Teach on Mars contents authors: Lesson #5 – Long-term memory

Remember lesson #4 on short-term memory (STM) upgrading tricks? If not, let the summary table underneath help you shift it into your long-term memory (LTM)!

Now that learners’ STM is at the top, let’s examine how their LTM can best take over using tailored contents and activities!

First, encourage “maintenance rehearsal” activities i.e. repeat information: Flash game, challenge, Quiz on Mars. You transfer the information from STM through repetition until it’s committed to long-term storage.

Teach on Mars illustration on maintenance rehearsal activities:

Questions are iterated until obtaining 100% success.

Second, promote “elaborative rehearsal” i.e. plug newly acquired data to existing ones: When information is meaningful and references something that we already know, remembering it is easier and forgetting it becomes harder. Schemas easily allow building up associations between new and learnt info.

Teach on Mars illustration on elaborative rehearsal contents:

Schemas help connect new info with known info.

Third, Design activities to stimulate data recognition rather than data recall: Challenge, Quiz on Mars, pick a word, fill the gap. It’s much easier for learners to recognize information, such as selecting a correct answer among  several displayed proposed values, rather than to recall it from memory, such as answering an open question.

Teach on Mars illustration on recognition activities:

“Fill the gap” and “Quiz on Mars” activities offer learners to recognize the correct answer among several proposed values.

Fourth, Design concrete terms and icons: According to studies, concrete words and drawings (suitcase, sofa) are easier to store in the long-term than abstracts items (opinion, opportunity).

Teach on Mars illustration on concrete design:

Flash cards show concret icons to leverage storage.

Did you know that while sleeping and dreaming , we are reworking experiences from the day, consolidating new memories and making new associations (Daoyun Ji and Wilson theory)!

So, as per the old adage, ‘I’ll let you sleep on it’!

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Noémie Bertrand

Diplômée d’école de commerce et passionnée par les innovations du numérique, Noémie a enfilé son scaphandre et rejoint l’équipe Teach on Mars au poste de Content Manager. Elle intervient en marketing et événementiel tout en contribuant à Teach on Earth, une initiative sociale et environnementale.