Memory is the mother of all wisdom. -Samuel JohnsonLet's examine how our brains work. Memory is a key function in the operation of your brain. Your ability to remember things such as names, dates, information from the meeting at work, may determine how people view your intelligence.
What is memory?
“Historically, memory has been compared to a computer in which information is first entered(input), stored(throughput), and at some later point, retrieved(output).” (Merriam & Bierema, 2014) Actually, memory is much more complicated than this simplistic comparison. According to chapter nine, there are three distinct parts to our memory.
The first is sensory memory. This is the part of our memory that is considered primal. It involves our senses. Have you ever smelled something and been instantly transported back in time, to a memory of perhaps your grandmother in the kitchen cooking your favorite meal? “Smell may actually be even more closely linked to memory than the other senses, possibly because the olfactory bulb and olfactory cortex (where smell sensations are processed) are physically very close - separated by just 2 or 3 synapses - to the hippocampus and amygdala (which are involved in memory processes).” (Mastin, 2010)
Another part of your memory is your working memory. This is what helps you to categorize all of the incoming information that your brain is continuously taking in. It determines which information is important and needs your full attention and which information you can ignore. Working memory has limited capacity, you can hold approximately 5-9 items at one time. As new bits of information come in, the information that you determine important will travel to long term memory and those bits of information that you determine are not valuable will be forgotten. “Working memory can move between sensory memory for more information, and long term memory where information can be retrieved to help form a new memory.” (Merriam & Bierema, 2014)
Long term memory is the storage of knowledge and information that you have moved from your working memory. These memories are on file and ready to be retrieved as needed. This system allows us to retrieve memories as needed and apply them in context so that we are successful in the activity that we are currently engaged in. “Getting memories into long-term memory involves encoding, or the strategies that we use to place information into long-term memory.” (Merriam & Bierema, 2014) We also use the information in our long-term memory to understand new information that is presented to us, in a class or on the job.
“ All that we have come to understand about memory and the brain has major applications to adult learning. We know, for example that if we consciously attend to what we are trying to learn, the information will enter our working memory to be processed for long-term memory.” (Merriam & Biereman, 2014) With this in mind, we must engage our adult learners in our online classes so that they can truly learn the content. By engaging our students, they are much more likely to transfer the information from class into their long-term memory.
I always have trouble remembering three things: faces, names, and— I can’t remember what the third thing is. Fred A. Allen
How to remember several pieces of information effectively:
Check your memory. Do you know what a penny looks like? Click on the link below. You might be surprised!
References:
McLeod, S. A. (2009). Short Term Memory. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/short-term-memory.html
McLeod, S. A. (2010). Long Term Memory. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/long-term-memory.html
Merriam, S.B. and Bierema, L.L. (2014). Adult learning: Linking theory and practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
I enjoyed watching the Jason Silva video. Memory, especially the development of autobiographical memories, is fascinating to me. One thing he said in the video really resonated with me and is also important when considering designing an online learning experience: “Memory anchors us emotionally to certain experiences that we then tinge.” Thinking about my own earliest memory, I was four years old and there is definitely strong emotion tied to it. It was my first day of preschool and I was standing in the hall outside of my classroom with the teacher and my mother who was holding my baby brother. I didn’t want them to go and leave me there. Finally the teacher held me by my left arm and said, “Go ahead, Mom” and I punched her in the nose with my right hand. I doubt if I had not been so scared and angry at the time, this memory would have faded and not stood out as my earliest.
ReplyDeleteThe emotion tied to an experience is the important piece when it comes to online learning and designing experiences for our students. You mention this at the end of your post with the idea of engaging students so that information is transferred into long-term memory. As you demonstrated with the penny identification video, a person can see and touch an object that becomes common to them yet they can’t recall details when asked. I think a large part of this is that they aren’t emotionally invested in remembering the details of what a penny looks like in the first place. The same idea can be extrapolated and applied to learning. If students aren’t emotionally invested in what/how they are learning, then what they learn and how they learn won’t be meaningful to them; therefore, they won’t be inclined to remember and use the content of what they learned and possibly, and more importantly in my opinion, will not be able to apply those processes of learning to new situations. By choosing to engage students at the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, requiring them to think actively and make sense of their learning, and by asking them to reflect with some metacognition, we are helping them tie the emotional part of learning to the tasks in the hopes they will lock into their memories the critical information and processes.
The following video offers some suggestions for engaging students when you have to lecture. (I'll paste the link because I can't embed with this comment function.) https://www.youtube.com/embed/CbkH8OVdK1M
References
Lytle, D. (2013, December 14). Interactive lecture activities [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/CbkH8OVdK1M
National Geograhpic. (2015, March 1). Jason Silva on memory [Video file.] Retrieved from https://youtu.be/Qd6sS7uGlis