Three systems
How memory flows
Sensory holds, working manipulates, long-term stores.
Psychology · Lesson 5
Learning and Memory
beginner⏱ 14 min · 8 cards
The big idea
🧩
How experience sticks
Learning changes behavior through experience; memory stores what we have learned.
Walk the stages
How a memory forms
attention →
rehearsal →
Sensory memory
A split-second snapshot of everything your senses take in — huge capacity, gone in under a second unless you notice it.
Attention moves info from sensory to short-term; rehearsal moves it into long-term.
Tap each stage to see what happens there.
Two ways we learn
Classical vs. operant
Classical
By association
Tap to reveal.
tap for example ↻
Operant
By consequence
Tap to reveal.
tap for example ↻
Nuance
Take it with you
Think like a Maester
Spacing practice out beats cramming for lasting memory.
Recap
Key takeaways
- ✓Memory encodes, stores, and retrieves; most failures are encoding or retrieval.
- ✓Working memory is sharply limited; long-term memory is not.
- ✓Retrieval reconstructs, so confident memories can still be wrong.
- ✓Retrieval practice, spacing, and interleaving beat rereading.
- ✓Fluency is not knowledge, and sleep is part of learning.
Quick check
Psychology is best defined as…
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