by Lynne Shandley
Memory works in different ways and uses different parts of the brain. There are different sorts of memory - sensory, short term and long term. Within these, there are further classes of memory.
Sensory memory is part of perception - it records the things happening around us using our senses. It only lasts up to a couple of seconds.
Working memory "notices" things that are of importance to us and brings them to our attention. We can hold between 5 and 9 items in our working memory. However, if we get distracted, we forget the things we were just thinking about, the info in our short term memory.
Two types of memory:
Procedural memory helps us walk and ride bikes and hit tennis balls, assuming we've ever learned to walk, ride a bike or hit a tennis ball. Procedural memory holds memories of how to do things. You usually can't describe exactly how you do these things - you can outline them only. For example, you can say "To run, you stand up. You lift up one leg and put it down in front of you and push with the other leg. When your weight is on the first leg, you lift up the other leg and put it down in front of you." But would that really help you to run? How hard could it be?
Declarative memory can be divided into two forms - semantic and episodic. You can usually access these memories and describe them or what they mean.
Episodic memory stores personal experiences such as your first day at a new job or something novel that happened to you. It remembers new experiences and allows you to describe them. You can talk about your trip to Paris and the walk along the banks of the Seine and seeing the Eiffel Tower.
Semantic memory puts everything into perspective - it holds generalised knowledge, facts, vocabulary and "schemata." You can describe what a word means or what shows your favourite TV actor had roles in.
Schemata are mental representations of concepts or things. For example, when you think of breakfast, you might think of cereal or muesli or pancakes or toast with a drink of coffee or tea or juice or milk. Maybe you think of rice or miso soup. Schemata bring together a whole bundle of knowledge of what things mean and how you interpret them. The first meeting you had with your new supervisor might be memorable but the hundreds thereafter probably all ran into each other and can't be distinguished from each other. Now when you have a meeting, you expect certain things - an agenda, discussion of items that your boss says are of vital import and, if you are lucky, someone brings some chocolate biscuits - you develop a schema for meetings.
Remembering information or skills requires:
So how does this relate to learning?
For information to be
it needs to fit certain criteria.
Items that fit into your existing knowledge/pad out existing knowledge or are emotionally important to you are easier to learn. So are things that are relevant to your work or interests. If you have seen a workmate badly hurt by using equipment incorrectly, your interest in learning how to use the machine safely is likely to be high. If you have been learning about chemical safety, then learning about which gloves to use for the chemicals you use and the ramifications of using the wrong gloves will be much more likely to be remembered than information about gloves used in other industries.
Data that fit in with your current schemata, that make sense to you are much more likely to be remembered.
When it comes to training, we can appeal to emotion but this can be a very tricky technique to manage. People have different responses to a picture of say a cutesy puppy - some will think "How adorable!", others will think "Ugh, the last puppy we had widdled everywhere" and yet others say "Yuck, a puppy. I much prefer kittens/mice/goldfish/etc." Showing graphic pictures of accidents may fascinate some and distress others. However, playing a game and getting a good score or events that we are conditioned to see as positive ("Great job!", "Correct!", dollar signs popping up all over the place) create emotional responses that help us cement memory. "That was good, I'll do that again!" is our unconscious thought.
Making training relevant to workers' daily lives is extremely important. There need to be clear links to the workers' daily jobs, not just the demand: "This is compliance training that you need to do so we can tick the boxes and say you've done the training." Why would the worker care? Training to help keep the worker safe and make sure they have the best possible chance of going home to their family after work is much more likely to get a buy in.