How to Improve Student Memory?

By: Jig Vora; Jeremy Kaufmann; and Peter Huff

What we know about the brain?Today’s focus- MEMORY

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Concentration Basics

• Study Environment Distraction free Conditions (i.e. chair, desk, temperature, and lighting) are conducive to studying

• Materials you need for studying are present

• Structure for Study Sessions

• Develop realistic goals for the study session

• Decide the order in which you will complete tasks

• Plan a reward3

Getting Students to Make Learning Physical

• Use your body and your senses to help you build memory

• Relax

• Use visualization

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The Phenomenon of Memory

Memory is any indication that learning has persisted over time. It is our ability to

store and retrieve information.

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Flashbulb Memory

A unique and highly emotional moment may give rise to a clear, strong, and persistent memory called flashbulb

memory. However, this memory is not free from errors. What can we learn from this? Create lessons that

foster creativity, emotional expression, and laughter- much more likely to remember. (Lavin example)

President Bush being told of 9/11 attack.R

uter

s/ C

orbi

s

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Stages of Memory

Keyboard(Encoding)

Disk(Storage)

Monitor(Retrieval)

Sequential Process

Pedagogy- Allow time for storage; Frequent checks for understanding

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Effortful Processing

Committing novel information to memory requires effort just like

learning a concept from a textbook. Such

processing leads to durable and accessible memories. We must not

let our students be passive learners

(having a purpose)

Spencer G

rant/ Photo E

dit

© B

ananastock/ Alam

y

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Rehearsal

Effortful learning usually requires

rehearsal or conscious

repetition.

Ebbinghaus studied rehearsal by using nonsense syllables: TUV YOF GEK XOZ

FATHER OF MEMORY

Hermann Ebbinghaus(1850-1909)

http://ww

w.isbn3-540-21358-9.de

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Rehearsal

The more times the nonsense syllables were practiced on

Day 1,the fewer repetitions

were required to remember them on Day 2. What does

this tell us? Practice makes perfect!

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Memory Effects

1. Next-in-line-Effect: When you are so anxious about being next that you cannot remember what the person just before you in line says, but you can recall what other people around you say. (can be used to ease anxiety regarding students who forgot what they were going to say; explain what happened? This will urge them to keep participating)

2. Spacing Effect: We retain information better when we rehearse over time. ( explain cramming example)

3. Serial Position Effect: When your recall is better for first and last items on a list, but poor for middle items. (identify vocabulary and group it; most difficult goes first; easiest in the middle of lesson; intermediate goes last )

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13

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Serial Position Effect- what this means for teachers with difficult

vocabulary - identify vocabulary and teach most difficult concepts last; works well with any course with difficult

vocabulary

1. TUV2. ZOF3. GEK4. WAV5. XOZ6. TIK7. FUT8. WIB9. SAR10. POZ11. REY12. GIJ

Better recall

Better recall

Poor recall

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Spacing Effect

Distributing rehearsal (spacing effect) is better than practicing all at once. Robert Frost’s poem

could be memorized with fair ease if spread over time.

ACQUAINTED WITH THE NIGHTRobert Frost

I have been one acquainted with the night.I have walked out in rain — and back in rain.

I have outwalked the furthest city light. What this means for educators? Need to convince students that cramming doesn’t work. Practical

implications- convincing students to review readings and

notes for 15 minutes a class period. (tangible- doable) … …

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What We Encode

1. Encoding by meaning2. Encoding by images3. Encoding by organization

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Very important- Encoding Meaning

Q: Did the word begin with a capital letter?

StructuralEncoding

Q: Did the word rhyme with the word “weight”?

Q: Would the word fit in the sentence? He met a __________ in the street.

PhonemicEncoding

SemanticEncoding

“Whale- goal is to get studentTo personalize

everything”

Craik and Lockhart (1972)

Intermediate

Deep

Shallow

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Results

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Visual Encoding

Mental pictures (imagery) are a powerful aid to effortful processing, especially

when combined with semantic encoding.

Showing adverse effects of tanning and smoking in a picture may be more powerful than simply talking about it.

Both photos: H

o/AP Photo

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Mnemonics

Imagery is at the heart of many memory aids. Mnemonic techniques use vivid

imagery in aiding memory.

1. Method of Loci

2. Link Method

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Method of Loci

List of Items

CharcoalPensBed SheetsHammer...Rug

Imagined Locations

BackyardStudyBedroomGarage...Living Room

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Link Method

Involves forming a mental image of items to be remembered in a way that links them together.

List of Items

NewspaperShaving creamPenUmbrella...Lamp

Organizing Information for Encoding

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Break down complex information into broad concepts and further subdivide

them into categories and subcategories.

1. Chunking

2. Hierarchy

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Chunking

Organizing items into a familiar, manageable unit. Try to remember the numbers below.

1-7-7-6-1-4-9-2-1-8-1-2-1-9-4-1

If you are well versed with American history, chunk the numbers together

and see if you can recall them better. 1776 1492 1812 1941.

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Chunking

Acronyms are another way of chunking information to remember it.

HOMES = Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior

PEMDAS = Parentheses, Exponent, Multiply, Divide, Add, Subtract

ROY G. BIV = Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet

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Hierarchy

Complex information broken down into broad concepts and further subdivided

into categories and subcategories.

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Encoding Summarized in a Hierarchy

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Storage: Retaining Information

Storage is at the heart of memory. Three stores of memory are shown

below:SensoryMemory

WorkingMemory

Long-termMemory

Encoding

RetrievalEncoding

Events

Retrieval

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Sensory Memory

SensoryMemory

WorkingMemory

Long-termMemory

Encoding

RetrievalEncoding

Events

Retrieval

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Sensory Memory

The longer the delay, the greater the memory loss.

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40

60

80

Perc

en

t R

ecog

niz

ed

0.15 0.30 0.50 1.00

Time (Seconds)

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Sensory Memories

Iconic0.5 sec. long

Echoic3-4 sec. long

Hepatic< 1 sec. long

The duration of sensory memory varies for the different senses.

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Working Memory

SensoryMemory

WorkingMemory

Long-termMemory

Encoding

RetrievalEncoding

Events

Retrieval

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Working Memory

Working memory, the new name for short-term memory, has a limited capacity

(7±2) and a short duration (20 seconds).

Sir George Hamilton observed that he could accurately remember up

to 7 beans thrown on the floor. If there were more beans, he guessed.

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Capacity

You should be able to

recall 7±2 letters.

The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for

Processing Information (1956).

George Miller

M U T G I K T L R S Y P

Ready?

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Chunking

F-B-I-T-W-A-C-I-A-I-B-M

The capacity of the working memory may be increased by “Chunking.”

FBI TWA CIA IBM

4 chunks

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Duration

Brown/Peterson and Peterson (1958/1959) measured the duration of working memory

by manipulating rehearsal.

CH??

The duration of the working memory is about 20 sec.

CHJMKTHIJ547

547544541…

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Working Memory Duration

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Long-Term Memory

SensoryMemory

WorkingMemory

Long-termMemory

Encoding

RetrievalEncoding

Events

Retrieval

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Long-Term Memory

Unlimited capacity store. Estimates on capacity range from 1000 billion to 1,000,000 billion bits

of information (Landauer, 1986).

The Clark’s nutcracker can locate 6,000 caches ofburied pine seeds during winter and spring.

R.J. E

rwin/ Photo R

esearchers

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Memory Feats

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Memory Stores

FeatureSensoryMemory

Working Memory

LTM

Encoding Copy Phonemic Semantic

Capacity Unlimited7±2

ChunksVery Large

Duration 0.25 sec. 20 sec. Years

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Synaptic Changes

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP) refers to synaptic

enhancement after learning (Lynch, 2002).

An increase in neurotransmitter

release or receptors on the receiving neuron

indicates strengthening of synapses.

Both P

hotos: From

N. T

oni et al., Nature, 402, N

ov. 25 1999. Courtesy of D

ominique M

uller

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Stress Hormones & Memory

Heightened emotions (stress-related or otherwise) make for stronger memories. Continued stress may disrupt memory.

Scott Barbour/ G

etty Images

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Storing Implicit & Explicit Memories

Explicit Memory refers to facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare.

Implicit memory involves learning an action while the individual does not know or declare what she

knows.

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Hippocampus

Hippocampus – a neural center in the limbicsystem that processes explicit memories.

Weidenfield &

Nicolson archives

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Retrieval: Getting Information Out

Retrieval refers to getting information out of the memory store.

Spanky’s Yearbook A

rchive

Spanky’s Yearbook A

rchive

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Measures of Memory

In recognition, the person must identify an item amongst other choices. (A

multiple-choice test requires recognition.)

1. Name the capital of France.

a. Brusselsb. Romec. Londond. Paris

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Measures of Memory

In recall, the person must retrieve information using effort. (A fill-in-the

blank test requires recall.)

1. The capital of France is ______.

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Measures of Memory

In relearning, the individual shows how much time (or effort) is saved when

learning material for the second time.

ListJetDaggerTreeKite…SilkFrogRing

It took 10 trialsto learn this list

ListJetDaggerTreeKite…SilkFrogRing

It took 5 trialsto learn the list

1 day laterSaving

OriginalTrials

RelearningTrials

RelearningTrials

10 510

50%

X 100

X 100

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Retrieval Cues

Memories are held in storage by a web of associations. These associations are like

anchors that help retrieve memory.

Fire Truck

truck

red

fire

heatsmoke

smellwater

hose

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Priming

To retrieve a specific memory from the web of associations, you must first

activate one of the strands that leads to it. This process is called priming.

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Context Effects

Scuba divers recall more words underwater if they learned the list underwater, while

they recall more words on land if they learned that list on land (Godden &

Baddeley, 1975).

Fred McC

onnaughey/ Photo Researchers

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Context Effects

After learning to move a mobile by kicking, infants most strongly respond when retested in the same context rather than in a different

context (Butler & Rovee-Collier, 1989).

Courtesy of C

arolyn Rovee-C

ollier, R

utgers University

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Moods and Memories

We usually recall experiences that are consistent with our current mood.

Emotions, or moods, serve as retrieval cues.

Jorgen Schytte/ Still Pictures

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Forgetting

An inability to retrieve information due to poor encoding, storage, or

retrieval.

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Encoding Failure

We cannot remember what we do not encode.

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Which penny is real?

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Storage Decay

Poor durability of stored memories leads to their decay. Ebbinghaus

showed this with his forgetting curve.

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Retaining Spanish

Bahrick (1984) showed a similar pattern of forgetting and retaining over 50 years.

Andrew

Holbrooke/ C

orbis

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Retrieval Failure

Although the information is retained in the memory store, it cannot be accessed.

Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) is a retrieval failure phenomenon. Given a cue (What makes blood cells red?) the subject says the word begins

with an H (hemoglobin).

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Why do we forget?

Forgetting can occur at any memory stage. We filter, alter, or lose

much information during these stages.

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Improving Memory

1. Study repeatedly to boost long-term recall.

2. Spend more time rehearsing or actively thinking about the material.

3. Make material personally meaningful. (semantic)

4. Use mnemonic devices: associate with peg words — something

already stored make up a story chunk — acronyms

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Improving Memory

5. Activate retrieval cues — mentally recreate the situation and mood.

6. Recall events while they are fresh — before you encounter misinformation.

7. Minimize interference:1. Test your own knowledge.2. Rehearse and then determine what you

do not yet know.

8. 8. Devoting extra rehearsal time to the middle of lists you must memorize

What to tell below or average students- 10 concrete strategies?

1. Look up vocabulary before class

2. Work all review and practice questions

3. Study groups- if you can teach it; you know it)

4. Don’t slack off- there are rewards

5. The best teacher you have is your self

6. Study actively in your own words (helps personalize material)

7. Know the course and unit objectives and rank how well you know them.

8. DO NOT JUST UNDERLINE OR HIGHLIGHT TEXT- PASSIVE LEARNING- make note cards and draw a picture

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Other ways to foster memory in class

• 1) multiple explanations and examples- A pitcher with 5 pitches is better than one that can only throw a fastball

• 2) welcome questions- gets students motivated and interested; might slow down lesson, but is essential to keep students motivated

• 3) empathize- pay special attention to sad or upset students

• 4) make connections with kids (sports, music, etc.)

• 5) talk about love of learning- explain the process

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When planning lessons

• 1) are students going to enjoy the lesson?

• 2) will I call on all students (high achievers and low achievers)

• 3)Wait for students answer (some students need a little more time than others)

• 4) understand various racial backgrounds

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How minority students perceive unfair classrooms?

• I never get called on

• Teacher tells individual students when peers outperform them

• Allowed to give up and shut down when work becomes difficult

• Seldom get opportunities to redo work

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