Some reminders on memory

AS A PROFESSOR these many years, I have noticed that many of my students are having problems reciting spontaneously. They have to turn on their gadgets. They do not seem to care about remembering anything whatsoever.

And so, in examinations, without their gadgets, they try to bluff their way because of poor memory—writing long decorative paragraphs, generic and cliché, devoid of definite names or concepts, terminologies or theories, historical background or research arguments to substantiate their points.

Memorization has been given a bad rap in schools because of a common misconception that the progressive, constructivist theory of learning does not require memory. But if there is nothing in your memory storage in the first place, what is there for you to construct or to think?

To think outside the box, one has to be inside the box in the first place. Memorization and elaboration of materials understood actually transfers what you read or heard to the long-term memory so that these materials can be useful in thinking and in building your knowledge. As in cooking, without the meat and ingredients, there is nothing to cook, even if you are the cleverest chef.

When I was young, I prided myself for having a good memory. Although I was not good in rote memory—memorizing long sonnets and Confucian sayings word for word were a challenge for me—I could paraphrase long essays and extract the essence of a book pretty well.

Elaborative rehearsal

Psychologist Fergus Craik calls that “elaborative rehearsal,” which requires a deeper level of processing than rote memorization in “maintenance rehearsal.”

But when I turned 40, I noticed I needed help in memory, in addition to needing a brighter light when reading.

Soon I felt it took greater effort for me to remember what I had just read or heard. To help me not to get lost in a long novel, I would sketch a map of all characters and their relations to each other. It was like CliffsNotes for myself.

When I heard something interesting on television, I would forget what it was as I tried to share it with my husband. It would take me a while to remember.

I could see how my memory has changed through the developmental stages. As cognitive aging sets in when one reaches my age, speed of recall declines gradually.

Beyond 40

To train my memory and to keep me mentally agile, I took up courses that were completely new to me. I enrolled in French lessons after age 40 and continued for nine levels, after which I took up German lessons. It was good to learn new vocabulary words and to conjugate verbs.

Most of my classmates were half my age but, by working hard, I did quite well. And to keep my right brain active, I enrolled in oil, acrylic and Chinese painting.

As to remembering what I see on TV, I simply put a notebook and pen inside the basket tied to the rocking chair where I sit and, voilà, many problems are solved.

I put notebooks everywhere—beside my laptop, inside my bag, beside my bed, beside the phone. I think I will put one inside the shower, as it is usually the place where the most creative ideas are born.

I belong to a batch of students required to pass comprehensive examinations and submit a thesis/dissertation in both their master’s and doctoral studies.

Taking notes

Normally, adults are afraid of examinations because they do not trust their memory. But I quite enjoyed the preparations. I extracted past readings and organized my notes to just a few pages of the yellow pad to allow a quick glance of all the important names and terms, theories and principles, sequences and formulas that I should remember.

I synthesized long discussions from textbooks to irreducible abstracts. The practices were not only effective for examination. They have become the methods I use to prepare my lectures in my teaching.

When I went to Harvard University for my postdoctorate studies, my professors and classmates were amazed by the amount of information I could remember from the readings assigned to us each week. I guess I never got over the habit of highlighting, scribbling and summarizing.

Mere writing improves memory—whether you look at the notes afterward. Note-taking is also indispensable for me to unburden some memory load on papers so as to give my brain more space for incoming information.

Technology and memory

But, by becoming more and more dependent on technology, people have kept their own memories from developing.

For many, memory means hardware. Drivers with GPS (global positioning system) do not need to remember roads, bloggers with self-correcting apps do not care for spelling, friends on Instagram cannot recall real faces, a finger that slides a tablet has no memory of strokes and cyclists on virtual exercise machines do not remember how the air feels.

As this dependence persists, our spatial memory, semantic memory, episodic memory, procedural memory, motor memory, even affective memory are adversely affected because we do not allow our memory system the chance to develop to its fullest in its varied forms.

In an NHK documentary broadcast (Japan Broadcast Corp., July 4), it was reported that 25 years before a person exhibited the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, formation of plaques and tangles and shrinkage of neurons had already started, causing memory problems.

But for many youngsters whose memory is permanently tied up to a gadget, frustration may come prematurely—when electricity and batteries are not available.

The writer is a professor at the University of the Philippines College of Education. E-mail her at [email protected]