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Beyond Standard Lectures
This activity helps students think about how the phenomena discussed in class play out in
their daily lives (i.e., by engaging in processes of generalization and application of the
scientific knowledge). We believe this activity helps improve critical thinking skills,
increases interest in the subject, and enhances comprehension and retention of course
content. The activity increases students’ retention of content because linking theories with
memories of daily experiences elaborates and strengthens memory traces of the theories. It
increases the likelihood that students will use concepts to interpret future behavior because
theories are stored with links to many different contexts, which increases the probability
of retrieval and successful transfer.
Implementation of Activity
We have used this activity in three main ways: Diary of Memory Failures (Ohlsson,
Pellegrino, and Kershaw), Cognition in Daily Life Report (Pellegrino), and Dear Grandma
Letter (Pellegrino). In each case, students recorded events from their lives and, in a final
report, interpreted them using course concepts. Breadth and depth of the content cov-
ered, logistics of recording and reporting events, and final report style differed for each
assignment. The Diary of Memory Failures focused students exclusively on situations
involving episodic long-term memory malfunction whereas the Cognition in Daily Life
Report and Dear Grandma Letter assignments asked students to reflect on the generaliz-
ability of three different course themes. We asked students to submit periodic diary
updates or to save their journal entries until it was time to write one final report. We have
also asked students to submit a report relating to each major unit shortly after it con-
cluded (e.g., semantic memory, episodic memory, higher-order cognition). The Diary of
Memory Failures and Cognition in Daily Life Reports are formal reports of the events
followed by theoretical interpretation, but the Dear Grandma Letter asks students to
write about the events and theories in a conversational manner that their grandparents
could understand.
Student examples. Student examples of a reported memory failure from Cognition in
Daily Life Report and an example relating to problem solving from a Dear Grandma
Letter helps illustrate how these assignments can differ in flavor but still promote critical
thinking.
Example 1: Memory Failure from a Cognition in Daily Life Report
It was a Sunday afternoon around 1:30pm, and I was driving after a stressful weekend
of working my second job with the Chicago Tribune. On my way home, I passed by a
post office and realized that I had completely forgotten to mail out a very important
document for work. Luckily, the sight of the post office cued my memory into recalling
that I was supposed to do something before it was too late.
This relates to memory failure and the cue-dependent nature of memory. Seeing the
post office as I was driving was a visual cue. It reminded me that there was something
I needed to do, and right away I associated the post office with the Chicago Tribune,
which I then associated with my document. ... This illustrates the close link between