Tag: short-term memory

Memory in school

I have recently joined a club at Penn State that requires me to memorize lots of information about the club that I am quizzed on it each week. I must write the information word for word and they are very and complex long terms and definitions. I knew this would be a challenge and I was very worried at first. But, Dr.Wedes mini lesson on how to study more effectively came at the most perfect time for me.

Dr.Wede talked about two strategies that will successfully help you commit certain information from your short term memory to your long term memory. Short term memory holds a few items for a short period of time and long term memory is relatively permanent and has limitless storage. The two strategies we discussed in class were 1) distributed practice and 2) retrieval practice.

To help me remember the information that was on these quizzes I practiced one definition each day. I spaced out my learning so I did not have to cram all of the definitions in at once. I also practiced retrieving the information by saying it aloud and writing it down whenever I had free time. I also made connections to help me remember using elaborative rehearsal. Elaborative rehearsal happens when information from short term memory is transferred into long term memory by making the information meaningful. This can be done by relating the information to prior knowledge and making it personal. I would make up a story or an event that went along with the definition which helped me retrieve the information. Lastly, I had intense study sessions where I would focus on one definition at a time for a few minutes then take a break and try to retrieve it. I would write the information on paper going by memory. I was able to space these study sessions out so I was effectively making connections with each definition so I would not get mixed up.

Dr.Wedes helpful methods really improved my performance with these weekly quizzes that once gave me so much anxiety. I can now effectively study the terms and I actually still remember all of them even two weeks later!

Selective Attention

Selective Attention is the process of putting more energy into processing what’s important and funneling out what some one finds not important.  We are able to bring information into our Short-term memory through selective attention.  Selective attention can happen with us purposefully doing it and it can happen unintentionally as well. If you’re in a loud class room and you are trying to hear the professor talk, you are going to use selective attention to only listen to the professor.  Unintentionally may be a scenario like this: your walking down the street with your friend while they are telling you a story, you see a car coming and so you stop at the cross walk but you didn’t hear anything your friend said.  Your attention was on the car because you found it more important to not get hit by a car rather than to hear your friends story.

Every time we listen to something, hear something, or taking any type of sensory information in, we process it through selective attention.  Anything that seems important will be brought to our short term memory.  Anything that wasn’t important, we will funnel out and it will not reach our short-term memory which will result in no memory of it at all.  If we do not encode something, we can not retrieve it.

Personally an example of selective attention that has happened to me is the following: I was home with my sister and watching a movie that interested me, she got up from the couch, walked right in front of me, and I had no memory of her leaving the room.  A few minutes later, I went to talk to her and i realized she wasn’t there.  This was selective attention because I found watching the movie was more important and interesting then my sister walking across the room.

I feel that we have all experienced the, “Wait, when did you leave the room…?” example of selective attention.