February, the rains are definitely with us and wet break times are the bane of our lives here in Primary. As discussed in a previous blog, the opportunity for children to get out in the fresh air and release their pent-up energy is as important as study in the classroom. As the half term comes to a close and the weeklong break looms up, it is essential to remind our children of the importance of keeping up their reading practice during the time they are not at school. It only takes 5-10 minutes per day to keep that level going. So, to the subject of this month’s education topic, Long Term memory and how children retain information and experiences for future use. What is it that helps us to access previous learning and make sense of the world around us?

How memory works is a huge topic and many researchers are still working on the actual mechanism. What can be said is that Working Memory can be encoded into our long-term memory by associating with ideas already in our long-term memory, as shown above (Fig. 1). More important than the actual mechanism, to schools, is how we can improve long term memory in pupils, so that they can retrieve useful information quickly and use it in their work.

Ways to Improve Long-term Memory.

Attention: Attention is an important requirement to improve long-term memory. Actively attend the information being presented to make it a part of long-term memory. Pupils should stay away from distractions such as television, music, smartphones. A Good Night’s Sleep: Quality sleep is known to optimize the neural processes of the brain. Slow-wave sleep has shown an important role in the consolidation of long-term memories. Sleep deprivation impairs the ability of the brain to encode new memories during the daytime. Optimal sleep of 7-8 hours a day is always recommended. Exercise: Exercise is known to activate the muscles and keep the heart working properly, which has a positive impact on brainpower. Exercise enhances the chemical and neurotransmitters that empowers the brain to grasp concepts and make them part of long-term memory. Retrieval: Retrieval is known to be one of the best strategies to convert short-term memories into long-term memories. Retrieving information taking tests is an amazing strategy for students to score more in the exam. Retrieving allows the information to be processed at a much deeper level than the processing of short-term memory. Memories that are not retrieved and recalled weaken and are sometimes replaced by other information. Visualization: Imagination and visualization refer to an association of images with words to improve neuronal connection strength. Students benefit greatly from visualizing the concepts and information. This association leads to a great improvement in the storage and retrieval of long-term memories. Until next month, get memorising ?