Chapter 4 Reflection

1) Chapter begins by explaining some of the previous research done on working memory. The magic number 7 +-2 was found by Miller about a century ago. Then it talks about the regency effect and the serial position model by Brown Peterson and Peterson. Atkinson and Shiffrin's model says that unless new info is repeated we will lose the info in about 30 seconds. People use rehearsal to improve memory. Schweickert/Boruff talks about pronunciation time where we can remember short syllable words with more accuracy. The term proactive interference shows that people have trouble learning new material because previously learned material interferes with the new material. A newer working memory approach was researched by Baddeley and Hitch. This says that the working memory has several parts working together. These parts are the phonological loop which stores sound for a limited amount of time, the visuospatial sketchpad which contains the visual and spatial components, the central executive that is the manager which I was most interested in, and the most recent episodic buffer which acts as a store house for info from the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and the long term memory.
2) This fits into what we have previously learned in respect to attention. For example, the central executive can use selective attention to ignore certain information and to focus on something else. In opposition to the text I think that the central executive can complete more than one task at a time because of its job description. This may cause a decrease in accuracy if it has to divide the attention between tasks.
3) I think that I am clear on everything so far. I do have to continue reviewing the previous chapters in order to apply it and also to shift the info from working to long term memory as described in the rehearsal model of Atkinson/Shiffrin.
4) I can apply this to my own teaching as I understand how the brain takes in new info it will help me to better understand what my students are experiencing in class. I also did more research on the central executive and found that the central executive is damaged in Ahlzeimer's patients. They have trouble focussing on tasks and getting the job completed. I wondered if this would be similar to the brain deficiencies of my ADD and ADHD students since this is a similar problem of theirs. The link on this info is http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0010945208702077 .
5) I was intereested in the proof of the central executive. I did not agree with the text about the central executive not completing more than 1 task simultaneously. I used this as my question as a leader this week. I did more research and Smith and Jonides 1999 lists tasks of the central executive. Most were similar to the text but they also mentioned that it can switch swiftly between tasks so maybe this is why it seems that it can do more than one thing at a time. Maybe in reality it is not but instead switching quickly between tasks which makes it seem that it is completing them simultaneously.
6) It is important to understand how the working memory works so that we can improve our memory strategies, develop research on common diseases such as Ahlzeimer's, and as a teacher it can help us to understand how students learn to better meet their needs.
7) I had mentioned how I could use this in the classroom in #4 above also. I also think that it is important to understand how working memory comunicates with long term memory as new info comes in. I believe info must be passed back and forth between the two. We will learn more about this in the next chapter.
8) I think that it was useful to google the central executive when I wasn't sure if I agreed with the book. I think that it is important to look at what other researchers have said about the theories as well. I tell my Calculus students to question things that I say if it doesn't fit in with what they believe. I think that this type of continuous questioning helps to keep the info interesting to bring more into long term memory.