2008 Woodie Awards
School director offers insight about memory
Jimmy Elliott
Issue date: 3/20/08 Section: Life
Phi Delta Kappa's Golden Crescent Chapter invited a guest speaker to speak about memory and the brain on Monday, March 3 at Lorain County Community College.
Larry Pfronger, director of Ashland University's Elyria Program Center, had a discussion about how memory is retained in students and what teachers can do to improve their techniques.
He talked about the three main categories of memory in the brain: sensory memory, short-term, and long-term memory.
Pfronger asked three questions that coincided with each category: what really gets the brain's attention, how much information can the brain hold at one time, and what can you do as a teacher to make the brain hold even more information.
The sensory memory takes in every sound, color, distraction and smell, according to Pfronger, but it only holds this information for .75 seconds.
"Most of what comes in from sensory memory gets dumped," said Pfronger.
Pfronger said, as teachers, to be creative, funny, and different, along with minimizing distractions, teach dramatically, keep students involved, and most of all provide personal attention.
Pfronger listed the important aspects of rehearsal that needs to happen so the information can be moved into long-term memory.
"After repeating, rehashing, discussing, practicing, and reviewing the information, it is either dumped or sent to the long-term memory depending on how well you rehearse the information," said Pfronger.
Pfronger explained the importance of the brain's hippocampus in relation to information being moved to long-term memory.
The hippocampus is the part of the brain mainly comprised of gray matter and has a vital role in a person's memory.
Pfronger used an example to show the audience how much information a person's long-term memory can hold.
"100 trillion bits of info can be held in long-term memory, if this was represented in seconds that would be 32,000 years of information," said Pfron-ger. Information in long-term memory is stored in two different categories: declarative and procedural.
Declarative information is things like names, birthdays, and phone numbers.
Procedural information is more skill based. This kind of unformation includes brushing your teeth, driving a car, reading, and writing. Pfronger gave several ways for teachers to help their students retain information in long-term memory.
"Give students 3-5 seconds to answer, and try to incorporate current events into your daily lesson plans," said Pfronger.
He emphasized how important it is for teachers to work with their students memories.
"Great teachers always choose to work with the brain, not against it," Pfronger said.
Larry Pfronger, director of Ashland University's Elyria Program Center, had a discussion about how memory is retained in students and what teachers can do to improve their techniques.
He talked about the three main categories of memory in the brain: sensory memory, short-term, and long-term memory.
Pfronger asked three questions that coincided with each category: what really gets the brain's attention, how much information can the brain hold at one time, and what can you do as a teacher to make the brain hold even more information.
The sensory memory takes in every sound, color, distraction and smell, according to Pfronger, but it only holds this information for .75 seconds.
"Most of what comes in from sensory memory gets dumped," said Pfronger.
Pfronger said, as teachers, to be creative, funny, and different, along with minimizing distractions, teach dramatically, keep students involved, and most of all provide personal attention.
Pfronger listed the important aspects of rehearsal that needs to happen so the information can be moved into long-term memory.
"After repeating, rehashing, discussing, practicing, and reviewing the information, it is either dumped or sent to the long-term memory depending on how well you rehearse the information," said Pfronger.
Pfronger explained the importance of the brain's hippocampus in relation to information being moved to long-term memory.
The hippocampus is the part of the brain mainly comprised of gray matter and has a vital role in a person's memory.
Pfronger used an example to show the audience how much information a person's long-term memory can hold.
"100 trillion bits of info can be held in long-term memory, if this was represented in seconds that would be 32,000 years of information," said Pfron-ger. Information in long-term memory is stored in two different categories: declarative and procedural.
Declarative information is things like names, birthdays, and phone numbers.
Procedural information is more skill based. This kind of unformation includes brushing your teeth, driving a car, reading, and writing. Pfronger gave several ways for teachers to help their students retain information in long-term memory.
"Give students 3-5 seconds to answer, and try to incorporate current events into your daily lesson plans," said Pfronger.
He emphasized how important it is for teachers to work with their students memories.
"Great teachers always choose to work with the brain, not against it," Pfronger said.
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