PSY 451A Learning and Memory

Spring Semester, 1999 at Houghton College

Paul Young, Department of Psychology

Office: Academic Building N - 324

Phone: 567-9308

e-mail: pyoung@houghton.edu

Office hours: 10 - 10:50 a.m. daily or by appointment

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 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; and

4. Select appropriate strategies for enhancing memory when desired.

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

Textbook

Anderson, J.R. (1995). Learning and memory: An integrated approach. 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 which 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	29 Jan	8 Feb	17 Feb	26 Feb	5 Mar	15 Mar	24 Mar	9 Apr	16 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.

Friday, February 12 (Chapters 1, 2, & 3)...................................20%

Friday, March 19 (Chapters 4, 5, 6, &7).....................................20%

Wednesday, April 28 (Chapters 8, 9, 10, & 11).........................25%

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 26, it will be marked out of 10%.

Correct English usage and APA format are expected. Use primary source material, including at least 15 journal articles. Incorporate an evaluation of the research which connects 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 21 April, for 10%.

C. Prepare a conference-format presentation using presentation software and/or Web-based resources, for delivery to the class on Wednesday, May 5 between 2 and 4 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%

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.

E-discussion

A discussion group folder has been added to your Groupwise account. It should show up in the left panel of your Groupwise screen as a folder labeled Discussion group under Learning and memory under your Cabinet files. If there is a plus sign (+) in the box to the left of your Cabinet files icon, click it to show the folders available: one of them should be Learning and Memory.

When you get to the Discussion group icon, it chould have a receiving hand over a folder icon. If it doesn't, please let me know.

To post a message to the Discussion group, click on the icon, then click File...New...Discussion. That will open a dialog box, and you can send an e-mail as usual. To reply to someone else's comment, click the Reply button when you read that message.

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

Date	Lecture topics and questions	Key ideas and theorists	Chapter
1/13	Introduction. Science and human behavior. Why do we want to understand and explain?	Cause and effect, teleological explanation, disconfirmation	1
1/15	Philosophical history of learning theory. Laws of association.	Empiricism, rationalism, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, John Stuart Mill	1
1/18	Biological bases of learning theory. Challenges to learning theory.	Swammerdam, Galvani, Helmholtz, Sechenov, Darwin, Herbert Spencer, representations, insight, preparedness, substitutability test, ethology	1
1/20	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
1/22	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
1/25	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
1/27	Determining CS and CR, Contiguity vs. contingency	Generalization, discrimination, SOP, conditioned inhibition, associative bias	2
1/29	Stimulus combinations; Rescorla-Wagner theory. Applications: Counterconditioning, desensitization, and flooding	Overshadowing, blocking, unblocking, configural cues, latent inhibition, competitive learning	2
2/1	Instrumental conditioning: Behavior-consequence relationships. Generalization and discrimination.	Conditioned reinforcers, observing responses, Spence, peak shift, relational responding	3
2/3	Discrimination learning: Errorless, dimensional, and categorical. What is the CR?	Terrace, spatial learning, instinctive drift, autoshaping	3
2/5	Contiguity vs. contingency. Superstitious learning, learned helplessness, and associative bias.	Hammond, partial reinforcement, Staddon and Simmelhag, SSDRs	3
2/8	Cause and effect: Contingency analysis. The hippocampus and conditioning.	Rescorla-Wagner, long-term potentiation, NMDA receptors	3
2/10	Catching up and review.	.	.
2/12	First Examination	.	1-3
2/15	What is a reinforcer? Drive reduction or neuron activity?	Premack, equilibrium theory, and bliss points.	4
2/17	Contingency analysis: Effects of consequences. Aversive control of behavior.	Positive and negative reinforcement, punishment, and omission	4
2/19	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
2/19	Memory and conditioning: induction. Transient memories. Sensory memory: Icons, echoes, and encoding.	Atkinson and Shriffrin, rehearsal, depth of processing theory	5
2/24	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
2/26	Working memory and matching to sample. Acquisition: Practice, elaborateness of processing, and representation tactics	Frontal cortex	5
3/1	Practice effects. Power functions.	Trace strength, record activation, power law	6
3/3	Elaborateness of processing	Generation effect, incidental vs. intentional learning, chunking, imagery	6
3/5	Meaningful memories: Sensory vs. semantic.	Propositional records, primate learning, power law, effect of learning strength, LTP	6
3/8	The retention function. Rate and amount of forgetting.	Decay, Power Law of forgetting, the strength equation	7
3/10	Spacing effects in memory. Interference effects.	Proactive and retroactive interference	7
3/12	Causes of interference: Item associations, multiple cues, item strength, pre-experimental memories, and context cues.	ACT theory, SAM theory, Anderson	7
3/15	Retention of emotionally-charged material	Repression, arousal effects, flashbulb memories, eyewitness testimony	7
3/17	Catch up and review	.	.
3/19	Second examination	.	4-7
3/22	Retrieval 1: Strategies for recall	Recognition, generate-recognize theory, mnemonic strategies, peg-word method, method of loci, recognition failure, savings	8
3/24	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
3/26	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
4/7	Motor learning and complex skills: The cognitive stage. Problem -solving strategies and goal states	Power law learning, difference reduction, subgoaling, Kohler	9
4/9	The associative stage: Production rules and expert rules	Proceduralization, knowledge and skill, learning histories	9
4/12	The autonomous stage: Motor programs and feedback	Open-loop and closed-loop performance, schemas, Schmidt	9
4/14	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
4/16	Inductive learning 2: Causal inference. Contingent, contiguous, and kinematic cues	Einhorn & Hogarth, Hume, naive physics models, complex devices	10
4/19	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
4/21	Learning and education 1: Applied psychology. Behaviorist vs. cognitive approaches	Juku, task analysis, behavioral learning, mastery learning, componential analysis	11
4/23	Learning and education 2: Reading instruction. Methods: Phonics, whole word, whole language.	Dyslexia, decoding, comprehension, Palinscar and Brown, Dansereau	11
4/26	Learning and education 3: Mathematics instruction. Arithmetic, algebra, and geometry.	Intelligent tutoring systems	11
4/28	Final examination	.	8-11
5/5	Conference presentation of research projects	.	.

First posted 9 January, 1998. Last updated 6 January, 1999.