Relationships
This is a prepared response for Week 3 – Background knowledge, facts and memory.
In order to describe the relationship between these three concepts, I need to define these terms. Background knowledge is described in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, 3rd Edition, 2014, as information gained through experiences in the world, shared among a group or culture, yet encoded in memory as individual and personal. Facts are defined as “a thing known or proved to be true” where this information is used as evidence and is without personal interpretation or opinion (Oxford Online Dictionary). Memory encompasses an interconnected system of information involving the concepts of short term, long term, declarative, procedural, perceptual, episodic, sensory, and semantic representations (Dictionary of Psychology). This memory system includes mental representations of facts and prior knowledge into a schema, which is an underlying mechanism which allows us to predict, plan, diagram, and outline (Brunec, Moscovitch & Barense, 2018). Facts and background knowledge are instantiated, a process of assimilation and accommodation, whereby information is acquired, encoded, stored and retrieved (Gilboa & Marlatte, 2017).
There exists a relationship between knowledge and memory within the neurological structure of the brain, as based on current neuroscientific research (Brunec et al., 2018; Ghosh & Gilboa, 2014; Gilboa & Marlatte, 2017; Morton, Sherrill & Preston, 2017). Ghosh & Gilboa (2014) suggest that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) plays a role in memory. The hippocampus appears to be in competition and/or synchronization when memory events are activated or encoded (Gilboa & Marlatte, 2017). Memories are integrated into cognitive maps “supported by bidirectional interactions between hippocampus and medial prefronal cortex (mPFC)” (Morton, et al., 2017, p. 161) and are bounded by “spatial and nonspatial contextual segmentation” (Brunec et al., 2018, p. 637). Memory clustering is essential to “derive meaning from past experience” (Clewett and Davachi, 2017, p. 186) and our prior knowledge allows us to make inferences based on the temporal organization of events stored in episodic memory. Norris (2017) reviews neuroimaging data to support the view that short term (STM) and long term memory (LTM) are distinctly different, with LTM activating STM.
With this background knowledge, based on facts from scientific neurobiological studies, I contend that the relationship between background knowledge (BK), facts, and memory is fluid, transitory, recursive, and iterative (see Figure 1). This relationship is influenced by judgement (Willingham, 2009), time (Clewett & Davachi, 2017), location within space, both physical and virtual (Brunec et al., 2018), and connected to conceptual maps, or schemata (Ghosh & Gilboa, 2014; Gilboa & Marlatte, 2017). BK and memories are highly personal, since we remember information that is meaningful (Willingham, 2009), yet are heavily determined by socio-cultural contexts (Morton, et al., 2017). BK and memories build over time, with those rich in knowledge gaining more knowledge (Willingham, 2009). Knowledge, facts and memory are encoded, stored, and retrieved within the brain using frameworks, or schema (Figure 2), having necessary conditions, sensitive features, and related cognitive structures, that include narratives, categories, event gists, and statistical regularities (Ghosh & Gilboa, 2014).
In summary, the relationship between background knowledge, facts, and memory are mired in mystery, are complicated and complex, and personal, since they are made by me, within my brain.
References
Background knowledge. (2014). In P. Matthews, (Ed.), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, 3rd Ed., Online: Oxford University Press.
Brunec, I. K., Moscovitch, M., & Barense, M. D. (2018). Boundaries shape cognitive representations of spaces and events. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 22(7), 637-650.
Clewett, D. & Davachi, L. (2017). The ebb and flow of experience determines the temporal structure of memory. Current Opinion in Behavioural Sciences, 17, 186-193.
Fact. (n.d.). Oxford Online Dictionary. Retrieved from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/fact
Ghosh, V. & Gilboa, A. (2014). What is a memory schema? A historical perspective on current neuroscience literature. Neuropsychologia, 53, 104-114.
Gilboa, A. & Marlatte, H. (2017). Neurobiology of schemas and schema-mediated memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 21(8), 618-631.
Memory. (2015). In A. Colman (Ed.). A dictionary of psychology, 4th Ed., Online: Oxford University Press.
Morton, N. W., Sherrill, K. R., & Preston, A. R. (2017). Memory integration constructs maps of space, time, and concepts. Current Opinion in Behavioural Sciences, 17, 161-168.
Norris, D. (2017). Short-term memory and long-term memory are still different. Psychological Bulletin, 143(9), 992-1009.
Willingham, D. (2009). Why don’t students like school? San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
