Levels of Processing Theory basically just says
that the more deeply you process information the more likely you are to
remember it.
Keeping in mind that we've got the most shallow processing at the sensory register level,
right,
as I swept across the room the other day I saw a red and green. I remember that, so
I moved it to long term memory. Today I see pink,
right, over there,
pink jacket, right? So late selection. I would normally ignore all the things I see
because I'm not paying attention to them because they're not relevant
to the lecture or what I'm doing or what I'm thinking at the moment but if I did
focus in on something, I said, Oh, it's a
pink jacket and maybe I thought, well
my wife's got a jacket like that or it's the members only jacket or some
brand-name jacket or whatever it is and I start thinking more deeply,
well I'm more likely to move that in to short term memory and if I thought
about it, wow, maybe my wife would like a jacket
like that and I wonder where I could get a
jacket like that and I went and talked to this person about the jacket
and he said, oh you can get that at this store or that store, well now I'm
processing this jacket much more deeply and I'm much more likely to remember it
although I'm not guaranteed to remember, cause weeks go by and I don't actually go and I'm
like, oh man, what was that thing I was going to get,
and it just slips from my memory through decay. So the idea that deeper level of
processing, the more enduring the resulting memory which is why
studying works. The more you do it the less you lose it,
and this is not the greatest example but basically shallow processing,
when you're walking you typically don't get hit by a car
cause you're processing it as you're walking but you're not really paying
attention to it
in any way that would predict that you would remember again. Think of all the
cars you passed today either as you walked through a parking lot
or as you drove here. Could have been hundreds or thousands of them
and you don't notice them that much but you have to notice them not to crash
into them or be hit by them.
So you're processing at that sensory register level,
the stimulus that comes in that, oh this is in my way, move out of the way, etc.,
but if you get a little bit deeper you recognize and label, oh that's a car,
that's a person, I don't usually do that, I don't walk about through life going, "car
car seat, person, thing, tree, squirrel squirrel, squirrel, squirrels, it's ETSU
more squirrels."
I don't do that. I just proceed through the environment, but
if I was to take a moment, I could get more deep
in my processing where I'm engaging semantic, meaningful, and symbolic characteristics
and now I can start thinking about, "oh man, that car, I love those cars.
Those are my favorite cars, oh" and I could get on and on and on especially
if I was a car person.
In fact, if I was a car person, I'd be more likely to do that. But if I'm a squirrel
person,
"look at that squirrel, ain't that that the cutest squirrel? I'm going to take a picture of that squirrel. Remember the
squirrel I saw the other day?"
I'm not a squirrel person or a car person. I'm a music person so when I hear music, I'm like,
"oh, that's awful!"
And then I'll remember how awful it was, right, cause I will have made lots of judgements
and processed it very deeply and come up with my rather quick
and not necessarily accurate assessment of the quality of music
at which I broaden greatly because my old schemas for music used to be really
narrow.
There was my music and then there was everything that sucked,
right, and now that schema has broadened rather significantly that I
have to actually listen before I will apply the label, that sucks,
and then I started thinking, "well you know what, did they make it with passion?"
You see what I'm saying? The more deeply you process something, the more likely you are to
remember it.
But keep in mind that by and large it's late selection
that draws your attention to begin with. For me,
music might draw my attention, for somebody else a really cool car might
draw their attention, for somebody else
a particular dress or fashion choice might draw their attention,
for somebody else it's the squirrel, right? So it depends on the person,
their learning history, and their own interests. Now,
how are you going to remember stuff? Here's your memory tricks.
They ain't free but they're at a steep discount, don't go spending
thousand of dollars on a memory seminar. Here's your memory seminar.
You want to remember stuff, think about it a lot, think about it with focus and attention
and then do things with that information, especially unusual things about that
information. Elaborate on it. Link it if you can
to other information that you already know,
right? So if I got a new piece of information,
and it's in any way, shape, or form related to something I already know,
try to pull it in, right? If I know something about biology
and I know something about cells, and DNA,
because I took that in either last semester in high school,
then when I start talking in that chapter about neurons
as a cell you should start linking those concepts together. In other words you want to
elaborate on that
and you would start thinking about, okay cell body, what might the cell body of a
neuron look like
that would distinguish it from say a plant cell, right?
What's these dendrites, how's that different, and you're what you're doing
is using the new information and by comparing it to the old information
you're elaborating on it. Try to make it, if you can, personally relevant because
that helps you
to remember things as well.
Elaborative rehearsal. You know that the name of this rehearsal is saying the same thing
over and over and over and over again
over and over and over and over again. If you do the same thing over and over and
over again,
you're likely to remember it. If you study it over and over and over again, even if you
don't
elaborate on it, you're likely to remember it. But if you elaborate on it,
you're much more likely to remember it. So, elaborative rehearsal.
So, without talking to each other,
and without looking at what might have been written down
at the last class, cause I think we're probably far enough,
write down the number that I said the other day if you were in class. If you
weren't here, you won't know what I'm talking about. You can't remember what you didn't perceive.
Remember? I gave you all a number and I said remember it.
You've got 20 sec to write it down but don't talk
because that's using each other's memory, which is not a bad strategy in
some cases but it will
fail to demonstrate what we're talking about. Ten more seconds.
They go faster this time.
Alright.
Seven digits.
Anybody want to volunteer them digits. Go ahead.
4-6-4-3-2-1-2 Anybody else?
3-6-4-2-4-2-1 Got it. Yours was close.
Right? So you didn't totally forget it. You got digits but they were transposed.
Now how - do you know how you know that? Did you just read it earlier today on
your notes or... (no)
you just remembered it. How many people actually got it correct?
Y'all are the very few. What we see is a normal distribution,
right, where very few people remember that information
the correct one was 3-6-4-2-4-2-1.
Now, you can remember it that day because you went you are 3-6-4-2-4-2-1, 3-6-4-2-4-2-1, 3-6-4-2-4-2-1.
or you were part of the half of the people that got most of it but not all of it right.
To remember it now would be kind of weird,
not in a bad way but in an unusual way,
right, because you haven't practiced it since then.
The reason I remember it, why? Not cause I elaborately rehearsed it but because I
said it over and over and over as a child
and it's still in there in long-term memory. But if you went 3-6-4-2-4-21,
I might think of it in different ways. If I was trying to remember that number
I might start to do mathematics. I might go, well three
plus six, no, no, that's not good, I might go, oh,
my best friend is 36-years-old, he's got a four-year-old.
3-6-4-36-4-24-21
I might say, oh I got a good friend there 24 and their
wife or their husband or whomever is 21. In other words what am I doing?
Elaborating on the number. It's just a number
until you elaborate on it. When you elaborate on it and you connect it to
information you already possess,
then you're more likely to remember it. That sounds like a big old trick but
really what you're doing is
now you're just using that information more. Now you're using that number more
frequently
and in a different context meaning you're focusing your attention on it and by
focusing your attention you're more
likely to remember it.