A Thought’s Journey

A brain is always changing, from the interaction with its environment and past, present and future experiences.

Understanding how the brain translates new knowledge and information into learning will provide cues to the most appropriate instructional strategies. This, in turn, will foster deeper learning. Every lesson, assignment, and connection will further shape students’ brains.

As a result of breakthroughs with new technology, people are now able to observe and study the brain more than ever. With this advancement, neuroscience research has been greater than ever. With new neuroimaging and neuroelectric monitoring, we now can observe how the brain reacts during learning.

These technologies make visible the brain’s response to instructional practices. It shows the neurological activity when the information moves from the body’s sensory intake systems, through the attention and emotional filters, forming memory linkages and activating the cognitive networks of executive function.

This information has helped the understanding of how a classroom environment’s mental breaks, attention-getting techniques, activation of prior knowledge, and more, influence the transformation of sensory information into long-term memory.

This book will follow the information processing model, with thought ascending to the child, Sam’s, long term memory and how it works.

This is Thought! This is Thought’s journey of moving to Sam’s Long Term Storage.

FAST FACT: Long Term Storage and Long Term Memory, have often been used interchangeably, but they are different. Long Term Memory refers to the process of storing and retrieving information, whereas Long Term Storage is where the memories are kept. Types of Long Term Memory are categorized into two groups. One group is declarative (explicit memory), episodic (autobiographical), or semantic (which consists of words, facts, objects, and faces). The second group involves nondeclarative (implicit memory), procedural (motor and cognitive skills), procedural representation system, classical conditioning, and nonassociative learning.

Thought knows to grab Sam’s attention, Thought has to be noticed in one of Sam’s five senses from Sam’s environment. Thought grabs hold of sight, one of five ways in Sam’s environment to get Sam’s attention, and starts to travel to Sam’s brain!

FAST FACT: Specifically to a classroom, the learning environment has a direct and first impact on a learner. The learning environment offered diverse physical locations, contexts, and cultures in which students learn. Emotions that students associate with a learning experience (but not the context) become part of the student’s nondeclarative memory. The emotional climate has a direct correlation with the classroom climate.

Uh oh! Thought runs into Sam’s sensory register. Thought can either be let into Sam’s sensory register or Thought could be forgotten?

FAST FACT: Whether Thought will be forgotten is based on Sam’s Sensory Preferences. This refers to the type of brain an individual possesses with sensory stimulation data that registers most quickly. Forgetting is the failure to recall retain information into present consciousness.

Sam has sight as a sensory preference as well as recognizing Thought from her past experiences! Thought passes through and enters into Immediate Memory. This brings Thought to a crossroads, also known as Cognitive Conflict. Thought can go down “forgotten”, or one of the two amygdala sections the upper or lower structures of the brain.

FAST FACT: Immediate memory is the memory where information is processed in seconds, then subconsciously either forgotten or passed on to working memory.

Thought chose to go down the amygdala path! Thought can take the lower highway, the upper highway or down forgotten.

FAST FACT: After sensory information is selected to enter through the level of activity taking place in the amygdala determines whether the information will travel down to the lower, involuntary, reactive brain or up to the reflective and memory-storing “thinking brain” (the prefrontal cortex). Some examples of specific school-related stressors that can trigger the amygdala to send input to the lower, reactive brain: anxiety-related to speaking in class, answering questions, or oral presentations, physical and language differences, test-taking anxiety and much more.

Thought journeys upwards toward the upper structure of the brain where Thought reaches Working Memory. Hurray! Thought can see Long-Term Storage in sight!!!

Fast Fact: Working Memory is where temporary memory information is processed consciously. This is done by the process closure. Closure is the action when the learners’ working memory summarizes itself by connecting its perception of what has been learned together.

Thought is hanging out in Working Memory. Looking towards either being forgotten or heading towards Long Term Memory, Thought grabs hold of a passing neuron!

The neuron fires Thought into the encoding Long Term Memory.

(Don’t worry, the neuron is protected by its myelin sheath!)

FAST FACT: Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to generate new neural networks in response to new or old stimuli.  The expression “neurons that fire together, wire together” refers to this process of the brain constructing neural networks. Every recalled memory fires electrical signals from neuron to neuron to stimulate a process that fuels memory.

Thought makes it through the encoding processing because the neuron and Thought have connected. This is called sense meaning, which pushes Thought into Long Term Memory!

FAST FACT: The more sense and meaning something has, the more likely something is to be remembered

Upon arrival, Thought is greeted by Self-Concept and Cognitive Belief System who gives Thought a tour on Long Term storage.

FAST FACT: Self-concept and a person’s cognitive belief system have the biggest impacts on Long Term Memory.

They explain to Thought that Sam’s brain is unique to them and that everyone has a different brain. Some kids have differences that cause learning obstacles such as dyslexia or dysgraphia.

FAST FACT: Two examples of learning differences are dyslexia and dysgraphia. Dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves difficulty in reading. While dysgraphia is a disability that affects writing abilities.

Cognitive Belief System points to the sky and describes that those are Sam’s emotions. The emotions have been a part of Thought’s whole journey here, and explains that emotions have a great effect on what is remembered or forgotten.

FAST FACT: Emotions can positively or negatively affect learning. This is because emotions drive attention, which drives learning, which creates a memory. Emotions facilitate encoding and help retrieval of information efficiency. Some chemicals in the body that alter one’s mood is an opiate called endorphins (lessens pain and produces euphoric feelings) or a steroid hormone called cortical (which regulates a wide range of processes throughout the body). For the best learning, kids must feel physically and emotionally safe and secure before they can focus on the curriculum. If this occurs, this is also known as a prime time in learning or a “window of opportunity”.

Self Concept explains that Sam’s past experiences are what make Sam who she is and how she will recall or recognize Thought for the Retrieval Train.

FAST FACT: The two types of retrieval are recall and recognition. Recall is the act of retiring information from the past while lacking a specific cue to retrieve the information. Recognition is also the acting of retrieving information but with a cue. If Sam has long term retention with Thought, they will be able to recall Thoughts even after a long term period since Thought has been processed.

It looks like Sam is recalling Thought! Thought swoops onto the Retrieval Train, so that Thought can leave Long Term Memory and be remembered!

FAST FACT: Thought is going through a type of retrieval, which pushes it back into Working Memory to be consciously processed.

A thought remembered.