1

• Ebbinghaus pioneered the scientific study of learning and memory
• The total time hypothesis = the amount learned is a function of the time spent learning
• Experiment: learn a new list of syllables each day and record how much more time is needed to relearn the list
• Learning linearly related to the amount of study (practice makes perfect), HOWEVER extensive practice effect levels out

Question 2

The effect of practice on the brain?

Answer 2

• Practice drives brain plasticity - brain undergoes structural changes in response to learning or environmental demands
• Across different skills, not just word learning
• Evidence: compared brain volume in taxi drivers to healthy control -> posterior hippocampus of taxi drivers was consistently larger
• changes are NOT permanent -> brain renormalises the volume over time
• Some structural changes selected and others dropped (expansion normalisation hypothesis)

Question 3

What is the effect of repetition on learning? (When the information is complex & not useful)

Answer 3

• Experiment: draw the back of the penny, and not allow to look at penny beforehand
• Simple repetition with no attempt to organise the material might not lead to learning
• Especially when information is complex AND not useful
  -> Memory and attenion are selective

Question 4

Effect of distributed practice on learning

Answer 4

• Learning trials span across a period of time
• Faster improvement rates of learning and less forgetting
• Lag effect = benefit of repeated study increases as the lag between study occasions increases
• Problems:
• takes longer (across longer time span) so not always practical or convenient
• feel “less efficient” (easy to be demotivated)

Question 5

What is meant by the testing/generation effect?

Answer 5

• Having to retrieve the answer, rather than being presented with, leads to greater retention.
• Evidence: group 1 (repeated study and tests) and 4 (not studied but repeated tests) did significantly better compared to group 2 and 3 (no test)
• HOWEVER, corrective feedback is needed for recall errors and can strengthen memory (erroneous retrieval)
• Testing also promotes deeper learning (despite Ps thinking retrieval practice is least effective)

Question 6

What is expanding retrieval method?

Answer 6

• Combine both the spacing effect and the testing effect.
• Spacing effect: enhance memory
• Testing effect: strengthen memory than passive presentation
  -> repeated testing but spaced out

Question 7

What is the effect of motivation on learning?

Answer 7

Motivation to learn makes learning more efficient in both automatic and strategic ways

1. Automatic: external (reward) or internal (curiosity) motives improves memory even when study time and method are controlled

• Curiosity (intrinsic) has a major effect on successful encoding, even for incidental stimuli
• Curiosity favours encoding of new information
• Similar findings for external motivation
  -> Associated with changes in network of brain regions critically involve the hippocampus

2. Strategic: use deeper and more elaborate memorisation strategies for high value items

Question 8

What is the effect of learning on the brain (Hebbian learning)? (3)

Answer 8

1. Hebbian learning: strengthening the connections of co-active neurons
2. Evidence:

• Neurons repeatedly excited in synchrony
• Chemistry of synapse between neurons changes
• Induced action potential between neurons
• Intrinsic plasticity within neurons (other factors)

3. Why? Long-term potentiation (LTP): strengthening of synapses leading to long-lasting increase in signal transmission between neurons. LTP strongly represented in:

• The hippocampus and surrounding regions associated with long-term memory.
• The amygdala supporting emotion-based learning and classical conditioning.
  => strengthening association