Introduction to Cognitive Psychology - Department of Psychological ...

Prof. Greg Francis 8/14/12Levels of ProcessingLevel of processing is more important than intent tolearn (Hyde & Jenkins, 1973)11 groups of subjects 1 control group: told they will be tested to recall the words» not given any study task 10 experimental groups split to perform a study task» Pleasant-unpleasant rating» Estimate frequency of word usage» E-G checking: does word contain an E or a G?» Identify part of speech: noun, verb,…» Sentence framing: which sentence does word best fit in? For all experimental groups, either» (a) Intentional learning : told they will be tested to recall thewords» (b) Incidental learning: not told they will be testedPurdue UniversityIntentionRecall (out of 24 words) varies a lot with taskNot much variation with intention to learnPurdue UniversityImplicationsJudgments of LearningPeople do not know the best way to remember! There was nothing stopping controls from making pleasantunpleasantratings they apparently did not, or they would have done better!Advice: study interactively read notes rewrite notes rephrase notes teach someone elseMore generally, people are not usually good atestimating whether something will be rememberedPurdue University Nelson & Dunlosky (1991)Subjects study a pair of words (e.g., OCEAN – TREE)Estimate how likely they are to be able to rememberone word if shown the other (JOL). Given OCEAN, how likely to remember the associated itemlater? This is the subjects estimate of their ability to use LTMMake judgment either Immediately after studying the pair Delayed to later in the experimental trialsNote: students studying for an exam often use theimmediate approach for a JOL to decide if they needto continue studyingPurdue UniversityJudgments of LearningImmediate JOLs donot match memoryperformance (at theend of the experiment) Especially for highJOLsDelaying the JOLleads to fairly accurateJOLsAdvice: study, wait,estimate learningMethod of lociUsed by ancient Greeks to remember complicated speechesTo remember a list of words or key ideas visualize walking around an area with distinctive landmarks link the items to be remembered with landmarks by using bizarremental imagery to recall items in order, mentally walk through area (any ordered sequence will work -- e.g., a childrens rhyme)Memory piggybacks on the easy recallability of the bizarreimageryPurdue UniversityPurdue UniversityPSY 200: Intro. to Cognitive Psychology 2