PSY 451A Learning and Memory (3 credits)

Spring Semester, 2002 at Houghton College

Paul Young, Department of Psychology

Office: Academic Building B - 324

Phone: 567-9308 or Ext. 3080

e-mail: paul.young@houghton.edu

Office hours: 9 - 10 a.m. MWF, 2:40-3:30 TR, or by appointment, or drop in whenever I am in my office.
Professor's schedule
To load a printable copy of the syllabus, click here.

Catalog Description	General Objectives	Learning Outcomes
Course Arrangement	Textbook	Explanation of Assignments
Links to Internet Sites	E-discussion	Newsletter and Reminders
PowerPoint Slides	Review Sheet	Excel grade sheet

Catalog Description

Critical examination of the main psychological theories of learning, memory, and information processing, with applications in teaching, research, and therapy. Prerequisite: Six hours in psychology.

General Objectives

1. To understand and compare the major psychological theories of learning and memory

2. To strengthen critical thinking skills by analyzing and evaluating research

3. To apply theory and research to problems in the fields of gerontology, education, counseling, and clinical psychology

Learning Outcomes

Upon successfully completing this course, you ought to be able to

1. Predict the likely effect on behavior of various manipulations in the learning environment;

2. Choose among available manipulations to induce desired effects;

3. Explain the various processes involved in human memory;

4. Select appropriate strategies for enhancing memory when desired; and

5. Engage in a higher level of critical thinking.

Course Arrangement

1. Discuss metatheory in learning and memory.

Does it make sense to apply scientific thinking to human behavior?

2. Examine major theories of learning, including their historical and philosophical roots: Chapter 1

3. Pavlovian or classical conditioning: Chapter 2

4. Instrumental conditioning: Chapters 3 & 4

5. Analyze the processes of memory

Transient memories: Chapter 5

Acquisition, retention, and retrieval of memories: Chapters 6 - 8

6. Understand skill acquisition: Chapter 9

7. Examine theories and research in inductive learning: Chapter 10.

8. Apply theory and research in learning and memory to current social and educational problems: Chapter 11

Textbook

Anderson, J.R. (2000). Learning and memory: An integrated approach, 2nd edition. New York: Wiley.

Explanation of Assignments

1. Read assigned materials in the textbook and elsewhere, and use your reading to contribute to our discussions, either in class or in our discussion folder.

From each chapter in the textbook, select at least 15 terms that are new to you, and define them in your own words (using the generation effect) in a notebook or electronic portfolio. Submit your definitions according to the following schedule, for 5% of your course grade.

Chapter:	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Due Date:	18 Jan	25 Jan	6 Feb	15 Feb	27 Feb	6Mar	13 Mar	22 Mar	5Apr	19 Apr	26 Apr

2. Three examinations:

Examinations are essay format, and include terms and concepts to identify, define or explain. You may be asked questions about class content and assigned reading. Use the Review Sheet to help prepare.

Friday, February 8(Chapters 1, 2, & 3a)......................................20%

Friday, March 15 (Chapters 3b, 4, 5, & 6)....................................20%

Friday, May 2(Chapters 7, 8, 9, 10, & 11).....................................20%

3. Term research project on a topic from the textbook approved by the instructor. This assignment has three parts:

A. A proposal (research paper) of 15 pages, reviewing the relevant literature. Due March 22, it will be marked out of 15%.

Correct English usage and APA format are expected. Use primary source material, including at least 15 journal articles. Incorporate an evaluation of the research connecting it to the topics of this course.

B. From your research proposal, select or develop a study and conduct it, using an appropriate number of participants. This may be a replication of a previous study. You may collaborate with others in a research group to conduct the study. Each group will do only one study, although each student will have completed the proposal assigned in part A.

Analyze the results (I will help you with that) and write a group report in APA format. Due 19 April, for 10%.

C. Prepare a conference-format presentation using presentation software and/or Web-based resources, for delivery to the class during the Final Four class meeting (Tuesday, May 7, 4 - 6 p.m.). Incorporate relevant demonstrations and instructional aids (multiple cues). You may use photographs, drawings, graphs, videotape and sound recordings, and interactive illustrations of your research methods. 5%

4. Class involvement will be assessed by looking at your attendance, performance on unscheduled quizzes, and comments and questions either in class or by e-mail, in the shared discussion folder. 10%
Attendance policy: I expect you to be present, awake, and participating in every class. I define participation to include thinking about lecture and discussion material, writing notes, asking questions, offering comments, and in any other way demonstrating in class that you are thinking about the course material. If you are absent or asleep, you will not be participating. Consequently, you will lose one point for each day you are absent or asleep.

You may notice that the work load is heavy. Notice also that the potential credits add up to 105%. There is a built-in factor which you may regard as bonus, fudge, or omission permission. I call it grace.

Links to Internet Sites

Narcolepsy, a sleeping disorder, is explained in this Website by course students Gregory Bayse and Lori Scott.

E-discussion Back to top

A discussion group folder has been added to your e-mail account. It should show up in the left panel of your screen as a folder labeled Learn02. Follow these instructions to find and use the folder:

First, open Outlook.
Then, go to the folder list on the left side of your screen. (If it is missing, click the File menu and select Folder list.
Scroll to the bottom of the folder list to find Public Folders, and click the plus sign.
Click the plus signs beside each of the following, in order:
All Public Folders...Academic...Classes...Young P.
Click on Learn02, and you are into the folder. Please read the first message from me, and reply.
To read any message in the folder, double-click it.
To reply, click the Post Reply button; type your message; and click the Post button.
To post a new message rather than a reply, click on the folder. Then click New on the Outlook toolbar at the top of the page, type your message, and click Post.

Helpful hint:

Click on Learn02 and drag it up the folder list to Favorites, to eliminate most of the above searching steps in the future. But don't drag it anywhere else.

Remember that items you post to the discussion group may be read by any member of the class, including the teacher. However, nobody outside the class has access to your musings.

PowerPoint Slides

1/14	1/16	1/18	1/21	1/23	1/25
1/28	1/30	2/1	2/4	2/6	2/8
2/11	2/13	2/15	2/18	2/25	2/27
3/4	3/6	3/8	3/11	3/13	3/15
3/18	3/20	3/22	4/3	4/5	4/8
4/10	4/12	4/15	4/17	4/19	4/22
4/24	4/26	4/29	5/1	5/2

*There were no PowerPoint presentations for these days.

*Exam dates

Date	Lecture topics and questions	Key ideas and theorists	Chapter
1/14,16	Introduction. Science and human behavior. Why do we want to understand and explain?	Cause and effect, teleological explanation, disconfirmation	1
1/18	Philosophical history of learning theory. Laws of association.	Empiricism, rationalism, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, John Stuart Mill	1
1/21	Biological bases of learning theory. Challenges to learning theory.	Swammerdam, Galvani, Helmholtz, Sechenov, Darwin, Herbert Spencer, representations, insight, preparedness, substitutability test, ethology	1
1/23	Psychological perspectives on learning and memory: Definition of learning and memory. History of research on learning and memory.	Ebbinghaus: Learning and retention curves. Pavlov: CER, conditioning curve, spontaneous recovery, temporal order	1
1/25	More research paradigms Neural basis of classical conditioning	Thorndike's laws, Watson, Hull's reaction potential, Tolman, latent learning, cognitive map; Skinner; GPS, subgoaling; STM/LTM; information processing; aplysia, Purkinje cells	1
1/28	S-S vs. S-R theories of classical conditioning, changing representations, Occasion setting, US preexposure, autoshaping	Response prevention, US devaluation, sensory preconditioning, second order conditioning, Rescorla, Kamin	2
1/30	Determining CS and CR, Contiguity vs. contingency	Generalization, discrimination, SOP, conditioned inhibition, associative bias	2
2/1	Stimulus combinations; Rescorla-Wagner theory. Applications: Counterconditioning, desensitization, and flooding	Overshadowing, blocking, unblocking, configural cues, latent inhibition, competitive learning	2
2/4	Instrumental conditioning: Behavior-consequence relationships. Generalization and discrimination.	Conditioned reinforcers, observing responses, Spence, peak shift, relational responding	3
2/6	Discrimination learning: Errorless, dimensional, and categorical. What is the CR?	Terrace, spatial learning, instinctive drift, autoshaping	3
2/8	First Examination		1-3
2/11	Contiguity vs. contingency. Superstitious learning, learned helplessness, and associative bias.	Hammond, partial reinforcement, Staddon and Simmelhag, SSDRs	3
2/13	Cause and effect: Contingency analysis. The hippocampus and conditioning..	Rescorla-Wagner, long-term potentiation, NMDA receptors	3
2/15	What is a reinforcer? Drive reduction or neuron activity?	Premack, equilibrium theory, and bliss points.	4
2/18	Contingency analysis: Effects of consequences. Aversive control of behavior.	Positive and negative reinforcement, punishment, and omission	4
2/25	Reinforcement in choice behavior: Schedules, maximizing, and foraging. Delay of reinforcement and human decision making	FR, VR, FI, VI, labor supply curve, matching law, melioration theory, momentary maximizing, discounting the future	4
2/27	Memory and conditioning: induction. Transient memories. Sensory memory: Icons, echoes, and encoding.	Atkinson and Shriffrin, rehearsal, depth of processing theory	5
3/4	Rehearsal systems: Phonological loop, visuospatial sketch pad, and central executive. Activation in permanent memory: Priming	Memory span, Baddeley, permanent memory records, Sternberg paradigm, concurrent processing	5
3/6	Working memory and matching to sample. Acquisition: Practice, elaborateness of processing, and representation tactics	Frontal cortex	5
3/8	Practice effects. Power functions.	Trace strength, record activation, power law	6
3/11	Elaborateness of processing	Generation effect, incidental vs. intentional learning, chunking, imagery	6
3/13	Meaningful memories: Sensory vs. semantic.	Propositional records, primate learning, power law, effect of learning strength, LTP	6
3/15	Second examination		3b - 6
3/18	The retention function. Rate and amount of forgetting.	Decay, Power Law of forgetting, the strength equation	7
3/20	Spacing effects in memory. Interference effects	Proactive and retroactive interference	7
3/22	Causes of interference: Item associations, multiple cues, item strength, pre-experimental memories, and context cues.	ACT theory, SAM theory, Anderson	7
4/3	Retention of emotionally-charged material	Repression, arousal effects, flashbulb memories, eyewitness testimony	7
4/5	Retrieval 1: Strategies for recall	Recognition, generate-recognize theory, mnemonic strategies, peg-word method, method of loci, recognition failure, savings	8
4/8	Retrieval 2: Study-test interactions, context dependency, encoding specificity, and reconstruction/inferential intrusion	State-dependent memory, mood-dependency, mood-congruency, Tulving, transfer-appropriate processing, paradox of the expert	8
4/10	Retrieval 3: Implicit memories: Feeling of knowing and familiarity. Procedural memory and human amnesia.	Priming effects, tachistoscopic testing, declarative knowledge, retrograde and anterograde amnesia, selective amnesia	8
4/12	Motor learning and complex skills: The cognitive stage. Problem -solving strategies and goal states	Power law learning, difference reduction, subgoaling, Kohler	9
4/15	The associative stage: Production rules and expert rules	Proceduralization, knowledge and skill, learning histories	9
4/17	The autonomous stage: Motor programs and feedback	Open-loop and closed-loop performance, schemas, Schmidt	9
4/19	Inductive learning 1: Concept formation. Concept identification and natural concepts. Schemas and exemplars	Inductive vs. deductive inference, Hull, Bruner et al., hypothesis testing, backwards learning, all-or-none learning	10
4/22	Inductive learning 2: Causal inference. Contingent, contiguous, and kinematic cues	Einhorn & Hogarth, Hume, naive physics models, complex devices	10
4/24	Inductive learning 3: Language acquisition. Characteristics and critical periods. Innate language learning. Apes: Aping or asking?	Holophrastic speech, past tense acquisition, aphasia, language universals, Chomsky, Premack	10
4/26	Learning and education 1: Applied psychology. Behaviorist vs. cognitive approaches	Juku, task analysis, behavioral learning, mastery learning, componential analysis	11
4/29	Learning and education 2: Reading instruction. Methods: Phonics, whole word, whole language.	Dyslexia, decoding, comprehension, Palinscar and Brown, Dansereau	11
5/1	Learning and education 3: Mathematics instruction. Arithmetic, algebra, and geometry.	Intelligent tutoring systems	11
5/2	Final examination	.	7 -11
5/7	Conference presentation of research projects	.	.

First posted 9 January, 1998. Last updated 12 January, 2002.