- How do we help our students create memories
that last and can be retrieved when they need them?
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham
in his book Why Students Don't Like School
makes the simple but profound statement,
"Memory is the residue of thought."
Let's explore the deeper meaning of what he is saying.
We'll begin by reviewing the elements of the simple
model of memory we described in earlier sessions.
Incoming information is perceived by our senses
and whittled down by our attentional filters.
As this information enters working memory, it can begin
to be processed in interaction with long term memory.
If it's not, within a relatively short period of time,
it will be lost, since our working memory
lasts usually less than 30 seconds.
This is why students can be paying rapt attention
to what is going on around them in class,
like listening to their teacher present a lesson,
but at the end of 15 minutes, not remember much of anything.
How is this possible?
If students haven't engaged and processed in an active way
what they are hearing or seeing, it's simply lost
as it disappears from short term memory.
But what do we mean by process in an active way?
Well, to learn something, that is, to make durable memories,
we need to transfer information
from working memory into our long term memory.
In other words, to link the new to what is already existing
in our memories, as we discussed in the last session.
How do we do this?
Most often by consciously processing it.
This means to think about the new information
entering initially into our working memory
by reaching into long term memory to connect it
meaningfully with prior knowledge and memories.
The more we do this thinking and processing
between working and long term memory,
the more likely it will stick.
Let me give you a simple example.
What comes to mind when I say the word friend?
Take some time to think.
My question initially caused you to think
about the meaning of the word, and then you began
to relate that meaning to other words and concepts.
What does it mean to be a friend?
Who are my friends and how do I know?
Who is my best friend, and so on?
That dynamic network of associations
and connections you conjured is a form of deep processing.
If I then asked you later, do you remember
the word I asked you to think about a few days ago?
You would probably have a good chance of remembering it
because of that act of processing.
On the other hand, you could process
the same word in a shallow way.
I could ask you to count how many letters
the word friend has, and how many vowels,
then have you spell it backwards
and arrange its letters in alphabetical order,
all aspects of the word that are largely
devoid of meaning and context.
You will probably be much less likely later
to remember that friend was the word I asked you about.
Another example of a form of deep processing
would be if I gave you a list of 10 words
and asked you to memorize them in two minutes.
You could probably do it, but it would likely
be easier if you made a story out of them,
a not uncommon mnemonic strategy.
For example, you could imagine a car crashing
through a gigantic stretched out map
and on the other side is a toy top spinning
precariously on a cable floating in midair,
and underneath the top is a policeman standing on one hand
while looking at a pocket watch held up
in his other hand, and he then suddenly spits out
a blue blob that slowly floats away,
or something like that, you get the idea.
The process of thinking about how to connect
the new information, the list of words,
to information from your long term memory in some sort
of narrative is what will make the words more memorable.
This process is often called elaborative rehearsal.
By creating an active dialogue between working memory
and long term memory, by thinking to learn,
we extend, elaborate, connect, modify,
and/or consolidate new memories.
What's created and remains as a result of this thought
are memories, or residues in Willingham's terms,
linked to previously existing knowledge.
Memory is the residue of thought.
The more our students think about what they are learning
by asking themselves questions to link new knowledge to old
and working to put things into their own words,
the more enduring will be the memories they make.
Here's a corollary to this principle of learning,
one that may seem counter-intuitive.
Deep and enduring learning is almost always
effortful and difficult.
Making mistakes and errors,
even being confused can be good for learning,
that is, if in the process of correcting the mistakes,
thinking about the errors, and resolving confusion,
active processing happens in just the way we have described.
These struggles can actually enhance learning.
The cognitive scientists Robert and Elizabeth Bjork
call this desirable difficulties,
intentionally created by teachers.
When learning is easy and not very effortful,
probably not much long-term learning is happening
because the new knowledge is not being as actively
processed and meaningfully linked
to prior knowledge in the learner's memory.
That said, it is important to note that not all forms
of confusion and struggle are always productive,
and not all difficulties are desirable.
Difficulties that engage deeper processing
within the learner's capacities are good.
Difficulties that simply cause learners
to wallow in frustration are not.
You need to be the judge of when desirable
difficulties turn into undesirable ones.
John Dewey in his book Democracy and Education
said over a century ago this about learning,
"Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn,
"and if the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking,
"learning naturally results."
We have to think to learn if we want our students
to learn in enduring and transferable ways.
As you can imagine, there are numerous instructional
strategies to help our students create long term memories.
Many you no doubt already use.
Please refer to the Teaching Strategies section
under Making Enduring Memories for more examples.
We'll also discuss different forms of deep processing
and thinking to learn in week four of our course.
In the next session we are going to learn
about how memories are retrieved
and what this means for our teaching practices.