Essay On Short Term Memory

Introduction

According to information processing model, short term memory has a limited capacity to hold information (Atkinson & Shriffin, 1968). The span of short term memory is said to be limited to about seven items (+2) (Miller, 1956 as cited in Terry, 2000). Short-term memory is also an active memory where we do our active memory processing (Lefrancois, 2000). For this reason, several researches have called the short term memory the working memory store (Gordon, 1989). Working memory is important for learning. However, it is extremely limited in both capacity and duration (Atkinson & Shriffin, 1968). When engaging in a learning task, the learner must make use of working memory capacity, and hence a load is placed upon that memory (Sweller, 2010). When the cognitive load exceeds the limit of working memory capacity, learning will be affected. Effective instructional methods that can support limited short term storage and limited working memory processes are being used in classroom to maximise the learning (Dehn, 2008). Thus, this essay will probe on the extent of teachers considering the limited processing capacity of students’ working memory in Malaysian English language classroom using multiple modality teaching aids, part whole approach and collaborative learning.

Multiple

Similarly, Munir (2009) reported that 98% of 71 teachers taught grammar solely before teaching writing. From the research above, we can say that teachers are either consciously or unconsciously considering the limited capacity of students’ short-term memory when using part-whole approach in teaching reading comprehension and writing. In short, it can be said that the part-whole approach is helping to overcome the limited capacity of short-term memory in the Malaysian English Language