Memory, long term
From WikEd
Contents |
Definition of Long-term Memory:
Permanent store of knowledge. It is memory that can last as little as a few days or as long as decades. The limits of long-term memories capacity is unknown. Most long term memory is either stored as "visual images or verbal units or both". For students to remember something long term, textbooks are good to use since they "explain the idea with words and represent them visually in a figure" (Woolfolk, 2001, p.251)
The knowledge we store in LTM affects our perceptions of the world, and influences what information in the environment we attend to. LTM provides the framework to which we attach new knowledge, and its properties have important implications for instructional design(Easton).
It differs from working memory or short-term memory, which stores items for only around 30 seconds. However, "short-term memory is a temporary potentiation of neural connection that can become long-term memory through the process of rehearsal and meaningful association. The proposed mechanism by which short-term memory moves into long-term memory(LTM) storage is via long-term potentiation, which leads to a physical hange in the structure of neurons"(Wikipedia).
Long-term memory is stored in networks of schemas. "Schemas are mental models of the world. Psychologists believe that information in LTM is stored in large, interrelated networks of these schemas, which form intricate knowledge structures. Related schemas are linked together, and information that activates one schema also activates ones that are closely linked. This allows relevant knowledge to be called up when information is presented"(Easton).
Types of Long-Term Memory
Unlike a computer that stores items in one unifieds structure(aka, the hard drive), "the brain stores memories in different regions of the brain"(Wikipedia). Long-term memory is typically divided into two major headings: procedural memory and declarative memory.
Procedural: contains information concerning action and sequences of actions (How to do something) This information is encoded and probably stored by the cerebellum and the striatum.
Declarative: contains knowledge, facts, information, ideas, or anything that can be recalled and described in words, pictures, or symbols. These memories are encoded by the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and perirhinal cortext. "When these memories are consolidated and stored, the precise location is unknown, but the temporal cortex has been proposed as a likely candidate(Wikipedia). Declarative memory also has two major subdivisions:
Episodic: memories of specific events
Semantic: memories of general knowledge
(Federmeier, K. PSYC 224 Lecture Notes, 2004)
A third type of memory that isn't entirely accepted within the scientific community is Emotional Memory. "Some may suggest that is is classified as weither declarative or procedural, but in many ways is a combination of the two"(Wikipedia). This is the memory for events that evoke a particularly strong emotion. These types of memories are consciously available, but provide a powerful, unconscious physiological reaction.
Processes
Encoding: getting the information in
Retaining: avoiding the loss of information (forgetting)
Retrieving: Getting the information out
(Federmeier, K. PSYC 224 Lecture Notes, 2004)
there are two main ways of retrieving:
recognition and recall
Recognition
when provided with the information in memory, " do you remember when.."
includes: feeling of familiarity, matching, multiple. choice, True/False on exams, recognizing someone you know...
Recall
coming up with the information from memory yourself
Includes: coming up with the name for person you recognized, recalling where you were when Kennedy assassinated, fill-in-the-blank on exams.
Researchers have identified the parts of the brain that are involved in Long-Term Memory. Activity in the hippocampus determines our ability to transfer words, facts, and events from short-term into long-term memory. Activity in the cortex, influences our ability to remember words, facts, and events from the past.
Physiological Model of Long-Term Memory Currently, the most widely accepted model for forming long-term memories at the level of the nerve cell is called Long-Term Potentiation (LTP). This phenomenon was discovered in 1973 by Terje Lomo and Timothy Bliss working in the hippocampus of rabbits. LTP is a strengthening of nerve cell connections that occurs after patterned stimulation, a type of stimulation that might be considered similar to repetition. In combination with another form of neural plasticity, Long-Term Depression, some neural pathways may gain strength and become more solidified while other nerve-cell connections get depressed. Essentially these pathways become more permanent then others and remain around longer. For more information see Long-Term Potentiation
Ways to Help Maintain your Long-term Memory
Memory Games
There is growing evidence today that people can delay or prevent memory loss by simply playing simple memory games. Keeping the mind challenged by participating in simple games such as crossword puzzles can help keep the brain active, "developing more neurons, more connections to neurons, or more efficiency in using their brain cells, so they need fewer. They also may create needed detours around brain blockages in response to the demainds of daily life"(http://www.geocities.com/mzzsmythe/memory-improvement.html. retrieved on October 21, 2005). Some examples are:
Real World memorization skills
Exercise and Vitamin B-12
External Links:
Personal Testimony:
As a student,I have felt that flashcards with images on them have helped to memorize and place ideas in long term memory. Also, pneumonics have also been helpful when studying for tests. Since I'm a visual learner, another student may have a different way of storing their ideas in long term memory. Carole Johnson
Being a teacher and trying to help students soak information into their long term memory is a difficult thing to do. I use many different techniques. I stress the importance of repetition (flashcards), rewriting what the student is learning, and I always try to make a comparison to something that the student remembers from the past (try to remember a movie where the same thing happened). -- Brian Bucciarelli
In math it only makes sense to use repetition to help long-term memory. I still believe the old Drill and Practice is the best approach for teaching math. At one of the in-services at our school it was taught that it takes doing something 8 times to have a chance to put the learned matter into long term memory. I don’t know if that is still the standard or not. – Dale Donner
In math, repetition is not only important when teaching a new concept but it is also essential for a student to continually review topics that have been previously covered. This is especially true when the book is structured in chapters where it is easy for a student to forget a concept once that chapter has been completed. M Foshee
I've found that making information personally meaningful is also an important aspect of increasing long term memory. In Social Studies, I try to have the students make modern day connections to historical topics, which often increases their retention. MG
References:
Kasschau, Richard. Understanding Psychology. Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill, 2001.
Woolfolk, Anita. 8th ed. Educational Psychology.Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2001.
