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Long-term Memory allows a person to store information, such as words, facts, events, or concepts, and retrieve and make use of this information at a later time (e.g., hours, months, decades). It plays an essential role in childhood cognitive development, as children gradually accumulate skills and Background Knowledge in their Long-term Memory and become better equipped to learn and solve problems. Different parts of the brain support the development of Long-term Memory in childhood. As memories form, connections in the brain are strengthened and these new connections stay as long as they remain in use.
The process of moving memories from Short-term Memory into Long-term Memory is called encoding, which is key to learning and often occurs naturally, but can be supported through a number of memorization strategies. Sleep also plays an influential role in encoding memories. Students with ADHD may show deficits in Long-term Memory due to disruption in the process of encoding. Once memories are encoded in Long-term Memory, we use retrieval to access the stored information. However, sometimes information stored in Long-term Memory cannot be retrieved (i.e., forgetting) which can happen for a number of reasons including a lack of context cues (cues in the environment), because information was not encoded appropriately, or because new, related information interferes with our ability to remember old information, and vice-versa.
The types of memories in our Long-term Memory can be categorized as:
Schemas (also called ‘schemata') are organizational systems for information in our Long-term Memory, that provide a framework upon which to add incoming knowledge to support interpretation and integration with existing Background Knowledge. Schemata support conceptual learning via complementary processes of Assimilation, adding new information to existing schema and Accomodation, altering or creating new schema to process new information or experiences. Every student brings a wealth of diverse and unique Background Knowledge and therefore have different schemata with which they organize knowledge. What “makes sense” to some students might not “make sense” to others. Therefore, it is important to check in with and consider learners' Background Knowledge to understand how to meet learners' needs and best support long term retention and learning.