User:Jtsstl/Sandbox/declarative learning

Putting a New Declarative Learning Page Together
IF you want to see what I had planned for the Declarative Learning Wiki page, click on the link below... User:Jtsstl/Sandbox/declarative learning/updated page

IF you want to see my meanderings along the way to these updates, including a bunch of stuff I don't have time to work into the page, then just keep reading what is on this page.

OR check them both out, whatever you prefer!

What I Might Add About Declarative Learning
Declarative learning is acquiring information that one can speak about. Contrast with motor learning. The capital of a state is a declarative piece of information, while knowing how to ride a bike is not. Episodic memory and semantic memory are a further division of declarative information.

There are two ways to learn a telephone number, memorize it using your Declarative Memory or punch it into your brain 1,000 times to create a habit. Habit learning is called striatal memory or striatum memory.

Declarative memory uses your Medial Temporal Lobe and you can recall the telephone number at will. Habit (Striatum) memory activates the telephone number only when you are at the phone and uses your right-hemisphere's skill Pattern Recognition.

Research indicates Declarative and Habit memory compete with each other during distraction. When in doubt the brain chooses Habit memory because it is automatic.
 * Might be redundant now?

Google Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 7.25.07 Russell A. Poldrack UCLA.

I think all this information came from the one paper. There are several references within that paper that can better document the information.

Round 2
My strategy for adding to this article is in three parts (1, 2a and 2b)


 * 1. Referential
 * There are no references cited for the first paragraphs. So I am collecting references for-
 * a. definition of declarative learning
 * b. declarative learning uses your medial temporal lobe
 * c. definition of habit memory
 * d. habit memory uses your striatum

This also talks about the relation between decarative knowledge and explicit learning versus non-declarative learning and implicit knowledge.
 * I have these references (I think they might be sufficient)


 * 2. Extension
 * a. There is a chapter in the Cambridge Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning that talks about complex declarative learning. The capital of Missouri is declarative knowledge. How Missouri attained statehood is complex declarative knowledge. I thought I'd give a synopsis of this chapter.


 * b. Since this is on declarative learning I thought I would try to include something on how to gain declarative knowledge. One trick with this topic is not to repeat what is already referenced under learning or declarative memory. The other trick is that this topic tends to be covered in the popular press rather than peer reviewed journals. So I am a bit disappointed in what I have found so far.

10 Best Teaching Practices covers making connections from prior learning and teaching for semantic and episodic memory.

I rather like this book but it's really on memory and not learning. I also found some interesting articles on how the ability to store declarative knowledge develops with age. and a neat review on memory and sleep. But I'll need to see first what is in the learning and declarative memory sections of Wiki. This might be the best article to reference on the subject. Or maybe this one. This is similar, but focused on students with learning disabilities.

I also found a similar article to the one already described but covering the idea that multiple conversations reduce the ability to comprehend information.

A little bit more explicit annotation
Additional References for Procedural Memory

Frankland, Paul W.; Bontempi, Bruno (Feb 2005). "The organization of recent and remote memories" talks about how medial temporal lobe damage results in anterograde amnesia (inability to form new memories). says disruption of hippocampus affects recent, but not older memories. describes consolidation model for forming long term memories. describes mouse studies to model behavior.

Lee, Andy; Barense, Morgan, Graham, Kim. "The contribution of the human medial temporal lobe to perception: Bridging the gap between animal and human studies" says MTL may be involved in more than just declarative memory, may also be involved in higher level processes. hippocampus- scene perception (episodic memory), perirhinal cortex object perception. based on studies on primates.

SHAUNA STARK1, BARRY GORDON1,2, & CRAIG STARK3,4 A case study of amnesia: Exploring a paradigm for new semantic learning and generalization Brain Injury, March 2008; 22(3): 283–292

Another article about amnesia and the MTL. Has a nice introduction that covers declarative vs non-declarative learning and the portions of the brain that are involved.

Bayley, Peter J.; Frascino, Jennifer C., Squire, Larry R. "Robust habit learning in the absence of awareness and independent of the medial temporal lobe" this article talks about habit memory and says depends on basal ganglia and independent of the medial temporal lobe. they tested patients with tumors on the MTR and found they could learn tasks but not describe them.

Yin, Henry H.; Knowlton, Barbara J. "The role of the basal ganglia in habit formation" talks about striatum in habit learning and gives some evolutionary explanations. discusses conditions that lead to habit formation in mice.

Complex Declarative Knowledge

The Cambridge handbook of thinking and reasoning (Reprinted. ed.). Cambridge [u.a.]: Cambridge Univ. Press. 2007 Chapter 16 is complex declarative learning by Michelene T. H. Chi and Stellan Ohlsson

states that complex learning takes more time and involves more complex processes than memorizing basic facts. describes basic characteristics of declarative knowledge- size of knowledge base and organization, changes to the knowledge base as knowledge is added (more connected, consistent, finer grained, more complex, and more abstract. then discusses some of the problems that can occur, such as distortion when new knowledge is inconsistent with prior knowledge and different ways by which ones conceptions change.

Declarative Knowledge Learning Techniques

Tileston, Donna Walker. 10 best teaching practices : how brain research and learning styles define teaching competencies

describes semantic memory as involving knowledge learned from words, symbols and abstractions. storing knowledge requires making a connection to stored facts and experience. memory is then rehearsed. to retrieve the memory requires either rehearsal or a hook by which to retrieve the memory. rehearsal can be rote or elaborative. storing semantic memory requires good use of language, making it difficult for English language learners.

says semantic memory is most difficult to recall and is more likely to be recalled if embedded within episodic or procedural memory- more brain friendly- brain does not like isolated facts- prefers patterns.

then discusses strategies for making hooks and providing relevance.

Shavelson, Richard J.; Ruiz-Primo, Maria Araceli, Wiley, Edward W. (1 June 2005). "Windows into the mind"

provides a framework for defining teaching goals. makes the point that teachers are not often clear on what their goals are or fail to make them clear to students. to properly teach and assess students, the goals must be clear. suggests using concept and cognitive maps for assessing declarative knowledge rather than simple multiple choice or true/false tests.

Round 1

 * Step 1- I'd like to describe the experiment a little better.

Poldrack and coworkers tested the hypothesis that distraction can change the way a task is learned. In their experiment, they played a series of high and low tones while asking subjects to do a simple probabilistic classification task. In the single task (ST) case, subjects only learned to predict the weather. In the dual task (DT) case, subjects were also asked to count the number of high pitched tones. The ability to use the learned knowledge was found to be about the same in either case. However, subjects were significantly better at identifying cue-associations (a test of declarative knowledge) when trained under ST rather than DT conditions. Furthermore, fMRI showed activity in the hippocampus was associated with performance under ST, but not DT conditions, whereas activity in the putamen showed the opposite correlation. The authors conclude that while distraction may not decrease the level of learning, it can result in a reduced ability to flexibly use that knowledge


 * The above paragraph is now on the real page.

I found this paper:
 * Aha!

Foerde, L., Knowlton, B.J., & Poldrack, R.A. (2006). Distraction modulates the engagement of competing memory systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103, 11778-83.

And I have the article! So I can at least clean up this statement.


 * And maybe a little more formatting-


 * I added See Also, Further Reading and References also.


 * Step 2 Adding a bunch more information


 * Needing a little more thought-

In: K. J. Holyoak & R. G. Morrison (Eds.) 2005. Cambridge Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Complex Declarative Learning

Michelene T.H. Chi Stellan Ohlsson

A chapter that talks about complex knowledge being divided into declarative knowledge (knowledge of facts) and procedural knowledge (knowledge of how). They say they will talk about the basic characteristics of complex declarative knowledge and changes that occur in declarative knowledge as it is learned. Not sure if this is totally consistent with the current entry.

I believe declarative knowledge is also a Wiki entry- probably need a link.

Descriptive knowledge

Hockenbury talks about semantic memory as general knowledge of facts, which is what I think is being learned with declarative learning as defined above.

explicit and implicit memory involve different brain regions Thompson psychological science 16 856-860 2005

tulving annual review of psychology 53 1-25 2002

kihlstrom blackwell campanion to consciousness Malden Ma blackwell 2007

Include learning strategies when talking about declarative learning?

This book lists 15 different knowledge constructs, one of which is declarative learning.

This book starts talking about semantic memory, but switches to VAK when discussing learning strategies