Applied Memory Journey
Cognitive psychology class emphasizes the importance of memory. Throughout this class, we have gone over many different methods on how to improve memory. The applied memory technique I have chosen is learning scientist. This encompasses documentation of my attempts to better my learning and memory strategies.
The learning scientist embodies six different strategies for more effective learning. These six strategies are Spaced practice (distributed practice), Retrieval practice, elaboration interleading, Concrete examples, and dual coding.
Therefore, the overall goal of this article will focus on how I used three of the six strategies to help me improve my learning and memory. I will be reviewing peer-reviewed articles to further understand the strategies and how they were discovered and how they can be implemented into the educational system to help those struggling with memory.
The first main memory strategy is spaced practice or distributed practice. A scholarly article found on the benefits of this strategy titled “Practice tests, spaced practice, and successive relearning: Tips for classroom use and for guiding students’ learning”. This article by John Dunlosky and Kathrine Rawson (2015) also focuses on how important these techniques are great low-cost solutions for boosting student academics. They were able to do a review of techniques teachers use and it was found that spaced practice was highly effective in improving student learning. Another scholarly article also had described its effectiveness. Mollison (2016) studied how information at distributed intervals can lead to better long-term memory than merging study episodes together over the same amount of time. In the application of the applied project, I used distributed practice to help memorize songs required for an advanced general education course at Loras. When using this technique I choose one song per week, which is an application of spaced practice. The first song was Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds written and performed by The Beatles. This song had a total of 224 words, and the first day I had recognized I did not know any of the lyrics of the song. I would listen to the song once in the morning, and then again in the nighttime for a total of a week. By the end of the first week, I was able to recognize the whole song.
Another application that had helped me memorize the song was “dual coding”. Dual coding uses visuals to help recognize words. By explaining what the visuals mean to you, you are able to develop a relationship that helps with encoding. An article was written by James Clark, and Allan Paivio explaining dual coding theory and education. They had suggested in this article that dual coding helps explain human behavior and experience by which nonverbal imagery creates representations. They had also suggested this theory is applicable in educational settings. Research has demonstrated that imagery and verbal associations play a major role in the representation and comprehension of knowledge, learning, and memory (Clark & Allan 1991). For example, the song Within you Without you had lyrics referring to the self.
“Try to realize it’s all within yourself
No one else can make you change
And to see you’re really only very small
And life flows on within you and without you”
Therefore, I was able to make connections and visual representations to myself when trying to memorize this song. This inward reflection helped me understand the complexity of the lyrics, and develop a connection that served my memory.
To see how visuals were further affected, another song by The Beatles I had mentioned earlier “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. This song had created colorful visuals in my mental representation of the lyrics. As an unrelated topic or a fun fact, this song actually is secretly coded “LSD”, and with all the research done on this drug, we know that it creates hallucinations. Thus, this song represents The Beatle's experimentation of hallucinogens and the colorful experiences they had, and we can see this in the lyrics.
For example,
“Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she’s gone”
Using dual coding I could vividly see with my imagination a girl with colorful eyes, carrying yellow and green flowers. Although this representation can be interpreted differently by others, I was able to create pictures of the song in my head which fed my memory. I think the usage of dual coding is very important since each individual is very different this shows how individualistic the different ways of conveying and interpreting information can be.
Along my journey of memorization, I wanted to mention how sometimes the techniques are not efficient if there is no motivation. I had noticed the less invested in the song I was the less I retained the lyrics. For example, the song Lovely Rita did not stand out to me. I did not enjoy it as much as the others because I simply just did not like it as much. For this song, I had applied spaced practice, dual coding, and even a third technique elaboration. This third technique I had not mentioned yet. Elaboration focuses on explaining ideas with many details. Thus, you ask yourself questions while you are studying. This technique had worked for the other two songs, Lucy in the Sky, and Within you, without you, because I had made personal connections, as well as external connections. For instance, Within you, Without you had made subliminal connections to the Vietnam war. This song had focused on peace, love, and happiness, thus, the meaning behind the song made it way easier to remember the lyrics. On the other hand, for Lovely Rita, I had no connection to. I had initially thought the song was about a woman they were in love with, but in doing some research it had actually referenced parking meter women who give tickets. We can see this in the lyrics.
“Lovely Rita meter maid
May I inquire discreetly
When are you free to take some tea with me?
Rita!”
Looking at the graph you can see my initial encounter with the song started out badly. I had little motivation this week because midterms came up and I was simply not interested in listening to music I had no taste for. Looking at the last day on the graph you can see I still need some improvement for I did not fully memorize the song.
Lastly, the song “With a little help from my friend” had related to me more. I used elaboration, because of the lyrics “with a little help from my friend” which made me think of who I would connect to the lyrics. Thus, this had created a deeper meaning to the lyrics, than if I were to just memorize them Therefore when looking at which technique out of the six is most effective when memorizing song lyrics I believe elaboration, dual coding, and spaced practice were the most efficient.
Refrences
Dunlosky, J., & Rawson, K. A. (2015). Practice tests, spaced practice, and successive relearning: Tips for classroom use and for guiding students’ learning. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 1(1), 72–78. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.loras.edu/10.1037/stl0000024
Clark, J.M., Paivio, (1991). A Dual coding theory and Education. Education Psychology Review 3, 149–210 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01320076