Executive Functioning - Ways to Help Students Develop Executive Functioning Skills, cont'd
There are an abundance of terms used to describe memory, such as long term, short term, episodic, sensory, tactile, active, and verbal. It is important to have appropriate testing that will help to simplify and focus what type of memory difficulties a student may be experiencing.
Students who experience difficulties with memory encounter extreme challenges with learning and with reading. Sometimes what appears to be a memory problem may actually be a reduction in attention, poor planning, and other organizational challenges.
Memory can be like an office. On the desk is immediate or active memory. This is the memory that allows a student to read an assignment and hold on to the information from one paragraph to another or to complete the multiple steps required for a math problem.
In the to-do basket are short term memory items, these are items to do next, they are not in front currently, but they will need attention soon. In the file cabinet is long term memory. These are items that will need attention in the near future, but can be stored away for now.
To properly encode a memory, the first step is to pay attention. It is impossible to pay attention to everything so most of what is encountered every day is simply filtered out, and only a few stimuli pass into conscious awareness. What scientists aren't sure about is whether stimuli are screened out during the sensory input stage or only after the brain processes its significance. What we do know is that paying attention to information may be the most important factor in how much of it is actually remembered.
Important information is gradually transferred from short-term memory into long-term memory. The more the information is repeated or used, the more likely it is to eventually end up in long-term memory, or to be "retained." (That's why studying helps people perform better on tests.) Unlike sensory and short-term memory, which are limited and decay rapidly, long-term memory can store unlimited amounts of information indefinitely.
People tend to more easily store material on subjects that they already know something about, since the information has more meaning to them and can be mentally connected to related information that is already stored in their long-term memory. That's why someone who has an average memory may be able to remember a greater depth of information about one particular subject.
