Associative memory, Repetition & Encoding
Many researchers have been interested in howinformation is stored or organised in long-term memory. They have come up with the Associative model of memory. It isn’t perfect, but it is very useful in practice for learners and trainers.
Think of all the facts, ideas, rules, images - all the junk in your memory - as being like pages on the world wide web. You use
hyperlinks (called associations) to jump from one idea to another. None of these pages are ever deleted, but unused hyperlinks slowly fade until they disappear. As far as memory associations are concerned, you have to use it or
lose it.
Repetition is the most basic (and boring) learning method. (It even works for budgies and dogs.) The more you think about material, the better you remember it.
If a piece of information has only one link to it, and that link has faded through disuse, you can never retrieve the piece of information. It might stay encoded in your brain until you die, but you will not be able to retrieve it.
You have the best chance of recalling information if you have kept the links, the associations strong with repeated use, and if there are many links to it.
There are several ways of ensuring that each piece of information and each important concept is safely embedded in a strong web of links: The structure of the courseware should mirror the desired structure of the information network in the learner’s long term memory The learner should be prodded into making associations by being given lots of different types of problems. The learner should actively try to restructure the material.
Unfortunately, a well-organised PowerPoint Presentation (complete with handouts) can be one of the most ineffective ways of training.
It tends to provide only single links between concepts, and does not prod the learners into making their own associations or restructuring the material. It even reduces the opportunity for repetition, by removing the necessity for notetaking.
And, the final problem, because it reduces the material to a skeleton, it tends to remove most of the opportunities for forming associations.
Repetition
Repetition - saying or doing something over and over again - is the most basic way of remembering.
It even works for meaningless
facts - like telephone numbers. You probably used repetitive chanting as a child to learn your tables. As an adult learner, you would have
developed far better learning techniques.
However, when faced with a completely new, confusing and complicated subject you can
always fall back on repetition to memorise the basics. Remember, you can’t understand anything you can’t remember.
Repetition also strengthens links in long-term memory. You remember best the ideas you use the most.
Encoding
Have you noticed that it is easier to remember information that makes sense than a list of random facts? Since our memory involves a
group of cells in our brains, obviously the information we remember must be coded
somehow.
Mnemonics and formulae are methods of chunking information and also encoding it into long-term memory. Once we have recalled the
monkey mnemonic, we can decode it to retrieve the names of all nine planets. Research suggests
that we code most information that goes into long term memory. There are four basic ways we can encode information:
- Semantic: using words
- Temporal: in the sequence in which events occurred in time
- Spatial: in the form of pictures, diagrams or charts
- Logical: in terms of an inherently coherent
organisational structure arising out of the subject matter.
Don’t confuse logical with temporal or sequential structures.
Dual-coding
You will learn much more effectively if you can encode information in at least two ways. This ensures the richest number of links to previous
knowledge and the best learning. In finance, it is usually appropriate to use both semantic and spatial encoding. However, when trying to make sense of the regulatory environment, for example, it is useful to use semantic and logical
encoding.
Transforming information from one
representation into another is a very powerful study method. (It also takes considerable effort!)
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