As instructional designers, diving a little deeper into understanding memory can benefit your eLearning design and help you to develop more effective and neuro-informed eLearning. In this blog post we will explore learning and memory and what happens in our brain when we learn. We’ll also look at some tips to improve memory encoding, retrieval and learning.
Being neuro-informed
When learning happens, we are essentially changing the structure of our brain, thanks to a cool feature called neuroplasticity. There are billions of neurons in our brains, and each neuron can have thousands of synapses (connections with other neurons). It is through these synapses that the neurons communicate. Creating and strengthening synapses is good for learning and retrieving information!
For instance, you may be familiar with the saying ‘Use it or lose it’. Well, it is all too true when it comes to synaptic connections. Synaptic plasticity means that the strength of a synapse can increase or decrease over time, depending on whether it is being activated or not. With this in mind, practice, reinforcement, recall and re-visiting content is paramount to the learning process.
Let’s talk about learning and memory
What is it?
Memory is essential to learning, and yet it is not always fully understood.
“Memory recall is not just pulling things from the storage of memories, rather it is a process of creativity in which the relevant information is gathered from the scattered, jigsaw puzzle-like information in the brain” (The Human Memory, 2022).
There are 3 steps in processing memories:
- Encoding the memory
- Storing the memory
- Retrieving the memory
Step 1: Encoding the memory
The first step in creating a memory is to encode the new information: how the learner’s experience becomes a memory in the brain. As learning designers, we can consider whether the learner will engage in:
- Visual encoding (what the learner sees)
- Auditory encoding (what the learner hears)
- Semantic encoding (meaning, concepts, ideas and emotions)
- Elaborative encoding (connecting new information to prior knowledge and asking questions to increase understanding, which has been shown to greatly enhance long-term memory)
- Organisational encoding (categorising and noticing relationships between pieces of information)
Step 2: Storing the memory
Consolidating learning is when items being held in the temporary short-term memory store find a home in the more permanent long-term memory store.
It is our role as eLearning designers, instructors, trainers and teachers to facilitate the consolidation process by integrating encoding and retrieval strategies into our course design.
Step 3: Retrieving the memory
There are different forms of memory retrieval: recall, recognition, recollection and relearning.
- During recall, neurons reconstruct a memory, sometimes without any cues.
- During recognition, a memory is retrieved when something triggers or stimulates it, such as remembering a name when you see a picture.
- Recollection is rebuilding or piecing together a memory.
- Relearning is a type of memory retrieval that strengthens neural connections and retrieval of the learnt information.
Each type of retrieval can be used to support learners.
- You can provide opportunities for recall throughout the course with knowledge checks or recaps.
- You can re-visit content in different ways over time to stimulate retrieval and strengthen neural connections.
Useful strategies
Let’s learn some useful strategies for enhancing the encoding, storing and retrieval process in our eLearning design:
- Chunking: Organise information into sections, with headings and subheadings. This will make information easier to digest and recall later on.
- Making connections: Help learners to link the new information with prior knowledge, and show how it will be relevant to them. This may occur at the start of a course, when learners are cued to recall what they already know on a topic, or something covered in the previous lesson. Help the learner connect the new material to their own lives. They also need to understand why it is relevant and how it could be applied in the real world.
- Retrieval activities: Set up tests and quizzes where learners recall information. Integrate knowledge checks throughout the course. Inform learners that there will be an assessment at the end. These are effective strategies for consolidating new information.
- Spaced-out or distributed learning: Re-visiting learning content over time and building on new knowledge in incremental stages can support encoding and retrieval. Consider this when designing a programme, such as dividing a longer course into sections.
- Imagination: Learners may use their imagination to make associations. This has a strong encoding effect and helps make long-lasting memories. Integrate reflective activities for learners to imagine times when they might use the information or to imagine the potential impacts of something and so on.
- Mnemonics: This device is particularly useful for memorising information. For example, the mnemonic Roy G. Biv can help us remember the colours of the rainbow in the correct order. Go on… give it a try!
An interesting study
In one study, participants lay in a brain scanner and watched some YouTube clips. The group who were asked to describe what they had watched immediately afterwards in 40 seconds were able to recall many more details a week later compared to the group who went straight on to watching more video clips (Bird et al., 2015).
As eLearning designers, this signals the importance of allowing learners time to reflect on new content after engaging with it, and building in opportunities for them to recall and express the details of that content.
Did you know?
Hyperthymesia is a very rare condition where someone remembers in vivid detail every day of their life, as if it was yesterday. It is also known as HSAM: highly superior autobiographical memory. It opens up a whole new awareness of the brain, its capabilities and how memory works. People who have this condition tend to score highly on the traits proneness to fantasy and absorption.
- Proneness to fantasy is the tendency to daydream and imagine. This means a learner is likely to revisit the material several times using their imagination, thus strengthening the memory.
- Absorption refers to getting ‘lost’ in an activity, whereby all of our attention is focused on that activity. This helps aid retrieval later.
These two traits may be favourable to memory retrieval and learning, and could be considered when designing successful learning.
So what did you learn about memory and learning from this blog post? Why not take 40 seconds to recall some details, and see whether you can remember them a week from now!
References
Academy of Learning College. (9 July, 2019). Encoding Information.YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C0SogwBsKY
Alila Medical Media. (4 April, 2017). Long Term Potentiation and Memory Formation, Animation.YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Hm08ksPtMo
Bird C. M., Keidel, J. L., Ing, L. P., Horner, A. J. & Burgess, N. (2015). Consolidation of complex events via reinstatement in posterior cingulate cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 35(43), 14426- 14434.
https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1774-15.2015
OpenMind. (21 September, 2018). Hyperthymesia: an Unmatched Autobiographical Memory | OpenMind.YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV5kT3dHKb8
Professor Dave Explains. (26 November, 2019). Information Storage and the Brain: Learning and Memory.YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQDiUKwXLVI
Robson, D. (26 January, 2016). The blessing and curse of the people who never forget. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160125-the-blessing-and-curse-of-the-people-who-never-forget
Robson, D. (11 November, 2015). Improve your memory in 40 seconds.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20151111-improve-your-memory-in-40-seconds
The Human Memory. (2022, May 20). Memory recall and retrieval system.
https://human-memory.net/memory-recall-retrieval/
