Question

Module 8: Journal Assignment-Explaining Memory to a Child (20 points possible) Chapter 8 in your textbook starts off with a section on conceptualizing memory. In my PowerPoint lecture notes that I've posted, you will see that I've annotated a figure called the "Atkinson-Shiffrin Memory Model" on Slide #3 from Chapter 8; however, you will not find this figure in your book (assuming you have the 8th edition or higher). In contrast, Figure 8.1 from your textbook (found on page 233 of the 8h edition) is called a "Comprehensive Model of Memory" and is notably different from the Attkinson-Shiffrin Model included in my lecture notes. This is because Figure 8.1 from your textbook is an updated version of the Atkinson- Shiffrin Memory Model (i.e., it is a better model in light of more recent research). You'll notice that I have NOT included an annotated version of this Comprehensive Model of Memory in my lecture notes. Why not? Well, the reason is that rather than explain the model to you, l'd like you to take a stab at explaining the model to someone else (with the idea being that you'll hopefully better learn it that way). For your journal entry this week, I'd like you take the Comprehensive Model of Memory illustrated in Figure 8.1 in your textbook (again, on page 233 of the 8 edition) and come up with a creative way of explaining it all to a lay person. The catch is this: I want you to imagine that this lay person is 10-year-old child. Your task is to take concepts such as sensory registry, working memory, central executive, phonological loop, episodic buffer, visual-spatial sketchpad, and long-term memory and discuss what each of them means and how they each work together (assuming that your target audience is a child). I do not want you to just list out the textbook definitions of the terms - the goal here is to be creative. I will be grading this part of the assignment for both accuracy (i.., do you explain the topics correctly?) and creativity (i.e., do you water it down sufficiently enough that I think it would make sense to a child?). Your response should contain a minimum of 18-20 sentences. Chapter Summary 8.2 The Infant 8.1 Conceptualizing Memory Using imitation, habituation, and operant conditioning tech- niques, researchers have gone from believing that infants have no memory beyond a few seconds to appreciating that even young 1-year-olds can recall experiences for weeks and even months under certain conditions. The information-processing approach uses a computer anal- ogy to illustrate how the mind processes information. The human "computer" takes in information through the sensory registers, which hold the information for a very brief period. Information attended to may be further processed in short- term, or working, memory. Eventually, information may be stored in long-term memory, which seems to be unlimited in terms of size and permanency. In order for something to move into the long-term memory store, it must undergo a process of consolidation in which a memory trace of the event is created. Infants clearly show recognition memory for familiar stimuli at birth and cued recall memory by about 2 months. More explicit memory, which requires actively retrievinng an image of an object or event no longer present, appears to emerge toward the end of the first year. By age 2, it is even clearer that infants can recall events that happened long ago, for they, like adults, use lan- guage to represent and describe what happened Simple problem solving improves throughout infancy, and infants realize that they can get adults to help them solve problems. Encoding and retrieval strategies influence memory perfor- mance. Types of retrieval include recognition, recall, and cued recall. Explicit memory is deliberate and effortful and changes over the life span, whereas implicit memory is automatic and relatively stable over the life span. Explicit and implicit memories are sepa- rate components of long-term memory and are localized in dif- ferent parts of the brain. Memory has neurological underpinnings that influence memory effectiveness and contribute to developmental changes across the life span. Stored memories are instrumental to success at problem solving: stored information is used to achieve a goal. Executive control processes select, organize, manipulate, and interpret what is going on in the context of problem solving. 8.3 The Child Basic information-processing capacity increases as the brain matures and fundamental processes are automated to free working-memory space. Memory strategies such as rehearsal, organization, and elabora- tion improve. Metamemory improves and the general knowledge base grows. All these changes improve the processing of new information in areas of expertise According to Robert Siegler, even young children use systematic rules to solve problems, but their problem-solving skills improve as they replace faulty rules with ones that incorporate all the relevant aspects of the problem. Multiple strategies are used at ory skills also improve and contribute to increased memory per- formance and problem-solving ability. any age so that development proceeds through a natural selec- tion process and resembles overlapping waves more than a set of stairsteps leading from one way of thinking to the next. Memory improves during childhood with increased efficiency of basic information-processing capacities, greater use of memory 8.5 The Adult As adults gain expertise in a domain, they develop large and organized knowledge bases and highly effective, spe- cialized, and automated ways of retrieving and using their knowledge. Many older adults perform less well than young adults on memory tasks that require speed, the learning of unfamiliar or meaningless material, the use of unexercised abilities, recall rather than recognition memory, and explicit rather than implicit strategies, improvement in metamemory, and growth of general knowledge base By age 3, children store routine daily events as scripts that they can draw on in similar situations. Our scripts influence what we remember about an event, which is also influenced by information related to but coming after the event. Much of what we remember is autobiographical. Even though infants and toddlers show evidence of memory, older children and adults often experience childhood amnesia, or lack of memory for events that happened during infancy and early childhood memory Declines in basic processing capacity and difficulty using strate- gies, plus contextual factors such as cohort differences and the irrelevance of many laboratory tasks to everyday life, contribute to age differences in memory 8.4 The Adolescent On average, older adults also perform less well than younger adults on laboratory problem-solving tasks, but everyday problem-solving skills are likely to improve from early adult- hood to middle adulthood and to be maintained in old age. Adolescents master advanced learning strategies such as elaboration, note taking, and underlining, and they use their strategies more deliberately and selectively Adolescents have larger knowledge bases, and their metamem-

Answer 1

Explaining 8.1 (conceptualizing memory) to a 10 year old child.

You go to a store to buy things. There are different kind of things -toys, clothes, foods etc. You see them, touch them and smell them, but only few things attract you. You buy the things, which attracts you. Few things(food) are useful for a short period, while few (clothes, toys) are useful for long period. You keep them separately. You have allocated places, shelves at home for clothes and toys, which you will use for long time. These things are going to be useful to you, one day or the other.

The store is our surroundings. The touch, vision and smell are the sensory registers. The things which you purchased, are your short term and long term memory. Things which were useful for short time are stored in short term or working memory. Things which you stored for long term purpose are stored in your long term memory. You kept the long term things, in shelves. This process in memory, is called consolidation. This memory is used for problem solving and to achieve our goals.

There is a huge pile of long term things in your home -books, clothes, toys, combs, perfumes etc. You use certain things when your mother or friends remind you of it.

Things stored in the memory, are accessed by retrieval. It can be recognition, recall and cued recall. Few examples are below -

hey friend, can I borrow the toy story book you had ?

You then search for the book and give it to your friend. (Recall)

One day, your friend is reading the book you gave, in the park. You immediately recognize that it's the same book which you gave him. (Recognition)

Your mother is stitching clothes, you remember your slightly torn pant and give it to her.

Mom, can you please stitch my pant too ? It's slightly torn near the knees. (Cued recall)

You go to school on a bicycle. You learnt it, when you were three years old and its now your daily routine (Implicit long term memory -you do it automatically)

You have exam and you write the answers for the questions (Explicit long term memory - you are recalling, what you studied last night and is a deliberate effort).