Welcome to my 150th post! The status of memory in education seems an appropriate topic, and the title of this post mirrors that of my talk at a recent seminar on memory in education hosted by my department here in Scotland.

I will therefore focus today on an overview of the main ideas I shared at the event.

Early views

I began by discussing some of the early origins of how researchers see memory today.

• There is much overlap between the views of memory developed by early philosophers and how we now view memory in cognitive psychology. These include Locke’s view of memory as storage, Aristotle’s view that memory and ‘recollection’ (i.e. retrieval) are two separate processes, and Plato’s views on individual differences in memory.

• Psychologists began to build on this via the birth of experimental psychology in the 1800s (e.g. the work of Ebbinghaus). In addition, following Darwin’s theories, there was an increased focus on the function and purpose of memory.

Concerns about cramming

The term memory is often associated with last-minute cramming. How often do we hear people say that learning and studying focuses too much on memorisation?

From a psychological point of view, however, memory is not something that only becomes relevant when preparing for exams, and it is not only useful for shallow memorisation. Everything that we learn involves using human memory in some way.

A few of the key points I made in this part of my talk included:

• Linking concerns about memory/memorisation among educators to some early memory research that used meaningless stimuli (such as random words) or which oversimplified some aspects of the memory process, presenting it as more computer-like than it actually is.

• Possible associations that people make between cramming and behaviourist conditioning techniques (ironically, though, most behaviourists didn’t use the term ‘memory’; Miller, 2003).

I shared a few examples, such as this teacher quoted in the Scottish Government’s Hayward Report …

“… short courses lead to assessments which reward hoopjumping and memorisation and give no time for students to develop deeper knowledge and a love of their subject.”

and the following, from a research paper:

“Learning is not committing a set of facts to memory, but the ability to use resources to find, evaluate, and apply information.” (Lujan & DiCarlo, 2006).

A lot of this, of course, smacks of the idea that generic transferrable skills can be taught without a focus on subject knowledge, which was the focus of the final part of my talk.

Integrated view of memory

I concluded my talk at the memory and education event by outlining how modern psychologists have a much more nuanced view of memory. We recognise that there are many different types of memory underlying a range of functions (from physical skills to habits to meaningful understanding). We also know that memories are interconnected in schemas (see update #59) rather than being separate items, and that memories play a key role in everyday problem solving.

These aspects help to explain memory’s role in educational skills – something I’ve discussed in previous posts, such as: ‘Creativity—What’s the Role of Memory?’ (update #28).

These connections also point towards a more fundamental link between memory and thinking.

Even people who recognise the role of memory in skills, as noted above, may still feel that their phenomenological experience of thinking is somehow separate from using their memory. To put it another way, they may feel that knowledge-based thinking is something their mind does rather than something it is.

This argument becomes a bit stretched when we consider the many ways that the contents of memory can affect basic way that we perceive and think about the world, such as:

• The effect of personal (autobiographical) memories;

• The availability heuristic – making judgements based on information that comes readily to mind;

• Confirmation bias and other thinking biases.

All of this points to a psychology of memory that is deeply integrated with thinking and with our identity.

All the best for the coming week,

Jonathan

Last time: Promise and Pitfalls of Practitioner ‘Action’ Research, Part 3

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