Encoding
Attention Review
• Attention = stimuli filter– Where is filter located?: cocktail party effect
• Early during sensory input or later during processing
Sensory Detection
Recognition of meaning
Responseselection
ResponseStimulus
Early-selectionmodels placethe filter here
Late-selectionmodels placethe filter here
• The answer to where the filter is… is both
• Depends on “cognitive load”
• Multi-tasking
Encoding is… getting the info in
1. Automatic – enormous amounts of info encoded without thinking
• Space• Time• Frequency• Well-learned
2. Effortful
• Requires attention, repetition, effort– Boost memory through
rehearsal: conscious repetition
Is it only ever one or the other?
• NO!– Effortful can become automatic through
learning– Ex: learning to read
Principles of Remembering (encoding)
• The more repetition one day, the less required to relearn the next.– The amount of something remembered
depends on the amount of time spent learning
• Overlearning
Ebbinghaus’ Retention Curve
Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve
Principles of Remembering (encoding)
• Info learned just before sleep = poorly remembered
• Spacing effect and cramming– Conclusion?!
• Serial Position Effect (furthers rehearsal)
Serial Position Effect
• Primacy effect
• Recency effect
Effortful Encoding cont’d
“those who learn quickly, forget quickly”
• Spacing effect• Massed practice• Distributed study time• Testing effect
MEMORY GAME
Working memories interact with LTM
• Visual
• Auditory
• Semantic
Levels of Processing Theory
How we encode
• Semantic: we best encode what makes sense– Learning meaningful material requires 1/10th
the effort of meaningless– Both context and principle help us remember
info– Self-reference effect
• Acoustically: next powerful encoding to semantic– empire carpet commercial?
Visual Encoding
• Imagery is important– Rosy retrospection– Imagery is key to
mnemonics
But!!!
• Two codes are better than one– If you can see and understand, you will
remember more easily– Examples?
Mnemonics: organization for better memory
• Peg words
• Method of loci
• Chunking– Mnemonics
• Acronyms
• Hierarchies
• Principle Learning
