In this chapter the anatomy of the brain, the memory, the processing of colour, visual information and language, and the study circumstances and strategies will be discussed.
The brain
The brain is one of the largest and most complex organs in the human body that controls all functions of the body, construes information from the surroundings, and embodies the essence of the mind and soul. Information is received by the brain through our five senses: sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing. The message is assembled in a way that has meaning for us and that the information can be stored in our memory. (Mayfield Clinic, n.d.)
The nervous system
The nervous system contains two parts: the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS). The central nervous system includes the nerves in the brain and spinal cord. It is safely located within the skull and vertebral canal of the spine. The peripheral nervous system includes the spinal nerves that branch from the spinal cord and the cranial nerves that branch from the brain. The function of the nervous system is to take in information through our senses, process this information and trigger a reaction. There can also be a distinction made between the voluntary and involuntary nervous system. The voluntary nervous system controls all the processes in the body that we can consciously influence. The involuntary nervous system controls all the processes in the body that we cannot consciously influence. This involuntary nervous system is constantly active. It regulates the breathing, the heart beat and metabolic processes. It is made up of three parts: the sympathetic nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system, and the enteric nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for physical and mental activity, the parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for body functions when we are at rest, and the enteric nervous system regulates bowel motility in digestion. (National Center for Biotechnology Information, 2016)
The skull
The skull is the skeletal framework of the head of vertebrates. It is composed bones or cartilage and has as its function to protect the brain and some sense organs. The skull is supported by the highest vertebra, which is called the atlas. The atlas permits nodding motion and it turns on the next-lower vertebra, which is called the axis, to allow for side-to-side motion. The part of the skull that contains the brain is called the human cranium. The base of the cranium is the occipital bone that has a central opening, which is called the foramen magnum, to admit the spinal cord. The sides and the uppermost portion of the dome of the cranium are formed by the parietal bone and the temporal bone. The frontal bone, forms the forehead (see figure 1). (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, n.d.)
The cerebrum
Within the skull, the brain is divided into three main parts: the cerebrum, cerebellum, and the brainstem (see figure 2) (Mayfield Clinic, n.d.). The cerebrum is the largest part of the brain and is composed of right and left hemispheres. These hemispheres are joined by fibers, the corpus callosum, that transfer messages from one side to the other (see figure 3). The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body and the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, n.d.). The functions of the cerebrum are interpreting touch, vision and hearing, speech, reasoning, emotions, learning, and control of movement. Not all of these functions are shared by the two hemispheres. The left hemisphere, which is in general functionally dominant, controls language and speech. The right hemisphere interprets visual and special information.
The surface of the cerebrum is called the cortex (Mayfield Clinic, n.d.). The cortex is also called the gray matter, because of the nerve cell bodies coloring the cortex grey. It contains neurons that are arranged in specific layers and is responsible for integrating sensory impulses, directing motor activity, and controlling higher intellectual functions. The cortex is folded, which makes it possible for more neurons to fit inside the skull. Every fold is called gyrus and every groove between the folds is called sulcus (see figure 4) (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, n.d.). The gray matter of the cerebral cortex is divided into four lobes: frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital. The frontal lobe controls the motor activity and speech, the temporal controls the auditory reception and memory, the parietal controls the somatic senses (touch and position), and the occipital controls the visual reception (see figure 4). Beneath the cortex is the white matter (see figure 5) (Mayfield Clinic, n.d.). The white matter mostly consists of densely packed myelinated axons that connect gray matter regions. Functional circuits or networks are formed by the white matter. The white matter needs to provide a uninterrupted communication between axonal bodies throughout the brain, and assure the proper functioning of the networks (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, n.d.).
The cerebellum
The cerebellum is a part of the brain located just below and behind the cerebrum. Its functions are the coordination of muscle movements, maintain posture, and balance. It integrates nerve impulses from the labyrinths of the ear and from positional sensors in the muscles. These signals determine the extent and timing of contraction of individual muscle fibers. This extent and timing of contraction are important for the fine adjustments in maintaining balance and posture and to produce smooth, coordinated movements of large muscle masses in voluntary motions. The cerebellum is, just like the cerebrum, divided into two lateral hemispheres. These two hemispheres are connected by a medial part called the vermis. Both hemispheres consist of a central core of white matter and a surface cortex of gray matter, and are both divided into three lobes: the flocculonodular lobe, the anterior lobe, and the posterior lobe (see figure 6). The flocculonodular lobe, the first evolved lobe of the cerebellum, receives sensory input from the vestibules of the ear. The anterior lobe receives sensory input from the spinal cord. The posterior lobe, the last evolved lobe of the cerebellum, receives nerve impulses from the cerebrum. (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, n.d.)
The Brainstem
The brainstem is an area at the base of the brain. This area lies between the cerebrum and the spinal cord. The brainstem is divided into three sections: the midbrain (mesencephalon), the pons (metencephalon), and the medulla oblongata (myelencephalon) (see figure 7). The brainstem contains many control centers for vital body functions, such as swallowing, breathing, and vasomotor control. The cranial nerve nuclei, except the nuclei for olfaction and vision, is located in the brainstem. This provides the motor and sensory function to structures of the cranium, including the facial muscles, supplying the senses of taste, equilibrium, and the hearing. Also, the nuclei for sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic functions is located in the brainstem. All pathways between the cerebrum and the cerebellum pass through the brainstem. (Joynt, n.d.)
The thalamus and the hypothalamus
The thalamus is a collection of nuclei that is located above the midbrain (see figure 7). The nuclei relay information between the cerebrum and the periphery, spinal cord, or brainstem. Before all sensory information is processed by the cortex, it has passed though the thalamus, except the sense of smell. The thalamus does not only pass the information on, but it also processes the information. The hypothalamus is a collection of nuclei, located under the thalamus, that are involved in regulating homeostasis. (BCcampus Open Education, 2013)
Memory
The memory is the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information. Memories are mostly used to solve problems, communicate with each other and make decision (ohara2006) (O’Hara,2006). The memory refers to the process that consists of three grand stages: encoding, storing, and retrieving (McLeod, 2013).
Encoding
The process of making a memory starts with perception (Mohs, n.d). The sensory cells perceive certain information from the environment. These sensory cells are usually located in organs: the senses. The stimulants they perceive are converted to electrical pulses. These electrical pulses, carrying information, are transported from one nerve cell to another. These nerve cells connect with each other through synapses (Daftardar, 2016).
Encoding is the first stage in making a new memory. In this stage, the perception is built into a form that can be stored in the brain. In the sensory areas of the cortex, all the perceptions are decoded. After that, all these sensations are combined to one experience in the hippocampus, which is located in the medial temporal lobe in the brain, together with the frontal cortex. The hippocampus analyses this perception and decides if it is converted to the long-term memory (Mastin, 2018).
There are four types of encoding:
• Acoustic encoding: the encoding of words, sounds and other auditory information.
• Visual encoding: the encoding of images and visual information.
• Elaborative encoding: the encoding of new information by connecting it to the old, known information.
• Semantic encoding: the encoding of something that has meaning or can be placed in a certain context (Lumen Learning, n.d.)
The state of the person that is encoding has an influence on the vividness of the memory that is created. If the person was in a very aware and alert during the perceiving and encoding of a memory, the memory will be likely to be more vivid. Also emotional situations are more likely to be encoded (Waude, 2016).
Storage
After a memory is created, it must be stored in the brain. The memories are stored in a particular way. Nerve cells make connections with other nerve cells at the synapse, which is a certain part of the nerve cell (Conger, 2018). At the synapse, there is a gap between the cells where electrical pulses which carry messages go across (See figure 8). These stimulate neurotransmitters, chemical messengers, to move to the other cell via the gap to attach them to the neighbouring cells. The part of the cell that receives these pulses are called dendrites. (Halber, 2018). A neuron can make a lot of these links. As you learn
more and make more experiences, more of these connections are made. This makes you remember information. As these links are strengthened, the information will be memorized longer (Mastin, 2018).
There are three stages in the storage of memories:
Sensory memory
At first, the information is stored for a very short time. This is called the sensory memory. It is there to reduce the impact of the stimuli. As soon as the stimuli are perceived instead of ignored, they are absorbed by the sensory memory which his is done automatically (Mastin, 2018). The information that is saved in the sensory memory, disappears between 0,5 to 3 seconds (Hall & Steward, 2010). Different senses have a different sensory memory (Cherry, 2018a):
– Iconic memory: for visual stimuli
– Echoic memory: for aural stimuli
– Haptic memory: for touch
Short-term memory
After the memory is stored in the sensory memory for only a fraction of a second, it is converted to the short-term memory, which is very similar to the working memory. This memory stage already has a bigger capacity than the sensory memory: it can hold about 7 items for a maximum of 30 seconds (Cherry, 2018). The short-term memory is needed to remember and process information at the same moment. An example is to remember the beginning of a sentence while reading the rest of it in order to understand the full sentence (BrainHQ, 2015).
The central executive part of the prefrontal cortex is essential in the concept of the short-term memory (Postle, 2016). This part of the brain is used as a temporary storage where the information is still available for processing of other information at the same time. The other function is to get information from other parts of the brains for problem-solving. (Mastin, 2018)
The central executive has two neural loops for storing the information, to which the central executive transports data (McLeod, 2012):
• The phonological loop deals with spoken and written items. This consists of two parts:
– The phonological store: it acts as an inner ear and has the function to perceive speech. Spoken words can enter the store directly, but written words are first converted to
– The articulatory control process: also called the inner voice. This stores and rehearses speech information from the phonological store. As long as the information is repeated and rehearsed, the information is kept in the phonological loop.
• the visuospatial sketchpad deals with visual and spatial information. These store the memories temporarily until it is deleted by the next job.
Long-term memory
The long-term memory is here to store the memories for a longer period of time. An unlimited amount of memories and information can be stored. They can last for days or for years (McLeod, 2010). There are two major subdivisions of long-term memory:
• Explicit memories (declarative memories) can be converted to conscious thoughts. This is the memory of facts and events and these can be consciously recalled. They are also the most stable kind of memory. Explicit memories can be subdivided to two categories(BrainHQ, 2016):
– Episodic memories are autobiographical. The memories consists of personal experiences: situations in the past that you were part of. The extent of the emotional value of the situation and your awareness determine the fact of how well we remember these situations. They are mainly encoded in the hippocampus and further-on stored and consolidated in the neocortex. (Mastin, 2018)
– Semantic memories contain the general knowledge of the world and atmosphere, definitions, and facts. (McLeod, 2010). These are memories of which we don’t know where and when we learned these.
• Implicit memories (procedural memories) are the unconscious and unintentional memories of capabilities. The use of objects and the moving of the body are the most obvious implicit memories. These can also be categorized into two kinds of implicit memories (BrainHQ, 2016):
– Procedural memories take care of the performing of certain tasks without consciously being aware of them. We can do these tasks easily, but it is often hard to explain how. Procedural memories stand apart from episodic memories and are therefore stored in a different part of the brain.
– Priming: if you have personal experiences with something or you hear it more often, you will recall it faster.
Long-term memories can also be categorized in a different way (Mastin, 2018):
• Retrospective memory is the memory of information from the past, like words, events and people.
• Prospective memory is the memory of events connected with times in the future
Memory consolidation
Memory consolidation makes memories go from the short-term memory to the long-term memory or strengthen the links of the memories that are already in the long-term memory. This is done by the hippocampus, where the information eventually becomes independent form the hippocampus. (Squire, Genzel, Wixted & Morris, 2015). By rehearsing and repeating information, the links that are made with synapses will be strengthened. This is because the same neurons are repeatedly fired. This will increase the chance that the same neurons will repeat the firing in the future. As through your life, more and more experiences are established and the knowledge is expended, neuron paths are constantly re-arranged and re-built(Cherry, 2018b). This is done by the production of proteins (Hernandez & Abel, 2008). As the same neural path is taken over and over again, which leads to the fact that the synaptic events last longer. Also the memory paths can be made longer, which can last for a greater amount of time. (Guignon & Burnod, 1995)
Memory retrieval/ memory recall
Memory retrieval is the ability to access your memories when needed. During this process, the neural pathways that were formed during the encoding and storage, are retaken. These replays of the pathways are not identical to the original neural activity because otherwise you wouldn’t be able to distinguish the actual experience from the memory. Therefore, the replays are mixed with awareness. The strength of the neural pathways, which are strengthened in the memory consolidation process, determines the speed in which a memory can be replayed. Retrieval cues is a clue that triggers the recalling of the long-term memory (Cherry, 2018c).
The brain uses four ways to recall memories (Cherry, 2018c):
– Recognition involves associating an event or object with an experience that happened in the past and which is saved in your memories.
– Recall is the remembering of facts, events or objects that need the direct unpacking of the information from the memories.
– Recollection requires the making of a construction of a memory by using logical orders and dividing information into different categories and subdivisions.
– Relearning information that has been studied before.
The memories cannot always be retrieved properly. We then speak of forgetting.
Forgetting memories
According to the article of McLeod, 2008, there are multiple explanations of why we forget certain things.
The trace decay theory says that memories make a trace in the brain, which is a physical or chemical adjustment in the brain. This trace disappears over time unless it is repeated.
The Displacement theory suggests that because the short-term memory only has the capacity to save around 7 items, memories are removed when it is full and forgotten.
The Interference theory states that memories are forgotten because other memories interfere with each other. The information in the long-term memory will be confused with other information during the encode process. Two subdivisions can be made from this theory:
• Proactive interference: not being able to learn a new skill because of an old skill that had been learnt
• Retroactive interference: forgetting an old task because of a new-learned task that replaces the old task.
Lack of consolidation implies that if the hippocampus has been damage, consolidation can’t take place properly. This means that the memories moving from the short-term memory to the long-term memory is disrupted. The consequence of this is that things are forgotten easily.
Retrieval failure theory states the situation where the memories have been converted to the long-term memory, but can’t be approached. This is because of the lack of retrieval cues. Retrieval clues contain information about the situation when a memory was made. Because of the fact that information is recalled easier if retrieval cues are present, information is forgotten easier if these are not present. Context cues refer to retrieval cues of the environment and how the information was presented. State dependent cues are about the psychological or physical state the person was in at the moment of the experience. A person is more likely to remember something when he or she is in an equal state.
The processing of colour
The brain and the eyes work together in the process of translating the things in our surroundings into coloured images. Colour is not inherent within any object. Scientist Isaac Newton noted that each object´s surface reflects and absorbs all possible colour wavelengths. Only the colours that are reflected from the object are the colours we perceive. For example a green object’s surface reflects green wavelengths and absorbs all the other colour wavelengths, a black object absorbs all colour wavelengths, and a white object reflects all colour wavelengths. The primary colours of light are red, blue and green. Every other colour in the light spectrum are a combination of these the primary colours in different measures. (Color Psychology, 2015)
The eye
Light falls, via the pupil, by the eye ball on our retina (Van Dijk, 2018). The retina is light sensitive and is located at the back of the eyes interior. The retina is part of the central nervous system. It consists of light sensitive cells called receptors. The receptors are rods and cones, which contain photo pigments that absorb the energy contained by the light and convert it into an electric discharge that is used by the brain as a signal (see figure 10) ( Purves, 1970). Rods process black and white information and cones process colour perceptions. There are three types of cones, which each have a different sensitivity to light of different wavelengths. For this reason, these different types of cones are referred to as ´blue´, ´green´, and ´red´, or short (S), medium (M), and long (L) wavelength cones. This terms provide information for the wavelength of light that excites their spectral sensitivities (Van Dijk, 2018).
Colour vision
The receptors of an eye can only pass information about the amount of energy absorbed, which would mean we could only see the difference between dark and light. Two objects containing the same amount of energy would look the same. Therefore, colour vision uses the contrast between wavelengths (see figure 11). This contrast makes it possible to distinguish objects with the same energy. To distinguish this contrast, the brain needs different sorts of information about the wavelengths to compare. The different types of cones give this information to the brain. The signals from the different types of cones are compared by the brain, which results in a contrast in wavelengths: colour. For one colour, the brain receives information from different receptors. (Van Dijk, 2018)
The processing of visual information
Not only the eyes are involved in vision, but the brain also plays a large role in this process.
The first step of processing visual information is the fact that the light has to enter the eye through the pupil. The photoreceptor cells on the retina take care of specializing this image. The image is broken into different parts that are processed by different parts of the visual system (Denworth, 2015). The visual system however keeps only the aspects of the image that is important and the rest is not kept. The cone cells react on shape and colour and create a high-resolution image of what we see. The rod cells react on movement and size, but see everything in black and white. In the dark, they are able to see the contrast between greys (Matthews, 2018). The light that enter these photoreceptor cells create a chemical reaction which is converted to electrical pulses (Denworth, 2015). All the received information about the left side of the image from both eyes travel to the right side of the brain and the information of the right side of the image from both eyes travel to the left side of the brain. These paths cross at the optic chiasm (see figure 12).The information is transported through the optic nerve. The fibers of the optic nerves hand over the information to neurons to the occipital lobe of the same side where the visual cortex is located where the vision is processed. . This is located on the backside of the brain. From that point, the pathway is divided into two different pathways: one which is called the ventral: this processes our vision (colour, shape and special characteristics). The dorsal pathway processes where something is located, motion and depth perception. All these aspects of the visual world are analyzed my different streams of cells and later on put together. The connection made between the two sides of the visual world is made by the corpus callosum. After this process, you are aware of what you see. (The Editors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, n.d.)
The processing of language
The language skills required for reading are developed from the first gurgles made as a baby. The encountered sounds from our surroundings set language acquisition skills in motion. The brain is getting prepared for the structure of language-based communication that includes the process of reading. The hearing of speech by a baby helps the brain learn the rules of language. Later these language rules will generalize to reading. When a child is ready to read effectively, the brain has coordinated sounds to language and is prepared to coordinate language to reading and reading to comprehension. (Burns, 2017)
The detection and interpretation of words
Reading a sentence is a complex process that begins with the detection of words and then the interpretation by determining context and meaning. This complex process involves many brain regions. The detection of text involves the optic nerve and other nerve bundles passing signals from the eyes to the visual cortex that is located at the back of the brain. A system of regions, located at the back and in the middle of the brain, work together at the process of interpreting text. The different system regions are: the Wernicke´s area in the temporal lobe, the frontal lobe, and the angular and supramarginal gyrus in the parietal lobe (see figure 13) (Abbott, 2016). The temporal lobe controls the phonological awareness and decodes sounds. The frontal lobe controls speech production, reading fluency, grammatical usage, and comprehension. This lobe makes it possible to understand the different levels of grammar in our native language. The angular and supramarginal gyrus serve as reading integrator and link the different parts of the brain together. By linking the different parts of the brain together, the execution of the action of reading is possible. All these regions together determine context and meaning while working together as a network to process words and word sequences. The detection of language and the interpretation of language enable the abilities to receptive language, so the ability to understand language. (Burns, 2017)
Reading strategies
According to Hallie Smith, the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, the National Reading Panel, The National Institute for Literacy and other research organizations, say that the following matters are critical to reading fluently: the reading skills of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension, and the cognitive skills of memory, attention, processing and sequencing.
The reading skills:
• Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate the sounds of spoken language and the ability to understand that words are made of sequences and phonemes. Sequences of phonemes are the smallest units of sounds that create a difference between the meaning of words. If this ability is developed, the rhyming of words can be determined and the beginning, the middle and the end sound of a word can be isolated and substituted.
• Phonics are the understanding of the relationship between phonemes and graphemes. Graphemes are the letters and spellings that represent the sounds in written language.
• Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly. This means that words are recognized automatically and that their meaning is understood at the same time.
• Vocabulary are the words a person must control to be able to communicate effectively.
• Comprehension is the ability to abstract the meaning from the text. (Smith, 2016)
The cognitive skills:
• Memory is the ability to store information and ideas. This storing is important for word recognition, the comprehension of complex sentences and to remember instructions.
• Attention is the ability to focus on information and tasks. This means that distractions are ignored.
• Processing is the ability to distinguish and associate individual speech sounds with the corresponding letter and word forms.
• Sequencing is a skill used to maintain order. The maintaining of order is important to know the order of letters within words or words within a sentence.
Circumstances and strategies
Learning circumstances
A student´s study environment is a every important factor influencing the quality of the learning. There are five areas to consider altering to design the optimal study environment: the location, the surrounding´s sound, distractions, technology distractions, and planning. (Gamsky, 2016)
• The learning location can reduce the friction involved in getting into your work by giving easy access to the tools and resources that might be needed. Some studies suggest that switching from study environment helps the brain create multiple associations with the same material. This increases the chances of remembering the information.
• Listening to music while studying might help people and with others it hurts their concentration. Also surroundings might produce sounds that people find comfortable while studying, while others like a quiet background.
• Distractions are the biggest threat to studying effectively. Anything that will keep you from your work flow will limit your effectiveness and productivity. This includes your family, friends, pets and other books.
• Technology distractions are the biggest risk to interrupt your work flow. This includes the internet, phones, tablets and the TV.
• Studies have shown that studying and doing homework for 25-30 minutes spurts actually enhances productivity. After this, breaks are important. For example, take a walk or drink something. An active break will improve your concentration.
Learning strategies
Learning strategies are concrete ways of learning. With these strategies, children are taught the ways they can learn and how they can learn. Students can consciously use these strategies to learn as smoothly and effectively as possible. Learning strategies can be divided into five categories (Kerpel, 2018):
• Metacognitive knowledge: to overlook and to know yourself.
• Metacognitive skills: to look forward, to keep up and to look back.
• Cognitive skills: to repeat, to get into and to structure.
• Organization skills: to organize yourself, the surroundings and other people.
• Motivation: to trust yourself, to see the benefit and to motivate yourself.
According to Pieternel Dijkstra, there are 14 learning strategies.
1. Learning strategy one is to overlook. This strategy is about the usage of knowledge about learning and how to do this the best way. This means that a certain strategy is linked to a certain learning task and that there is knowledge present about when it is useful to use a strategy.
2. Learning strategy two is to know yourself. This strategy is about the realization of the individual´s weaknesses and strengths. Self-reflection is important in order to know what learning ways fit the best with yourself.
3. Learning strategy three is to look forward. This strategy is about the planning of learning tasks and the prediction concerning time and priorities.
4. Learning strategy four is to keep up. This strategy is about the checking and keeping up with the progress of knowledge during a learning task. This is not only about the results, but also about the concentration level and the effort.
5. Learning strategy five is to look back. This strategy is about the evaluation of a learning task and of the process of learning.
6. Learning strategy six is to repeat. This strategy is about the repetition of the learned knowledge.
7. Learning strategy seven is to get into. This strategy is about the diving into the topics deeper to process the knowledge better. A way to dive deeper into a topic is to actively do something with the topic and to think about the topic in different ways.
8. Learning strategy eight is to structure. This strategy is about the structuring and organizing of the learned knowledge in various ways. For example to make a text or to make a visual representation.
9. Learning strategy nine is to organize yourself. This strategy is about to control your own tension and stress during the learning.
10. Learning strategy ten is to organize the surroundings. This strategy is about the creation of optimal circumstances in which the learning is effective.
11. Learning strategy eleven is to organize other people. This strategy is about the usage of other people´s help and expertise to be able to learn well.
12. Learning strategy twelve is to trust yourself. This strategy is about having trust in your own capacities to successfully learn and to trust yourself to keep yourself motivated.
13. Learning strategy thirteen is to see the benefit. This strategy is about to get to see the advantage of learning certain information or a certain learning task and to use this to keep yourself motivated.
14. Learning strategy fourteen is to motivate yourself. This strategy is about the usage of motivation during learning to keep a good effort.
In short, during the processing of images the brain receives information from the different types of cones. This information, which is information about different wavelengths, has to be compared by the brain. For this comparison, different parts of the brain are involved. Also, during the processing of visual information, the information is analyzed by different streams of cells and later put together. However, when processing a black coloured word, only the rods in the retina are involved in passing signals to the brain. Therefore our hypothesis is that the use of colour and illustrations will have as a consequence that more information will be stored in the short-term memory and in the long-term memory than when black words are used. This means that the group of students that learn coloured words and the group of students that learn words with illustrations will remember a higher amount of words than the group of students that learn the black words.