Use Of Test Context Dependent Memory

In the section “Tips from the Science of Memory-for Studying and for Life”, found in our textbook, “Experience Psychology”, the Arthur Laura A. King discusses the importance of study habits. She addresses the skills needed to turn short-term memory into long-term memory through organizing, encoding, rehearsing and retrieving the information we study and memorize. “No matter what the model of memory you use, you can sharpen your memory by thinking deeply about the “material” of life and connecting the information to other things you know.” (King. 2013).

Memory is divided into three categories. These categories consist of: sensory memory, short term memory and long term memory, out of these short term memory is the main focus in this essay. It has been widely researched due to interest of how much memory can be stored, how long this memory can be stored for and what information is memorised.

The following is a case study of a lesson by Mr. Villanueva reviewing lessons on the planet Mars for an upcoming test. Mr. Villanueva uses many different ways of incorporating both semantic memory and episodic memory as well as the demonstration of long-term memory in his lesson. During the lesson, the importance of attention in memory and recall is seen throughout. This paper describes and inspects the Mars in Review case and what theories were incorporated into this lesson. It critically examines each aspect of this lesson and the correlation between behaviorist theories of learning.

Learning and retaining new information is a part of everyday life, so finding techniques to help enhance learning and retaining information for recall can be beneficial to almost everyone, especially students. It is believed that testing can help increase the likelihood of later retrieval of information (McDermott, Agarwal, D’Antonio, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014). Testing with an opportunity for feedback can be the most beneficial for later recall, as opposed to just recalling the information for an exam (Karpicke & Roediger, 2007). The purpose of the current study is to examine if testing can help to improve memory recall more than regular studying.

The current study was created to retest reproducibility of Slamecka and Graf results about participants remembering words better when they generated the words than when they read the words in a sample of undergraduate students at Texas A&M University (Slamecka and Graf, 1978). Nineteen undergraduate students at Texas A&M University participated in an experiment where one group was given a set of words and were told to memorize the words. The other group was given one word and the first letter of the second word and was told to generate the second word. It was hypothesized that the group with the participants who generated the second word would remember those sets of words better than the other group. Results showed that the group who generated the second word significantly memorized the words better, the p value being < .05. More in depth explanations involving more variables are discussed such as the five rules, or the within subjects, and their effect on the generation effect as well as future directions.

Human memory is a complex cognitive structure, which can be defined in many ways. One would argue that memory is 1.) The mental function of retaining information about stimuli, event, images, ideas, etc. after the original stimuli is no longer present. 2.) The hypothesized storage system in the mind that holds this information is so retained. A clear distinction is made between different types of memory systems and can be divided into subclasses.

This experiment is based on previous research done. For example, in 1969, in a research by Bower and Clark, no difference in the immediate recall scores of both groups was noted, but when later asked to recall, those who used narrative chaining recalled an average of 93% of the words compared to the control group which only recalled an average of 13% of words. In another experiment, participants who used narrative chaining remembered six times more information than participants who learned by simply repeating the words to themselves (Loftus, 1980). Narrative chaining is particularly useful when a person wants to remember information in a particular order. The aim of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of narrative chaining on memory. It is hypothesized that in a group of 59 participants aged 10-69 years old, participants who use narrative chaining to remember a list of words will remember a higher number and percentage of words when asked to write down as many words as possible through serial recall compared to participants who use maintenance rehearsal.

Memory is a set of cognitive processes that allow us to remember past information (retrospective memory) and future obligations (prospective memory) so we can navigate our lives. The strength of our memory can be influenced by the connections we make through different cognitive faculties as well as by the amount of time we spend devoting to learning specific material across different points in time. New memories are created every time we remember specific event, which results in retrospective memories changing over time. Memory recall can be affected retrospectively such as seeing increased recall in the presence of contextual cues or false recall of information following leading questions. Memory also includes the process

Chapter 7 focuses on the cognitive learning theory, cognitive processes, memory stores, and metacognition. The cognitive learning theory explains how people learn through experiences, acquiring information, and the changes in thinking and processing information. Its principles center on the ideas that people learn through their experiences and social interactions; people need to be able to make sense of these by constructing and acquiring knowledge; and what they already know makes an impact on what they will learn. Many of the theorist that believe in the cognitive learning theory use the human memory model to explain learning and remembering. This model uses memory stores, cognitive processes, and metacognition to represent human memory.

Context-dependent memory is the concept that things are often best recalled in the same environment that they were learned. Smith and Vela (2001) provide four hypotheses as to how context-dependent memory works. They appear as follows; “reinstatement” is the idea that memory is better when testing occurs in a reinstated environment as opposed to a different environment (Smith & Vela, 2001) and this is true across all studies (Smith & Vela, 2001), “outshining” implies that non contextual cues when used for guiding memory often diminish or eliminate the effects of contextual cues (Smith & Vela, 2001), “Overshadowing” is the concept that “if one’s incidental environmental context is suppressed during learning, then environmental information will not be encoded and stored in memory, thereby reducing or eliminating effects of experimenter-manipulated environments on memory” (Smith & Vela, 2001), and finally “mental reinstatement”

Memory comes in three forms: Sensory, short term and long term. Sensory memory is remembering information for a few seconds, or less. Sensory memory is important in order to be aware of the surroundings. If information is paid attention to, or classified as important, it will make its way to the short term memory. The short term memory holds on to a few bits of information (usually 7 give or take) for a couple of seconds (Miller, 1956) at a time (Rawlings & Co. 2004). If the information is rehearsed enough, it will make its way to the long term memory and will be retained in there until needed (Kouyoumdjian & Plotnik, 2011)

Memory is the internal representation of an event or experience and is a constructive process that organizes and shapes information. Memory allows people to learn from personal experiences and learn to adapt and respond to the changing environment. Memory plays a critical role in learning processes. Memory allows for information storage and retrieval of information previously learned. Memory and learning are interdependent in that memory exists because of previous learning, and learning needs memory to create connections and build upon learned knowledge. Research confirms that acute stress affects memory. The techniques used to learn material affects the strength of memory against the effects of stress. Researchers Amy M. Smith, Victoria A.

Much psychological research suggests that new memories require time to stabilize and transfer to long-term memory and that these newly acquired memories are disposed to to interference by competing stimuli. Memory consolidation is the processes involved in the stabilization of a long-term memory after it’s initial acquisition (Dudai, 2004). Consolidation is described by two distinct theories: synaptic consolidation, which transpires in the first few hours after learning and systems learning where memories are stabilized over a period of weeks to years (Dudai, 2004).

In the last half century several theories have emerged with regard to the best model for human memory. In each of these models there was a specific way to help people recall words and

Have you ever taken a test and the question is something along the lines of “What word means…?” I have multiple times and most of the time, I end up selecting the wrong answer and I always blame the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. This phenomenon causes me to not remember the word, even though it’s on the tip of my tongue, despite how hard I try to remember. Of course, the word I’m looking for will emerge in my head prior to turning in my examine. When this occurs, and for me, that’s often, I get undoubtedly annoyed with my brain and how it can’t remember crucial facts when I need them. However, when learning what our bodies are capable of to produce our memories, I am flabbergasted; there are three basic types that our brains are capable of producing-- sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. It always seems that I can remember subjects for a test but can never transport the ideas into my long-term memory. From my previous experience and going to college soon, it’s time that I reexamine the way I perform in the classroom to ensure that the knowledge I gain in my class transfers into my long-term memory. Our memories are made up of the various approaches to ensure that our three types of memory are working probably and allows me to enhance my performance in the classroom.