Introduction to Cognitive Psychology - Department of Psychological ...

Prof. Greg Francis 8/14/12Method of locie.g., grocery listITEMS LOCI Add vivid,bizarre imageryhot dogscat foodtomatoesdrivewaygarage interiorfront doorDigit spanSF learned to increase hisdigit span to 81 digits (anyrandom sequence) 200 hours of practice Ericsson, Chase & Faloon (1980)Created a hierarchy of memorytricksTechnique did not transfer to othermemory tasks (e.g., letters)Essentially learned to use long-termmemory for the digit span taskPurdue UniversityPurdue UniversitySleepMany types of memory improve with sleepSome type of consolidation of memoriesThe effect is not just time Although time also has an effectWell look at one representative study Ellenbogen et al. (2007)Subjects learn to identifyorder relationshipsbetween random shapesOnly shown one pair at atimeSubjects have to learn/memorize the appropriateanswer to each pairSleepPurdue UniversityPurdue UniversitySleepThere is a ordered arrangement to the stimuliIf you know this arrangement, deciding for any pair is easy But subjects are never explicitly told about this arrangementSubjects are split in to threegroups, according to whenthey are tested 20 minutes later 12 hours later 24 hours laterNo differences when testedon the originally studieditemsSleepPurdue UniversityPurdue UniversityPSY 200: Intro. to Cognitive Psychology 3