Memory is quite the enigma. Funny. I thought that psychologists had had the workings of memory figured out in 1980. But I read the most recent book on memory that says otherwise. It was, of course, not by a psychologist but a physiologist - who has been working on memory for 30 years. The evidence is pretty strong that memory has still not been fully figured out.
And even though memory may not have been finally detailed in its machinations, certain matters have started coming to light, especially regarding memory and longevity and memory and education. Memory seems to be outstanding during the middle years of a rat's life, but fading during latter years. The same seems to be true of humans, but this trend seems reversible now that the physiology of memory has been studied for 30 years. And as far as memory leading to academic prowess goes... the book on education needs to be rewritten.
In particular, having expectations for kids to progress from one grade level to the next in a lockstep manner is such a charade. Any teacher will tell you that kids learn unevenly. 30 years of study on memory tells a person why that is true. I hope that soon educators will take the time to learn what makes kids remember and turn education around. There's probably a snowball's chance that that will happen. Results for learning will not improve until educators act to turn the tide, however.
The upside is that memory works especially well when theta wave bursts open receptors to receive information. That means that the most pleasant events are the ones most likely to stay around. That could help reverse both problems with memory in longevity diseases and problems with memory in education's application to learning. I know that the principle of memory formed under pleasant conditions, or at least satisfactory conditions, is true. I have certain memories that are painful. They short-circuit my mind. Pleasant memories, on the other hand, flood my mind on a moment's notice and as often as I want to recall them. One of my favorite recent memories is of a picture given to me of a number of beautiful Canadian Rocky Mountain scenes captioned so appropriately as "A Place Within." The scenes and the giver of those scenes create a theta wave burst fiesta!
6 comments:
Welcome back to the blog scene. You were silent a long, long time. Went to a CPE seminar today. New 72 line poem exists now to show for it: Ode to CPE Seminars. Read it to you sometime. Then you can tell me what the [expletive deleted] you been up to the last half year.
"theta wave burst fiesta"...good thing you are a linguist...if I used a phrase like that people would think I was off my rocker...;)
Anonymous 1: What's a CPE seminar?
You know I work hard at coming up with phrases like "theta wave burst fiesta." Ha ha. It's a type of English algorithm...;)
CPE = continuing professional education, inservice in the education ghetto. Got a new 72 line poem "Ode to CPE Seminars" written at an inservice on Wed. Read it to you next time I see you.
OK. That's almost epic poetry size there. I see the seminar was that interesting.
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