Making Long Term Memories

This is a response to one of the readings provided by one of my classmates to explore long term memory for 6411 Cognition and Learning.

There are interesting connections to the research you’ve presented. I had to graphically represent this research in order to understand what was studied and clarify the outcomes. Long term memory of manipulative objects (e.g. a hammer, spatula) was better when hands were resting in front of a participant vs having hands behind their backs. Memory of non-manipulative objects (e.g. carpet, couch) was not affected by the positions of participants’ hands.  Dutriaux and Gyselinck (2016) suggest that using hands when encoding objects into memory works better when those objects are manipulable, thus inferring that semantic memory is connected to motor simulation.

Despite some structural issues with this study (e.g. using psychology students, more women than men, participants completing this study as part of gaining a course credit) this research presents some interesting questions. First, is prior knowledge or experience of the object impacting the remembering. As Willingham (2009) suggests, memory is a function of thinking. If unfamiliar manipulable objects such as these Roman dodecahedrons were introduced, would this interfere with the thinking and thus impact the results? Secondly, as Dutriaux and Gyselinck (2016) posit, does the “encoding specificity effect” factor into these results. The authors suggest that “memory is better when the contexts during encoding and retrieval are similar” so the results may be reflective of retrieval patterns rather than semantic and motor simulation integration. How the hands were positioned at the time of visual stimulation in comparison to how the hands were positioned in the recall of the image may be impacting the results. Finally, it would be interesting to include left handed participants in this study design since there may be a factor of ‘handedness’ interfering with the encoding of the manipulable objects. Beratis et al. conclude that handedness has an effect on higher order cognitive processes such as mental flexibility (p. 401).

To answer your question, what are the best options for teachers to stimulate learning through motor behaviour to develop long term memory – there are loads of tried and true options. I loved using skipping songs to consolidate math facts. I’ve done clapping/snapping games to do the same thing. Using ‘air drawing’ when doing letter formation or cursive script practice is a great way to encode beyond doing the actual letter formation using a variety of texturized tools like sand, soap, paint, clay, or foam. Many teachers include lots of mental visualizations while doing hand/finger motions such as ‘imagine you have two apples and add two bananas, then how many fruit do you have. This reminds me of subitizing (de Nance, 2017) – having students create images of mathematical conceptions using bingo dot dabbers. Even introducing logic if/then equations using chess boards and game moves. Or getting students to create a hip-pop or rap dance song production with dance moves to match the words/concepts they need to remember. These are just a few that come to mind, and can be done with a focus on both a dominant and none dominant hand, as needed.

References

Beratis, I., Rabavilas, A., Kyprianou, M., Papadimitriou, G., & Papageorgiou, C. (2013). Investigation of the link between higher order cognitive functions and handedness. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychologogy, 35 (4), 393-403. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13803395.2013.778231

de Nance, J. (2017). Subitizing, grouping and part-whole activities in early learning programs. Early Childhood Education, 44(2), 11-17.

Dutriaux L, & Gyselinck, V. (2016). Learning is better with the hands-free:The role of posture in the memory of manipulable objects. PLoS ONE 11(7): e0159108. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0159108

Willingham, D. (2009). Why don’t students like school? San Francisco, CA: Jossey

Bass.