• For example, being able to recall what someone said even though we were not listening

Incoming sensory information is first sent to the thalamus to monitor the importance and nature of the sensory impulses

• In just milliseconds the brain uses past experiences to determine the importance (Sousa, 2022)

• Most are unimportant and are dropped out of the processing system

Implications on Teaching

• Sensory register blocks out certain stimuli that allows our brains to focus on the most important things

• Helps students block out distractions in the classroom such as noise from the hall, interruptions in the classroom, etc. in order to focus on instruction

Related to immediate and working memory:

Immediate: acts as a clipboard (Sousa, 2022)

• Information is briefly placed until a decision is made on what to do with it

• Holds information up to 30 seconds

• Individual experiences determine the importance of the memory

Working: acts as a work table (Sousa, 2022)

• Very limited capacity

• Ideas are built, taken apart, and reworked that need to be stored elsewhere in the brain

• Captures focus and demands attention, which speaks to the limited capacity of handling only a few items at once

Implications on Teaching

• Less is more (Sousa, 2022)

• Keep the number of items being taught in a lesson that require to be remembered within the age appropriate capacity

• Lessons need to be no more than 15 minutes to keep student's interest and engagement

Refers to the storing and processing of information

Duration: ability to store information for years up to a person's entire lifetime

Unlimited capacity that ranges from personal experiences to factual knowledge

Types of Explicit Memory

• Episodic: related to personal experiences and specific events in time

• Semantic: involves general world knowledge, facts, and meanings of words

Procedural Memory: includes skills and habits

• How to do things both physically and mentally (Psychology Today, 2024)

Teachers can do this by:

• promoting deep learning by asking students to not only understand the information, but apply it

-This involves higher order thinking skills such as analyzing and synthesizing

• make learning meaningful by connecting learning to student's prior knowledge and experiences

• providing a positive and supportive learning environment to reduce stress and stressors

Retention of new material allows for the transfer of material within a different context, which leads to a deeper understanding.

Educators must adhere to the primacy-recency effect, which involves students learning what was taught first the best, and what was taught after that second best (Sousa, 2022).

When new learning is understood and is related to

experiences, retention increases ( Sousa, 2022).

• Engage students in hands on learning experiences

• Teach using a variety of contexts

• Use repetition throughout instruction

Trauma can especially affect the emotional networks with in the brain, which can cause one to either overreact or under-react in stressful situations (Greenberg, 2021).

We also know that stress, fatigue, lack of sleep, and the feeling of being overwhelmed can contribute to short-term memory loss and forgetfulness (Harvard Medical School, 2024).

Stress can have many different effects on learning, both cognitively and emotionally.

• It can inhibit learning in the areas of retention and recalling of material and attention and focus.

• Stress during or just before learning takes place may actually strengthen memory, but stress experienced some time before the learning event can impair memory (Whiting, S et al.,2021).

It relates to other skills such as problem solving, decision making, and critical thinking.

It teaches students to be responsible for their learning by reflecting on what they learned as well as what they found to be challenging.

• For example, using an exit ticket at the end of a lesson to self-assess their level of understanding of the content for that day.

There are two types of rehearsal: Massed and Distributed

Massed:

• Involves practicing new material over a short period of time (cramming)

• May be beneficial before some assessments

• New information is often dropped because it has no meaning to students (Sousa, 2022)

Distributed:

• The key to retention (Sousa, 2022)

• Involves continuous practice over a longer period of time

• Creates meaning and therefore transfers knowledge to long term memory (Sousa, 2022).

Effective practice begins with massed practice first, then concludes with distributed. The end result is an increase in retention (Sousa, 2022).