R3
I wonder. Do the advertising agencies use these facts about dramatic effects and associations to create their commercials? I ask this because it seems like the more shocking or more ridiculous the commercial jingle, the more one tends to remember it. Whether this translates to higher sales is another thing but these silly songs or musical notes tend to be ingrained in our minds somehow long after we hear them.
William James’ chapter on memory was very thought provoking. He mentioned that “the secret of a good memory is thus the secret of forming diverse and multiple associations with every fact we care to retain” (p. 61).
In a previous written response I mentioned the fact that we remember things that we may not have realized that we were paying attention to. James stated that the involuntary attention is the most effective in retaining a subject’s interest. He continued on to say that things with dramatic quality are of most interest to students (p. 47). According to the text James believes that teachers should not have to create moments where students can display effort (p. 56). The learning is more effective and is longer lasting when the information is native to the student and he or she is less deliberate in their attention (p. 51). I have observed a student in a classroom setting who seemed to be displaying what James referred to as passive attention. He hardly ever raised his head to look in the direction of the teacher when she was instructing the class and seemed to not be paying attention. The teacher explained that the behavior was typical of the student each day. She explained that he is however her brightest student and that he performs extremely well on all of her assignments.
When reading these chapters I thought about human development as it relates to how one learns. James talks about the teacher presenting object information to students but neglecting the importance of the abstract to the learning process. What was very interesting was that he talks about abstract teaching and learning and the readiness of the individual to successfully receive the information. He postulates that even the very young can benefit from the abstract learning if it is presented at their level (p. 74). Jean Piaget’s stages of cognitive development outlines the capabilities of individuals at four levels of cognitive development. The stages are the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operation, and formal operations. Piaget insisted that we all followed these steps and that there were certain things that we are capable of doing at each stage. He was aware that teaching and experiences could speed up development but he was adamant about the fact that we all went through the stages in the very same order (Vander Zanden, Crandell & Crandell 2007). This order of cognitive development by Piaget can be compared to James’ thought that abstract information has to present at the correct level. In contrast, James believed that even the young can “enjoy abstractions” (p. 74). Piaget however introduced age ranges for which individuals develop certain cognitive abilities. In his stages abstractions only begin to occur in the concrete operational stage when individuals were 7years to 11 years of age. Piaget however stated that these developments can be delayed or sped up but occur in the same order (Vander Zanden et al., 2007). So, in this instance the abstraction readiness that James mentioned is based on where the child is developmentally and not based on the age of the child.
References
Vander Zanden, J. W., Crandell, T. L., &Crandell, C. H. (2007) . Early childhood: cognitive and
physical development. In E. Barrosse, M. Sugarman & J. Kromm (Eds.), Human
Development (224-261) . New York, NY: McGrawhill.
IAT PARTICIPATION RESPONSE
ReplyDeleteI completed the Smoking v. Not Smoking & Order v. Chaos tests.
This was the second time taking part in the IAT study. The test that I competed was different from the ones I completed for this class. The first time I completed the test the results were very surprising. This time the results were what I expected them to be. When I read the instructions for the categorizing section of the test the first time I took it I did not think it was going to be hard to select the correct response or what I felt were the correct response. I was so confident that I would not have a problem with hand eye coordination. I was almost cocky about my abilities to do well or get my desired preference. I quickly learned that this was not the case. This go around I knew how difficult the task was. I chose my environment much better this time I was determined to put forth my best effort by eliminating the distractions. So, I chose a quiet place where I would not be disturbed. I did some self-talk and accepted the fact that I would have no excuse but to accept the results this time around. I know this I made much more out of this test taking than I needed to but I was so disappointed with my previous results that I was determined to do whatever I could to do better.
Participating in this process gave me some perspective on what learning involves. The acquisition of information through interaction with ones environment that brings about a behavior based on the experience. The IAT process that we learn to associate certain things, people or situations based on our experience. The display of our associations is an unconscious one. The fact that I took so much time to plan my participation in the process, this would mean that regardless to the planning the results of my responses would be the same. I could not control my response in any direction. The results could not have been predicted.
According to James "The secret of a good memory is thus the secret of forming diverse and multiple associations with every fact we care to attain" (p. 61). Everything we store in our memory is added to something previously stored. It is very similar to comments in a blog. The first message in the thread is what everything is associated to. The comments within the thread are the added pieces that are associated to the very first thread. None of the information in the new threads are new but they are simply blocks added to the previously started structure.