Observational Learning

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• Observational Learning
• Albert Bandura (1977,1986)
• Observational Learning
• Vicarious conditioning- being conditioned
  indirectly by virtue of watching anothers
  conditioning (your friend gets shocked by a penny
  in the socket, so you dont do it)
• Key issues
• Attention
• Retention (can you remember everything)
• Reproduction
• Motivation
• Acquisition vs. Performance
• May acquire a response but reinforcement will
  affect whether you perform that response

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• Expectancies and Conditioning
• Cognitive-social theory argues that we form
  expectancies about the consequences of our
  behaviors
• These expectancies determine what is rewarding
• Locus of control refers to general expectancy as
  to whether fate does or does not determine
  outcomes in life
• Internal locus believe that their actions
  determine their fate
• External locus believe that their lives are
  governed by forces outside their control

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• Neural Basis for Learning
• Neural plasticity- capacity for neurons to change
  the way they function as a consequence of
  experience
• Your brain actually changes w/ experience
• Studied in Aplysia (some sort of fish-like
  animal)- only 20,000 neurons, simple behavior
• Pre-synaptic facilitation
• Long-term Potentiation

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• Animal Learning Issues
• Cognitive map
• If you have animals in a maze, theyre easier to
  train if you let them explore and build a map of
  the maze in their head
• Fill niche
• Clark nutcrackers- cache
• Birds figure out ways to crack nuts, like
  dropping them in front of cars
• Zebra Finches-song
• Theyll imitate songs they here, even from the
  television
• Concepts-Herrnstein
• Pigeons-trees
• Try to get pigeons to peck when they see pictures
  of trees
• Pecked at the non tree pictures, but only because
  there were tree-like cues (leaves, special
  shadows, etc)
• They were actually better than the people who
  made the test!

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• MEMORY

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• Memory
• Memory is
• A blanket label for a large number of processes
  that work together to create a bridge between our
  past and our present

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• Multiple forms of Memory
• Memory for short periods of time seems to be
  different than memory for longer periods of time
• Brain damage can disrupt some kinds of memory but
  leave other kinds unaffected
• Some things seem easy to remember and some things
  really dificult

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• Human Memory Basic Questions
• How does information get put into memory?
• Encoding
• How is information maintained in memory?
• storage
• How is information pulled back out of memory?
• retrieval

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• Encoding getting information into memory
• The role of attention
• Focusing awareness
• Selective attention selection of input
• Filtering early or late?
• We see tons of information like shirt colors, etc
  but filter out stuff thats not important

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• Encoding in Long-term memory
• Requires attention
• Filter? early or late selection?
• Cocktail party phenomenon
• You can remember things you dont pay attention
  to
• If youre at a party paying attention to a
  discussion, you might randomly hear your name
  come up in a conversation that you werent paying
  attention to
• You can hear that other conversation, youre just
  filtering it out until something important comes
  up.
• Levels of processing (shallow to deep)
• Structural encoding ? length or print of words
• Phonemic encoding ? what a word sounds like
• Semantic encoding ? the meaning of verbal input
• Deeper encoding better memory
• Processing time ! depth of processing

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• Depth of encoding
• See figure A

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• Encoding Issues
• Encoding specificity principle idea that ease of
  retrieval of a memory depends on match of
  encoding with retrieval
• Poor recall if shallow learning is examined using
  a deep processing technique
• Student who reads multiple choice items in test
  prep book and then takes an essay exam will
  likely not do very well
• Spacing of learning is important
• Spaced learning leads to better recall of
  information

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• Encoding Specificity
• What kinds of things serve as cues?
• Godden Baddely (1975) (?not important)
• Memory capacity of deep sea divers
• Learn lists of words
• On the beach
• Under 15 feet of water
• Tested
• On the beach
• Under 15 feet of water
• Each did best in the environment they studied in
• You perform best in the same place you learned in

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• State Dependency
• Recall better when individuals are in the same
  emotional and physical state as they were in
  during learning.
• If taking Caffeine while studying, should have
  caffeine while taking test

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• Storage maintaining information in memory
• Analogy information storage in computers
  information storage in human memory
• Information-processing theories
• Subdivide memory into 3 different stores
• Sensory, short-term, long-term

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• Standard Memory Model
• This metaphor views the mind as a computer
• Model assumes that memory consists of 3 stores
• See figure B in notes

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• Sensory Registers
• Brief preservation of information in original
  sensory form
• Sensory registers
• Iconic (Visual)
• Echoic (auditory)
• Auditory/visual- approximately ¼ second
• George Sperling (1960)
• Classic experiment on visual sensory store

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• Short term memory (STM)
• Limited capacity- magical number 7 plus or minus
  2
• Chunking- grouping familiar stimuli for storage
  as a single unit (telephone numbers are chunked
  into 3 and 4 number series, much easier to
  remember this way
• Limited duration- about 15-30 seconds without
  rehearsal
• Rehearsal- the process of repetitively
  verbalizing or thinking about the information
  (you can make this 30 second process last
  forever)
• Maintenance information is repeated
• Elaborative information is related to other
  knowledge from long term memory

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• Short-term memory as working memory
• STM not limited to phonemic encoding
• Loss of information not only due to decay
• Baddeley (1986) 3 components of working memory
• Phonological rehearsal loop
• Visuospatial sketchpad
• Central executive

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• Working memory
• Working memory is temporary storage and
  processing of information used to
• Solve problems
• Respond to environmental demands
• Achieve goals
• Working memory may consist of three modules
• Visual memory store (visuospatial sketchpad)
• Verbal memory store (Phonological rehearsal)
• Executive control system (central executive)

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• Working memory stores
• Visual memory store
• A temporary image (20-30 sec) that provides
  information about the location and nature of
  objects
• Verbal memory store
• Involves storage of verbal items
• Limited capacity
• Shallow items are processed in order of
  presentation and are subject to interference
• Central executive
• The manager
• Working memory stores are independent
• Brain damage may alter visual but not verbal
  (they are very seperable)

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• Phonolgical loop
• Word length effect longer words take longer to
  say, shorter memory span because it takes up more
  of that short term memory span just to recite
• Also, memory span for 2 syllable, long words
  (e.g., furlough) is less than for 2 syllable
  short words (e.g., bishop)

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• Visuospatial Memory
• Not quite as nicely developed
• Some interesting analogies with the phonological
  loop but just not much research
• Definitely seems to be something different

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• Long term memory
• LTM refers to the representations of facts,
  images, actions and skills that may persist over
  a lifetime
• LTM involves retrieval of information
• LTM is theoretically limitless in capacity
• The serial position curve supports the existence
  of STM versus LTM
• Primacy effect reflects LTM
• Recency effect reflects STM

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• Long-term memory unlimited capacity
• Permanent storage?
• Flashbulb memories
• Recall through hypnosis
• Debate are STM and LTM really different?
• Phonemic vs semantic encoding
• Decay vs interference based forgetting

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• Varieties of Long term memory
• Explicit or declarative memory- conscious
  retrieval of information
• Semantic generic knowledge of facts like shoe
  size or mothers names
• Episodic memories of specific events
• Autobiographical
• Recall vs recognition
• Implicit or non-declarative memory skills,
  conditioned learning, and associative memory
• Procedural memory for skills (remembering how to
  ride a bike)

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• Temporal Distinctions in Memory
• Retention of information over short periods of
  time depends on specific brain regions-
  immediately, it lights up
• Hippocampus and surrounding cortex
• Over time, hippocampus appears to become less
  important
• Memories become more dependent on cortical areas,
  less on hippocampal regions

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• Damage to hippocampus and associated areas
• Hippocampus nearby areas
• Quick acquisition of information
• Cant store the information forever
• Cortical areas
• Slow acquisition of information
• Much longer term storage
• In other words, hippocampus is an important
  starting place for memory

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• Mnemonics
• Shortcuts to help remember
• Its more information to have to remember, but it
  still helps

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• How is Knowledge Represented and Organized in
  Memory?
• Clustering and conceptual hierarchies
• Schemes and scripts- shortcuts we make
• Semantic networks
• Connectionist networks and PDP models

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• Schemas
• Organized clusters of knowledge about events or
  objects based on experience.
• How to act in a nice restaurant
• Sub-schemas (eg which silverware to use, what to
  wear, how to eat, etc)
• How to drive a car
• What to expect if you throw a tennis ball
• Eg Manual driver trying to shift when he first
  gets in an automatic- the shifting is a schema

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• Semantic Networks
• LTM is organized in clusters of information that
  are related in meaning
• The network is composed of interconnected nodes
• A node may contain thoughts, images, smells,
  emotions, or any other information
• Pathways lines connecting the concepts
• Length egree of association between 2 things
• Shorter pathways stronger associations
• Longer pathways weaker associations

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• Connectionist or PDP models
• Interconnected computational network composed of
  nodes
• Nodes may be interactive, excitatory, or
  inhibitory
• Particular patterns of activation across a
  network specific memories
• More general in scope (applies to perception,
  learning, PS)
• Strengths
• Plausible
• Parallel rather than serial processing

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• Retrieval getting information out of memory
• The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon- a failure in
  retrieval
• Retrieval cues
• Recalling an event
• Context cues
• Reconstructing memories
• Misinformation effect
• Source monitoring, reality monitoring

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• Forgetting when memory lapses
• Retention- the proportion of material retained
• Recall
• Recognition
• relearning
• Ebbinghauss forgeting curve

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• Forgetting
• Forgetting refers to the inability to recall
  previously learned information
• Ebbinghaus documented the rate of forgetting of
  information
• Initial rate of forgetting is high and then
  trails off
• See figure C in notes

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• Why do we forget?
• Ineffective encoding
• Decay theory
• Memory is like a fading neural trace that is
  weakened with disuse
• Interference theory conflict between new and old
  memories (pluto is a planet and then pluto is
  not a planet!)
• Proactive old memories interfere with recall of
  new information
• Retroactive new memories interfere with recall
  of old information
• Motivated forgetting implies that forgetting can
  avoid painful memories (eg, repressed memories)
• Your brain can restrict access to information it
  doesnt like, but you cant really do it actively

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• Retrieval failure
• Encoding Specificity
• Transfer-appropriate processing
• Remembering your dog, and then switching to
  thoughts of hot-dogs
• repression
• Authenticity of repressed memories?
• Memory illusions
• controversy

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• amnesia
• Retrograde amnesia- loss of memories for events
  that occurred prior to onset of amnesia
• Anterograde amnesia loss of memories for events
  that occurred after the onset of amnesia
• H.M.- most well known own patient- epileptic
• They removed his hippocampus, he couldnt store
  new memories
• He could sill learn new skills
• Wouldnt remember the task (eg basketball), but
  after several sessions would be like wow Im
  really good at this!

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• Proactive interference
• Previous items interfere with current memory set
• Previous items are confused with current memory
  set, and they are more likely to be recalled.
• Reduce interference by making items more
  distinct?

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• Release from Proactive Interference
• Wickens (1972)
• Presented fruits for first 3 trials
• Either switch (75) or continue with same
• Big increase in performance on 4th trial with
  switch
• Amount of increase inversely related to
  similarity

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• What does all of this research suggest?
• Similarity is bad- causes interference
• Distinctiveness helps make individual memories
  easier to recall

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• Are there multiple memory systems?
• Implicit vs explicit
• Declarative vs procedural
• Semantic vs episodic
• Prospective vs retrospective

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• Prospective vs retrospective memory
• Prospective- remembering to perform actions in
  the future
• Factors influencing success
• Habitual vs infrequent tasks
• Event-based vs. time-based tasks
• Retrospective memory- remembering events from the
  past or previously learned information
• Whats the name o your 1st grade teacher, 1st
  boyfriend/girlfriend?