A student, Bella is trying to learn and retrieve her
multiplication facts.
Input: In Bella’s class her teacher teaches the class there
2 times tables. (2x1=2, 2x2=4)
Sensory Memory: Bella takes in the different color of
markers the teacher is using to write the multiplication facts on the board.
She also notices who she is sitting by during the lesson and here’s a lawnmower
outside. Most of these specific memories are soon lost.
Working Memory: Bella uses maintenance rehearsal and repeats
the facts over and over again and uses flashcards. She also uses chunking by
organizing the facts from 2x1 to 2x10 in numerical order and realizes that she
can count by 2’s to help her remember the multiplication facts. Some of the
facts might be forgotten due to encoding failure because the information never
reached long term memory storage.
Long Term Memory: Bella uses declarative knowledge to store her
multiplication facts. Multiplication facts are known facts that are always
going to be the same. These will be permanently in her mind once stored in long
term memory. If she encodes the facts in two different ways (verbal and
pictures) she will be able to store the memories easier. During her
multiplication facts quiz Bella has to recall of the facts that she has
learned. Almost all of the facts come easily to her because of recall.
Anything Bella notices (consciously) is already in working memory! If she's not paying attention to the sounds outside, she's still processing the information (it's getting to her brain or into her mind but it's not significant enough to make it to conscious thought, unless someone yelled her name from outside). Rehearsal will keep information in conscious thought, but it will not move it to long term memory (cause learning)--that's one reason flashcards--according to this model--would not promote learning. This is important to understand.
ReplyDeleteThe categorization you describe is a method of encoding, because it adds meaning to the information (meaning she's already famiiliar with in long term memory--the number 2).
What do you mean by she 'uses declarative knowledge'?