When I was four years old, my mom enrolled me in Suzuki Violin lessons. The Suzuki method is a philosophy of learning to play an instrument where children learn to play by ear before learning to read music (Suzuki Association of the Americas, 2021). What that meant for me was that for the first five years of violin lessons, I memorized the songs I learned to play and never used sheet music. 

Since I wasn’t taught to read music, I learned to call each note on the violin by the finger used to play it, instead of its note name. To help me memorize how to play the songs I was learning, my teacher encouraged me to sing the string of finger numbers of the song I was memorizing to the tune of that song. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star was the first song I learned to play. I remember singing, “A A E E 1 1 E, 3 3 2 2 1 1 A” (the string of finger numbers for the first line in Twinkle) to the tune of Twinkle all the time. At the time I didn’t realize it, but I was using elaborative rehearsal to memorize my songs. Elaborative rehearsal is “Rehearsal that involves thinking about the meaning of an item to be remembered or making connections between that item and prior knowledge” (Goldstein, 2015, p. 408). When I was memorizing how to play Twinkle, I was connecting the string of finger numbers I was trying to memorize with the tune of the song when I would sing them out loud. I was processing this string at a deeper level by associating each finger number with a note in a song I was familiar with. This form of elaborative rehearsal allowed me to successfully memorize the song.

I excelled at memorizing songs in this manner. However, when I got older my teacher started previewing new songs with me. She’d write out only the string of finger numbers for the new song (without telling me the tune of the song), and give it to me before I would learn this song. She’d ask me to memorize this string of numbers, thinking that in a couple weeks when it was time to learn the new song, it would be easier because I would already have the string of finger numbers memorized. 

Unfortunately, I struggled immensely to memorize these strings of finger numbers. Unlike before, when the string of finger numbers was associated with the tune of the song I was learning, I didn’t know the tune of the song for this new string of numbers. I had no way of connecting this string of numbers to anything meaningful. Since my teacher didn’t tell me the tune of the song, I used maintenance rehearsal to memorize it. Maintenance rehearsal is “Rehearsal that involves repetition without any consideration of meaning or making connections to other information” (Goldstein, 2015, p. 413). As mentioned in the textbook, maintenance rehearsal results in poorer memory since it is associated with a shallow level of processing (Goldstein, 2015, p. 180). Thus, it makes sense that I struggled to memorize these strings of numbers as they had no connection to anything meaningful for me. Unlike when I would memorize the string of numbers by connecting it to the tune of a song, I couldn’t do that with these strings and had to memorize them without connecting them to anything meaningful. This resulted in a shallower level of processing for the string of numbers, and consequently explains why I struggled to memorize it. 

In conclusion, this example explains why using elaborative rehearsal instead of maintenance rehearsal results in better memory. Next time you have to memorize something, connect it with something meaningful. This will allow you to process the information at a deeper level, and remember it better. 

Goldstein, E.B. (2015). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience, 4th Edition. Cengage Learning. 

Suzuki Association of the Americas. (2021). About the Suzuki method. Suzuki Association of the Americas. Retrieved October 16, 2021, from https://suzukiassociation.org/about/suzuki-method/. 

Our textbook defines memory as, “the process involved in retaining, retrieving, and using information about stimuli, images, events, ideas, and skills after the original information is no longer present.” Memory is a very fascinating because we can remember something from when we were five, but cannot remember what we did a week ago. Short-term memory is designed for us to store smaller amounts of information and only held for short amounts of time. According to the our class textbook, “STM is the window into how the present is represented in our minds. We can examine STM to look at how long information is held, the capacity, the way the information is coded, and the way the information is lost.”

I have a great long-term memory, and can remember very specific details about a lot of things throughout my life, but my short-term memory is not nearly as clear. I’m almost convinced it is part of my family because everyone from my younger brothers, to my grandma, to my extended family has trouble with STM. A very common question in my household, and probably many others, is “where’s the remote?” I eventually got sick and tired of not only this question, but many others like it so I made designated spots for certain items in the household.

Another interesting fact that I learned while reading through lesson five is the digital span task. This refers to a given set of numbers that can either stay as one set or be broken down into chunks. Phone numbers are a great example of this. Instead of having 12 numbers all at once, we break it down into (111) – 234-1234. This makes it a lot easier to remember and with rehearsal of the number it will eventually become part of our LTM. This is also relevant to me because at work we all have an employee ID number that is divided in half by a “-“.

When working on retaining information that is usually just part of out STM interference also plays a huge role. According to VeryWellmind, “you might have a harder time remembering someone’s name if you’re in a crowded, noisy room, or if you were thinking of what to say to the person rather than paying attention to their name.” I can very much to relate to this because when I am learning new information, especially for class/exams, I have to be in a quite area to study if I want to remember anything. The retention of information and memories requires STM to be transferred into LTM.

Overall, I find it extremely interesting how out minds work, not just relating to memory, but for every aspect of how we function and interpret things. This is the main reason why I am pursuing a Psychology Degree and hopefully a few more degree’s after this one!

Citations:

Cherry, K. (2011, January 13). Short-Term Memory Duration and Capacity. Verywell Mind; Verywellmind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-short-term-memory-2795348

Goldstein, B. E. (2019). Cognitive psychology : connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Langara College.

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Imagine sitting in a desk in a classroom during a very heavy mathematical lecture at school, while a professor is breaking down the process of Pythagorean theorem. The most common part of this theory is a² + b² =c² . Now imagine if during the time it takes the teacher to give an explanation on how to solve a problem using this theory, that throughout the whole course of this explanation you had to rehearse the alphabet repeatedly out loud until they finish the problem. Aside from the annoyance of consistently repeating the alphabet, would you be able to recite the steps and solve a math problem using this formula afterwards? Chances are that due to you speaking at the same time of hearing the auditory information of how to calculate an answer to this problem would be slim to none. Why might this be? Well, “Baddeley and coworkers” determined this as “articulatory suppression” (Goldstein,2011). More specifically, “the repetition of an irrelevant sound results in a phenomenon called articulatory suppression, which reduces memory because speaking interferes with rehearsal” (Goldstein,2011). This blog explores the relevance of articulatory suppression and how it has been seen in my daily life.

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For starters, there seems to be a plethora of experiences to choose from when referring to articulatory suppression. The one that I would like to further explain due to its correlation to articulatory suppression, is the time I had to give a speech for a speech course. This seems like a fitting example, since during a speech notes for reference seem like a necessity. During my speech, I was able to speak out loud to my classmates explaining a new tax that was put on foods that were unhealthy. However, in the midst of my speech when I looked down to read my notes while I was still talking, it seemed my mind encountered an utter blank. Although words were still coming out of my mouth, trying to comprehend the next string of lines present on the index card, while simultaneously continuing my speech did not result in the expected outcome. Instead of smoothly transitioning to my next point, I was unable to process the words I had written due to my incessant talking, and I eventually became mute. Since the class was respectfully giving me their undivided attention, they were so silent that you could hear the wind blowing through branches outside of the classroom. Although the initial delivery of my speech had not been delivered as planned, once I was no longer speaking, I was able to give my full attention to the written notes. Without having the background noise of my own voice, I was able to get back on track with the speech and redeem myself.

Furthermore, the recent example seems to fall well in line with the idea of articulatory suppression. Even though nerves play a certain role in giving a speech, remembering every fact and piece of information in a presentation is sometimes tricky. Having index cards to alleviate this struggle is helpful, but trying to retain new information on an index card while speaking about prior components of the speech left me unable to handle both stimuli at once.

Presenting a speech or other forms of presentations where individuals don’t practice prior to their demonstration may face a similar obstacle. This is because the information in their notes is essentially new and speaking while trying to gain new knowledge tends to apply this affect. Much like the example given earlier about the math problem, the rehearsal of words interferes with our cognitive abilities to process new incoming information fluently.

Lastly, separating outside interferences and quieting ourselves can allow for an easier absorption of material. Perhaps articulatory suppression hasn’t received enough attention, but once I learned more about this concept and what it entails; I can confidently say that I have run into many experiences in which I’ve witnessed it occur in my daily life.

References

Goldstein, B. (2011). “Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience” (4th ed.). Wadsworth, Inc.

Blogspot. (https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bbr6v-f47y4/VsYVBKFFfmI/AAAAAAAAFtA/-edtalrykIE/s1600/english-scared-turtle-710×423.jpg.

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Last week, prior to beginning to study for our midterm exam, I quickly sifted through the notes I had taken for lessons one through six. I wanted to see what information I could easily retrieve from my long-term memory. While going through the retrieval process, I noticed that lesson three on the topic of perception seemed to be the easiest for me to recall. I didn’t understand why that lesson in particular would be better stored in my long-term memory over any other, except that I had written my last blog post about perception. Fast forward to this week’s lesson on encoding and retrieval of memory form long-term memory into working memory and I asked myself that same question I had last week. Why was lesson three easier for me to remember?

To begin to answer my question, I thought about the levels of processing theory, or “the idea that memory depends on how information was encoded” (Goldstein, 2015). I had, for the most part, utilized the same techniques for all six lessons. I read the commentary and textbook chapters as well as took notes on each lesson. Thus, each lesson should have been deeply processed and encoded into my long-term memory similarly. That wasn’t the case, so I turned my attention to the different types of encoding I used to store the information of lesson three into my long-term memory.

The first thing I remembered is associating bottom-up and top-down processing information with an activity my husband and I enjoy, star gazing. I had encoded their meanings with an association to myself. I was utilizing the self-reference effect which, in turn, helped to strengthen that knowledge and encode it “deeper” into my long-term memory. Also, throughout that week, my husband would give me examples of perception and asked if he was using top-down processing. I would have to retrieve the knowledge of top-down processing from my long-term memory and decide whether it was or wasn’t. Inadvertently, I was experiencing the testing effect, as he was “quizzing” me on the processes. Again, helping to strengthen my memory of lesson three’s information.

Visual Imagery also played a part in helping to strengthen the encoding of the terms and concepts of the Gestalt Grouping Principles of lesson three into my long-term memory. In my last blog post I associated the constellations of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor with the Principle of Good Continuation. In picturing the star formations in my working memory, acting as a retrieval cue, I was able to better retrieve the information of the principle from my long-term memory. Picturing the stars instantly cued my long term memory to transfer the Gestalt Grouping Principles into my working memory.

So, to answer my initial question, the way that I had encoded the concepts from lesson three using the self-reference effect, testing effect, visual images, and retrieval cues is why it was easier to recall over the other lessons. Reading and taking notes, while helpful, wasn’t as effective in creating strong memories in my long-term memory. For the other lessons I had fallen victim to the familiarity effect, I was recognizing the information but not fully remembering it (Goldstein, 2015).

Works Cited

Goldstein, E. B. (2015). Cognitive Psychology Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience. Cengage Learning.

When we think of long term memory, we usually think of the best things that have happened to us in the past. However, it does not always work that way. Sometimes we have bad memories that tend to stick with us for the rest of our life, no matter if we want to remember it or not. Those memories that we do not always want to remember are the ones that help shape us into who we are today. There are certain events that occur that can cause you to relive these moments. These are called retrieval cues, as words or other stimuli, that help us remember information stored in our memory (Goldstein, 2015). 

On November 30th, 2018 my world was changed forever. The way I looked at life changed as well. It was my first year out of college, and I was living with two other girls who were seniors in college that I had known from doing track at Shippensburg University. We all had been hanging out, eating dinner that night and then the next morning only two out of three of us woke up. 

I woke up that morning and had a feeling in my gut that I had never felt before. It felt like I could’ve been sick at that moment, however, I knew I was not ill or hungover. The rest of my body felt fine. I just had this very weird feeling in my gut. I went to the gym and did my workout, but still had this feeling. When I came home, my one roommate’s (Tam) car was still in the driveway which was kind of odd because it was close to ten o’clock and she was never one to stay at the house for a long time. She was always out and about doing something with someone. I then texted my other roommate (Erica) to see if she had heard from her or saw her that morning, and she replied somewhat quickly and said she had not seen her. I explained to her this odd feeling I had, that something felt very wrong. My roommate texted again and said they were supposed to have a class together in about ten minutes and she would let me know if she showed up. She texted me then and told me she did not show up to class.
My roommate then raced home. I had been trying to get a hold of Tam ever since I got back from the gym and no answer. I knocked on her door, I tried to unlock the door but was not able to. Erica arrived home and had two of our other friends with her. They knocked on the door, made multiple calls, but there was no response. We then were panicking because I think deep down we knew something was very wrong. One of the swimmers called 911. I went outside to wait for the cops to show up. To this very day I will never forget the screams I heard from Erica and the two swimmers. Erica ran down the stairs and just fell in my arms and then fell onto the ground. At that moment, anyone could’ve told me to take one step for a million dollars and I would not have been able to. Cops showed up, my head track coach showed up, the swim coach and the athletic director showed up to offer support to Erica, myself and the two swimmers that were there. 

This is one of the hardest things I have ever been through and would never wish it on anyone. The memory of this day will always be with me no matter how much I try to forget it. Free recall refers to being asked to recall stimuli (Goldstein, 2015). For me, I don’t mind talking about this, and at the end of the day I think it actually helped me get through that time. Cued recall is when someone is presented with certain things to help remember the event (Goldstein, 2015). I would not say that I need to be presented with anything to be able to recall this event, but there are things in my life, or throughout the day, that will make me think about this exact day. An example would be remembering the house in Shippensburg and instantly being back to that day. Visual coding in long-term memory when you visualize a person or place from the past (Goldstein, 2015). Auditory coding would be another way to recall this memory would be just by hearing certain noises or songs that played that day or at that moment. 

Goldstein, E. B. (2015). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Cengage Learning.

According to the modal model of memory introduced by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin (1968), there are three types of memory: sensory memory, short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM). Sensory memory is the initial stage of memory which holds all incoming information for seconds or fractions of a second. STM is the second stage to memory which holds five to seven items for about 15 to 20 seconds. And LTM is the last stage of memory which can hold a large amount of information for years or even decades (Goldstein, 2015 p. 121).  

STM is the system that is involved with storing small amounts of information for a brief period of time according to Baddeley (2009) as cited by Goldstein (2015). Although many downplay the importance of STM due to the brief duration that it holds information, it is responsible for a great deal of our mental life (Goldstein, 2015 p. 127). STM is believed to be a critical contributor to essential cognitive functions and properties such as language, comprehension, learning, planning, reasoning, and general fluid intelligence (Goldstein, 2015). Thus, short-term memory loss presents tremendous barriers to overcome.  

Frankie Muniz, child actor who is most famous for his role as Malcolm in Malcolm in the Middle experiences severe memory loss after suffering multiple concussions (Adebowale, 2019). Muniz has suffered from a total of nine concussions in his lifetime with the first one occurring at age 7 (Adebowale, 2019). In 2012, he had a mini-stroke, and then had a second attack less than a year later (Adebowale, 2019). Although the timing of when Muniz started losing his memory is unclear, in 2017 he opened up about his short-term memory loss.  

Although Frankie Muniz acted on Malcolm in the Middle for 6 and a half years, he cannot remember most of the time he spent on set. This is just one of the many side effects of short-term memory loss. If short-term memory loss becomes severe, then it becomes difficult for individuals care for themselves. This means that a caregiver is needed in order to survive. As you can see, short-term memory is more important than you think.  

To recap, there are three types of working memory: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Although many only perceive long-term memory as important, all 3 types of working memory are crucial to our mental life. As you can see, short-term memory loss has many different side effects that make living life difficult.  

Work Cited 

Adebowale, T. (2019, October 4). Frankie Muniz opens up about his severe memory loss. Men’s Health. Retrieved October 14, 2021, from https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a29365398/frankie-muniz-memory-loss/. 

Atkinson, R. and Shiffrin, R. (1968) The multi-store model of memory 

Goldstein, E. B. (2015). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research, and everyday experience. Cengage Learning. 

Alexis Hayes

Professor Wede

October 13, 2021

Psychology Class

Blog 2 Discussion

Something that I struggle with is long-term memory loss. Long-term memory loss is how your brain keeps information stored. (Long Term Memory Loss, What You Need To Know.) We use our long-term memory to know what is going on around us. (Penn State, Chapter 7.) What can prevent from restoring new long-term memories is damage to the hippocampus. (Areas of The Brain, Penn State) Another area of the brain that is impacted is the medial temporal lobe which has to do with long-term memory. There are signs if someone has long-term memory loss. They repeat the same questions, misplacing items often, have personality changes, and cannot keep up with everyday tasks. (15 signs that your memory may be severe.) It can also be forgetting important dates and forgetting a person’s name. (Long Term Memory Loss.)

The hippocampus is connected to the temporal lobe and is responsible for making long-term emotional memories. If the brain damage is severe, it can make them forget old memories. (Temporal Lobe Damage.) The hippocampus can shrink about to 20% according to some researchers. (What happens if the hippocampus is affected by illness or injury.) There are different health issues that cause long-term memory loss such as depression, PTSD, drug/alcohol use, brain tumors, and a stroke. (What causes long-term memory loss.)

Some memory loss health issues are dementia, Alzheimer’s, and frontotemporal dementia. Dementia is long-term and short-term memory loss and gets worse over time and affects some elderly. (Is It Dementia?) Alzheimer’s affects the elderly and impairs language, memory, and judgment. (Alzheimer’s disease.) Frontotemporal dementia affects some younger people and causes personality changes and memory loss. It is important for people to not diagnose themselves online and to go to the doctor and get diagnosed that if something is going on with them.

Some of the treatments for long-term memory are medications, surgery, exercise, a healthy sleep schedule that can prevent memory loss. (Treatment For Long-Term Memory Loss.) I struggle with long-term memory loss because I forget where I place my items, I forget a person’s name and I ask the same questions repeatedly. The hippocampus and medial temporal lobe are affected if a person long term memory is damaged. Recovery is possible if a person is going through this by exercising, having a healthy sleep schedule, and medication. In conclusion, it is important for people to exercise their brain and take care of their brain by sleeping normally and eating healthy and this fact can prevent brain damage.

Work Cited Page

Admin, E. R. U. K. (2017, June 7). The hippocampus: What is it?: Epilepsy research UK. Epilepsy Research UK iCal. Retrieved October 14, 2021, from https://epilepsyresearch.org.uk/the-hippocampus-what-is-it/.

Hersh, E. (2018, November 27). Long-term memory loss: Causes, symptoms, treatment, and more. Healthline. Retrieved October 14, 2021, from https://www.healthline.com/health/long-term-memory-loss.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Memory, forgetfulness, and aging: What’s normal and what’s not? National Institute on Aging. Retrieved October 14, 2021, from https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/memory-forgetfulness-and-aging-whats-normal-and-whats-not.

Alban, P. (n.d.). Why your memory is bad and what to do about it. Be Brain Fit. Retrieved October 14, 2021, from https://bebrainfit.com/bad-memory/.

My favorite topic that we have covered so far has been Attention, mostly because it is something that I have always struggled with.  Within the lesson, concept called automatic processing was brought up. I found this so interesting because it is something that I recognize during my daily life and always said that I was on “Auto pilot.” I never realized that there was a term for it and that it was a common thing. Automatic processing occurs unintentionally, using only some of a person’s cognitive resources (Sternberg & Sternberg, 2017).

Throughout my daily life, I spend most of my time feeling like I am in a state of automatic processing. At work, I can spend my entire day zoning out or thinking about any and everything else, but still manage to correctly complete my tasks. I work as a Pharmacy Technician, so my job requires me to label prepackaged blister cards and then run them through a scanner to ensure the label matches the drug. I have been doing this for 9 years, so it makes sense that I can complete this without any conscious effort as I have been practicing the same exact actions every single day.

Now that I know that my “Auto Pilot Mode” has a name and is a real concept within cognitive psychology, I can make total sense of how I am able to perform tasks without even being aware of it. It is so interesting to me that even tasks that require the carrying out of motor skills can be done unintentionally and subconsciously.

References:
Sternberg, R. J., & Sternberg, K. (2017). Cognitive psychology. Cengage Learning.

The process of long-term memory may seem simple: we learn something via encoding, and we remember what we have learned later via retrieval. However, there are many variables that can affect our abilities within the encoding and retrieval process, one of which being the conditions. The conditions in which we are first exposed to a particular stimuli and eventually encode it into our long-term memory and how they match (or don’t match) the conditions we are in during our attempts at trying to retrieve this information can show up in two ways: encoding specificity and state-dependent learning. Encoding specificity refers to our encoding of information also including the context in which the information was received, while state-dependent learning associates a stimulus with a specific internal state (like a mood, emotion, or state of awareness). For this blog, I’ve chosen to focus on state-dependent learning as there has been a clear example of this present in my life, to which I didn’t have terminology until now.

My partner Nick was lucky enough to be enrolled in a public school with Massachusetts for a few years during his adolescence that offered language emergence courses. While none of his family members could speak anything but English and a little Armenian, after two years, Nick had a solid foundation in French by age 12. While his abilities certainly faded due to lack of use, Nick still had some French retained as he embarked on a Europe trip with his close friend at age 18. Spending most of their time in France, Nick and his friend paid for their room and board at local hostels by performing songs for the other guests during the evening. Being a teenager out in the world for the first time and able to in accordance to local laws, Nick spent most of this time, frankly, drunk. Plied with cheap beer and wine, Nick learnt a handful of songs in French which he sang consistently over the few months he was there.

Nick is now 35. He still plays his guitar and knows little bits of French, however, in the very rare occasions he gets drunk, Nick is able to sing and play whole concerts in French. I once asked him to play a song for me sober while I was studying French myself, but his fingers fumbled the cords and he couldn’t remember the words. A few glasses of wine later, and his Edith Pilaf is fluid and clear! I couldn’t put this occurrence down to stage fright or lack of skills – Nick regularly sings and plays his guitar with ease. But these few songs he learnt while drinking away his teenage years are linked to the state of being drunk during encoding within his LTM, making their retrieval more enhanced when he isn’t sober.

In a way, being drunk itself could be a retrieval cue to the time in his life when he was regular under the same conditions in Europe and the songs simply come to mind. Furthermore, since he grew used to playing song after song during a given evening, one song could act as a retrieval cue for the next, prompting the memories in succession. Either way, it is clear that the state of being a little tipsy helps Nick retrieve these songs he learned almost two decades ago, drunk in France.

References

Goldstein, E. B. (2015). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Cengage Learning.

           About seventeen years ago, I sorrowfully walked through the doors to my tenth-grade biology class for the first time. The teacher for this particular biology class, Mr. D, was known for giving daily quizzes. As a poor test-taker at the time, I felt certain this course structure would tank my GPA. However, my grade did not suffer. Research regarding encoding procedures and long-term memory provides an explanation.  

           On the first day of class, Mr. D displayed our daily notes to copy from the overhead projector. Side note: Does anyone remember overhead projectors? In a world of digital everything, they seem akin to a historical artifact now! Mr. D’s notes were foreign to me. They were a combination of information and doodles contained within a map-like drawing – what I later understood to be a concept map.

           On the second day of class, Mr. D gave us a quiz on the notes from the first day, followed by new notes that expanded on the information in the concept map. The third day was the same as the second – a quiz on the updated concept map, followed by notes. Each day was identical for the rest of the year, with concept notes continually building and knowledge tested along the way.

           Contrary to my initial belief, I was doing relatively well on the quizzes with less studying required than usual. How is it possible that I was studying less but remembering more? Goldstein (2015) describes several encoding procedures that might provide a feasible explanation.

           The levels of processing theory proposed by Craik and Lockhart, explains that our memory depends upon how deeply we process information. Deep processing is the focused attention to information – specifically, the meaning and relationship to other items. This level of processing can increase memorability (Goldstein, 2015). The concept maps, which included notes, definitions, and explanations, built on each other to provide a cohesive network of information in my mind – thus leading to my deep processing and easier recall during quizzes.

           Bower and Winzenz discovered that subjects more accurately recalled words with an associated mental image, rather than subjects who were instructed to repeat the words. The pairing of mental images with words is called pair-associate learning (Goldstein, 2015). Many of the items in my biology concept map were paired with an associated doodle in order to provide a mental image. When taking the quizzes, I recalled the visual images of the doodles and their accompanying information. In fact, I can still remember a few of those doodles today!

           The most compelling explanation, however, is that of the testing effect demonstrated by Roediger and Karpicke. Repeated testing on learned information enhances memory (Goldstein, 2015). The practice of actively trying to remember the information by writing it down from memory or quizzing oneself is retrieval practice (UC San Diego, n.d.). The quiz each day was just as much to test our knowledge as it was to practice retrieving information from our long-term memory.

           Overall, Mr. D knew how to get a noisy group of teenagers to retain biological concepts by requiring us to utilize effective encoding procedures and by practicing retrieval! And while I think he enjoyed terrifying his students with quizzes every day, his intentions were upright. We most certainly did not give him enough credit for teaching us how to process information more deeply. Thanks Mr. D!

References

Goldstein, E. B. (2015). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Cengage Learning.

UC San Diego. (n.d.). Retrieval Practice. Department of Psychology. https://psychology.ucsd.edu/undergraduate-program/undergraduate-resources/academic-writing-resources/effective-studying/retrieval-practice.html.