Attention, Emotions and Memory. By Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa. November 2014

Attention, Emotions and Memory
Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Ph.D.
Harvard University, Psych 1609
Week 11, November 2014
1

Today’s focus
¤  “Some Big Ideas”
¤  Attention systems
¤  Emotion and learning
¤  Memory systems
¤  Unified model
2

¤  “Designing educational experiences without an
understanding of the brain is like designing a glove
without an understanding of the human hand.”
-Leslie Hart (1983)
¤  Important, however, what is we consider some of the
“bigger ideas” beyond just the physiology of learning
and performance?
3

Some Big Ideas of Psych 1609
1.  Celebrate complexity
•  There are often no easy answers when considering human
behavior.
•  “X” is not usually the sole cause
•  The individual nature of learning and performance
2.  Integration of areas of study versus silos
•  Thinking like a psychologist versus a teacher versus a
neurologist….or a holistic approach?
3.  “Roadblocks and threats” versus “Roadblocks as
opportunities”
4

Some Big Ideas of Psych 1609
4.  The exceptions often tell us more than the rules.
5.  Prescriptions are often more dangerous than
observations.
6.  Content versus Skills instruction: Thinking processes—how
to approach problems—versus memorized answers.
7.  Learning in enhanced by Depth versus Breadth
(sometimes less is more).
8.  Learning and performance change over the lifespan.
5

One-minute paper
•  There are often no easy answers when
considering human behavior.
•  The individual nature of learning
•  Thinking like a psychologist versus a teacher
versus a neurologist….or a holistic approach?
3.  “Roadblocks and threats” versus “Roadblocks as
opportunities”
5.  Prescriptions are often more dangerous than
observations.
6.  Content versus Skills: Thinking processes—how to
approach problems—versus memorized answers.
8.  Learning and performance change over the
lifespan
INSTRUCTIONS:
¤  Choose one of the eight big idea.
¤  Think about today’s topic of
“Attention, Emotion and Memory”
¤  Where do you think we’re going with
this class today?
¤  (List the number of the big idea and
write in your thoughts in the chat area
or share your ideas out loud)
6

Author’s Presumptions
¤  We could spend semesters or years (or lifetimes) going
into the many facets of Attention, Emotions and/or
Memory. (Justice won’t be done to any of these themes
today.)
¤  The “bigger” idea is to contemplate overlap areas and
similarities:
¤  Historical review: What do we know to date?
¤  Neurons to Neighborhoods:
¤  Neural circuits and networks
¤  (Chemistry and neurotransmitters)
¤  Lifespan changes
¤  What can we do to enhance our performance related to
each?
7

True or false?
¤  “Attention + Memory =
Learning?”
¤  Are emotions vital to
decision-making?
¤  Is decision-making
related to learning?
8

(Oversimplified, but…) TRUE! Without Attention
and Memory there is no Learning and
Emotions influence the potential to learn.
¤  To learn something new means
you have to pay attention to it
as well as remember it.
¤  Decision-making (giving priority
to something) is vital learning.
9

Attention and the Brain
Big ideas:
¤  What kinds of attention systems are there?
¤  Where is attention in the brain?
¤  (Roadblocks):
¤  What are the benefits of down-time/sleep for attention?
¤  What is the relation between age and attention spans?
¤  How does stress influence attention?
11

Patterns versus Novelty
¤  Human brains seek and often
quickly detect novelty, (which
is individually defined).
¤  We are quick to notice things
that are out of place or
different, and we actually
unconsciously look for things
that don’t belong.
(e.g., “2+3=5” and “5-3=2”)
12

Patterns versus Novelty
¤  Human brains seek patterns upon which
they predict outcomes, and neural
systems form responses to repeated
patterns of activation (patterns being
individually defined).
¤  We categorize our world in ways that
help us understand information. Part of
how we do this relates to designing
patterns for the things we find. These
patterns are like a road map that tells us
where to go next. This road map is the
neural system for that group of like
experiences.
13

Attention systems
¤  Your brain pays attention to different
things at different times for different
reasons. Your brain is drawn to elements
that help sustain your focus. When the
situation is not engaging, sustained focus
is dropped.
¤  The difference between what’s
happening in class with what’s important
in real life is sometimes a formula for
“boredom.”
¤  Authentic learning is connected to
engagement.
14

Attention systems (Petersen &
Posner, 2012)
Petersen and Posner (2012). Their original work identified three networks
including the:
¤  “alerting network, which focused on brain stem arousal systems along
with right hemisphere systems related to sustained vigilance; an orienting
network focused on, among other regions, parietal cortex; and an
executive network, which included midline frontal/anterior cingulate
cortex” (p.73).
15

True
or
false?

“Students can pay attention for a full class period
(40-120 minutes).”
16

FALSE!
The human attention span is limited
Attention spans
¤  Attention spans are usually
measure in relative terms
(“compared with one’s
peers”)
¤  Recognize that humans have
an average 10-20 minute*
maximum attention span.
Oversimplified as shown in Binder, C., Haughton, E., & Van Eyk, D. (1990). Precision teaching
attention span. Teaching Exceptional Children, 22(3), 24-27.
Attention spans depend on the method used in class, student interest, age of the individual
and more. What is certain is that the average class length is beyond the average attention
span.
17

In practice:
¤ This means that teachers need to change the
person, place or activity every 10-20 minutes to
maintain a high level of attention.
18

“Primacy-Recency”
The Primacy-
Recency Effect
¤ People
remember best
what happens
first, second best
what happens
last, and least
what happens in
the middle.
19

In practice:
¤ This means that
moments in the
“middle” should be
dedicated to
learner-centered
practice.
20

In practice:
¤ The last part of the
learning moment
should be dedicated
to summarizing
important concepts
and bridging to the
next encounter.
21

Does how we feel influence how
we learn?
23

Emotions and the Brain
Big ideas:
¤  What kinds of emotions are there?
¤  Where are emotions in the brain?
¤  What is the difference between emotion and feeling?
¤  How does the physiology of emotion influence the
psychological interpretation of feeling?
24

True
or
false?

“Making decisions with ‘a
cool head’ and without
emotions helps you think
better.”
25

FALSE!
It
is
impossible
to
separate
emo8ons

and
reasoning
in
the
brain

¤  Emotions are critical in
decision-making.
¤  Even though emotions
and reasoning seem like
opposites, they are
actually complimentary
processes.
¤  There are no decisions
without emotions.
Tenet: True for all but with significant individual variances
26

Improve Student Self-Efficacy
¤  According to Hattie’s research
(2009), a student’s self-reported
grades are the greatest indicator
of improved learning. In many
ways, this is a self-fulfilling
prophecy: “If I think I can learn, I
will; if I believe I am incapable of
learning, I will fail.”
27

Improve Student Self-Efficacy
¤  As Hattie points out, a
child’s willingness to invest
in learning, openness to
experiences, and the
general reputation she
can build as a ‘learner’
are key s to success
(2009), and this self-
efficacy is prejudiced by
the way the teacher
makes the child feel.
28

Maintain High Expectations
¤  Learners respond to expectations.
When teachers and parents let
kids know they expect a lot from
them, the kids react positively.
¤  Examples: Proctor (1984);
Rosenthal and Jacobson in 1968,
the “Pygmalion effect” the
students performed to the level
of their teacher’s expectations,
high or low (Good, 1987; Good &
Brophy, 1997; Rubie-Davies, 2010).
29

Communicating expectations
¤  Many teachers don’t even realize how they are
communicating low expectations to their students.
¤  For instance, a noteworthy finding of Hattie’s work is that
failing a grade is a strong indicator for future failure, primarily
because the student loses faith in her own ability to learn
because her teachers—those “in the know”—have deemed
her unable to learn.
¤  On the other hand, the joy of learning is a great motivator,
and people who love learning have often had at least one
teacher in their lives who has given them confidence in their
ability to learn and pushed them to achieve more than they
believed they were capable of
30

Unconscious expectations
¤  Teachers often unconsciously
have different expectations for
different students (related to
race, gender, socio-economic
status and even physical
attractiveness [see Clifford &
Walster, 1973]), contributing to
the self-fulfilling prophecy of
failure for many (Graham, 1991),
or unintentional raising of IQs
with “exceptional
ability” (Rosenthal & Jacobson,
1968).
31

Appreciate the Role of Affect in
Learning
¤  There is no decision without
emotion, and there is no
learning without decision-
making; therefore, there is no
learning without emotion.
¤  According to the editors of
The Nature of Learning,
“emotions are the primary
gatekeepers to
learning” (Dumont, Istance, &
Benavides, 2010, p.4),
32

Emotional Intelligence
¤  How well do we recognize our own
emotions and those of others? How
well to we manage the emotional
states of others and ourselves?
¤  Emotional abilities and social
functioning are closely related
(Brackett, Rivers, Shiffman, Lerner, &
Salovey, 2006).
¤  Being able to manage one’s own
feelings and clearly understand their
origins is important in decision-
making, which is a decision in and of
itself.
33

Managing the social and
emotional environment
¤  Establishment of relevant
emotional connections to
what is being learned is key
to remembering that
information.
¤  Teachers should be more
conscious of actively
managing the social and
emotional climate of the
classroom
34

Take the Lead in Social Contagion
¤  Teachers communicate to their students verbally and nonverbally, but they
are often conscious only of the message sent and not the message
received.
¤  The complex mirror neuron system in the brain appears to be triggered
when the brain perceives, then acts on, an understanding of “the
Other” (Pineda, 2008).
35

Award Perseverance and
Celebrate Error
¤  Challenge, ok, threat, no.
¤  “Every problem is an opportunity.”
¤  People who have a great degree of
openness to experiences learn faster than
those who don’t.
¤  “Dare to err”
36

The Influence of Judgment and
Fear on Learning
¤  Why does openness flourish in some settings and not in
others? Because being open to new ideas requires a mind
frame that takes fear out of the equation.
¤  Students who fear they will be ridiculed for their ideas will not
speak.
¤  The concept of brain plasticity (MBE principles 3 and 6) tells
us that the brain adapts to what it does most: If the brain is in
contact primarily with tolerance of error and openness, it
remains open. However, if it has been punished for being
open—as in being told, “Don’t be ridiculous!” or “Why would
you every think that?”—then it learns to retreat from such
negative confrontation and learning is stunted.
37

Motivate
¤  Dan Willingham, author of Why Don’t
Students Like School? (2010), looks at
student’s lack of motivation from a
cognitive scientist’s angle and makes
the case that the way school is
structured, and the way teachers
teach, is not compatible with how the
brain wants to learn.
¤  The “Goldilocks's Rule”: No one likes to
do things that are too easy or too
hard; we seek learning experiences
that are just slightly beyond our reach.
38

The Individual Nature of Motivation
¤  Motivation is a tenet of MBE
because it influences all
learners, but no one in exactly
the same way. People spend
time and energy doing things
they think are important.
¤  When students think something
is worth learning, they invest
time in the process, and the
more time they spend, the more
likely they are to actually learn
the new competency.
Motivation
Time
Learning
39

Passion and Motivation
¤  The passion with which a teacher
approaches the profession is more
important than all other factors
combined; passionate people are the
reason teaching works (Hattie, 2009).
¤  Without passion, there is no
motivation, and without motivation
(positive or negative, intrinsic or
extrinsic), there is no learning.
¤  People who love what they are doing
are contagious and inspirational.
“Education is not the filling
of a pail, but the
lighting of a fire.”
-William Bulter
Yeates (1923)
40

Memory and the Brain
Big ideas:
¤  What kinds of memory are there?
¤  Where is memory in the brain?
¤  (Roadblocks):
¤  What are the benefits of down-time/sleep to allow for
memory consolidation?
¤  What is the relation between age and memory decline?
¤  How does stress influence memory?
42

What kinds of memory are there?
43

Long-term Memory Systems
(Squire, 2004)
44

Complexity of Memory ()
Downloaded 14 Nov 2014 from http://psychclasses.wikispaces.com/Group+-+Chapter+07+-
+Memory 45

Memory Systems (Tulving, 1985)
46

Interaction Between Memory
Systems (Poldrack, Clark, Paré-Blagoev, Shohamy,
Creso, Moyano, Myers and Gluck, 2001)
48

Seven sins of memory:
Three sins of omission, since the result is a failure to recall an idea,
fact, or event.
1.  Transience
2.  Absent-mindedness
3.  Blocking
Four sins of commission, meaning that there is a form of memory
present, but it is not of the desired fidelity or the desired fact,
event, or idea.
4.  Misattribution
5.  Suggestibility
6.  Bias
7.  Persistence
50

Unified Model of Attention, Emotion and Memory
(Tokuhama-Espinosa, 2014)
51

Reflection on the “big ideas”:
•  There are often no easy answers when considering human behavior.
•  The individual nature of learning
•  Thinking like a psychologist versus a teacher versus a
neurologist….versus the holistic approach
3.  “Roadblocks and threats” versus “Roadblocks as opportunities”
5.  Prescriptions are often more dangerous than observations.
6.  Content versus Skills: Thinking processes—how to approach problems—
versus memorized answers.
8.  Learning and performance change over the lifespan
52

3-2-1
1.  Three things you learned.
2.  Two things you will share.
3.  One thing you will change.
53

Contact:
Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Ph.D.
Universidad de las Américas
traceytokuhamaespinosa@gmail.com
54

Attention, Emotions and Memory. By Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa. November 2014

More Related Content

Attention, Emotions and Memory. By Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa. November 2014