Attention, Perception, Concept Formation, Memory, Forgetting, Transfer and Motivation

What to remember

• Attention selects, perception interprets, memory stores. A teacher who gains attention, builds clear perception and links new ideas to old ones helps the pupil to remember.
• Memory has three stores (sensory, short-term, long-term); forgetting is mainly due to decay, interference or retrieval failure. Ebbinghaus gave the forgetting curve.
• Motivation is the inner drive that starts and sustains behaviour. Maslow's hierarchy and the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are the main exam areas.

Attention

Attention is the focusing of consciousness on one object or idea while ignoring others. It is selective, limited and shifts from time to time.

Types:

• Involuntary (non-volitional): caused by the object itself, without effort (a loud noise).
• Voluntary (volitional): deliberate effort, as in studying a dull topic.
• Habitual (non-voluntary): begins with effort and becomes easy through interest.

Factors that attract attention:

Span of attention is the amount one can attend to at a time; it is short in small children. Distraction is the shifting of attention to something else. Division of attention is attending to two tasks at once; it is possible only when one task is automatic. Fluctuation means attention rises and falls in short cycles.

Teaching use: vary methods, use aids and questions, link to interest, keep lessons brief for young learners, and remove distractions.

Perception

Perception is giving meaning to sensations. Sensation is the raw message from the sense organs; perception is understanding it using past experience. Both are needed.

Gestalt laws of perceptual organisation:

• Proximity: nearby things are seen as a group.
• Similarity: like things are grouped.
• Closure: the mind fills small gaps to see a whole.
• Continuity: the eye follows a smooth line.
• Figure and ground: an object (figure) is seen against a background.

Perceptual constancy means an object is seen as the same despite changes in distance, light or angle (shape, size, brightness constancy). Illusion is a wrong perception of a real object (a stick looks bent in water). Hallucination is perception without any object. Depth perception uses clues such as relative size, overlap and texture.

Teaching use: use real objects and clear charts, avoid crowded boards, and give pupils experience, because perception depends on past learning.

Concept formation

A concept is a general idea formed from common features of many objects or events ("fruit", "triangle", "justice"). Concept formation steps:

• 1. Observation of many examples.
• 2. Comparison to find likenesses and differences.
• 3. Abstraction: picking out the common feature.
• 4. Generalisation: forming the idea for all such cases.
• 5. Naming or definition and then application.

Positive examples show the concept; negative examples (non-examples) show what it is not. Bruner described concept attainment through attributes and rules. Concepts develop from concrete to abstract and from simple to complex. A prototype is the best typical example (a sparrow for "bird").

Memory

Memory is the ability to take in, keep and bring back information. Its processes are encoding (taking in), storage (keeping) and retrieval (bringing back).

Atkinson-Shiffrin stage model:

Chunking groups items into larger units to hold more in STM. Rehearsal repeats information; maintenance rehearsal only holds it, elaborative rehearsal links it to meaning.

Kinds of LTM: declarative (explicit) memory includes episodic (personal events) and semantic (facts, meanings), while procedural (implicit) memory covers skills such as cycling. Tulving separated episodic and semantic memory. Craik and Lockhart said deeper (meaning-based) processing gives better memory than shallow processing.

Measuring memory: recall, recognition and relearning. Recognition is easiest, as in multiple-choice questions. Ebbinghaus used the savings method in relearning.

Improving memory: understanding, organisation, mnemonics (acronyms, rhymes, method of loci), distributed practice, revision, whole and part methods, and recitation.

Forgetting

Forgetting is the failure to retrieve what was once learnt. Ebbinghaus used nonsense syllables and showed that forgetting is rapid at first and then slows (forgetting curve).

Interference is greatest when the old and new materials are similar. Overlearning, meaningful study and good sleep reduce forgetting.

Transfer of learning

Transfer is the effect of past learning on new learning.

Theories: Formal discipline (mind has faculties that exercise trains; now rejected), identical elements (Thorndike: transfer occurs when two tasks share elements), generalisation (Judd: understanding principles helps transfer) and transposition (Gestalt: transfer of relations). Teaching use: teach principles, show links among subjects and use varied examples.

Motivation

Motivation is the inner state that arouses, directs and sustains behaviour toward a goal. Terms: need (lack of something), drive (push from the need), incentive (outside goal) and motive.

• Intrinsic motivation: the activity is rewarding in itself (curiosity, joy of learning).
• Extrinsic motivation: driven by outside reward or fear (marks, prizes, praise).

Maslow's hierarchy of needs (lowest to highest): physiological, safety, belongingness and love, esteem, self-actualisation. Lower needs must be met before higher ones. Maslow separated deficiency needs from growth needs.

Other views: Hull's drive reduction theory says behaviour reduces drives. McClelland studied the need for achievement (nAch), affiliation and power. Atkinson linked achievement to hope of success and fear of failure. Weiner's attribution theory says explaining success or failure by effort, ability, luck or task difficulty affects later motivation. Learners who credit effort stay motivated. Level of aspiration is the goal a person sets for himself.

Teaching use: make tasks interesting, give clear goals, praise effort, give quick feedback, use success experience, create healthy competition and avoid too much punishment or fear.

Putting memory and motivation to work in class

A teacher can help pupils attend, understand and remember in simple ways. Begin the lesson by linking it to what pupils already know, because meaningful links help encoding. State the aim clearly, use short activities and change the activity before attention drops. Use examples and non-examples while teaching a concept, and ask pupils to give their own examples. For memory, teach pupils to make notes in their own words, to use headings and diagrams, and to revise at spaced intervals. Short revision soon after learning cuts the steep early fall in the forgetting curve. Sleep after study also helps storage.

For motivation, set goals that are neither too easy nor too hard, so that success is possible but needs effort. Give feedback quickly and say what was good. Link the lesson to real life so that interest grows from within. Avoid comparing pupils unfairly; compare a pupil with his own earlier work. Meet basic needs first: a hungry or fearful child cannot attend, as Maslow's hierarchy suggests. Use rewards carefully, because too many outside rewards may weaken the joy of the task itself.

Exam traps

• Sensation is not perception; perception adds meaning.
• Voluntary attention needs effort; involuntary does not.
• STM holds about 7 plus or minus 2 items for seconds; LTM is the store with very large capacity and long duration.
• Proactive interference: old hurts new. Retroactive: new hurts old.
• Recognition is easier than recall.
• Negative transfer hinders; zero transfer has no effect.
• Intrinsic motivation comes from within; marks and prizes are extrinsic.
• Self-actualisation is the top level in Maslow's hierarchy; physiological needs are the base.

One-liners

• 1. Attention is selective focus of consciousness.
• 2. Miller's magic number for STM is seven plus or minus two.
• 3. Ebbinghaus gave the forgetting curve and used nonsense syllables.
• 4. Atkinson and Shiffrin gave the stage model of memory.
• 5. Episodic and semantic memory were separated by Tulving.
• 6. Chunking helps increase the use of STM capacity.
• 7. Closure, proximity and similarity are Gestalt laws of grouping.
• 8. Procedural memory covers skills such as swimming.
• 9. Thorndike's theory of transfer is the identical elements theory.
• 10. Judd's theory of transfer is the generalisation theory.
• 11. McClelland is linked with need for achievement.
• 12. Maslow's top need is self-actualisation.

Practice questions

1. The forgetting curve was given by

   1. Tulving
   2. Ebbinghaus
   3. Judd
   4. Miller
   Answer

   B. Ebbinghaus

   Ebbinghaus used nonsense syllables.

2. The capacity of short-term memory is about

   1. 2 plus or minus 1 items
   2. 50 items
   3. 20 plus or minus 5 items
   4. 7 plus or minus 2 items
   Answer

   D. 7 plus or minus 2 items

   Miller's magic number.

3. The highest need in Maslow's hierarchy is

   1. self-actualisation
   2. safety
   3. esteem
   4. belongingness
   Answer

   A. self-actualisation

   Self-actualisation is at the top.

4. The stage model of memory (sensory, short-term, long-term) was proposed by

   1. Craik and Lockhart
   2. Bruner and Piaget
   3. Atkinson and Shiffrin
   4. Tulving and Miller
   Answer

   C. Atkinson and Shiffrin

   It is also called the multi-store model.

5. Memory of personal life events is called

   1. semantic memory
   2. episodic memory
   3. procedural memory
   4. sensory memory
   Answer

   B. episodic memory

   Tulving named episodic memory.

6. Memory of skills like swimming and cycling is

   1. semantic memory
   2. procedural memory
   3. iconic memory
   4. episodic memory
   Answer

   B. procedural memory

   Skills are stored as procedural (implicit) memory.

7. Grouping items into larger units to remember more in STM is called

   1. chunking
   2. extinction
   3. repression
   4. shaping
   Answer

   A. chunking

   Chunking increases effective capacity.

8. Old learning disturbing new learning is

   1. repression
   2. retroactive interference
   3. proactive interference
   4. decay
   Answer

   C. proactive interference

   Proactive means forward-acting: old blocks new.

9. New learning disturbing old learning is

   1. motivated forgetting
   2. proactive interference
   3. trace decay
   4. retroactive interference
   Answer

   D. retroactive interference

   Retroactive acts backward.

10. Which method of measuring memory is generally the easiest?

    1. Recall
    2. Relearning
    3. Recognition
    4. Free association
    Answer

    C. Recognition

    Multiple-choice tests use recognition.

11. Thorndike's theory of transfer is the theory of

    1. transposition
    2. generalisation
    3. formal discipline
    4. identical elements
    Answer

    D. identical elements

    Transfer occurs when tasks share elements.

12. Judd's theory of transfer stresses

    1. generalisation of principles
    2. identical elements
    3. rote practice
    4. faculty training
    Answer

    A. generalisation of principles

    Understanding principles helps transfer.

13. When past learning hinders new learning, the transfer is

    1. vertical
    2. negative
    3. zero
    4. positive
    Answer

    B. negative

    Negative transfer is interference from old habits.

14. McClelland is associated with the study of

    1. insight
    2. need for achievement
    3. operant conditioning
    4. object permanence
    Answer

    B. need for achievement

    nAch, nAff and nPower are his needs.

15. Wrong perception of a real object, such as a bent-looking stick in water, is

    1. an illusion
    2. a hallucination
    3. chunking
    4. a concept
    Answer

    A. an illusion

    Illusion distorts a real stimulus; hallucination has none.

16. Perception without any outside stimulus is

    1. illusion
    2. constancy
    3. hallucination
    4. closure
    Answer

    C. hallucination

    Hallucination has no real object.

17. Attention drawn by a sudden loud noise is

    1. habitual attention
    2. voluntary attention
    3. divided attention
    4. involuntary attention
    Answer

    D. involuntary attention

    No effort is needed.

18. A student forces himself to study a dull topic. This is

    1. voluntary attention
    2. fluctuation
    3. involuntary attention
    4. distraction
    Answer

    A. voluntary attention

    Voluntary attention is effortful.

19. Seeing a broken circle as a complete circle shows the Gestalt law of

    1. similarity
    2. proximity
    3. contrast
    4. closure
    Answer

    D. closure

    The mind fills the gap.

20. A student learns Hindi after Telugu and mixes up some words. This is

    1. positive transfer
    2. zero transfer
    3. negative transfer
    4. bilateral transfer
    Answer

    C. negative transfer

    Old habits hinder the new learning.

21. Learning addition helps a child learn multiplication. This is

    1. lateral transfer
    2. vertical transfer
    3. zero transfer
    4. negative transfer
    Answer

    B. vertical transfer

    Lower learning supports higher learning in the same field.

22. A pupil works hard because he enjoys the subject. This is

    1. extrinsic motivation
    2. negative reinforcement
    3. incentive only
    4. intrinsic motivation
    Answer

    D. intrinsic motivation

    Interest within is the source.

23. A pupil studies only to win a prize. This is

    1. extrinsic motivation
    2. insight
    3. self-actualisation
    4. intrinsic motivation
    Answer

    A. extrinsic motivation

    External rewards drive the effort.

24. According to Weiner's attribution view, pupils who credit success to effort are likely to

    1. avoid effort
    2. depend on luck
    3. stay motivated
    4. lose all interest
    Answer

    C. stay motivated

    Effort is controllable, so it supports motivation.

25. The process of bringing stored information back is

    1. storage
    2. retrieval
    3. chunking
    4. encoding
    Answer

    B. retrieval

    Retrieval is the third stage.

26. The best typical example of a category, like a sparrow for 'bird', is a

    1. prototype
    2. plateau
    3. stimulus
    4. schema of animism
    Answer

    A. prototype

    Prototype is the most typical member.

27. Craik and Lockhart said memory is best when processing is

    1. shallow and quick
    2. only visual
    3. repeated aloud without thought
    4. deep and meaningful
    Answer

    D. deep and meaningful

    Levels of processing theory.

28. Pushing painful memories out of awareness, as Freud said, is

    1. decay
    2. repression
    3. chunking
    4. proactive interference
    Answer

    B. repression

    It is motivated forgetting.

29. Duration of short-term memory without rehearsal is about

    1. 20 to 30 days
    2. 20 to 30 minutes
    3. 20 to 30 seconds
    4. 20 to 30 hours
    Answer

    C. 20 to 30 seconds

    It fades quickly unless rehearsed.

30. Statements: 1. Sensation is the raw message of the sense organs. 2. Perception gives meaning to sensation.

    1. 1 only
    2. 2 only
    3. Both 1 and 2
    4. Neither 1 nor 2
    Answer

    C. Both 1 and 2

    Both are correct definitions.

31. Statements: 1. STM has unlimited capacity. 2. LTM has very large capacity.

    1. 1 only
    2. 2 only
    3. Both 1 and 2
    4. Neither 1 nor 2
    Answer

    B. 2 only

    STM is limited to about 7 items.

32. Statements: 1. Recall is easier than recognition. 2. Relearning is used in the savings method.

    1. 1 only
    2. 2 only
    3. Both 1 and 2
    4. Neither 1 nor 2
    Answer

    B. 2 only

    Recognition is easier than recall.

33. Statements: 1. Maslow placed safety needs above esteem needs. 2. Physiological needs form the base of the hierarchy.

    1. 1 only
    2. 2 only
    3. Both 1 and 2
    4. Neither 1 nor 2
    Answer

    B. 2 only

    Esteem is above safety.

34. Statements: 1. Positive transfer helps new learning. 2. Zero transfer hinders new learning.

    1. 1 only
    2. 2 only
    3. Both 1 and 2
    4. Neither 1 nor 2
    Answer

    A. 1 only

    Zero transfer means no effect.

35. Statements: 1. Proximity and similarity are Gestalt laws. 2. Closure is a Gestalt law.

    1. 1 only
    2. 2 only
    3. Both 1 and 2
    4. Neither 1 nor 2
    Answer

    C. Both 1 and 2

    All three are Gestalt principles of grouping.

36. Statements: 1. Formal discipline theory of transfer is widely accepted today. 2. Thorndike gave the identical elements view.

    1. 1 only
    2. 2 only
    3. Both 1 and 2
    4. Neither 1 nor 2
    Answer

    B. 2 only

    Formal discipline has been largely rejected.

37. Statements: 1. Ebbinghaus used nonsense syllables. 2. Ebbinghaus found forgetting is slow at first and fast later.

    1. 1 only
    2. 2 only
    3. Both 1 and 2
    4. Neither 1 nor 2
    Answer

    A. 1 only

    Forgetting is fast at first, then slows.

38. Match the memory store with its feature: 1. Sensory 2. Short-term 3. Long-term

    1. 1 very large and lasting, 2 7 plus or minus 2 items, 3 lasts seconds
    2. 1 7 plus or minus 2 items, 2 lasts seconds, 3 very large and lasting
    3. 1 lasts seconds, 2 very large and lasting, 3 7 plus or minus 2 items
    4. 1 lasts seconds, 2 7 plus or minus 2 items, 3 very large and lasting
    Answer

    D. 1 lasts seconds, 2 7 plus or minus 2 items, 3 very large and lasting

    The features are as in the multi-store model.

39. Match the type of interference with its meaning: 1. Proactive 2. Retroactive

    1. 1 repression, 2 decay
    2. 1 new disturbs old, 2 old disturbs new
    3. 1 decay, 2 repression
    4. 1 old disturbs new, 2 new disturbs old
    Answer

    D. 1 old disturbs new, 2 new disturbs old

    Proactive acts forward; retroactive acts backward.

40. Match the theorist with the idea: 1. Maslow 2. McClelland 3. Weiner

    1. 1 hierarchy of needs, 2 need for achievement, 3 attribution
    2. 1 attribution, 2 hierarchy of needs, 3 need for achievement
    3. 1 need for achievement, 2 attribution, 3 hierarchy of needs
    4. 1 hierarchy of needs, 2 attribution, 3 need for achievement
    Answer

    A. 1 hierarchy of needs, 2 need for achievement, 3 attribution

    Each idea belongs to the named thinker.

41. Match the transfer type with the example: 1. Positive 2. Negative 3. Zero

    1. 1 cycling helps motorbike learning, 2 no effect, 3 old habit blocks new skill
    2. 1 old habit blocks new skill, 2 cycling helps motorbike learning, 3 no effect
    3. 1 no effect, 2 old habit blocks new skill, 3 cycling helps motorbike learning
    4. 1 cycling helps motorbike learning, 2 old habit blocks new skill, 3 no effect
    Answer

    D. 1 cycling helps motorbike learning, 2 old habit blocks new skill, 3 no effect

    Positive helps, negative hinders, zero has no effect.

42. Match the type of attention with the example: 1. Involuntary 2. Voluntary 3. Habitual

    1. 1 sudden bang, 2 reading that became a hobby, 3 forced study of a dull topic
    2. 1 reading that became a hobby, 2 forced study of a dull topic, 3 sudden bang
    3. 1 sudden bang, 2 forced study of a dull topic, 3 reading that became a hobby
    4. 1 forced study of a dull topic, 2 sudden bang, 3 reading that became a hobby
    Answer

    C. 1 sudden bang, 2 forced study of a dull topic, 3 reading that became a hobby

    Habitual attention starts with effort and becomes easy.

43. Which of the following is an objective factor of attention?

    1. Interest of the learner
    2. Mental set of the learner
    3. Emotion of the learner
    4. Novelty of the stimulus
    Answer

    D. Novelty of the stimulus

    Novelty is a feature of the object, outside the learner.

44. Attending to two tasks at the same time is easiest when

    1. both are new
    2. one task is automatic
    3. both are difficult
    4. both need deep thought
    Answer

    B. one task is automatic

    Division of attention needs one well-practised task.

45. Learning that a thing is the same size even when seen from far is

    1. figure and ground
    2. closure
    3. size constancy
    4. proximity
    Answer

    C. size constancy

    Perceptual constancy keeps size stable.