memory role essay

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• How Memory Works

Memory is the ongoing process of information retention over time. Because it makes up the very framework through which we make sense of and take action within the present, its importance goes without saying. But how exactly does it work? And how can teachers apply a better understanding of its inner workings to their own teaching? In light of current research in cognitive science, the very, very short answer to these questions is that memory operates according to a "dual-process," where more unconscious, more routine thought processes (known as "System 1") interact with more conscious, more problem-based thought processes (known as "System 2"). At each of these two levels, in turn, there are the processes through which we "get information in" (encoding), how we hold on to it (storage), and and how we "get it back out" (retrieval or recall). With a basic understanding of how these elements of memory work together, teachers can maximize student learning by knowing how much new information to introduce, when to introduce it, and how to sequence assignments that will both reinforce the retention of facts (System 1) and build toward critical, creative thinking (System 2).

Dual-Process Theory

Think back to a time when you learned a new skill, such as driving a car, riding a bicycle, or reading. When you first learned this skill, performing it was an active process in which you analyzed and were acutely aware of every movement you made. Part of this analytical process also meant that you thought carefully about why you were doing what you were doing, to understand how these individual steps fit together as a comprehensive whole. However, as your ability improved, performing the skill stopped being a cognitively-demanding process, instead becoming more intuitive. As you continue to master the skill, you can perform other, at times more intellectually-demanding, tasks simultaneously. Due to your knowledge of this skill or process being unconscious, you could, for example, solve an unrelated complex problem or make an analytical decision while completing it.

In its simplest form, the scenario above is an example of what psychologists call dual-process theory. The term “dual-process” refers to the idea that some behaviors and cognitive processes (such as decision-making) are the products of two distinct cognitive processes, often called System 1 and System 2 (Kaufmann, 2011:443-445). While System 1 is characterized by automatic, unconscious thought, System 2 is characterized by effortful, analytical, intentional thought (Osman, 2004:989).

Dual-Process Theories and Learning

How do System 1 and System 2 thinking relate to teaching and learning? In an educational context, System 1 is associated with memorization and recall of information, while System 2 describes more analytical or critical thinking. Memory and recall, as a part of System 1 cognition, are focused on in the rest of these notes.

As mentioned above, System 1 is characterized by its fast, unconscious recall of previously-memorized information. Classroom activities that would draw heavily on System 1 include memorized multiplication tables, as well as multiple-choice exam questions that only need exact regurgitation from a source such as a textbook. These kinds of tasks do not require students to actively analyze what is being asked of them beyond reiterating memorized material. System 2 thinking becomes necessary when students are presented with activities and assignments that require them to provide a novel solution to a problem, engage in critical thinking, or apply a concept outside of the domain in which it was originally presented.  

It may be tempting to think of learning beyond the primary school level as being all about System 2, all the time. However, it’s important to keep in mind that successful System 2 thinking depends on a lot of System 1 thinking to operate. In other words, critical thinking requires a lot of memorized knowledge and intuitive, automatic judgments to be performed quickly and accurately.

How does Memory Work?

In its simplest form, memory refers to the continued process of information retention over time. It is an integral part of human cognition, since it allows individuals to recall and draw upon past events to frame their understanding of and behavior within the present. Memory also gives individuals a framework through which to make sense of the present and future. As such, memory plays a crucial role in teaching and learning. There are three main processes that characterize how memory works. These processes are encoding, storage, and retrieval (or recall).

• Encoding . Encoding refers to the process through which information is learned. That is, how information is taken in, understood, and altered to better support storage (which you will look at in Section 3.1.2). Information is usually encoded through one (or more) of four methods: (1) Visual encoding (how something looks); (2) acoustic encoding (how something sounds); (3) semantic encoding (what something means); and (4) tactile encoding (how something feels). While information typically enters the memory system through one of these modes, the form in which this information is stored may differ from its original, encoded form (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014).

• Retrieval . As indicated above, retrieval is the process through which individuals access stored information. Due to their differences, information stored in STM and LTM are retrieved differently. While STM is retrieved in the order in which it is stored (for example, a sequential list of numbers), LTM is retrieved through association (for example, remembering where you parked your car by returning to the entrance through which you accessed a shopping mall) (Roediger & McDermott, 1995).

Improving Recall

Retrieval is subject to error, because it can reflect a reconstruction of memory. This reconstruction becomes necessary when stored information is lost over time due to decayed retention. In 1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus conducted an experiment in which he tested how well individuals remembered a list of nonsense syllables over increasingly longer periods of time. Using the results of his experiment, he created what is now known as the “Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve” (Schaefer, 2015).

Through his research, Ebbinghaus concluded that the rate at which your memory (of recently learned information) decays depends both on the time that has elapsed following your learning experience as well as how strong your memory is. Some degree of memory decay is inevitable, so, as an educator, how do you reduce the scope of this memory loss? The following sections answer this question by looking at how to improve recall within a learning environment, through various teaching and learning techniques.

As a teacher, it is important to be aware of techniques that you can use to promote better retention and recall among your students. Three such techniques are the testing effect, spacing, and interleaving.

• The testing effect . In most traditional educational settings, tests are normally considered to be a method of periodic but infrequent assessment that can help a teacher understand how well their students have learned the material at hand. However, modern research in psychology suggests that frequent, small tests are also one of the best ways to learn in the first place. The testing effect refers to the process of actively and frequently testing memory retention when learning new information. By encouraging students to regularly recall information they have recently learned, you are helping them to retain that information in long-term memory, which they can draw upon at a later stage of the learning experience (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014). As secondary benefits, frequent testing allows both the teacher and the student to keep track of what a student has learned about a topic, and what they need to revise for retention purposes. Frequent testing can occur at any point in the learning process. For example, at the end of a lecture or seminar, you could give your students a brief, low-stakes quiz or free-response question asking them to remember what they learned that day, or the day before. This kind of quiz will not just tell you what your students are retaining, but will help them remember more than they would have otherwise.
• Spacing.  According to the spacing effect, when a student repeatedly learns and recalls information over a prolonged time span, they are more likely to retain that information. This is compared to learning (and attempting to retain) information in a short time span (for example, studying the day before an exam). As a teacher, you can foster this approach to studying in your students by structuring your learning experiences in the same way. For example, instead of introducing a new topic and its related concepts to students in one go, you can cover the topic in segments over multiple lessons (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014).
• Interleaving.  The interleaving technique is another teaching and learning approach that was introduced as an alternative to a technique known as “blocking”. Blocking refers to when a student practices one skill or one topic at a time. Interleaving, on the other hand, is when students practice multiple related skills in the same session. This technique has proven to be more successful than the traditional blocking technique in various fields (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014).

As useful as it is to know which techniques you can use, as a teacher, to improve student recall of information, it is also crucial for students to be aware of techniques they can use to improve their own recall. This section looks at four of these techniques: state-dependent memory, schemas, chunking, and deliberate practice.

• State-dependent memory . State-dependent memory refers to the idea that being in the same state in which you first learned information enables you to better remember said information. In this instance, “state” refers to an individual’s surroundings, as well as their mental and physical state at the time of learning (Weissenborn & Duka, 2000). 
• Schemas.  Schemas refer to the mental frameworks an individual creates to help them understand and organize new information. Schemas act as a cognitive “shortcut” in that they allow individuals to interpret new information quicker than when not using schemas. However, schemas may also prevent individuals from learning pertinent information that falls outside the scope of the schema that has been created. It is because of this that students should be encouraged to alter or reanalyze their schemas, when necessary, when they learn important information that may not confirm or align with their existing beliefs and conceptions of a topic.
• Chunking.  Chunking is the process of grouping pieces of information together to better facilitate retention. Instead of recalling each piece individually, individuals recall the entire group, and then can retrieve each item from that group more easily (Gobet et al., 2001).
• Deliberate practice.  The final technique that students can use to improve recall is deliberate practice. Simply put, deliberate practice refers to the act of deliberately and actively practicing a skill with the intention of improving understanding of and performance in said skill. By encouraging students to practice a skill continually and deliberately (for example, writing a well-structured essay), you will ensure better retention of that skill (Brown et al., 2014).

For more information...

Brown, P.C., Roediger, H.L. & McDaniel, M.A. 2014.  Make it stick: The science of successful learning . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Gobet, F., Lane, P.C., Croker, S., Cheng, P.C., Jones, G., Oliver, I. & Pine, J.M. 2001. Chunking mechanisms in human learning.  Trends in Cognitive Sciences . 5(6):236-243.

Kaufman, S.B. 2011. Intelligence and the cognitive unconscious. In  The Cambridge handbook of intelligence . R.J. Sternberg & S.B. Kaufman, Eds. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Osman, M. 2004. An evaluation of dual-process theories of reasoning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review . 11(6):988-1010.

Roediger, H.L. & McDermott, K.B. 1995. Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition . 21(4):803.

Schaefer, P. 2015. Why Google has forever changed the forgetting curve at work.

Weissenborn, R. & Duka, T. 2000. State-dependent effects of alcohol on explicit memory: The role of semantic associations.  Psychopharmacology . 149(1):98-106.

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Psychology Discussion

Essay on memory: (meaning and types).

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Read this Comprehensive Essay on Memory: Meaning, Nature and Types of Memory !

Meaning and Nature :

Memory is one of the important cognitive processes. Memory involves remembering and forgetting.

These are like two faces of a coin. Though these two are opposed to each other by nature, they play an important role in the life of an individual.

Remembering the pleasant experiences makes living happy, and on the other hand remembering unpleasant experiences makes living unhappy and miserable. So here forgetting helps individual to forget unwanted and unpleasant experiences and memories and keeps him happy.

In this way, remembering the pleasant and forgetting the- unpleasant both are essential for normal living. In the case of learners, remembering is very important, because without memory there would be no learning.

If learning has to progress, remembering of what is already learnt is indispensable, otherwise every time the learner has to start from the beginning.

The memory is defined as ‘the power to store experiences and to bring them into the field of consciousness sometime after the experience has occurred’. Our mind has the power of conserving experiences and mentally receiving them whenever such an activity helps the onward progress of the life cycle.

The conserved experience has a unity, an organisation of its own and it colours our present experience.

However, as stated above we have a notion that memory is a single process, but an analysis of it reveals involvement of three different activities- learning, retention and remembering.

This is the first stage of memory. Learning may be by any of the methods like imitation, verbal, motor, conceptual, trial and error, insight, etc. Hence, whatever may be the type of learning; we must pay our attention to retain what is learnt. A good learning is necessary for better retention.

Retention is the process of retaining in mind what is learnt or experienced in the past. The learnt material must be retained in order to make progress in our learning. Psychologists are of the opinion that the learnt material will be retained in the brain in the form of neural traces called ‘memory traces’, or ‘engrams’, or ‘neurograms’.

When good learning takes place –clear engrams are formed, so that they remain for long time and can be remembered by activation of these traces whenever necessary.

Remembering:

It is the process of bringing back the stored or retained information to the conscious level. This may be understood by activities such as recalling, recognising, relearning and reconstruction.

Recalling is the process of reproducing the past experiences that are not present. For example, recalling answers in the examination hall.

Recognising:

It is to recognise a person seen earlier, or the original items seen earlier, from among the items of the same class or category which they are mixed-up.

Relearning:

Relearning is also known as saving method. Because we measure retention in terms of saving in the number of repetition or the time required to relearn the assignment. The difference between the amount of time or trials required for original learning and the one required for relearning indicates the amount of retention.

Reconstruction:

Reconstruction is otherwise called rearrangement. Here the material to learn will be presented in a particular order and then the items will be jumbled up or shuffled thoroughly and presented to the individual to rearrange them in the original order in which it was presented.

Types of Memory :

There are five kinds of memory. These are classified on the basis of rates of decay of the information.

a. Sensory memory:

In this kind of memory, the information received by the sense organs will remain there for a very short period like few seconds. For example, the image on the screen of a TV may appear to be in our eyes for a fraction of time even when it is switched off, or the voice of a person will be tingling in our ears even after the voice is ceased.

b. Short-term memory (STM):

According to many studies, in STM the memory remains in our conscious and pre-conscious level for less than 30 seconds. Later on this will be transferred to long-term memory.

c. Long-term memory (LTM):

LTM has the unlimited capacity to store information which may remain for days, months, years or lifetime.

d. Eidetic memory:

It is otherwise called photographic memory in which the individual can remember a scene or an event in a photographic detail.

e. Episodic memory:

This is otherwise called semantic memory which is connected with episodes of events. The events are stored in the form of episodes and recalled fully in the manner of a sequence.

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Memory Stages: Encoding Storage and Retrieval

Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

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Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc

Associate Editor for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education

Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.

On This Page:

“Memory is the process of maintaining information over time.” (Matlin, 2005) “Memory is the means by which we draw on our past experiences in order to use this information in the present’ (Sternberg, 1999).

Memory is the term given to the structures and processes involved in the storage and subsequent retrieval of information.

Memory is essential to all our lives. Without a memory of the past, we cannot operate in the present or think about the future. We would not be able to remember what we did yesterday, what we have done today, or what we plan to do tomorrow.  Without memory, we could not learn anything.

Memory is involved in processing vast amounts of information. This information takes many different forms, e.g., images, sounds, or meaning.

For psychologists, the term memory covers three important aspects of information processing :

Memory Encoding

When information comes into our memory system (from sensory input), it needs to be changed into a form that the system can cope with so that it can be stored.

Think of this as similar to changing your money into a different currency when you travel from one country to another.  For example, a word that is seen (in a book) may be stored if it is changed (encoded) into a sound or a meaning (i.e., semantic processing).

There are three main ways in which information can be encoded (changed):

1. Visual (picture) 2. Acoustic (sound) 3. Semantic (meaning)

For example, how do you remember a telephone number you have looked up in the phone book?  If you can see it, then you are using visual coding, but if you are repeating it to yourself, you are using acoustic coding (by sound).

Evidence suggests that this is the principle coding system in short-term memory (STM) is acoustic coding.  When a person is presented with a list of numbers and letters, they will try to hold them in STM by rehearsing them (verbally).

Rehearsal is a verbal process regardless of whether the list of items is presented acoustically (someone reads them out), or visually (on a sheet of paper).

The principle encoding system in long-term memory (LTM) appears to be semantic coding (by meaning).  However, information in LTM can also be coded both visually and acoustically.

Memory Storage

This concerns the nature of memory stores, i.e., where the information is stored, how long the memory lasts (duration), how much can be stored at any time (capacity) and what kind of information is held.

The way we store information affects the way we retrieve it.  There has been a significant amount of research regarding the differences between Short Term Memory (STM ) and Long Term Memory (LTM).

Most adults can store between 5 and 9 items in their short-term memory.  Miller (1956) put this idea forward, and he called it the magic number 7.  He thought that short-term memory capacity was 7 (plus or minus 2) items because it only had a certain number of “slots” in which items could be stored.

However, Miller didn’t specify the amount of information that can be held in each slot.  Indeed, if we can “chunk” information together, we can store a lot more information in our short-term memory.  In contrast, the capacity of LTM is thought to be unlimited.

Information can only be stored for a brief duration in STM (0-30 seconds), but LTM can last a lifetime.

Memory Retrieval

This refers to getting information out of storage.  If we can’t remember something, it may be because we are unable to retrieve it.  When we are asked to retrieve something from memory, the differences between STM and LTM become very clear.

STM is stored and retrieved sequentially.  For example, if a group of participants is given a list of words to remember and then asked to recall the fourth word on the list, participants go through the list in the order they heard it in order to retrieve the information.

LTM is stored and retrieved by association.  This is why you can remember what you went upstairs for if you go back to the room where you first thought about it.

Organizing information can help aid retrieval.  You can organize information in sequences (such as alphabetically, by size, or by time).  Imagine a patient being discharged from a hospital whose treatment involved taking various pills at various times, changing their dressing, and doing exercises.

If the doctor gives these instructions in the order that they must be carried out throughout the day (i.e., in the sequence of time), this will help the patient remember them.

Criticisms of Memory Experiments

A large part of the research on memory is based on experiments conducted in laboratories.  Those who take part in the experiments – the participants – are asked to perform tasks such as recalling lists of words and numbers.

Both the setting – the laboratory – and the tasks are a long way from everyday life.  In many cases, the setting is artificial, and the tasks are fairly meaningless.  Does this matter?

Psychologists use the term ecological validity to refer to the extent to which the findings of research studies can be generalized to other settings.  An experiment has high ecological validity if its findings can be generalized, that is, applied or extended to settings outside the laboratory.

It is often assumed that if an experiment is realistic or true-to-life, then there is a greater likelihood that its findings can be generalized.  If it is not realistic (if the laboratory setting and the tasks are artificial) then there is less likelihood that the findings can be generalized.  In this case, the experiment will have low ecological validity.

Many experiments designed to investigate memory have been criticized for having low ecological validity.  First, the laboratory is an artificial situation.  People are removed from their normal social settings and asked to take part in a psychological experiment.

They are directed by an “experimenter” and may be placed in the company of complete strangers.  For many people, this is a brand new experience, far removed from their everyday lives.  Will this setting affect their actions? Will they behave normally?

He was especially interested in the characteristics of people whom he considered to have achieved their potential as individuals.

Often, the tasks participants are asked to perform can appear artificial and meaningless.  Few, if any, people would attempt to memorize and recall a list of unconnected words in their daily lives.  And it is not clear how tasks such as this relate to the use of memory in everyday life.

The artificiality of many experiments has led some researchers to question whether their findings can be generalized to real life.  As a result, many memory experiments have been criticized for having low ecological validity.

Matlin, M. W. (2005). Cognition . Crawfordsville: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review , 63 (2): 81–97.

Sternberg, R. J. (1999). Cognitive psychology (2 nd ed.) . Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers.

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What Is Memory?

Reviewed by Psychology Today Staff

Memory is the faculty by which the brain encodes, stores, and retrieves information. It is a record of experience that guides future action.

Memory encompasses the facts and experiential details that people consciously call to mind as well as ingrained knowledge that surface without effort or even awareness. It is both a short-term cache of information and the more permanent record of what one has learned. The types of memory described by scientists include episodic memory, semantic memory , procedural memory , working memory , sensory memory , and prospective memory .

Each kind of memory has distinct uses—from the vivid recollections of episodic memory to the functional know-how of procedural memory. Yet there are commonalities in how memory works overall, and key brain structures, such as the hippocampus, that are integral to different kinds of memory.

In addition to memory’s role in allowing people to understand, navigate, and make predictions about the world, personal memories provide the foundation for a rich sense of one’s self and one’s life—and give rise to experiences such as nostalgia .

To learn more, see Types of Memory , How Memory Works , and Personal Memories and Nostalgia .

Memory loss is the unavoidable flipside of the human capacity to remember. Forgetting, of course, is normal and happens every day: The brain simply cannot retain a permanent record of everything a person experiences and learns. And with advancing age, some decline in memory ability is typical. There are strategies for coping with such loss—adopting memory aids such as calendars and reminder notes, for example, or routinizing the placement of objects at risk of getting lost.

In more severe cases, however, memory can be permanently damaged by dementia and other disorders of memory . Dementia is a loss of cognitive function that can have various underlying causes, the most prominent being Alzheimer’s disease. People with dementia experience a progressive loss of function, such that memory loss may begin with minor forgetfulness (about having recently shared a story, for example) and gradually progress to difficulty with retaining new information, recognizing familiar individuals, and other important memory functions. Professional assessment can help determine whether an individual’s mild memory loss is a function of normal aging or a sign of a serious condition.

Memory disorders also include multiple types of amnesia that result not from diseases such as Alzheimer’s, but from brain injury or other causes. People with amnesia lose the ability to recall past information, to retain new information, or both. In some cases the memory loss is permanent, but there are also temporary forms of amnesia that resolve on their own.

To learn more, see Memory Loss and Disorders of Memory .

Though memory naturally declines with age, many people are able to stay mentally sharp. How do they do it? Genes play a role, but preventative measures including regular exercise, eating a healthy diet , and getting plenty of sleep—as well as keeping the brain active and challenged—can help stave off memory loss.

The science of memory also highlights ways anyone can improve their memory , whether the goal is sharpening memory ability for the long term or just passing exams this semester. Short-term memory tricks include mnemonic devices (such as acronyms and categorization), spacing apart study time, and self-testing for the sake of recalling information. Sleep and exercise are other memory boosters .

Through committed practice with memory-enhancing techniques, some people train themselves to remember amazing quantities of information, such as lengthy sequences of words or digits. For a small number of people, however, extraordinary memory abilities come naturally. These gifted rememberers include savants, for whom powerful memory coincides with some cognitive disability or neurodevelopmental difference, as well as people with typical intellects who remember exceptional quantities of details about their lives.

To learn more, see How to Improve Memory and Extraordinary Memory Abilities .

Memory is a key element in certain mental health conditions : Abnormal memory function can contribute to distress, or it can coincide with an underlying disorder. Forgetfulness is associated with depression ; connections in memory, such as those involving feared situations or drug-related cues, are an integral part of anxiety and substance use disorders; and post- traumatic symptoms are entwined with the memory of traumatic experiences.

In fact, experiences such as distressing memories and flashbacks are among the core symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. For someone with PTSD , a range of cues—including situations, people, or other stimuli related to a traumatic experience in some way—can trigger highly distressing memories, and the person may seek to avoid such reminders.

As a feature of various mental disorders, aberrant or biased memory function can also be a target for treatment. Treatments that involve exposure therapy , for example, are used to help patients reduce the power of trauma-related memories through safe and guided encounters with those memories and stimuli associated with the trauma.

To learn more, see Memory and Mental Health .

Research offers two alternate models for how memory actually works, and it turns out that in a very real sense, the purpose of memory is to be able to forget.

New research reveals that individuals who survive opioid overdoses may experience memory, behavioral, and other brain-related changes impeding recovery.

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I've seen, over and over again, that it's never too late to work through, reframe, and overcome painful parts of one's past.

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Why is it easier to recall lyrics to a song than to memorize a poem? The answer is music.

Once you know how memory works, you can use representative memories, and even bring some up on purpose, to heal your stuck points and change your present-time emotional experience.

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The Role of Working Memory in the Writing Process

High school teachers can guide students to success in writing assignments by structuring tasks to account for working memory.

In high school, reflection essays, analysis papers, and literature reviews for English and other courses supplement more traditional summaries and narratives. Regardless of the focus, we’re familiar with the complicated writing process, which requires brainstorming, organizing, and translating ideas into words while using correct mechanics (punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, etc.). At the same time, writing a coherent and well-developed piece requires valuable working memory. Unfortunately, subtle working memory issues may increase these complex writing challenges.

Writing demands working memory capacity, retention time, and processing depth. For example, gaps in remembering and understanding information slow the process of manipulating and translating information. As a result, students may prematurely discard information they need. How can we engage students in maximizing their working memory functioning throughout the writing process?

Consider the following strategies: increasing capacity through note-taking, deepening processing with discussion and summarization, and extending retention time with review and revisions.

Setting Up a Writing Task to Account for Working Memory

Analyzing the writing task: Analyzing the assignment and identifying discrete steps creates a structure in working memory, easing the mental organization process. While doing this with your class, ask students for examples of relevant information. For example, if they are analyzing the Napoleonic Era, ask them to provide two decisions Napoleon made that led to his defeat. Examples provide students with brain priming and enable you to assess retention and comprehension. In this way, task analysis serves as a confirmation of students’ understanding of directions and their content knowledge.

Consider the following strategies: intermittent low-stakes testing to support remembering and understanding, student-generated teach-backs for knowledge review and rehearsal, student partnerships for reading directions, and use of step-by-step checklists.

Prewriting: Now that students have created a mental organization framework, they can begin writing. A structured approach is essential when considering the extensive working memory demands. For example, creating an organizer provides a review of information, thus increasing the depth of working memory processing. This way, information is more efficiently organized for easy long-term memory storage. Thus, rather than taxing working memory capacity, information can be accessed more easily from long-term memory as needed.

Start by activating prior knowledge with a 5- to 10-minute brainstorm. Then create an overall structure of subtopics, main ideas, and their logical connections, using outlines, mind maps, graphic organizers, or note cards.

Leave time between creating the organizer and revising it to allow for mental organization of the information and increased objectivity. During the revision, have students use notes to identify possible gaps. Be sure to recognize the need for processing time to facilitate decision-making. Avoid fatigue by establishing a work session of an hour at most, such as 45 minutes of focused work, a 5-minute break for processing, and a 10-minute review.

Planning: Executive functions such as attention, inhibition, and emotional regulation impact working memory functioning. Therefore, planning is a proactive step that can help students overcome future obstacles. Partner students to expand the writing process checklist they created during task analysis.

For example, have students enter work session appointments with alerts into a digital calendar. Have them enter interim due dates with a specific action step for receiving feedback. Finally, a growth step would be to include step-specific time estimates to encourage the development of accurate planning.

Translating ideas into words: Translating ideas into words requires self-regulation. Decisions regarding word choice, spelling, and grammar require persistence. Therefore, avoiding internal distractions impacts working memory’s ability to manipulate and organize information.

Have students consider the following strategies:

• Cover everything in the organizer except the section guiding their current writing.
• Lessen cognitive and physical demands with speech-to-text.
• Write without editing by turning off spell or grammar check features.
• Establish a cueing system to mark words or areas of uncertainty. Try highlighting or italicizing word choice to review, or adding a question mark to indicate uncertainty of ideas.

Editing: Allow at least an hour between writing and editing to let students focus on their actual wording versus what they think they wrote. Time also offsets the emotional attachment to their words. Finally, lessen the chances of students feeling overwhelmed by limiting editing to one or two specific areas. Their editing checklist might focus on writing mechanics, specialized vocabulary, or places they flagged as unclear during writing. Either partner students or consider using text-to-speech to ensure accurate reading of their draft.

Reflecting: Reflection provides a review of the student’s writing process. Emphasizing their goals and gains moves them from working memory to long-term memory.

To reinforce growth, ask students to identify a gain. Then establish a goal by focusing on a feedback suggestion. For example, perhaps they struggled to hold information in their working memory while writing an English essay. Ask them to identify a strategy, technology, or resource that would support their ability to decide what information to include in a future organizer.

When working memory is functioning effectively and efficiently, the complex demands of writing become steps in a workable process rather than obstacles of frustration.

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Working Memory Underpins Cognitive Development, Learning, and Education

Working memory is the retention of a small amount of information in a readily accessible form. It facilitates planning, comprehension, reasoning, and problem-solving. I examine the historical roots and conceptual development of the concept and the theoretical and practical implications of current debates about working memory mechanisms. Then I explore the nature of cognitive developmental improvements in working memory, the role of working memory in learning, and some potential implications of working memory and its development for the education of children and adults. The use of working memory is quite ubiquitous in human thought, but the best way to improve education using what we know about working memory is still controversial. I hope to provide some directions for research and educational practice.

What is Working Memory? An Introduction and Review

Working memory is the small amount of information that can be held in mind and used in the execution of cognitive tasks, in contrast with long-term memory, the vast amount of information saved in one’s life. Working memory is one of the most widely-used terms in psychology. It has often been connected or related to intelligence, information processing, executive function, comprehension, problem-solving, and learning, in people ranging from infancy to old age and in all sorts of animals. This concept is so omnipresent in the field that it requires careful examination both historically and in terms of definition, to establish its key characteristics and boundaries. By weaving together history, a little philosophy, and empirical work in psychology, in this opening section I hope to paint a clear picture of the concept of working memory. In subsequent sections, implications of working memory for cognitive development, learning, and education will be discussed in turn, though for these broad areas it is only feasible to touch on certain examples.

Some researchers emphasize the possibility of training working memory to improve learning and education. In this chapter, I take the complementary view that we must learn how to adjust the materials to facilitate learning and education with the working memory abilities that the learner has. Organizing knowledge, for example, reduces one’s memory load because the parts don’t have to be held in mind independently.

Take, for example, the possibility of doing some scouting ahead so that you will know what this article is about, making your task of reading easier. If you tried to read through the headings of this article, you might have trouble remembering them (placing them all in working memory) so as to anticipate how they fit together. If you read Figure 1 , though, it is an attempt to help you organize the information. If it helps you associate the ideas to one another to build a coherent framework, it should help you read by reducing the working-memory load you experience while reading. In doing so, you are building a rich structure to associate the headings with one another in long-term memory (e.g., Ericsson & Kintsch, 1995 ), which reduces the number of ideas that would have to be held independently in working memory in order to remember the organization.

Schematic diagram of the arguments in the present article.

Early History of Working Memory Research

In 1690, John Locke distinguished between contemplation, or holding an idea in mind, and memory, or the power to revive an idea after it has disappeared from the mind ( Logie, 1996 ). The holding in mind is limited to a few concepts at once and reflects what is now called working memory, as opposed to the possibly unlimited store of knowledge from a lifetime that is now called long-term memory. Working memory can be defined as the small amount of information that can be held in an especially accessible state and used in cognitive tasks.

Philosophers have long been interested in the limits of what can be contemplated, as noted by a leading British economist and logician, William Stanley Jevons. In an article in Science in 1871, he mused (p. 281): “It is well known that the mind is unable through the eye to estimate any large number of objects without counting them successively. A small number, for instance three or four, it can certainly comprehend and count by an instantaneous and apparently single act of mental attention.” Then he devised a little experiment to test this hypothesis, on himself. On each trial, he casually reached into a jar full of beans, threw several beans onto a table, and tried to estimate their number without counting. After 1,027 trials, he made no errors for sets of 3 or 4 beans, with some small errors for sets of 5 beans, and with increasing magnitudes of error as a function of set size thereafter, up to 15 beans. Despite the problematic nature of the method (in that the bean thrower was also the bean judge), the finding that normal adults typically can keep in mind only about 3 or 4 items has been replicated many times in modern research, using methods similar to Jevons (e.g., Mandler & Shebo, 1982 ) and using many other methods ( Cowan, 2001 ). The limited amount that could be held in mind at once played an important role in early experimental psychology, e.g., in the early experimental work of Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885/1913) and Wilhelm Wundt (1894/1998) . On the American front, William James (1890) wrote about a distinction between primary memory, the items in consciousness and the trailing edge of what is perceived in the world, and secondary memory, the items in storage but not currently in consciousness. Recent investigators have considered multiple possible reasons why primary memory might be limited to just a few items at once, including biological accounts based on the need to avoid confusion between concurrent objects in memory, and evolutionary and teleological accounts based on ideas about what capacity might be ideal for learning and memory retrieval ( Cowan, 2010 ; Sweller, 2011 ), but as yet the reason is unknown.

Ubiquity of the Working Memory Concept

When we say that working memory holds a small amount of information , by this term we may be referring to something as abstract as ideas that can be contemplated, or something as concrete as objects that can be counted (e.g., beans). The main point of information is that it is the choice of some things out of a greater set of possible things. One of the exciting aspects of working memory is that it may be important on so many different levels, and in so many different situations. When you are listening to language, you need to retain information about the beginning of the sentence until you can make sense of it. If you hear Jean would like to visit the third building on the left you need to recall that the actor in the sentence is Jean. Then you need to retain the verb until you know what it is she would like to visit, and you need to retain the adjective “third” until you know, third what; and all of the pieces must be put together in the right way. Without sufficient working memory, the information would be lost before you could combine it into a coherent, complete thought. As another example of how working memory is used, when doing simple arithmetic in your head, if you want to add 24 and 18 you may need to find that 4+8=12, retain the 2 while carrying the 1 over to the tens column to make 2+1+1=4 in the tens column, and integrate with the ones columns to arrive at the answer, 42. As a third example, if you are searching for your car in a parking lot, you have to remember the layout of the cars in the region you just searched so that you can avoid wasting time searching the same region again. In the jungle, a predator that turns its vision away from a scene and revisits it moments later may use working memory to detect that something in the scene has shifted; this change detection may indicate the presence of prey.

So the information in working memory can range from spoken words and printed digits to cars and future meals. It can even encompass abstract ideas. Consider whether a young child can get a good understanding of what is or is not a tiger (a matter of word category concepts, e.g., Nelson, 1974 ; Saltz, Soller, & Sigel, 1972 ). The concept is, in lay terms, a big cat with stripes. It excludes lions, which have no stripes, and it excludes zebras, which are not big cats. The child must be able to keep in mind the notion of a cat and the notion of stripes at the same time in order to grasp the tiger concept correctly. If the child thinks only of the stripes, he or she may incorrectly label a zebra as a tiger. The concept presumably starts out in working memory and, once it is learned, is transferred to long-term memory. At first, an incomplete concept might be stored in long-term memory, leading to misconceptions that are corrected later when discrepancies with further input are noticed and working memory is used to amend the concept in long-term memory. On a more abstract plane, there are more semantic issues mastered somewhat later in childhood (e.g., Clark & Garnica, 1974 ). The concept of bringing something seems to require several conditions: the person doing the bringing must have something at a location other than the speaker’s location (or future planned location), and must accompany that thing to the speaker’s location. You can ask the person to bring a salad to your house, but probably not to take a salad to your house (unless you are not there), and not to send a salad to your house (unless they are not coming along). These conditions can tax working memory. Again, the child’s initial concept transferred from working memory to long-term memory may be incomplete, and amended later when discrepancies with further input are noticed.

Working Memory: The Past 64 Years

There are several modern beginnings for the working memory concept. Hebb (1949) had an outlook on temporary memory that was more neurologically based than the earlier concept of primary memory of James (1890) . He spoke of ideas as mediated by assemblies of cells firing in a specific pattern for each idea or concept, and only a few cell assemblies would be active, with current neural firing, at any moment. This vision has played an important role in the field. An issue that is raised by this work is whether working memory should be identified with all of the active information that can be used in immediate memory tests, whether conscious or not, or whether it should be reserved to describe only the conscious information, more in the flavor of James. Given that working memory is a term usually used to explain behavioral outcomes rather than subjective reports, it is typically not restricted to conscious primary memory (e.g., see Baddeley, 1986 ; Baddeley & Hitch, 1974 ; Cowan, 1988 ). Cowan explicitly suggested that there are two aspects of working memory storage: (1) the activated portion of long-term memory, perhaps corresponding to Hebb’s active cell assemblies, and (2) within that activated portion, a smaller subset of items in the focus of attention. The activated memory would consist of a fragmented soup of all kinds of activated features (sensory, phonological, orthographic, spatial, and semantic), whereas the focus of attention would contain just a few well-integrated items or chunks.

Contributions of George Miller

Miller (1956) discussed the limitation in how many items can be held in immediate memory. In the relevant test procedure, a list of items is seen or heard and immediately afterward (that is, with no imposed retention interval), the list must be repeated verbatim. The ability to do so was said to be limited to about seven chunks, where a chunk is a meaningful unit. For example, the random digit list 582931 may have to be encoded initially as six chunks, one per digit, whereas the sequence 123654 probably can be encoded by most adults as only two chunks (an ascending triplet followed by a descending triplet). Subsequent work has suggested that the number seven is a practical result that emerges on the basis of strategies that participants use and that, when it is not possible to use chunking or covert verbal rehearsal to help performance, adults typically can retain only 3 or 4 pre-existing chunks ( Chen & Cowan, 2009 ; Cowan, 2001 ; Cowan, Rouder, Blume, & Saults, 2012 ; Luck & Vogel, 1997 ; Rouder et al., 2008 ).

The first mention I have found of the term working memory comes from a book by Miller, Galanter, and Pribram (1960) , Plans and the structure of behavior . The title itself, and the concept of organization, seems reminiscent of the earlier work by Hebb (1949) , The organization of behavior . Miller et al. observed that daily functioning in the world requires a hierarchy of plans. For example, your plan to do well at work requires a sub-plan to be there at time in the morning, which in turn may require sub-plans to eat breakfast, shower, get dressed, gather work materials, and so on. Each of these plans also may have sub-plans, and you may have competing plans (such as choosing an after-work activity, calling your mother, or acquiring food for dinner). Our working memory was said to be the mental faculty whereby we remember the plans and sub-plans. We cannot think about all of them at once but we might, for example, keep in mind that the frying pan is hot while retrieving a knife from the drawer, and we may keep bringing to mind the approximate time so as not to be late. Working memory was said to be the facility that is used to carry out one sub-plan while keeping in mind the necessary related sub-plans and the master plan.

Contributions of Donald Broadbent

In Great Britain, Broadbent’s (1958) book helped to bring the conversation out of the behaviorist era and into an era of cognitive psychology. In a footnote within the book, he sketched a rough information processing diagram that showed information progressing from a sensory type of store that holds a lot of information briefly, through an attention filter to essentially a working memory that holds only a few items, to a long-term memory that is our storehouse of knowledge accumulated through a lifetime. The empirical basis for the model came largely from his work with selective attention, including many dichotic listening studies in which the task was to listen to the message from one ear and ignore the message from the other ear, or report both messages in some order. The motivation for this kind of research came largely from practical issues provoked by World War II, such as how to help a pilot listen to his own air traffic control message while ignoring messages meant for other pilots but presented in the same channel. An important theoretical outcome, however, was the discovery of a difference between a large-capacity but short-lived sensory memory that was formed regardless of attention, and a longer-lived but small-capacity abstract working memory that required attention.

Contributions of Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch

Miller et al. (1960) may have devised the term working memory but they were not the predominant instigator of the work that has occurred subsequently in the field. Google Scholar does show it with over 5,600 citations. A chapter by Baddeley and Hitch (1974) , though, is listed with over 7,400 citations and a 1992 Science article summarizing that approach has over 14,500 citations. In the 1974 chapter, the term working memory was used to indicate a system of temporary memory that is multifaceted, unlike the single store such as James’ primary memory, or the corresponding box in Broadbent’s (1958) model, or an elaborated version of it as in the model of Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) model, none of which would do. In fact, a lot of investigators in the 1960’s proposed variations of information processing models that included a single short-term memory store, and Baddeley often has referred to these together, humorously, as the “modal model,” providing a sketch of it with sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory boxes as in the Broadbent and the Atkinson/Shiffrin models. (When the humor and the origin of the phrase “modal model” are forgotten, yet the phrase is still widely used, it seems sad somehow.)

The main point emphasized by Baddeley and Hitch (1974) is that there were diverse effects that appeared to implicate short-term memory, but that did not converge to a single component. Phonological processing interfered most with phonological storage, visual-spatial processing interfered with visual-spatial storage, and a working memory load did not seem to interfere much with superior memory for the end of a list, or recency effect. Conceptual learning did not depend heavily on the type of memory that was susceptible to phonological similarity effects, and a patient with a very low memory span was still able to learn new facts. To account for all of the dissociations, they ended up concluding that there was an attention-related control system and various storage systems. These included a phonological system that also included a covert verbal rehearsal process, and a visual-spatial storage system that might have its own type of non-verbal rehearsal. In the 1974 version of the theory, there were attention limits on the storage of information as well as on processing. In a 1986 book, Baddeley eliminated the attention-dependent storage but in a 2000 paper, a new component was added in the form of an episodic buffer. This buffer might or might not be attention-dependent and is responsible for holding semantic information for the short term, as well as the specific binding or association between phonological and visual-spatial information. Baddeley and Hitch called the assembly or system of storage and processing in service of holding information in an accessible form working memory, the memory one uses in carrying out cognitive tasks of various kinds (i.e., cognitive work).

Model of Cowan (1988)

Through the years, there were several other proposals that alter the flavor of the working memory proposal. Cowan (1988) was concerned with how we represent what we know and do not know about information processing. The “modal models” of which Baddeley has spoken began with Broadbent’s (1958) model in which the boxes were shown to be accessed in sequence, comparable to a computer flow chart: first sensory memory, then an attention filter, then short-term memory, and then long-term memory. Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968) preserved the flow chart structure but added recursive entry into the boxes, in the form of the control processes. Baddeley and Hitch (1974) and Baddeley (1986) instead used a processing diagram in which the boxes could be accessed in parallel. One presumably could enter some information into phonological storage while concurrently entering other information into visual-spatial storage, with interacting modules and concurrent executive control.

Cowan (1988 , 1995 , 1999 , 2001 , 2005 ) recoiled a bit from the modules and separate boxes, partly because they might well form an arbitrarily incomplete taxonomy of the systems in the brain. (Where would spatial information about sound go? Where would touch information go? These types of unanswered questions also may have helped motivate the episodic buffer of Baddeley, 2000 .) There could be multiple modules, but because we do not know the taxonomy, they were all thrown into the soup of activated long-term memory. Instead of separate boxes, I attempted to model on a higher level at which distinctions that were incomplete were not explicitly drawn into the model, and mechanisms could be embedded in other mechanisms. Thus, there was said to be a long-term memory, a subset of which was in an activated state (cf. Hebb, 1949 ), and within that, a smaller subset of which was in the focus of attention (cf. James, 1890 ). Dissociations could still occur on the basis of similarity of features; two items with phonological features will interfere with one another, for example, more than one item with phonological features and another item with only visual-spatial features. The model still included central executive processes.

Compared to Baddeley and Hitch (1974) , Cowan (1988) also placed more emphasis on sensory memory. It is true that printed letters, like spoken letters, are encoded with speech-based, phonological features that can be confused with each other in working memory (e.g., Conrad, 1964 ). Nevertheless, there is abundant other evidence that lists presented in a spoken form are remembered much better, in particular at the end of the list, than verbal lists presented in printed form (e.g., Murdock & Walker, 1969 ; Penney, 1989 ).

The attention filter also was internalized in the model of Cowan (1988) . Instead of information having to pass through a filter, it was assumed that all information activates long-term memory to some degree. The mind forms a neural model of what it has processed. This will include sensory information for all stimuli but, in the focus of attention, much more semantic information than one finds for unattended information. Incoming information that matches the current neural model becomes habituated, but changes that are perceived cause dishabituation in the form of attentional orienting responses toward the dishabituated stimuli (cf. Sokolov, 1963 ). Such a system has properties similar to the attenuated filtering model of Treisman (1960) or the pertinence model of Normal (1968) . Attention is controlled in this view dually, often with a struggle between voluntary executive control and involuntary orienting responses.

How consistent is Cowan (1988) with the Baddeley and Hitch model? Contributions of Robert Logie

With the addition of the episodic buffer, the model of Baddeley and Hitch makes predictions that are often similar to those of Cowan (1988) . There still may be important differences, though. An open question is whether the activated portion of long-term memory of Cowan (1988) functionally serves the same purpose as the phonological and visual-spatial buffers of Baddeley and Hitch (1974) and Baddeley (1986) . Robert Logie and colleagues argue that this cannot be, inasmuch as visual imagery and visual short-term memory are dissociated ( Borst, Niven, & Logie, 2012 ; Logie & van der Meulen, 2009 ; van der Meulen, Logie, & Della Sala, 2009 ). Irrelevant visual materials interfere with the formation of visual imagery but not with visual storage, whereas tapping in a spatial pattern interferes with visual storage but not the formation of visual images. According to the model that these sources put forward, visual imagery involves activation of long-term memory representations, whereas visual short-term storage is a separate buffer. Although this is a possibility that warrants further research, I am not yet convinced. There could be other reasons for the dissociation. For example, in the study of van der Meulen et al., the visual imagery task involved detecting qualities of the letters presented (curved line or not, enclosed space or not, etc.) and these qualities could overlap more with the picture interference; whereas the visual memory task involved remembering letters in upper and lower case visually, in the correct serial order, and the serial order property may suffer more interference from tapping in a sequential spatial pattern. Testing of the generality of the effects across tasks with different features is needed.

Other models of cross-domain generality

One difference between the Baddeley (1986) framework and that of Cowan (1988) was that Cowan placed more emphasis on the possibility of interference between domains. There has been a continuing controversy about the extent to which verbal and nonverbal codes in working memory interfere with one another (e.g., Cocchini, Logie, Della Sala, MacPherson, & Baddeley, 2002 ; Cowan & Morey, 2007 ; Fougnie & Marois, 2011 ; Morey & Bieler, 2013 ). The domain-general view has extended to other types of research. Daneman and Carpenter (1980) showed that reading and remembering words are tasks that interfere with one another, with the success of remembering in the presence of reading a strong correlate of reading comprehension ability. Engle and colleagues (e.g., Engle, Tuholski, Laughlin, & Conway, 1999 ; Kane et al., 2004 ) showed that this sort of effect does not just occur with verbal materials, but occurs even with storage and processing in separate domains, such as spatial recall with verbal memory. They attributed individual differences primarily to the processing tasks and the need to hold in mind task instructions and goals while suppressing irrelevant distractions.

Barrouillet and colleagues (e.g., Barrouillet, Portrat, & Camos, 2011 ; Vergauwe, Barrouillet, & Camos, 2010 ) emphasized that the process of using attention to refresh items, no matter whether verbal or nonverbal in nature, takes time and counteracts decay. They provided complex tasks involving concurrent storage and processing, like Daneman and Carpenter and like Engle and colleagues. The key measure is cognitive load, the proportion of time that is taken up by the processing task rather than being free for the participant to use to refresh the representations of items to be remembered. The finding of Barrouillet and colleagues has been that the effect of cognitive load on the length of list that can be recalled, or memory span, is a negative linear (i.e., deleterious) effect. They do also admit that there is a verbal rehearsal process that is separate from attentional refreshing, with the option of using either mode of memory maintenance depending on the task demands ( Camos, Mora, & Oberauer, 2011 ), but there is more emphasis on attentional refreshing than in the case of Baddeley and colleagues, and the approach therefore seems more in keeping with Cowan (1988) with its focus of attention (regarding refreshing see also Cowan, 1992 ).

Ongoing controversies about the nature of working-memory memory limits

There are theoretically two basic ways in which working memory could be more limited than long-term memory. First, It could be limited in terms of how many items can be held at once, a capacity limit that Cowan (1998, 2001 ) tentatively ascribes to the focus of attention. Second, it could be limited in the amount of time for which an item remains in working memory when it is no longer rehearsed or refreshed, a decay limit that Cowan (1988) ascribed to the activated portion of long-term memory, the practical limit being up to about 30 seconds depending on the task.

Both of these limits are currently controversial. Regarding the capacity limit, there is not much argument that, within a particular type of stimulus coding (phonological, visual-spatial, etc.), normal adults are limited to about 3 or 4 meaningful units or chunks. The debate is whether the limit occurs in the focus of attention, or because materials of similar sorts interfere with one another (e.g., Oberauer, Lewandowsky, Farrell, Jarrold, & Greaves, 2012 ). In my recent, still-unpublished work, I suggest that the focus of attention is limited to several chunks of information, but that these chunks can be off-loaded to long-term memory and held there, with the help of some attentional refreshing, while the focus of attention is primarily used to encode additional information.

Regarding the memory loss or decay limit, some studies have shown no loss of information for lists of printed verbal materials across periods in which rehearsal and refreshing have apparently been prevented ( Lewandowsky, Duncan, & Brown, 2004 ; Oberauer & Lewandowsky, 2008 ). Nevertheless, for arrays of unfamiliar characters followed by a mask to eliminate sensory memory, Ricker and Cowan (2010) did find memory loss or decay (cf. Zhang & Luck, 2009 ). In further work, Ricker et al. (in press) suggested that the amount of decay depends on how well the information is consolidated in working memory (cf. Jolicoeur & Dell'Acqua, 1998 ). Given that the time available for refreshing appeared to be inversely related to the cognitive load, the consolidation process that seems critical is not interrupted by a mask but continues after it. This consolidation process could be some sort of strengthening of the episodic memory trace based on attentional refreshing in the spirit of Barrouillet et al. (2011) . If so, the most important effect of this refreshing would not be to reverse the effects of decay temporarily, as Barrouillet et al. proposed, but rather to alter the rate of decay itself. Our plans for future research include investigation of these possibilities.

Long-term working memory

It is clear that people function quite well in complex environments in which detailed knowledge must be used in an expert manner, despite a severe limit in working memory to a few ideas or items at once. What is critical in understanding this paradox of human performance is that each slot in working memory can be filled with a concept of great complexity, provided that the individual has the necessary knowledge in long-term memory. This point was made by Miller (1956) in his concept of combining items to form larger chunks of information, with the limit in working memory found in the number of chunks, not the number of separate items presented for memorization. Ericsson and Kintsch (1995) took this concept further by expanding the definition of working memory to include relevant information in long-term memory.

Although we might quibble about the best definition of working memory, it seems undeniable that long-term memory is often used as Ericsson and Kintsch (1995) suggest. An example is what happens when one is holding a conversation with a visitor that is interrupted by a telephone call. During the call, the personal conversation with one’s visitor is typically out of conscious working memory. After the call, however, with the visitor serving as a vivid cue, it is often possible to retrieve a memory of the conversation as a recent episode and to remember where this conversation left off. That might not be possible some days later. This use of long-term memory to serve a function similar to the traditional working memory, thus expanding the person’s capabilities, was termed long-term working memory by Ericsson and Kintsch. Cowan (1995) alluded to a similar use of long-term memory for this purpose but, not wanting to expand the definition of working memory, called the function virtual short-term memory, meaning a use of long-term memory in a way that short-term memory is usually used. It is much like the use of computer memory that allows the computer to be turned off in hibernation mode and later returned to its former state when the memory is retrieved.

Given the ability of humans to use long-term memory so adeptly, one could ask why we care about the severe working memory capacity limit at all. The answer is that it is critical when there is limited long-term knowledge of the topic. In such circumstances, the capacity of working memory can determine how many items can be held in mind at once in order to use the items together, or to link them to form a new concept in long-term memory. This is the case in many situations that are important for learning and comprehension. One simple example of using items together is following a set of instructions, e.g., to a preschool child, put your drawing in your cubby and then go sit in the circle . Part of that instruction may be forgotten before it is carried out and teachers must be sensitive to that possibility. A simple example of linking items together is in reading a novel, when one listens to a description of a character and melds the parts of the description to arrive at an overall personality sketch that can be formed in long-term memory. Inadequate use of working memory during reading may lead to the sketch being incomplete, as some descriptive traits are inadvertently ignored. Knowledge of this working memory limit can be used to improve one’s writing by making it easier to remember and comprehend.

Paas and Sweller (2012) bring up the distinction between biologically primary and secondary knowledge ( Geary, 2008 ) and suggest (p. 29) that “Humans are easily able to acquire huge amounts of biologically primary knowledge outside of educational contexts and without a discernible working memory load.” Examples they offered were the learning of faces and learning to speak. It may well be the case that individual faces or spoken words quickly become integrated chunks in long-term memory (and, I would add, the same seems true for objects in domains of learned expertise, e.g., written words in adults). Nevertheless, the biologically-primary components are used in many situations in which severe capacity limits do apply. In these situations, the added memory demand is considered biologically secondary. An example is learning which face should be associated with which name. If four novel faces are shown on a screen and their names are vocally presented, these name-face pairs cannot be held in working memory at once, so it is difficult to retain the information and it often takes additional study of one pair at a time to remember the name-face pairing.

Specific mathematical models

Here I have been selective in examining models of working memory that are rather overarching and verbally specified. By limiting the domain of applicability and adding some processing assumptions, other researchers throughout the years have been able to formulate models that make mathematical predictions of performance in specific situations. We have learned a lot from them but they are essentially outside of the scope of this review given limited space and given my own limitations. For examples of such models see Brown, Neath, & Chater, 2007 ; Burgess & Hitch, 1999 ; Cowan et al., 2012 ; Farrell & Lewandowsky, 2002 ; Hensen, 1998 ; Murdock, 1982; Oberauer & Lewandowsky, 2011 ). The importance of these models is that they make clear the consequences of our theoretical assumptions. In order to make quantitative predictions, each mathematical assumption must be made explicit. It is sometimes found that the effects of certain proposed mechanisms, taken together, are not what one might assume from a purely verbal theory. Of course, some of the assumptions that one must make to eke out quantitative predictions may be unsupported, so I believe that the best way forward in the field is to use general verbal, propositional thinking some of the time and specific quantitative modeling other times, working toward a convergence of these methods toward a common theory.

Summary: Status of Working Memory

The progress in this field might be likened to an upward spiral. We make steady progress but meanwhile, we go in circles. The issues of the nature of working memory limits have not changed much from the early days. Why is the number of items limited? Why is the duration limited? What makes us forget? How is it related to the conscious mind and to neural processes? These questions are still not answered. At the same time, we have agreement about what can be found in particular circumstances. Set up the stimuli one way, and there is interference between modalities. Set it up another way and there appears to be much less interference. Set it up one way and items are lost rapidly across time. Set it up a different way, and there is much less loss. There are brain areas associated with the focus of attention and with working memory across modalities ( Cowan, 2011 ; Cowan, Li et al., 2011 ; Todd & Marois, 2004 ; Xu & Chun, 2006 ). This is progress awaiting an adequate unifying theory.

What we do know has practical implications. To avoid overtaxing an individual’s working-memory capabilities, one should avoid presenting more than a few items or ideas at once, unless the items can be rapidly integrated. One should also avoid making people hold on to unintegrated information for a very long time. For example, I could write a taxing sentence like, It is said that, if your work is not overwhelming, your car is in good repair, and the leaves have changed color, it is a good time for a fall vacation . However, that sentence requires a lot from the reader’s working memory. I could reduce the working memory load by not making you wait for the information that provides the unifying theme, keeping the working memory load low: It is said that a good time for a fall vacation is when your work is not overwhelming, your car is in good repair, and the leaves have changed color .

Working Memory and Cognitive Development

There is no question that working-memory capabilities increase across the life span of the individual. In early tests of maturation (e.g., Bolton, 1892 ), and to this day in tests of intelligence, children have been asked to repeat lists of random digits. The length of list that can be successfully repeated on some predefined proportion of trials is the digit span. It increases steadily with childhood maturation, until late childhood. When the complexity of the task is increased, the time to adult-like performance is extended a bit further, with steady improvement throughout childhood (for an example see Gathercole, Pickering, Ambridge, & Wearing, 2004 ).

As we saw in the introductory section, clear practical findings do not typically come with a clear understanding of the theoretical explanation. There have been many explanations over the years for the finding of increasing memory span with age (e.g., see Bauer & Fivush, in press ; Courage & Cowan, 2009 ; Kail, 1990 ). These explanations may lead to differing opinions of the best course for learning and education, as well.

Explanations Based on Capacity

Explanations of intellectual growth based on working memory capacity stem from what has been called the neoPiagetian school of thought. Jean Piaget outlined a series of developmental stages, but with no known underlying reason for the progression between stages. Pascual-Leone and Smith (1969) attributed the developmental increases to increases in the number of items that could be held in mind at once.

The theory becomes more explicit with the contributions of Halford, Phillips, and Wilson (1998) and Andrews and Halford (2002) . They suggests that it is the number of associations between elements that is restricted and that this matters because it limits the complexity of thought. In my example above, the concept of a tiger versus lion versus zebra requires concurrent consideration of the animal’s shape and presence or absence of stripes. Similarly, addition requires the association between three elements: the two elements being added and the sum. A concept like bigger than is a logical relation requiring three slots, e.g., bigger than (dog, elephant) . Ratios require the coordination of four elements (e.g., 4/6 is equivalent to 6/9) and therefore are considerably harder to grasp, according to the theory (see Halford, Cowan, & Andrews, 2007 ).

This concept is quite promising and might even appear to be “the only game in town” when it comes to trying to understand the age limits on children’s ability to comprehend ideas of various levels of complexity. One problem with it is that it is not always straightforward to determine the arity of a concept, or number of ideas that must be associated. For example, a young child might understand the concept big(elephant) and then might be able to infer that elephants are bigger than dogs, without being able to use the concept of bigger than in a consistent manner more generally. The concept from Miller (1956) that items can be combined using knowledge to form larger chunks also applies to associations, and it is not clear how to be sure that the level of complexity actually is what it is supposed to be. Knowledge allows some problems to be solved with less working memory requirement.

Explanations Based on Knowledge

It is beyond question that knowledge increases with age. Perhaps this knowledge increase is the sole reason for developmental change in working memory, it has been argued. Chi (1978) showed that children with an expertise in the game of chess could remember chess configurations better than adults with no such expertise. The expert children presumably could form larger chunks of chess pieces, greatly reducing the memory load. Case, Kurland, and Goldberg (1982) gave adults materials that were unfamiliar and found that both the speed of item identification and the memory span for those materials closely resembled what was found for 6-year-olds on familiar materials. The implication was that the familiarity with the materials determines the processing speed, which in turn determines the span.

Explanations Based on Processing Speed and Strategies

Case et al. (1982) talked of a familiarity difference leading to a speed difference. Others have suggested that, more generally, speed of processing increases with age in childhood and decrease again with old age (e.g., Kail & Salthouse, 1994 ). This has led to accounts of working memory improvement based on an increased rate of covert verbal rehearsal ( Hulme & Tordoff, 1989 ) or increased rate of attentional refreshing ( Barrouillet, Gavens, Vergauwe, Gaillard, & Camos, 2009 ; Camos & Barrouillet, 2011 ). At the lower end of childhood, it has been suggested on the basis of various evidence that young children do not rehearse at all ( Flavell, Beach, & Chinsky, 1966 ; Garrity, 1975 ; Henry, 1991 ) or do not rehearse in a sufficiently sophisticated manner that is needed to assist in recall ( Ornstein & Naus, 1978 ). When rehearsal aloud is required, the result suggest that the most recently rehearsed items are recalled best ( Tan & Ward, 2000 ).

This view that rehearsal is actually important has been opposed recently. It is not clear that rehearsal must be invoked to explain performance ( Jarrold & Citroën, 2013 ) and if rehearsal takes place, it is not clear exactly what the internal processes are (e.g., cumulative repetition of the list? Repetition of each item as it is presented?).

In the case of using attention to refresh information, an interesting case can be made. Children who are too young (about 4 years of age and younger) do not seem to use attention to refresh items. For them, the limit in performance depends on the duration of the retention interval. For older children and adults, who are able to refresh, it is not the absolute duration but the cognitive load that determines performance ( Barrouillet et al., 2011 ). The “phase change” in performance that is observed here with the advent of refreshing is perhaps comparable to the phase change that is seen with the advent of verbal rehearsal ( Henry, 1991 ), though the evidence may be stronger in the case of refreshing.

Re-assessment of Capacity Accounts

We have seen that there are multiple ways in which children’s working memory performance gets better with maturity. There are reasons to care about whether the growth of capacity is primary, or whether it is derived from some other type of development. For example, if the growth of capacity results only from the growth of knowledge, then it should be possible to teach any concept at any age, if the concept can be made familiar enough. If capacity differences come from speed differences, it might be possible to allow more time by making sure that the parts to be incorporated into a new concept are presented sufficiently slowly.

We have done a number of experiments suggesting that there is something to capacity that changes independent of these other factors. Regarding knowledge, relevant evidence was provided by Cowan, Nugent, Elliott, Ponomarev, and Saults (1999) in their test of memory for digits that were unattended while a silent picture-rhyming game was carried out. The digits were attended only occasionally, when a recall cue was presented about 1 s after the last digit. The performance increase with age throughout the elementary school years was just as big for small digits (1, 2, 3), which are likely to be familiar, as for large digits (7, 8, 9), which are less familiar. Gilchrist, Cowan, and Naveh-Benjamin (2009) further examined memory for lists of unrelated, spoken sentences in order to distinguish between a measure of capacity and a measure of linguistic knowledge. The measure of capacity was an access rate, the number of sentences that were at least partly recalled. The measure of linguistic knowledge was a completion rate, the proportion of a sentence that was recalled, provided that at least part of it was recalled. This sentence completion rate was about 80% for both first and sixth grader children, suggesting that for these simple sentences, there was no age difference in knowledge. Nevertheless, the number of sentences accessed was considerably smaller in first-grade children than in sixth-grade children (about 2.5 sentences vs. 4 sentences). I conclude, tentatively at least, that knowledge differences cannot account for the age difference in working memory capacity.

We have used a different procedure to help rule out a number of factors that potentially could underlie the age difference in observed capacity. It is based on a procedure that has been well-researched in adults ( Luck & Vogel, 1997 ). On each trial of this procedure, an array of simple items (such as colored squares) is presented briefly and followed by a retention interval of about 1 s, and then a single probe item is presented. The latter is to be judged identical to the array item from the same location, or a new item. This task is convenient partly because there are mathematical ways to estimate the number of items in working memory ( Cowan, 2001 ). If k items are in working memory and there are N items in the array, the likelihood that the probed item is known is k/N , and a correct response can also come from guessing. It is possible to calculate k , which for this procedure is equal to N ( h-f ), where h refers the proportion of change trials in which the change was detected (hits) and f refers to the proportion of no-change trials in which a change was incorrectly reported (false alarms).

One possibility is that younger children remember less of the requested information because they attend to more irrelevant information, cluttering working memory (for adults, cf. Vogel, McCollough, & Machizawa, 2005 ). To examine this, Cowan, Morey, AuBuchon, Zwilling, and Gilchrist (2010) presented both colored circles and colored triangles and instructed participants to pay closer attention to one shape, which was tested on 80% of the trials in critical blocks. When there were 2 triangles and 2 circles, memory for the more heavily-attended shape was better than memory for the less-attended shape, to the same extent in children in Grades 1–2 and Grades 6–7, and in college students. Yet, the number of items in working memory was much lower in children in Grades 1–2 than in the two older groups. It did not seem that the inability to filter out irrelevant information accounted for the age difference in capacity.

Another possibility is that in Cowan et al. (2010) , the array items occurred too fast for the younger children to encode correctly. To examine this, Cowan, AuBuchon, Gilchrist, Ricker, & Saults (2011) presented the items one at a time at relatively slow, a 1-item-per-second rate. The results remained the same as before. In some conditions, the participant had to repeat each color as it was presented or else say “wait” to suppress rehearsal; this articulatory manipulation, too, left the developmental effect unchanged. It appears that neither encoding speed nor articulation could account for the age differences. So we believe that age differences in capacity may be primary rather than derived from another process.

Age differences in capacity still could occur because of age differences in the speed of a rapid process of refreshment, and from the absence of refreshment in young children ( Camos & Barrouillet, 2011 ). Alternatively, it could occur because of age differences in some other type of speed, neural space, or efficiency. This remains to be seen but at least we believe that there is a true maturational change in working memory capacity underlying age differences in the ability to comprehend materials of different complexity. This is in addition to profound effects of knowledge acquisition and the ability to use strategies.

The use of strategies themselves may be secondary to the available working memory resources to carry out those strategies. According to the neoPiagetian view of Pascual-Leone and Smith (1969) , for example, the tasks themselves share resources with the data being stored. Cowan et al. (2010) found that when the size of the array to be remembered was large (3 more-relevant and 3 less-relevant items, rather than 2 of each) then young children were no longer able to allocate more attention to the more-relevant items. The attentional resource allocated to the items in the array was apparently deducted from the resource available to allocate attention optimally.

In practical terms, it is worth remembering that several aspects of working memory are likely to develop: capacity, speed, knowledge, and the use of strategies. Although it is not always easy to know which process is primary, these aspects of development all should contribute in some way to our policies regarding learning and education.

Working Memory and Learning

In early theories of information processing, up through the current period, working memory was viewed as a portal to long-term memory. In order for information to enter long-term memory in a form that allows later retrieval, it first must be present in working memory in a suitable form. Sometimes that form appears modality-specific. For example, Baddeley, Papagno, and Vallar (1988) wondered how it could be that a patient with a very small verbal short-term memory span, 2 or 3 digits at most, could function so well in most ways and exhibit normal learning capabilities. The answer turned out to be that she displayed a very selective deficit: she was absolutely unable to learn new vocabulary. This finding led to a series of developmental studies showing that individual differences in phonological memory are quite important for differences in word-learning capability in both children and adults ( Baddeley, Gathercole, & Papagno, 1998 ; Gathercole & Baddeley, 1989 , 1990 ).

Aside from this specific domain, there are several ways in which working memory can influence learning. It is important to have sufficient working memory for concept formation. The control processes and mnemonic strategies used with working memory also are critical to learning.

Working Memory and Concept Formation

Learning might be thought of in an educational context as the formation of new concepts. These new concepts occur when existing concepts are joined or bound together. Some of this binding is mundane. If an individual knows what the year 1776 means and also what the Declaration of Independence is (at least in enough detail to remember the title of the declaration), then it is possible to learn the new concept that the Declaration of Independence was written in the year 1776. Other times, the binding of concepts may be more interesting and there may be a new conceptual leap involved. For example, a striped cat is a tiger. As another simple example, to understand what a parallelogram is, the child has to understand what the word parallel means, and further to grasp that two sets of parallel lines intersect with one another. The ideas presumably must co-exist in working memory for the concept to be formed.

For the various types of concept formation, then, the cauldron is assumed to be working memory. According to my own view, the binding of ideas occurs more specifically in the focus of attention. We have taken a first step toward verifying that hypothesis. Cowan, Donnell, and Saults (in press) presented lists of words with an incidental task: to report the most interesting word in each presented list. Later, participants completed a surprise test in which they were asked whether pairs of words came from the same list; the words were always one or two serial positions apart in their respective lists, but sometimes were from the same list and sometimes from different lists. The notion was that the link between the words in the same list would be formed only if the words had been in the focus of attention at the same time, which was much more likely for short lists than for long lists. In keeping with this hypothesis, performance was better for words from short lists of 3 items (about 59%) than for words from lists of 6 or 9 items (about 53%). This is a small effect, but it is still important that there was unintentional learning of the association between items that were together in the focus of attention just once, when there was no intention of learning the association.

The theory of Halford et al. (1998) may be the best articulated theory suggesting why a good working memory is important for learning. (In this discussion, a “good” working memory is simply one that can keep in mind sufficient items and their relations to one another to solve the problem at hand, which may require a sufficient combination of capacity, speed, knowledge, and available strategies.) More complex concepts require that one consider the relationship between more parts. A person’s working memory can be insufficient for a complex concept. It may be possible to memorize that concept with less working memory, but not truly to understand the concept and work with it. Take, for example, use of the concept of transitivity in algebra. If a+b=c+d and c+d=e , then we can conclude that a+b=e because equality is transitive. Yet, a person who understands the rules of algebra still would not be able to draw the correct inference if that person could not concurrently remember the two equations. Even if the equations are side by side on the page, that does not mean that they necessarily can be encoded into working memory at the same time, which is necessary in order to draw the inference. Lining up the equations vertically for the learner and then inviting the learner to apply the rule by rote is a method that can be used to reduce the working memory load, perhaps allowing the problem to be solved. However, working out the problem that way will not necessarily produce the insight needed to set up a new problem and solve it, because setting up the problem correctly requires the use of working memory to understand what should be lined up with what. So if the individual does not have sufficient working memory capacity, a rote method of solution may be helpful for the time being. More importantly, though, the problem could be set up in a more challenging manner so that the learner is in the position of having to use his or her working memory to store the information. By doing so, the hope is that successful solution of the problem then will result in more insight that allows the application of the principles to other problems. That, in fact, is an expression of the issues that may lead to the use of word problems in mathematics education.

Working Memory and Control Processes

Researchers appear to be in fairly good agreement that one of the most important aspects of learning is staying on task. If one does not stick to the relevant goals, one will learn something perhaps, but it will not be the desired learning. Individuals who test well on working memory tasks involving a combination of storage and processing have been shown to do a better job staying on task.

A good experimental example of how staying on task is tied to working memory is one carried out by Kane and Engle (2003) using a well-known task designed long ago by John Ridley Stroop. In the key condition within this task, one is to name the color of ink in which color words are written. Sometimes, the color of ink does not match the written color and there is a tendency to want to read the word instead of naming the color. This effect can be made more treacherous by presenting stimuli in which the word and color match on most trials, so that the participant may well lapse into reading and lose track of the correct task goal (naming the color of ink). What that happens, the result is an error or long delay on the occasional trials for which the word and ink do not match. Under those circumstances, the individuals who are more affected by the Stroop conditions are those with relatively low performance on the operation span test of working memory (carrying out arithmetic problems while remembering words interleaved with those problems).

In more recent work, Kane et al. (2007) has shown that low-span individuals have more problems attending in daily life. Participants carried devices that allowed them to respond at unpredictable times during the day, reporting what they were doing, what they wanted to be doing, and so on. It was found that low-span individuals were more likely to report that their minds were wandering away from the tasks on which they were trying to focus attention. This, however, did not occur on all tasks. The span-related difference in attending was only for tasks in which they reported that they wanted to pay attention. When participants reported that they were bored and did not want to pay attention, mind-wandering was just as prevalent for high spans as for low spans.

Although this work was done on adults, it has implications for children as well. Gathercole, Lamont, and Alloway (2006) suggest that working memory failures appear to be a large part of learning disabilities. Children who were often accused of not trying to follow directions tested out as children with low working memory ability. They were often either not able to remember instructions or not able to muster the resources to stick to the task goal and pay attention continually, for the duration needed. Children with various kinds of learning and language disability generally test below grade level on working memory procedures, and children with low working memory and executive function don’t do well in school (e.g., Sabol & Pianta, 2012 ).

Of course, central executive processes must do more than just maintain the task goal. The way in which information is converted from one form to another, the vigilance with which the individual searches for meaningful connections between elements and new solutions, and self-knowledge about what areas are strong or weak all probably play important roles in learning.

Working Memory and Mnemonic Strategies

There also are special strategies that are needed for learning. For example, a sophisticated rehearsal strategy for free recall of a list involves a rehearsal method that is cumulative. If the first word on the list is a cow, the second is a fish, and the third a stone, one ideally should rehearse cumulatively: cow…cow, fish….cow, fish, stone … and so on ( Ornstein & Naus, 1978 ). Cowan, Saults, Winterowd, and Sherk (1991) showed that young children did not carry out cumulative rehearsal the way older children do and could not easily be trained to do so, but that their memory improved when cumulative rehearsal was overtly supported by cumulative presentation of stimuli.

For long-term learning, maintenance rehearsal is not nearly as effective a strategy as elaborative rehearsal, in which a coherent story is made on the basis of the items; this takes time but results in richer associations between items, enhancing long-term memory provided that there is time for it to be accomplished (e.g., Craik & Watkins, 1973 ).

In addition to verbal and elaborative rehearsal, Barrouillet and colleagues (2011) have discussed attentional refreshing as a working-memory maintenance process. We do not yet know what refreshing looks like on a moment-to-moment basis or what implications this kind of maintenance strategy has for long-term learning. It is a rich area for future research.

The most general mnemonic strategy is probably chunking ( Miller, 1956 ), the formation of new associations or recognition of existing ones in order to reduce the number of independent items to keep track of in working memory. The power of chunking is seen in special cases in which individuals have learned to go way beyond the normal performance. Ericsson, Chase, and Faloon (1980) studied an individual who learned, over the course of a year, to repeat lists of about 80 digits from memory. He learned to do so starting with a myriad of athletic records that he knew so that, for example, 396 might be recoded as a single unit, 3.96 minutes, a fairly fast time for running the mile. After applying this intensive chunking strategy in practice for a year, a list of 80 digits could be reduced to several sub-lists, each with associated sub-parts. The idea would be that the basic capacity has not changed but each working-memory slot is filled with quite a complex chunk. In support of this explanation, individuals of this sort still remain at base level (about 7 items) for lists of items that were not practiced in this way, e.g., letters. (For a conceptual replication see Ericsson, Delaney, Weaver, & Mahadevan, 2004 ; Wilding, 2001 )

Although we cannot all reach such great heights of expert performance, we can do amazing things using expertise. For example, memorization of a song or poem is not like memorization of a random list of digits because there are logical connections between the words and between the lines. A little working memory then can go a long way.

The importance of a good working memory comes in when something new is learned, and logical connections are not yet formed so the working memory load is high. When there are not yet sufficient associations between the elements of a body of material, working memory is taxed until the material can be logically organized into a coherent structure. Working memory is thought to correlate most closely with fluid intelligence, the type of intelligence that involves figuring out solutions to new problems (e.g., Wilhelm & Engle, 2005 ). However, crystallized intelligence, the type of intelligence that involves what you know, also is closely related to fluid intelligence. The path I suggest here is that a good working memory assists in problem-solving (hence fluid intelligence); fluid intelligence and working memory then assist in new learning (hence crystallized intelligence).

Working Memory and Education

We have sketched the potential relation between working memory and learning. How is that to be translated into lessons for education? There is a large and diverse literature on this topic. As a starting point to illustrate this diversity, I will describe the chapters chosen for the book, Working memory and education ( Pickering, 2006 ). After an introductory chapter on working memory (A. Baddeley), the book includes two chapters on the relation between working memory and reading (one by P. de Jong and another by K. Cain). There is a chapter on the relation between working memory and mathematics education (R. Bull and K.A. Espy), learning disabilities (H.L. Swanson), attention disorders (K. Cornish and colleagues), and deafness (M. Keehner & J. Atkinson). Other chapters cover more general topics, including the role of working memory in the classroom (S. Gathercole and colleagues), the way to assess working memory in children (S. Pickering), and sources of working memory deficit (M. Minear and P. Shah). It is clear that many avenues of research relate working memory to education, and I cannot travel along all of them in this review.

To organize a diverse field, what I can do is to distinguish between several different basic approaches have been tried. First, one can try to teach to the level of the learner’s working memory. The points described in the article up to this point should be kept in mind when one is trying to discern and understand what a particular learner can and cannot do. Second, one can try to use training exercises to improve working memory, which, investigators have hoped, would allow a person to be able to learn more and solve problems more successfully. The message I would give here is to be wary, given the rudimentary state of the evidence in a difficult field and the plethora of companies selling working memory training exercises. Third, one might contemplate the role of working memory for the most critical goals of education, in a broad sense. These topics will be examined one at a time.

Teaching to the Level of Working Memory

The classic adaptation of education to cognitive development and the needs of learning has been to try to adjust the materials to fit the learner. For example, there has been considerable discussion of the need to delay teaching concepts of arithmetic at least until the children understand the basic underlying concept of one-to-one correspondence; that is, the idea that there are different numbers in a series and that each number is assigned to just one object, in order to count the objects (e.g., Gelman, 1982 ). Halford et al. (2007) provide rough description of what complexity of concepts to expect for each age range, based on working-memory limits (see also Pascual-Leone & Johnson, 2011 ).

There also are individual differences within an age group in ability that affect how the materials are processed. For example, individuals lower in working memory may prefer to take in information using a verbatim, shallow, or surface processing strategy, rather than try to extract the gist (for one relevant investigation, albeit with mixed results, see Kyndt, Cascallar, & Dochy, 2012 ). The enjoyment of technological presentations may be greater in students with better abilities in the most relevant types of working memory (e.g., Garcia, Nussbaum, & Preiss, 2011 ). I would note that the educational enterprise requires that the teacher must decide whether it is best to allow the learner to use a favored strategy, which may be influenced by the student’s ability level, or whether it is possible in some cases to instill a more effective strategy even if it does not come naturally to the student.

Sweller and colleagues ( Sweller, 2011 ; Sweller, van Merrienboer, & Paas, 1998 ) have summarized a body of research literature and a theory about the role of cognitive load in learning and education. Their cognitive load theory is “a theory that emphasizes working memory constraints as determinants of instructional design effectiveness” ( Sweller et al., 1998 ). The theory distinguishes between an intrinsic cognitive load that comes from material to be learned and an extraneous cognitive load that should be kept small enough that the cognitive resources of the learner are not overly depleted by it. The theory is importantly placed in an evolutionary framework that I will not describe (though above I mentioned the theory’s incorporation of the distinction between biologically primary and secondary information). This theory has the advantage of being rather nuanced in that many ramifications of cognitive load are considered. With too high a cognitive load, one runs the risk of the student not being able to follow the presentation, whereas with too low a cognitive load, one runs the risk of insufficient engagement. In future, it might be possible to refine the predictions for classroom learning by combining cognitive load theory with theories of cognitive development, which make some specific predictions about how much capacity is present at a particular age in childhood (e.g., Halford et al., 2007 ). For further discussion of the theory as applied specifically to multimedia, see Schüler, Scheiter, and Genuchten (2011) . Issues arise as to how printed items are encoded (visually, verbally, or both) and how much the combination of verbal and visual codes in multimedia should be expected to tax a common, central cognitive resource and therefore interfere with one another, even when they are intended to be synergic. Both in cognitive psychology and in education, these are key issues currently under ongoing investigation.

An advantage of multimedia and computerized instruction is the possibility of adjusting the instruction to the student’s level. This might be done partly on the basis of success; if the student succeeds, the materials can be made more challenging whereas, if the student fails, the materials can be made easier. One potential pitfall to watch for is that, while some students will want to press slightly beyond their zone of comfort and will learn well, others will want an easy time, and may choose to learn less than they would be capable of learning. One way to cope with these issues is through computerized instruction, but with a heavy dose of personal monitoring and adjustment to make sure that the task is sufficiently motivating for every student.

One factor that makes it difficult to teach to the students effectively is that the working memory demands of language production do not always match the demands of the recipients’ language comprehension. Consequently, when one is speaking or writing for didactic purposes, one must be careful to consider not only one’s own working memory needs, but also those of the listener or reader. There are several obstacles in this regard. Slevc (2011) showed that speakers tend to blurt out what is most readily available in working memory. He used situations that were to be described verbally by the participant, e.g., A pirate gave a book to the monk . If one piece of information had already been presented, it was more likely to be described first. For example, if the monk had been presented already but not the book, the participant was more likely to phrase the description differently, as A pirate gave the monk a book . This assignment of priority to given information is generally appropriate, given that the speaker and listener (or writer and reader) share the same given information. In this case, though, Slevc shows that the tendency to describe given information first was diminished when the speaking participant was under a working memory load. In a didactic situation such as giving a lecture, it thus seems plausible that the memory load inherent in the situation (remembering and planning what one wants to say in the coming segments of a lecture) may cause the lecturer sometimes to use awkward grammatical structure. Moreover, as mentioned above, learning to speak or write well requires that one bear in mind possible difference between what one knows as the speaker (or writer) and what the listener (or reader) knows at key moments. For example, if one says, “Marconi was the inventor of the modern radio,” then, by the time the full topic of the sentence is known, the name is most likely no longer in the listener’s or student’s working memory. If, however, one says, “The modern radio was invented by a man named Marconi,” the context is set up first, making it easier to retain the name. Bearing in mind what the listener or reader knows and does not yet know is likely to be important both for educators in their own speaking and writing, and also in order to teach students how to speak and write effectively.

Working Memory Training

A much more controversial approach is to use training regimens to improve working memory, thereby improving performance on the educational learning tasks that require working memory (e.g., Klingberg, 2010 ). It is controversial partly because many people have spent a great deal of money purchasing such training programs before the scientific community has reached an agreement about the efficacy of such programs.

Doing working memory training studies is not easy. One needs a control group that is just as motivated by the task as the training group but without the working memory training aspect. The training task must be adaptive (with rewards for performance that continues to improve with training) and a non-adaptive control group does not adequately control arousal and motivation. Some task that is adaptive but involves long-term learning instead of working memory training may be adequate. Several large-scale reviews and studies have suggested that working memory training sometimes improves performance on the working memory task that is trained, but does not generalize to reasoning tasks that must rely on working memory (in adults, Redick et al., 2013 , and Shipstead, Redick, & Engle, 2012 ; in children, Melby-Lervåg & Hulme, 2013 ). In somewhat of a contrast, other reviews suggest that the training of executive functions (inhibiting irrelevant information, updating working memory, controlling attention, etc.) does extend at least to tasks that use similar processes ( Diamond & Lee, 2011 ) and some basically concur also for working memory ( Chein & Morrison, 2010 ). So there is an ongoing controversy, even among those who have written meta-analyses and reviews of research.

One might ask how it is possible to improve working memory without having the effect of improving performance on other tasks that rely on working memory. This can happen because there are potentially two ways in which training can improve task performance. First, working memory training theoretically might increase the function of a basic process, much as a muscle can be strengthened through practice. (Or at least, individuals might learn that through diligent exertion of their attention and effort, they can do better.) That is presumably the route hoped for in training of working memory or executive function. Second, though, it is possible for working memory training to result in the discovery of a strategy for completing the task that is better than the strategy used initially. This can improve performance on the task being trained, but the experience and the strategy learned may well be irrelevant to performance on other educational tasks, even those that rely on working memory. This route might be expected if, as I suspect, participants typically look for a way to solve a problem that is not very attention-demanding, unless the payoff is high.

If there is successful working memory training, another issue is whether training is capable of producing super-normal performance or whether it is mostly capable of rectifying deficiencies. By way of analogy, consider physical exercise. If a person is already walking 6 miles a day, there might be little benefit to the heart of adding aerobic exercise. Similarly, if a person is already highly engaged in the environment and using attention control often and effectively during the day, there might be little benefit to the brain of adding working memory exercises. It remains quite conceivable, though, that such exercises are beneficial to certain individuals who are under-utilizing working memory. Nevertheless, as Diamond and Lee (2011) points out, there might be social or emotional reasons why this is the case and such factors would need to be addressed along with, or in some cases instead of, working memory training per se.

Working Memory and the Ultimate Goals of Education

What is the difference between learning and education? This is a question that has long been asked (for a history of the early period of educational psychology in the United States, for example, see Hall, 2003 ). Do children learn better when they are fed the information intensively, or allowed to explore the material? Should all children be expected to learn the same material, or should children be separated into different tracks and taught the information that is thought to help them the most in their own most likely future walks of life?

A fundamental difference between learning and education, many would agree, is that education should facilitate the acquisition of skills that will promote continued learning after the student leaves school. Of course, after the student leaves school, a major difference is that there is no teacher to decide what is to be learned, or how. Therefore, what seems to be most important, many would agree, is critical thinking skills. There is some sentiment that these skills can be trained (although for an opposing view see Tricot & Sweller, in press ). For example, Halpern (1998 p. 449) suggests the following emphases for training critical thinking: “(a) a dispositional component to prepare learners for efforiful cognitive work, (b) instruction in the skills of critical thinking, (c) training in the structural aspects of problems and arguments to promote transcontextual transfer of critical-thinking skills, and (d) a metacognitive component that includes checking for accuracy and monitoring progress toward the goal.” Although I could find few well-controlled, peer-reviewed studies supporting the notion that it is possible to train critical thinking skills, optimistic evidence is beginning to roll in. For example, Shim and Walczak (2012) found that professors asking challenging questions resulted in more improvement in both subjective and objective measures of critical thinking. The objective measure required that students clarify, analyze, evaluate, and extend arguments, and increased 0.55 standardized units for every 1-unit increase in the rating of challenging questions asked. The gain was much stronger in students with high pretest scores in critical thinking. Halpern et al. (2012) have designed a computerized module to train critical thinking skills and obtained very encouraging initial results, with well-controlled training experiments in progress according to the report.

One can then ask, to what extent is the training of these higher-level skills dependent on the student’s working memory ability? The association is likely to be substantial, given the high correlation between working memory and reasoning ability even among normal adults ( Kyllonen & Christal, 1990 ; Süβ, Oberauer, Wittmann, Wilhelm, & Schulze, 2002 ). There is the possibility that training working memory will in some way improve reasoning and vice versa, though most would agree at this point that the case has not yet been completely made (e.g., Jaeggi & Buschkuehl, 2013 ; Shipstead et al., 2012 ).

A current interest of mine is to understand how fallacies in reasoning might be related to fallacies in working memory performance. There appear to be some similarities between the two. One of the best-known reasoning fallacies is confirmation bias. In a key example ( Wason & Shapiro, 1971 ) participants are given a set of cards laid on the table, each having a letter on one side and a number on the other, and are asked which cards must be turned over to assess a rule (e.g., If a card has a vowel on one side, it has an even number on the other side ). Participants get that they must turn over the cards that can either confirm or disconfirm the rule (in the example, the cards showing vowels). They often fail to realize that they must also turn over cards that can only disconfirm the rule. In the example, one must turn over cards with odd numbers because the rule is disconfirmed if any of those cards have a vowel on the other side. In contrast, cards that can only confirm the rule are irrelevant. (One should not turn over cards with even numbers because the rule is technically not disconfirmed no matter whether there is a consonant or vowel on the other side.)

Chen and Cowan (in press) found performance on a working memory task that closely resembles confirmation bias. In one procedure, a spatial array of letters was presented on each trial, followed by a set of all of the letters at the bottom of the screen and a single location marked; the task was to select the correct letter for the marked location. In another procedure, the spatial array of letters was followed by a single letter from the array at the bottom of the screen and all of the locations marked; the task was to select the correct location for the presented letter. When working memory does not happen to contain the probed item, these procedures allow the use of disconfirming information. In the first task, for example, a participant might reason as follows: The letters were K, R, Q, and L. I know the locations of only R and L and neither of them match the probed location. Therefore, I know that the answer must be K or Q and I will guess randomly between them . That would be comparable to using disconfirming evidence. The pattern of data, however, did not appear to indicate that kind of process. Instead, participants answered correctly if they knew the probed item and otherwise guessed randomly among all of the other choices, without using the process of elimination. A mathematical model that assumed the latter process showed near-perfect convergence in capacity between the procedures described above and the usual change-detection procedure. If we instead assumed a mathematical model of performance in which disconfirming evidence was used through the process of elimination, there was no such convergence between the procedures.

So in reasoning and in working memory, processing tends to be inefficient, and it remains to be seen whether it can be meaningfully improved in terms of eliminating confirmation bias. Perhaps people with insufficient working memory or intelligence will always be stuck in such inefficient reasoning and there is nothing we can do. Arguing against that pessimistic view, however, is the recent finding ( Stanovich, West, & Toplak, 2013 ) that the tendency to evaluate evidence more favorably when it agrees with one’s own view occurs across the board and is not correlated with intelligence, and presumably therefore not correlated with working memory either. One might be able to train individuals to make the best use of the working memory they have without worrying about increasing the basic capacity of working memory, either by training critical thinking skills (Halpern, 1989) or by instilling expertise ( Eriksson et al., 2004 ).

Working memory is the retention of a small amount of information in a readily accessible form, which facilitates planning, comprehension, reasoning, and problem-solving. When we talk of working memory, we often include not only the memory itself, but also the executive control skills that are used to manage information in working memory and the cognitive processing of information. Theoretically, there is still uncertainty about the basic limitations on working memory: are they limitations on concurrent holding capacity, mnemonic processing speed, duration of retention of information before it decays, or just the same sorts of interference properties that apply to long-term memory? While these basic issues are debated and empirical investigations continue, there is much greater agreement about what results are obtained in particular test circumstances; the results of working memory studies seem rather replicable, but small differences in method produce large differences in results, so that one cannot assume that a particular working memory finding is highly generalizable.

For learning and education, it is important to take into account the basic principles of cognitive development and cognitive psychology, adjusting the materials to the working memory capabilities of the learner. We are not yet at a point at which every task can be analyzed in advance in order to predict which tasks are doable with a particular working memory capability. It is possible, though, to monitor performance and keep in mind that failure could be due to working memory limitations, adjusting the presentation accordingly. Keeping in mind the limitations of working memory of listeners and readers could easily help to improve one’s lecturing and writing styles. I hope that awareness of working memory leads to a world in which we are all more tolerant of one another’s inability to understand perfectly, are more humble and less arrogant, and are better able to communicate, educate one another, and reach common ground.

Acknowledgment

This work was completed with support from NIH grant R01-HD21338.

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The Role of Memories in Humans Life Essay

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Introduction

Childhood and memories, the importance of memories.

Being children, people do not always think about their memories as there are many things which happen and at the same time there are not many events which deserve remembering. There is an opinion that children’s memory is better as their mind is clear and opened for new knowledge. Growing older people start thinking more, they get more knowledge and they are to remember a lot of things, therefore, their memory becomes weaker, still some childhood recollections remain.

Thinking about personal memories, I understand that most of them are some bright events which impressed me greatly. Most of the events from my childhood have been forgotten. I see how my parents tell some stories from my childhood, but I do not remember such situations. I began to think about the reasons why people remember some episodes from their childhood which seem rather ordinary, but may forget some bright recollections.

For example, I do not remember my first day at school, I do not remember most of my birthdays, but I remember the day when I went to the kindergarten for the first time and when I got acquainted with Mary, a girl I never saw after that day. What are the reasons and the process according to which children’s memories remain in human brain? I am inclined to think that we remember not events but emotions, and if an adult remembers an event from his/her childhood, it is obvious that this very situation has impressed him/her greatly.

Human memories are unstable and limited. People may remember something and when this recollection becomes unimportant it is forgotten. Human brain is flexible, the processes which occur there are not studied up to the end. Dwelling upon children and their memories, it is possible to say that most of them are based on emotions. All the recollections I have from my childhood are impressive. Some of the emotions are positive, others are negative, however, they are strong.

Trying to remember an ordinary day from my childhood where nothing happened, I understood that it is difficult for me. Moreover, it is hard for me to remember what I ate a couple of week on breakfast. Why? I suppose the reason is because it is unimportant.

Children’s memories are based on personal feelings and emotions and it is by no means correct. I remember the day when I was about 4-5 years old. I was playing in the yard, as usual. One girl came to me, she was of my age. She asked whether I would like to play with her. Why would I reject? We shared some toys. I do not remember exactly what they were. She was very serious, however talkative and funny. She told me that playing with children may be a very complicated thing, sometimes impossible. I remember that I was surprised, but I was too small to think about it and we continued playing. When she left that day I never saw her again.

When I was a child that day was interesting for me, nothing more. This episode appeared in my mind several years ago when I saw a TV program about children with rare diseases. There was a boy whose skin was covered with hematoma. He had a disease when even a touch made him feel terrible pain and a place of touch was covered with numerous hematomas. This was the moment when I remembered my childhood and that episode with a girl. I remembered that surprise and inability to understand I experienced, that specific feeling of ignorance. Now, I felt the same feeling. I do not know what it means to be unable to play with others, and this was exactly the feeling I experienced in childhood.

Recollecting childhood memories in an adult age, we usually do it through emotions. When we hear some songs from cartoons we usually remember the time when we saw these cartoons. A man is able to remember through smell, sound, and touch. I am sure that most people have ever experienced that feeling when some situation in the present helped them return to their childhood. All these recollections appear through emotional condition. First, we remember the emotion and then the surrounding environment appears in memory.

Memories are very important in the life of people as they help adults know that all the actions leave imprint. No matter how much time passes, all what we do, feel, and think today will leave its recollection. The situation with that girl was very important in my life. I did not realize it up to the time I saw that TV program and understood that the feeling of fear to be unable to play with others followed me the whole my life.

When I got acquainted with people I tied to spend as much time with them as possible. I always spend my free time with my family and friends I am really afraid of the situations when I will be limited in dealing with them. I have never understood why I felt in such a way, and now I see what the reasons is. All our actions and situations in childhood impress us greater than we may think.

• Analysis of the Characters in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie
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Essay: Memory

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Memory plays an important role in cognition. The knowledge that we have is based on memory. From the stimuli we see to the things we hear affects our memory (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). When there is a stimulus, the brain will process that information and retrieve memories that we already have that relate to that stimuli in any way (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). The brain will then generate emotion related to that stimuli and store it in short-term memory (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). The more repetitious that stimuli or anything relatable occurs, the brain will then develop a long-term memory regarding it (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). This all occurs via a network of synaptic connections and neurotransmitters (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014; Rasch & Born, 2013). Without these structural and chemical components, memory would not be possible.

Memory can be affected by age and exercise (Erikson, Voss, Prakash, Basak, Szabo, Chaddock, Kim, Heo, Alves, White, Wojcicki, Malley, Vieira, Martin, Pence, Woods, McAuley, Kramer, 2011). When we have progressed into late adulthood, the hippocampus shrinks, which is a loss of volume (Erikson et al., 2011). This loss of volume is what impairs memory as well as increases the risk for developing dementia (Erikson et al., 2011). One study has shown that aerobic exercise training reverses this volume loss, which would improve memory (Erikson et al., 2011). Another factor that plays a role in memory is sleep.

When we are awake, our brain encodes information (Rasch & Born, 2013). When we are sleeping, particularly during slow-wave sleep (SWS), the brain in a sense reboots the encoded information from earlier and begins to consolidate it (Rasch & Born, 2013). Rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep strengthens the synaptic connections regarding the encoded information and reorganizes it accordingly (Rasch & Born, 2013). This goes to show how important sleep is in the formation of memories and college students really shouldn’t pull an ‘all-nighter’ the day before the test (Rasch & Born, 2013).

One type of memory is prospective memory (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). This is when you are recalling something you have to do later on or in the future (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). The memory in our brain acts much like a computer (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). We create a document or file similar to creating a memory and we save it to the hard drive or our brain. When we need that file/memory, we retrieve it. Then once again it gets saved into storage. Storage can be impacted by interference (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). One example of interference is attention or awareness (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). If you happen to be studying for a test and all of a sudden someone flips on the television, the television may pull your attention away from studying and onto the television. You may not remember what you just read or where you were at with studying because you got distracted.

Memory can be a powerful thing. Memories help us to define ourselves and how we perceive things. Though our perceptions can also define our memories. Maybe our memories are all wrong. These would be called false memories (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). False memories are the memories we have of something that did not happen (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). This can occur when someone suggest something, such as an incident or event, to you (Loftus, 1997). If someone tells you about something that you experienced, you may believe that it actually did because you think you have a memory of it happening (Loftus, 1997). False memories can also be a result of misinformation and how much it is accepted (Loftus, 1997). How many of our memories are false if all it takes is a mere suggestion to implant a false memory?

Even language is based on memory (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). There are many things that make up psycholinguistics, which is the studying of how we learn language and how we use it to communicate to others (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). It is said that we begin to learn language in utero (Altmann, 2001). As we age we are taught syllables that our brains encode and store (Altmann, 2001). This can be through individuals talking to us slowly and more emphasized or while in conversation with others (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). We are constantly listening and learning.

We also begin to pick up gesturing that is done while communicating (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). Eventually, we begin to utilize the sounds and syllables that we have learned to create words (Altmann, 2001). As we start to learn meanings of these words we can then properly use them in a sentence for communication. As we get older, we retain the meanings in our memory and continue to add new words and meanings into storage (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). This learning process involves the help of the brain. Different areas of the brain play different roles in learning language. The left hemisphere of the brain is associated with processing the minor details of language, whereas, the right side is associated with processing the ‘big picture’ (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). The left side looks at the context of words in sentences and the right looks at the relatedness of words (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014).

Broca’s area is what helps us to perceive the information being heard (Watkins & Paus, 2004). It also aids in speech production (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). Some individuals with issues within this area of the brain will have difficulty producing speech, which is called Broca’s aphasia (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). This area is toward the back of the frontal lobe (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). There is also Wernicke’s aphasia, which where the individual has difficulty comprehending language (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). The damaged area that causes Wernicke’s aphasia is the left-hemisphere called Wernicke’s area (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). This area is in the back of the left temporal lobe (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). There are many other types of aphasia that someone may encounter (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014).

Though the left-hemisphere has an important in the processing of language, the right hemisphere is also important in linguistics (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). The right hemisphere has a role in comprehension and production (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). Mirror neurons help us to replicate the sound that we heard (Watkins & Paus, 2004). By observing the face of the individual producing the sound and hearing it at the same time helps us to learn language better. Eventually, language becomes automatic and doesn’t require much thought to produce it.

Linguistics differs from psycholinguistics. Linguistics is the characteristics that make up language, such as structure, function, and form. We rely on word order to distinguish what is trying to be communicated. Letter order within a word matters in a sense (Rayner, White, Johnson, Liversedge, 2006). One study has shown that letters that are jumbled can still be read as long as the first and last letter remained the same/in place (Rayner, White, Johnson, Liversedge, 2006). If letters are substituted, the words become more difficult for our brain to decipher (Rayner, White, Johnson, Liversedge, 2006). This shows how important letters play a role in interpreting language. It is also important because it aids in the understanding of the meaning behind what is trying to be communicated.

As stated earlier, we start to learn language a young age. We rely on syntax or word order to determine the meaning of words. It can be compared to context clues, which helps us to figure out a meaning of a word that we may not know. We analyze sounds, word order, and grammar to help us learn the meaning of words and sentences. We develop a mental lexicon to help us build up our knowledge of language. As we continue to learn how to interpret language, we are learning to produce language.

There are times when language does not come out of our mouths or is produced the way we intended (Fromkin, 1984). This is called speech errors (Fromkin, 1984). This can occur when we anticipate saying something and as we think about saying something, certain words, syllables, or sounds get changed (Fromkin, 1984). This can either be by adding, deleting, transposing or even false starts (Fromkin, 1984). Speech errors occur rapidly due to an error in the neurolinguistics of speech production (Fromkin, 1984). Everyone probably has experienced a speech error, which some call a slip of the tongue (Fromkin, 1984).

As we age into older adults, the speed at which we process language and our memory capacity begins to decrease (Kemper, Herman, Lian, 2003). Our language is more simplified grammatically and substantially when multitasking as older adults (Kemper, Herman, Lian, 2003). Older adults tend to talk more slowly, which causes speech to be more fluent when multitasking compared to young adults (Kemper, Herman, Lian, 2003). Young adults speak more rapidly, but typically when they are multitasking they tend to shorten their sentences and reduce the use of grammar (Kemper, Herman, Lian, 2003). By doing this, they may be making more resources available for their working memory (Kemper, Herman, Lian, 2003). If tasks are unfamiliar to us, the content and complexity of our speech may be impacted (Kemper, Herman, Lian, 2003).

As stated before, linguistics is the study of language that we use to communicate with one another by using sounds to create words to create sentences (Anderson, 2015). Linguists study word meaning, sentence production, comprehension, semantics, and structure of grammar (Anderson, 2015). Psycholinguistics looks more at meaning behind production and how we produce language through cognitively and neurologically (Anderson, 2015). Psycholinguists look at how language is processed within the brain and how we are able to structure our sentences to communicate with others (Anderson, 2015). Language would not be possible without cognition.

Cognition includes all the processes that occur within the brain that help us to perceive, recall, think, comprehend, and act upon information or stimuli (Tibbetts, 2014). Another way of defining cognition is the processes that includes memory, thoughts, awareness, language, attention, and our emotions (Mesulam, 1998). Cognition is the reason we are able to learn and expand our knowledge (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). Perception and sensation is what aids in our learning, which wouldn’t be possible without cognition to process those experiences (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). Many our short-term and long-term memories are based on perception and sensation (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). Those memories would not be stored without cognition (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014).

Even recognition is dependent on cognition because recognition is based on memory and memory is based on cognition (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). It can be seen that many other processes or activities rely on cognition (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). Many things also rely on attention as well. The more attention we have towards something the more we may gain from that experience (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). Have you ever let your mind wander during class or a meeting before? You probably don’t recall very much of what was occurring during the time you were ‘daydreaming’. Attention can be controlled through cognition, which translates to awareness (Tibbetts, 2014). There are times that cognition may fail us due to interference or problems with neural processes (Radvanksy & Ashcraft, 2014). One way cognition may fail us is with false memories (Radvanksy & Ashcraft, 2014). If we are provided with inaccurate information or sleep deprived, that can make us more susceptible to false memories (Straube, 2012). Forgotten memories can occur because of interference, causing information to not be stored or processed correctly (Radvanksy & Ashcraft, 2014). Cognition and memory also aid in our learning of language.

Cognition allows us to not only perceive language when also produce it as well (Radvanksy & Ashcraft, 2014). When we hear language we process what we hear and start to analyze its meaning based on our previous knowledge or context clues (Radvanksy & Ashcraft, 2014). During this learning process, we make mental notes of the grammar and structuring that is being used by the talker (Radvanksy & Ashcraft, 2014). We store these communication rules in our memory to be utilized in the future when we are producing language (Radvanksy & Ashcraft, 2014). As we perceive language and produce language, neural systems are working (Radvanksy & Ashcraft, 2014).

Neural processes are needed for not only memory, but language as well (Radvanksy & Ashcraft, 2014). Many areas of the brain are involved with processing language, producing language, storing memories, linking emotion to memories, and much more (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). It has been said that we recall memories better when we have an emotional connection to them (Van Bergen, Wall, Salmon, 2014). Emotions are produced through neural connections within the brain (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014).

It has been discussed how many things rely on cognition, but what does cognition rely on? One thing that cognition relies on is nutrition. Leptin, which is a protein hormone, regulates the intake of food and body weight (Morrison, 2009). Leptin receptors are found throughout the brain, even areas that play a role in learning and memory (Morrison, 2009). So how does nutrition affect cognition? Well, depending on our intake of food. If we are in starvation mode, our behavior will change in order for survival (Morrison, 2009). This behavior tends to be motivation and desire for food (Morrison, 2009). If we are obese, it tends to cause a decrease in the function of cognition (Morrison, 2009). When we eat it can stimulate dopamine receptors, which gives us this pleasurable feeling (Morrison, 2009).

One example of a pleasurable feeling obtained from food is think of the time when you were out in the cold and came inside to drink hot chocolate. It made you feel warm and happy. When you think of cold days, you tend to associate that with hot chocolate or maybe even soup. There can also be negative experiences with food. One example is when a certain food caused you to get sick. Typically, you don’t want to eat that food for quite some time. This is because we have associated our emotion with that experience and when we are presented with that stimuli we experienced again, we think of how we felt.

Nutrition is what helps the brain to develop and without a brain, cognition would not be known (Bhate, Joshi, Ladkat, Deshmukh, Lumbree, Katre, Bhat, Rush, Yajnik, 2012). Not only does development of the brain occur inside the womb due to nutrition, but also to continue the development after birth (Bhate et al., 2012). A deficiency in folate during pregnancy can cause learning disabilities and brain abnormalities to occur to the fetus (Bhate et al., 2012). A deficiency in B12 during pregnancy can cause issues with brain development too (Bhate et al., 2012). One thing that has been shown to improve cognition is breakfast (Cooper, Bandelow, Nevill, 2011). It has showed that individuals had more energy when they consumed breakfast (Cooper, Bandelow, Nevill, 2011). This is because glucose levels were increased (Cooper, Bandelow, Nevill, 2011). With more energy comes more attention towards stimuli, which can impact memory.

The various branches of aphasia is one way to show the connection between psycholinguistics and cognition. Broca’s aphasia occurs within Broca’s area of the brain and results in issues with speech production (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). Broca’s area is within the left hemisphere of the brain and associates words we see or hear with their meanings (Mesulam, 1998). This area focuses on articulation, processing of words and their function, grammar, word order (Mesulam, 1998). Wernicke’s aphasia occurs within Wernicke’s area of the brain and results in issues with comprehension (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). Wernicke’s area is found in the left hemisphere of the brain (Mersulam, 1998). It is believed that this area may be where our ‘mental dictionary’ is stored (Mersulam, 1998).

Lesions can impact Wernicke’s area (Mersulam, 1998). Lesions can cause issues in seeing or hearing due to damage of Wernicke’s area (Mersulam, 1998). When there are issues with seeing or hearing, production may be affected negatively (Mersulam, 1998). Lesions don’t always impact Wernicke’s area (Mersulam, 1998). Sometimes it impacts the neural connections that can cause issues with comprehension and communicating our thoughts (Mersulam, 1998). Anomia is another disorder that causes issues with retrieval of words (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). These are all disorders within the brain that can disrupt language. This goes to show how important cognition is for language to be effective and efficient.

Brain damage can also impact memory. If someone experiences amnesia, which is when memories are lost or the ability of remembering is lost is caused by brain damage or disease (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). Alcoholics can experience amnesia as well as poor attention due to brain damage caused by excessive consumption of alcohol (Oscar-Berman, 2012). Damage occurs to the diencephalic and limbic areas of the brain (Oscar-Berman, 2012). Some areas of the brain are able to compensate for other areas that may be lacking in processing (Oscar-Berman, 2012). Sometimes the brain is unable to compensate due to the extent of what is lost (Oscar-Berman, 2012). Injury doesn’t only impacts old memories, but can also cause new memories to not form (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). This shows a good example as to how cognition can impact memory formation or recall. This emphasizes the importance cognition and the brain.

Explicit memory is one way that links cognition with memory (Mesulam, 1998). This type of memory has a role in sensation (Mesulam, 1998). When we experience sensation, this memory stores the information regarding the experience based on the significance it has to us (Mesulam, 1998). Our memory as well as recognition is processes much like language (Mesulam, 1998). Many different aspects of cognition may be different in the roles that they perform, but may be processed very similar (Mesulam, 1998).

As we progress into older adulthood, cognition may not be a good as it once was. Many older individuals have mentioned they can’t find the word they were looking for even though it is a common word (Burke & Shafto, 2004). This does occur in individuals of various ages, but as we get older, it becomes more frequent (Burke & Shafto, 2004). One thing that does not change as we get older is comprehending language (Burke & Shafto, 2004). As we age, we do either expand our vocabulary or it stays the same (Burke & Shafto, 2004). It is just the production, whether it be verbal or written, that typically declines (Burke & Shafto, 2004). This can result in many errors (Burke & Shafto, 2004). This occurs as we age because neural connections become weak and that results in a decline in excitation of neurons (Burke & Shafto, 2004). This decline will cause the threshold to not be reached that is required for production (Burke & Shafto, 2004).

Neurons and synaptic connections plays a big role for the processes that occur within the brain (Mersulam, 1998). Based on which sense is stimulated, synaptic connections will be activated in order to transmit the information to the appropriate area of the brain (Pins, 2003). When we see words being produced, our occipital lobe is given the information of what we are seeing (Pins, 2003). The information will then be compared against our memories of similar things in order to group them alike (Pins, 2003). This is how our senses can impact how we perceive information and store it as memories as well all through neural connections (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). When we want to communication to someone, it is much similar. We take information from our memory and send it to the appropriate area in order to communicate it accordingly to how we want (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014).

Lastly, emotions are an important component in cognition (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). Emotion can be communicated through language (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). Examples can include raising your voice to emphasize anger or enthusiasm in your voice to show joy. Emotions are also linked to memories (Strange, Hurlemann, Dolan, 2003). When we experience something positive, our brain will associate those two things together (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014). Negative experiences may end up being repressed memories if the experience was traumatic enough to the individual (Radvansky & Ashcraft, 2014).

We can conclude from all this that the brain has many processes in order to function effectively and efficiently. Many things affect the brain and vice versa. Psycholinguistics is the processing of linguistics within the brain and use to retrieve memories and knowledge that corresponds to what is being said. Once our brain encodes the information being said and makes its connections with previous knowledge, we can act or behave accordingly as we see fit. Everything plays a role in function, but not without one another.

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Memory, Its Importance and Role in Life

Memory plays a pivotal role in people’s lives at multiple levels, including routine, professional activity, socialization, learning, decision-making, communication, and others. Indeed, independent living might be particularly hindered or even impossible if one’s memory is impaired or dysfunctional. According to Baddeley et al. (2015), memory is an essential element of human life since it ensures continuity and helps people cope with daily activities. Indeed, remembering information allows individuals to learn and use the information for fundamental activities and behaviors and the understanding themselves in the context of their life experiences. According to Wang and Gennari (2019), the mechanisms of memory, including encoding and retrieval, predetermine the quality of information recalled over time. Thus, the importance of memory cannot be overrated, which validates the relevance of research on this issue.

In the scholarly psychological literature, the research on memory is vast. This phenomenon has interested psychologists for decades, producing a substantial pool of evidence available to researchers today. According to Zlotnik and Vansintjan (2019), memory is defined as “the faculty of encoding, storing, and retrieving information” (p. 2). It is a complex combination of processes that depend on the quality of data processing in the human brain. Thus, as defined by another scholar investigating the issue, memory is “not a unitary faculty of the mind but is composed of multiple systems that have different operating principles and different neuroanatomy” (Squire, 2009, p. 12711). Squire (2009) emphasizes that working memory is the process of retaining information from events around people, processing it, and offering the possibility to use both past and present experiences in the future. According to Xu et al. (2018), the difference in memory follows the difference in encoding and processing the memorized information. Thus, given the definition of memory and the discussion of its importance to human existence, the dependence of memory on processing style should be investigated.

Indeed, information processing is at the center of memory mechanisms. Processing style might be defined as an approach to information perception, analysis, and manipulation. According to Craik (1979), the ability to recall information can be influenced by encoding. In their article, Craik and Lockhart (1972) criticized the multi-store framework of memory research and proposed a new one. According to this new approach, the levels of processing are core to the quality of memory. Indeed, the trace of memory, implied in the duration and clarity of how the information is recalled, particularly depends on the processing style. Obermiller (1985) stated that the processing style is predetermined by the depth and level of the motivation. The results of experiments conducted by Craik and Tulving (1975) suggest that “the episodic memory trace may be thought of as a rather automatic by-product of operations carried out by the cognitive system” (p. 268). The better or deeper the semantic analysis of the information, the more accurate and durable the trace is.

Overall, the levels and depth of processing are essential for the style, which ultimately affects memory. As stated by Craik (2002), memory is “pure processing,” where the quality and deliberation of cognitive involvement in the analysis of the information predetermines the accuracy of recall. One of the recent studies on memory aimed to identify the effects of the process of retrieval on the quality of recall of the learned information. Kubik et al. (2018) found that retrieval was more effective for the accuracy and longevity of memory traces rather than learning, which validates the importance of investigating the mechanisms of memory. In addition, Rose (2020) integrated the frameworks of neurological research to identify that the retention of memory depended on the context of the task and the perceptual encoding. Such findings contribute to the development of the hypothesis for the present study. Moreover, different encoding conditions yield different accuracy of information recall, as demonstrated by the study by Challis et al. (1996). Thus, memory depends on various factors, including processing style, encoding, and context.

A vast body of literature demonstrates the relationship between processing and memory. According to Tan, K., & Choo, F. (1990), “deep and elaborative information processing leave memory traces of higher distinctiveness and durability,” which is validated by the intentional, analytic, and interpretive approach to deep processing (p. 68). The levels of processing have been significantly addressed in the scholarly literature on human memory. Alongside the processing styles, levels of processing have been claimed to have a significant effect on memory (Bradshaw & Anderson, 1982). The scholars conducted several experiments and found that elaborative encoding of information allowed for a more accurate memory trace for a longer period (Bradshaw & Anderson, 1982). Maki and Schuler (1980) conducted an experimental study on the interaction between levels of processing and rehearsal in memory. The scholars found that the participants could recall information better when the level of processing was deeper and the rehearsal duration increased (Maki & Schuler, 1980). Moreover, Long et al. (2018) conducted a study that demonstrated the interaction between attention and memory, where selective attention increases the accuracy of recalled information.

The presented literature review allows for outlining the following aims of the research project:

• Develop a hypothesis based on the scholarly literature;
• Test the hypothesis using the experimental design;
• Conduct experiments with participants to compare the effects of deep and shallow processing on memory traces.

The directional hypothesis that will drive the overall research process is as follows: The objects analyzed according to the deep processing mechanisms are recalled more accurately than those analyzed according to the shallow processing mechanisms.

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101 Memory Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

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Memory Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Memory is a fascinating and complex aspect of human cognition. From childhood memories to traumatic events, our memories shape who we are and how we perceive the world around us. If you're looking for inspiration for a memory essay, we've compiled a list of 101 topic ideas and examples to help get you started.

Childhood Memories:

• My earliest childhood memory
• A day at the beach with my family
• Playing with my favorite toy as a child
• My first day of school
• Learning to ride a bike
• Family vacations from my childhood
• The first time I lost a tooth
• My favorite birthday party as a child
• A day spent with my grandparents
• The first time I tried a new food

Travel Memories: 11. My first trip abroad 12. A memorable road trip with friends 13. Exploring a new city for the first time 14. Getting lost in a foreign country 15. A cultural experience that changed my perspective 16. Meeting new people while traveling 17. A memorable meal from a trip 18. Overcoming a challenge while traveling 19. A moment of cultural shock while abroad 20. My favorite travel memory

Personal Growth Memories: 21. Overcoming a fear or phobia 22. A moment of self-discovery 23. A mistake that taught me a valuable lesson 24. The importance of failure in my life 25. A time when I had to stand up for myself 26. A moment of personal triumph 27. The impact of a mentor on my life 28. A life-changing experience 29. The role of gratitude in my life 30. Reflecting on my personal growth over the years

Family Memories: 31. A family tradition that is important to me 32. A lesson learned from a family member 33. A family gathering that stands out in my memory 34. My relationship with my siblings 35. The importance of family in my life 36. A family vacation that brought us closer together 37. A memorable holiday celebration with my family 38. My relationship with my parents 39. A difficult family situation that taught me resilience 40. The impact of my family on my values and beliefs

Friendship Memories: 41. A memorable friendship from my childhood 42. A friend who has had a significant impact on my life 43. Overcoming a conflict with a friend 44. A fun day spent with friends 45. The importance of friendship in my life 46. A moment of betrayal in a friendship 47. A time when a friend supported me through a difficult time 48. The qualities I value in a friend 49. A memorable adventure with friends 50. Reflecting on the importance of friendship in my life

Traumatic Memories: 51. A traumatic event that shaped who I am today 52. Overcoming a traumatic experience 53. Dealing with loss and grief 54. A moment of vulnerability and strength 55. The impact of trauma on my mental health 56. Seeking help and support after a traumatic event 57. The process of healing from trauma 58. How trauma has influenced my relationships 59. Finding meaning and growth after a traumatic experience 60. Reflecting on resilience in the face of trauma

Cultural Memories: 61. A cultural tradition that is important to me 62. The impact of my cultural background on my identity 63. A moment of cultural pride 64. Overcoming stereotypes and prejudice 65. The importance of diversity in my life 66. Exploring different cultures and perspectives 67. A cultural celebration that holds significance for me 68. The influence of culture on my values and beliefs 69. Embracing my cultural heritage 70. Reflecting on the richness of diversity in the world

Special Events Memories: 71. A milestone birthday celebration 72. A memorable graduation ceremony 73. A wedding day to remember 74. Celebrating a special anniversary 75. A holiday celebration that stands out in my memory 76. Attending a live concert or performance 77. A memorable sporting event 78. Participating in a charity event or fundraiser 79. A surprise party that left a lasting impression 80. Reflecting on the significance of special events in my life

Nature Memories: 81. A memorable hike or outdoor adventure 82. A day spent at the beach or in the mountains 83. Watching a sunrise or sunset that moved me 84. Connecting with nature and the environment 85. A moment of awe and wonder in nature 86. The healing power of nature 87. Overcoming a fear of the outdoors 88. The importance of conservation and environmental awareness 89. A camping trip that stands out in my memory 90. Reflecting on the beauty and majesty of the natural world

Career Memories: 91. A memorable job interview experience 92. Overcoming challenges in my career 93. A moment of professional growth and development 94. The impact of a mentor or role model on my career 95. Dealing with work-related stress and burnout 96. A significant achievement in my career 97. Balancing work and personal life 98. Reflecting on my career goals and aspirations 99. The importance of finding fulfillment in my work 100. A memorable moment in my professional journey 101. Reflecting on the lessons learned from my career experiences

These memory essay topic ideas and examples are just a starting point for exploring the rich tapestry of memories that shape our lives. Whether you choose to reflect on childhood memories, travel experiences, personal growth, family dynamics, friendship, trauma, cultural influences, special events, nature, or career milestones, there are endless possibilities for exploring the power of memory in shaping who we are and how we navigate the world around us. Happy writing!

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133 Memory Essay Topics

🏆 best essay topics on memory, ✍️ memory essay topics for college, 👍 good research topics about memory, 🎓 most interesting memory research titles, 💡 simple memory essay ideas, ❓ research questions about memory.

• Three Components of Memory in Psychology
• Cache Memory and Virtual Memory: Compare-Contrast
• Cognitive Processes: Perception, Attention, Memory
• “Persistence of Memory” by Salvador Dali: Painting’s Description
• Baddeley’s Working Memory Model
• Saint Augustine and His Understanding of Memory
• Psychology: Working vs. Procedural Memory
• Short-Term and Working Memory Measurement Memory storage may be demonstrated to move through a short-term phase, which decays until developed by the long-term storage process.
• Long-Term Memory and Biblical Knowledge Plan Long-term memory can provide access to multiple opportunities for learning if understood and applied properly.
• Role of Memory in Modern Human Life Memory is the capacity of the brain to retain and voluntarily restore information which allows people to recall events that have occurred.
• Historical Memory Discourse in Public Diplomacy The past plays a critical role in shaping the present and fostering a sense of belonging; as a result, the historical memories are the basis for social and political identities.
• Positive Reinforcement, Classical Conditioning Learning, and Semantic Memory Positive reinforcement, classical conditioning learning, and semantic memory are the three essential concepts in understanding how the human mind works.
• Random-Access Memory: Training Manual The confident use of a personal computer involves not only utilizing useful functions that modern devices possess.
• Traumatic Memory and Survivor Identity Trauma and identity have a direct connection, where trauma can affect identity, as identity may affect an individual’s perception and understanding of the trauma.
• The Impact of Attention and Memory on Learning The paper discusses the cognitive processes involved in learning, including visual attention, auditory attention, selective attention, and working memory.
• Influence of Sleep on Human Thinking Abilities, Emotional State, and Memory Sleep can be called one of the most critical conditions for maintaining brain performance, the violation of which can negatively affect human thinking abilities and mental state.
• Applying Psychology to One’s Life: Memory and Behavior Although stress is inevitable, one’s response to stress can be controlled to a degree through coping or stress management strategies.
• The Effect of Music on Serial Short Term Memory From the experiment carried out on the two groups it is really not clear whether the effect of short term recall is hindered in anyway by background music.
• Learning and Memory in Behavioral Neuroscience Chapter 12 “Learning and Memory” of Freberg’s “Discovering Behavioral Neuroscience” provides essential insights on the understanding of brain development and functioning.
• Age Effects on Memory Among the Elderly Studies have highlighted the effects of age on memory amongst the elderly. Study results indicate that one of the major concerns about aging is the possible loss of memory.
• Memory Retention and Improvement Strategies Memory loss is caused by various factors, including psychological disorders, physical damage of the brain, and lack of ample sleep.
• Impact of Depth of Processing on Memory The research argues that the people easy to remember the objects in the deep processing condition than those in the shallow processing conditions.
• Cognitive Psychology Discussion: Long-Term Memory The recollection of specific Bible quotes that are personally relevant and associated with past events in my life is another method.
• Memory Drum Theory’s Projection The goal of the study was to look into memory drum theory’s projection that the increase in SRT was proportional to the complexity of the response to be instigated.
• The Role of Memory Space, Its Representation and Production Memory space can be explained in terms of transformation processes of a given anthropic environment. This type of environment can be an urban small scale or urban great scale.
• The Remember-Know Scheme as a Memory Pattern This report explores patterns in the Remember/Know pattern, where the participant either “just knows” or remembers specific memories.
• Jim Mcgaugh’s Memory Findings in Rats and the Importance of Forgetting Forgetting is a process that has been studied extensively in both animals and humans, as well as across different species. Forgetting is critical for advancing human development.
• Trends in Children’s Memory Processes The paper explores trends in children’s memory processes in forensic contexts by evaluating and systematically representing earlier findings.
• Experimentation to Understand Memory One can state that the positivist experimentation method can serve as a viable approach to understanding memory in real-world situations.
• How Memory Is Largely a Matter of Reconstruction Memory is a psychological process that involves more than just remembering important facts. It is a perceptual process affected by a person’s beliefs, and expectations.
• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy’s Impact on Memory The bibliography evaluates the impact of cognitive-behavioral play therapy (CBPT) on working memory, short-term memory (STM), and sustained attention.
• Hippocampal‐Dependent Learning and Memory Impairment The paper investigates Cd2+ neurotoxicity over time by simulating Cd2+ contaminated water. Chronic Cd exposure resulted in neuron death in the hippocampus.
• Human Memory: Faults and Fixes Memory is not fixed and is inherently changeable and malleable under specific circumstances. It is malleable and prone to mistakes in its formation and recollection stages.
• Memory Cells in Cellular Immunity Cellular immunity, also called cell-mediated, is an adaptive immunity in which lymphocytes of T type seek and attack diseased or foreign cells.
• The Role of Memory in Human Life Memory is one of the most critical components of the human psyche because responsible for saving and retrieving information that is constantly coming to a person from outside.
• Dual Store Model of Memory The model of human memory has three main components; sensory registers, working memory, also known as short-term memory, and long-term memory.
• Cognitive Neuroscience: Language Processing and Memory The statement that the left hemisphere controls language is wrong since the activity of the hemisphere is imbalanced.
• Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series: a Pictorial Memory of Black America Summing up, Eliane Elmaleh analyzed the position of Jacob Lawrence by studying the narrative of “The Migration Series”.
• Genes and Epigenetic Regulation of Learning and Memory, Addiction, and Parkinson’s Disease A review is going to be done on scientific journals that touch on genes and epigenetic regulations of learning and memory, addiction, and Parkinson’s disease.
• The Nature of Memory and Its Practical Aspects The central theme of this article is to explain why, despite a number of experiments, the nature of memory remains poorly determined.
• Representations and Productions of Memory Space Architecture and sculpture from a historical perspective serve as a powerful tool for exchanging memories and expectations among individuals with various outlooks on historical facts.
• Protein Phosphatase 1 Regulates the Histone Code for Long-Term Memory The article is a review of the research presented in “Protein Phosphatase 1 Regulates the Histone Code for Long-Term Memory” by Koshibu, K., et al.
• The Problem of Unreliability of Eyewitness Memory Eyewitness accounts tend to be valuable strengths of a case, but it is vital to question their credibility because of how memory functions and its associated problems.
• High Performance Flash Memory Solid State Disk Flash-based solid-state disks is a performance-based data storage technology that optimizes the use of flash-based technology compared with mechanically data storage technologies.
• Memory and Awareness: Training One’s Brain This paper considers that memorization is a natural phenomenon that one cannot prevent, but improve; and it is essential to understand which techniques work specifically for you.
• The Concept of Involuntary Memory in Proust’s Overture The concept of involuntary memory has been illustrated in Proust’s Overture. This is a depiction of the past memory in the life of the narrator
• Linguistic Analysis: Memory and Language Despite the decades of meticulous research, the notion of linguistic studies still has a variety of aspects that require further examination.
• Neuropsychological Assessment of Memory Difficulties Normally negative scores in regard to these assessments do not always mean the presence serious memory problems.
• Implicit Memory: Animal Observation The focal point of this paper is to enumerate the observation of an animal outside the class in relation to a concept of general psychology.
• Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory for Future MRAM allows a user to just turn on the computer to have the last session immediately available, even shutting down the computer does not wipe out any data.
• Memory and Eyewitness Identification When individuals have to choose from a lineup that consists of personalities with similar appearances, one is likely to point at the most familiar man or woman.
• Verifying the Accuracy of Witness Memory The purpose of the study was to develop a clear understanding of the ability of eyewitnesses to remember their self-made reports, concerning choice blindness.
• Historical Memory: The Tiananmen Incident in China The paper at hand is a case study that attempts to analyze the Tiananmen incident in China and its theoretical and practical implications.
• The Problem of Memory Blindness and Its Impact The purpose of the study is to examine “whether people would detect alterations to their memory reports and whether such alterations could influence participants’ memories”.
• Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Dysfunction Alzheimer’s disease is an untreatable condition that destroys brain cells and nerves, thus afflicting many important memory functions.
• Learning, Memory and Sleep Connections There are numerous variables mediating the relationship between learning and memory. This paper will discuss the underlying connections between learning, memory and sleep.
• Visual Short-Term Memory Capacity and Encoding Rate The article explores distinct disparities in the pace of processing as compared to K scores of VSTM capacity. This paper will provide a brief summary of the article.
• Does Damage to Frontal Lobes Produce Impairment in Memory? The study was presented in a simple manner that helped the reader understand the controversy that has lingered over the role of the frontal lobes in memory.
• Sensory Perception and Memory Role in Its Processing Human beings make decisions depending on the sensory information that their brains interpret. Memory helps people to capture, analyze, and retrieve information.
• The Architectonics of Memory: On Built Form and Built Thought Architecture has generally been considered as the art of design and construction using unique techniques that are appealing to the eyes.
• Types of Memory and Its Functions There are certain differences between short-term and long-term types of memory that are based on specifics of the performed functions and processes.
• The Relationship Between Ecstasy and Memory in the Human Body
• Various Training Methods Affect Different Parts of Working Memory
• Conscious Experience and Episodic Memory: Hippocampus at the Crossroads
• Memory Therapy for Adults Post Traumatic Brain Injury
• Music and Its Impact on the Memory of Teenagers & Young Adults
• The Correlation Between Sleep Deprivation and Memory Impairment
• Personal Identity and the Role of Memory
• The Hormonal Zeitgeber Melatonin: Role as a Circadian Modulator in Memory Processing
• Memory Loss and Cognitive Impairment of the Elderly
• The Productivity and Effectiveness of Memory
• Analysis Short Term Memory and Long Term Memory
• The Correlation Between Confidence and Memory Process
• Sleep Microstructure and Memory Function
• Memory Formation and Its Effects on the Nervous System
• The Relationship Between Rem Sleep and Memory
• Developing Procedural vs. Declarative Memory
• Muscle Memory and Its Effect on the Brain
• The Short Term Memory Loss
• Disproving the Myth of the Faults of Human Memory
• Analysis of Cognitive Load, Memory, and Emotions
• Treating Verbal Working Memory in a Boy With Intellectual Disability
• Short-Term Memory: The Second Stage in Memory Processing
• The Factors That Contribute or Affect Memory Retention
• What Role Does Sleep Play On Memory Formation?
• Cultural Practices for Memory and Learning
• The Collective Memory and Zionist’s Reconstruction of the Past
• Classical Music and Enhance Short Term Memory
• Alzheimer’s Disease and Its Effects on Memory
• Bounded Memory and Biases in Information Processing
• Analysis of Visual Change Blindness and Memory
• Visuo-Haptic Exploration for Multimodal Memory
• Music Affecting the Memory of Alzheimer’s Patients
• The Human Mind: The Nature of Memory, Perception and the Theory of Mind
• Traumatic Memory and the Development of Self
• Prospective Memory, Personality, and Individual Differences
• The Three Main Components of Human Memory
• Visual Working Memory Continues to Develop Through Adolescence
• Dementia and Its Connection With Memory Loss
• Sleep Dependent Memory and Its Effect on Children
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Memory Deficit
• Serotonin, Neural Markers, and Memory
• Reversing Memory Deficits Inflicted by Alzheimer’s Disease
• Allocentric Spatial Learning and Memory Deficits in Down Syndrome
• The Effect Stress Has on Working Memory
• Can Concussions and Head Injuries Affect Memory?
• Analyzing the Human Memory Organization
• Asymmetry and Long Memory in Volatility Modeling
• Does Females Have Better Memory Recall Than Males?
• How Can the Use of Mental Images Help Us to Improve Our Memory?
• How Does Sleep Affect Memory Consolidation?
• How Font and Memory Are Connected in Psychology?
• What Role Does Memory Play in Kant’s Account of the Idea of Succession?
• What Are the Cellular and Molecular Underpinnings of Memory?
• What Is the Difference Between Recall Memory and Recognition Memory?
• What Is the Relationship Between Ecstasy and Memory in the Human Body?
• How Has CMOS Memory Changed Over the Years?
• How Technology Can Boost Student Memory?
• How Typeface and Memory Space Are Connected in Mindset?
• How VxWorks Handles Process Scheduling and Memory Management in Comparison to QNX?
• What Are Signs of Memory Problems?
• Can Memory Problems Be Cured?
• What Is Adaptive Value of Memory Loss?
• What Causes Memory Loss During Pregnancy?
• What Are the Strategies for Improving Working Memory?
• What Is the Biological and Psychological Basis of Learning and Memory?
• What Does the Term the Collective Societal Memory of the World War II Mean?
• What Is the Phonological Similarity Effect in Working Memory?
• What Is the Relationship Between Working Memory Capacity and Vocabulary Learning?
• What Are the Declarative and Non Declarative Memory Devices?
• What Is the Description and Evaluation of the Multi Store Model of Memory?
• How To Improve Multimodality in the Memory Artifact?
• What Is Correlation Between Mental Health and Memory?

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StudyCorgi. (2022, January 16). 133 Memory Essay Topics. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/memory-essay-topics/

"133 Memory Essay Topics." StudyCorgi , 16 Jan. 2022, studycorgi.com/ideas/memory-essay-topics/.

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1. StudyCorgi . "133 Memory Essay Topics." January 16, 2022. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/memory-essay-topics/.

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StudyCorgi . "133 Memory Essay Topics." January 16, 2022. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/memory-essay-topics/.

StudyCorgi . 2022. "133 Memory Essay Topics." January 16, 2022. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/memory-essay-topics/.

These essay examples and topics on Memory were carefully selected by the StudyCorgi editorial team. They meet our highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, and fact accuracy. Please ensure you properly reference the materials if you’re using them to write your assignment.

This essay topic collection was updated on June 24, 2024 .

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• Childhood Memories Essay

Essay on Childhood Memories

Memories are one of the most crucial things we can cherish throughout our lives. They build up our personality as all our knowledge and previous experiences are stored there. Memories can be both good and bad. There are memories either from long ago or from the recent past. In our critical times, we may get some refreshment by recalling our memories. We can run our lives smoothly with the help of these memories. Memories help us in many ways. We can rectify ourselves from past mistakes. Childhood memories are treasured by all of us. They make us smile even in our old age. 

Importance of Childhood Memory:

Childhood memories are very significant in our lives. We can recall the best times of our lives. Childhood memories build up our future and way of thinking. People with good childhood memories are happy people. On the other hand some bad childhood memories also affect the future of an individual. 

The things a person learns during childhood remain as important lessons and memories for life. It applies to things like family and society values, morals, learning the importance of friendships and being respectful to adults. Without learning proper manners, people can become reckless and take unnecessary risks in life. 

Childhood memories are also strongly related to good habits such as proper discipline and cultivating the proper attitude in life. These values, which are very important for success in adult life, cannot be learnt overnight at a later stage. 

A childhood memory definitely does not define anyone but they play a pivotal role in one’s life. It is not necessary that a person with good memories always lives a prosperous life while a person with bad memories always lives a hazardous life. Sometimes, ghastly childhood memories make a man stronger. 

Nevertheless, it can be said that the inner child is kept alive by childhood memories. There is always a child inside every person. It may come out all of a sudden at any stage in life. It may also be expressed every day in the little things that we enjoy doing. 

Our inner child is especially seen when we meet our  childhood friends. Regardless of how grown up we think we are, we go back to kids the moment we are with old friends. Memories also take up the bulk of our conversation when we meet old friends after many years. The trip down memory lane is bittersweet as we long for a time we will not get back but also cherish its joy. 

Some may be excited about seeing swings, some may act like a child when they see panipuri. The reason behind the facts is we are reminded by our childhood memories every time. The same happens when we enter the children’s play park and are reminded of our favourite rides. It is even more so when we ate ice cream or our favourite ice candy when we were 5 years old.  Hence, childhood memories play a very vital role in our lives. 

My Childhood Memories:

I was born and brought up in a very adorable family. I have grown up with my elder brother with whom I used to play a lot. I remember each and every game we used to play together. Every moment is very precious to me. In the afternoon, we used to play cricket in our nearby ground. The memories of playing in the ground together are mesmerising. 

Another beautiful thing I can remember is flying kites. It used to be one of the most exciting things of my childhood. Even the older members of the family participated with us. We used to fly kites on our terrace. The kite-flying programme would last for the entire day.

Another beautiful thing I can remember is my visit to the zoo with my family. We made one zoo visit every year. They used to be those very simple yet fun-filled family picnic moments. We would carry packed food from home that my mother used to cook. My elder brother would click several photographs of us. When I look at those pictures now, the memories come alive. Today, so many things have changed but my childhood memories are still fresh in my heart. It feels so refreshing to relive them again and again. My childhood memories are very close to my heart and make me smile on my difficult days.

Perhaps the time I remember very fondly was going to swimming classes. I have always loved playing in the water, and swimming in clear pools was always an exciting activity. Even though I loved the water, at first I could not swim as I was not aware of the basics of the sport. Slowly, as I learnt to kick and paddle, it became easier to swim in shallow water. The big test was swimming in deep water as it was a terrifying thought and simultaneously exciting. I still remember the day I decided to let go of my fears and dived into the deep end of the pool. The instant I jumped into the water, the fear was gone, and I swam like a fish to the other end of the pool. That day also taught me a valuable lesson about taking the first step in any daunting task. 

Conclusion: 

We should all cherish our childhood memories as they can always be our companion, our “bliss of solitude.” Simple things hold grave meaning when they are from their childhood days. The days were free of complexities and full of innocence. Hence, they are so close to heart.

FAQs on Childhood Memories Essay

1. How to write a childhood memory essay?

The most important thing you will need to write this essay is about great childhood memories! You will have to look back in time and remember all the good and bad things that happened to you. As you get older, your memories will also change in their context as you change as a person. Like all essays, this should also have a steady narrative of the events from your childhood. You can choose to write only about the best memories you have or choose to write them as they occur. Some of the best things to write are topics such as your friends, your favourite games, and all the vacations you have been on and all the experiences you had in school.

2. How would you describe your childhood memories?

The older you get, the more the bits and pieces of your memory begin to fade or change. The best way to write about your childhood memories is to close your eyes and remember them. Then you have to start writing the events as they occurred without giving them context. Once the essay is written, the stories and events can be arranged as per the requirements of the essay. You can choose to describe your memories in any light you feel.

3. Why are childhood memories important?

Our childhood memories have a significant influence on who we are. People with mostly happy memories tend to be more relaxed with a positive outlook on life. People who have had traumatic memories tend to be more cautious and cynical in life. People can still change with positive or negative experiences in life. However, our childhood influences stay with us for the rest of our lives and can sometimes even come into conflict with the better choices we want to make. Therefore having childhood memories is a good reference to understanding ourselves and why we behave in certain ways.

4. What could be a common childhood memory for everyone?

Everybody remembers their “first-time” experiences in life. It could be things like the first day of school, the first time visiting a zoo, the first time taking a flight in an aeroplane, having a bad experience, etc.

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Alzheimer’s Clue: Serotonin C Receptor Has Role in Memory Loss

Credit: CIPhotos / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Researchers headed by teams at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Cambridge have shown that the serotonin 2C receptor in the brain regulates memory in people and animal models. Their study findings provide new insights into the factors involved in healthy memory and in disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), associated with memory loss. The results also point to potential avenues for AD therapy using serotonin analogs.

The team reported on the findings in Science Advances , in a paper titled, “ Neural circuits expressing the serotonin 2C receptor regulate memory in mice and humans .”

Memory deficits are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease, and studies in rodents and in postmortem human tissues have suggested that serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) plays a role in memory, the authors wrote. “However, the mechanisms by which serotonin regulates working memory are largely unknown.”

Co-corresponding author Yong Xu, MD, PhD, professor of pediatrics—nutrition and associate director for basic sciences at the USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor, explained further: “Serotonin, a compound produced by neurons in the midbrain, acts as a neurotransmitter, passing messages between brain cells … Serotonin-producing neurons reach out to multiple brain regions including the hippocampus, a region essential for short- and long-term memory.”

Serotonin communicates messages to brain cells by binding to receptors on the cell surface, which signal the receiving cell to carry on a certain activity. For their newly reported study the Xu lab, which has expertise in basic and genetic animal studies, and the human genetics lab of co-corresponding author I. Sadaf Farooqi, FMedSci FRS, professor of metabolism and medicine at the University of Cambridge, focused on serotonin 2C receptors, which are abundantly present in the brain’s ventral hippocampal CA1 region (vCA1), investigating the role of the receptor in memory in humans and animal models.

“We had previously identified five individuals carrying variants of the serotonin 2C receptor gene (HTR2C) that produce defective forms of the receptor,” Farooqi said. These variants resulted in loss of function (LOF). The authors further noted, “… five young women (22 to 29 years) carrying rare LOF HTR2C mutations completed the Prospective-Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ) (21), and all reported remarkable impact on prospective and retrospective memory.”

Farooqi continued, “People with these rare variants showed significant deficits on memory questionnaires. These findings led us to investigate the association between HTR2C variants and memory deficits in animal models.”

The team genetically engineered mice to mimic the human mutation. “The potential association between HTR2C variants and memory deficits observed in humans prompted us to use a humanized Htr2c mutant mouse model to further examine the causality,” they noted. When the researchers ran behavioral tests on these mice to evaluate their memory, they found that both males and females with the non-functional gene showed reduced memory recall when compared with the unmodified animals.

“When we combined the human data and the mouse data, we found compelling evidence connecting non-functional mutations of the serotonin receptor 2C with memory deficits in humans,” Xu said.

The animal models also enabled the team to dig deeper into how the receptor mediates memory. They discovered a brain circuit that begins in the midbrain where serotonin-producing neurons are located. These neurons project to the vCA1 region, which has abundant serotonin 2C receptors. “When neurons in the midbrain reaching out to neurons in the vCA1 region release serotonin, the neurotransmitter binds to its receptor signaling these cells to make changes that help the brain consolidate memories,” Xu said.

The authors further stated, “These data demonstrate that the 5-HT2CR signaling in hippocampal vCA1 neurons is required for normal learning and memory … We show that mice carrying a severe LOF human HTR2C mutation have impaired memory and impaired plasticity of hippocampal vCA1 neurons.”

Importantly, the researchers also found that this serotonin-associated neural circuit is damaged in a mouse model of AD. “The neural circuit in the Alzheimer’s disease animal model cannot release sufficient serotonin into the vCA1 region that would need to bind to its receptor in the downstream neurons to signal the changes required to consolidate a memory,” Xu said. “We show that a selective 5-HT2CR agonist, lorcaserin, improves synaptic plasticity and memory in an AD mouse model,” the authors stated. “While there is no evidence yet linking HTR2C gene variants with AD, reduced brain 5-HT bioavailability has been observed in the brains of patients with AD,” the team stated. “Several studies have reported a decreased number of 5-HT neurons and reduced levels of 5-HT and its metabolites in the brains of patients with AD.

However, it is possible to bypass this lack of serotonin and directly activate the downstream serotonin receptor by administering a serotonin analog, lorcaserin, a compound that selectively activates the serotonin 2C receptor in these cells. “We tested this strategy in our animal model and were excited to find that the animals treated with the serotonin analog improved their memory,” Xu said. “We hope our findings encourage further studies to evaluate the value of serotonin analogs in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.”

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Beloved — The Role of Memory in the Beloved

The Role of Memory in The Beloved

• Categories: Beloved

About this sample

Words: 1787 |

Published: Jun 29, 2018

Words: 1787 | Pages: 4 | 9 min read

Works Cited

• Barnett, Pamela E. “Figurations of Rape and the Supernatural in Beloved.” PMLA, vol. 112, no. 3, May 1997, pp. 92-119. JSTOR. Accessed 16 December 2016.
• Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Vintage Books, 1987. Perez, Richard. “The Debt of Memory: Reparations, Imagination, and History in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.” WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2014, pp. 192-200. EBSCOhost. Accessed 16 December 2016.
• Rody, Caroline. “Toni Morrison’s Beloved: History, “Rememory,” and a “Clamor for a Kiss.” American Literary History, vol. 7, no. 1, Spring 1995, pp. 92-119. JSTOR. Accessed 16 December 2016.

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Secret to lifelong memories sticking is molecular 'glue'

A new study has uncovered the role that a specific molecule in the brain plays in maintaining long-term memory.

Some memories last a lifetime — and now, scientists have revealed a type of molecular "glue" that helps those memories stick around. 

Memories form when collections of neurons in a region of the brain called the hippocampus activate in response to a particular experience. Each time you recall that experience, the same set of cells activates. When one neuron repeatedly activates another, the connection between those neurons strengthens. 

Over time, this process in the hippocampus, along with related activity in other regions of the brain, solidifies a short-term memory into a long-term one. 

To maintain these long-term memories, brain cells make proteins that help strengthen the connections, or synapses, between neurons. One critical protein is the enzyme PKMzeta , which is continually made by neurons. However, an outstanding question is how this enzyme "knows" to go to the right synapses to ensure that certain memories stay with us forever. 

In a new study, scientists think they've found the answer: an unsung molecule called KIBRA glues the enzyme to strong synapses and also summons new PKMzeta to replace that enzyme when it degrades. The researchers published their findings Wednesday (June 26) in the journal Science Advances . 

Related: The brain has a 'tell' for when it's recalling a false memory, study suggests

Previous research in humans suggested that different versions of the KIBRA molecule are associated with differences in memory performance, either better or worse. KIBRA was also already known to interact with the PKMzeta enzyme in the hippocampus of mice. So, the scientists behind the new study decided to delve further into that interaction. 

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In lab experiments, the team investigated whether blocking the interaction between KIBRA and PKMzeta influenced how well mice performed in long-term memory tests. These tests included seeing whether the mice could remember to avoid entering an area where they had previously been shocked with electricity. 

Blocking the interaction between KIBRA and PKMzeta impaired the mice's long-term spatial memory — in other words, their ability to avoid the shock zone. 

In a separate experiment, when the KIBRA-PKMzeta interaction was left undisturbed, the team found that even when PKMzeta degraded as expected, new complexes of KIBRA and PKMzeta formed in the hippocampus. This, in turn, helped maintain the mice's memory of the shock zone for a month. 

Earlier work by the same team showed that if researchers increase the amount of PKMzeta in a rodent's brain, it appears to enhance weak long-term memories that have faded over time. This initially surprised the scientists, as the team expected PKMzeta to boost the strength of synapses at random, rather than specifically acting on those involved in long-term memory. 

Instead, the new findings suggest that KIBRA acts like a "glue," sticking to these strong synapses and also guiding PKMzeta to them, which would explain this phenomenon, the team said. 

The research is only in its infancy. However, eventually, it may be possible to someday use this knowledge to treat brain disorders that cause memory loss, such as Alzheimer's disease , said study co-senior author André Fenton , a professor of neural science at New York University. Such treatments could work by using KIBRA to  deliver PKMzeta or similar molecules to weakened synapses. 

However, with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, the conditions damage and eventually kill off neurons in the brain . That means that this kind of therapy would theoretically only work for as long as there are still synapses left to enhance. 

— How accurate are our first childhood memories?

— 'Short-term memory illusions' can warp human recollections just seconds after events, study suggests

— 'Secret code' behind key type of memory revealed in new brain scans

For now, more research is needed to understand how the interaction between PKMzeta and KIBRA actually translates into people's experiences of memory. 

"We have quite a way to go to turn the description of these molecules into that experiential thing that we cherish — what we call memory, belief, intention and so forth," Fenton said. 

Ever wonder why some people build muscle more easily than others or why freckles come out in the sun ? Send us your questions about how the human body works to [email protected] with the subject line "Health Desk Q," and you may see your question answered on the website!

Emily is a health news writer based in London, United Kingdom. She holds a bachelor's degree in biology from Durham University and a master's degree in clinical and therapeutic neuroscience from Oxford University. She has worked in science communication, medical writing and as a local news reporter while undertaking journalism training. In 2018, she was named one of MHP Communications' 30 journalists to watch under 30. ( [email protected] ) 

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• Americans’ Views of Government’s Role: Persistent Divisions and Areas of Agreement

Wide majorities of Biden and Trump supporters oppose cuts to Social Security

Table of contents.

• Views on the efficiency of government
• Views on the government’s regulation of business
• Confidence in the nation’s ability to solve problems
• Views on the effect of government aid to the poor
• Views on government’s role in health care
• Views on the future of Social Security
• Trust in government
• Feelings toward the federal government
• Acknowledgments
• The American Trends Panel survey methodology

Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand Americans’ attitudes about U.S. government, such as its size and role.

This report is based primarily on a survey of 8,709 adults, including 7,166 registered voters, from April 8 to 14, 2024. Some of the analysis in this report is based on a survey of 8,638 adults from May 13 to 19, 2024.

Everyone who took part in these surveys is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used for the report and its methodology .

While the economy, immigration and abortion have emerged as major issues in the 2024 election, Joe Biden and Donald Trump also have dramatically different ideas about the size and role of government.

These differences reflect decades-old divisions between Democrats and Republicans over the scope of government.

Among registered voters, large majorities of Biden supporters – roughly three-quarters or more – favor a bigger, more activist government.

• 74% say they would rather have a bigger government providing more services.
• 76% say government should do more to solve problems.
• 80% say government aid to the poor “does more good than harm.”

Trump supporters, by comparable margins, take the opposing view on all three questions.

The Pew Research Center survey of 8,709 adults – including 7,166 registered voters – conducted April 8-14, 2024, examines Americans’ views of the role and scope of government , the social safety net and long-term trends in trust in the federal government .

Democratic support for bigger government is little changed in the last five years but remains higher than it was a decade ago. Republicans’ views have shifted less over the last 10 years.

Among all adults, about three-quarters of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents favor a bigger government, up from about six-in-ten in 2014 and 2015. The share of Republicans and Republican leaners who prefer a bigger government has increased only modestly over the same period.

Democratic support for bigger government, while slightly lower than in 2021 (78%), remains at nearly its highest level in five decades. During Bill Clinton’s presidency in the 1990s, fewer than half of Democrats said they preferred a bigger government with more services.

Voters continue to express very different views about government’s role in specific areas than about the government generally.

A large majority of voters (80%) – including 82% of Biden supporters and 78% of Trump supporters – say that in thinking about the long-term future of Social Security, benefits should not be reduced in any way.

However, Biden supporters are more likely than Trump supporters to say Social Security should cover more people with greater benefits.

• 46% of Biden supporters favor expanding Social Security coverage and benefits, compared with 28% of Trump supporters.

Most Americans (65%) continue to say the federal government has a responsibility to make sure all Americans have health care coverage.

Democrats overwhelmingly (88%) say the federal government has this responsibility, compared with 40% of Republicans.

The share of Republicans who say the government has a responsibility to provide health coverage has increased 8 percentage points since 2021, from 32% to 40%.

There are wide income differences among Republicans in opinions about the government’s role in health care:

• 56% of Republicans with lower family incomes say the government has a responsibility to provide health coverage for all, compared with 36% of those with middle incomes and 29% of higher-income Republicans.

When asked how the government should provide health coverage, 36% of Americans say it should be provided through a single national program, while 28% say it should be through a mix of government and private programs. These views have changed little in recent years.

Democrats continue to be more likely than Republicans to favor a “single payer” government health insurance program (53% vs. 18%).

Other key findings in this report

• Americans’ trust in the federal government remains low but has modestly increased since last year. Today, 22% of American adults say they trust the government to do what is right always or most of the time, which is up from 16% in June 2023.
• While the public overall is divided over the nation’s ability to solve important problems, young adults are notably pessimistic about the country’s ability to solve problems . About half of Americans (52%) say the U.S. can’t solve many of its important problems, while 47% say it can find a way to solve problems and get what it wants. Roughly six-in-ten adults under age 30 (62%) say the nation can’t solve major problems, the highest share in any age group and 16 points higher than two years ago.

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Understanding the Concept and Implications of Recidivism

This essay about recidivism explores its impact on the criminal justice system and society. It examines how individual, social, economic, and systemic factors contribute to the tendency of ex-offenders to reoffend. The text highlights the need for effective rehabilitation, reintegration strategies, and policy reforms to reduce crime rates and support successful reintegration of offenders into society.

How it works

Recidivism, border often clashed in borders kingdoms justice and criminelle sociology, conjures up the memory a tendency types, that the condition precedent taken away stop, for renewable to offend and to return despite a criminelle relation after served border or undergone interference for preceding crime. Understanding concept and importances critical recidivism for a display politics and interferences, aimed in reduction norms crime and improvement reintegration insulteurs in society actual.

In his kernel, recidivism puts the most important appeal despite the system justice criminal, throws open questions from effectiveness punishment, renewal, and strategies reintegration.

Norms the often used recidivism so as key indicator success or abandonment disciplinary programs. High norms offer, that existence balanced, at a case, inadequate in has a crime or entry ex-offenders in advancement open for a crime remains.

A few postmen play in favour of recidivism, does it difficult appearance. Among them are caractéristiques, terms, and systematic problems individual social and économique in borders system justice criminal. Individual postmen include history person, problems abuse substance, health problems, and absence teaching or professional habits intellectuals criminelle. These personal appeals can operate most difficult, for ex-offenders found immobile employment and adjusting, increases possibility return despite criminelle activity so as means survival.

Public terms and économique too frisk an in leading role recidivism. Much ex-offenders return despite environments, that plagued necessity, limited possibilities, and negative influences, that can mix their inclination reintegrate fruitfully. Stamping and exception, with that clashes types with data from criminal things, can social whole that to worsen these appeals, creates a bicycle solitude and proceeded in insult.

Systematic problems in borders system justice the nearest criminal can too play in favour of recidivism. One collect crowd he estimate, inadequate access despite program rehabilitations, and absence entry reentry in society can undermine efforts to shorten proceeded in an insult. Complémentaire, politics so as for example minimum suggestions and laws three-strikes obligatory can lead despite a durable conclusion without an address problems, that bring substantial parts over despite a criminelle relation.

Importances draw out recidivism he after a type despite society so as unit. Norms recidivism high lead increased a crime, high charges for the system justice, and public majeur unsteady criminal. Societies with the stages proceeded in an insult often high experience norms crime, that can perpetuate bicycles violence and dread high. Financial burden on the too considerable state, with methods, up-diffused for an escort above all, keeps on trot in the judicial order, and imprisons proceeded in offenders.

Cite this page

Understanding the Concept and Implications of Recidivism. (2024, Jun 28). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/understanding-the-concept-and-implications-of-recidivism/

"Understanding the Concept and Implications of Recidivism." PapersOwl.com , 28 Jun 2024, https://papersowl.com/examples/understanding-the-concept-and-implications-of-recidivism/

PapersOwl.com. (2024). Understanding the Concept and Implications of Recidivism . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/understanding-the-concept-and-implications-of-recidivism/ [Accessed: 29 Jun. 2024]

"Understanding the Concept and Implications of Recidivism." PapersOwl.com, Jun 28, 2024. Accessed June 29, 2024. https://papersowl.com/examples/understanding-the-concept-and-implications-of-recidivism/

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PapersOwl.com. (2024). Understanding the Concept and Implications of Recidivism . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/understanding-the-concept-and-implications-of-recidivism/ [Accessed: 29-Jun-2024]

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