Research & Teaching
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Memory |
| Overview
Research Summary |
How Do Undergraduates Remember What They Learned in Introductory Psychology?
Article SummaryReflect on the most recent introductory psychology (or any other) test you have taken. How did you know the information you were tested on: Did you "just know" the information? Could you remember the exact lecture or where in the text in which you learned the information? Did the information seem familiar in some way? Did you have to guess answers? Conway, Gardiner, Perfect, Anderson, and Cohen were interested in how undergraduate students knew information that they were tested on in their introductory psychology courses. Conway et al. had students in introductory psychology lecture courses and introductory research methods courses categorize how they answered questions on in-class multiple choice tests. Following answering each question, students circled a category corresponding to how they answered the question. There were four categories of memory awareness:
Conway et al. elaborated on the distinction between episodic and semantic memory to describe how knowledge is acquired. They hypothesized that when students first engage in learning in a new area, the knowledge they acquire is tied to the episodic trace of the learning event. As more and more learning takes place, however, the information becomes schematized until the information is not tied to the specific learning event but is represented conceptually and is a part of semantic memory. In other words, students may at first know about classical and operant conditioning by remembering the lecture material or the textbook. Students may even remember the specific overhead or diagram that was presented to compare and contrast the two types of conditioning. Asking students how they answered items on a midterm exam occurring soon after learning about conditioning would lead to a predominance of remember responses. As students learn more and more about the principles of conditioning, and about psychology in general, memory for the particular experiences of learning about the topic of conditioning fade as understanding and knowledge of the concepts of conditioning develop. By the end of the course, students may not remember the lectures or the text at all but simply know about classical and operant conditioning. Asking students how they answered items on a final exam occurring long after learning about conditioning would results in a lot of know responses. Conway et al. also hypothesized that different types of learning might influence this process. They felt that courses in which a lot of information was presented on a lot of different topics would lead students to retain episodic traces of the learning experience on earlier tests that would not be consolidated into conceptual understanding until later in the term. Courses emphasizing less information that is repeated in different contexts might lead to more rapid acquisition of concepts. To investigate their hypotheses, Conway et al. compared memory awareness responses for examinations occurring close to the initial learning event with a later examination. Related to this, they were interested in whether better students were more likely to remember the information correctly on the first text but know it on the later test. Conway et al. also compared lecture classes, in which students were presented with a large amount of information, and research methods classes, in which students were presented with somewhat less information but repeated in a number of different contexts. As they predicted, Conway et al. found that students answered more exam questions based on remembering the information on the first exam but answered more questions on a re-examination based on just knowing the information. The better students in the class also remembered more -- and remembered more correctly -- than the other students in the class. This transition from remembering to knowing is what all instructors want to achieve over a course. It also may explain why better students do so well. Students who remember more seem to have an advantage - possibly because they remember more they have more information to organize and relate which leads to a better conceptual understanding of the information. In addition, Conway et al. found an interesting difference in memory awareness for lecture material and research methods. Students answered more questions in the research methods courses based on knowing the information. Conway et al. argued that the repetition of information over different contexts in the research methods classes facilitated the conceptualization process. The better students in these classes also made more know responses, indicating that they may have made the episodic (remember) - to - semantic (know) shift even more quickly. Conway et al. concluded that, if the goal of education is to help students build up semantic memory, then episodic knowledge needs to be built up rapidly and the organization and schematization of that information must be facilitated. |