Group of elements that are associated with eachother but lack association with elements in other chunks

Chunks (memory)

The brain can compress a sequence of actions into an automatic routine.  The sequence is converted after a series of encounters with recurring cues (trigger, context), a routine (the behavior) and then rewards (reinforcement).

Habits ( Behavioral chunking )

Separating paragraphs in a passage into even smaller units based on ideas, concepts, or syntax to improve reading comprehension. Most of the time, text segmentation refers to breaking down sentences into phrases to help with understanding, especially for younger students and students with disabilities. 

Text Segmentation

- Defined by Foster in 1970 as the “presenting, at rapid rates, single words to a stationary position in the viewing field.” 
- Experiments have tested presenting texts of different lengths (i.e. one word, one sentence, small chunks of text) and durations
- In general, “RSVP involves successive presentation of small units of text to a viewer. The units of text usually do not exceed a single line and are normally presented for a preselected amount of time.” 

Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP)

Chunking is also a reading strategy that has been found to have positive effects for improving reading comprehension. 

Chunking in Reading Comprehension

Small units (i.e. words, actions) can be grouped together based on associations to form larger units that are easy to remember.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

- Memory models
- Forgetting
- The stages of memory
- Levels of analysis
- Levels of Processing 
- Interference
- Chunking
- Recall
- Constructive nature of memory
- Primary vs. Secondary memories
- Types of information supporting memory
- Memory errors and impairment
- Source monitoring
- Eyewitness testimony
- Experience-dependent plasticity
- Desirable difficulties
- Prospective vs. Retrospective Memory

Focuses of Research on Memory

- As humans, smaller and quicker rewards are more desirable than rewards that will take longer to achieve.
- Example: Chunking a project into smaller goals rather than cramming your workload 

Delayed Discounting

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Nelson Education.


Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience

Forgetting is defined as the loss of information from long-term memory. This is a universal human experience, manifesting in everyday situations like forgetting a name, a birthday, or the location of personal items like car keys. Such memory failures, while common, can be a source of frustration and embarrassment, underscoring the fragile nature of human memory.

Forgetting

- 1) Chemical processes
- 2) Neurons activated
- 3) Brain storage
- 4) Storage activated
- 5) Memory
- 6) Output

Levels of output for memory

A central question within the realm of memory research is whether retaining information over short periods of time versus longer periods of time (whether minutes or weeks) is different. In 1890, William James distinguished “primary memory,” composed of past experiences that are active within consciousness, from “secondary memory,” composed of experiences that are not stored at the conscious level but can be recalled. James believed there to be limits to how much information is available in primary memory. Research has generally demonstrated that 7 ± 2 items can be stored at once in a person’s mind, but also that “recoding” items using past knowledge (for example, breaking longer strings into smaller recognizable pieces) can increase memory capacity.

Primary vs. Secondary Memories

While the implicit/explicit, semantic/episodic, and familiarity/recollection distinctions are founded partly on subjective experience, other researchers have instead explored what types of information promote learning retention.

Distinction Between Types of Information Supporting Memory

After being exposed to a stimuli, subjects are asked to report back what they observed.

Recall

Chunking

Memory depends on the depth of processing information (how much meaning) that occurs. 

Levels of Processing theory

- The Modal Model
- Baddeley & Hitch's Working Memory Model

Memory models

Among many theories, there is consensus surrounding the understanding that medial temporal lobe damage only harms certain types of memory and learning, leaving repetition priming, classical conditioning, and reinforcement-learning largely untouched. Many models also agree about organization of the medial temporal lobe.

Consensus About the Medial Temporal Lobe Among Memory Theories

The process of trying to find the origins of a memory, belief, or knowledge. For example you may be trying to determine whether it was from a friend, a book, or news story.

Source monitoring

It is the mechanism through which the structure of the brain is "shaped" by environments to better perceive environments.

Experience-dependent plasticity 

- Brain damage
- Evolution (errors seen in the general population)

Causes of memory errors and impairment

A learning task that requires a considerable but desirable amount of effort, thereby improving long-term performance.

Examples:

- Interleaving Materials
- Spacing Studying
- Generation Effect
- Retrieval practice (testing)
- Varying Study Conditions

Desirable Difficulties

In neutral emotional circumstances, confidence in the memory and accuracy have a positive relationship. However, in an angry emotional state, the confidence-accuracy relationship becomes negative (as people become more confident, it is predicted that their accuracy will decrease).

The Confidence-accuracy relationship

Prospective memory is the term for the type of memory associated with forward-thinking, initiation of planned events, & retention. Retrospective memory is attributed to one's ability to recall experiences and their contexts (i.e. episodic) in hindsight. It most critically plays a role in remembering events or ideas from the past.

Prospective vs. Retrospective Memory

Memories are a reconstructive process, meaning they are not some recordings of past experiences, but a recreation influenced by the present. They comprised of what happened in events and prior knowledge, expectations, and experiences. This contrasts with what some may think about memories being solely representations of events.

Constructive Nature of Memory

- Proactive interference
- Retroactive interference

Types of Memory Interference

Despite the known fragility of human memory, the legal system, including police, prosecutors, and courts, often depends heavily on eyewitness testimony for criminal prosecutions. This reliance is problematic because memory is a reconstructive process, making eyewitness accounts susceptible to errors that can lead to faulty identifications and, ultimately, wrongful convictions.

Eyewitness Testimony and its Unreliability

- These tasks make it easier to notice and identify executive functioning differences 
- Process leading to an informed choice 
- In the delayed discounting tasks, the individual makes choices - either pursues a small but faster reward or a larger but delayed reward 

Delayed Discounting Tasks 

- Temporal Discounting - subjective value of a reward decreases when the delivery of the reward is delayed
- Temporal Discounting tends to be higher in girls with ADHD

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