This course is offered during the Independent Activities Period (IAP), which is a special 4-week term at MIT that runs from the first week of January until the end of the month.
This survey course is intended to review memory and its impact on our lives. Memories make us who we are, and make us what we are going to become. The loss of memory in amnesia can cause us to lose ourselves.
Memory provides a bridge between past and present. Through memory, past sensations, feelings, and ideas that have dropped from conscious awareness can be subsequently recovered to guide current thought and action. In this manner, memory allows us to locate our car in the parking lot at the end of the day or guides us to avoid retelling the same joke to the same friend. This seminar will focus on how memories are created and controlled such that we are able to remember the past. Recent insights from non-human electrophysiological and human brain imaging research will be emphasized.

“Memory” is a single term that reflects a number of different abilities: holding information briefly while working with it (working memory), remembering episodes of one’s life (episodic memory), and our general knowledge of facts of the world (semantic memory), among other types. Remembering episodes involves three processes: encoding information (learning it, by perceiving it and relating it to past knowledge), storing it (maintaining it over time), and then retrieving it (accessing the information when needed). Failures can occur at any stage, leading to forgetting or to having false memories. The key to improving one’s memory is to improve processes of encoding and to use techniques that guarantee effective retrieval. Good encoding techniques include relating new information to what one already knows, forming mental images, and creating associations among information that needs to be remembered. The key to good retrieval is developing effective cues that will lead the rememberer back to the encoded information. Classic mnemonic systems, known since the time of the ancient Greeks and still used by some today, can greatly improve one’s memory abilities.

Psychology is designed to meet scope and sequence requirements for the single-semester introduction to psychology course. The book offers a comprehensive treatment of core concepts, grounded in both classic studies and current and emerging research. The text also includes coverage of the DSM-5 in examinations of psychological disorders. Psychology incorporates discussions that reflect the diversity within the discipline, as well as the diversity of cultures and communities across the globe.Senior Contributing AuthorsRose M. Spielman, Formerly of Quinnipiac UniversityContributing AuthorsKathryn Dumper, Bainbridge State CollegeWilliam Jenkins, Mercer UniversityArlene Lacombe, Saint Joseph's UniversityMarilyn Lovett, Livingstone CollegeMarion Perlmutter, University of Michigan

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Discuss the three basic functions of memoryDescribe the three stages of memory storageDescribe and distinguish between procedural and declarative memory and semantic and episodic memory

Students become familiar with the concept of a communication system, its various parts and functions. To do this, they encode, decode, transmit, receive and store messages for a hypothetical rescue mission, using a code sheet and flashlight for this process.They also maintain storage sheets from which they can retrieve information as it is required.

Spacing and retrieval practice can improve students’ long-term retention of their learning. This guide outlines key practices for using spacing and retrieval in the classroom:

Make sure learning retention is maximised by spacing learning across lessons.
Prompt your students to recall information in different ways to enhance long-term retention.
Plan your lessons around routines.

Implementation checklists are a list of practical steps you can take to support the implementation of an evidence-based practice in your setting.

This checklist focuses on spacing and retrieval practice.

Have I...

* looked at my curriculum documents to see what information my students will need to remember in the future?
* written clear learning objectives to establish what students will need to know and produce by the end of the unit?
* looked at my lesson sequences to see how the knowledge builds from one lesson to another?
planned deliberate opportunities throughout my unit for students to show me that they remember this information?
* developed lesson activities that allow students to show their knowledge in different ways?
* given students multiple opportunities to recall information before I assess them on it?