Why does putting information into context allow a person’s working memory to keep the information? According to Oberauer (2002), working memory is divided into a three part structure of information which allows it to store and process information at the same time. One part of working memory is what a person’s attention is focused on, one part is what a person can immediately access and that cannot hold much at once, and the third part is the activated part of long-term memory. Research shows that working memory is limited in how much it can directly access at once, but it can store new information while processing something else, and when attention is refocused on the stored information it can be successfully retrieved (Oberauer, 2002). The active access to long-term memory is why working memory can multitask so well; and focusing attention on this new information while accessing old information is how working memory can make sense of everything. However, its limited capacity is why learning in small chunks is more effective and allows the new to be processed and connected to the old.
According to Cacioppo and Freberg (2013), chunking information is the best way to hold larger amounts of information in short-term memory. This means that a person can have direct access to more information they have just encountered. Chunking refers to seeing separate bits of information as larger whole groups of information. Researchers originally thought that people could remember about seven things at a time using short-term memory, but researchers now believe that number is closer to four things at a time on average (Cacioppo, & Freberg, 2013). Since short-term memory limits the amount of distinct things that can be remembered, chunking information into distinct groups of information can increase the capacity without overwhelming the amount of things to be remembered. This is commonly done with numbers by combining them into two digit numbers. In a sense, chunking is finding the common denominator that can relate information and turn it into one concept.
Chunking is a useful tool when used deliberately to remember something, and yet this is not the only way that people use this process. According to Gobet et al. (2001), people regularly and unconsciously use perceptual chunking and group individual stimuli “into larger conceptual groups, such as the manner by which letters are grouped into words, sentences or even paragraphs” (p. 236). Although people automatically group information into chunks, there is still only so much available room in short-term and working memory at a time. Frost (2014) argued that information must be rehearsed and integrated into long-term memory in order to learn it. Therefore, expecting one’s working memory to actively focus on very large amounts of information for a long period of time, without ever refocusing and solidifying any of it, prevents Frost’s two criteria of learning to take place. Learning small amounts of information regularly, and acknowledging what has been learned before moving on to the next thing, allows working memory to process everything without being overwhelmed.
Frost proposed that the most successful way to learn is a way that accommodates the processing involved in memory. Short-term memory is very limited, but it can still be taken advantage of by chunking information in ways that can stretch this limit. Working memory is capable of remembering and processing information, but it is still limited by what someone is capable of focusing their attention on. Repeatedly focusing attention on information, and relating it to accessible information in long-term memory enables learning. Therefore, someone’s memory will learn and remember things best when they have time to focus on and process small chunks of material as they learn, rather than constantly focusing on more and more information for an extended period of time. This could be why more and more college classes are incorporating quizzes and multiple tests into their curriculum as opposed to the traditional method of having a midterm and final only.
References
Cacioppo, J. T., & Freberg, L. A. (2013). Discovering psychology: The science of mind, briefer version (1st ed.). Canada: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Frost, R. (2014). Is it better to learn something in small, frequent chunks of information?. Time. Retrieved from <http://time.com/2829631/is-it-better-to-learn-something-in-small- frequent-chunks-of-information/>.
Gobet, F., Lane, P. C., Croker, S., Cheng, P. C., Jones, G., Oliver, I., & Pine, J. M. (2001). Chunking mechanisms in human learning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5(6), 236-243.
Oberauer, K. (2002). Access to information in working memory: Exploring the focus of attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 28(3), 411-421. doi:10.1037//0278-7393.28.3.411
