How_Can_the_Way_in_Which_We_Organise_Our_Thinking_by_Using_Mental_Images,_Concepts_and_Schemas_Help_Us_Improve_Our_Memory_

Essay Title: How can the way in which we organise our thinking by using mental images, concepts and schemas help us improve our memory' This essay will consider three methods that can be used to organise our thinking: mental images, concepts and schemas. Each term will be defined and an outline built of how we use them to improve our memory and look at evidence of research that has been carried out. I also intend to relate my own personal experiences, where appropriate. The first method is mental images, an abstract method for fixing information into our memory so that it may be recalled at a later stage. The exercise in the course book concerning the shopping list is an excellent example of this technique and I found that I was able to recall eight of the ten items some five weeks after first carrying out the exercise. This is a method that I had not previously used but one that I now intend to practice as it can be adapted to fit many situations, including aiding studying. Raugh and Atkinson (1975) developed the use of the key word technique and used it in an experiment with people who had no prior knowledge of Spanish language. Their experiment involved using two groups of participants; one group were introduced to the key words technique and the other group a list of words to learn. Raugh and Atkinson found that the group that had used the key word system had greater recall of the words (88% on average) compared to the other group who were able to recall only an average of 27% of the words. The second method is the development of concepts. A concept is when we make a mental representation of a group of objects or events that share similar characteristics. I have found, personally, that this is a virtually automatic response, which was illustrated when I worked through Exercise 12 in the course book. I looked at the list of 16 words, as instructed, and covered them whilst I wrote out the list from memory. What I observed was that I had written them in four groups, each containing up to four words – I managed to recall 15 of the 16 words at the first attempt. I had automatically identified the categories and used these sub-consciously to memorise and recall the words, although I was unaware of the process I was using at that stage. Two pieces of research mentioned in the course book were Weston Bousfield’s experiment from 1953 in which he gave a list of 60 words to a group of participants. The lists of words could be sorted into four categories. What Bousfield found was that, although the words were presented in a random order, the participants recalled them in categories, much as I had done. In a similar experiment in 1967 by George Mandler participants were given 100 cards with words printed on them. The participants were split into two groups, with one group being instructed to memorise and categorise the cards. The other group were instructed only to categorise the cards. When the participants were asked to recall the words that had appeared on the cards, it was found that there was very little difference between the results of the two groups. There is some potential for distortion with concepts, particularly in children, who tend to over generalise. As an example, a child may associate Daddy as being a tall man with a deep voice. However, to that child, it could be that all tall men with deep voices should be called Daddy. It is possible for pieces of information to be ‘cross-referenced’, for example toothache could be associated with pain, dentist, teeth, barber (historical), string and door handles etc. The third method for organising information is schemas. A schema is a “mental framework of knowledge developed as a result of experience” (Spoors, 2010). Schemas can be likened to a filing cabinet that groups together all the aspects of experienced events, with each file being the collected data of a different experience. The benefit of this method of organisation is that the memory can recall the information each time we face that same, or similar, situation. This means that we do not have to start from scratch each time we go into a new situation as we are likely to have some point of reference to call upon. Schemas give us a cue of what to expect or how to behave in any given situation. An experiment carried out by John Bransford and Marcia Johnson in 1972 involved reading a passage of text to two groups of participants. One group had been given a title for the passage, while the other group had no clues to aid their recall of a fairly complicated passage. The findings were that the group who had been given a title to help them make sense of the passage had greater recall than those who did not have the framework on which to construct the memory. Schemas carry a potential for distortion when expectations may not have been fulfilled or our minds may choose to fill in any blanks within the schema. On a personal level, I find that I have a schema regarding supermarkets, both generally and for specific stores. My schema becomes distorted when the supermarket change the layout and organisation of the shelves. This tends to be quite common practice at this time of the year when they are incorporating their stocks for the festive season. When working on the preparation for the writing of this essay I reached the realisation that the brain is an extremely complex organ that can perform seemingly miraculous tasks. Providing nothing occurs to interfere with the memory processes, our memories are able to sort and store an amazing amount of diverse information. Not only is the information stored away, but it is possible to call it back to the surface when needed, on most occasions. In conclusion, the storage of information and the recall process can be enhanced by becoming aware of different methods for organising the information, for example a shopping list could be remembered and recalled by using mental images. The methods used alter depending on the purpose and the type of information. REFERENCES Davenport, G C Introducing GCSE Psychology (1995) Collins Educational, London Spoors, Pat et al Starting with Psychology (2nd edition 2010) The Open University, Milton Keynes ----------------------- 1022 words