How Memory Works With Shallow and Deep Encoding - Essay Example

ENCODING STUDY: An Experimental Research on How Memory Works With Shallow and Deep Encoding Introduction The ways by which the memory works is an essential factor that needs to be considered especially by educators. This notes the importance of researching on the major procedures by which they are to likely be able to find the most effective approach needed to pursue the need of their learners to grasp most of the subject matters being presented to them1. With students having different personalities and paces of learning, the educators are simply up to the task of looking for the most effective procedures available to be able to help their learners get the best out the lessons that they are presenting them with. In the following report, an understanding on how two primary procedures of encoding are rather effectively affecting the memory use of the young students shall be examined. Through an experimentation process, the entire study shall be based on evidence proven approach that would likely involve the use of certain willing participants and the evaluation of the results that are to be handled by the researchers early on. 2 Background of the Study The process by which the mind stores an awful lot of information in the head of human individuals is a great and awesome truth about the amazing capabilities of the human body’s capability to respond to the environment that a person lives in. Not a single super computer could amount to the capability of the human mind to store information about a hundredfold of details about different matters of consideration that a person is most likely interested in. 3 This particular capability of the mind is the basic reason why there is learning. The belief that growth comes along with the process of mindful maturity and the amount of information stored and utilized by the human minds is indeed considered as the basic foundation of the reasons behind the establishment of several learning institutions today.4 Truthfully, the entire process of storing and utilization of information is taken considerably by the human mind as the main function that it contributes to the function of the human body. However, not all human individuals are able to utilize the memory function of their minds. Some are able to develop an easier personal process of storing information in their minds, while some others find it hard to recall certain details that they were already supposed to know since their mind has already been fed with the information that they need to know.5 For this particular reason, the need to develop and investigate existing procedures of memory enhancement among students is pursued by many educators today. It could not be denied that the capability of each student to retain information in their minds in the most efficient way could not only give them a chance to pass their classes, but also give them the opportunity to live better lives later on. Implications of the Experiment In learning, the capability of one to recall information is very important. One’s inability to do so is considered as a serious issue of consideration for any particular individual. The incapability of one to use his or her memory to remember matters would likely give the problem of not being able to learn and advance further. As known to many, the level of understanding that one gets is basically sourced out from being well educated6. Hence, through this particular study, the researchers aim to find the most effective process to make educating students one of the most important matters that could be considered in developing an efficient process of helping learners find the most effective way of utilizing their memory to store the information that they get the chance to hold onto in school or other learning institutions that they are enrolled in. 7 Encoding strategies are noted to be the process of putting information into the mind of an individual. How the mind responds to the outside environment is the basic process by which the researchers would try to examine the procedures with regards the proper grasp of information that the mind works with several encoding approaches such as that of the deep and shallow encoding. Significance of the Study As mentioned repeatedly in the explanations above, it could be considered that this study is a support to the need of finding better ways to help students retain the lessons that they learn from school as tools of understanding to remain in their minds for a longer time which would rather make their lessons more practical than just serving as a pile of theories stored within their minds. 8 It is believed by educational theorists that realization of the applicable truth behind the theoretical basis of education makes education itself useful. Without it, the process of understanding the major educational matters becomes a hard matter to consider9. Basically, this is the reason why the need to incite certain procedures that would better the memories of students through a different teaching approach becomes necessarily needed for the development of educational procedures presented today. In this regard, this study practically aims to affect the teaching methods that educators are using today. Through experimenting on which method is more practical than that of the other, the selection and elimination of educational approaches shall be handled. How then should everything be given careful concern with regards the issue mentioned herein? Basically, the idea is to find the most effective approach that is received by the human memory and is retained there for the longest time possible. The choice between visual and plain memory recall shall be the base source of understanding to have the said issue cleared from questions. Hence, as it is expected by the researchers, it is practically envisioned that this study would bring about worthwhile results that could serve as basis of development especially on the part of those who are engaging themselves in teaching others several lessons that they want them to know and later on practically use in life. 10 The relation of images to the memory shall also be observed through gathering results from particular sample population chosen to participate in the study. The questions on rather the memory responds better to matters with visual representations shall then be better discussed within the study that follows herein. 11 It could be expected that within the context of the paragraphs that follow, the reasoning and issues raised in this part of the study would be well addressed. Discussions From the experimentation undergone by the researchers, the 148 participants in the study were able to give a contributing process of assessment on the procedures of encoding that has been used by many educators towards their students for years. Through the diagram shown below, an understanding of the better senses of the process of the human brain’s storing of memories, an understanding as to how the deep and shallow encoding differ from each other could be displayed from the procedure considered through this presentation: Source: http://www.scientificjournals.org/journals2007/articles/graphics/1038.gif. (June 18, 2009) In the presentation above, encoding is noted as the primary source of information in the mind that is being processed through different phases of recalling and reediting for current use. With the experimentation concerned, shallow encoding seemed to be a weaker process of helping the mind recover details vividly during the process of retrieval, while on the other hand, deep encoding provided more vivid picture and description helping the mind identify what is being tried to be recalled.12 The collaboration of visual description, an imagery of a particular text or a particular idea being mandated for recalling has been a more impressive way of allowing a better sense of human memory work for the participants of the study. The Relation of Imagery to Realism and Education Learning involves the utilization of reality. What does the context of reality actually mean? Reality as defined refers to the facts that are present in the society. These so-called facts support the existence of several things in the environment. Through the utilization of the realties in educating a person, an educator is supposed to help the student reject the impractical and visionary aspects of learning. Through this matter of teaching, a student is able to see the importance of what is obviously seen and not what is simply imaginary. Gaining knowledge through this way would naturally help a person understand his being and his environment as well based on constructed foundation of belief. Naturally, learning in a perennial way gives an individual the most important knowledge he has to learn from life. His experiences are generated to become sources of practical understanding which in turn would help him cope up with life’s challenges due to the fact that he has learned to face he said obstacles through his experiential learning. One’s ability to value what he learns follows the process of learning. His capability of applying the knowledge he has gained is the turning point of his learning and the fact that what he has learned could be proved useful in his being and in his life. If his learned lessons from his experiences, his environment and from his educators and mentors as well are all practical and true, the knowledge he gained from those learning could now be utilized for his development as a person as he tries to apply the things he has gained from his sources of useful understanding. Education is a process inclusive of a person’s development based upon his ability to learn from what is being taught to him. His capability of taking into consideration all the things he has learned from his educators to becoming the source of his practical knowledge determines the fact that he has really learned valuable lessons from his educators. Hence, the art of leaning based from the process of teaching is indeed an important concern for any special educator to consider. It is the main responsibility of a special educator to ensure that his students are able to grasp what he teaches them in a manner that they not only learn but also able to determine the importance of what they learned. This involves not simple instructional processes but in depth teaching strategies used by the educator. It is good for a special educator to incite the art of thinking to his students so that they are able to identify the importance of what they are learning in an ideal way. By this, they are able to convey to their students the most practical and the most important knowledge, which they could use in their own lives later on. Education may indeed involve a lot of processes of teaching, inculcating knowledge, learning and gaining practical knowledge. It could also involve many ways by which a person is able to learn from his environment, his own experiences and from his educator’s lessons. However, the turning point of all these is the ability of the student to apply what he learned in his everyday life. The fact that he is able to use what he learned determines the value of his learning and thus gives him a better vision for his future. Summary of Discussion As it could be observed from the study handled herein, the human memory works through an implicative source of information. A directly implicative manner by which the mind tries to accept and then later on retrieve primary information that has been collected through encoding in the past has been perceived to have a great impact on how the human mind remembers different information that has been encoded into it. The process of deep encoding has been examined as a major effective approach to the idea of enhancing the memory development of the human brain. Imagery and visual description has been considered as one of the primary elements that brought about the possibility of immediate recall on the part of the participants who willingly took part in the study. Overall, the study was considered by the researchers as a successful source of proof that vivid recall of the brain could be based from the approach used to encode the information as it is being fed to the brain.13 This could directly be useful to educators as they try their best to find the most effective approach applicable for actual implication in the ways by which they are to instruct their students at school with full expectation that later on, the lessons they teach them would be of great use to their students.14 Educating the people in the society is a noble profession that helps the whole society strive for the best of being they could be as they are able to learn both from their environment and from their educators as well.15 However, educating and learning involves several factors that contribute to one’s belief of what he is able to learn from his primary sources of education. Several factors of education explain a person’s pattern of learning. The aspects of philosophy of thinking and learning which merely refers to the thought provoking a person to have a yearning for learning usually helps an educator determine the progress of his student with regards to what he is teaching and what his student is able to grasp for learning. The following paragraphs shall discuss the mentioned factors of education and shall clarify some points of consideration concerning the principles of learning involved in education. In this study, a better focus on memory and the better understanding of the process by which the mind takes in and understands the information it absorbs from the outside environment through memory calculation of what needs to be recalled.16 Apparently, it has been better learned that the process of encoding information to the mind affects the process of recall directly suggesting the fact that the process of education presentation affects the way that the mind of the students absorb the lessons that they are presented with. REFERENCES: Craik, F. I., & Tulving E. (1975). Depth of processing and the retention of words in episodic memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 104(3), 268-294. Craik, F. I. (2002). Levels of processing: Past, present...and future? Memory, 10(5-6), 305-318. Eysenck, M. W., & Eysenck, M. C. (1979). Processing depth, elaboration of encoding, memory stores, and expended processing capacity. 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