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The fundamental things apply... as time goes by : Students' long-term memories from an ecology field excursion

Year: 2013
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate and analyze what biology studentsremembered a long time after being out on an ecology excursion. The students’ memorieswere tested during a stimulated recall interview and analyzed using the dual memorysystem model of learning. Already after 6 months we found that the students had forgottena lot of the scientific content. Very often they showed a familiarity (recognition) with thesituations and objects showed to them but they were unable to identify (recall) and labelthem. However they did remember some spectacular moment, the sudden appearance of afox and a moose. They did also remember things and situations when they were activethemselves, digging, smelling, using their hands or their feet’s in the difficult balancingand walking on a pet bog. From literature we identified two different types of memories,depending of the question asked: recall and recognition. We connected memories used inrecall to the explicit memory system (declarative knowledge), and memories used inrecognition to the implicit memory system (tacit knowledge). The Explicit memory has ashort retention but the implicit system is very stable and this will explain the difference inrecall and recognition abilities. Since the implicit memory incorporates emotional, somatic,markers we were able to explain the specific flashbulb memories. The implicit system isactive when we are doing things, using our senses and this may explain why thosememories still were strong even after a full year. The strong memories of patterns stored inthe implicit system seemed to act as indices to the declarable labels and facts in the explicitsystem. Implications for research, education and type of assessment are discussed.
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2151097778
FWCI:
Cites: 22
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Related to: 10