Reflection

Scientists have learned more about the brain and how it functions in the past two decades than in all of recorded history. The brain changes everyday. Every time a child goes to a new place he or she learns new semantic information. Children with little background knowledge are negatively affected because they are not developing a vast vocabulary. The hippocampus stores episodic memory; what you chose to do today is affecting your brain. The brain learns and remembers patterns. To learn something new our brain attaches the new information to something it already knows, prior knowledge. The brain learns through multiple memory systems: Declarative is semantic and episodic, Non Declarative is procedural, emotional, and conditioned response.

Semantic memory consists of your general knowledge about the world. It is something you know, even though you do not remember where or when you learned it. Semantic memory consists of language and conceptual knowledge. It influences most of our cognitive activities include determining locations, reading sentences, solving problems, and making decisions. Our semantic memory is what we use to define objects, meanings of words, facts, concepts, and people. Associated to semantic memory is episodic memory which is retrieval of personal experiences from the past. If a person has a deficit in semantic memory it is normally referred to as semantic dementia. When a person has a deficit in episodic memory they are referred to as having amnesia. Semantic dementia is a result of the lateral temporal lobes in the brain degenerating causing the person to slowly lose previous knowledge about the world.

Working memory is the active process of interpreting a whole sentence or phrase and beginning to relate new information to prior knowledge. New learning is usually a blend of sensory/perceptual information experienced during the learning episode and semantic information about the substance of the event. When an object is perceptually presented, different parts of the brain process the information. The right hemisphere is involved in processing specific visual form about the object, it deciphers between perceptually identical or perceptually different. The left hemisphere processes more abstract and/or semantic information about the object.

The brain region where semantic memory is located is the hippocampus which is inside the temporal lobe. The hippocampus encodes memories, or makes it possible for memories to form at all. The temporal lobe stores memories after the initial encoding process is completed. There is a passageway from the structure of the nervous system where semantic memory is located in the temporal lobes to the hippocampus. Today's brain tests allow scientists to look at the specific brain areas a person uses when recalling a noun versus a verb, or when listening to music versus composing a song.

Using a variety of learning styles increases semantic knowledge. The brain responds to challenge. H.M. showed that he could improve tasks even though he could not remember doing them. Our procedural memory does not require the hippocampus. The brain contains mirror neurons which are active in the right posterior inferior frontal gyres. Do as I do not as I say. If you stick your tongue out at a baby the baby will stick its tongue out at you. Children copy our actions.

Emotions affect learning, stress or distress affects neurons. The brain is the first to respond to any information that has strong emotional content. I have heard that people only use 10% of their brain. Actually even when we are sleeping our brains are making connections. Sleep makes memories encode, and the last two hours of sleep are the most important. Students are often sleep-deprived or malnourished which could impact their ability to learn to their full potential. Important decisions should not be made during the first 10-15 minutes after waking, as the brain is not functioning completely. Things which affect the body also affect the brain. Movement enhances learning, when oxygen and blood are flowing to the brain, more learning is taking place.

As I reflect on my research on sensory and perceptual knowledge, working memory, and semantic memory, I am more aware of how they work together to assist new learning. The research I conducted helped me understand how these theories are all connected. Our brain is constantly working, as it is deciphering auditory and verbal perceptual processes through the working memory, it is trying to make connections with our previous knowledge in our semantic memory. Our brain never stops interpreting messages from our perceptions. I realize now that the children in my classroom are living examples of these theories. When a child comes in rested and well-fed, he or she is able to learn better. Those children who have better prior knowledge, more often are able to learn to their full potential. When children process information meaningfully they remember it better.

New episodic learning relies on perceptual information and conceptual knowledge in normal brain functions. Perceptual areas in the brain help to identify items that are not familiar. The perceptual information processed goes straight to the episodic memory and the semantic system, to create new learning. Sensory and perceptual knowledge and semantic memory work together to assist new learning. This type of semantic knowledge is incorporated in my classroom daily. Children work on tasks such as picture word associations and assembling puzzles with items named. I agree that new learning is improved by using sensory/perceptual processes with semantic memory. Further research could concentrate on which sensory and perceptual materials best assist learning new information. In special education, learning is often impaired by poor attention processes or distracting behaviors. Research needs to be completed concerning educational methods and materials which best assist these challenged children to learn to their full potential.