Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Information Processing Blog 1

The big idea discussed in this chapter was the three-stage model of information processing: sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory. Sensory memory has to do with our senses. Sight, touch, sound, taste, and smell all are components of our sensory memory. our sensory memory holds an unlimited amount of data exactly as we sense them. Our working memory has to do with the way we put this information to work. The working memory is when you purposefully try to remember things. Recall is a part of the working memory. Repetition and chunking are also strategies used in the working memory. The long term memory is where we store huge amounts of information and are able to store it for up to years at a time. Within the long term memory there is explicit knowledge and implicit knowledge. Explicit knowledge has to do with the information that we realize we are aware of and implicit knowledge has to do with the information buried within our brains. Memories are most easily retrieved from long term memory. The book also talks about most effective ways of teaching using memory from rehearsal which is least effective, to visual imagery which is most effective.

I had a question about rehearsal. In the book it states that rehearsal is the least effective technique when getting students to remember information, yet in my experience this is the most common technique teachers use especially in math. Everything that we did in math was drill-and-practice that involved learning and memorizing equations and plugging in different numbers. Did anyone else have this experience? 

According to Information Processing Theory, learning is storing information and being able to rehash this information when prompted to do so. One implication for teaching is that you could think that your students are learning when they really aren't. For instance, if they study for a test using repetition, this information is not being held in their long term memory and will most likely not be remembered after the test. Also, they are probably not understanding the meaning of what they are learning. 

Repetition is not the best way to learn something because you may not actually be learning the information. By repeating the same thing over and over again you are just understanding the surface meaning. You will not understand how this relates to other things and why you ned to learn it and you will most likely forget the information shortly afterwards. For instance, for vocabulary tests most students use repetition to memorize the words instead of learning the words and storing them in their memory. After the test is over, students will most likely not remember these words anymore. 

4 comments:

  1. I agree with you - I think rehearsal has worked pretty well for me in the past. For example, I was just studying for an exam last night where I basically memorized a ton of symbols and information that was insignificant to me. However, I reviewed the information over and over again, trying to memorize the symbols and what they meant. The strategy I found most helpful was to associate the symbol with an image I already knew, and then connect that to its meaning. Maybe this is difficult to understand without really knowing what my exam was about, but I still think the idea is there - rehearsal works for me, but I also need to pair that with associations to previous knowledge in order to really remember it. I already forgot half of what I memorized last night (at least, the information I didn't make connections about)!

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  2. I agree with Ashley, that pairing information with prior knowledge is a more effective strategy than rehearsal. We talked about this in class on Wednesday and I think its important to remember that rehearsal keeps information in your working memory, but in order to learn information, it must be encoding into your long term memory. That is why rehearsal is not an effective strategy for learning. It can only help you hold limited chunks of data for a short period of time.

    I also think that in the past when you were using rehearsal as learning strategy, you may have been pairing it with prior knowledge unknowingly, and thus encoding the information into your long-term memory.

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  3. When I read this post, it struck me as well that rehearsal is the best way that I learned math, to drill and practice. Rehearsal is the way that keeps the information in the working memory, as Jessie says above, and in order for it to reach your long term memory, one must encode it. I believe that although I rehearsed the multiplication facts or the state capitols over and over in my head, I also used visual imagery to do so. The rehearsal is the bulk of how I remember doing it, but there were also other cues that helped me to sustain my knowledge. There is another idea that must come in with the rehearsal for us to encode, and remember the facts so well.

    I agree with Jessie that prior knowledge unconsciously creeps in along with rehearsal to encode it the most effectively into our long term memory.

    I find this point very interesting that Shannon brought up, and really makes you think about how we learned specific information back in elementary school, and even some information today.

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  4. You have a nice description of the different types of memory, but how do things move between the stages?

    Your idea about rehearsal/repetition is very common. Your explanation at the end is the reason it's not effective (according to this model). All the encoding strategies we talk about require some connection to prior knowledge. This is just ONE explanation for how people learn, and brain research conflicts with this theory on that issue. According to neuroscience, repetition of an idea will myelinate those neurons and make the recall of the memory stronger/faster. It's an interesting differences (that you should be able to explain on a midterm, for example.... )

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