Memory Formation, Retention, and Transfer

How Memories Are Formed

Memory is the retention of knowledge and skills for future recall or use (Sousa, 2022).  Information goes through three stages of memory: sensory, short-term, and long-term memory.  

Sensory Memory

Memories are formed when information from our five main senses enters the brain and activates various lobes designed to process each sense. Touch, taste, hearing, and sight send information to the thalamus.  The sense of smell sends information to the amygdala. The gathered information from our senses is sensory memory, also known as the sensory register (Cleveland Clinic, 2024).  Within two seconds, our sensory memory is either discarded and forgotten or considered important and moves from the thalamus to short-term memory (Cleveland Clinic, 2024).  

Sensory memory helps individuals know if there is an emergency or dangerous situation that may affect the person’s safety.  Additionally, sensory memory blocks repetitive stimuli from interfering with individuals' attention and focus of acquiring new information (Sousa, 2022). Without sensory memory, people could be distracted by ongoing stimuli such as traffic, dripping water, a ticking clock, etc.  

Short-Term Memory

Sensory memory travels through the thalamus to immediate memory in the prefrontal cortex of the brain.  Immediate memories are held for about 30 seconds (Sousa, 2022).  A person’s life experiences will determine if the information in immediate memory is important or should be forgotten.  

Once information progresses from immediate memory, it goes to working memory in the frontal lobes of the brain. This is where individuals think, process, and make sense of learning. In working memory, information is manipulated and consolidated with experiences and information from long-term memory.  This also strengthens the retention process as it constantly retrieves past learnings to make sense of new learning (Sousa, 2022).  Emotional connections from the amygdala also play a role in manipulating information in work-memory (Sousa, 2022).  

Information in the working memory holds an individual’s focus and attention.  Only two to five chunks of information, usually determined by age, can be processed at once. Information in working memory can be processed intently for 5-20 minutes (Sousa, 2022).  Motivation, emotional response, or a change in how an individual interacts can extend the processing time.  If information is related to survival, has a strong emotional component, makes sense, and/or is viewed as relevant, it will move into long-term storage in the hippocampus (Sousa, 2022).  

Understanding the criteria for information to transfer into long-term memory can increase the intentionality and effectiveness of how teachers facilitate learning.  By teachers being mindful of the timing of their lessons, limiting the objectives or concepts being introduced, connecting content to students’ lives, and ensuring that students have time to process new information, they increase the probability that students will acquire the new information.

Long-term Memory

Long-term memories are stored in the hippocampus.  If information can be recalled after 24 hours, it is considered stored in long-term memory (Sousa, 2022). 

Information is transferred and stored in long-term memory while individuals sleep.  The information can change when it is recalled and connected with new information in working memory (Sousa, 2022).

There are two categories for long-term memory: declarative and nondeclarative.  Declarative, or explicit memories are processed in the hippocampus cerebrum.  There are two types of declarative memory: episodic and semantic memories.  Episodic memories are the remembrance of autobiographical information.  Semantic memory is the recollection of facts and data that are unrelated to events.  

Nondeclarative, or implicit, memories include procedural, perceptual, classical conditioning, and nonassociative learning.  Procedural memory is knowing how to do cognitive or motor skills.  Perceptual memory refers to the structure and form of words and objects in memory that can be prompted by prior experiences.  Classical conditioning, also known as associative conditioning, refers to an outside stimulus that prompts an unconditioned response.  Finally, non-associative memory has two roles: habitation and sensitization.  Habituation helps us to be unaffected by things in our environment in which we do not need to respond.  Sensitization allows our brain to increase its response to danger.

One of the goals of learning is for information to be stored in long-term memory.  

Since information in long-term memory is used to understand new information in working memory, knowledge in long-term memory can help increase future learning (Sousa, 2022). 

Understanding that information takes time to be transferred to long-term memory can direct how educators use their time when planning lessons and evaluating students’ understanding of content.

Retention and Transfer of Memories

         When individuals retain what they have learned, that means that introduced information has been stored in long-term memory and can be located, recalled, and appropriately used in the future. In order for information to be retained, it must be rehearsed (Sousa, 2022). 

Rehearsal is the processing and reprocessing of new information for sense and purpose (Sousa, 2022).  Rehearsal first takes place when an individual is first introduced to new information.  New information should then be practiced immediately after it has been introduced.  Once students learn the information, practice should be distributed, or spaced out, over time.  As the individual has time to review, expand, make sense of the concept and its relevance, the individual is more likely to store the information in long-term memory.  Information that is retained is influenced by when new information is presented in a lesson, how the objective is practiced, how information is chunked, and the teaching methods used for students to acquire knowledge.  Interactive direct instruction, adding visuals to one’s teaching, and including kinesthetic activities help students retain information.  

Once information is retained in the long-term memory, individuals can work to retrieve and transfer the information to different situations.

Transfer

Knowledge can be transferred during learning or there can be a transfer of learning.  When information is transferred during learning, past experiences contribute to the processing of new information to form consolidated information to be stored in long-term memory.  If an individual’s experiences help an individual learn or store new information, the transfer is positive.  If past experiences interfere with the new information and results in misunderstanding or confusion, the transfer is a negative transfer.   

Transfer of learning refers to using present information in future situations. 

Transfer is dependent upon the rate of retrieval.  Retrieval can be impacted by how well information was learned.  Having opportunities to fully understand concepts versus rotely memorizing facts support greater positive transfer.  Additionally, rehearsing and practicing the information over time supports more effective information retrieval.  In contrast, trauma can negatively affect an individual’s ability to transfer information.

The Effect of Trauma on Memory

Trauma can change the brain’s structure and affect how it functions.  The amygdala, the part of our brain that houses emotional memory, is enlarged in trauma-impacted individuals.  This affects how a trauma-impacted individual responds to events.  When remembering traumatic events, a trauma-impacted person may struggle to decipher if the threat is happening in the present or being recalled from a past experience.  The hippocampus of trauma-impacted individuals is smaller.  This can contribute to memory suppression or memory loss and affect a person’s ability to problem solve.  Additionally, traumatic memories may be fragmented. Trauma is stress on the brain.  Stress from trauma can result in an individual existing in a fight, flight, or freeze state.  With the brain’s focus on survival, the prefrontal cortex, the location of working memory, is unable to effectively process information.  Retrieving information, making decisions, problem-solving, reasoning, organizing, and planning are negatively impacted in trauma-impacted individuals.

Strategies to Improve Memory, Retention, and Transfer

The first strategy that educators can do to improve memory, retention and transfer is to create an environment in which all students feel a sense of belonging and safety (Perry, 2020).  This can be done through positive relationships among students and/or staff by creating a calm and positive learning environment.  Creating a calm environment could also mean teaching students how to be calm, even when circumstances are not ideal.  Mindful activities can teach and empower students in positively responding to stress.  Since the brain’s function is greatly reduced when under stress, creating a safe place to learn allows individuals’ brains to engage in the learning process.  This strategy can be especially beneficial for students who have experienced trauma. 

Another strategy that educators can do to improve memory, retention, and transfer is to provide multi-sensory learning experiences.  Multi-sensory experiences include opportunities to talk about what is being learned, to see visual representations, and to participate in a kinesthetic activity, such as creating a visual representation or practicing a concept.  Allowing the brain to experience content in various ways allows information to be stored in more places in the brain.  This improves memory retrieval (McDonough, 2024). 

A third strategy that educators can do to enhance memory, retention, and transfer is to ensure that the content is relevant to students. Emotions play a large role in our learning.  Additionally, our brains are designed for survival.  Proving relevance in learning increases students' emotional investment and provides a reason for students to transfer learning.  Relevance can be provided through short stories, journaling, answering open-ended questions, simulations, and peer projects to solve real world problems (Sousa, 2022).  These learning opportunities not only strengthen students' transfer of knowledge, but they also help students to strengthen their social and emotional skills in safe and supportive learning environments.  Thus both knowledge and skill can be transferred to students’ lives outside of school.

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References

Cleveland Clinic. (2024 January 3). Sensory memory.  https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/sensory-memory

McDonough, M. (2024). Harnessing the senses to improve memory. Harvard Medicine.  https://magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/harnessing-senses-improve-memory

Perry, B. (Presenter).  (2020b). Educator strategies for the classroom. [Video]. Public Media.  https://indiana.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/the-neurosequential-video/stress-trauma-and-the-brain-insights-for-educators-thinktv-cet/

Sousa, D.A. (2022). How the brain works (6th ed.). Corwin Press. https://bibliu.com/app/?bibliuMagicToken=g6m0mKO6bM7ZiHvVv0GCTRdHRAbwnTVv#/view/books/9781071855348/epub/OEBPS/s9781071855324.i23.html#page_iv