Memory, Retention and Transfer, and Trauma by Carrie Tresemer

Short Term Memory

ctresemer — 2025-07-31 15:17:50 UTC

Memory that we need for recall in a short amount of time. It is known as working memory and has temporary capacity. It has a capacity depending on age. Putting too much on learners makes everything fall apart. Activating prior knowledge improves working and short term memory. Outside stimuli causes nerve impulses to travel to synapse where neurotransmitter chemicals are released (Sousa,2022). Neurons start to fire with neighboring neurons causing a pattern of firing. Patterns continue or are lost.

Long Term Memory

ctresemer — 2025-07-31 15:25:29 UTC

Occurs in the cortex of the brain and has unlimited storage (Sousa,2022). It is the information that makes a person that person. It is durable yet changeable. This type of memory has explicit or implicit memory. It is the conscious or unconscious recall of information. Making connections, activating prior knowledge, and the retrieval process improves long term memory. The firing of neuron connections is broken to pieces and stored in areas of the brain.

Sensory Memory

ctresemer — 2025-07-31 15:35:55 UTC

Memory related to outside stimuli and dealing with sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch (Psychology Today, n.d.). It happens very quickly. This type of memory can be preserved long term with the connections to past experiences. In the learning environment these types of memories offer variety and add to the chance of connecting to past experience to aid in learning. Information is brought into the brain, held for continued processing, and relayed to sensory areas of the brain for further processing.

Declarative Memory

ctresemer — 2025-07-31 15:48:30 UTC

This is explicit memory. It is the conscious recall of things like names, dates, facts, music, and objects which is semantic memory (Sousa, 2022). It is also the memory of yourself and your life history. It is the memory of knowing. It is the part of the learning environment where we want our students to have the recall of information we are teaching. This memory activates brain regions that overlap. It is processed by the hippocampus and cerebellum.

Nondeclarative Memory

ctresemer — 2025-07-31 15:58:17 UTC

This is implicit memory and does not require the intentional recall of experiences. It is procedural memory. It is learning motor and cognitive skills and remembering how to do something (Sousa, 2022). In the learning environment associative learning is involved. This is the response being involved with the stimulus that occured. There is also non-associative learning where the response is to stimuli that do not require conscious attention. There is also sensitization where we respond to a threatening stimuli. In the brain the cortex and amygdala are involved.

Emotional Memory

ctresemer — 2025-07-31 16:04:34 UTC

This is both implicit and explicit memory. The implicit memory in the learning environment ties to the classroom climate. It can be a positive or a negative situation depending on the feeling for the student. It can be an explicit memory in the learning environment tieing to classroom content. It is positive or negative depending on the success that the student has had with the content. It happens in the limbic area in the brain and the amygdala is involved (sousa, 2022).

Information Retention

ctresemer — 2025-08-01 15:10:52 UTC

This is a process that happens in the brain. It is the process that allows the information to be encoded, stored, and retrieved when it is needed. Learning that has a variety of styles will increase retention of information (Sousa, 2022). If you add visual information, learning by doing, practice and teach others, and interactive elements it aids in the retention. You need to vary your length of learning to increase the retention as well.

Transfer of Information

ctresemer — 2025-08-01 15:23:43 UTC

It is the brain's ability to learn in one way and use information in another situation. The transfer during learning is where the past experience plays a role in assigning meaning to new information. The transfer of learning is how the information is applied to future situations. Transfer can have a positive or negative effect. Therefore as teachers, there needs to be a positive application of the new learning. Context to learning, similarity, critical attributes, and association are factors that contribute to transfer (Sousa, 2022). Teachers are the make a major contribution to transfer for their students. We need to keep the students motivated and connected to the learning as much as possible.

Trauma and Memory

ctresemer — 2025-08-02 15:48:28 UTC

The brain has the main responsibility to keep you safe. A memory is a blueprint to help you learn. The Triune Brain Model divides the brain into three brains (Lebow, 2021). The reptilian brain deals with the automatic processes. The mammalian brain deals with emotional processes. The neomammalian brain deals with sensory processes. Everyone will experience some form of trauma in their lives. When there is trauma, the brain works overtime to keep you safe. Trauma also shuts down the nonessential systems of the brain and activates the lower areas of the brain. It activates the sympathetic nervous system to release the stress hormones. When the stress has passed areas get back online and regulate again. The amygdala of the brain is the fire alarm. Trauma causes difficulty analyzing the difference between threats then and now. The hippocampus is the learning center and trauma causes it to be smaller and less active. The prefrontal cortex of the brain is the decision making area. Trauma causes this area to be less active. Memory is connection and retrieval. Trauma will make memory more difficult to retrieve and connection to not always be positive. Healing is possible. Learning to stabilize, reprocess, and program will help improve cognition and function.

Strategies

ctresemer — 2025-08-03 13:59:58 UTC

The brain is a complex mechanism. We can use strategies to improve learning for students who have experienced trauma and all students. All students and educators experience trauma. One way to help learners is to use the Neurosequential Model (Perry,2020). This model is to teach to regulate, then relate, then reason. The cortex of the brain needs to be open and stress interferes with information processing. When the students feel like they are safe and belong in a community of respect and regulation, learning increases. Mindfulness is another strategy that will improve learning. Mindfulness meditation is a deep awareness of feelings, sensations, and emotions (Mendel, 2025). It helps learners have appreciation for the present moment. It increases self awareness and compassion. It enhances memory and benefits the ability to focus. It has benefits of increased blood flow to the brain making a stronger network of blood vessels having a positive effect on the cerebral cortex. Giving time for continued rehearsal and chunking content and time spent on content are also strategies that benefit learners.