There are seven explanations as to why we forget information that we have stored in memory. These include: decay, interference, failure to retrieve, repression, construction error, failure to store or consolidate, and infantile amnesia.

To minimize forgetting information that we just learned, we can use a number strategies to store the information. If we organize information in a logical way, it will facilitate retrieval and minimize forgetting. Encoding is a process of storing information in memory by modifying it in someway as to make it easier for recall at a later date. One type of encoding is the use of acronyms. This is an advanced cognitive strategy where people devise unique ways to remember stuff. For example, if I want to be able to remember the concept of conceptual knowledge, I can devise this simple formula.

DK +  PK = CK

Where DK represents declarative knowledge, PK represents procedural knowledge, and CK represents conceptual knowledge. This formula represents a way of remembering that when people integrate their declarative knowledge and their procedural knowledge, it results in conceptual knowledge.

Encoding strategies such as acronyms have helped me in remembering concepts for long periods of time, as is the case with the KASH model. The KASH model was a concept that I first learned about in a course on Human Resources Development. It was a way of teaching people how to turn what you just learned into a habit so that the task becomes second nature. KASH was an acronym that stood for knowledge of a better way, ability, skills, and habits. Acronyms such as these are easy to pronounce. If you are reading a list of words and they are easy to pronounce, you will have a better chance at remembering and recalling it later.

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The root of the disorder is a traumatic event which implants itself so firmly in the mind that the person may be shackled by the pain and distress of the event indeinately, experiencing it again and again as the mind stays connected with the past rather than the present, making it difficult to think of the future.

The research on this topic is all rather recent as the disorder was only added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-III in the last twenty years. Yet, the disorder is quite common, threatening to control and damage the lives of approximately eight percent of the American population 5 of men and 10 of women . Any person is a potential candidate for developing PTSD if subject to enough stress. There is no predictor or determining factor as to who will develop PTSD and who will not. Although all people who suffer from it have experienced a traumatic event, not all people who experience a traumatic event will develop PTSD. Each persons individual capacity for coping with catastrophic events determines their risk of acquiring PTSD. And not everyone will experience the same symptoms; some may suffer only a few mild symptoms for a short period of time, others may be completely absorbed, still others who experience great trauma may never develop any symptoms at all Friedman .

More than any other psychological problem, symptoms are a reaction to an overwhelming external event, or series of events. From a historical perspective, the concept of PTSD made a significant change in the usual stipulation that the cause of a disorder could be outside of the self, rather than some inherent individual weakness Friedman .

There are many situations that may lead to developing PTSD, including: “serious threats to one’s life or well being, or to children, spouse or close friends relatives; sudden destruction of home or community; and witnessing the accidental or violent death or injury of another” Bernstein, et al .

Characteristic symptoms include re-experiencing the event, avoidance of stimuli associated with the event or numbing of general responsiveness, increased arousal not present before the event, and duration of the disturbance for at least one month Johnson .

When a bomb exploded the Oklahoma Federal building in 1996, hundreds of lives were affected. Not only are the people who were in the explosion in danger of re-experiencing it over and over, but so are the people who witnessed the aftermath, from bystanders to the rescue workers on scene. The surviving employees not only were physically injured in the blast, but saw the deaths of their coworkers and children. Surviving a horrific trauma that many others did not is enough to cause serious emotional harm. For the rescue workers who arrived, many of them saw death and people who they could not help; feeling helpless and guilty may manifest into intrusive recollection and nightmares.

To explain further, the first criteria is that the person was at one time exposed to a traumatic event involving actual or threatened death or injury, where the response was marked by intense fear, horror or helplessness Pfefferbaum . This event may have taken place only weeks ago, or as far back in memory as forty years. The disorder is most commonly found among survivors of war, abuse and rape. It also occurs after assorted crime and car accidents, as well as after community disasters such as hurricanes and floods. Workers of rescue missions are subjected to situations of severe stress frequently. Many emergency response workers police, nurses, and medics may become overwhelmed by the trauma they see so many people go through and end up with intrusive recollections themselves.

Secondly, the trauma is re-experienced in the form of nightmares, flashbacks, intrusive memories and or unrest in situations that are similar to the traumatic experience by an associated stimuli Pfefferbaum . Auditory or visual stimuli can evoke panic, terror, dread, grief or despair. Commonly, in the case of war veterans, the patient may be mentally “sent back” to the time and location of the original traumatic experience. A veteran who hears a startling noise like a car backfiring may “hear” gunfire and it will trigger flashbacks. These flashbacks can last a little as a few seconds, minutes, or up to days where the person behaves and reacts to everything as if they are in that original traumatizing setting.

Thirdly, there is a numbing of the emotions and reduced interests in others and the outside world. The person is attempting to reduce the likelihood that they will either expose themselves to traumatic stimuli or if exposed will minimize the intensity of their psychological response Pfefferbaum . For this reason, it is extremely difficult for people with PTSD to participate in meaningful interpersonal relationships.

Forth, there are random associated symptoms including insomnia, irritability, hypervigilance and outbursts of rage. The natural startle inhibitor may be dulled and the patient is easily surprised or upset by unexpected stimuli.

Lastly, symptoms of each category must show significant affect on the person’s social vocational abilities or other important areas of life. Which appears to be an unavoidable effect if a person is in fact experiencing the symptoms listed. All of these symptoms must persist for at least one month

An example from the textbook Psychology introduces a 33-year-old nurse named Mary who suffered severe trauma in the weeks following an attack in her apartment by an intruder who raped her at knife point Criterion one . In the weeks after the attack Mary suffered from an immense fear of being alone in her apartment the second criterion , and preoccupied with attack, she feared it could happen again. Her worry developed in to an obsession with protection and she installed numerous locks on all her windows and doors, eventually Mary became so overly preoccupied with the attack that she could no longer go out socially or even return to work Criterion three and five . She became repelled by the idea of sex. Her associated behaviors encompass criterion four.

In the seven years since the Gulf War, three percent of United States Soldiers have so far been diagnosed as having Posttraumatic Stress Syndrome. Those with greatest exposure to combat are the most likely sufferers, which lends to the idea that the more severe a traumatic event are more difficult it is to overcome. Additionally it develops predominantly in soldiers who were categorized as having the least “stress resistant personalities” coupled with low levels of social support. Essential to recovery of any stressful event is the knowledge that the sufferer is not alone or unique in the grief and that others care about his or her recovery. Those soldiers who returned from war with no one to share their experiences with are likely to re experience warfare in the form of nightmares and flashbacks. After witnessing the deaths of both enemies and comrades those without social support are likely to internalize their pain which have a good chance of escaping out of the body in the symptoms listed Bernstein .

“Acute” PTSD occurs within six months of the traumatic event, while “Delayed On-set” PTSD occurs anytime afterwards. In some instances, patients have developed symptoms decades later. Holocaust survivors, experiencing terrifying nightmares of events they thought they had buried so long ago, have been diagnosed forty and fifty years after the attempted genocide of the Jews with PTSD.

PTSD can become a chronic psychiatric disorder that can persist for decades and sometimes a lifetime. Chronic patients go through periods of remission and relapse like many diseases.

Some problems associated with leaving PTSD untreated are clinical depression and addictions, such as alcoholism, drug abuse, and compulsive gambling. Addictions are a common way of “self-medicating.”

There are instances when a person suffers from involuntary recall of events that they cant quite place or understand. Sometimes adults who were abused in some form as children do not fully know what is tormenting them but still struggle with similar symptoms. For these people hypnosis in a controlled environment is beneficial. After hypnosis the patient and doctor will discuss what has come out and together deal with what has been learned. Drugs in general are not a cure for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but they can calm the patient long enough to rationally discuss what is torturing them. Also it is possible that children who survived the Oklahoma bomb blast may not be told for some time what they lived through. Their first recollections may be hazy pictures that only hint as to what happened. Hypnosis may bring out the details that the mind isn’t willingly sharing. When the details are known the patient then has the opportunity to accept them and develop an understanding and an acceptance if they are lucky enough to get that far of what they have survived Foy .

Therapy is the only known method of treatment, but there have not been substantial gains in this field for recovery of patients. After four months of intensive treatment, Vietnam veterans showed no long term effects of their therapy in a study conducted by the “National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” in New Haven. The men received individual and group psychotherapy and behavior therapy as well as family therapy and vocational guidance. Although they left reporting increased hope and self-esteem, a year and a half later their psychiatric symptoms had actually worsened. They had made more suicide attempts and their substance abuse was dramatically increased Johnson .

The Harvard Mental Health Letter published February March of 1991 asserts the important result of therapy of any kind is the enabling of the patient to think about the trauma without it taking over and being able to control their feelings without systematically avoiding or diverting their attention. People who are afflicted with PTSD never feel safe because they are controlled by their fears; nightmares and flashbacks only confirm their perceived helplessness and remind them of how they were unable to protect themselves from the event. Healing has taken place only when the person can invoke and dismiss the memories at will, instead of suffering the intrusive involuntary recall Johnson .

References

Bernstein, Douglas A., Alison Clarke-Stewart, Edward Roy, Christopher D. Wickens. Psychology. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997

Bower, Bruce. “Exploring trauma’s cerebral side.” Science News. 149.20 1996 : 315

Foy, David W., ed. Treating PTSD : cognitive-behavioral strategies. New York: Guilford Press, 1992.

Friedman, Matthew J. “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: An Overview.” National Center for PTSD. Dartmouth Medical School, 1997.

Johnson, David R., Robert Rosenheck, Alan Fontana. “Post-traumatic treatment failure.” Harvard Mental Health Letter. 13.9 1997 : 7

Matsakis, Aphrodite. I Can’t Get Over It : a handbook for trauma survivors. Oakland.: New Harbinger Publications, Inc., 1996.

Pfefferbaum, Betty. “Posttraumatic stress disorder in children: a review of the past ten years.” Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 36.11 1997 : 1503-12

“The Harvard Mental Health Letter.” Feb. Mar. 1991. Online. Internet. 14 Oct 1998. Available. http: www.mentalhealth.com mag1 p5h-pts2.html

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Learning is to gain knowledge or understanding of a skill by study, instruction, or experience. Social learning is a theory to explain how people learn behavior. People learn through observing others; imitating and adopting the behavior themselves

Increase in learning   

Learning situations in which the sequence responses of the subject are instrumental in producing reinforcement. When the correct response occurs, which involves the selection from among a repertoire of responses, the subject is immediately reinforced.

According to Social Cognitive Theory, we learn by observing the actions and consequences of others. If we see another person (model) being punished for an action, we will most like not

Goal of learning   

According to Operant Conditioning, the goal of learning reflects a desire to learn new skills, master new tasks, or understand new things. Typically, in order to learn new skills, students often go through a phase of confusion, failure, and discomfort.

According to Social Cognitive Theory, the goal of learning is to learn by observing the actions of others. This concept is best referred to as observational learning.

5 main points of Operant Conditioning             

1 – Operant conditioning occurs when a response is followed by a reinforcing stimulus

2 – Operant conditioning proves to be useful in trying to explain why people do the things that they do. In fact, any behavior can be taught or tailored through operant conditioning.

3 – People can learn through the observation of other people’s behaviors

4 – A person can learn without changing their behavior.

5 – Cognition always plays a role in learning

5 main points of Social Cognitive Theory

1. attempts to understand the process that is involved in explaining how we learn from each other
2. focuses on learning that occurs by direct experience—observing, imitating, and modeling.
3. People learn by observing other’s behaviors and observing or experiencing the consequences of that behavior. 
4. Learning can occur without reinforcement from model or observer.
5. When we observe someone’s behavior we do not imitate the exact same behavior, we imitate some behaviors with our own style.

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Piaget’s theory of cognitive development explains how human cognitive function differentiates as a child grows. From birth, a baby starts to interact with his surrounding through his sensory and motor activity. From 2 years, a child begins to represent the world through language. From around 7 years, he/she operates on objects. From 12 years, a child is able to think formally and logically without concrete objects. This developmental sequence doesn’t change. Each stage comes from the earlier stage and it is also basis of the next stage. For cognitive development, there should be four factors, such as maturation, social interaction, environment and equilibration. At each stage, the importance of each factor is different and each factor interacts with each other.

Increase in learning   

Piaget’s concept of learning occurs in five stages. The first stage, sensorimotor stage consists of infants experimenting with their world through the use of their senses. The second stage, preoperational stage is most know for children having problems solving the conservation problem. This stage consists of the play years for children. By age 6 or 7, children are entering the school years, and marks the concrete operational stage.

Critics of Piaget state that children do not develop through stages. However, we can use Piaget’s theory as a baseline to see how children are developing. Some children can move through the stages more slowly or more quickly than other children. Children that move more slowly can indicate either a learning disability or neurological problems. One extreme can be the case of a child who is 15 who is locked in a closet with little environmental stimulation for a number of years and thus causing the child to have a mental age of 5. On the other extreme, children of two income families where both parents are in the workforce are developing at much younger ages.

Goal of learning   

The goal of learning reflects a desire to learn new skills, master new tasks, or understand new things. Typically, in order to learn new skills, students often go through a phase of confusion, failure, and discomfort.

5 main points of Piagetian Theory         

1. Children are active and motivated learners
2. Children organize what they learn from their experiences
3. Children’s learning occurs when there is an interaction with their physical surroundings and with other people.
4. Children adapt to their environment through the processes of assimilation and accommodation.
5. Teachers must emphasize the critical role that experiences–or interactions with the surrounding environment–play in student learning.

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Sociocultural theory is a theory of human development that results from the dynamic interaction between a person and the surrounding social and cultural forces. Vygotsky’s s theories had three general claims: The claim that human social and psychological processes are fundamentally shaped by cultural tools; The claim that higher mental functioning in the individual emerges out of social processes; and the developmental method Zone of Proximal Development which is the concept that the potential of the child is limited to a specific time span.

Increase in learning 

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory also demonstrates the importance of environmental stimulation. Children learn best when in the company of others, especially older adults. Through such techniques as zone of proximal development, adults work closely with children by giving constructive and corrective feedback when needed. As children acquire and master the basic knowledge of a given task, adults will slowly allow the child to work by them without any assistance. Children also help themselves with complex tasks through the use of self-talk, a technique where children actually talk to themselves aloud. As children master a task, this becomes internalized where they talk to themselves quietly. 

Goal of learning   

According to Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, problem-solving skills can be placed into three categories. These are as follows: those performed independently by the student; those that cannot be performed even with help; and those that fall between the two extremes, the tasks that can be performed with help from others. Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development emphasizes his belief that learning is, fundamentally, a socially mediated activity.

5 main points of Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory     

1. Challenging tasks promote cognitive growth through the assistance of people and the use of zone of proximal development.
2. Interaction with other people is important for cognitive growth.
3. Culture can make daily living more efficient and effective.
4. Advanced mental methods start through social activities. As children advance they begin to use ideas on an individual level that were once learned on a social level.
5. There is an increase of the independent use of language and thought during a child’s first few years of life.

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Classical Conditioning is a basic form of learning in which one stimulus comes to serve as a signal for the occurrence of a second stimulus 171 . In simple terms, classical conditioning is relating two or more objects together so the natural mind will begin to associate the two objects together. Psychologists believe that a stimulus will elicit a response.

For instance, a well-known Russian psychologist performed a well-known experiment in the early 1900 s having to do with classical conditioning. This famous psychologist was named Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. He even won a Noble Prize in 1904 for his research. Pavlov s experiment wasn t originally focused around the psychology aspect of learning. His research was focused around the process of digestion in dogs.

Pavlov, after doing his study, realized that there was an unusual reaction when the dogs were about to receive their food, they began to salivate before even receiving the food World 202 . He decided that the dogs were receiving signals, whether it was by looking at the bowl that the food came in or at the sight of the person who they received the food from, that led them to believe they were going to receive food shortly Baron 172 . Pavlov questioned that if they were reacting the way they were, could they react with other stimuli He put his question to the test.

The first thing that Pavlov did was to pick out a neutral stimulus, one that had nothing to do with a dog s salvation. He picked a bell. The ringing of the bell was followed by a stimulus that would involuntarily produce salivation for the dog. Pavlov used meat powder. The food was presented as the unconditioned stimulus, which is a stimulus that can evoke an unconditioned response the first time it is presented. The automatic salvation to the food was suggested to be the unconditioned response, this being the response evoked by the stimulus. The relation of the ringing of their food and the presentation of the meat powder was done a couple of times. This was done so the dog can sub-consciously make a relationship between the bell and the food. The bell began to be termed as the

Conditioned stimulus. The conditioned stimulus is the repeatedly paired stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus 172 . The conditioned response to the conditioned stimulus was the salvation from the dog. Psychologist questioned if the dog would eventually salivate whenever a bell has rung and the answer was yes. If a bell rang the dog would salivate even if it were not followed by the meat powder.

There are problems that arise from this process of learning and one is that sometimes there is a tendency for a subject to make a stimulus generalization, which is the tendency of a stimuli to evoke the same response as the conditioned stimuli. This is not beneficial to the fact that it would be hard tot adapt to different environments this way. For example in Pavlov s study, if the dog made a stimuli generalization, it would salivate to the sound of any bell. Maybe even the ring of a telephone.

Fortunately, most can avoid this problem through stimuli discrimination. This allows subjects to react to one stimuli but not others 175 .

Classical conditioning is very common and can happen in many different environments. It does not have to be done with a psychologist in a laboratory. For example, let”s say that a college student was taking their final exam for a class that they were not doing particular well in. The exam would be the unconditioned stimuli. Since they had anxiety about taking the test, the anxiety they felt would be the unconditioned response. Suppose they had to go to the same room the next day to meet a friend, the sight of the room would be the conditioned stimuli and the conditioned response would be the same fear or anxiety they received while taking the test in that particular room. This is just one example on how classical conditioning is a constant form of learning.

Another form of learning that is quite different from the previous form of learning is called operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is a process through which organisms learn to repeat behaviors that yield positive outcomes or permit them to avoid or escape from negative ones 185 . The chance that a particular response will occur will depend upon the consequences that follow it. The procedures that strengthen behavior are referred to as reinforcement. Those that weaken behavior are called punishment 185 .

Reinforcement consists of two parts: positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is a stimuli that strengthens responses that precede them. Negative reinforcement is stimuli that strengthen responses that permit an organism to avoid or escape from their presence World 494 . Positive reinforces vary from primary needs, such as food to survive, and conditioned reinforces, such as praise from a teacher on a good test grade. One form of positive reinforcement is shaping. This is the process of giving a small amount of a reward for each step of a given goal. This is sometimes used in dog training. A dog trainer, named Jerrie Wolfe, uses a similar system. She gives a command to a dog. After the command is given and the dog would attempt the trick, a treat was given. The instructor would begin skipping the rewards a few times to reinforce the trick. The instructor feels that this will help the dog learn the trick faster when the dog will be expecting a reward members .

Negative reinforces aren”t necessarily what it sounds like it would be. A negative reinforcement is almost a scapegoat or route to escape a certain situation. For instance, let”s say it”s a rainy day and you leave the same time that you leave every other day for school. This particular day you are late. The next time your actions may be effected by negative reinforcement, but only if, you perhaps leave earlier on the next rainy day. This will avoid you be late for class.

There are also four schedules of reinforcement. These explain when and how reinforcements will be delivered. They are as followed: Fixed-Interval Schedule, schedule of reinforcement in which a specific interval of time must elapse before a response will yield reinforcement; Variable-Interval Schedule, schedule of reinforcement in which a variable amount of time must elapse before a response will yield reinforcement; Fixed-Ratio Schedule, a schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement occurs only after a fixed number of responses have been emitted; Variable-Ratio Schedule” schedule of reinforcement is delivered after a variable number of responses have been emitted Baron 191 .

Punishment differs from reinforcement because it aims to prevent you from performing a particular behavior Baron 186 . For example, I recently got a speeding ticket in which I had doubled the speed limit. My fine was 212.00 and it puts five points on my license. Let”s say that I haven”t gone over the speed limit since. There is positive and negative punishment as well. Positive punishment is the application of a desirable stimulus. Negative punishment is the loss or postponement of a desirable stimulus Baron 188 .

A psychologist that is usually associated with operant learning is B.F. Skinner. Skinner became interested in the work of John B. Watson and Ivan Pavlov and their work with Development Psychology. Skinner, like Pavlov, also spent several years studying animal learning and the functions of the nervous system. Skinner developed a box that had a mechanical door that would open when you push down on a lever. He placed a rat in the box. Not only was there a lever to escape the box, but there was a lever to obtain food. The rat first learned that when he pushed down on the lever a food pellet would come out. Next, Skinner sent electrical shocks through the bottom of the cage. The rat learned to push down on the lever again for more assistance. This opened up the door so the rat can escape. This would be considered a negative reinforcement because it gave the rat an escape and avoidance route. In his studies, Skinner discovered an animal will not learn if it”s response is not rewarded, a behavior will be learned more rapidly if it is reinforced, and once a behavior is learned, it will be more likely to be repeated if it is rewarded occasionally, rather than every time members .

In conclusion, as shown there are many differences between the two different styles of learning. In classical conditioning, organisms learn associations between stimuli. The stimuli will usually trigger a specific response. The responses are generally involuntary. They are elicited by a unconditioned stimulus and usually cannot be stopped. In contrast, during operant conditioning organisms learn associations between particular behaviors and the consequences that follow. This type of learning is voluntary and is emitted by organisms in the environment. Both are very effective in helping to understand how and why people learn the behaviors they do. This process helps both psychologist and society to understand the developmental process of organisms-which learning is a huge part of.

References

Baron, Robert A. Psychology. Allyn and Bacon: Boston 1998.

World Book Encyclopedia. World Book, Inc.: Chicago 1999.

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