Strengthening Memory and Minimizing Forgetting

As Figure 6.4 shows, there are five reasons why a learner may be unable to recall information. These are summarized in Table 6.2. The second column of that table suggests ways to enhance retention by overcoming each of these obstacles.

Application Note: While examining Table 6.2 and while reading this section of this chapter, you will probably notice that the information presented here repeats what was covered earlier in this chapter. One reviewer of an earlier draft of this book commented that information like this was redundant and suggested omitting it. The reviewer missed the point. This information is valuable because it is redundant. That is, I am presenting to you in a different context the same information that I presented earlier in this chapter. Here is what is supposed to be happening:

1. When you first read about information processing earlier in this chapter, that information went first into your sensory register and then into your working memory. If the information was brand new or confusing to you, what got into your working memory was possibly incomplete. You may have reread parts to help you with this ambiguity. The diagrams and Review Quiz 6.1 were designed to give you a clear image in your working memory.
   
   
2. You dug into your long-term memory to find other information that you thought was related to information processing. You mixed this new and old information together in your working memory. In other words, you thought about it. (If you didn't do this, you probably didn't learn much.)
   
   
3. You stored some (or all) of the results of Step 2 in your long-term memory. You probably did this without deliberate effort. You encoded the information simply by making automatic associations with what was already in your long-term memory. What you stored there depended on (a) the information you had in your working memory as a result of Step 2, (b) the related information that was already in your long-term memory, and (c) the connections you saw between (a) and (b).
   
   
4. Between Step 3 and Step 5, the information may have gone back and forth many times between working memory and long-term memory. That depends on what you did and what you thought about between these two steps. (If you waited too long and didn't think about it, the original information may have faded or became distorted, especially if it wasn't effectively encoded during Step 3.)
   
   
5. Now you are viewing much of the same information in a different context. This variation in context will make it likely that you will think thoughts that are different from (but still related to) those that you thought during Step 2. In addition, some of the concepts that were originally foreign to you will have by now become familiar. In technical terms, you are engaging in repeated practice. The variation in context makes this more enjoyable and more productive than merely rereading the original information a second time.
   
   
6. After you have read the following section, you'll store the current version of your knowledge of information processing in your long-term memory. If you've come to some clearer understandings, you knowledge will be revised. (In Piaget's terms, accommodation will have taken place.) Even if you've come to no new understandings, the repeated practice will help make your knowledge of information processing more automatic. That is, you will be able to use these concepts more easily when reading other chapters or when you want to initiate an instructional strategy in your classroom. In addition, the repeated practice will help prevent fading.

    

Figure 6.4. The five points at which information may be forgotten.

Table 6.2. Sources of Forgetting and Ways to Overcome These Obstacles to Recalling Information.
Source of Forgetting	How to Overcome This Obstacle
1. The information may never have reached the sensory register (or it may have been perceived incorrectly).	a. Present the information clearly. b. Be sure that the learner perceives the information correctly. c. Be aware that what is perceived clearly by one person may not be perceived clearly by others. d. Be aware that the fact that the learner has perceived something clearly does not mean that the learner has perceived the accurate information clearly.
2. The information may not have been transferred correctly from the sensory register to working memory.	a. Help the learner actively attend to the information. b. Ask questions to ascertain that attention is correctly focused. c. Make sure attention is focused on the relevant information rather than peripheral information. d. If the learner has an attention deficit, deal with it.
3. The learner may have been unable to retain information accurately long enough to work with it.	a. Encourage rehearsal (repeated practice) to keep information active in the working memory. b. Provide supplements to the working memory (such as written materials or diagrams to which the learner can easily refer). c. Encourage chunking, so that the learner can effectively focus on a wider span of information. d. Help the learner activate prior relevant knowledge to encourage chunking. (This will also facilitate transfer to and from long-term memory.) e. Promote overlearning of basic skills (those that will be used repeatedly), so that concentrating on these doesn't eat up space in the working memory.
4. The learner may not have transferred the information correctly from working memory to long-term storage.	a. Encourage active interaction with the information, so that the learner will make connections with existing knowledge. b. Help the learner to focus attention on these connections with existing knowledge. c. Encourage working with the information in more than a single context (so that more connections will be made.) d. Help the learner activate prior relevant knowledge to encourage chunking. (This will also facilitate chunking and will maximize the use of working memory.)
5. The learner may not have been able to bring the information back from long-term memory to working memory for active use on a later occasion.	a. Practice in order to minimize fading. Practice works best if it is intermittent (See chapter 15.) Practice can consist of either reviewing the information or using that information as part of new learning activities. b. Focus attention actively while transferring information to long-term memory (Step 4). c. Encourage working with the information in more than a single context (so that connections will more likely be made with contexts in which it will have to be recalled.)

While a failure in learning or remembering may occur as a single breakdown at any one of these stages, it is also possible for cumulative effects from several stages to interfere with the correct recall of information. For example, if information moves only 90% correctly into the sensory register, and only 90% of that information is transferred correctly to working memory, and only 90% of that information is transferred accurately to long-term memory, and only 90% of that information is recalled accurately on a later occasion, as shown in Figure 6.5, the cumulative impact would be similar to getting everything correctly into working memory and only transferring about 63% of it to long-term memory. An identical outcome would occur if a person could recall 63% of information which had been perfectly transferred from the environment into long-term memory. The key point is that according to information processing theory there are many reasons why a person may fail to retrieve information. In order to maximize the amount of information available for future use, it is important to see to it that all of the events described in the preceding paragraph occur as perfectly as possible.

Figure 6.5. Two patterns of processing information (Pattern A shows 90% accuracy at each of the four transfer points. Pattern B shows perfect accuracy at three transfer points, but bad (63%) accuracy at one point &emdash; the transfer from working memory to long-term memory.)

 

Testing Versus Review   Administering quizzes to students is generally considered to serve two functions: (1) to motivate the students to study and (2) to determine how well they have mastered the material. A third function goes largely unrecognized: to help the student consolidate in memory what was learned. Although review alone leads to increased performance, testing is even more profitable. In demonstrating this, Nungester & Duchastel (1982) gave tests to students but deliberately refrained from providing feedback or corrective information when the students were in error. The effect would probably have been even stronger if feedback were provided. The relation of testing to information processing is more fully discussed in chapter 14 of this book.

Online Links:
Forgetting and How to Prevent It

Click on a topic from the following list, or use your web browser to go where you want to go:

• Introduction
• Information Processing
• Sensory Register
• Working Memory
• Long-Term Memory
• Recalling Information
• Computers and Human Information Processing
• Forgetting
• Mnemonic Strategies
• Strengthening Memory and Minimizing Forgetting <<You are here>>
• Transfer of Learning
• What Teachers Can Do to Improve Information Processing
• What Parents Can Do to Improve Information Processing
• What Students Can Do to Improve Information Processing
• Summary
• Annotated Bibliography
• Answers to Quizzes and Questions