The Importance Of Process Information

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Craik (1972) defined depth as “the meaningfulness extracted from the stimulus rather than in terms of the number of analyses performed upon it” (1973, p.48). We can process information in three ways: Structural Processing, Phonemic Processing and Semantic Processing. Structural Processing, a form of shallow processing, stressed the physical appearance of a stimulus. This is when we encode the physical qualities of something. Phonemic Processing, a form of intermediate processing, emphasizes the sound of a word. These two processes involve maintenance rehearsal, resulting in the retention of information in short-term memory. Semantic Processing, which is deep processing, happens by encoding meanings of words and relating them to similar words with similar meanings. This involves a more meaningful analysis of information, elaboration rehearsal, leading to improved recall (Tulving and Madigan, 1970).

Encoding information in different ways affects the way in which information is remembered. During deep processing, images, thinking and associations are used to make it easier for information to be recalled (Craik, 1972). This improves study methods of learners, as elaboration is an important step in transferring material into long-term memory using the technique of association. Deep processing involves learners spending extra time and effort on material, making it more easily remembered. By encoding only physical qualities and sounds, this can result in short-term retention of information. Therefore, the more deeply information is processed, the more meaningful the elaboration and the better the information is remembered (Eysenck, 1978).

A greater depth means a higher degree of semantic, cognitive analysis. In order for a stimulus to ...

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... They are useful to acquire information such as learnt study methods or for retrieval from long-term memory. This means that mnemonics can be used at a time of input, learning, or output, retrieval. In doing so, one is rehearsing and associating information, as well as bringing information into consciousness. Mnemonic methods increase the recall of information, which becomes more meaningful. Mnemonics can be verbal, such as acronyms and rhymes, or visual (Baddley A, 1982).

The topic of mnemonics improves study methods of learners as it helps avoid “illusions of learning.” The familiarity effect mechanism shows that re-reading material results in greater fluency and the repetition makes material familiar. When a student encounters that same material in the future, he will be able to interpret the familiarity as he already knows the material (Karpicke et al., 2009).

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