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• Associative memories: This involves the capacity to link memories in groups that belong to each other. This association is a critical memory process although slightly different to making memories. The amygdala is the part of the brain that takes care of associating memories and allows sensory data streams to connect to what we observe and what makes sense.
The metaphor of our brain and our memory systems being analogous to a computer is not valid on any level. Our brain is not a computer hard drive, and how we retain, recall and perpetuate memories is not analogous to how a computer manages that process.
Leveraging our Understanding of Memory
Learning via rote and recalling these memories is a distant cousin of our other four learning processes, as the other four had a far longer time to evolve into more efficient systems, even if they do let us down occasionally. Recalling rote learned material when it becomes a long-term memory depends on whether that memory is accessible. If accessible, then trying to remember associated long term memories, feelings and other events that may relate to the memory you wish to recall, can be a useful strategy. Tension, worry, being nervous are all emotions that release cortisol, (amongst others) in the brain. This chemical retards our access to memory for reasons we do not fully understand. It is not uncommon to meet someone and struggled to remember their name and the more you try to interrogate your mind to find that name the more frustrated you get. The moment they leave and the that tension is relieved the name springs effortlessly to mind!
Although we have mentioned that our brain is not a computer, recalling a memory is somewhat analogous to searching for what we want when we use Google. If we want to find out about the bony blades of the Stegosaurus dinosaur, we could search using just the term ‘dinosaur’. The search produces 17,100,000 results, which we would then have to filter through to find the information we are after. If we use the search string dinosaur+stegosaurus+blades+k12 we get just 1,030 search results. The metaphor can be applied in a similar way for activating our memories.
So how do we leverage and optimise our memory systems, given that they operate in very different ways and with very different outcomes?
The more senses and emotions we can use in forming the memory, the more ‘keys’, the hippocampus has at its disposal to locate that memory later. However, the memories that we recall are rarely an exact replica of what actually happened. Our sensory experience of an event includes the emotions we were feeling, our mood and our thoughts and, as a result, almost all our memories are a version of what happened, not exactly what happened.
The more sensory and emotional ‘keys’ we can associate with a memory, the easier and more quickly we can find a particular memory amongst the billions that we have archived. Unlike the computer, we do not recall a perfect memory and the memory we remember each time may well vary considerably, unless that memory is a knowledge element that is a concrete fact. What is more likely is that we tend to modify our memories of events to suit the context within which we find ourselves.
Associating our rote memories with feelings, the environment we create them in, or any other sensory data can improve the recall of these memories, however, our learning systems are not equitable in this regard. When it comes to conceptual learning, learners view each concept through a range of different contexts and this process provides a still greater number of additional ‘keys’ for locating and recalling that concept and allows our memories to be accessed more efficiently and non-consciously. Once again, this is yet another advantage of working with a conceptual curriculum as opposed to a thematically based curriculum.