Memory & Knowledge

Explain how knowledge is formed, retrieved, and stored, and how AI can help, not hinder, knowledge building.

Identify use cases for various generative AI tools to help you learn.

Memory and Knowledge

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What is it and how does it work?

The goal of learning is to distill new knowledge and skills from our experiences to such a level that we can then apply them in other ways. In order to do this, we need to form the memory, remember and use knowledge or skills at the right time, and be able to store these memories for long-term use. This section of the chapter breaks down each of these three steps with examples that you may see in your own learning.

Forming Memories. Forming memories happens when we have experiences that we process in some way. If you want to remember something, it will be important to first pay attention to it, then be sure to process it deeply so that the memory is formed. This is called encoding, and it actually changes your brain. Each time a memory is formed, new connections are made between brain cells. In fact, all of your memories are really just electrical signals moving throughout your brain with unique collections of brain cells activated.

Processing can happen in several ways with the most effective being thinking through how the new idea fits into what you already know. After all, “memory is the residue of thought” (Willingham, 2009, p. 54). If you are presented with new information that you cannot relate to in any way, you will likely not remember it. In this case, you can try using a metaphor that reminds you of something you do know well so you can use that structure to help build memories of the new concept.

When I mentioned the electrical signals moving throughout your brain, did you picture it? Try picturing it now. Imagine the idea of a new connection being formed between two brain cells to represent learning this concept. You can use the metaphor of an anchor and a boat connected by a chain. The anchor at the bottom of the ocean represents the knowledge you already have, like knowing that the brain is made up of clusters of little cells, while the boat is the new information about forming connections between cells to form memories. Now, imagine a bolt of electricity moving from the anchor to the boat and back again. That is your new memory of how learning happens.

If you do have some background information about what is being taught in class, then use that to help you understand the new information. Think about how it connects or contrasts to what you've learned previously. If the learning experience is connected to a strong emotion or sensory stimulus, then that helps to more deeply encode the memory. For example, if you are outraged by the injustice of some statistical information on a marginalized group, you will probably remember it. 

Memory Retrieval. Once you have formed the memory, you have to be able to recall it when needed. Especially when it is time to take the test. Remember how I suggested that you try to think about new information in terms of what you already know? These can be cues to help trigger your memory. If you think about a memorable experience that you can relate in some way to the new information you are learning, then thinking about that experience can help you to recall the new information when you need it. Perhaps you are learning about the immune system in your biology class, and you are finding it difficult to remember how antibiotics interact with the cells. You remember how tense you felt watching the season finale of the Last Kingdom. Attacks were coming at Uthred’s castle from all sides. How did he defend himself? Use this metaphor to help you to understand and remember how pathogens invade the body, the components of the immune system, and their functions. Then, when it’s time to remember the role of antibiotics in the next class discussion, you can remember the Danish army coming to the rescue in the battle against the Scots.

A word of caution about analogies and metaphors is needed. They work so well to get you started, but it's important to look for where the metaphor does not match up anymore with the content you are trying to learn. Otherwise, you could be learning the wrong information, which inevitably means unlearning and relearning the correct information. Use metaphors and analogies to get you started, then be sure to recognize when it does not fit.

Every time you recall a memory, those connections between the cells get stronger, making it easier to remember in the future. Think of it like first tying a thread from the anchor to the boat, then each time the bolt of electricity runs between them, signifying the recall of that memory, the thread becomes thicker until it becomes a rope, and eventually a chain. If you can recall content without any cues or hints, then that makes the memory even stronger. This is difficult to do, but struggling during encoding and retrieval is actually good for you as it makes for stronger memory traces.

Memory Storage. It’s the beginning of the semester and you have just learned a new concept in your introduction to economics class: price and quantity controls. You think you have a good grasp on it now, but what happens in 6 weeks when it’s time for the midterm exam? Will you remember it well enough to answer questions correctly? Will you remember it well enough to be able to discuss the concept in an essay? Getting the information in your brain and out again is important for learning, but for the information to really be useful, you have to be able to store it for the long term.

One of the best ways to store information in your mind is to access it at regular intervals. If you have to struggle to remember the information, even better! Desirable difficulties like this can improve learning. Think of it like going to the gym: if the workout is effortless, you're not building muscle or stamina. While you are asleep at night, your brain begins to sift through everything it has experienced that day and in recent days, looking for connections to what you already know and trying to decide if it is worth keeping or getting rid of. There is only so much room in your skull for all of those new connections to form, so part of the maintenance of your brain each night while you sleep is to trim the connections that are not needed and clean out any other brain refuse. If you spend six weeks without thinking about price and quantity controls, your brain will clean house and that memory will likely be lost or much more difficult to retrieve. Research suggests that you should revisit this information at least 10-20% of the amount of time before you will be tested (Carpenter et al., 2012). If the midterm is in 6 weeks, then you should add a note to your calendar somewhere between six and twelve days from now to study that concept again, preferably by quizzing yourself or attempting to summarize it without notes. This will provide you with a noticeable boost in remembering the information.

If you really want to improve storage, you can use the results of an interesting experiment conducted over 100 years ago (Murre & Dros, 2015). Herman Ebbinghaus taught himself lists of nonsense words, testing himself on his ability to recall them after increasing periods of time. Unsurprisingly, the longer the gap before he tried to recall the list, the less he could remember. You can see the results in Figure 2.

Figure 2

Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve

Fortunately, Ebbinghaus tried recalling some of the lists multiple times and found that the curve became less steep with additional efforts to recall the words until it almost disappeared. This proved that actively recalling information strengthens the memory, especially when it is spaced to occur just before the information would otherwise be forgotten. A lot of research has been conducted on spaced studying since then, and some scientists have even developed a formula to predict an optimal study schedule to retain new knowledge (Pashler et al., 2009). You can see a sample study schedule in Figure 3.

Figure 3

Forgetting Curve Modified by Spaced Recall

A word about the word “review”. This does not mean to just look at the same material again. You have probably been taught to highlight as you are reading and to re-read your notes to study. You might be surprised to find that these techniques are generally ineffective (Dunlosky et al., 2013; Leonard et al., 2021). Instead of “review”, consider “retrieve”. The more time you spend effortfully trying to remember or retrieve knowledge, the better you will remember it in the long run.

A similar process happens in your brain when you are learning a skill, whether it be mental or physical. Building the memory requires connecting the skill to one you already have, and instead of just trying to remember the skill, you actually have to use the skill. In other words, practice, practice, practice. The plus side is that these procedural memories stay in your brain for most of your life, and often just need a little brushing up when they haven’t been used for a while.

How can AI help?

Now that you know how memories are formed, let’s look at how generative AI can help in this process. You can use AI tools to assist with forming the memories, retrieving the memories, and improving the storage of memories. Here are some examples of each:

Forming Memories: You are taking Introduction to Biology and are learning the parts of the cell. All of the parts look like aliens, they have long difficult-to-pronounce names, and you’re not quite sure why you even need to learn this! Remember what we said about improving encoding? You can use generative AI to request metaphors to help you understand this foreign content, elicit emotional reasons for learning the content, and give you ideas for learning the parts of the cell through multiple sensory experiences. Here is an example:

AI Chatbot Example: Forming Memories

Retrieving Memories: You have an essay to write for a class, but you are very anxious because you “are not a good writer”. You feel completely comfortable talking about the topic, but just freeze up when it is time to put thoughts on paper. While grammar and mechanics are included on the grading rubric for the essay, the purpose of the paper is not to demonstrate your writing ability, but to demonstrate your ability to analyze the topic. Here is an example of a conversation with Claude that shows how this tool can be used to help you organize your thoughts and generate content to help you write the essay that says what is really in your mind.

AI Chatbot Example: Writing an Essay

Improving Memory Storage: The memory that is stored is only as good as the one that was initially formed and then strengthened with recall. Instead of just reading a chapter multiple times or skimming it again before the exam, make sure you understand what you are reading first, and then set up a schedule of spaced retrieval to help you retain the information over time. Here is an example of a conversation with Claude that shows how you can improve the knowledge formation and retention so that the information stays in your memory until the exam.

AI Chatbot Example: Remember Chapter Reading

How will AI hinder?

Anything that interferes with or disrupts the memory formation, retrieval, and storage system described above will lead to forgetting or more difficulty in recalling and using information you have learned. It is so easy to cut corners with AI, which can save you time and effort that you can devote to other endeavors, but you don’t want to cheat yourself out of the learning experience. If you are learning a skill, like editing a paper in your English class, don’t let AI do the work for you. Do the editing yourself first to practice the skill, then you can ask ChatGPT to edit the document to check your work.

Suppose your professor assigns some dense research articles for you to read for homework. It would be so much easier to just upload the paper to Claude and ask for a summary, as described above. However, you will be missing out on a lot of the thinking that needs to happen for the memories to be formed. A better idea is to ask Claude for the summary and some things to think about as you read the article, and then read the article yourself. You’ll actually find that it is easier to understand once you have read the simpler summary.

Solving the Problem

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Martina used ChatGPT to write the essay on the importance of women in government because she just had no interest in the topic and had many other assignments due that week, too. Martina could have had a conversation with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Co-Pilot, or any of the other generative AI chatbots to help her see why writing the essay was relevant to what matters in her own life. According to the Situated Expectancy Value theory of motivation, Martina did not value the task because she was not intrinsically interested, did not think it was useful, and thought the effort and opportunity cost was too high because it would keep her from completing the other assignments for her other classes. A conversation with an AI chatbot could have helped to increase her interest, find value in the assignment, and help make the process easier by helping her to organize her thoughts and provide feedback on drafts of her essay.

Greg used Co-Pilot to write the essay for a different reason: he had estimated low attainment value and high emotional cost for completing the essay assignment because of his perceived writing ability. He had thoughts about women in American government, but he just didn’t know how to organize them in a way that expressed what he was trying to say. Instead of asking Co-Pilot to write the essay for him, he could have used the tool to help him write the essay as described in the example above.

Louisa did not turn in the essay at all because of challenges with balancing work, family, and school, a common barrier for nontraditional learners in higher education. She had done the readings and outlined her essay, but she just didn’t have the time to actually write the essay. A generative AI chatbot could have been her companion during this process to speed up the process in her limited available time. Louisa could have used the speech to text feature on her ChatGPT app to dictate her thoughts, provided the outline to the chatbot, then asked the tool to help her edit the dictated draft. This would give Louisa a draft to read over and make adjustments to in order to ensure that her thoughts on the topic were well represented.

Dr. Vasquez is right to be concerned about how her students are and are not using generative AI in their learning. Without guidance, many students are unsure about when it is okay to use these chatbots, while others may use them to save time because they think they won’t get caught. Understanding the learning process can be helpful in identifying appropriate uses of these tools when completing learning tasks, whether graded or not. An AI policy statement like the one created by Dr. Lorien Lake-Correl and Dr. Torry Trust that outlines specific use cases for generative AI based on the learning process would be helpful for her students.

Fensie, A. (2024). How to use AI to Help, Not Hinder, Your Learning. Introduction to AI and Ethics in Higher Education. https://edtechbooks.org/introduction_to_ai_and_ethics_in_higher_education/how_to_use_ai_to_help_not_hinder_your_learning

Anne Fensie