As an interpretive writer, I find it useful to be aware of the processes that lead to memory. Like looking at the starry night sky and being reminded of our own smallness in the grand scheme of things, considering these neurological processes reminds me that the text/panel is but one small piece of a much, much bigger picture. That in turn reminds me to be very aware of cognitive load when writing. But what are these processes that sends information to our long-term memory.
In short, it is a three-part process – sensory memory, working memory and long-term memory.
Taking It In – Sensory Memory
Sensory memory is a very short-term memory source that processes anything we perceive around us at a particular point in time. It is like the raw data of what we see, hear and feel. As we read a piece of text, our eyes take in the shape of the words. We perhaps also feel the heat of the sun, hear a barking noise nearby, or feel the rumble of our empty stomach. Our brain however is working to hone in on what we want to focus on and ignore what is not needed. This sensory processing all happens within milliseconds.
There are different types of sensory memory. The three most studied are visual memory, auditory memory and touch memory. With interpretive text, naturally our interest is in the visual memory.
Visual sensory memory is essentially the ability to remember what something looks like after the actual visual stimuli have been removed. It is also known as the iconic memory. It is very fleeting, lasting only a fraction of a second. An example would be what you remember after driving passed a billboard you have not seen before. What you remember of it immediately after you pass is your iconic memory at work. Very quickly though you forget the detail of what you saw.
Loading, Loading – Working Memory
If a sensory input successfully passes through our sensory memory, it reaches our working memory. This memory can hold a small amount of information for roughly thirty seconds. The information can then be used for further cognitive functions such as planning, reasoning, comprehension or problem-solving.
Consider the example above of the billboard that we passed. Maybe there was a web address on it that we want to remember. We might repeat the address in our minds over and over, usually until we write it down or use it. With this repetition, we reset our working memory and keep the information present there until we can move it to our long-term memory by remembering it, or by relieving our working memory of its duty as we have reached the point of not needing to commit it to memory anymore.
Within our working memory, there is a visuospatial sketchpad which processes what we see. What we hear is recorded by our phonological loop. When reading, our visuospatial sketchpad encodes the letters and words we see while keeping a spatial frame of reference. This means that if we blink or look away for a few seconds, we can return our gaze, more or less, to the same place. Or if we need to backtrack to reread what we have just read, we know where to move our eyes.
Studies have shown that for most of the population, our visuospatial sketchpad is superior to our phonological loop. This would describe you if you find it easier to remember a phone number after reading it rather than hearing it.
However, our working memory is limited. As well as its short time frame, it can only carry a few chunks of information; thought to be around seven (plus/minus two). You are using your working memory right now, processing each sentence. The shorter each sentence, the less your working memory has to work.
Working memory is fragile and requires effort. Distractions limit our effort to get the information to the next stage of processing. Think for example of text that you must reread because your mind wanders, maybe to your grocery list. You lose your train of thought and have to start the sentence or paragraph again. When this happens, you have not given your working memory the chance to perform those cognitive functions such as comprehension or reasoning, nor had the processing power to send the information to your long-term memory. In short, the information has been lost from your working memory and has to be input again.
Image: That’s Her Business via Unsplash
Is it Worth It? – Long-Term Memory
To make the final leap to our long-term memory, our brains must again put in effort. If we/our brain decides that the information will be stored, our brain transfers it from the working memory and encodes the memory in a ‘schema’. This is how our brain categorizes information, be it a skill or a piece of knowledge. Those schemas are then involved in memory retrieval. The more the schema is used or practiced, the easier it is to retrieve the memory, sending it back to our working memory to put it to use. When a schema is well used or practiced, such as the skill of riding a bike or knowing the two-times table, then it becomes automated.
Our brain may commit the information to our long-term memory because we are motivated to remember it. It may be the website address from the billboard we saw on the highway, or perhaps it is an exam we have to pass. We can try to memorize the information by repeating it over and over. This can work, but as has been seen in the evolution of school curriculums, rote learning is not a route to deeper understanding. Instead, teachers have moved to inquiry-based learning to encourage more informed and engaged students.
Repetition is not the only way our brains can encode information. Certain criteria can also boost the likelihood that our brain will decide to store the information rather than let it go from our working memory. Sense, meaning and emotion are all criteria thought to influence this.
If the information makes sense to us and builds on existing information, it can help us better understand a topic. If it is meaningful to us as it has personal relevance to our lives, then we are more likely to remember it. In addition, if emotion is attached to what we see, hear or feel, then again, it becomes a stronger memory.
Our Brains on Interpretive Text
With all this in mind, consider a piece of text that may be confusing, not relevant to us personally, and evokes no emotion. Our brains simply are not wired to let that text make it passed our working memory. It may stay there for the thirty seconds or so, but after that – in a flash – it is gone.
This is particularly true when standing in front of an interpretive panel. It is not a book or website we can go back to later. Yes we can take a photo to read later, but by then the moment has passed, the physical context is different and chances are it gets lost in the hundred other photos we took that day.
People reading interpretive panels are often faced with distractions, indoors or outdoors. Their sensory and working memories are working hard. They are non-captive audiences and many will have little to no pre-existing knowledge of the content. Or in other words, their schema on the topic may be lacking.
It is therefore our duty when writing interpretive text to do our damndest to keep cognitive load light to go easy on the reader’s sensory and working memories and to build the connections to schemas they may have. By doing this we have a much better chance of having our content engaged with.