Chapter 6: Verbal Learning

1. PSY 445: Learning & Memory Nonsense! Chapter 6: Verbal Learning

2. Verbal Learning • The learning (or memorization) of lists of words or other items • Concerned with the acquisition and retention of such items in an effort to describe the basic laws of learning

3. A pioneer of the scientific study of memory:Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850 – 1909) • Worked as philosopher at University in Berlin • Performed experiments on himself published in classic volume entitled: ‘Über das Gedächtnis’ (1885)

4. Memory experiments of Ebbinghaus:Focus on retention of newly learned material • Invented lists of 16 nonsense syllables to minimize influence of meaningful associations and learner’s history • His goal: study memory in ‘pure’ form • Introduced criterion for successful learning (errorless recitations) Nonsense syllables 

5. foh jur bok taw xiz guj vol raq kec mey hib qez Verbal Learning Ebbinghaus rigorously controlled the timing, the order of presentation, and number of practice trials, all key factors in learning according to associative theory. Amazingly, he served as his own subject! But his findings have been repeated countless times in conventional experiments. Rather than memorize poems, speeches, or other writings, he created lists of artificial verbal units called “nonsense syllables” like the ones on the left. Each consisted of a consonant, then a vowel, then a consonant.

6. Hermann Ebbinghaus • Serial Learning Experiments • A list of items presented one at a time; you must recall them in order • Memorizing lists in sequence until they can be recalled perfectly • Ran tests on himself for six years • Memorized thousands of lists of nonsense syllables (ZAB, VUB, DAL, etc.) • Invented 2300 of these syllables, arranged them in random lists and tested them after various delays • What problems do you see with this methodology?

7. Ebbinghaus' Experiments • Serial Learning Experiments • Learning to criterion • Ebbinghaus would repeatedly attempt to learn the material until he achieved a perfect reproduction (every item memorized in the order originally presented) • “Method of savings” • Subtracting the number of repetitions required to relearn material to a criterion from the number originally required to learn the material to the same criterion

8. foh jur bok taw xiz guj vol raq kec mey hib qez Verbal Learning Measuring Memory (Retention) Savings Score Number of Trials to Learn – Number of Trials to Relearn X 100 Number of Trials to Learn (Multiplying by 100 makes the score a percentage)

9. Ebbinghaus' Serial Learning Experiments: Important Findings • Forgetting Curve • Recollection of words drops dramatically during the first hour of learning

10. Ebbinghaus' Serial Learning Experiments: Important Findings • List-length effect • Ease of learning and amount of information not related in linear one-to-one fashion • Disproportionate increase in difficulty with more than 7 syllables • Serial Position (Primacy/Recency) Effect • Subjects are much more likely to remember items at the beginning of a list (primacy effect) and at the end of the list (recency effect)

11. Serial Position Effect • Several hypotheses have been proposed: • Anchoring • End items in a list serve as anchors • Kurbat, Shevall, & Rips (1998): student’s academic year • Rehearsal • Rehearsal patterns differ across serial positions • First items have less competition with other items for rehearsal; last items have extended rehearsal • Interference • Proactive and retroactive interference are effecting middle items the most • Zhao (1997): Super Bowl commercials

12. Serial Learning Item-to-Item Association Theory Applying the theories of empiricist philosophers, Ebbinghaus originally maintained that serial lists were learned by associating each item with the item that directly followed it: A B C D E These connections between adjacent items are called direct associations. They form because of “temporal contiguity”: Adjacent items “touch” in time. Each time the list is practiced, the associations between these contiguous items are strengthened.

13. Item-to-Item Association Theory: Criticisms • Lashley (1951) • Item-to-item associations would be too slow to accommodate quick, skilled, and unified behaviors • Well-learned sequences, like playing notes on a piano, are performed too fast to be the result of item-to-item associations • Must be earlier anticipation and activation of responses prior to their being performed than would occur from the immediately preceding items • Well-learned items seem to be grouped

14. Serial Learning Ebbinghaus’ Remote Association Theory A B C D E Later, Ebbinghaus discovered that associations also form between non-adjacent items. He called these remote associations.

15. Serial Learning Ebbinghaus’ Remote Association Theory A B C D E Remote associations are weaker than direct associations. After saying A, you have a stronger tendency to say B than to say C. Remote associations cause errors early in practice. With more practice trials, direct associations gain more strength than remote associations.

16. Serial Learning Ebbinghaus’ Remote Association Theory A B C D E 5 5 5 5 5 The greater the time gap between two items, the weaker will be the remote association between them. For example, suppose each item appeared for 5 seconds.

17. Serial Learning Ebbinghaus’ Remote Association Theory A B C D E 5 5 5 5 5 A and D are separated by 10 seconds whereas A and C are separated by 5 seconds. The remote association between A and D will be weaker.

18. Remote Association Theory: Support • Rubin (1977) • In long-term recall of material such as prose, poetry, or speeches – lines and phrases in the middle are sometimes forgotten • However, we can recall portions that come later and continue to the end • Remote associations may account for this

19. Serial Learning: Learning Items and Their Positions • Sequence Issues • Serial learning requires both learning of item and also remembering its position in the list • Partial forgetting is a real life problem • Eyewitness memory issue – remembering it happened but misrecalling when • List Issues • Remembering correct position but confusing which list it is in • Hintzman, Block, & Summers (1973)

20. Paired Associate Learning • In this paradigm – people memorize pairs of items (BIRD-GLOVE): • AB – the first item (A) is the stimulus and the second item (B) is the response A B

21. Paired Associate Learning In the learning phase subjects see pairs of items. In the test phase subjects see one item of the pair and must identify the other. Stimuli can be visual (like these) or verbal (pairs of words)

22. Analysis of Paired Associate Learning • Three tasks involved: • Stimulus Discrimination • Response Learning • SR Associating

23. Analysis of Paired Associate Learning • Stimulus Discrimination • Several stimuli used in paired-association tasks; they vary in degree of similarity • High similarity reduces discrimination and leads to higher error rate • Lockhead & Crist (1980) • Response Learning • Ease or difficulty in learning the paired-associate response items can vary • Meaningful response items are learned more easily

24. Analysis of Paired Associate Learning • SR Associating • Stimulus and response items need to become connected • Prior knowledge can facilitate or inhibit learning • Cognitive elaboration – additional information can help stimulus and response terms • Pressley et al. (1987)

25. Paired Associate Learning: Direction of Associations • Backward association not as effective as forward associations

26. Free Recall • In this experimental procedure the subjects are asked to recall the items presented to them in any order they wish • Simplest way to test the effects of subjects studying verbal material • Serial –Position Effect • Both primacy and recency are present • Primacy is increased by slow presentation and if items are familiar • Recency is best produced when testing immediately follows list presentation; delays will cause this effect to be lost

27. Free Recall: Serial–Position Effect • Theoretical Explanations • Position Stimuli • Interference • Two separate memory stores are operating • Primacy is due to added rehearsal (Long-Term Memory) • Recency is due to these items still being in Short-Term Memory

28. Rehearsal • Rehearsal facilitates retention • Keeney, Cannizzo, & Flavell (1967) • 6-7 year-old children wearing space helmets • Pattern of rehearsal • Recall capacity seems to develop with age • Older children show significant improvement in recall of items at the beginning and middle of lists; less improvement for recency segment • Adults continue to improve • As we get older we are more likely to use rehearsal • Ornstein et al. (1975) • 18 word lists were recalled by children in the 3rd, 6th, and 8th grades • Older children were more likely to use distributed rehearsal

29. Organization • Refers to using existing knowledge to group together items that are related in some manner • Three Types: • Associative Clustering • Related words are often recalled together • Subjective Organization • When words are not associated people tend to form their own personal associations • Categorical Clustering • Putting words into categories can help with recall • Category prompting tends to facilitate recall by increasing access to categories of items that might otherwise be forgotten • Once at least one item form a category is recalled, often other items from that category are remembered as well • Category prompting was demonstrated in Tulving & Pearlstone (1966) See next slide 

30. Tulving and Pearlstone (1966) High school students listened to lists of 12, 24, and 48 words

31. Available vs. Accessible Memories • Available Memories • Memories that contain learned information available in our memory store, but may not be retrievable (at least not at the present time) • Accessible Memories • These memories can be recalled or retrieved • Brown and McNeil (1966) • Referred to available memories as "tip-of-the-tongue” • See next slide 

32. Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon (TOT) A feeling that one knows a response yet is unable to produce it Brown and McNeil (1966) Task: Retrieve the word corresponding to its provided definition e.g. “A musical instrument comprising a frame holding a series of tubes struck by hammers” Participants were asked to indicate if they were in a TOT state If so, guess the number of syllables and any other information about the word (e.g. first letter) Results: Participants are better at remembering associated information than they were at producing the actual word (e.g. XYLOPHONE)

33. Available vs. Accessible Memories • Cued Recall • Method of receiving hints to help with memory as was demonstrated in Tulving and Pearlstone (1966) • Cue Overload Effect • Too many cues can negate advantages gained from initial cue • Several cues may compete with retrieval of the remaining words and bottle up the retrieval process • Roediger (1973)

34. Recall vs. Recognition vs. Relearning • Free Recall Test • Reproduce studied information • Recognition Test • Locate previously studied items that are presented with unstudied (distractor) items • Relearning Test • The initially studied items are relearned (after a delay) and the amount of savings is accessed • The tests are not comparable and each produces a different type of measurement

35. Recall vs. Recognition vs. Relearning • Shimamura et al. (1987) • Participants • Alzheimer’s patients and age-matched control group • Procedure • Free Recall Test; Recognition Test • Results • Both groups did significantly better on Recognition Test • Alzheimer's group: 15% and 60% • Control group: 40% and 85% • Interpretation • Recognition is a more sensitive test as it seems to be detecting learning that a recall test is missing

36. Recall vs. Recognition vs. Relearning • Encoding Specificity Principle • Items are learned or encoded with specific meanings and these meaning need to be reinstated in order to retrieve memory • How an event is encoded determines the effectiveness of various retrieval cues

37. Recognition: Remembering vs. Knowing • We seem to possess both remembering and knowing types of memories • For example, in academic learning students might remember a certain lecture but may also know certain words or phrases related to a discipline without recalling specifically how, when, or where they learned them

38. Relationships among Verbal-Learning tasks • Paired-associate learning and serial-learning tests are positively correlated • This suggests a common type of ability • Free-recall performance is unrelated to the other two • This suggests that different abilities or strategies are being tapped

39. Application: Mnemonics • Various schemes, strategies, or procedures to aid encoding and retrieval (for example, acronyms) • Mnemonics Techniques • The Keyword Mnemonic • Used to aid foreign language acquisition • A mediating word from your language that sounds like the foreign word is used • Imagery Mnemonics • Visual imagery is used to help you remember things • Method of loci – “mental walk” used to help people remember sequence of things to do, etc. • Peg word –rhyming technique (see next slide )

40. Pegword Technique • Associate to-do items with concrete nouns • Rhyme number words with concrete nouns • One--bun • Two--shoe • Three--tree • Four--door • Five—hive • First thing you have to do: go to the dentist • One--bun • Associate dentist with bun

41. Mnemonics: A thing of the past • Acronyms are sometimes used; others not so much • Electronic memory aids have replaced mnemonics • External reminders (notes, lists, setting a timer) appear to be easier

42. Credits • Some of the slides in this presentation prepared with the assistance of the following web sites: • www.csupomona.edu/.../PSY335%20PPTs/Baddeley/BChap8.... • psych.fullerton.edu/navarick/verbal.ppt • www.csupomona.edu/.../PSY335%20PPTs/Baddeley/BChap1.... • www.psych.ufl.edu/~fischler/CP/CP_Retrieval_Sonja.ppt