No. 8: The Rule of Skill
We tend to think of ourselves as having "a" memory:
our memory for events and knowledge. If someone asks us a question,
we answer in words. That kind of memory is just one of your forms of memory--declarative
memory. It is called declarative because you can talk or 'declare'
things about the memories. However, a very important but different
form of memory is your kinesthetic or skill or muscle memory--three
terms for the same thing. You use kinesthetic/skill/muscle memory
to learn such things as sports, painting, keyboarding, or anything else
that uses your body movements. You can't explain how your muscles
move you to ride a bike, you just do it. The memory resides in the
part of your brain that controls your muscles, and not in the part that you
use to recall facts, events, and rules. So, what is important about
muscle memory for your learning?
First, declarative memory is easy to create, but also easily
lost. If you only learn something with declarative memory, you had
better use it often, or else you will forget it. Muscle memory is slower
to create, but lasts a very long time. For example, learning to ride a bicycle
is hard and takes days or weeks of trying, but once you learn, even if you
haven't ridden for 30 years, you'll still remember how. If you can
learn things well with muscle memory in addition to declarative memory, you
are very likely to remember it better. (That's part of what minute
sketches with folded lists are designed to do.)
Within the declarative memory pathway, memories
branch to different brain regions for images, written text, sounds or spoken
words. The more different branches of the visual and auditory declarative
memory pathway you can use in your studying, the better your chances of
remembering something.
Second, declarative memory and muscle memory use completely
different brain memory pathways and different brain regions, but they can
connect to each other. You can create muscle memory by repeated sketching
or hand movements (or even dance or song) to help you remember a biological
fact or principle. Later, as you begin the hand movements or sketch,
your muscle memory will connect with and recall a hard-to-reach or fading
declarative memory. (Again, something minute sketches with folded
lists are designed for.) The process of sketching can bring back an
otherwise lost declarative memory. Combining declarative memory with
muscle memory maximizes your chances for recall.
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to Seven Rules for Learning]
Last updated 12/01/2009
College of William
and Mary, Department of Biology
pdheid@wm.edu
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