Let me tell you an interesting fact from the start. Our brain, surprisingly, remembers everything. It stores every single information we get to know. It is just our synapse that is not developed enough to reach to the stored information. That is when we forget something. We actually do remember the thing, but we just can't access to the thing.
Then, what are the things that we do not forget? We all have an experience that we study hard for an exam and basically memorise and study everything, and after the exam we forget most of those. Like the status quo of us IB freshmen, who forgot almost everything what we've learnt from IGCSEs. (I bet I'm going to fail them if I have to take them again right now😂) Hence, not to forget certain things we should acknowledge the importance and value of knowing the thing, and keep remembering the thing. For instance, suppose you have your final exam in a week. You know that this exam is very important and would affect your university admissions. Therefore, unless you are not interested in going to university and don't care about your grades, you would definitely have to study. You won't probably be simply putting all the information at once; you would rather be revising many times, to make sure you don't forget the contents at the exam day. In contrast, after you pass the exam and get a good grade, there is no need for you to study the contents anymore. If you really like and enjoy the subject, you might continue studying, but in most cases you won't, thus never looking through the book again. At this point you know that revising is neither necessary nor useful anymore. There's just no point of doing all the studies again. From this point you start to lose your memories. You don't need to keep all those miscellaneous information in your brain no more, so you gradually stop to remember, to 'reach' to your memories. So basically it can be described as a bridge. There's a bridge that reaches to your memories and you don't cross it for years, it gradually wears out and breaks down at last.
Once, a way not to remember thing has been introduced. It is, to remember it at least 3 times over somewhat periods of time. For example, you search for the meaning of a difficult scientific term. Let's say, photosynthesis, because it was the most difficult vocabulary I've been learning when I was 10. You first understand what photosynthesis means. Then like a month passes, and you find photosynthesis in your textbook. You might not remember then, but when you search for it again and find out the meaning, you would realise the fact that you already knew the word. This would make it easier for you not to forget the word again. In other words, it would strengthen the bond, or the 'bridge', to your antecedent memories about photosynthesis. Now you can do this process after some period of time again. It is known that to fully make the knowledge yours you should do this sort of relearning-remembering process more than 3 times. You will then eventually be able to say "Yes I know it goes like that" instead of "Um...well I knew this but I just forgot..."
Then, what are the things that we do not forget? We all have an experience that we study hard for an exam and basically memorise and study everything, and after the exam we forget most of those. Like the status quo of us IB freshmen, who forgot almost everything what we've learnt from IGCSEs. (I bet I'm going to fail them if I have to take them again right now😂) Hence, not to forget certain things we should acknowledge the importance and value of knowing the thing, and keep remembering the thing. For instance, suppose you have your final exam in a week. You know that this exam is very important and would affect your university admissions. Therefore, unless you are not interested in going to university and don't care about your grades, you would definitely have to study. You won't probably be simply putting all the information at once; you would rather be revising many times, to make sure you don't forget the contents at the exam day. In contrast, after you pass the exam and get a good grade, there is no need for you to study the contents anymore. If you really like and enjoy the subject, you might continue studying, but in most cases you won't, thus never looking through the book again. At this point you know that revising is neither necessary nor useful anymore. There's just no point of doing all the studies again. From this point you start to lose your memories. You don't need to keep all those miscellaneous information in your brain no more, so you gradually stop to remember, to 'reach' to your memories. So basically it can be described as a bridge. There's a bridge that reaches to your memories and you don't cross it for years, it gradually wears out and breaks down at last.
Once, a way not to remember thing has been introduced. It is, to remember it at least 3 times over somewhat periods of time. For example, you search for the meaning of a difficult scientific term. Let's say, photosynthesis, because it was the most difficult vocabulary I've been learning when I was 10. You first understand what photosynthesis means. Then like a month passes, and you find photosynthesis in your textbook. You might not remember then, but when you search for it again and find out the meaning, you would realise the fact that you already knew the word. This would make it easier for you not to forget the word again. In other words, it would strengthen the bond, or the 'bridge', to your antecedent memories about photosynthesis. Now you can do this process after some period of time again. It is known that to fully make the knowledge yours you should do this sort of relearning-remembering process more than 3 times. You will then eventually be able to say "Yes I know it goes like that" instead of "Um...well I knew this but I just forgot..."
I like how you refer to our actual lives and use school and IGCSE's, something we've all been through and can relate to when you were trying to get your point across. I also love how you compaired memory to a bridge and how it wears down over time. If I were to improve it, I'd say maybe go a little more indepth? You focused most on education, which is important, but what about memory on a personal level? I mean the memories we tell our grandkids in the future, the ones we don't need repition to remember, the ones we're burdened or enlightened by. But good job, I liked what you had to say.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jieun and Nuschke!! Memory can be fragile and as such is it really a good way of 'knowing'? It is interesting to look at this and the discussion we had in class to better understand Memory as a WOK.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you related memory to our day to day life with exams and such and how you mentionned a technique to remmember things as well :)
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post because it was 100% relatable to all students:) I like how you decided to use real life examples to help us further experience the definition itself. You also had great tips on how to remember information. To further improve your post I would suggest breaking down memory into its both scientific and literal meaning for example explaining what the difference between long-term and short-term memory is but other than that, I love your style of writing and its was really fun to read your post:)
ReplyDelete~Karima Daoud
I like the fact that you tied in matters of personal life, it made it real and a pleasant read :)
ReplyDeleteits great to understand how we forget our memories, especially when it comes to situations such as exams and in our daily lives. The aspects of what makes us remember is vital as well. how do we remember it in the first place, what effect does such memories play in our daily lives.I love your style of writing and its was really fun to read your post, XD
ReplyDelete