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Re: [Phys-l] SuperMemo

I have tried to memorize students names during exams, with utterly negative
results. I have never put the butter in the dishwasher, but I have
forgotten to put the coffee pot in the maker before turning it on. The
current maker tends to prevent that because you must transport the water in
the pot to the maker.

I had a supervisor who obviously though this was because I was lazy. She
remembered all of the names, but could not think above the concrete
operational level. She could understand that a student might have a
learning problem, but did not seem to realize that my inability to remember
names was probably also a learning problem. But of course I do not know for
suer if it is a form of LD. Subtle learning problems like this are often
labeled laziness by others. I saw a student who could not recognize shapes,
and was having extreme difficulty with locating things on a map. He worked
very hard, but had extreme difficulty with geography. But how do you get
students the help they need when they have an obvious cognitive deficit?

The criticism of the research on random items is quite valid. It is like
the difference between Skinnerian and Piagetian psychology. Skinnerian
psychology can promote particular behavior and you can use it to train
people to be excellent skaters. But it can't be used to improve physics
problem solving. Cognitive psychology can be used to promote good problem
solving and can be used to treat depression. Similarly the supermemory
method still has the problem that the information decays. Connected
meaningful memorization produces much more permanent results, and can be
used to improve problem solving ability.

Admittedly supermemory might be useful in the initial stages of learning a
language, but retention requires continued usage such as reading or speaking
the language. My wife retains her German by reading all of her novels in
German. Once the words are connected in a coherent structure, the decay
should be small, and one can readily come back to it after periods of
disuse.

I aced a history class which I had to take in my older years by using
connected memorization. I correlated everything I heard with what I already
knew, and looked up unfamiliar items to create a better web of knowledge.
This required very little work, and basically no conscious memorization.
The tests required a lot of memorized knowledge, but were easy for me, and I
even spotted an ambiguous question with 2 possible answers. While many of
the details of the class have faded, many of the concepts have not.

Actually the research behind supermemory is also just aimed at declarative
memory, and not at procedural memory. These are independent and work very
differently. If your hippocampus is damaged you lose your declarative
memory and can no longer memorize anything permanently. You live in a world
where you only remember what you learned before the damage, and the last few
minutes of your life. Between these times everything is blank. You
perpetually feel as if you just woke up a few minutes ago, and you feel the
same age forever. But you can still learn procedures such as game
strategies. As you play new games you get better at them with practice.

So the implied disdain of the cognitive psychology in the article about
supermemory is similar to the disdain by Skinner of Piagetian psychology.
They are looking at different aspects of the brain. So supermemory may be
useful in memorizing the periodic table, but not as useful in understanding
it. The criticism of teaching techniques is quite valid. But it misses
what I would say is the important mark. Why is rote memorization of lists
an important goal? If you want students to remember states have them
experience vicariously a trip through the states, and then give them a list
of the memorizable items drawn from the experience. Cognitive psychology
can also be used to help students with memorization. Remember Arons said
concept first, name second.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


That's very familiar -- now in my old? age in addition to people
aphasia, I confuse e.g "I put the butter in the dish washer."

Garrett Hardin took photo's of his students, and during exams he
would review them.

bc

On 2009, Apr 26, , at 20:32, John Clement wrote:


1. What happens if the memorization does not seem to last long
enough to be
refreshed? I have tried to remember names of people using all
kinds of
systems. I find that I can go down a row of students, and look at
the names
& faces. By the time I get to the end the first one is gone. It
also seems
that I have difficulty in recognizing faces from pictures. But the
one
thing that does help is having pictures of all students, and
referring to
them occasionally. Unfortunately I have had name aphasia from a
very early
age, this includes people I have known for 30 years!

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