Title: Memory and Learning. Authors: Weiss, Ruth Palombo Source: Training & Development; Oct2000, Vol.

54 Issue 10, p46, 5p Subject Terms: *LEARNING *MEMORY Abstract: Discusses the link between memory and learning. Explanation of how human memory works; How learning and experience can modify the number of neurons in the brain; Development of skills in how to retrieve a specific memory; Keys to enhancing long-term memory. Full Text Word Count: 2159 ISSN: 1055-9760 Database: Academic Search Premier Section: In This Article: Trends MEMORY AND LEARNING So much learning, so little memory. This is the third article in a series by Weiss on learning and the brain. See "Brain-Based Learning" (July) and "Howard Gardner Talks About Technology" (September). We take our memory for granted--until we can't recall someone's name, a word, or where we put our keys. Then we have a moment of panic: Are we losing our memory, or our mind? Memory is essential for going about the daily business of our lives. We need memory for everything we do: perceiving the world, synthesizing and analyzing information, and applying knowledge to new situations. In fact, learning is the making of memory, which is laid down in our brains in chemical form. Chemical changes are created at the neuron level; without them, there's no substance for our minds to work with. According to the current model of memory, input from our senses via the environment is processed through our perceptual memory in fractions of a second. If deemed important enough, either by one's unconscious or conscious mind, the input is put into the short-term memory. From there, it's either discarded or planted in the long-term memory. Eric Jensen, educator and author of Teaching With the Brain in Mind, notes that "learning and memory are two sides of a coin. You can't talk about one without the other." He calls learning that lasts (information stored in our longterm memory) "long-term potentiation." When LTP occurs, "a cell is electrically stimulated over and over so that it excites a nearby cell. If a weaker stimulus is then applied to the neighboring cell a short time later, the cell's ability to get excited is enhanced." Ken Kosik, professor of neurology at the Harvard Medical School and a cofounder of the Brigham and Women's Hospital Memory and Disorders Clinic, explains that our brain changes with learning in functional ways. When we learn something that stays with us for any length of time, it goes from the short-term into our medium- or longterm memory. When that occurs, certain genes in the brain turn on. When they turn on, new proteins are made and the connections between the axons and dendrites increase in complexity. In other words, new memories create new interconnecting pathways between neurons.

As we learn something new, each chemical message is laid down as a chain of neurons called a neural network. Those connections become stronger the more often our brains access the network. Synapses, or spaces between the neurons, also become stronger, says educator Marilee Sprenger in her book, The Brain in Action. She compares the process to creating a path in the woods: "The first time you create a path, it is rough and overgrown. The next time you use it, it's easier to travel because you have previously walked over the weeds and moved the obstacles. Each time thereafter, it gets smoother and smoother. In a similar fashion, the neural networks get more efficient, and messages travel more swiftly." Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux, author of The Emotional Brain, says that what we are conscious of at any given moment is what's in our shortterm memory--especially our working memory, a special kind of short-term memory. Furthermore, only information that's registered in a person's short-term memory can eventually go into the longterm memory. Scientists agree that short-term memory capacity is limited to five to nine items, although it's capable of holding more information if packaged into chunks. Educator Jeb Schenck compares the short-term memory to a desktop: Once it's filled, if an additional item finds its way in, a pre-existing item will have to be pushed out. Moreover, with short-term memory, the more time that elapses between learning details and recalling them, the harder it is to access those details. The hippocampus, a region deep within the brain, is the memory-staging area that connects stimuli and responses. It's vital for consolidation of memories. If we look at the cells in the hippocampus, we find a massive number of axons that move from deep within the brain as a two-way street. Hippocampal cells connect widely to many other regions in the brain, stopping at many way stations. Kosik explains that massive parallel processing takes place when we lay down or recall a memory, thus ensuring more flexibility in our ability to think in the sense that we can synthesize information from different sensory modalities. Because new information builds on prior existing information, making new linkages and new insights is crucial to building up useful longterm memory. Each of us has thousands of feedback loops throughout our brains, all of which are cross-communicating and engaging the entire organ. In fact, the brain may discard unnecessary or useless information before we even know we've received it. Kosik explains further that learning and experience can modify the number of neurons. The human brain has approximately 100 billion neurons, each with as many as 5,000 synaptic connections to other neurons. It's those synaptic connections that are forged and reinforced by experience. Therefore, as a broad generalization, one can say that the more experience we have, the more connections are forged. In her book The Human Brain: A Guided Tour, Susan A. Greenfield ponders how memories become consolidated in the cortex. No one knows exactly how the hippocampus and medial thalamus (vital for relaying incoming sensory information into the cortex) lay down memories. Says Greenfield: "One attractive idea draws on memory being composed of otherwise arbitrary elements, brought together for the first time in

the event or the fact to be remembered. The role of the hippocampus and medial thalamus would be to ensure that disparate, previously unassociated elements are now associated and thus somehow bound into a cohesive memory. One metaphor might be that of scaffolding: While a building is being established, the removal of the scaffolding would lead to collapse of the edifice. However, once the building is completed, the scaffolding is redundant." Greenfield continues: "Memory can be subdivided into different processes, and each process will be served by different combinations of brain regions. But common to all these memory processes is perhaps the most mysterious issue of all: We know that some people can remember what happened to them 90 years ago, but by then every molecule in their bodies will have been turned over many times. If long-term changes mediating memories are occurring continuously in the brain, how are they sustained? How do neurons register more or less permanent change as a result of experience?" Kosik admits that any answers to those questions are at the moment speculative. "The way in which we access long-term memory isn't well understood at all," he says. Schenck says that teaching directs the making of memory. "As an instructor, you select different forms of memory and then teach to the creation of those memories. For example, if I'm teaching something that's in the form of visual recall, I'm aware that when I go to assess that learning, I'm going to have to ask for performances related to something visual. It's crucial to match the assessment with the types of memory used in instruction and practice. In short, you're teaching the student how to find the memory." Jensen echoes that thought when he says, "The variety of ways that we store and retrieve information tells us that we have to start thinking less of our memory in general and more of which kind of memory and how it can be retrieved."

Making a memory

One continual challenge to instructors is making sure participants perceive incoming information as important. A technique Schenck uses in the classroom to help that process is to make learners aware of how they are making a memory. He thinks it's necessary to bring to a conscious level how a person is learning, where he or she is storing the memory, and how to find it. "In developing learners' skills in how to retrieve a specific memory when it's needed, it's crucial for them to become aware of how they are processing and accessing memory stores," says Schenck. As each person learns in a unique way, it's vital for him or her to ask, "How do I learn?" That requires knowing how your own brain works. It means not only knowing conceptually how memory is built, but also being aware of when you are getting tired or when you're starting to loose track and drift away from the subject. To enhance one's focus, Schenck suggests having participants stand up and do some physical activity for several minutes to rev up their blood and circulation.

Another tack is to change tasks for 15 to 20 minutes. "I tell my students to be alert to when they are learning," says Schenck, "but also to when they are not learning." In order to create long-term memories, it's vital to be verbally explicit and to elaborate on any details. Creating personal linkages is an approach Schenck uses. He has participants make concept maps to show relationships between ideas. For those maps, he writes down a single key word or phrase. Then, participants provide everything that can be linked to the word or phrase. Each time a word is added, participants draw a line to the next word or concept. Stone linkages may need an action verb to explain them. For example, if the instructor gives the concept "Cells right arrow mitosis," then the line drawn by the learner would have "reproduce by" on top. As a concept map becomes progressively more intricate, it provides a visual map for learners of how the items or issues are related. Schenck says that technique improves memory for detail and the ability to make linkages to other topics. Using multiple forms of review also enhances long-term memory. Rather than doing just a written review, educators who are using brain-based learning theory suggest also using drawings, pantomime, and role play to access memory stores through multiple modalities. Another strategy to enhance the recall of stored information is to provide a framework of retrieval cues. By teaching key words, a procedure, or a sequence, learners have another tool to retrieve information. Say that a learner has a concept and understands it well, but in asking him or her to explain that idea, the instructor uses words differently from those the learner has been taught and has practiced. In such cases, the instructor is giving the wrong cues. Says Schenck, "The learner won't be able to find the correct memory file because the wrong word has been typed in on the search mode. It's important to get students to expand those cues while they're learning a concept or information." Yet another idea for helping learners enhance memory is to give them external retrieval cues. The classic example is when we ask ourselves, "Where did I leave my keys?" Mentally, we go through all of the information we can recall before we blanked. We often find that it helps to go to the room where we suspect the loss occurred so that the environment provides cues. If you plan to test or assess a group in a particular type of room or facility, it will help if participant's are taught or rehearsed in that facility at the same time of day and with the same noise and temperature range--just as basic military training replicates a combat environment as closely as possible.

Past perfection

Schenck talks about reviewing past perfection: "If students have successfully learned something, then make them rehearse it five to 10

times. They can further solidify the memory by reviewing again the next day. Often when learners get something correct, the instructor stops, though the procedure or concept isn't yet stable in their minds. That's why it's necessary to practice it past perfection." Schenck notes that after two to three weeks, memory decay stabilizes. "The greater the initial amount of information put into the long-term memory, the greater the final amount retained. As you would imagine, the more active a student is in the learning process, the greater the long-term memory is." Research on the brain has proven to be a powerful factor in guiding learning specialists as they approach the complicated subject of learning and memory. Sprenger says, "Although nothing appears to remain constant in this field, I want teachers to know two things. One, the brain has everything to do with learning. Two, the more we know about brain science, the easier it will be to make the hundreds of decisions each day that affect students." Says Kosik, "Ultimately the goal is not to give people photographic memories, but to learn how to improve intelligence, creativity, and imagination." ~~~~~~~~ By Ruth Palombo Weiss Ruth Palombo Weiss is a freelance writer based in Potomac, Maryland; pivotal@erols.com. Many of the ideas in the article are from a paper by Kenneth S. Kosik, "Etching Memories in the Brain: The Reflection of Experience," given at the Brain-Based Learning Conference last April in Boston. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright of Training & Development is the property of American Society for Training & Development. Copyright of PUBLICATION is the property of PUBLISHER. The copyright in an individual article may be maintained by the author in certain cases. Content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. Source: Training & Development, Oct2000, Vol. 54 Issue 10, p46, 5p