Graduate Psychology

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Sharpen Kids' Memory to Raise Test Scores.

Willis, Judy

Education Digest. Mar2005, Vol. 70 Issue 7, p20-24. 5p.

Article

PSYCHOLOGY of learning SHORT-term memory NEUROPHYSIOLOGY MEMORY BRAIN

Presents tips to enhance the memory and retention process of students. Different types of memory; Use of multiple circuits of access or by repetition to improve the speed and accuracy of working memory; Background on the neurophysiology of brain chemical and anatomical changes associated with memory.

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Sharpen Kids' Memory to Raise Test Scores

MOST teachers strive to help students develop their capacities to think, interpret, and become engaged in subject matter. Although most students and teachers disdain the memorization part of the learning process, not only is it unavoidable, but rote memorization comprises about 70% of a student's study time.

It therefore behooves teachers to become mentors not only of the subject matter, but of the memory and retention process. By understanding the different types of memory, the neurophysiology of brain chemical and anatomical changes associated with memory, and the ways to enhance the memory process, teachers can utilize proven techniques--and develop their own--to guide students over that bleak terrain of memorization.

Of many classifications of the types of memory, this one is a conglomerate of several existing ones. From simplest recall of awareness, our memory skills progress to working memory, episodic memory, rote memory, and relational memory.

Awareness is the attention of the moment. The subconscious mind needs to be on automatic pilot to recognize information from the world coming in as multisensory input, while at the same time the brain selects what will be retained as memory, and what will be recognized as familiar, but unimportant, and finally what needs to be acknowledged at the moment, but not stored. For example, seeking a highway exit, you look at each passing one and pay attention to each for a moment until you decide if it is the one you want.

The brain is most efficient when there are set patterns which can be automatically stimulated by appropriate cues and result in a sequence of activities that results in an expected endpoint. This working memory, or

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procedural memory, seeks patterns needed to do frequently done "jobs" like tying your shoes or parking your car.

The working memories are developed and maintained through repetition. You can learn a computer programming system to make a web-page. After repeating the procedure while working on the page for a week, you can do it without looking at the instructions; it is in your working memory.

It then needs periodic repetition to remain in the working memory, or it will gradually fade from lack of use. However, the template (more about dendritic networks later) is still present and can be refreshed more easily and rapidly than it was the first time.

Conscious memory of personal experiences or life episodes can be episodic memory if a visual, auditory, tactile, or olfactory (smell) cue stimulates stored memories. This is the case when you smell the perfume a friend or loved one wore and recall other details about them.

Rote memory is unfortunately the most commonly required memory called to task for students in primary and secondary school, involving unrelated memories such as a list of vocabulary words with no relationship to each other. Unlike relational memory, rote memory is independent of context. Remembering information in rote memory, we do not remember the time, place, and events surrounding the learning of this information, just the information itself.

The components of relational memory are familiarity and recollection. Familiarity is a feeling of having recently encountered the information previously. When we are able to "pattern match" the new information to memories already stored, a pattern-completion process occurs, and the experience feels similar to one we had before.

Recollection occurs when the memory of one or more details (cues) from a previous event evokes a relational memory. At retrieval, a pattern-completion process occurs where we remember other details once we are exposed to the cue.

What is the neurology of relational memory? Relational memory occurs through the mediation of the part of the brain called the hippocampus, which retrieves and connects the previously stored related memories with the new information. When new representations come into the hippocampus, there is reactivation of the related memories stored elsewhere in the brain, bringing these other representations back on line, so we can make the connection between these stored memories and the new information.

The speed and accuracy of working memory are improved by use of multiple circuits of access or by repetition. With multiple pathways connecting to the learned material, the brain activates in many ways and takes many paths, so retrieval cues can be enhanced. This can be several strong associated sensory inputs that were associated with the learned information.

For example, if a science teacher slowly releases hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg smell) from a container opened at the start of class, and the odor gradually gets stronger in class, and this is followed by a description of diffusion through gasses, there are likely at least two or three pathways to retrieve the memory of what diffusion through gas is-the memory of the gradually increasing smell, the teacher's verbal explanation, and the information the student reads in a text.

Each time the student participates in any endeavor, a certain number of neurons is activated. When the action is repeated, as in a follow-up science lab experiment, these same neurons respond again. The more times one repeats an action (practice) or recalls/reinforces the memory of information, the more efficiently the brain

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retrieves that memory or repeats that action. Eventually, you need only trigger the beginning of the sequence for the remaining pieces to fall into place, almost without having to think about it, as in tying one's shoes.

To make memory more efficient, our most important tool is the knowledge that the person who does the work (thinks) is the one who LEARNS. If you don't think the information is important, it won't go through your hippocampus, form new synaptic connections, and become long-term memory. Thus, if you find ways to correlate the new information with things already known, like visual imagery, the likelihood of the information linking into long-term memory grows.

In other words, memories with personal meaning are most likely to become relational memories and thus be stored. Having students relate new information to past experiences personalizes them and increases placement in the relational memory system.

To achieve maximal memory storage conditions and avoid brain burnout, the best conditions include maintaining positive emotional states, surprise, physical movement, sleep, and brain breaks.

How do we increase retention and later retrieval of information?

One way is to chunk the data. Because the working memory has limited capacity for immediate recall of small bits of unrelated items (about 5 to 9 items), you can remember more if you bring in these bits of information related into chunks (e.g., chunk phone and social security numbers into numbers in chunks of 3 or 4).

Increase student sleep time. Synaptic connections are laid down when memories are stored, through the growth and interconnections of more dendritic spines. It takes time for these to grow, and that involves sleep and brain breaks for the brain to reaccumulate the needed neurochemicals that stimulate dendritic growth.

It is during the longest stages of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep that the brain transforms recent memories into long-term memories by building and extending the dendritic branches. This process is enhanced by the serotonin secreted by the brain predominantly between the sixth and eighth hour of sleep. Raising sleep time from 6 or fewer to 8 hours could increase memory and alertness up to 25%.

Another way to increase recall is to find ways to increase relational memory connections, such as making diagrams, having students personalize the material, and pair-sharing with a classmate. Retrieval is also better when students know how information is organized, (e.g., categories), and best when they create these categories themselves, creating personal relevance.

Also helping recall: drink water; change where students are sitting in the room for a fresh outlook; engage in physical activity every 15 minutes, even if it is just standing up; use visual imagery (e.g., visualize a history event using words or pictures on paper); and dramatize, through role plays, skits, and pantomime.

This brings us to the need for brain breaks during instruction. Neurotransmitters are the brain amino acids (such as serotonin, tryptophan, and epinephrine) that transport information across the synapses, which are microscopic gaps between nerve cells where information must switch from its electrical travel down the nerve to a chemical travel, by the release of these amino acids that float across the synapse to the next nerve cell, and reactivate the electrical transmission down that nerve's nerve cells to each other.

We must avoid depletion of neurotransmitters in the synapses, because when the neurotransmitters are used up, memory efficiency drops rapidly. These neurotransmitters rebuild with time, so observe your students for the glazed or distracted signs of brain burn out, and try to prevent it with brain breaks before it occurs. In this

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"burnout" state new memories can't be stored efficiently. Identify these overload times BEFORE they occur and have a break before that point. What are some examples of brain breaks?

Brain break 1: After about 15 minutes of a lecture/discussion, ask students to "Think, Connect, Write" by considering something they learned so far that they feel is important, valuable, interesting, or applicable. This can be one, two, or three things. Also, have them write what those things remind them of (relational memory), or what you would like to learn more about (personal interest).

Using this in class, they can start with a piece of paper folded into four sections. Every 15 minutes, they can write in one of the four sections. You can collect them as feedback, or the students can keep them as notes or pair-share them with partners if time allows.

Brain break 2: Have students write what they might do differently based on what the have just learned, or what strategy might work for them to learn this material. Make a prediction on what they might learn in the rest of the lesson. Have them walk over to another student and share ideas.

Brain break 3: Students can pair up and respond, first in individual writing and then by idea sharing, to the prompt, "What did you see, hear, learn that was difficult?" How did your prediction turn out for what the rest of the lesson would be? Have them share with a different student.

Brain break 4: "Why might this information be useful or important to you or to historians, writers, scientists, or mathematicians in the future?" Asking this shows you value the student and the student's perception.

Once the information is remembered correctly, use multiple forms of review, different ways of reviewing the same material. Review after 4 to 7 new items to avoid forgetting. Review again beyond a single perfect response, so the neuronal, dendritic network fires correctly more than once. The more it fires, the more dendrites interconnect, the easier it is, and the more ways there are to access and remember long-term.

Memory and retention brain research can, when applied to the classroom, not only drive the learning process, but also allow teachers to energize and enliven students' minds. As research grows, educators will be challenged to develop and utilize new strategies to bring its fruits to our students.

The more that educators learn of the neurophysiology and neurobiochemistry which are involved with memory and retention, the more prepared we will be to meet that challenge. And, how wonderful it will be to encourage your students to have more fun with the new information they are trying to learn (relational memory) and to sleep longer hours!

~~~~~~~~ By Judy Willis

Judy Willis ([email protected]) teaches mathematics and ethics at Santa Barbara Middle School, Santa Barbara, California.

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