http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUOkODQNNj4&feature=player_embedded#!
I
learned quite a bit in just a short 30 minute video. I’m glad I chose it. There
was a lot of information to take in and summarize. Here are the notes I took
and the thoughts that accompanied them.
Dr.
Rugg stated that, “most of what we encode into memory is information that we never
knew we were going to need later, it just occurs as sort of a byproduct of
everyday life”. I find that I’ll recall things for which I have no recollection
as to why I would know that. I wasn’t intentionally focusing on it or had drawn
attention to it which is interesting considering that attention is a large part of the perception process.
In
the video Dr. Rugg also said, “The more you learn something, the stronger you
learn it, the more you’re going to remember it”. Studying a mass amount of
information at one time isn’t as fruitful to learning that material as spacing
it out and interweaving it would be. I found that James also believes this by
saying that, “The best method is of course not to ‘hammer in’ the sentences, by
mere reiteration, but to analyze them, and think” (James, 1899/2001, pg. 65).
Something interesting that contradicts many of
the study strategies I've heard of is in connection with a phenomenon known as
state-dependent memory, that if you study material in one location consistently
you are more likely to remember it because of the association of that
information paired with the context it was rehearsed in. In the video Dr. Bjork
mentions that a lot of research actually contradicts this method. It’s been
found that if you study information in two different locations you’ll actually
remember it better. In the textbooks I've used for my general psychology classes,
two of the three have discussed and supported this phenomenon. This
contradiction will be something I share with my students and it also supports the notion that people learn best using different tools.
Dr. Bjork believes that we actually
do forget how to do certain things like how to ride a bike or type, but that
the relearning of it is so quick that we just think we knew how to do it all
along. Our memory will adjust to things that are more important than others, if
it’s not important it will be discarded. That being said, then as teachers it’s
necessary to identify the importance or reasons for placing certain pieces of
information into long term memory (i.e., for the exam). I also couldn't help but think of classical conditioning, specifically extinction and spontaneous recovery. I wonder if they are connected in some way.
Two of my 'wow, that's cool' moments:
Two of my 'wow, that's cool' moments:
1. One thing that popped into my
head while watching the part about only being able to retain a certain amount
of items or numbers is the tone that the numbers were delivered with. The
participants recited the numbers with very similar inflection. I’d be curious
to know how much of a role vocalic plays in the memory process.
2. I was shocked to find out this little tidbit of information, that there is no scientific evidence to support the idea that we repress negative or traumatic experiences. Putting individuals into a suggestible state where they are trying to remember, such as through hypnosis or injected with truth serum, that it can actually create false memories contaminating the original ones. I’m sure the Freudians are not happy with this line of questioning.
2. I was shocked to find out this little tidbit of information, that there is no scientific evidence to support the idea that we repress negative or traumatic experiences. Putting individuals into a suggestible state where they are trying to remember, such as through hypnosis or injected with truth serum, that it can actually create false memories contaminating the original ones. I’m sure the Freudians are not happy with this line of questioning.
I, Melinda Holbrook, am watching this video and will comment on it...after you comment of course.
ReplyDeleteIn the video Michael Rugg discusses how when you give lots of attention to events or information you are able to remember more about it later. He also said that organizing information and associating it helps to recall the information later. This connects to James when he stated that memory depends on organized associations and as well as the amount of and persistency of those associations (p.60).
ReplyDeleteJames McGaugh said that the more you repeat the process of learning about a topic the more you will remember it, but not by just repeating something over and over. James also agreed that repeating subjects on different days and not cramming information was the best way to help remember the subject (p. 64).
I was also shocked to hear them say that there is no scientific evidence that we repress negative or traumatic experiences.
I'd be curious to read about the contradictory studies related to repressed memory. I may just have to give this task to my students when we discuss it in class.
ReplyDeleteOne of the main things I took away from this video, and reiterates what you gathered as well, is that it's more about depth than breadth in the case of information sticking around. I'm thinking rather than assigning a whole chapter to narrow it down to the specific areas within that chapter to focus our classroom discussion on. Yes reading the whole chapter will behoove them overall but for specific content sticking around, give more attention to that.