This is The Reading Instruction Show. I'm your
host, as always, Dr. Andy Johnson. Topic of today's
podcast is cognitive science and reading. So
let's see if we can do a little bit of learning
today. Now, neuroscience is a study of the nervous
system, including the brain, spinal cord, and
neurons. The neuroscience of reading looks at
how the brain functions during reading using
imaging techniques to detect the flow of blood
and electrical energy. Now cognitive science
is based on the word cognition, which means thinking.
Cognitive science looks at human thinking. Here
one studies the physical brain as it thinks.
and the other studies the thinking the brain
does. But we can't observe thinking directly.
We can only observe the effects of thinking.
Thus, both fields look at the effects of thinking
to make deductions about thinking itself. Now
this podcast, the first part, is designed to
help you understand how reading works from a
purely cognitive perspective. This provides an
important context for understanding the theory
of orthographic mapping, which I have described
elsewhere. Orthographic mapping is a theory based
on logical deductions made from research. And
the questions we must ask about this theory are
how robust is the theory, how valid are the data
upon which it is based, and how logical are the
deductions? And my conclusions are not very,
not very, and not very. But, getting ahead of
myself, let's first look at memory from a cognitive
perspective. Storage tanks. Memory can be thought
of as a storage tank. The informational processing
model, sometimes known as the standard memory
model, describes three types of storage tanks.
Sensory memory, short -term memory, and long
-term memory. Each tank has a different capacity
and duration. and each tank is used a bit differently
in reading. Sense memory. Sense memory, sensory
memory, or sensory registar is where your original
sense data is perceived. In the case of reading,
letters and words are perceived here. It has
an unlimited capacity but a very short duration.
since memory retains an exact copy of all the
stimuli you perceive, but you can hold it for
only one to three seconds. And after this, it
quickly fades away. Short -term memory. Now,
while the term short -term memory and working
memory are often used synonymously, technically
they are different. Short -term memory is like
a small storage tank for selected data that's
perceived in sensory memory. It has a limited
capacity, holding only seven plus or minus two
bits of information. And this means that most
people can hold seven bits of information, some
can hold up to nine bits, and some only as few
as five bits. And that's not a lot of information
bits. Also, the duration here is not very long.
Without some sort of elaboration or rehearsal,
this information starts to fade away after 15
seconds. Holding more bits. Chunky. enables you
to hold more information in the limited space
in the short -term memory holding tank. This
is the process of organizing bits of data into
meaningful, larger holes. Now, to illustrate,
in your short -term memory holding tank, you
could hold on to these eight letters, and here
they are, I, T, I, S, A, C, A, and T. Or you
could hold on to these four words. It is a cat.
That's what those letters spelled. Or you could
hold on to the single idea of a cat with the
related associations. Letters, words, or meaning.
Of the three, meaning carries the most information.
Holding the meaning created by reading in your
short -term memory storage tank is much more
efficient than holding the letters you're reading.
Now, expert readers use very few letter clues
to recognize words as they read. Instead, much
like gas flowing into a carburetor to mix with
air and create power, information flows into
short -term memory to mix with letters and create
meaning. This carburation of letters and information
provides more space in short -term memory to
focus on understanding what's being read. And
as I've said many times before, and I'll say
it in the future, this does not mean that we
ignore phonics. Rather, we combine phonics with
our natural ability to use semantic and syntactical
information to create reading power. Working
memory. Where short -term memory is a passive
receptacle, working memory is an active space
within short -term memory used to work with information.
This is where you add analyze, organize, evaluate,
or restructure data, as well as make meaningful
connections. Working memory is also the place
where metacognition takes place, and metacognition
means thinking about thinking. Here you monitor
your own thoughts to check for understanding.
This happens during reading when you ask yourself
questions such as, do I understand what I'm reading?
Does this make sense? Do I need to read this
paragraph again? Metacognition is also used to
ask higher level questions such as, what's the
main point here? How is this like something else
I've learned? Does this make sense? Did Andy
just compare reading to a carburetor? automaticity.
This is the act of performing a procedure or
cognitive operation without thinking about it
or with very little conscious awareness. In other
words, the thinking processes involved with the
procedure are automatic. And the best example
of this is driving a car. Now as we drive, most
of us don't have to consciously think about pressing
the gas pedal or the brake pedal or steering
the wheel. We respond to the curves and stop
signs we encounter automatically, with very little
conscious attention. Automaticity frees up space
and short -term memory, allowing us to devote
more attention to other things, such as road
conditions or other cars. or our cell phones.
Developing automaticity with any skill enables
us to devote more space and short -term memory
to high -level thinking. And the goal is for
children to be able to automatically recognize
words while reading. In this way, they're better
able to analyze and evaluate ideas and engage
in high -level thinking as they read. And automaticity
is important for any cognitive operation related
to reading, such as comprehension, critical thinking,
metacognition, or the application of strategies.
Long -term memory. This is where all your memories
are stored. Episodic, semantic, and procedural
memories, and we'll talk about this in just a
minute. The long -term memory storage tank has
an almost unlimited capacity to store information
for an almost unlimited duration. This means
that everything we've ever experienced is tucked
away in our brain somewhere. So why do we forget?
It's not a matter of storage, rather of retrieval.
That is, the information is still in our memory,
tucked away someplace. We just have a hard time
getting access to some of it because lots of
other stuff gets in the way. But given the right
stimuli, that information is accessible. Now
think of how a song or a smell suddenly brings
up memories of events and places long past. The
storage locker analogy. Putting data in and taking
it out of long -term memory is very much like
putting things in a rented storage locker. Three
important terms in this process are encoding,
storage, and retrieval. Encoding is the process
of organizing and putting information into long
-term memory. And this is like gathering up all
your things, sorting them into plastic storage
bins with labels and putting them into the storage
locker in an organized fashion. Storage is the
actual holding of information in long -term memory.
This is like a storage locker filled with boxes
and bins. And retrieval is getting access to
information found in long -term memory and pulling
it back out into short -term memory. And this
is like going into the storage locker, getting
specific things from the boxes or bins, and then
taking them out so that you can see what they
are and use them. Now, if the things are organized
and stored next to related things in the storage
locker, it's much easier easier to find and retrieve
exactly what you need. And lucky for us, our
brains naturally do this. They organize new information
and experiences around related things, not around
letters or letter patterns. Now, Let's look at
the two -way flow of information. Information
does not just flow from your sense memory to
short -term memory and up to long -term memory.
In the act of perception and coding and retrieval,
information flows down from long -term memory
to short -term memory to even sense memory. And
this replicates the flow of information described
in the neurocognitive model of reading. There's
a two -way flow of information, most of it coming
down from the cortex or from long -term memory.
So, long -term to short -term. Information long
-term memory flows into short -term memory to
help us understand and encode it. and the more
information you have about what you encounter,
the easier this becomes. For example, Dave Hanson
knows a lot about pipe fittings. When he encounters
new information related to this topic, he's able
to understand and encode it quickly and efficiently
without much memory loss. And when he reads technical
manuals related to pipe fittings, he reads effortlessly
and he's able to comprehend and remember much
of it. And it's not because his brain functions
any better than yours. Instead, it's because
his long -term memory is full of pipe fitting
knowledge. This enables him to easily encode,
store, and retrieve pipe fitting information.
He knows exactly what to look for, where it's
stored, and how it's connected to other things.
However, when his same brain is exposed to information
about cryptozoology, encoding seems to be slow,
inefficient, and labored with much memory loss
and very little understanding. This is because
there's very little information in Dave Hanson's
long -term memory related to this subject. The
same brain that was interacting with pipe -thinning
information is now interacting with cryptozoology
information, yet meaning and understanding vary
greatly. In one instance, he's a very capable
reader, and in the other, he's a struggling reader.
The important difference is the type and amount
of knowledge in long -term memory. So, long -term
memory to sense memory and perception. We also
use... information in long -term memory, the
knowledge there, to help us perceive and attend
to stimuli in sensory memory. In terms of reading,
the knowledge in Dave Hanson's head related to
pipe fittings helps him to easily perceive and
identify important pipe fitting words and concepts.
He's able to perceive and recognize them much
faster. than he would words and concepts related
to cryptozoology. In the context of pipe fittings,
he needs fewer letters to recognize content words.
And again, the knowledge in long -term memory
enhances this process. So let's look at types
of memories, finally. We have three types of
memory, all of which are stored a bit differently
in long -term memory. Episodic memory, semantic
memory, and procedural memory, and a very simple
explanation of these with an example are included
here. Episodic memory are memories of the episodes
in your life. These include what you did last
week as well as memories of things you did or
things that happened to you growing up. Remembering
the time that an elephant stepped on your toe
would be an example of an episodic memory. Semantic
memory refers to meaning. This is a memory of
meaningful things such as facts, information,
and knowledge. Remembering that there are three
species of elephants or that elephants are the
largest land animal would be examples of semantic
memory. And procedural memory. This is your implicit
memory of how to do things. This memory is unconscious.
Remembering how to type the word elephant is
an example of procedural memory. And if you are
proficient in keyboarding, you don't have to
consciously think about where your fingers should
go. So what about orthographic memory, orthographic
mapping? I have yet to encounter anything in
the field of cognitive psychology that mentions
a special memory for the storage of words. And
this idea of orthographic mapping does not fit
well within this standard information or standard
memory model or the information processing model.
This has been The Reading Instruction Show. I
am your host, Dr. Andy Johnson.