CHAPTER 8
BASIC COMPONENTS OF MEMORY
BASIC
TERMINOLOGY
Process of putting new
information in memory
MEMORY
Ability to recall previously
learned information
STORAGE
There are three main ways in
which information can be
encoded (changed):
1. Visual (picture)
Process of storing
information by modifying it
ENCODING
2. Acoustic (sound)
3. Semantic (meaning)
RETRIEVAL
Process of « finding »
information previously
stored
DUAL-STORE MODEL OF MEMORY
ATKINSON-SHIFFRIN (1968)
CENTRAL
EXECUTIVE
INPUT
Sensory
Register
ATTENTION
Working
(Short-Term)
Memory
IN DEPT
PROCESSING
Long-Term
Memory
SENSORY REGISTER
Very large even for
infants
Hold incoming information
long enough for it to undergo
very preliminary cognitive
processing.
CAPACITY
Basically stored in the same way in which it has
been sensed
FORMS OF
STORAGE
Very Brief
Diffucult to measure
Move to quickly to working memory
DURATION
-Interference
-Decay
FACTORS INFLUENCING ATTENTION
INFORMATION THAT A LEARNER PAYS ATTENTION TO-MOVES ON TO WORKING
MEMORY
 MOTION
stationery ones
Moving objects are more likely to capture attention than
 SIZE
Attention to drawn to LARGE OBJECTS
 INTENSITY
More intense Stimuli- Bright Colors & Loud Noises
 NOVELTY
Stimuli unusual in some way
 INCONGRUITY
Objects that don’t make sense within their context
 SOCIAL CUES
Things they see others looking at and reacting to
 EMOTION
Stimuli with strong emotional connections
 PERSONAL SIGNIFICANCE
Meaning and relevance people find in an object or event
NATURE OF
ATTENTION
Shadowing
Technique used to study this ability to
attends to a spoken message while
ignoring others.
Is Attention really a filter ?
Working memory controls attention to
some extent
http://youtu.be/tESffhWs8l0
ATTENTION’S LIMITED
CAPACITY
WORKING MEMORY
WHERE, COGNITIVE- ACTIVE THINKING, OCCURS
Very limited
CAPACITY
A good deal of the information
stored in working memory is
auditory especially when the
information is language-based
( visual, spatial and tactile)
Controls and monitors the flow and use of
information throughout the memory system
FORMS OF
STORAGE
George Miller (1956)
Magical number seven,
plus or minus two
Cowan ( 2010)
3-5 meaningful items
Short-term memory
Less than 30 seconds
DURATION
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/improving-short-term-memory.html#lesson
-Interference
-Decay
LONG-TERM MEMORY
Declarative
Procedural
knowledge
knowledge
How things are, were, or will be
How to do things
CONNECTING NEW INFORMATION WITH PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
Illimited
More information is already there, the easier it is to store additional information
CAPACITY
In a variety of forms: Distorstions of reality
Explicit knowledge
Implicit knowledge
Easily recall and explain it
Affect people’s behavior
(Chapter 10)
FORMS OF
STORAGE
Learner would be actively
involved in storing virtually
anything in long term
memory
Permanent state
Forgetting is retrieval
Still an open question…
DURATION
Some kinds of information
- once they’ve captured a
person’s attentionseem to be automatically
stored in the long-term
memory.
ALTERNATIVE VIEWS OF HUMAN MEMORY
Levels-of processing
Activation
(Cermak & Craik 1979)
(Campo and Al. 2005)
All information is in an active or an inactive state
Both, new information and previously stored one, is
whatever a learner is paying attention to and processing.
Intention to learn
•
•
•
•
•
Labels
Sentence generation
Sentence repetition
« What » question.
« Why » question.
Incidental learning
Quite useful in understanding how people retrieve
information from long-term memory
• Depth of processing-not
intention to learn- was the
critical factor affecting learning
GENERALISATIONS ABOUT MEMORY/ EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS
• Attention is essential for explicit memory
• Effective Strategies for capturing and holding
students’s attention:
1. Include variety in topics and presentation
styles
2. Provide frequent breaks from task requiring
considerable attention and concentration
3. Ask questions
4. Minimize distractions when independent
work is assigned
5. Seat the students near the teacher if they
have trouble staying on task
6. Monitor students’ behaviors
Learners can process only a limited
amount of information at a time
Learners must be selective about
what they choose to study and learn
Even with attention-guetting and
appropriately paced instruction and
activities, learners differ in their ability
to control what they attend and
consciously think about
The limited capacity of working
memory isn’t necessarily a bad thing
GROUP DISCUSSION
Try to imagine life without memories. We would have no identity. We would ask the same questions over
and over because we would not be able to remember the answers to them. We would live forever in the
present moment and have no recollection of our pasts, including people and experiences that are important
to us, and no anticipation of the future. Glenda Thorne, Ph.D. Memory and Learning.
http://www.cdl.org/resource-library/articles/memory.php
What children remember is more often than not used as the yardstick to judge what they have learned.
If they perform poorly on a test because they can't retrieve what they know from long-term memory in
order to answer test questions, the assumption usually is that learning has not taken place.
What do you think about that ?
Furthermore; what is the best way to use memory for learning ?