Sunday, January 24, 2021

Memory

Last post, we looked a memorization; when we fully memorize something, it goes into long-term memoryWorking memory can be thought of as thinking memory.  When we want to learn or solve a problem, we bring in facts or concepts from our long-term memory and try to arrange them to learn or solve a problem.  I believe my memory, working and long-term, are good; but it takes work to use them.  If I am not concentrating, I can be just as absent-minded as anyone else.  Knowing how your memory works should help you study more efficiently.

Our working memory is very finite; some estimate it to be just a single digit, so 3-9 chunks.  It is difficult to precisely state because the number of chunks changes depending if we are using digits, letters, words, sounds or images.  Understanding this, we can train to increase our working memory; we do this by chunking.  Chunking is grouping separate things together so that exists in one working memory slot.  For instance, trying to remember a phone number.  Living in BC, we have 5 area codes:  236, 250, 604, 672, and 778.  10 digit phone numbers normally exceeds our working memory, but I only need to remember 7 digits because I can think of the area code as 1 to 5.  If the next 3 digits are the same as someone that I know, then I treat that as a chunk; and I only have to remember 4 digits.

Working and long-term memory are theories until scientists find better ways to measure how the brain works at a finer level.  Just speculating here - experts seem to have larger working memory in their fields of expertise vs the novice.  Rather than have more working memory, I would guess that they are able to bring in memories faster than the novice so that it looks like they have more working memory.  In a similar vein, experts also utilize heuristics to quickly eliminate unreasonable paths to solutions; you will see chess masters use faster memory recall and heuristics so that they can play chess simultaneously against many opponents and still win.  We will discuss heuristics in the future.  I suspect they are able to chunk more than the novice thinker.

So how do we go from novice to expert?  Usually it's through repetition.  Most teachers assign only enough homework for students to achieve some proficiency - teachers understand that students take many courses so they assign a reasonable amount of homework.  I always told my students that they have to do extra work to achieve expertise.  Is this going to be "some" or "a lot" of extra work?  Well, it depends on how each students' memory works.  If a person is savant, it might not be any extra work.  I have not been fortunate enough to meet a savant although I had 2 friends in university that were very very good if not gifted in math.

There are many techniques to get thoughts into long-term memory.  Some of them don't work for me, this is how I learn student names in less than a week, sometimes I get it after a single class.  This worked well for my grade 8 computer class - we had 3 terms at Carson and I would get a new class of grade 8's (usually 22-26 students) every term so learning names quickly was important; it helps with class management.

  • I take attendance
  • Every student gets seated at a computer in alphabetical order
  • They get some instructions and are assigned a writing task that takes more than 80 minutes to complete
  • I go alphabetically and introduce myself to each student saying their name out loud and looking at the face (making an association) and looking at my class list; I say their name silently two more times
  • As I go, I silently repeat all the names as I go; I try not to read the list
  • When I'm done, I help any student that needs it then I walk around alphabetically again and say their names out loud and look at their face for confirmation; again I try not to read the list
  • I repeat the process again, but I go through the list in reverse alphabetical order
  • Then I do this one more time
  • Next, I ask the class to sit at tables instead of at the computers for a verbal review of the task.  Students must raise their hands to answer questions and I try to recall their names out loud before they answer
  • When the class is dismissed I verbally say their name as leave for a final confirmation
There is a lot of repetition but this works well for me.  It takes more than one class when I have the first class on a Thursday or Friday because there are too many days between classes to refresh my memory using the Spacing Effect.  Admittedly, it is much easier to recall student names when they are sitting at the computer; it takes about a week and a half to recall student names in the halls.  Besides repetition, the tip is not always memorize things sequentially.  Try recalling memories in a random order to confirm that it is memorized.  This is why making study groups is a good idea.

There are other ways of improving memory.  These are things affect the way the brain actually works rather than techniques for memorizing.  Two of the methods that I regularly tell students is sleep and exercise.  Exercise does not have to be weight lifting or running marathons; moderate exercise will do - exercise will deliver more oxygen and nutrients to our brains.  This is one of the reasons why we need to take breaks after working for a while; it literally clears our heads!  Remember, it takes effort to use our memory, so clear the distractions when we study.  And THAT concludes this post!


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