This chapters focus is on information processing. This has to do with memory, how people remember things, and how people learn things. As future educators, this is important to know, because our job is to allow students to learn and retain as much as possible. And to do this, we have to know what to teach, and how to most effectively teach it. Throughout the course of a lesson, how a teacher teaches a topic, will affect how each student retains and remembers the information. Because, each student goes about remembering things differently. Firstly, there is sensory memory, which has no capacity. The sensory memory picks up on our environment, and very little of what our sensory memory picks up, do we retain. Sensory memory is just taking in the environment, however, to actually remember something, we have to focus on that thing. From there, the information that we focus on moves into our working memory, where tactics such as chunking and repetition are used to try to remember the thing we have focused on. For example, in our classroom, we have two coat racks in the back of the room. We walk past them everyday, and our sensory memory picks up on them, but we have never focused on them. When it is brought to our attention that we have two coat racks in the back of the room, we are now focusing on the coat racks, and this moves into our working memory to be processed. Our long term memory is also unlimited and contains academic facts, experiences in ones life, how-to's and skills, and the understanding of how things work. This enables us to recall facts, remember childhood experiences, and allows us to remember how to ride a bike without being taught every time.
One question I have concerning this chapter is, how do we know for certain that there are three compartments of our memory? How is one certain how each of these compartments works, and if these are the only compartments, and how each of these functions are carried out?
According to the information processing theory, learning is remembering and retaining what has been taught.
Repetition is not the best way to remember something because it does not allow you to make connections with what you are trying to remember. Making connections that are meaningful to each individual helps him/her to remember each fact.
I think that you have a great question. How can we be for sure that there are three compartments of our memory but it has to do with brain research and psychologists studying the brain and its different functions. There is never certainty with brain study because studies are constantly changing and different psychologists research different things so there is uncertainty with the way we store memories. The way we process memory seems accurate due to textbooks and research but we will never know everything down to the last detail. I think that the way we process memory makes sense when it goes through each stage of sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory. Think about the memories you have from your childhood or your present memories. It makes sense to categorize these memories into the compartments.
ReplyDeleteI really like this question because I am pretty sure that everyone has this same question. I think it is one of those questions that only people that spend their entire life researching truly know the answer. I just look at this as more of an idea rather than known fact. I strongly agree that their probably are 4 stages that information goes through before it is fully learned, but I will never fully understand how that is possible, but what I have read seems like it is reasonable to think that there are four stages because I know from the research that I lose information and learn it through the processes that they have listed in the book.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a thought provoking question. I have personally had this question myself. I know that they would have to do tests on multiple subjects to be sure. In order for research like this to be published they have to have done a lot of sufficient investigations. It's hard for me to take in what people say and take this as truth, but it all makes sense to me so I kind of understand where they are coming from. It makes sense to me just because I feel like that's how my memory works too. I obviously hold a lot more in my long term memeory than other parts of my memory.
ReplyDeleteWhat does "learning is remembering" mean? I need a little more elaboration on that (where is the information being moved and for how long?)
ReplyDeleteYou're right about repetition, but why are connections important, according to the theory? Try to make this a little more clear....
Your question is reasonable, but remember that this isn't a theory that's describing ABSOLUTE TRUTH, or how the world ACTUALLY is. It's just one way of describing the world that a group of people have found useful. They developed this model, and it helped them describe what was going on in the mind without brain imaging (both because it wasn't very developed as a field and because you can't image brains of students who are interacting naturally in a classroom).