Cognitive Development Learning Log

What?

In this chapter we learned about the different elements of getting information and how and where it goes. Encoding, retrieval, and storage are all part of the process. We looked at the model of how memory is processed and stored. Information goes through a series of processes in order to be used as short term memory, long term memory, or is lost. You can promote short term memory by using mnemonics, chunking, and massed practice. To gain more long term memory you can try doing more hands on activities and distributed practice.
In the figure above, you can see the process of which information goes into the brain and then is processed. First there has to be some sort of stimuli or input that wants to go into the brain. These stimulus' are entered through our senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, etc). Then the information goes through a process of sensory registry and it is quickly scanned for importance and precoding. Some information is lost here. After a processes called Attention (which is focusing on a particular stimuli), information goes into the working or short-term memory stage. Here is where maintenance rehearsal takes place along with coding and recoding. Some information is lost again. Then through the process of encoding, information is passed down to the Long term memory stage where it is stored and used in the future.

Memory is very much so connected with emotions and senses. Think about when you were a child. Visualize the sights and smells of a particular place. Now today if you were to smell that same smell, you would be taken back to that place as a child. Remember detail. The one down fall of memory is that it is always changing and reinterpreting. This leaving room for misunderstanding and confusion. Learning is a semi-permanent change in the mental process and it's mostly due to experience. There are many different reasons why people sometimes can't remember information but the most common reasons are because you may not have completely decoded the information, there is interference because something else is in the way of that memory, or because of decay, the idea of use it or lose it.

Encoding is an important process to help retain information for the future. There are several different ways to encode, here are a few:

Rehearsal
Meaningful learning (previous knowledge)
Organization (chunking)
Elaboration
Visual Imagery
Enactment
Mnemonics

So What?

This chapter is important for teachers to understand so we can better utilize different skills in our classroom. Understanding how the brain works and how our students are going to remember or recall the information that we give them in class will help us as teachers know how to help students retain or recall that information. We all know that most of the information that students learn in our class is lost shortly after the class is over; however, I believe that if we help them use different memorization skills and do activities that will help students store that information in different parts of the brain, it is more likely that they will be able to use it in the future. Memory is a process and not something that just happens, so I believe it is important to help steer the information in the direction that I want it to go.

Now What?

Knowing this information now, it is a good idea to start using it. As you plan lesson plans and activities, build ones that are going to help the learning process. One of the biggest ideas is that we remember better if there are a lot of pathways to that information. That requires learning it different ways. I think we need to implement that into the classroom. Give students the chance to learn the same material in different ways. Also I really found it helpful when Professor Cox made up a mnemonic for us for the different stages of moral development. That is something that I would have NEVER done on my own, but was very helpful. I still could remember it today, where my normal habits of just cramming it in better I walked into the testing center would have been gone by now. As teachers I think it is smart to introduce these different styles of memorization to our students, even if we have to do that work for them. Or maybe after you have demonstrated a style for them, on the next assignment you have them make up their own mnemonic for homework. This will help students practice those different strategies and also help them for your unit test. I think it's a win-win situation!!