Memory Recall and Learning in Elementary School Students

Introduction

The learning process of elementary school students has long been a topic of debate in both the psychological and education communities. The purpose of this discussion is to examine literature pertaining to memory recall in elementary students. The discussion includes an analysis of the theories surrounding memory recall and the studies that have been conducted with elementary students concerning memory.

Theories of Memory Recall

According to Arnold (1984), memory recall is a topic that has been largely unexplored in both the psychological and neurological communities. Of the research that has been conducted in the field of psychology, much of it focuses on the type of information being recalled, while neurological research has focused on how memory traces are registered. In either case, the research on the topic of memory recall is limited.

Arnold (1984) asserts that from a psychological perspective, memory recall is most certainly a function of association. The author explains that things that are heard, seen, and thought aid us in recalling associated experiences. Arnold (1984) also explains that there are several models that can account for memory recall. For example, an object touched in the dark will instantaneously recall visual images of several different objects that share a particular touch sensation; this is the manner in which people identify the things they encounter.

In addition, the author asserts that people have the tendency to deliberately recall various experiences. Such memory recalls can come in the form of auditory and visual images (Arnold, 1984). Recall can also occur in the form of impersonal conceptual knowledge, which is used during an examination. Individuals are also capable of memory recall through reporting or repeating during the learning of a skill (Arnold, 1984). Another type of recall is described as implicit or spontaneous recall. This is the most common type of memory recall. It is extremely difficult to research because it is indirect. This type of recall is said to be at the center of one's sense of identity, self-awareness, and awareness of other people (Arnold, 1984). Spontaneous or implicit recall is the foundation of our whole frame of reference in both space and time (Arnold, 1984).

According to Arnold (1984), deliberate recall is the only type of memory recall that has been researched at great length. The author asserts that this type of recall is incidental and, while appearing to be a recall of visual or auditory images, it is actually a report of such images based on recall. In other words, in reporting what one has seen — such as a series of digits — an individual recalls the visual image; but in reporting on the series of digits, the individual creates an auditory and speech memory trace (Arnold, 1984). As a result, when an individual is asked to replicate a design from memory, he draws from his visual image (Arnold, 1984). However, the actual drawing of the design causes the individual to create a motor memory trace. If the same design is replicated again, the individual will be able to recall an even stronger visual image and will also be able to recall his movements in replicating the design (Arnold, 1984). In addition, when an individual recalls letters, words, or digits for a second time, he can draw from auditory, visual, and speech memory (Arnold, 1984). Each reported memory recall makes it easier to refocus on the remembered word, and thus makes access possible (Arnold, 1984). The author also explains that the increased use of various modalities — visual (sight of word or design), auditory (sound of word or melody), and motor (drawing, speech, writing) — increases the probability that recall will be accurate (Arnold, 1984).

Deliberate recall is only achievable in some memory modalities, such as a spoken phrase, a melody, a picture, or a scene. However, deliberate recall becomes more difficult as it pertains to things that we cannot easily form a memory image of, such as a touch, a taste, or a smell we have previously known. Individuals can only remember that they have tasted fish, smelled the scent of a rose, or touched a shell. Individuals usually must visualize these things to aid in imagining the taste, scent, or touch, and once the visualization occurs the images begin to fade quickly (Arnold, 1984). However, people have no trouble distinguishing scent, taste, or touch when the experience occurs again (Arnold, 1984).

The author also reports that certain movements can be recalled by remembering the situation in which the movements took place (Arnold, 1984). Motor memory is usually recalled instinctively by replicating the learned movement. Once an individual learns a skill, the recovery of past motor memory traces aids in making the desired movements smooth, fast, and fluid until they become habitual. Another type of motor memory is speech memory (Arnold, 1984). The author asserts that whether an individual memorizes or learns a list of related words, the individual recalls the sight and sound of the words and how they are articulated (Arnold, 1984).

According to Livermore (1992), memory recall involves several parts of the brain. Research conducted using brain scans of participants who were asked to remember specific words showed that when they reached back into their memory, their brain images lit up across many regions (Livermore, 1992). This is an indication that many sites were contributing to the process. The research also found that people appear to have specific processing centers that operate in different combinations when identifying something. The research further asserts that the hippocampus plays a significant role in creating new memories and recalling the recent past (Livermore, 1992).

According to Amrhein et al. (1999), there are differences between the young and old as they pertain to locus of control (LOC) and memory recall. The authors assert that differences in recall and memory organization have been found between younger persons with internal LOC and those with external LOC; this is particularly true when stimuli were processed under noisy conditions (Ellis & Franklin, 1983; Amrhein et al., 1999). According to Ellis and Franklin (1983), intentional free recall was greater for people with internal LOC than for those with external LOC when familiar nouns were encoded in a distracting context, such as assorted background color across a word list (Amrhein et al., 1999). However, no difference was evident between those groups when objects were encoded in a neutral context, such as a continuous background color across the word list. In addition, in the assorted background context, individuals with external LOC were less likely than those with internal LOC to utilize semantic category, but more likely to utilize background color, as an organizational strategy (Amrhein et al., 1999). In the continuous background context, the two groups did not differ in their organizational strategy (Amrhein et al., 1999).

Other researchers have found that in intentional, free-recall tasks involving concurrent auditory noise, individuals with external — but not internal — LOC reduced their use of a semantic strategy and increased their use of a perceptual strategy in organizing items for recall (Amrhein et al., 1999). In these studies, younger people with external LOC had trouble inhibiting distracting information; this difficulty was caused by greater utilization of surface-level and reduced use of semantic-level information in their memory organization of the objects to be recalled. When distracting information was absent, LOC had no effect on intentional free recall in the younger participants (Amrhein et al., 1999).

Locus of Control and Memory Recall Differences

It has therefore been hypothesized that, since older people tend to have a less internal LOC and consistently exhibit poorer cognitive and memory performance than younger adults, researchers have sought to investigate the potential link between the two observations (Amrhein et al., 1999). An example can be found in research conducted by Riggs et al. (1995), which involved older people with internal LOC and older people with external LOC viewing a spoken prose passage or a random word list and selecting segments they believed they could recall correctly (Amrhein et al., 1999). For the prose passages, individuals with external LOC chose larger segments but recalled fewer words from their selected segments than did participants with internal LOC (Amrhein et al., 1999). For the random word lists, the two groups did not differ in their chosen segment lengths (Amrhein et al., 1999). However, participants with external LOC typically recalled fewer words per chosen segment than those with internal LOC (Amrhein et al., 1999). In their experiment, Lachman et al. (1982) used three scales — Chance, Internal, and Powerful Others — to evaluate the relationship between LOC and a variety of cognitive tasks, including many memory measures among older people (Amrhein et al., 1999). This study found that memory performance was positively associated with greater internality and negatively associated with greater externality of LOC (Amrhein et al., 1999).

Memory recall is a significant part of learning and the educational environment (Dihoff et al., 2005; Gadzella, 2002). The following sections discuss the importance of memory recall for elementary students and include studies examining memory recall in this population.

Androes et al. (2000) assert that memory recall is essential to reading comprehension in elementary students. The authors define reading comprehension as the capacity to understand and recall the details, sequence, and meaning from written material (Androes et al., 2000; Klein, 2000). Reading comprehension is a fundamental skill and one of the critical elements of any primary-level education (Androes et al., 2000). Many researchers have argued that teaching techniques that include the fine arts should be abandoned. However, other research has suggested that such techniques aid in the improvement of memory recall and reading comprehension. Indeed, a great deal of research has found a correlation between arts education and academic achievement at every level, including reading comprehension (Androes et al., 2000). To further explore this correlation, the authors conducted research to examine the impact of drama on memory recall and reading comprehension.

In some cases, elementary students demonstrate the capacity to draw inferences about the beliefs, motivations, and feelings of characters in a play. In her research with fifth graders, Smolkin (1997) found that elementary students can make meaningful conclusions from the dialogue in a play. The research supported the theory that plays can, and should, be integrated with many other genres for reading instruction. On the other hand, many researchers have posited that not all reading genres are appropriate for all ages. For instance, Beach (1985) found that older readers, compared to younger ones, have a greater capacity to make inferences about the elements of a play. Therefore, plays may not be appropriate for very young readers.

Androes et al. (2000) contend that the primary focus of reading comprehension is the ability to store and recall facts from written text. Many researchers have posited that memory for visual information is stronger than memory for written information. This theory was supported by a study conducted by Shepard (1967) in which participants were presented pictures and then shown pairs of pictures, only one of which had been previously studied. Participants correctly identified 98.5% of the previously studied pictures (Shepard, 1967). However, when the same process was conducted with sentences and sentence pairs, participants were only able to correctly identify 88.2% of the previously studied sentences (Shepard, 1967). It was therefore concluded that imagery-based information is more easily recalled than text-only information (Androes et al., 2000). Educators have therefore posited that if reading curriculum can be made less dependent on the memorization of text and focused instead on the visual images described in the story, readers are more likely to store, retain, and recall more information about what they have read (Androes et al., 2000).

Androes et al. (2000) also assert that cognitive psychology research suggests people have a greater ability to store meaningful information than meaningless information. This is particularly true when propositional representations are used to describe meaningful information about a story, event, or scene. A great deal of research has illustrated the ability of propositions to represent information in memory (Anderson, 1990; Androes et al., 2000). Such research asserts that reading comprehension is probably defined by the ability to encode and retrieve the foundational units of sentences — propositions (Androes et al., 2000). Students are then able to relate the meaning within sentences to scenes and stories from a text.

Memory Recall and Elementary Students

The authors contend that in order to apply these findings to reading comprehension, students must be taught to find the meaningful aspects of a story and to appreciate the meaningful relationships among the segments that together form the whole story (Androes et al., 2000). Such an approach is comparable to what actors do to recreate a scene — the individual must visualize each piece of the story to represent it correctly (Androes et al., 2000).

Androes et al. (2000) also assert that memory can be enhanced through elaboration on the material that needs to be recalled. Elaboration — a deeper level of processing information — can positively affect memory. Studies show that requiring subjects to produce a logical sentence extension onto a sentence will enhance future memory for that sentence (Stein & Bransford, 1979; Androes et al., 2000). Research has also indicated that memory in reading can be improved by developing a vivid image of the scene described in a sentence (Anderson, 1990; Androes et al., 2000). This provides students with the ability to elaborate on the text they are reading, which is likely to improve their recall and comprehension of the material — particularly when it involves vivid visual representations (Androes et al., 2000).

Much of the research concerning imagery and memory recall asserts that reading comprehension can be enhanced by helping students to:

1. Develop visual images of what they read (Bell, 1991; Androes et al., 2000).

2. Divide stories into their simplest meaningful components or propositions (Androes et al., 2000).

3. Elaborate on what they have read so they can thoroughly process information (Stein & Bransford, 1979; Androes et al., 2000).

These characteristics are central to drama-based instruction as it pertains to reading comprehension (Androes et al., 2000). According to Androes et al. (2000), the dramatization of events requires first visualizing the sequence, characters, and scene in a story through imagery — a process that involves dividing a scene into smaller segments or propositions and elaborating beyond the written text. When professional dramas are properly conducted, actors are recognized for their ability to understand the emotions and motivations their characters experience (Androes et al., 2000). Such ability comes from the capacity to elaborate (Androes et al., 2000). With this understanding, the empirical and theoretical evidence suggests that drama can improve memory recall and therefore improve reading comprehension (Androes et al., 2000).

Conclusion

The purpose of this discussion was to examine literature pertaining to memory recall in elementary students, including an analysis of the theories surrounding memory recall and the studies that have been conducted with elementary students concerning memory. The review found that recall is an important part of the learning process. Several studies involving elementary students demonstrated the impact of memory recall on reading comprehension. Drama-based instruction was found to increase students' ability to recall information and enhance reading comprehension. The research also suggests that various methods of teaching can improve recall and therefore enhance comprehension. Additionally, children with ADHD were found to have impaired working memory, which impedes their ability to recall and comprehend material.