 Associative Memory and Teaching
in Sunday School "We
must learn how we remember, -because we have to remember in order
to learn." This is really the second article I've written on the subject, the first is at http://www.sundaysoftware.com/resources/research.htm where I review the book "Brain Rules" --the current research says about how the brain works, and what that tells us about teaching in Sunday School. In the article below, I go further in to Associative Memory, how it works, and how as teachers we need to KNOW how it works! Hope you enjoy both articles. <>< Neil (Update: I've added
some notes about new brain memory research into how the brain
retrieves past memories to make future decisions.)
You have just experienced "Associative Memory"!
Put simply,
Associative Memory is the process by which ONE
MEMORY TRIGGERS ANOTHER.
Now here's a confusing graphic...so
let me explain:
These three pictures above describe
aspects of associative memory. More on these ideas below....
INSIGHT: When we teach the parable of the Good Samaritan, it doesn't all go in the same "pigeon hole" in a student's brain. Instead, their brain breaks up the lesson and stores it across its neural network. ....Images of the Good Samaritan form and get stored in one location, ...emotional responses in another place, ...the framework of the story in another pigeon hole, ...the key words and concepts in another, ...and the sound effects I used as I pretended to be the robber -get stored in yet another pigeon hole. And the more places and information we have stored, the better and faster our recall and comprehension
This is why MULTI-DIMENSIONAL LEARNING is
more than a buzz word, it
reflects how the brain actually works.
In fact, multi-dimensional learning begets MULTI-DIMENSIONAL
REMEMBERING
AS WELL. The lesson content and meaning isn't coming
from one place marked "Good Samaritan in My Brain". It's coming
from many places. And long after the lesson, a secondary memory
such as "man beaten" can trigger a flood of memory about
"Samaritan story" and "the Sunday School class I learned it in."
Helping our students REMEMBER has to be the PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF ALL TEACHING. Therefore, should embrace the following truth...
Vivid, multi-dimensional,
enjoyable and profound LEARNING
experiences
(Seems obvious, until you walk into the average
mind-numbing classroom) To the Brain, the Past Really is Prologue Brain researchers are also describing a type of memory called EPISODIC Memory. This is the brain's ability to remember the past, and use past experience to plan for the future. You use Episodic memory every time you drive down a familiar road, or tell a story. The brain LOVES to retrieve memories that are connected to each other. This is why stories stick in our brains. This is why it is better to teach a "story about showing mercy" than simply teach a verse verse about mercy. Using the latest in technology, researchers can now see the brain in action. And one of the things they can see is the brain drawing upon sectors where past memories are stored ---when the brain's "futuring" sectors are trying to make decisions and plans. It's more than a clever saying, it's brain chemistry: The past truly is prologue. Of course, we've known this intuitively. The past informs the future. But it makes our work as Christian educators IMPERATIVE: Without biblical memories, we cannot make biblical decisions. The Role of Commitment in Remembering Brain researchers have also discovered that our LEVEL OF COMMITMENT to a subject affects the intensity with which the brain stores memories, and retrieves them. Example: If you are planning an ACTUAL camping trip, your brain will recall more details of PAST camping events, than if you were simply asked to plan a fictitious camping trip you were not planning on going on. (this example was one used in the research) The level of the learner's engagement, both intellectually and emotionally, intensifies our brain's ability to retrieve past memories and plan for the future. Stories are GREAT for helping to raise the learner's level of
engagement. They usually come with emotional content. They
create a wide variety of mental images and ideas in the
learner's memory, and we can related their life circumstance to
our own. O SAY CAN YOU SEE? (and smell?) The number #1 place your brain loves to store memories and can retrieve them quickly is in visual memory. This is why the sight of a boring teacher can create a sense of impending doom! ...Or the sight of donuts or computers in a classroom can make students happy when they walk in your classroom. But keep reading... because these visual images are also associated with emotional memories! ..... Some of the strongest memories are emotional and smell memories. Emotional and smell memories are processed in very deep old parts of the brain which were designed for quick storage and retrieval in order to help us survive on the savannah. (Emotion and smell memories are a part of our "fight or flight" response.) This is why certain smells can elicit almost an immediate and visceral reaction. (Take for example, how some people react to nursing home smells, or funeral home smells. Subconsciously, those smells are 'tainting' your experience wherever you are reliving those smells). Emotions and smells can be very useful "triggers" to put in a lesson because they are gateway memories. They can trigger a cascade of associations... i.e. flood the brain with content. APPLICATION: No matter how good your teacher is, a smelly room full of unfriendly people and mediocre activities can create indelible bad memories that get CLOSELY ASSOCIATED with the content, ...which isn't a good thing.
"Smelly Classroom = Bible Learning Stinks" Another way to say this is "the learning atmosphere matters" ...and perhaps more than you realized.
Those of us with DUST allergies, or sensitivities to certain floral smells know first-hand how a place can make you "feel" and it's almost subconscious. You "feel" closed in and choked when you encounter dust or mildew, and your brain tells you "I don't like this place." It's almost a sense of foreboding. And all that memory gets associated with what happens in that place. It's like a subliminal message. Humor is another "dimension of learning" that doesn't get enough credit. Laughter is truly "brain medicine." It soothes our sense of self, bonds us to others, and helps us vividly remember the moment. Humor creates strong associations with content and to content. This is why we use a lot of humor in our software, and why I personally use a lot of skits, funny voices, and props when retelling a story in any lesson. ******************* And of course, WAAAAAAAAY down the list of what the brain remember the most is what we hear. I can't remember what my dad was yelling at me when I broke the big picture window with a basketball, but forty years later I sure remember the scene and how I felt! I still feel guilty about it. I don't remember the words from a lot of sermons either, but I know I was fed! ...and there have been enough good ones to impress upon my memory that it is good to go up to the House of the Lord. The problem with language, however, is that it's much HARDER TO REMEMBER LANGUAGE, and much easier to remember a picture or a smell. And the spoken word has an added burden. The more the body & brain has to sit still and listen to, the more the body and brain says, "you need to get up and move." The solution to words? Fewer of them! (unless of course you're reading a great article)
In the recent bestseller "Brain
Rules" the author and brain researcher noted that even adult ears
and eyes glaze over at about the 10 minute mark in any lecture. His
Solution? Create breaks. Move,
...change the pace,
In other words, get out of your folding chair. Better yet, don't lecture. Read my summary of his book at http://www.sundaysoftware.com/resources/research.htm APPLYING THE INSIGHTS: Here's an example of some of the things I'm going to do in my Good Samaritan lesson to impress strong associations into student memories:
CAUTION: Emotional memory can also work against you!
An Experiment:
But what about Bible lessons that don't have stories?
Last Quote for now: "We
must learn how we remember ...because we have to remember in order
to learn." The opposite of that is what my mother often said to me as a child, "In one ear and out the other." If only mom had been a "multi-dimensional" yeller! Okay...that's enough for now! Be sure to read my other article on what the brain research says to Sunday school. http://www.sundaysoftware.com/resources/research.htm I welcome your comments, insights and suggestions.
Neil MacQueen is a Presbyterian minister, Children and Youth ministry writer and consultant, and developer of interactive Bible software for children and youth, www.sundaysoftware.com. You're welcome to print and quote this copyrighted article. |
Bad smells
are a particular problem because of their deep wiring in our brains.
They tell us where we don't want to be.
I raise this issue because many Sunday School rooms smell bad,
...musty, mildewy, BO. The brain can even be taught to
associate a good smell with a bad experience. "The old Sunday School witch's perfume" -as expensive as
it might be, can trigger a negative response from a former student
years later when they smell it again at Macy's or upon entering a
church. 
Simplify.
Small-doses. And add visual, emotional and movement to them. In
other words, ASSOCIATE with your words. Something as simple as a
PROP, or MOVING as you speak.will help the student pay greater
attention. Here's why: Ever notice how good speakers and
comedians move around on the stage? That's not just because their
nervous. All good speakers have learned that the eye's pay attention
to whatever moves. It's part of our hardwiring. So if you're
talking, get in motion. 
But... did you start with
the part where Jesus is talking to the young lawyer? Few people
do because it's not that visual or entertaining. Yet that's
the whole point of the parable... where Jesus is confronted by
the lawyer and tells him afterwards to "go and do likewise."
If they don't spend time
learning to remember the story, the details will fade and
drop out, and Jesus' conclusion, "go and do likewise" will
lose it's profundity, or be forgotten altogether.
Take a look at Bongo Loves the Bible CD from Sunday Software,
www.sundaysoftware.com/bongo
