How_Can_the_Way_We_Organise_Our_Thinking_by_Using_Mental_Images,_Concepts_and_Schemas_Help_Us_Improve_Our_Memory_

How can the way we organise our thinking by using mental images, concepts and schemas help us improve our memory' In this essay I intend to explain some of the many ways that human beings organise their thinking. I also intend to look at explaining mental images, concepts and schemas, and the way that they can be useful aids to the improvement of memory. Organising our thoughts can improve our quality of everyday life and help us deal with the world more efficiently. Our memory is crucial to the easy running of our lives. First I’ll look at mental images. A mental image is simply a picture that is stored in the brain; drawn from something that has been previously observed. As adults, we think mostly in words and meanings, this is given the term, semantic thought. By contrast, Iconic thought is the term given to thoughts based on mental images. Research and experiments have shown that using iconic thought as well as semantic thought together can help us remember verbal and written information that we’re trying to recall; especially if the image is bright and bizarre as we tend to remember distinctive items rather than everyday items. It is theorised that due to evolution, humans have become good at remembering visual information. Using mental images when you first start a new language has proven to help remember words. this system is used successfully by the Rosetta stone company in their language courses. This system, developed by Raugh and Atkinson, is called The Key Word technique (Raugh and Atkinson, 1975, cited in Spoors et al., 2011). An example taken from the Y183 openings course book (Spoors et al., 2011, p.45) shows how mental images can be useful; the French word ‘Poubelle’ which means bin in English. Making a mental picture of the key word with the English translation can be achieved by picturing yourself lifting the lid off a bin, which then turns into a bell whilst holding your nose. The idea of a smell reminds you of the ‘pooh’ -the smell coming from inside the bin joins with the image of the bell. Using this technique has been found to be highly effective. Mental images can help with the memory in other ways; such as a simple shopping list. Simply thinking of a small song that has all of the words of the items you plan on purchasing in it. This technique is called mnemonics or memory strategies. This technique has also been proved to greatly help students when revising for exams. Next I shall consider concepts. Concept formation is the process that helps us understand what something is. Concepts are not clearly defined and seem to depend on what we plan to do with the item rather than to how we define them. We often have difficulty in thinking of specific definitions. We are rarely even aware that we use concepts due to the fact we use them so often. Mandler (2011, p53) suggested that by organising information we learn it even if we are not making any effort to memorise it. Adults can use concepts without much effort, but it can cause confusion, as Spoors mentions. (2011, p.51) Whilst observing children you can see as they struggle with the idea of concepts. Children often over generalise concepts that they are trying to understand. Over generalising is when someone adds to the use of a word or concept to include objects or events that are similar but are not normally used in the concept. An example taken from the course book, a child develops a concept for a dog as an animal with four legs, hair and a tail, but then uses this knowledge to label a cat or a sheep. Finally, I’ll will look at schemas; a schema is a mental framework of knowledge which can concern anything we come across or are faced with in our lives. Piaget investigated the ways that children develop their thinking skills. He suggested that they did this by developing schemas which were created and expanded with each life experience that they have. (2011, p. 54) For everything process you do there is a schema. They help us deal with the world so when we are presented with a new situation we know how to act. An example of how schemas work is provided by an experiment by Bransford and Johnson. (2011, p.55) They attempted to gain a better understanding of our recall of information. They discovered that your memory and understanding is greatly affected if when you read something; that would normally be classed as simple, yet has no title. They believed this was because there is then no way to access the schemas and process the information and thus no way of understanding it. In conclusion, there are many ways to organise our thoughts and improve our memories. Mental images give us images of things that improve our memory as the image provides cues. Concepts and schemas help by simplifying and classifying data, making them easier and more manageable to memorize. Without them, we'd have to remember each unique experience as if it were unrelated to any other. It becomes apparent then, the value of such methods of classifying and organising material; when our brains deal with so much unconnected and random information daily. 1.What did you find easiest and what did you find most challenging about doing this assignment' Why was this' The part I found easiest was probably the mental images, I felt I grasped that and made the point I wanted to make. The most difficult part was probably the schemas and concepts, I understood it. I just didn’t feel I explained it well and I feel it let my essay down. I think this was mainly due to how out of practice I am with writing essays. 2 What could you do to make the challenging area easier in the future' I think I need to practice my essay skills and hopefully make the point I'm trying to make much clearer, as I didn’t think I manage that well. References Spoors, P., Dyer, E.W. and Finlay, L. (2011) Starting with Psychology, Milton Keynes, The Open University. Essay: 885 Words