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How does human memory work
Cognitive development stages
How does human memory work
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People often admire the individual who can tell a good story. The ability to recant details correctly requires verbal learning, a vital brain activity that facilitates information retention. Every learning concept emphasizes specific aspects of learning. Behavioral learning highlights the association learning that occurs as the individual develops conditioned responses contingent on the association to a stimulus. Cognitive learning relates to the mental strategies that build a body of knowledge, manipulate that knowledge, and extrapolate to apply the knowledge to similar situations. Exploring concepts relating to verbal learning including comparing serial learning, paired associate learning, free recall and the concept of mnemonics in the recall of verbal stimuli identify verbal learning as a sophisticated learning method and a transition from behavioral to cognitive learning.
Concept of Verbal Learning.
Humans work at learning and this may be a unique quality (Terry, 2009). Other species learn through conditioning, but humans also use cognitive functioning. An important tool in knowledge acquisition is verbal learning or memorization. Early in an academic career individuals are required to learn information such as the alphabet or multiplication tables by rote learning. This method uses repeated rehearsals to memorize and recite the essential facts related to a subject. The information the individuals memorize is essential for critical thinking problems that the student will encounter later in his or her academic career. Rote memorization facilitates quick recall but does not facilitate the application of the facts to real problems (Terry, 2009). The student knows that two times two equals four, but must then learn that four divi...
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...d both unaided recall and concept application of common marketing strategies.
Works Cited
Keppel, G. (1964). Verbal learning in children. Psychological Bulletin, 61(1), 63-80. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0043153
Saber, J., & Johnson, R. (2008, December). Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater: verbal repetition, mnemonics and active learning. Journal of Marketing Education, 30(3), 207-216. doi:10.1177/0273475308324630
Terry, W. S. (2009). Learning and memory: Basic principles, processes, and procedures (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn Bacon.
Waugh, N. C. (1961). Free versus serial recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62(5), 496-502. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0043891
Young, R. K., & Casey, M. (1964). Transfer from serial to paired-associate learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology,67(6), 594-595. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0046914
From infancy to adulthood, organisms are always learning. The conscious and the subconscious are taking in information and sorting it, discarding irrelevant information and storing the relevant. The most common mode of gaining knowledge is through repetitions and memorization. These methods are effective for knowing exact definitions but do not develop understanding. In O Americano Outra Vez, Richard Feynman describes his teaching experiences while at the Brazilian Center for Physical Research. There he discovers the flaw in the modern education system, students are memorizing material but are unable to apply it to a real life scenarios, demonstrating they are gaining knowledge but not understanding it. Similar to Feynman’s Brazilian class,
Altogether this study has helped us learn more about the brain and memory. Learning is measured thorough when a student can reiterate the right answer to a question. In this study, students in one conditions learned forging language vocabulary words in standard example of recurrent study exam trials. In three other conditions, once a student had correctly formed the language item, it was constantly studied but dropped from further testing. Repeatedly tested but dropped from the further study or just dropped from both the study and also the test. The results reveal the critical part of retrieval practice in combining education and shows that even college students seem naive of the fact.
Coon, D. & Mitterer, J. (2013) Introduction to Psychology Belmont CA. : Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Retrieved May 07, 2014
Human memory is flexible and prone to suggestion. “Human memory, while remarkable in many ways, does not operate like a video camera” (Walker, 2013). In fact, human memory is quite the opposite of a video camera; it can be greatly influenced and even often distorted by interactions with its surroundings (Walker, 2013). Memory is separated into three different phases. The first phase is acquisition, which is when information is first entered into memory or the perception of an event (Samaha, 2011). The next phase is retention. Retention is the process of storing information during the period of time between the event and the recollection of a piece of information from that event (Samaha, 2011). The last stage is retrieval. Retrieval is recalling stored information about an event with the purpose of making an identification of a person in that event (Samaha, 2011).
Similar studies were done to a different set of college students and they tended to have the same results. After giving as much detail about each memory, the students were interviewed about what they may have written done about what they had remembered. During the last part of the experiment, each of the students were debriefed and asked to guess which memory they believed was false.
.... Serial Position Effect for Repeated Free Recall: Negative Recency or Positive Primacy? Journal of Experimental Psychology, 96(1), 10-16. doi:10.1037/h0033479
Atkinson, R.C. & Shiffrin, R.M. (1968). Human memory: A proposed system and its control process.
According to Sternberg (1999), memory is the extraction of past experiences for information to be used in the present. The retrieval of memory is essential in every aspect of daily life, whether it is for academics, work or social purposes. However, many often take memory for granted and assume that it can be relied on because of how realistic it appears in the mind. This form of memory is also known as flashbulb memory. (Brown and Kulik, 1977). The question of whether our memory is reliably accurate has been shown to have implications in providing precise details of past events. (The British Psychological Association, 2011). In this essay, I would put forth arguments that human memory, in fact, is not completely reliable in providing accurate depictions of our past experiences. Evidence can be seen in the following two studies that support these arguments by examining episodic memory in humans. The first study is by Loftus and Pickrell (1995) who found that memory can be modified by suggestions. The second study is by Naveh-Benjamin and Craik (1995) who found that there is a predisposition for memory to decline with increasing age.
In the field of cognitive neuroscience a memory study usually involves a combination of behavioral tasks and a machine that permits t...
Feist, G. J., & Rosenberg, E. L. (2012). Learning. In Psychology: Perspectives & connections (2nd ed., p. 310). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Krause, K, Bochner, S, Duchesne, S & McNaugh, A 2010, Educational Psychology: for learning & teaching, 3rd edn, Cengage Learning Australia, Victoria
Learning and memory are fascinating. The world could not function without either. They both are used in many different fashions in a wide variety of places. Learning and Memory have been carefully studied by professionals but are also well known and used by the common people on a daily basis. I am one of those common people, a student who is constantly learning and making the most of my memory. Since enrolling in The Psychology of Learning and Memory class I have come to the realization that I encounter situations in my life that exemplify the very concepts I have studied. I have also learned that it is beneficial to apply the lessons learned in class to my everyday life. Positive reinforcement, learned helplessness and serial recall are a few among many of the learning and memory models that have come to action in my life and in my final reflections surrounding the course.
Learning is more than memorizing and repeating. I believe learning is a unique and specific process that involves taking new concepts and understanding
Weiner, I. Healy, A. Freedheim, D. Proctor,R.W., Schinka,J.A. (2003) Handbook of Psychology: Experimental psychology,18, pp 500
Cognitive Psychology is focused on learning based on how people perceive, remember, think, speak and problem-solve. The cognitive perspective differs in...