Neurodevelopment
“Short Lessons”
Carol Landa
Sept,2013
ND 5050 Metacognition
Lesson
How Can I Remember Everything?
Understanding Memory
Strategies for Learning
Objectives
 You will be able to…
 Explain how your brain processes and stores key
facts
 Identify strategies to increase long-term
memory (storage)and retrieval
Key Vocabulary/Concepts
 Stimuli (Sensory inputs)
 Sensory Register
 Attention (how does it influence memory)
 Short Term Memory (STM) - Immediate and Active Working
Memory
 Chunking
 Encoding
 Long-term memory
 Learning Strategies - Rote vs. Elaborative
Why Is This Important to YOU?
This year, your brain is going to receive
LOTS of new information.
Your performance in this class (your
grade) will depend on your ability to:
 understand and link this new
information to previous learnings and to
your own life experiences.
 Use new and past information to
problem-solve
Visualizing Brain Processing
 The brain goes through many steps before
information is put into long-term memory.
 At each step, information can be lost
 We can’t “see” the brain process information
 BUT…we can create a visual (a model) that can
represent the process
 Look at the next slide (you have a handout)
 Can you understand the diagram ? Identify some key
concepts you can understand, and some you cannot
Sousa, D. (2011). How the Brain Learns
Information Processing Model
Sousa, D. (2011). How the Brain Learns
Information Processing Model
To make sense
of this diagram
we need to
understand the
vocabulary
used on the
diagram and the
how the
diagram relates
to you.
Lets break the
diagram down
into steps!
Sousa, D. (2011). How the Brain Learns
Breaking the model down into steps
What does the
highlighted area
represent?
What are two
(separate)
words you
could use to
describe sight,
hearing, touch,
smell, and
taste?
Sousa, D. (2011). How the Brain Learns
Information Processing Model
What does the
highlighted area
represent?
You SENSORY
REGISTER filters
incoming stimuli
(the lines represent
a side-view of
venetian blinds)
It allows some
stimuli to enter
immediate memory
Sousa, D. (2011). How the Brain Learns
Short term memory (STM) - Immediate
IMMEDIATE MEMORY –
lasts for 30 seconds. Info
is passed on to working
memory or discarded.
1. What good is a 30
second memory?
Past experience (bad/
good) can affect
information transfer to
immediate memory
Present environment
affects your attention
(and therefore movement
of information into STM.
Sousa, D. (2011). How the Brain Learns
STM – Active Working Memory
ACTIVE WORKING
MEMORY (AWM) is a
temporary, limited space
where you can combine
previously learned
information with new
information. Ideas are built,
taken apart, or reworked
for eventually storage.
Info in AWM must be linked
and stored in < 25 min or it
is lost.
Practice: STM Task
 I am going to quickly read a list of 10 things you might
find carry in your book bag. I will only read the list ONCE!
 After I have read the list you will write down as many of
the names as you can. You won’t be able to SEE the list.
You will only be able to hear the list. Don’t write until I tell
you!
 Paper clips
 Stapler
 Marker
 Sticky notes
 Notepad
How many words or concepts
fit on your Working Memory
Table?
Where (in the list) were the
words located that you
remembered?
 Pencil
 Ruler
 Calculator
 White-out
 Glue
How did you remember the
words? (did you use a trick, did
you associate the words with
each other?)
Does “seeing the words” help?
Could you create a story to
remember the words?
Capacity of Working Memory
 Did you remember at least 5 items?
 Average for adolescents is 7.
 varies with age, and type of input (visual, just facts, etc.)
 What happens if your working memory space isn’t big
enough?
 Information is lost, unless we can put the same amount of
information in less space.
Marker Paper clip
Stapler Notepad
The Limits of Working Memory
 Random sequences of numbers can also be hard to
remember. Can you remember a 10-digit number?
 READY….
Five seconds…don’t write it yet
4915082637
What was the number?
 What was your strategy for remembering the number?
 Would looking at the same sequence of numbers divided
into three groups make a difference?
Five seconds…don’t write it yet
491-508-2637
Chunking
 Did it help to separate the number into “three groups”?
 Could you associate any of the groups of numbers with a
memory or meaning that made them easier to
remember?
 Sometimes, chunking takes the form of a mnemonic or a
picture. A mnemonic translates information into a form
that is easier to remember that the original form.
 What mnemonic identifies the colors of the rainbow?
 In what order do you know them?
Rehearsal – Vocabulary definitions
 Before we move to the topic of long-term memory - let’s
take time to “rehearse” (or review) new information
 Identify a single word that can be used to identify an input
that comes in through one of your five senses
 What is the sensory register?
 Identify and define the two components of short term
memory
 What is a mnemonic?
 We discussed the word attention, but never defined it.
Define attention (based on today’s class).
Application and Inference Questions
(Typical 9th grade questions)
 What is an example of a STIMULUS?
 How are IMMEDIATE and WORKING MEMORY different?
 Why might the SENSORY REGISTER “drop” the wrong
information?
 How is ATTENTION linked to IMMEDIATE and WORKING
MEMORY?
 Provide one mnemonic (besides ROYGBIV) that you
learned in middle school.
Sousa, D. (2011). How the Brain Learns
Long Term Memory (LTM)
Can you store/retrieve information?
LONG-TERM STORAGE
occurs when information
is encoded (linked to
memories or similar facts)
during deep sleep.
Information must be in
working memory to be
transferred to LTM
LTM is influenced by your
experiences and views
(cognitive belief
system) and selfconcept (your feelings
about yourselves)
Encoding
 Storing information in small
chunks that are connected
by neurons (a pathway)
 The more connections the
easier it is to retrieve
information and apply it to
a variety of situations.
 Must use the pathway
repeatedly or it is lost
Newborn
3 mo
15 mo
24 mo
Storing Information (Encoding)
Does this new learning
make sense?
Does this new learning
have meaning
(relevance to me)?
Makes Sense
Makes Sense
Little Meaning
Low to Moderate
Chance
of LT Storage
Makes Sense
Has Meaning
High Chance
of LT Storage
Little Sense
Little Meaning
Little Chance of
LT Storage
Has Meaning
Little Sense
Moderate Chance
of LT Storage
Has Meaning (Is it relevant to YOU)
Demonstration - Encoding
Assume the dry oatmeal is
previous knowledge (stored
information and memories)
and the water is new
knowledge.
If I put energy (heat) into
the water, connections
between the new
information and previous
information are made ( .
Energy (study) + Time 
new information links to
(and can change) stored
information.
Importance of Time, Sense, and Relevance
 The brain needs time and rehearsal to identify/create connections
and pathways long term memories.
Rote rehearsal –
memorizing the
material exactly as
taught
3 -24 – 7
3 -24 - 7
3 -24 - 7
Elaborative rehearsal – make associations
and relationships between new and past
experiences (attach sense and relevance)
Types of elaborative rehearsal
What you remember if
you learn or study
using each learning
strategy (by itself)
5%
(only words)
P
a
s
s
i
v
e
A
c
t
i
v
e
Closure
 Explain encoding.
What types of elaborative rehearsal
were used in this presentation?
 How does elaborative rehearsal help to
get information that is in AWM into LTM?
To check your understanding, teach the
information processing model to a
classmate (using correct vocabulary)