MEMORY & LEARNING BY:ISHAQ SALIHU LUGGA

SULEIMAN SALIHU LUGGAYASIR ALIYU

INTRODUCTION:

Of all the animal species that inhabit the planet, humans are

truly exceptional. Their uniqueness finds expression in many

ways: such as use fire, build machines, demonstrate animals

and cultivate crops, communicate through spoken and

written language, legislate social controls, visit such

inaccessible places as the surface of the moon and the floor

of the sea, and alter the face of the earth itself.

Central to all these accomplishments is our great flexibility-

the human’s unparalleled capacity to change their behavior.

Underlying flexibility of human behavior are processes called

learning and memory (Hintzman, 1988).DEFINITIONS:

Learning is a change in an organism, due to experience, which

can affect the organism’s behavior. Memory is the persistence

of that change over time (Hintzman, 1988).

Memory is a process or device which encode, store and

retrieve information.

Encoding refers to the initial perception and registration of

information.

Storage is the retention of encoded information over time.

Retrieval refers to the process involved in using stored

information. (Roediger, 2012).

TYPES OF MEMORYSensory Memory: refers to the initial momentary recording of

information in our sensory systems.Short-Term or Working Memory: refers to the ability to

hold information in mind over a brief period or time. American Psychologist George Miller concluded that people could hold an average of “ seven, plus or minus two” items in short-term memory. People remember the words at beginning and end of the series better than those in the middle. This phenomenon is called the serial position effect

Long – Term Memory: describes a system in the brain that

can store vast amount of information on a relatively enduring

basis.

There seems to be no finite capacity to long term memory. People

can learn and retain new facts and skills throughout their lives.

most researchers distinguish three long term memory systems:

episodic memory, semantic memory, and procedural memory

Declarative memory(stores memories of events facts )

Procedural memory (stores the memory for knowing how to do something)

Semantic memory (stores facts and knowledge)

Episodic memory (stores memories of events and personal episodes)

Long-Term Memory

ENCODING AND RECORDINGEach of us has a unique background and sets of experiences that help or hinder us in learning new information. For example, a simple digit, such as 7, can be recorded in many ways: as the word seven, the roman numeral VII, a prime number, the square roof of 49 and so on. Recording is sometimes called chunking, because separate bits of information can be grouped into meaningful units or chunks. For example, the five letters e, t, s, e and l can be rearranged into “Steel” and one work remember instead of five individual units.

ART OF MEMORY It is any of a number of a loosely associated principles and techniques used to recognize memory impressions and improve recall. It includes:

1. Visual sense and spatial orientation;2. Order 3. Limited Sets4. Association 5. Affect 6. Repetition 7. Techniques

WAYS TO IMPROVE MEMORYMemory improvement techniques are called mnemonic devices or simply mnemonics. Mnemonic device is any learning technique that aids information retention. Mnemonics aim to translate information into a form that the brain can retain than its original form.Mnemonics include acronyms, acrostics, pegword, loci, keyword, rhyme and song, narrative chaining, mind mapping, and PQ4R method.

Acronyms – words formed out of the first letter of a series of words. For example, NASA is an acronym for (National Aeronautics and Space Administration).

Acrostics – the first letter of each word is a cue to retrieve another word which begins with the same letter. For example, (I) (A)m (A) (P)erson (Indian, Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific).

Pegword Method – also sues imagery or visualization to recall information to be remembered is hung on mental “peg”. For example, One is a bun, Two is a shoe, Three is a tree, and so on.

Loci – associating a segment of information to be remembered with mental picture. For example, to accommodate each Eriksonian stage, trust could be the trusting baby playing in your driveway, autonomy could be a toddler running away to live in your garage, initiative could be a youngster knocking on your front door selling Girl Scout cookies, and so forth.

Keyword – making a phonetic link connecting a to-be-learned word with a similar-sounding keyword. For example, the medulla regulates the autonomic activity of your heart and lungs. Picture medals over your heart and lungs .

Narrative Chaining – a story is created around the words to be remembered, linking the words in a specific order. For example, to remember following list: Cat, baby, chair, book, fire, clock, cupboard, and bed, you might create a story: ‘There was a cat and a baby sitting on a chair reading a book in front of the fire. The clock on the cupboard said time for bed.’

Rhyme and Song – using rhymes and songs to remember information. You probably all time without realizing. For example, ‘thirty days hath September, April, June and November’ in order to work out how many days in that month.

Mind Mapping – creating a one-page map which summarizes information. For example:

PQ4R Method – the PQ4R method is a mnemonic technique used for remembering test material. The name is itself a mnemonic device for the steps involved (Preview; Question; Read; Reflect; Recite; Review).

MEMORY RETRIEVAL

Two general principles govern the effectiveness of retrieval cues :

the encoding specificity principle and distinctiveness principle.

The encoding specificity principle stated that stimuli such as

pictures, words, color, mood, sounds or smells may act as

retrieval cues.

Distinctiveness principle stated that specific one or few items of

information may act as retrieval.

WHY PEOPLE FORGETGerman philosopher Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885) initiated

the scientific study of human memory to measure forgetfulness.

Ebbinghaus found that after an hour approximately 50% of the information is forgotten. The rate of forgetting then seems to level out and by the 31st day after learning, 28% of the information is retained. However, if the information holds meaning for the learner or is complex, the rate of forgetting is not as great.

An experiment conducted in 1924 by two American psychologists, John Jenkins and Karl Dallenbanch shows that the students forget significantly more while they were awake than while they were asleep. What seemed to cause forgetting was interference from activities and events occurring over time.

SUMMARYLearning is a change in an organism due to experience.Memory is any device that can store, encode and retrieve

information.Memory can be improved using the ‘Art of Memory’Forgetting is caused by time or by interference.