DED 103
EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY, GUIDANCE
AND COUNSELING
THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF ZANZIBAR
OUTLINE
Meaning of Memory
Types of memory
Memory and learning
Memory Strategies
DEFINITIONS
 (Oxford Concise Dictionary: 2009) defines
memory as 1 a person's power to remember
things 2 the mind regarded as a store of
things remembered 3 the power of the mind
to remember things.
 (Atkinson:1999) defines memory as the the
ability to recall or recognize previous
knowledge
 (Michelle et al:2002)defines memory as an
active system that receives information from
the senses, organizes , stores it away, and
then retrieves the information from storage.
TYPES OF MEMORY
• Sensory memory (milliseconds )
• Short-term/working (seconds to
minutes)
• Long-term memory (minutes to years)
MEMORY STAGES
Maintenance Rehearsal
Encoding
Sensory
Sensory
Memory
Input
Attention
Long-term
memory
Working or
Short-term
Memory
Retrieval
SENSORY MEMORY/ REGISTER
Sensory memory - the very first stage of memory,
the point at which information enters the nervous
system through the sensory systems.
• Capacity – everything that can be seen at one time.
• Duration -200–500 milliseconds after an item is perceived
• The ability to look at an item, and remember what it looked like
with just a second of observation, or memorization, is an example
of sensory memory.
Sensory memory forms automatically, without attention or
interpretation
Attention is needed to transfer information to working
memory
The first experiments exploring this form of sensory
memory were conducted by George Sperling (1960)
Subjects were presented with a grid of 12 letters, arranged
into three rows of four. After a brief presentation, subjects
were then played either a high, medium or low tone, cuing
them which of the rows to report. Based on these partial
report experiments,
within a few hundred
milliseconds). Because this form of memory degrades so
quickly, participants would see the display, but be unable to
report all of the items (12 in the "whole report" procedure)
before they decayed.
Sperling’s Experiment Demonstrating the Duration of Sensory Memory In
George Sperling’s (1960) classic experiment, (1) subjects stared at a screen on
which rows of letters were projected for just one-twentieth of a second, then the
screen went blank. (2) After intervals varying up to one second, a tone was
sounded that indicated the row of letters the subject should report. (3) If the tone
was sounded within about one-third of a second, subjects were able to report the
letters in the indicated row because the image of all the letters was still in sensory
memory.
S
R
J
V
M
Q
D
T
F
W
H
N
Sperling’s test phase
medium
Sperling’s test phase
low
SHORT TERM MEMORY
 Short-term memory (STM) (working memory) - the memory system in
which information is held for brief periods of time while being used.
 Duration of STM - lasts from about 12 to 30 seconds without rehearsal
 Example of STM:
1.
Dialing a phone number and having no idea what number you dialed.
You are using a new phone and can’t find the re-dial and
2.
cramming for an exam, afterwards, you have no idea what you
studied.
STM is susceptible to interference
(e.g., if counting is interrupted, have to start over).
Increasing STM capacity
 Memory capacity can be increased through these procceses:
1. Chunking: bits of information are combined into meaningful
units, or chunks, so that more information can be held in
STM.
Which is easier to remember?
4 8 3 7 9 2 5 1 6
483 792 516
2 Maintenance rehearsal:-Mental or verbal repetition of
information allows information to remain in working
memory longer than the usual 20-30 seconds
LONG TERM MEMORY
• Long-term memory (LTM) - the system of memory into
which all the information is placed to be kept more or
less permanently
• Long term can be days, months, years, or decades. The
question is more of being able to find information you
had stored and know you used to be able to remember it.
LONG TERM MEMORY
Transferring information from short term
to long term:
1. Repetition
2. Organizing information
3. Connecting information to previously
known information
LONG TERM MEMORY
WHY WE FORGET?
The loss of information from long-term memory is referred to as
forgetting. We forget because what we are learning at the present time
interferes with our ability to remember information we learned at an
earlier point in time
Example:
During the normal school day, students are presented with new
information,, approximately every 45 to 60 minutes. A child may have a
45-minute math lesson during which the process for adding fractions
was introduced. Then, before this information has had time to
consolidate in long-term memory, the student moves on to science
where the process of photosynthesis is introduced. This situation
produces fertile ground for "forgetting".
REMEMBER
Sensory and short-term memory are
associated with the process of encoding
or registering information in memory,
the long-term memory system is
associated with the processes of
storage and retrieval of information
from memory.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
MEMORY AND LEARNING
The relationship is entirely one sided!
We can say:
Memory is a behavioral change caused by an experience.
Learning is a process for acquiring memory
(organisation of long-term memory)
Learning results from Information Processing and Causes
Changes in Memory
REMEMBER
• Having a
makes it
things in the future because you can just pick up
on the subject and go from there without
having to start all over
• What you learn today becomes tomorrow's
memory.
• No memory= no learning retained
Strategies to Improve Learning
and Memory
1. REPETITION : (advertisers have said that if they can get
you to watch something 80 times, you have it for life!
Have you noticed commercials that are repeated immediately.)
Reciting: Recite formulas or other pieces of
information you need to remember
Make a song, saying, or mnemonic
Strategies to Improve Learning
and Memory!
2. Intent to Remember/ purpose: You need to want or
intend to remember something:
An example might include reading for a while and realizing you
have no idea what you have been reading.
So,when you get ready to study. Think about the assignment.
What is the purpose? Look at the chapter title, headings,
structure. If there are questions, look at the summary,
questions, and any vocabulary or side notes.
Now that you have taken two or so minutes to set a purpose for
what you are to do, begin reading. Try to organize what you are
reading with the end in mind—the summary or questions you
saw. Make notes
Strategies to Improve Learning
and Memory!
3. Meaningfulness: What you are learning needs to have
some meaning. Instead of saying “I need help with section 6 of
chapter 2, it would benefit you more to realize you are asking
for help in addition
The more you can attach meaning to what you
are learning and areas where you are having
problems, the better equipped you become to
fill gaps in information and learn.
Strategies to Improve Learning and Memory!
3.
Categorization & Labeling:
Organizing information in a way that you can consciously
label the new information and know where to store the
new information to find it when you need it.
Strategies to Improve Learning and Memory!
4. Visual Imagery
This helps memory enormously, but much of memory does
not consist of concrete nouns
In everyday life we need to understand complex ideas and
concepts
Strategies to Improve Learning and Memory!
4. Association/Connecting to familiar
information:
Association and Connection is where you build on what you
already know.
It uses your prior knowledge as the foundation for you to
continue to build and add.
As you gain in knowledge and understanding about yourself,
you become more aware of what you know, what you need to
know and can begin to make better decisions about how to get
there.
Strategies to Improve Learning and Memory!
7. Mnemonic devices:
•What are they?
•When should you use them?
•Can anyone name some?
KQZ
NLR
XOJ
BTK
YSW
Strategies to Improve Learning and
Memory!
Do smart cramming!
•Review only
•No new material
•Focus only on areas you want to try to remember
•Practice a Memory Dump to unload things you
fear you will forget
Strategies to Improve Learning and
Memory!
Improving Your Memory
•Concentrate
•Comprehend
•Remember
QUESTIONS?
CAN YOU ANSWER THIS
QUESTIONS?
What are some factors affecting how
long we will remember something?
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING
END OF LECTURE ELEVEN