Ch 1: Building Memory Flashcards
What happens every time you learn a new fact, procedure, or concept?
You are making new connections between small sets of neurons.
What are the legs that stick out of a neuron?
Dendrites
What are the arms that stick out of a neuron?
Axon
What’s happening when your students are focusing on learning?
They are making connections between neurons.
What are the Axons doing when students are learning?
They are reaching out to catch a dendrite’s spines from a neighboring neuron.
What is the narrow gap that signals jump across when neurons get close enough?
synapse
The signal that jumps over the synapses between neurons is what?
thoughts
When neurons link together and act like a choir, what is this process called?
Learn it, Link it
What phase is when neurons first start to find each other as a student is first learning something new?
Learn it.
What part of the brain are the neurons forming when we do our heavy-duty thinking?
neocortex
What phase is it as we strengthen the links and extend them further?
Link it.
People’s problem with memory isn’t how much information they can store, what is it?
Getting information into and out of long-term memory.
Why do people fool themselves into thinking that they’ve learned something OR that they have test anxiety?
They never put the information into long-term memory…it was stored in temporary or working memory.
What technique works best for effective, efficient learning?
Retrieval Practice
Review foreign words, use them in a variety of sentences, practice speaking with someone else, write the words…this is an example of what?
Varied Practice
An octopus is tossing a set of balls that bounce over and over from the front to the back of your brain…this mnemonic explains what?
Working Memory.
About how many things can the brain hold in the working memory before it begins slipping from your mind.
four
Can people train their working memories to hold more over time?
No, once it gets distracted you will lose the information. This is why people fool themselves that they have learned something that they haven’t.
T or F; Underlining and Highlighting is the best way to put information into the long-term memory.
False- retrieval Practice is King!
T or F; Kids often can’t tell if information is in working memory or long-term memory.
T
Sally is looking at an example problem to help her do her homework. She does similar problems to the example problem, and keeps referencing back to the example problem. While this is a good way to start, why is Sally probably going to have “test anxiety” in her future?
She is only accessing these problems in her working memory.
What is the problem with Sally’s approach?
In the process of studying, she is never independently working problems by herself.
When Jared is studying Spanish, he looks at vocabulary cards in front of him and thinks he knows it. When completing exercises, he fills in the blanks by reviewing his notes. Why is he probably not do well on his test?
The vocabulary words were always in his working memory and never got transferred to long-term memory. He should have done retrieval practice without his notes at some point.
T or F? Fast thinkers are always the more efficient and effective learners?
F. Not always.
