Session 3 & 4
Basic
Principles of Memory
Learning &
Memory Is Based On:
Meaningfulness
Organization
Association
Visualization
Attention
Making Learning
Meaningful
Does it make
sense?
Rote memory is
memorizing without memory
Is it familiar?
Learning builds on learning!
Rhymes make
material more meaningful
Are there
patterns or associations?
Organizing the
information
Alphabetizing
Numerical
Categories
Chunking
w
Grocery
lists by alphabet
w
Friends
names
w
Others?
Association
Principle
vs Principal
Never believe
a lie.
Oh, that
reminds me!
Returning to the
room you left retracing your steps
Thinking around
it - put yourself back in the scene
(Lost keys Throwing out cups from car)
Visualizing
Picture words
that stand for something ( 50 states)
Picture paired
associates
Makes learning
more effective
Learning feels
like more of a game
Sources of
Motivation Diagram?
Attention
the test
Which
color is on top of the stop light?
Whose
image is on the penny? Is he wearing a tie?
What for
words besides In God we trust are on most U.S. coins?
Which way
does water swirl going down the drain? Clockwise or counterclockwise?
What
letters if any are missing on a telephone buttons?
Attention - TV
remote Control analogy
w
You can
only watch one channel at a time
w
You miss
what happens on the other channels while absent
w
Cannot
follow complex shows this way
w
Absent
mindedness failing to pay attention
w
Why do we
forget the names of the people we meet?
We are not paying
attention
We are waiting to say our
name or something else
Chapter 5
More
Basic Principles of Memory
Repetition
Repetition
necessary for learning but not sufficient for most learning
Repetition can
result in different kinds of learning w/technical and unfamiliar info.
Overlearning
continued learning beyond the point of bare mastery or recall
w
Improves
retrieval speed
w
Effective
in strengthening learning
Relaxation
Friends, just
before I stood up to speak to you, only God and I knew what I was going to say.
Now only God knows (Higbee, 1996)!
Any kind of
stressful situation that gives rise to strong emotional arousal can interfere
with the your ability to learn and remember (Higbee, 1996)
Anxiety and
Learning
High anxiety may
cause a person not to pay attention to things outside themselves.
Anxiety can
cause problems with encoding (reading )and organizing reading material (when
studying or reviewing) and in reviewing it for an exam
Research on Test
Anxiety
Causes 3 sources
of interference in recall:
1. Worry
cognitive concern about performance (most important)
2. Emotionally
self-perceived arousal of negative feelings
(physiological arousal)
3. Task
interference tendency to be distracted by task irrelevancies (preoccupation
with time limits)
Dealing with
Anxiety
Cure it
w
Relaxation
techniques
w
Muscle
relaxation techniques
Prevent it
w
Test
preparation
w
Overlearning
w
Improve
learning & recall skills
w
Improve
test taking skills
w
Check
your Self-talk
w
Temporarily
abandon mental search for answer.
Context
Learning
something in one context enables you to recall it again in the same context.
w
Using the
same posture, music or environment
w
Using the
same study room as a testing room
w
Visualizing
the study room has same effect
w
Learning
sets of word lists in different rooms gives contextual clues and improves recall
Interests
Find some way to
relate what you must learn to a present motive or interest.
Do not depend on
instructors to make material interesting, look for ways to take interest in the
subject for personal reasons.
Use external
motivators to create an interest.
Feedback
Use feedback in
how you are learning to sustain interest
Use feedback to
help make adjustments in the way you are learning or applying info.
Study with a
friend
Recitation
Explain what you
have read to yourself