The Brain in Health and Disease

Rationale

If I could improve one thing about myself, it would be my memory. So when I started teaching Gifted and Talented students, I took the TCS/2 Test of Cognitive Skills to see what my students were expected to know, remember, or reason. It was no surprise to me that my lowest score was Memory. This helped explain why I couldn't remember phone numbers and why I was writing everything down so as not to forget. I assumed my students couldn't remember phone numbers either, because all their numbers were logged into their cell phones.

As I began researching about memory, I found that our memory problems were not unique. Ninety-four percent of the students where I teach receive free or reduced lunch, indicating low income or poverty. Are memory problems related to poverty? According to a recent study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, it is. A study led by Gary Evans of Cornell University found that the longer children lived in poverty, the lower their scores for working memory. Previously, low achievement was attributed to such factors as genetics or environmental factors, such as lead paint. In contrast, this fourteen year study found that chronic stress from poverty has a direct relationship to working memory. "Those who spent their entire childhood in poverty scored about 20% lower on working memory than those who were never poor", according to Evans. ¹ After reading this article, the focus for my unit became clear. I address how to improve the short-term (immediate and working) and long-term memory of my students, by providing them with strategies, and by attempting to relieve some daily stressors through a boot camp format that incorporates exercise, a known stress reliever.

It seemed an oxymoron that my gifted students could have poor memories. In order to be smart, don't students need good memories? I had assumed so, incorrectly. I came to find out that the skill of retrieval of memory is independent of intelligence. One may be intelligent, even gifted, but have slow retrieval of memory. Retrieval is the process of retrieving a fact or concept from long-term memory and sending it back to working memory. Retrieval times vary among individuals because of how information is stored. Jensen uses the analogy of an auto parts store. ² The brain has all the components to make a memory, like an auto parts store has components to make a car. During retrieval, these parts need to be found and assembled to create a memory. If the working memory is not performing optimally (for example, because of stress), then it would follow that a student could be intellectually gifted, but have retrieval issues.

Students have been categorized according to their ability to learn and retrieve. A genius is fast at learning and retrieval. An underachiever is a fast learner who has slow retrieval. An overachiever is a slow learner who has fast retrieval. A person with slow learning and slow retrieving is labeled as a slow learner. ³ Unfortunately, memory labels incorrectly assume that learning and retrieval are fixed for an individual over a lifetime. But, retrieval "is a learned skill, it can be taught." ⁴ This unit's goal is to help students increase their retrieval rate, and recognize that stress may adversely affect it.

Historically, memorization has been valued as a sign of intelligence. The smartest people were those with the best memories. There is a historical reason for this: before written records or books, an education had to be memorized. Significant religious documents such as the Koran had to be memorized by Muslims, the Torah by Jews, and the Bible by Christians. "Peter of Ravenna, a noted Italian jurist and author of a renowned memory textbook in the 15 ^th century, was said to have used the Logi method to memorize the Bible, the entire legal cannon, 200 of Cicero's speeches and 1000 verses of Ovid." ⁵

In the first half of the twentieth century, students were expected to memorize long documents, such as the Gettysburg address; students were asked to recite poems and speeches by heart. These educational practices have changed. Students now have many devices to record thoughts that are used to avoid memorizing: i.e. programming cell phone numbers. Memory is not considered essential. The phrase "use or lose it" suddenly has more implications. "Use it or lose it" is a real concept that memory research is currently studying. This concept questions whether memory is lost, if not used. Students are not utilizing their memories, so they are losing them. However, students are also expected to recall individual facts for Standards State Test. Being the sympathetic teacher that I am, I would sometimes excuse my students if they forgot something, attributing it to the gifted geeky attribute, but NO MORE! The goal for me and my students in this unit is to find ways to improve all forms of memory. Our goal is to define whether we want something to be an immediate, working, or long-term memory, and use the strategies necessary to make it happen. For me, it will be a personal goal in an attempt to lead a healthy brain life in my later years and stave off such diseases as Alzheimer's. For my students, the goal is to improve memory for academic success. When students see their teacher participating in the same exercises, it might make them see the connection between memory for school and memory as an important factor in life-long learning.