Yes ! This !
We store knowledge in webs of associated information. When new information comes in, it gets embedded into the existing web, making connections with everything that is associated with it. So, if you’re trying to understand how something works, you activate the knowledge you have about that thing and the more knowledge you have, the more easily you understand it. And what’s really cool about this is that you don’t have to be able to recall it for this to work. So that means that even though I might not remember what I learned in the third grade during that awesome unit on fish, I could more easily appreciate and understand the exhibits at the new aquarium in St. Louis. I could understand and elaborate on what we saw in the exhibits and explain things to my 3-year-old son. Weeks later, I probably remember those exhibits better than I would have if they had been isolated bits of information with no existing knowledge.
I can't think of anything to add. I just wanted to quote this to archive it.
I've seen a steady stream of memes like this one on my Facebook news feed. Understandably, students are frustrated when they enter the "real world" and feel as though they weren't adequately prepared for some of the practical life skills they needed...
Do you think this might relate to either of these two phenomena:
ReplyDelete1.How one remembers a lectrue betetr when one is sitting in the room writing it down as it is spoken, rather than just passively watching?
2.How when you've listened to a long audiobook recording on a train journey you find the different chapters becoming associated with sections of the country you passed through, I still get this when I hear the same chapter, even of different adapatations, of a novel I once listend to like this?
Probably yes. The more senses are engaged, the easier it is to remember. It's also known that simple repetition makes things more believable, so using multiple senses is probably similar.
DeleteApparently, memory works quite strongly by association, to the point that even getting slightly drunk can help you remember something if you were drunk when you did it. So associating audiobook passages with parts of a journey makes perfect sense.