Download 1 RUNNING HEAD: MASTERING MEMORY MAKING THE MOST OF

RUNNING HEAD: MASTERING MEMORY
MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR MEMORY
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SCHOOL
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Many people have difficulty recalling important facts, especially things such
as where they left their keys, or where they left their coat. Individuals may wish to
improve their memory, and may be lured in to one of several infomercials that hawk
amazing discoveries in the field of memory. Unfortunately, scientists don’t know all
that much about human memory yet, proving that these claims are nothing but an
expensive sham.
Nevertheless, most experts can agree that understanding memory may be a
bit easier, especially if one considers memory as a set of ‘stores,’ including places to
put information for safe keeping. Sometimes, we need to retrieve this stored data, so
we will have to make requests for information to act on the stores. Researchers have
developed a simplified model that includes three stores for our information. These
three stores are known as the Sensory Information Store (SIS), the Short-Term Store
(STS), and the Long-Term Store (LTS) (NASA, 2011).
There are three processes that help to stock the shelves in our store,
including encoding (putting information into the store), maintenance (keeping it
"alive"), and retrieval (finding encoded information) (NASA, 2011). Of course, our
human store will have a finite ability to keep this in it, meaning that sometimes, our
store is going to fill to capacity and we may forget certain items. In other cases, we
may just have so much stock in our store that what we are looking for is actually
behind other merchandise, causing it to take longer to find what we are looking for.
Obviously, anything we obtain from one of our five senses will end up in our
SIS, such as information that we see, hear, or smell. Interestingly, we can either pay
attention to the data coming in to our brains as new information, or we can flat out
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ignore it. Any thoughts that are ignored are quickly lost; however, if we pay special
attention to the new details, it may be moved in to special featured shelving, and
become incorporated in to the STS. If, for example, we sense a bright red object in
front of us, and we recognize that it is a stop sign, our brain can move this
information in to the short-term memory area of our conscious self.
Unfortunately, our short-term memory does not stay intact for very long, and
actually disappears rather quickly. Fortunately, information can be maintained in
the STM for relatively long periods using maintenance rehearsal (MR), a term
describing the act of memorizing and rehearsing the information to be maintained.
In many cases, the reason one wishes to maintain information in the STS is to allow
time for it to be encoded into the long-term store (LTS), and thus become more
permanently available. However, maintenance rehearsal does not appear to be a
very failsafe way to get the memory into long-term memory. Another memory
maintenance technique, elaboration rehearsal (ER) seems to work better. ER is
actually committing the data to memory by thinking about the information, rather
than just repeating it over and over in your mind.
The concept of ER may be quite useful for students learning mounds of new
information, such as a medical transcriptionist. Clearly, these people need to
memorize the meaning and spelling of several new and difficult words in their
course of study. The process of ER may help them to keep that information in the
front of their minds if they take the time to work with the new definitions, rather
than just memorizing the words in a rote fashion.
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To complicate matters, the brain stores memories away in the order they
were placed in the store to be used. This is also called interference theory, and it
states that memories are incorporated in chronological order based on when they
were made to understand how it is people have trouble recalling information
(Rogers, 2010). As learners, we can manipulate this theory for our advantage.
Utilizing retroactive interference, we can place memories in separate compartments
in our brain, so that something similar does not cloud important facts by something
that is not exactly what is needed. Furthermore, proactive interference happens
when something that is learned recently blocks the recall of memories from the
past. As mentioned earlier, the brain has a finite storage capacity for memories.
Research has shown that consumers will be less moved by an advertisement
for a product if they see a similar ad a short while later. Considering interference
theory, it may be helpful to take frequent breaks when studying so that the brain
may incorporate the new data. Shifting gears among various topics will assist one
from forgetting new information too easily.
After a long semester, it may seem counterintuitive to waste time when
studying for a big examination or final. However, the cramming method appears to
not work, and manipulating interference seems to be a much better solution.
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References
NASA (2011) Human Memory. http://humanfactors.arc.nasa.gov/cognition/tutorials/ModelOf/Knowmore1.html Last accessed
October 28, 2011.
Rogers, O. (2010) Retroactive Vs. Proactive Interference.
http://www.ehow.com/facts_7269925_retroactive-vs_-proactive-interference.html
Last accessed October 28, 2011.