EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Chapter 2, page 39

Figure 2.6 Rachel’s associative network of concepts related to the sentence “Lobsters taste
food with hairs on their legs.” The shaded nodes show concepts that have been activated after
reading the sentence. The darker the node, the greater the activation.

If information in LTM is in fact stored in associative networks, this explains a number of
interesting memory phenomena. For instance, after reading the sentence about lobsters, Rachel is likely to
be able to answer questions about crabs faster than she would be able to if she had not read the lobster
passage. Information processing theorists explain this by hypothesizing that when Rachel reads the
sentences about lobsters, the nodes related to the concepts in these sentences are activated. That is, they
attain a higher level of energy or intensity. This activation spreads to other nodes that are connected to the
activated nodes. Thus, through spreading activation, concepts such as crab, sea, and seafood that are
connected to lobster directly or indirectly rise to a higher level of activation. When Rachel is asked a
question about crabs, she can answer it more quickly because the concept crab is already at a heightened
level of activation.

Encoding

Encoding is the process of moving information from working memory to LTM. Encoding
strategies are mental actions that learners can take to make information more memorable as it is encoded.
Encoding strategies can be broadly divided into three groups: selection strategies, organization
strategies, and integration strategies (Mayer, 1989).
Selection strategies. As we have discussed, not all information that goes through working memory
makes it into long-term memory. Learners select which information they want to process further. The act
of selecting important information facilitates memory for the information (Pressley, Goodchild, Fleet,

Ex.

Lobsters

in seafood

restaurant food

are

are

firetrucks red

eat

are

tuna

eat fish

are

whales

Live in

ocean

Live in

Use to

taste

Hairy

have legs

lobsters

includes

Live in

Ex

. (^) Horseshoe
crab in our
class
have 6 legs
pinchers have
eat
have
crustaceans
are
crabs
are
Type of
animals
mammals
mice
deer
My
dog
Ex.
dogs
flies
are
insects
are
mosquitoes
are
spiders
Type of
Are similar
to