Activity 5.3 Find and Post a Video on Memory

This first video is the video we discussed in group.  Although I liked the material in the book, I didn’t like the presentation in the video and didn’t consider it a reliable source so I wanted to find another that looked at what “cues” memory, or calls us to pay attention, learn and remember.  http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/OVXMAnSkvMg&fs=1&source=uds&autoplay=1

One of the videos I watched when I was looking for one of my own was about observational learning and dance.  My daughter dances on a competitive team and performs with the team, as part of small groups, and as a soloist.  Each year her team members memorize several dances which they perform together as well as numerous small group routines and solos.  They practice and perform these numbers for each other.  Invariably my daughter and her friends memorize (or learn) each other’s dances.   The typically remember these dances, at least in part, from year to year.  Although they do not use the term “muscle memory” in the video, the instructor talks about incorporating the memory of the dance into motor skills that can be reproduced.  The professor also talks about establishing patterns of behavior that can be reproduced or drawn upon.  The learning of my daughter’s dance team and the dancers in the video could be labeled observational learning. I believe this type of learning is an example of what William James refers to as established habits, or as associations that form a concept system.  Patterns of behavior that have been rehearsed and are associated with a particular piece of music are essentially habits.

http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/0HEquWxFWz0&fs=1&source=uds&autoplay=1

I wanted to include this video as well because there is a salient position I didn’t hear mentioned in others.  This is that a prerequisite to learning is the ability to identify meaningful actions.  For me, this related to the idea of attention and was a connection to my previous statements in the first activity. My husband is constantly annoyed with my lack of knowledge with respect to the comings and goings of my neighbors.  Truthfully, I don’t care what my neighbors are doing (lack of motivation) and I don’t usually watch them or think about them (lack of attention).  When my husband asks “Did you notice Rader bought a new car?” I must honestly respond “No.”  I don’t remember what Rader’s previous car looked like.  During my search I also read an article titled “There is no such thing as Attention.”  It was published online in the September 23, 2011 issue of Frontiers in Psychology and was written by Britt Anderson.  I made a point of saying in the first activity that I believed attention was a critical factor in determining how and where we put things in our memory, but Anderson states that attention is not causal and quoted Carrasco when he said “the claim that attention alters perceptual quality is still actively debated.” (2009). 

http://www.youtube.com/v/8tJPJBbUTDc&fs=1&source=uds&autoplay=1