The brain is an amazing and ever changing structure. Memory is one of the brain's most extraordinary functions and has a critical role enabling everyday learning and formal education. If we are to understand how memory functions, it is necessary to explore the neural processes involved in forming and retrieving memories and to consider the different types of memory that enable us to learn. The brain is both a novelty-seeking and a systematising structure.
Focused attention is necessary in order for the brain to take in new information. Much like a heat seeking missile or a searchlight searching and focusing on a target, the brain is constantly scanning the internal and external environment for novel material. When new, different or exciting information, events or experiences are identified, the brain's attention system 'locks on' to this to gather information until sufficiently satiated or until something else attracts attention. It can only focus on one thing at a time although focus can change rapidly to direct attention to something else. For students whose attention system is disabled, it is extremely difficult to maintain focus for any period of time. Their brains continue to scan, settling only very briefly before returning to scan the environment for further novelty, resulting in a distraction of focus.
For memories to be formed, information must be gathered; separated into fragments; encoded; processed and sent for storage in different areas of the cortex. The way in which information is encoded is critical for memory formation. Encoding means the ways in which we sort bits of information, identify patterns and link it to other information that has already been placed within memory storage. The more complex or elaborate the encoding process, the more likely information will be remembered. Emotional arousal associated with information or experience creates greater cognitive awareness, helps the brain to attend and acts as a cognitive 'glue' to assist with memory storage. Novelty, emotional arousal, interest, relevance and meaning all contribute towards effective learning.
In order to store and be able to retrieve memories, the brain must establish patterns and systems. The filing cabinet metaphor doesn't quite explain the organisation of memory systems. Although the hippocampus is regarded as the memory region within the brain, recent neuroscience research indicates that bits of information are stored throughout the brain, especially across the cortex. This is why establishing linkages between bits of information are so important to learning. Students, who understand content, can establish relevance, identify patterns, systems, emphasise links and are engaged with learning have a greater likelihood of moving data from short-term memory storage into long-term memory storage. Novelty, attention, emotional arousal and complex encoding systems act in combination to establish memories and assist in the retrieval of information.
© Michele Juratowitch
michele@clearingskies.com.au